Reproduction in the brine shrimp Artemia Leach, 1819 (Branchiopoda, Anostraca) from South India: Laboratory cross fertility tests and mating behaviour

Abstract. The brine shrimp Artemia is an inhabitant of hypersaline environments and has been used to study primary reproductive traits and mating behaviour together with the degrees of divergence among populations. Intrapopulation experimental crosses and cross-fertility tests were evaluated in four populations from coastal and inland environments of South India, and in a reference sample of A. franciscana (San Francisco Bay -SFB, U.S.A). Crosses were fertile with the production of live nauplii and cysts. Significant variations were observed among the populations studied in fecundity (e.g. total offspring, brood size). A reproductive switch from ovoviviparity to oviparity was observed, especially in crosses between inland populations with the reference strain. Differences between the South Indian samples and SFB were significant-for the total number of nauplii, percentage of encysted brood and broods per female. A peculiar pattern of male-male mating was observed, wherein the ratio of males was higher than females. About 70% of the orientation movements of the males were directed towards other males

Turtle conservation activities in Tambaldeg village, Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra

Tambaldeg village in Devgad taluka is a famous tourist place in the Sindhudurg district. During a field visit to Tambaldeg beach on 24th April 2017, six carcasses of adult olive ridley turtle Lepidochelys olivacea and one of green turtle Chelonia mydas were observed in decomposed state. This beach is a turtle nesting site and the Forest department of Maharashtra with the support of local fishers is undertaking awareness programs for turtle conservation including hoardings displayed on conservation of turtles along the beach. Protection of nesting turtles and eggs is also undertaken by the local communities

Absence of the common Insulin-like growth factor-1 19-repeat allele is associated with early age at breast cancer diagnosis in multiparous women

Multiparity decreases the risk of breast cancer in white women, whereas it is a risk factor in black women <50 years. Early-onset breast cancer (<50 years) has been associated with high insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels. Absence of the common IGF1 19 cytosine-adenine (CA)-repeat allele (IGF1-19/-19) inverts the effect of several non-genetic factors on breast cancer risk but the interaction between IGF1-19/-19 and multiparity on breast cancer risk is unknown. As IGF1-19/-19, multiparity and early-onset breast cancer are more common in black than in white women, we aimed to study whether multiparity combined with IGF1-19/-19 increases the risk of early-onset breast cancer. Four hundred and three breast cancer patients diagnosed in Lund, Sweden, at age 25–99 years were genotyped for the IGF1 CA-repeat length using fragment analysis. Overall, 12.9% carried the IGF1-19/-19 genotype. There was a highly significant interaction between multiparity and IGF1-19/-19 on age at breast cancer diagnosis (P=0.007). Among IGF1-19/-19 patients, multiparity was associated with a 9.2 year earlier age at diagnosis compared with uniparity or nulliparity (P=0.006). Multiparity combined with IGF1-19/-19 was associated with an early age at breast cancer diagnosis. If confirmed, IGF1-19/-19 may help identify a subgroup of women for earlier breast cancer screening

Role of Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) Practices on Academic Performance and Stress Management of School Students

In Indian Educational system, most the schools were adopting rote learning. This makes the student loose motivation and self confidence. Our current educational system is lack of practical knowledge. Hence it leads the children to face different level of stress in the class room environment. The Indian education system must be reinvented to bring about any change at the grass root level. We must evolve a system that is not based on doctrine method, but on learning. Children have to be prepared for life, not for an exam. The system of educating children has to be different. It has to be combined with certain yoga practices which can remove their psychological blocks, which can make them aware of the psychological changes that happen in their body and brain, which can make them aware of their own distractions and which can give them the ability to focus on the theme of the subject they are studying. The purpose of study was to find out the Role of Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) practices on Academic performance of school students.. To achieve the purpose of study, the investigator would select 160 students from two different schools studying 11th standard in Nilgiris. Training consists of Simplified Kundalini Yoga Exercise, Meditation and Kayakalpa yoga was imparted to the experimental group of 80 students. The impact of the yoga on various aspects as stress and academic performance of the students. The experimental group had shown significant improvement in their academic performance and reduction of stress than the control group

Induction of population growth, mictic fernale production and resting eggs formation by treatment of GnRh analogue in the freshwater rotifer Brachinous Calyciflorus Pallas

Enriched commercial and artificial diets are unsuitable for the post larval stages of various commercially important crustacea and fish, which require live foods (such as rotifers, brine shrimp or fairy shrimp). The larger size of the brine shrimp and fairy shrimp make them unsuitable for larval fish and shrimp requiring small zooplanktons such as rotifers, as their initial diet. This study was designed to develop a reliable technique for inducing population growth, mictic female production and body size in the freshwater rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus by treatment with the synthetic hormone Ovaprim. Ovaprim is a synthetic GnRH analogue with domperidone. Concentrations of Ovaprim from 0.05, 0.5, 5 and 50 μl ml−1 were added to Chlorella vulgaris suspension (2×106 cells ml−1). Population growth significantly increased in treatments exposed to 0.05 and 0.5 μl ml−1 while higher mortality was observed at the concentrations of 50 and 5 μl ml−1. Ovaprim had no effect on mictic female production and hence also on the resting egg production. Lorica length increased to 19.47 and 19.16 μm in rotifers treated with 0.5 and 0.05 μl ml−1 hormone concentrations and decrease in lorica length was observed at 50 and 5 μl ml−1 concentrations (13.44 and 15.17 μm). Increase in the lorica width (13.41 μm) was observed on treatment with 0.5 μl ml−1 concentration of Ovaprim when compared to the control. The results of the experiment suggest that Ovaprim treatment at 0.5 μl ml−1 concentration have significant modulatory effects on the population growth, mictic female production and body size of B. calyciflorus

Design of activation based detection scheme for pulsed gamma ray emission from intense laser plasmas

High intensity lasers (>1019 W/cm2) produce relativistic electrons when they interact with matter. The high energy electrons upon incidence on a solid target produce secondary emissions like protons, neutrons, positrons, x-ray emission and γ-rays1. Gamma rays produce from this interaction can be used to induce photoneutron reaction in a material, thereby producing short-lived isotopes or isomers2. The isotopes or isomers produced can be used for diagnosing the radiation flux and directionality3. Materials with short half-lives (in μs to ms time scale) are of interest as a diagnostic for shot to shot measurement of parameters in high repetition lasers (10 Hz), since they decay well before the incidence of the subsequent pulse on the material. For understanding the working of this diagnostic, systematic studies of decay of the isotopes/isomers produced and the attenuation of γ-rays in the material are necessary. The design and efficiency of a diagnostic for characterizing γ-rays using the method of nuclear activation for 10 Hz high repetition laser is presented

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Not AvailableTambaldeg village in Devgad taluka is a famous tourist place in the Sindhudurg district. During a field visit to Tambaldeg beach on 24th April 2017, six carcasses of adult olive ridley turtle Lepidochelys olivacea and one of green turtle Chelonia mydas were observed in decomposed state. This beach is a turtle nesting site and the Forest department of Maharashtra with the support of local fishers is undertaking awareness programs for turtle conservation including hoardings displayed on conservation of turtles along the beach. Protection of nesting turtles and eggs is also undertaken by the local communities.Not Availabl

Estimation of Fano factor for oversquare HPGe detector

Fano factor is a quantity used to measure the departure of the observed variance in the number of charge carriers produced from that predicted using poison statistics. Fano factor varies with the detector type. In case of proportional counters and semiconductor detectors, it is substantially less than unity, whereas, for scintillator detectors, it would be unity. Even in case of semiconductor detectors, it varies with the type and the shape of the detector. Another source of fluctuations that gives the overall resolution of the detector is preamplifier noise. Oversquare coaxial HPGe detectors are a recent development in the field. Literature on the Fano factor of oversquare large volume coaxial detector is not available. In this work, the Fano factor and the electronic noise of an oversquare HPGe coaxial detector are estimated after optimizing the shaping parameters. The Fano factor for the oversquare HPGe detector is estimated as 0.1291 keV, which agrees with the ideal value of 0.13 by 99.98%. The preamplifier noise was found to be 0.048 keV which is 35% lesser than the reported value