Edible and ornamental gastropod resources

Out of 1900 species of gastropods catalogued from Indian waters, only 15 species are edible, while, a large numbers are commercially important ornamental /curios shells in handicraft trade. Sacred chank, top and turban shells are widely exploited from their distributional range. Their flesh and shell are in great demand. The paper reveals the commercial importance of gastropods in export and handicraft trade and gives the distribution details, abundance and habitat of ornamental gastropods along Indian coast. The paper reviews the status of molluscan shell handicraft trade in India and the potential for domestic and export trade

Methods of Spat Collection in the Culture of Shellfishes

Mariculture, the practice of farming marine invertebrates, vertebrates and algae for increasing the production of seafood, is of comparatively recent interest in India. In the culture practice, collection of 'seed' is one of the essential prerequistes

Edible Oyster Hatchery and Culture

Edible oyster is one of the widely cultivated bivalve

Giant clam (Tridacna) resources

Tridacna spp. which are known as giant clams are highly specialized bivalves. They live exclusively in shallow waters of the coral reef formations. They are sessile, found attached to or biuried in corals and are tightly fastened to the substrate with byssus. The family Tridacnidae are protandrous hermaphrodites (Wada, 1952). The growth is slow whicl; is about 5 cm/year (Rosewater, 1965). The lifespan is presumed to be long but no precise information is available. Tridacnids are not entirely dependent on the ciliary mechanism for food. They are able to 'farm' their food in their own tissues due to an unusual association with large numbers of unicellular symbiotic algae— Zooxanthellae (Yonge, 1963). In addition to that, the Tridacnidae serve as hosts to a number of other organisms such as shrimps as commensals. The giant clams are a common resource in manv parts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the paper presents their distribution as observed at the centres surveyed

Evaluation of central neuropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a case control study

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global pandemic affecting almost every organ in the body. Peripheral nervous system involvement in diabetes is well known but there are not many studies on central nervous system involvement. Visual evoked potential (VEP) is a sensitive, non-invasive test to detect central demyelination of optic nerve. The objective was to compare the visual evoked potentials in type-2 DM patients with that of healthy controls and to find out if any correlation is there with the duration and glycaemic control of the disease and to compare incidence of peripheral and central neuropathy in DM patients.Methods: Author included 50 DM patients and 50 age and sex matched controls. Patients with previous stroke, demyelination, diabetic retinopathy and other ophthalmological disorders were excluded. VEP was recorded using pattern reversal stimulation with EMG RMS MARK II machine and p100 latency was measured.Results: P100 latencies (ms) was significantly prolonged in diabetics with mean±SD of (111.24±5.28 ms) as compared to controls (101.30±1.66 ms) with p value <0.003. Also, there was significant correlation between duration of DM and P100 latency prolongation, but no significant correlation was present when compared with glycaemic control.Conclusions: Central neuropathy is very common in DM. It is related to duration of DM and not HbA1c unlike PNP which is related to both. Central neuropathy occurs even prior to development of retinopathy or PNP. Hence, VEP is a non-invasive and sensitive screening tool for early neurological involvement in DM

Gastropods

Gastropods occupy an important place in the commercial shell-craft industry. Approximately 80,000 species of these snails live on land, in freshwater and sea. The marine gastropod resources in India comprise a variety of species and are exploited regularly for various purposes. This exploitation goes unnoticed in several places because it constitutes a very minor fishing when compared to other fishery resources. Many of these gastropods are exploited for food, at the same time the beautiful shape and colour of the shells have attracted and aroused the imagination of man to use them for ornamental purpose also. The shells are used in making ornaments and curios of different shapes and sizes. They are being used whole or cut into pieces of desirable shapes during processing

Calcibiocavitological investigations

Calcibiocavitation is a major poroblem in the marine environment and a detailed study on these aspects has been undertaken and the salient findings are presented here. Gregarious molluscs such as the sacred chank Xancus pvrum, mussels (both green and brown), rock oysters (Crassostrea spp.), pearl oysters, Thais rudolphi (Lam.) and corals which inhabit the southwest coast of Kerala and the Gulf of Mannar have been investigated. The wide fluctuations noted in the abundance and population structure of the various pests in the molluscan beds during the short period of two years clearly indicated that they were in severe competetion for suitable substrata and the shells of gregarious mollusks which inhabit this area provide ample opportunities for the pests to flourish. The incidence of boring sponges is found to be rather high among raft-cultured pearl oysters both at Tuticorin and Vizhinjam. It is difficult to control the infection of boring animals in the natural beds, but the low rate of incidence recorded year after year under suggests that the nature controls this to lower level.Another important observation was the wide distribution of the boring sponge C.vastifica in the Ashtamudi Lake, Quilonwhich may form a major threat to our future rock oyster farms along the estuaries

MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLE-BASED APPROACHES IN CANCER THERAPY–A CRITICAL REVIEW

Cancer is definitely one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Failure in the efficacy of the standard treatments (chemo-, radiotherapy and surgery), and the severe side effects, resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapeutics have necessitated alternative therapeutic strategies. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been assessed as potential cancer therapy materials. Their intrinsic magnetic properties provide a cancer detection, monitoring, and therapy platform based on multimodal theranostics. MNPs can be functionalized by binding them to a wide variety of substances, including chemotherapeutic drugs, radionuclides, nucleic acids, and antibodies. They can be used for drug delivery, magnetic or photothermal induced local hyperthermia and photodynamic therapy aimed at killing cancer cells at the tumor site. MNPs may also be useful to challenge drug resistance. The combination of different options of these treatment modalities offers a synergistic effect and significantly reduces the side effects. The functionalized MNPs may be used to remove the unwanted cells from blood, including leukemia cells and circulating tumor cells that key factors in the metastatic process. Despite numerous successful studies, there are still some unpredictable obstacles relevant to the use of MNPs in cancer therapy. This review mainly focuses on the application of MNPs in cancer treatment, covering future perspectives and challenges aspects

The edible oyster culture

In 1970s the CMFR Institute initiated oyster culture through rack and tray method. Large scale spat collection, preparation of spat collectors, season and seed availability were studied. In 1980, a hatchery was set up with annual production capacity of one million edible oyster seed and the techniques involved in hatchery system were standardized. The seed were supplied to other centres of this Institute and Gujarat Fisheries Department. The production rates for rack and tray, string and stake method were estimated as 120 t and 22 t respectively. As part of extension, one lab to land programme, 8 training programmes, one workshop and a summer insitute were conducted. Results of experimental oyster culture work carried out at Mandapam, Madras, Bheemunipatnam, Kakinada, Mulki, Dharmadam, Ashtamudi and Cochin backwaters are given. Rearing 600 strings in 0.04 ha at Ashtamudi and harvesting 2.5t oysters pointed out 44.8% return with estimated production of 80- 105t/ha. Further research priorities on oyster culture aspects are indicated

Experience paper on the operation of pilot project on oyster culture at Tuticorin

The technology of oyster culture was developed in India at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute. An experimental farm was established at Tuticorin bay in an area of 0.25 hectares. Different growout methods have been tried and it has been assessed that the shell string method could be practised with relatively low cost inputs with a production rate comparable to highly efficient systems such as rack and tray method or raft culture