Stemming misconduct in higher education and research

The paper dwells upon different forms of misconduct which prevail in higher education and research. It throws light on the draft policy of UGC, India, which aims to ensure integrity and honesty in education and research. It advocates that all the stakeholders like authors, researchers, administrators, funding bodies and editorial boards need to shoulder the responsibility of promoting and maintaining conformity to the norms of scholarly communication

Clinic, community, and in-between: the influence of space on real-time translation of medical expertise by frontline healthcare professionals in marginal tribal communities

In this article, we explore real-time translation work undertaken by frontline healthcare professionals as they interact with marginal tribal communities in Western India. Our 1-year ethnographic study of a healthcare organization delivering obstetric and gynaecological care to tribal communities helps us understand how obstetric counsellors translate allopathic medical expertise across epistemological boundaries to the tribal community they serve, in localized comprehensible forms. We identify four distinct mechanisms of translation work—Interpreting, Annotating, Norming, and Justifying—which differentially deploy and integrate elements of tribal vocabulary, symbols, knowledge, and imaginations of health and body with specific aspects of clinical diagnosis and prescription, making the latter meaningful and actionable in the process. Furthermore, we use configurational approach—Qualitative Comparative Analysis—to investigate how the type of space where the interaction between the counsellors and tribal women patients happens influences the translation work undertaken. We find that counsellors engage in spatially differentiated translation work. They predominantly use justifying and norming in clinical space (hospital); interpreting and annotating in community space (village or school); and interpreting and norming in the overlapping in-between space (outdoor patient department). Our study contributes to translation literature by showing how real-time translation is undertaken in practice, especially in a setting representing high-stakes institutional translation, and how translation work is influenced by the type of space in which interactions happen

Re-engineering of bicistronic plasmid pGPD/IFN to construct fusion gene co-expressing Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (GAPDH) of Edwardsiella tarda and Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) gene of Labeo rohita (Hamilton) and its in vitro functional analysis

Edwardsiella septicemia disease in the cultured Indian major carps is caused by the fish pathogen Edwardsiella tarda and it is preventable by DNA vaccination. Here, we tried to develop a bicistronic DNA vaccine pGPD/IFN expressing the Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene of Edwardsiella tarda and Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) gene of Labeo rohita. The vaccine showed high protective efficiency in our previous studies; however as a limitation of bicistronic construct the expression of gene cloned in second frame (B) is poor. To overcome this limitation we re-engineered the construct and designed a fusion gene co-expressing the GAPDH and IFN-γ genes as one frame with an aim to get the optimum expression of both the genes. For this purpose, a fusion insert comprising GAPDH and IFN-γ coding sequences was cloned in to pcDNA3.1(+) plasmid vector. The fusion genes' in vitro expression was confirmed in the striped snakehead fish cell line (SSN-1). Successful expression of the re-engineered fusion gene DNA vaccine in the cell line was achieved at 48h post-transfection, which was confirmed by amplifying the expression transcripts of GAPDH and IFN-γ genes. Thus, the study concludes that the re-engineered fusion vaccine pcGPD/IFN (pcDNA3.1(+) plasmid having fusion GPD/IFN) is functional and can be effectively utilized to vaccinate rohu (Labeo rohita) as it contains the species-specific immune gene (IFN-γ) as an adjuvant

Stemming misconduct in higher education and research

282-284The paper dwells upon different forms of misconduct which prevail in higher education and research. It throws light on the draft policy of UGC, India, which aims to ensure integrity and honesty in education and research. It advocates that all the stakeholders like authors, researchers, administrators, funding bodies and editorial boards need to shoulder the responsibility of promoting and maintaining conformity to the norms of scholarly communication

Nidoviruses in Aquatic Organisms - Paradigm of a Nascent Concern

The extraordinarily genetically complex Nidovirus is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus. This diversified group of viruses has a higher degree of RNA recombination due to its large nested arrangements of sub-genomic mRNA. This is considered to be crucial for accelerating the evolutionary process and pathogenesis of the virus resulting in enhancing their adaptation to rapidly changing environment as well as upgrading them to infect a broad range of host. In general, Nidoviruses are an alarming group of pathogens of terrestrial animals but they have, of late, started affecting a wide range of aquatic animals such as fish and shellfish since the last 20 years. The common Nidoviruses reported from aquatic animals are Bafinivirus i.e. White bream virus, Fathead minnow virus, Chinook salmon bafinivirus from fish; Yellow head virus, Gill-associated virus from shrimp; Eriocheir sinensis ronivirus from crab; Harbour seal coronavirus, Beluga whale coronavirus, Bottlenose dolphin coronavirus from marine mammals. The clinical symptoms associated with this virus infection are mainly noticed in the skin, eye, anterior kidney, spleen and liver whereas gill, lymphoid organ, haemopoietic tissue, midgut, cuticular epithelium, heart, haemocytes in shrimps and ecdysal gland in crabs are the primary target organs of Nidoviruses. It has gained considerable importance in the research area of aquatic animal health with the discovery of first fish Nidovirus in cyprinids but the prevalence, host range, route of infection, mode of transmission and diagnosis of the virus are required to be explored in detail to evaluate the significant risk of Nidoviruses and to control the future outbreak of diseases in aquatic animals.</p

Nidoviruses in Aquatic Organisms - Paradigm of a Nascent Concern

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High prevalence of Aeromonas and Pseudomonas infections among cage cultured Pangas catfish from the reservoirs of Maharashtra, India

Cage farming of Pangas catfish (Pangasionodon hypophthalmus) in small reservoirs is primarily profitable. Still, sustainability in terms of disease and environmental impact issues remains unsolved. In the present study, Pangas catfish from selected farms were screened for bacteria and parasites from 2017-18. In the present study, several Gram-negative bacterial species, including Edwardsiella tarda, Aeromonas hydrophila, A. veronii, Pseudomonas putida, Enterobacter cloacae, and Plesiomonas shigelloides, were isolated. A high prevalence of Aeromonas and Pseudomonas infections was noticed in cage farms. The most prevalent isolate was A. veronii (9 isolates), followed by P. aeruginosa and P. putida, revealing the presence of biotic stress. Furthermore, potential human pathogenic bacteria, particularly Klebsiella pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Citrobacter freundii, and Morganella morganii, were isolated. Histopathological analysis of the vital organs concluded the extent of damage caused due to the biotic stress in the cage culture system. The antibiotic sensitivity test implied resistance of bacteria for Sulphamethoxazole and Tetracycline. Some of them were resistant to multiple drugs, the risk for public health. Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, Aeromonas, Pseudomonas, and Plesiomonas were identified by principal component analysis as significant abiotic and biotic stress factors. This information helps design predictive disease models

Aquaculture

Not AvailableDactylogyrus is one of the major parasites ubiquitously present in the aquatic environment causing severe eco-nomic loss. The present study documented a new species of Dactylogyrus from India infecting the Indian major carp, i.e. rohu (Labeo rohita) both in natural and experimental conditions. The 18 s and 28 s rDNA sequence analyses revealed the present isolate of having 99.29% and 96.21% sequence homology, respectively with D. scorpius belonging to African Dactylogyrus lineage III. A co-habitational challenge study further confirmed that catla (Catla catla) and mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala), two other species of Indian major carps, were resistant to this parasite in a 20-day infection trial. On the other hand, co-habitational challenge study showed 100% prevalence in rohu from 1-day post-infection (dpi) onwards with a gradual increase in average parasitic load of 4.8, 40.84, 61.50, 91.20 and 81.40 numbers on 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 dpi of sampling, respectively. This study forms the first report of D. scorpius infection in India and rohu was found to be the preferred host of this parasite. The gill tissues collected from rohu fingerlings at the above time points were also subjected to expression analysis of different immune-related genes viz., genes involved in specific immunity (IgM, IgZ, MHC I), recognition molecule (TLR 22), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1?, IL-6, IL-8, IL-15, TNF ?), anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10), antioxidant molecules (MnSOD, GPx, catalase) and antimicrobial peptides (apolipoprotein A-I, lysozyme G). A significant up- regulation of all immune-related genes except MHC I and IL-15 was observed in gill tissues of infected rohu at different time points, thus indicating the role of both specific and non-specific immune responses against D. scorpius infection. The progressive rise in parasitic load in gill tissues corresponding to days of infection clearly indicated immune evasion mechanism for its co-existence in the advent of up-regulation of an array of immune- related genes in the host. The results obtained in this study could be useful for understanding host-pathogen interaction and further development of any prophylactic measures against this important parasite

The Immune system of Sea cucumbers: An evidential approach.

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