Echocardiographic evaluation of diastolic dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus with normal systolic function and correlation with duration of diabetes mellitus and HbA1C

Background: The incidence of heart failure in diabetic subjects is high even in absence of hypertension and coronary artery disease. Studies have reported a high prevalence of preclinical diastolic dysfunction among subjects with diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to assess relationship of diastolic dysfunction with duration of diabetes mellitus and HbA1c level.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 200 consenting patients with diabetes mellitus without history of hypertension and established coronary artery disease with normal systolic function from the period of February 2013 to October 2014. All diabetic patients were studied for HbA1c level, time period since 1st diabetes was diagnosed, and echocardiography was performed and, diastolic function parameters were measured.Results: In this study, out of 32 subjects with HbA1c 7.1-8.0%, 25 (78.12%); out of 80 subjects with HbA1c 8.1-10.0%, 69 (86.25%); and out of 24 subjects with HbA1c >10%, 24 (100.0%) had diastolic dysfunction. Out of 88 subjects with duration of diabetic mellitus 0-5 years, 34 patients (38.63%); out of 64 subjects with duration of diabetic mellitus of 6-10 years, 53 patients (82.81%); out of 42 subjects with duration of diabetic mellitus 11-15 years, 38 patients (90.47%); and out of 6 subjects with duration of diabetic mellitus >15 years, 6 patients (100.0%) had diastolic dysfunction.Conclusions: Diastolic dysfunction is significantly associated with duration of disease and glycemic control assessed by HbA1c

Effect of water and weed management in Boro rice (cv. BRRI dhan28) in Bangladesh

The experiment was conducted at the Farm of Farm Management Division, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during December 2012 to June 2013 to find out the effect of water and weed management in Boro rice (cv. BRRI dhan28). The experiment consisted of three irrigation systems viz., conventional flood irrigation, Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and System of rice intensification (SRI) and four weed management practices viz., No weeding, hand weeding thrice at 20, 35 and 50 days after sowing, blade weeding + hand weeding once at 20 DAS; and pre-emergence herbicide (Panida 33 EC) @ 2.5 l ha-1 + hand weeding once at 20 DAS. Crop characters, yield components and yield were significantly influenced by water and weed managements, and their interaction. The highest plant height (91.51 cm), total tillers hill-1 (15.49), grains panicle-1 (86.87) and grain yield (4.02 t ha-1) were obtained in SRI method and corresponding lowest values were found in conventional flood irrigation while all parameters showed intermediate values in AWD. The highest plant height (93.45 cm), total tillers hill-1 (16.53), effective tillers hill-1 (12.88), grains panicle-1 (86.14), grain yield (5.47 t ha-1) and straw yield were found in pre-emergence herbicide (Panida 33 EC) @ 2.5 l ha-1 + one hand weeding at 20 DAS while all the parameters showed lowest values in weedy check. Weed infestation reduced 80.07% yield compared to application of pre-emergence herbicide (Panida 33 EC) @ 2.5 l ha-1 + one hand weeding at 20 DAS. In case of interaction, the highest total tillers hill-1 (20.93), grains panicle-1 (102.3) and grain yield (5.86 t ha-1) were found in SRI method with pre-emergence herbicide (Panida 33 EC) @ 2.5 l ha-1 + one hand weeding at 20 DAT while the lowest total tillers hill-1 (10.97), grains panicle-1 (61.46) and grain yield (0.91 t ha-1) were found in conventional flood irrigation having no weeding treatment. The above results concludes that SRI method with pre-emergence herbicide (Panida 33 EC) @ 2.5 l ha-1 + one hand weeding at 20 DAS appeared as the promising technique for appreciable grain yield of Boro rice (cv. BRRI dhan28)

Habitat Characterization and Fish Community Structure in the River Ghaghara, India

Habitat characterization, water quality assessment and freshwater fish diversity investigation of Ghaghara River flowing in Uttar Pradesh, India was carried out. River water was clear except at site S5 with pebbly and sandy substrate. The mean water quality of study sites was found to have pH 7.8, water temperature 25.8°C, dissolved oxygen 5.4 mg/l, total hardness 212 mg/l, alkalinity 179 mg/l (as CaCO3), Turbidity 16.9 NTU, NO3 1.7 mg/l, NO2 0.04 mg/l, ammonia 0.3 mg/l and conductivity 390.2 μS/cm. Altogether 62 fish species were recorded during the study. We used principal component analyses (PCA) to determine the influence of environmental conditions on species occurrences and assemblage characteristics. The MANOVA on habitat parameters showed a difference in habitat structure among the sampling sites. Our results suggest the significance of local environment influences on the fishes of conservation importance and their assemblage distinctiveness in an unimpacted river and provide a framework and reference conditions to maintain restoration efforts of relatively altered fish habitats in tropical rivers of India

Fish Karyome: A karyological information network database of Indian Fishes

‘Fish Karyome’, a database on karyological information of Indian fishes have been developed that serves as central source for karyotype data about Indian fishes compiled from the published literature. Fish Karyome has been intended to serve as a liaison tool for the researchers and contains karyological information about 171 out of 2438 finfish species reported in India and is publically available via World Wide Web. The database provides information on chromosome number, morphology, sex chromosomes, karyotype formula and cytogenetic markers etc. Additionally, it also provides the phenotypic information that includes species name, its classification, and locality of sample collection, common name, local name, sex, geographical distribution, and IUCN Red list status. Besides, fish and karyotype images, references for 171 finfish species have been included in the database. Fish Karyome has been developed using SQL Server 2008, a relational database management system, Microsoft's ASP.NET-2008 and Macromedia's FLASH Technology under Windows 7 operating environment. The system also enables users to input new information and images into the database, search and view the information and images of interest using various search options. Fish Karyome has wide range of applications in species characterization and identification, sex determination, chromosomal mapping, karyo-evolution and systematics of fishes

FBIS: A regional DNA barcode archival & analysis system for Indian fishes

DNA barcode is a new tool for taxon recognition and classification of biological organisms based on sequence of a fragment of mitochondrial gene, cytochrome c oxidase I (COI). In view of the growing importance of the fish DNA barcoding for species identification, molecular taxonomy and fish diversity conservation, we developed a Fish Barcode Information System (FBIS) for Indian fishes, which will serve as a regional DNA barcode archival and analysis system. The database presently contains 2334 sequence records of COI gene for 472 aquatic species belonging to 39 orders and 136 families, collected from available published data sources. Additionally, it contains information on phenotype, distribution and IUCN Red List status of fishes. The web version of FBIS was designed using MySQL, Perl and PHP under Linux operating platform to (a) store and manage the acquisition (b) analyze and explore DNA barcode records (c) identify species and estimate genetic divergence. FBIS has also been integrated with appropriate tools for retrieving and viewing information about the database statistics and taxonomy. It is expected that FBIS would be useful as a potent information system in fish molecular taxonomy, phylogeny and genomics

Divergent proinflammatory immune responses associated with the differential susceptibility of cattle breeds to tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) in the bovine is one of the most predominant chronic debilitating infectious diseases primarily caused by Mycobacterium bovis. Besides, the incidence of TB in humans due to M. bovis, and that in bovines (bovine TB, bTB) due to M. tuberculosis- indicates cattle as a major reservoir of zoonotic TB. While India accounts for the highest global burden of both TB and multidrug-resistant TB in humans, systematic evaluation of bTB prevalence in India is largely lacking. Recent reports emphasized markedly greater bTB prevalence in exotic and crossbred cattle compared to indigenous cattle breeds that represent more than one-third of the total cattle population in India, which is the largest globally. This study aimed at elucidating the immune responses underlying the differential bTB incidence in prominent indigenous (Sahiwal), and crossbred (Sahiwal x Holstein Friesian) cattle reared in India. Employing the standard Single Intradermal Tuberculin Test (SITT), and mycobacterial gene-targeting single as well as multiplex-PCR-based screening revealed higher incidences of bovine tuberculin reactors as well as Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex specific PCR positivity amongst the crossbred cattle. Further, ex vivo mycobacterial infection in cultures of bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from SITT, and myco-PCR negative healthy cattle exhibited significantly higher intracellular growth of M. bovis BCG, and M. tuberculosis H37Ra in the crossbred cattle PBMCs compared to native cattle. In addition, native cattle PBMCs induced higher pro-inflammatory cytokines and signaling pathways, such as interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin-17 (IL-17), tank binding kinase-1 (TBK-1), and nitric oxide (NO) upon exposure to live mycobacterial infection in comparison to PBMCs from crossbred cattle that exhibited higher expression of IL-1β transcripts. Together, these findings highlight that differences in the innate immune responses of these cattle breeds might be contributing to the differential susceptibility to bTB infection, and the resultant disparity in bTB incidence amongst indigenous, and crossbred cattle

Baseline information of reproduction parameters of an amphidromous croaker Johnius coitor (Hamilton, 1822) from Ganga river basin, India with special reference to potential influence of climatic variability

Reproductive biology of female amphidromous croaker Johnius coitor (Hamilton, 1822) was studied for the first time from various freshwater stretches of Ganga river basin, India in relation to climatic variability. The species showed high spatial variation in reproductive phenology and capable of breeding during pre-monsoon, monsoon, post-monsoon and winter. Water temperature is the most crucial environmental parameter influencing gonadal maturation and breeding. Generalized additive model (GAM) models revealed water temperature near 23–25 °C as optimum and threshold GSI above 3 units necessary for breeding. Pre-spawning fitness (Kspawn50) and size at 50% maturity (LM50) benchmarked through Kaplan-Meier survival fit estimates were in the range 1.27–1.37 units and 19–24.5 cm respectively. First maturity of females was encountered at 11.4 cm within the size range 7.2–28.5 cm. Egg parameters in mature-ripe females ranged between 0.29–0.80 mm (diameter), 0.05–0.19 mg (weight) and 5687–121 849 eggs (absolute fecundity). Mapping of climate preferendum through LOESS smoothing technique hinted water temperatures 32 °C to be detrimental for attainment of pre-spawning fitness while no dependence on rainfall was observed. Based on the climato-hydrological influence on breeding and regional trends of changing climate along river Ganga, we infer minimal climate driven changes in breeding phenology of this amphidromous fish species. Results of this study may serve as baseline information for future studies assessing climate driven changes and evolutionary adaptations in croakers from river Ganga

Effect of variety and sulphur on yield and yield components of groundnut

Variety and sulphur play a significant role in the physiological growth and yield of crops such as groundnut. Even so, there has been little information on the application of variety and sulphur in groundnut. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh to investigate the effect of sulphur on yield and yield components of two groundnut varieties. The experiment comprised two varieties of groundnut viz. BARI Cheenabadam-8 and Bina cheenabadam-6; and five levels of sulphur viz. 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 kg ha–1. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Among the parameters leaf area index (2.03), dry matter plant–1 (50.36 g), number of primary branches plant–1 (10.33 cm), number of secondary branches plant–1 (9.27 cm), number of pegs plant–1 (46.27), number of total pods plant–1 (37.80), 100-pods weight (96.82 g), 100- seeds weight (46.25 g), shelling percentage (85.29%), pod yield (3.13 t ha–1), seed yield (2.67 t ha–1), stover yield (6.84 t ha–1), and harvest index (31.37 %) were the highest in BARI Cheenabadam-8, when treated with sulphur 60 kg ha–1. The lowest values of all these parameters were found in Binacheenabadam-6, when no sulphur was applied. This study suggested that BARI Cheenabadam-8 combined with sulphur 60 kg ha–1 could be applied for obtaining the highest yield of groundnut

PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF HARINGHATA BLACK CHICKENS IN AN ORGANIZED FARM

The present study was conducted to explore the relationship among body measurement in Haringhata Black Chicken using principal component analysis keeping in view of identifying those components that define body conformation in this breed. The parameters body weight, breast girth, keel length, body length, ornithological measurement, beak length, beak width and back length were recorded and evaluated on 22nd week of age of 113 Chicken. The data showed that the mean body weight was 963 gm and the body measurements were 23.96 cm, 9.80 cm, 59.27 cm, 51.14 cm, 2.38 cm, 1.40 cm and 9.79 cm for breast girth, keel length, body length, ornithological measurement, beak length, beak width and back length at 22nd week of age, respectively. The highest correlation was obtained between body weight and body length (r = 0.86), body length and ornithological measurement (r = 0.86) while correlation between beak width and ornithological measurement (r = 0.26) was observed to be the lowest. Extracted two principal components PC 1 and PC 2 explained 75.70 % of the total variation in the original variables. The first principal component (PC 1) had the largest share (60.02 %) of the total variance and had high positive loadings on body weight (0.93), body length (0.89), ornithological measurement (0.88), breast girth (0.86) and keel length (0.85) while PC 2 shared only 15.68% of the total variance with high positive loadings on beak width (0.75) and beak length (0.68). Therefore, PC1 may be used as selection criteria for improving body weight of indigenous Haringhata Black chicken