EVALUATION OF FROZEN SEMEN BY A CROSOMAL INTEGRITY AND SPERM CONCENTRATION - TWO VITAL QUALITY PARAMETERS OF MALE FERTILITY IN BOVINES

Acrosomal integrity and sperm concentration are two important parameters to assess the quality of frozen semen doses which in terms validates the fertilizing capacity and conception rate. The present study was undertaken to evaluate acrosomal integrity by Giemsa’s stain and sperm concentration of FSS using improved neubauer chamber in Exotic pure Jersey, Crossbred Jersey, Indigenous Gir cattle and Indigenous Murrah buffalo prior to the field use. The overall values of Giemsa’s stain were observed as 73.74±0.31, 18.65±0.33 and 7.79±0.25 percent for Intact Acrosome, Partially Damaged Acrosome and Fully Damaged Acrosome, respectively. Overall values of sperm concentration were 21.98±0.28 million per straw. The study indicated that there was no significant difference (P<0.05) among the breeds and the values mostly correlates with the guideline of Minimum Standard Protocol for Production of bovine semen, 2012 of Govt. of India

Influence of isochronal annealing on the microstructure and magnetic properties of Cu-free HITPERM Fe40.5Co40.5Nb7B12 alloy

Systematic study of the effect of isochronal annealing on the structure and magnetic properties of Cu-free HITPERM alloy (Fe40.5Co40.5Nb7B12) is described herein. Mo¨ssbauer spectroscopy (MS) and anomalous x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement at Fe K-edge (7.112 keV) jointly provide clear evidence for the presence of atomically ordered a0-FeCo (B2 structure) phase as a nanocrystalline ferromagnetic phase. Being a short range order probe, Mo¨ssbauer spectroscopy also confirms the development of an additional non-magnetic Nb-rich phase in the nanocrystalline specimens (annealed above 723 K) with simultaneous lowering of the volume fraction of ferromagnetic phases. The fraction of Fe atoms in the non-magnetic phase is rv15% upon annealing at 773 K for 1 h, which increases gradually and reaches to as high as rv19% after annealing at 923 K. This phase was not detected by XRD and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, which may be attributed to tiny crystallite size and/or high degree of disorder. In the second stage of crystallization, i.e., above 923 K, the alloy becomes fully crystalline and a stable, hard magnetic fcc-(FeCo)23B6 type phase was observed as a main boride phase along with soft magnetic a0-FeCo phase and Nb rich non-magnetic phase. Thermo magnetic measurement evidenced re-crystallization process as a considerable decrease in magnetization at the second transformation stage. Simultaneous lowering of the volume fraction of magnetic phases with the formation of non-magnetic phase provides convincing origin for the decrease in magnetization at the second crystallization stag

Fuzzy Based Balanced Scorecard for e-Business

The balance scorecard [6] is a performance measurement system that supplements traditional financial measures with the criteria that measures performance from three additional perspectives: customer perspective, internal business perspective, and innovation and learning perspective. In recent years, the balanced scorecard has been applied to information technology in order to ensure that IT is fairly evaluated. The same methodology has also been applied to E-business. Since some of the parameters in the measurement are somewhat inexact, the idea of fuzzy logy can be applied to allow manipulation of both exact and inexact (fuzzy) inputs from the ebusiness to the balanced scorecard. This fuzzy model works with a grade of membership and portrays inexact information represented by fuzzy statements, and explains both fuzzy conditional statements and the inference mechanism. This paper tries to develop a frame -work for Fuzzy-based Balanced Scorecard for Ebusines

Stress causing dynamic changes of four phytohormones in tobacco and tomato: A GC-MS analysis

Many analytical procedures have been developed to determine the importance of phytohormones in different plants. The work reported here provides a sensitive, accurate and readily accessible gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique designed for the simultaneous quantitation of phytohormones indole-3-aceticacid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). These signalling molecules were analysed in two different plants, Tomato and Tobacco grown in vitro. The protocol designed to assess the dynamic changes in endogenous concentrations of hormones to study plant responses to abiotic stresses in leaf tissues. A hormone profiling is obtained from leaves of plants exposed to salt stress show that different plant hormones are involved in diverse physiologicsl processes. Crosstalk between these hormones result in synergetic or antagonic interactions which have important roles to play in abiotic stress response

Loco-regionally advance breast cancer: evaluation of management of breast cancer with special reference to multimodal approach

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common human neoplasms, accounting for approximately one-quarter of all cancers in females worldwide and 27% of cancers in developed countries with a western lifestyle. The aims of this study were to evaluate the management of loco-regionally advanced carcinoma of breast with special reference to multimodal approach.Methods: The study was conducted on patients with loco-regionally advanced carcinoma of breast, reporting for treatment in a large multi-specialty teaching institute. All patients of stage IIIB were initially treated with neo-adjuvant (induction) chemotherapy (3 cycles), except 4 patients in the study group offered surgery as initial treatment because of small tumor size with limited peu’d orange change in the skin. After this treatment all patients were reassessed with a thorough clinical examination and restaging work upto detect the response of the chemotherapy. All patients who achieved objective response (complete + partial) were offered surgery, followed by CT and RT.Results: About 60% of the patients were in stage IIIB and 32% in stage IIIA. Majority of the tumors were in T4 category (64%). In 28% cases ipsilateral fixed lymph nodes were found. Histopathological examination revealed 76% (38) patients with infiltrating duct carcinoma, 4 patients (8%) had comedo carcinoma, 2 patients (4%) had lobular carcinoma, 2 patients (4%) had medullary carcinoma and 4 patients (8%) had mucinous carcinoma. Both nonresponsive (NR) and disease progression (DP) patients were in stage III B group. About 76.9% patients of stage IIIB (20) achieved partial response. Only 1 patient (33.3%) developed local recurrence after 10 months of completion of treatment. Median disease free survival (DFS) period of this group is 30.2 months. Recurrence rate is stage IIIA patients was 27.7% and in stage IIIB 37.5%. Maximum numbers of disease free patients were found in T3N1 group (85.7%). Patient with N2 and T4 disease chances of recurrence was more than N1 and T3 lesions.Conclusions: Patients with LBAC who are able to complete treatment with chemotherapy, mastectomy, and postmastectomy radiation have a high probability of locoregional control. Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy can make inoperable locally advanced breast cancer operable and with the use of neo-adjuvant CT, breast conservation surgery is possible even in locally advanced breast cancer. Use of post-operative CT and RT can increase the disease free survival period. Use of multimodal treatment in the form of CT, surgery and radiotherapy can increase the disease free survival period in locally advanced breast cancer. The advent of successful multimodal regimens incorporating systemic treatment (chemotherapy or chemohormonal therapy) as well as local therapy (surgery and radiation) has significantly improved disease-free and overall survival as well as local-regional control. Longer follow-up of these conservatively treated patients will be needed, however, to determine whether local-regional control is preserved

Stress causing dynamic changes of four phytohormones in tobacco and tomato: A GC-MS analysis

Many analytical procedures have been developed to determine the importance of phytohormones in different plants. The work reported here provides a sensitive, accurate and readily accessible gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique designed for the simultaneous quantitation of phytohormones indole-3-aceticacid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). These signalling molecules were analysed in two different plants, Tomato and Tobacco grown in vitro. The protocol designed to assess the dynamic changes in endogenous concentrations of hormones to study plant responses to abiotic stresses in leaf tissues. A hormone profiling is obtained from leaves of plants exposed to salt stress show that different plant hormones are involved in diverse physiologicsl processes. Crosstalk between these hormones result in synergetic or antagonic interactions which have important roles to play in abiotic stress response

Flow visualization of pollutant mixing in freshwater body near the density maximum

Mixing in water bodies forms a major part of the environmental hydraulic studies. In the present study, effects of density variations in freshwater manifested in the form of convection currents on the water quality parameters is studied. Convection forms a dominant mixing mechanism for near-stagnant lakes i.e. with high residence times. However, due to tedious computations involved in simulating natural convection, water quality models available commercially or open-source solve vertically hydrostatic equations which fail to capture the circulation currents. A hydrodynamic model is conceptualized for describing the setting up of vertical circulation currents driven by the buoyancy. 2D incompressible Navier-Stokes, plus equations for transport of scalars (heat and concentration) are formulated and solved. Concentration profile of a conservative parameter is simulated to study the anomaly in temperature-density relationship on mixing.Density is assumed to be a function of temperature only (at 0.1Mpa) and various formulations like linear, quadratic and IAWPS(The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam)are used in the model. The phenomenon is investigated near 4°C i.e. at the anomalous behavior of temperature-density curve. Impact of this anomaly on the hydrodynamics and subsequently on the mixing of water quality parameter is studied and visualized to facilitate interpretation and use. Modeling and simulation results for the hydrodynamics are validated against reported work

To Evaluate The Incidence Of Post-Operative Swallowing Impairment In Patients Undergoing Prolonged General Anesthesia With Endotracheal Intubation

Background: Endotracheal intubation is either oral or nasal placement of a tube to the trachea for airway management. There have been multiple reports of postoperative swallowing dysfunction in patients undergoing surgery. The mechanism of swallowing impairment is multifactorial and includes mechanical causes, cognitive disturbances after surgery and residual effect of narcotics, sedatives and anesthetic drugs. Several studies have been done on swallowing impairment and dysphagia in critically ill patients in ICU, but as per our none has been done to know the swallowing impairment in patients operated electively. Swallowing dysfunction increases risk of pulmonary aspiration which can lead to serious complications. These complications can increase prolong length of ICU stay, increases number of hospital days and morbidities. This study is planned with purpose to evaluate the incidence of swallowing impairment in electively operated patients undergoing prolonged general anesthesia under endotracheal intubation.Materials and methods: This was a prospective observational study on patients undergoing elective surgery requiring orotracheal or nasotracheal intubation for duration of more than 6 hours. All the patients were given general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation using standard institutional protocol. The surgical procedure was performed as per proposed plan. All the patients were extubated in the operation theatre and shifted to post-operative unit. Patients were assessed 6 hours after extubation with the swallowing assessment scale (SAS) which was adopted from Eckardt Symptom Score scale. The SAS was used for bolus swallowing examination in which, after recording the vitals of the patient, 3 ml of the distilled water was given for swallowing. Patient was examined for any voice change, cough response, or signs of aspiration like tachycardia or fall in saturation. If patient was able to swallow successfully, 50 ml of distilled water was given to the patient for drinking and was evaluated by SAS. Patient was further evaluated six hourly till 24 hours. If the patient fails to pass the bolus swallow examination (BSE) test at any point of time, patient was said to have severe swallowing impairment. The incidence and severity of swallowing impairment were recorded at different time point for each patient.Results: A total of 208 patients were assessed for the eligibility of the study. 150 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria, and so, were included. Swallowing impairment after BSE with 50 ml of water was present in 14 patients, and thus, the incidence of swallowing impairment after general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation in this study was found to be 9.3%. Blood oxygen saturation was significantly lower in patients with swallowing impairment (p&lt;0.05) at all point of observation, while other hemodynamic parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure) were comparable in both group of patients (p&gt;0.05). The study shows that swallowing impairment is not significantly associated with age, sex or type of surgical procedure performed (p&gt;0.05). Conclusion: The results indicate that systematic assessment of swallowing difficulties in the patients undergoing prolonged general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation is important to prevent complications associated with swallowing disfunction

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good