Solar Energy powered active Greenhouse for the cultivation of Fresh Food during winter in Trans Himalayan Cold Arid Region, India

The Trans-Himalayan Cold arid high altitude region of Ladakh have hostile climatic conditions particularly lowtemperature (-20°C to -45°C). The region shares international borders with two countries viz. China and Pakistanand hence large numbers of Army personnel are deployed in the region due to their strategic importance. Production of fresh food locally is difficult due to low atmospheric temperatures. The region remains cut off from the external world during the winter period for almost 6-8 months due to the closure of roads, which causes an acute shortage of fresh food. Some supply from other regions through the air is carried out but available only to a limited population and costly also, hence beyond the pocket of the common’s man. The inhabitants hence mostly have to survive on packaged food containing food preservatives and harmful chemicals, which are the causes of many diseases. In addition, the unavailability of fresh food causes nutritional deficiency in the inhabitants of the region. Production of fresh food locally seems possible and realistic in closed structures, only if the temperature is maintained. The objective of this study is to prove fresh food production by maintaining suitable temperatures in structures during peak winter using solar energy. Solar energy is available in plenty in the region and stood at 4 th position in India in terms of irradiation. A variety of fresh foods were produced by maintaining temperature in the coldest and largest existing structure using commercially available heating units successively from 2016-2019 during the winter period. The heating units were supplied energy from a Solar PV-based system. An average of 1500kgs-1800kgs of a variety of fresh vegetables were produced and supplied for the first time in the region during the peak winter period of 2016 to 2019. The survival percentage of 92.5% to 100% is found in a structure with an area of 3600 2 feet.Fresh foods were produced and supplied to the user by maintaining minimum survival temperature using solar energy as a source with commercially available heating technology in the largest and coldest existing structure

Development of Broad Spectrum and Durable Bacterial Blight Resistant Variety through Pyramiding of Four Resistance Genes in Rice

Not AvailableBacterial blight (BB) disease caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a major biotic constraint on obtaining higher grain yields in rice. Marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) was performed by the pyramiding of Xa4, xa5, xa13 and Xa21 resistance genes in the popular variety, Ranidhan. A foreground selection in BC1F1, BC2F1, and BC3F1 progenies detected all the target genes in 12, 7 and 16 progenies by using the closely linked markers from a population size of 426, 410, and 530, respectively. The BB-positive progenies carrying the target genes with a maximal similarity to the recipient parent was backcrossed in each backcross generation. A total of 1784 BC3F2 seeds were obtained from the best BC3F1 progeny. The screening of the BC3F2 progenies for the four target genes resulted in eight plants carrying all the four target genes. A bioassay of the pyramided lines conferred very high levels of resistance to the predominant isolates of bacterial blight disease. In addition, these pyramided lines were similar to Ranidhan in 16 morpho-quality traits, namely, plant height, filled grains/panicle, panicles/plant, grain length, grain breadth, grain weight, milling, head rice recovery, kernel length after cooking, water uptake, the volume expansion ratio, gel consistency,alkali-spreading value, and the amylose content.Not Availabl

Chicken caecal enterotypes in indigenous Kadaknath and commercial Cobb chicken lines are associated with Campylobacter abundance and influenced by farming practices

Identifying farming practices that decrease susceptibility to infectious diseases and optimise food conversion efficiency is valuable for chicken welfare and productivity, the environment, and public health. Enterotypes can be used to define microbial community phenotypes that have differential, potentially significant impacts on gut health. In this study, we delineated enterotypes by analysing the microbiomes of 300 indigenous Kadaknath and 300 commercial Cobb400 broiler chickens raised across 60 farms in western India. Using a compositional data approach, we identified three distinct enterotypes: PA1 (n=290), PA2 (n=142) and PA3 (n=67). PA1 and PA2 clustered more closely with each other than with PA3, however, PA2 had significantly lower alpha diversity than PA1. PA1 had a high Firmicutes: Bacteroides ratio, was dominated by Faecalibacterium and had a higher abundance of Prevotellamassilia than other enterotypes. PA2 was characterised by its low alpha diversity, a high abundance of the common taxa Phascolarctobacterium A and Phocaeicola dorei and a significantly higher Campylobacter abundance than PA1. PA3 had the highest Bacteroidota abundance of the three enterotypes and was defined by high prevalence of lower abundance taxa such as CAG-831 and Mucispirillum schaedleri. Network analysis showed that all enterotypes have different proportions of competing Firmicutes-dominant and Bacteroidota-dominant guilds. Random Forest Modelling using defined farm characteristics was predictive for enterotype. Factors affecting enterotype include whether farms were open, enclosed or caged, the location of farms, whether visitors were allowed inside, the number of people in contact with the chickens, chicken line, the presence of dogs and whether flock thinning took place. This study suggests that enterotypes are influenced by farming practices, hence modification of practices could potentially be used to reduce the burden of zoonotic pathogens such as Campylobacter

Family resemblances: A common fold for some dimeric ion-coupled secondary transporters

Membrane transporter proteins catalyze the passage of a broad range of solutes across cell membranes, allowing the uptake and efflux of crucial compounds. Because of the difficulty of expressing, purifying, and crystallizing integral membrane proteins, relatively few transporter structures have been elucidated to date. Although every membrane transporter has unique characteristics, structural and mechanistic similarities between evolutionarily diverse transporters have been identified. Here, we compare two recently reported structures of membrane proteins that act as antimicrobial efflux pumps, namely MtrF from Neisseria gonorrhoeae and YdaH from Alcanivorax borkumensis, both with each other and with the previously published structure of a sodium-dependent dicarboxylate transporter from Vibrio cholerae, VcINDY. MtrF and YdaH belong to the p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate transporter (AbgT) family and have been reported as having architectures distinct from those of all other families of transporters. However, our comparative analysis reveals a similar structural arrangement in all three proteins, with highly conserved secondary structure elements. Despite their differences in biological function, the overall "design principle" of MtrF and YdaH appears to be almost identical to that of VcINDY, with a dimeric quaternary structure, helical hairpins, and clear boundaries between the transport and scaffold domains. This observation demonstrates once more that the same secondary transporter architecture can be exploited for multiple distinct transport modes, including cotransport and antiport. Based on our comparisons, we detected conserved motifs in the substrate-binding region and predict specific residues likely to be involved in cation or substrate binding. These findings should prove useful for the future characterization of the transport mechanisms of these families of secondary active transporters

Biotechnological Perspective of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-Mediated Stress Tolerance in Plants

All environmental cues lead to develop secondary stress conditions like osmotic and oxidative stress conditions that reduces average crop yields by more than 50% every year. The univalent reduction of molecular oxygen (O2) in metabolic reactions consequently produces superoxide anions (O2•−) and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) ubiquitously in all compartments of the cell that disturbs redox potential and causes threat to cellular organelles. The production of ROS further increases under stress conditions and especially in combination with high light intensity. Plants have evolved different strategies to minimize the accumulation of excess ROS like avoidance mechanisms such as physiological adaptation, efficient photosystems such as C4 or CAM metabolism and scavenging mechanisms through production of antioxidants and antioxidative enzymes. Ascorbate-glutathione pathway plays an important role in detoxifying excess ROS in plant cells, which includes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in detoxifying O2•−radical and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) respectively, monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) involved in recycling of reduced substrates such as ascorbate and glutathione. Efficient ROS management is one of the strategies used by tolerant plants to survive and perform cellular activities under stress conditions. The present chapter describes different sites of ROS generation and and their consequences under abiotic stress conditions and also described the approaches to overcome oxidative stress through genomics and genetic engineering

Effect of triacontanol on the seed quality of maize, paddy and sunflower

The seeds of maize, paddy and sunflower were treated with Triacontanol (tria), a natural primary alcohol of plants, and seed quality parameters were evaluated. All three concentrations (1, 5, and 10 ppm) of tria significantly increased the percentage germination of seeds over control. However, 10 ppm gave best results. Vigour index of maize seeds treated with 5 and 10 ppm was not significantly different but it was significant over 1 ppm treatment and controls. In paddy and sunflower, 10 ppm tria was superior over other concentrations and controls, in enhancing the seed vigour. In paddy the three concentrations of tria had same effect on field emergence but it was significant over controls. In sunflower, and maize the field emergence was highest in seeds treated with 10 ppm tria over other two concentrations and control. Triacontanol had no effect on seed mycoflora

To air is human, to liberate is divine!

Coronary artery air embolization is a rare complication of cardiac catheterization that leads to catastrophic consequences within seconds after an introduction of air bubbles in the coronary circulation. Rapid and aggressive management is essential to ensure the best chance of recovery in such cases. Here, we report an unusual occurrence of large air embolization during elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in a 41-year-old male patient. The patient experienced sudden severe retrosternal chest pain, followed by loss of consciousness, hypotension, flattening of aortic pressure curve, and severe bradycardia. Immediate attempts were made to remove the air embolus by performing continuous saline flush through a guiding catheter and using other supportive resuscitation measures. The attempts were successful, which ultimately resulted in relieving patient′s symptoms and offering an uneventful recovery

Head & neck cancers– A retrospective analysis

AIM: To find the prevelance and Incidence of head and neck cancer cases of other total body malignancies in our cancer centre. MATERIALS & METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis which was done in curie Manavata cancer centre in northern Maharashtra from 14th May 2007 to 30th November 2014. Total cases operated were 14368 out of which 2017 were head and neck cancers. RESULTS: Incidence of Head & Neck cancer cases in our 7 years study was around 14.03% of other total body malignancies. Males are more affected by Head & Neck cancer for around 82.01% than females contributing which is around 17.9%. Oral cavity malignancies contribute around 76.6% out of all head & neck cancer cases. Tongue cancers are more commonly affected which is around 33.4% followed by Buccal mucosa which is 29.77%. The mortality rate is high in buccal mucosa (32.35%) followed by tongue (27.4%). CONCLUSION: This retrospective study hopes to quantify and analyze the spectrum of Head and neck cancer out of the other total body malignancies. A tremendous effort is needed to identify such high prevelance, generate awareness and establish treatment modalities to meet this challenging statistical analysis

Head & neck cancers– A retrospective analysis

AIM: To find the prevelance and Incidence of head and neck cancer cases of other total body malignancies in our Cancer Centre. MATERIALS & METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis which was done in curie Manavata Cancer Centre in northern Maharashtra from 14th May 2007 to 30th November 2014. Total cases operated were 14368 out of which 2017 were head and neck cancers. RESULTS: Incidence of Head & Neck cancer cases in our 7 years study was around 14.03% of other total body malignancies. Males are more affected by Head & Neck cancer for around 82.01% than females contributing which is around 17.9%. Oral cavity malignancies contribute around 76.6% out of all head & neck cancer cases. Tongue cancers are more commonly affected which is around 33.4% followed by Buccal mucosa which is 29.77%. The mortality rate is high in buccal mucosa (32.35%) followed by tongue (27.4%). CONCLUSION: This retrospective study hopes to quantify and analyze the spectrum of Head and neck cancer out of the other total body malignancies. A tremendous effort is needed to identify such high prevelance, generate awareness and establish treatment modalities to meet this challenging statistical analysis