Comparison of consumer preference on meat from broiler and village chicken and processed chicken meat products in Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka

The demand for chicken meat is increases in Batticaloa district as the chicken is the major protein source next to fish in this district However, the availability of chicken meat is lower and the prices for meat have also increased. The major sources of chicken meat in the market are village chicken, broiler chicken, cross-bred chicken and processed products. Consumers believe that meat form village chicken is healthier. This poses a particular challenge for the organization of safe marketing chains. Consumer preferences affect the production and marketing systems for poultry products, therefore knowledge and understanding of these preferences is required for the design of appropriate new interventions. In this context, a survey based study was carried out during December, 2009 to May 2010. Two hundred respondents were randomly selected to gather information on the availability of meat and meat products, consumer preference and consumption pattern. The sample was comprised of equal numbers of male and female respondents having education from primary level to graduation in Batticaloa district The results of the study revealed that the availability of broiler meat was significantly higher (P>0.05) in urban areas (66%) while in rural areas the availability of village chicken meat (88%) was significantly higher (P>0.05) than broiler, cross-bred and chicken meat products. Consumers showed significantly higher (P>0.05) preference for village chicken meat (68%) while lowest preference was for processed products (13%). Among processed meat products the consumers showed significantly higher (P>0.05) preference for meat balls (58%). Furthermore, the majority of respondents (73%) liked to purchase meat up to 1kg weekly. Around 76% of the respondents consume meat once a week. Sixty two percent of the consumers were willing consume fish as the substituted for chicken meat and meat products than other substitutes (mutton, beef, pork and crustacean). Farmshed was the major sales point for meat (67%). The respondents were asked to express consumption of meat in case of increased prices and 64% of the respondents had positive response and rest showed negative response to this aspect From the study it was concluded that the consumer preference of chicken meat and meat products showed the positive trend. However, low purchasing power resulted weaker purchasing frequency in rural areas. Government organizations should take efforts for enhance the production and marketing according to the farmers' perception. Results will be much useful in planning the location specific and species based poultry farming and will be beneficial to policy makers also. Key words: Village Chicken, Broiler, Consumer Preference

Influence of LD slag on iron ore sinter properties and productivity

Large amounts of slags from steel plants are produced through basic oxygen furnace and LD furnace. The main purpose of LD process is to convert the molten pig iron and steel scraps into high quality steel. In India, the generation of steel melting slag is over 4 to 4.5 Mt per annum. The amount of steel slags from different steel industries are 150–200 kg/t of steel produced. Disposal of large quantities of slag becomes a big environmental concern. JSW Steel Limited is a 7.0 Mtpa integrated steel plant and produces 3200 tons of total steel making slag per day and in that LD slag is 2000 to 2500 t/day. This LD slag consists of 45.75% CaO, 22.0 % Fe and 8.22% MgO. Thus, recycling of LD slag through the sintering process recovers lime, iron and magnesia and thereby saving of flux material and iron ore. Due to high content of CaO one can replace LD slag by limestone in sintering process. Detail investigation was carried out through lab scale studies for estimating the maximum permissible limits of usage of LD slag in sinter making and to know the influence of LD slag addition on sinter productivity and properties. Experiments were conducted using the LD slag in sinter making from 0 to 60kg/t of sinter. FeO content of the sinter decreased, sinter productivity increased with increase in LD slag addition. Decrease in FeO content is due to decrease in sinter bed temperature and increase in productivity is due to decrease in LOI content of the sinter mix and absence of weight loss due to calcination process. The sinter strength and RDI of the sinter deteriorated due to non availability of free CaO in LD slag and this reduces the formation of calcium ferrites phase and more Fe2O3 remains as free phase due to less reaction with CaO. From the test results it was found that 30 to 35 kg LD slag can be used per ton of sinter to get desired properties of the sinter

Detecting mycobacteraemia for diagnosing tuberculosis

Background & objectives: In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected persons with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), sputum may not always show acid fast bacilli (AFB). Moreover, in most cases of suspected extrapulmonary TB (irrespective of HIV status) mycobacteria-containing material is not readily available for investigation. This study evaluated whether blood culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteraemia (mycobacteraemia) help in diagnosing TB in such cases. Methods: A total of 93 consecutive subjects with a clinical diagnosis of tuberculosis with or without laboratory confirmation, 42 with and 38 without coexisting HIV infection, and 13 patients with HIV infection without clinical evidence of TB were enrolled. Mycobacterial blood cultures were done using lysis centrifugation technique followed by subculturing onto the modified Lowenstein-Jenson medium (LJ-1) and Selective Kirchner's medium followed by subculturing onto the modified Lowenstein- Jenson medium (LJ-2, LJ-3). Results: Of the 15 (16.2%) subjects with evidence of mycobacteremia in 4 (26.7%) blood was the first/ only source of diagnosing TB. Among 80 patients with clinical diagnosis of TB whether supported by laboratory tests or not, 14 (17.5%) had mycobacteraemia. Among the 21 HIV infected patients with laboratory proven TB, 9 (43%) had mycobacteraemia. Interpretation & conclusion: Blood culture appears to be a useful additional test to diagnose TB in personss with HIV infection. In patients without HIV infection, but with clinical picture compatible with TB, blood culture for mycobacteraemia may occasionally help in the diagnosis. We recommend the use of the lysis centrifugation technique followed by direct smear of the sediment along with inoculation of the sediment into both modified Lowenstein-Jenson medium and the Selective Kirchner's medium with subsequent subculturing onto the modified Lowenstein-Jenson medium for mycobacterial blood culture for detecting mycobacteraemia

CLOZAPINE-INDUCED DIABETIC KETOACIDOSIS: A CASE REPORT

 The objective of this study was to report a case of a person with psychiatric illness treated with clozapine presented with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). A clinical monitoring was done on a 38-year-old Indian man affected by schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type presented with DKA after 3 months of clozapine therapy (250 mg/day). After treatment of DKA and discontinuation of clozapine, the patient improved symptomatically, his blood sugar levels normalized and insulin requirements also decreased. This report thus highlights that clinicians should be vigilant about the potential risk of new-onset diabetes and DKA in patients taking clozapine and utilize appropriate clinical and laboratory monitoring early in the course of treatment to prevent serious adverse effects

Solitary Bone Plasmacytoma of the maxilla- A rare case report

Abstract:Aims and Objectives: Plasmacytoma is a discrete, uni-focal, monoclonal neoplastic proliferation of plasma cells. It can be either solitary or multiple and skeletal or extraskeletal. Solitary bone plasmacytoma accounts for 3% of all plasma cell neoplasms with 50% of cases transforming into multiple myeloma. Since plasmacytoma is a rare lesion in the oral cavity, this case presentation is an attempt to focus on the clinical, histopathological aspects of this lesion and the spectrum of plasma cell neoplasms.Case description: We report a case of solitary bone plasmacytoma in a young patient, presenting as a painless ulcero-proliferative growth in the maxillary region. OPG showed radiolucency with respect to non-healing extracted tooth socket (16) with slight bony erosion. Microscopy revealed mature and immature plasma cells with eccentrically placed nucleus, suggestive of solitary plasmacytoma.Conclusion: The purpose of this article is to report a rare case of solitary bone plasmacytoma with emphasis on diagnostic workup.&nbsp

Study of Sterility Mosaic Disease Resistance on Immortal Population in Pigeonpea

The cultivated pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is one of the most important source of protein for worlds marginal and vegetarian population. Sterility mosaic disease (SMD) also known as “green plague of pigeonpea” is one of the severe threats in pigeon pea production causing severe yield loss. Keeping this in view, identification of SMD resistant cultivars with better understanding of inheritance of disease were key consideration for the present study. RILs were screened for SMD resistance with leaf stapling technique at Green house, IBT, PJTSAU during Kharif 2012 and 2013. RILs showed digenic ratio (9S:7R) for SMD resistance, indicating complementary gene action which showed dominance of susceptibility over resistant and based on the per cent disease incidence, the RILs could be broadly classified as resistant (PDI 20%).The SMD incidence among the 188 RILs ranged from 0 to 100% whereas, the susceptible parent (ICP 8863) showed mean value of 79.17% and resistant parent (ICPL 20097) showed it as 0%. Out of total 188 RILs screened, 90 RILs showed resistant reaction to SMD infection while 98 RILs were susceptible. 33 RILs were identified as resistant lines which consistently showed 0% PDI during screening for both the years

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin