Health Benefits of Tea Consumption

Tea is the most common beverage after water. It is extracted from the leaves of Camellia sinensis (family: Theaceae). It is consumed in different forms, namely, oolong, green, black and Ilex tea depending on post-harvest treatment and chemical components. Being rich in natural antioxidants, tea is reported to be used in the management of colon , esophageal, and lung cancers, as well as urinary stone, dental caries, etc. The present review focuses on the beneficial effects of tea consumption on human health. Keywords: Antioxidants, Theaflavonoides, Anticaries, Ethanol intoxication, Tea consumption > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 6 (3) 2007: pp. 785-79

A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF YOGA THERAPY ON LIVER FUNCTIONS

The present study entitled” The effect of Yoga Therapy on Liver functions” is conducted in the Department, Mangalore University, Karnataka. Twenty employees were selected randomly for the present study and divided in to two groups. Viz, Experimental and Control, between the ages group of 20 and 50. Yogic practices were given only to the experimental group for a period of one and half months. In order to check the level of significance of mean, a student paired t- test was made use of. The study revealed that the globulin was reduced up to highly significant level and alkaline phosphate and weight was reduced significantly at the level of p – value 0.00087, 0.0364, 0.0424 respectively (at p – value 0.005). But there were no significant changes in the control group

Impact of Salt Stress on Carbohydrate Metabolism in Cicer Arietinum L.

Cereals are used as an important food of Indian diet. They are an important source of carbohydrates and proteins, so they are essential to a predominant diet. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important crops of India, mainly grown for their seeds which contain 20.6% protein, 2.2% fat and 61.2% carbohydrate, ranking next to wheat and barley both in acreage and in the production of grain. The major portion of crop production is consumed by the people in many forms like Dal, Besan, Crushed or whole grain, boiled or roasted gram or in sweet preparation. It is also used as a protein-rich diet for horses, and other cattle in the forms of soaked grain. Keeping the above views several Cicer varieties will be screened for their salt tolerance behaviour. Salt tolerant and salt susceptible variety will be selected for further comparative studies to expect that the findings of the present investigation would not only help with a better understanding of the mechanism of salt tolerant behaviour of Cicer at the physiological and biochemical levels and also suggest possibilities of selecting a variety suitable for salt stress condition

First report of soybean witchesbroom disease caused by Group 16SrII phytoplasma in soybean in Malawi and Mozambique

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is an important grain legume cultivated on approximately 1.24 million ha in Africa (1). Malawi ranks fourth in area of production in Africa, with 75,000 ha in 2009 (1). Soybean is also gaining importance in Mozambique and several other southern African countries due to diversification programs. During a field survey conducted in March 2010, soybean plants with phyllody and witches'-broom disorders typical of phytoplasma infection were observed in three of five fields surveyed in Lilongwe (Chitedze Research Station) and Salima (Channa, Chitala) districts in Malawi and three of four fields surveyed in Zambezia Province in Mozambique. Symptoms consisted of shoot proliferation, reduced leaflets, shortened internodes, proliferated auxiliary shoots producing witches'-brooms, virescence, and phyllody. Incidence of symptomatic plants was <1% in Malawi and 10 to 15% in Mozambique. Yield loss was 100% in affected plants. Five leaf samples each from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were collected from six fields; total genomic DNAs were isolated and used as templates in PCR using phytoplasma-universal primer pair P1 and P7 for 16S-23S ribosomal RNA encoding region (3). PCR amplicons (1,709 bp) were produced from only templates derived from symptomatic plants. Amplicons from a symptomatic plant each from Malawi (Channa, Salima District) and Mozambique (Mutequelse, Zambezia Province) were directly sequenced in both directions and submitted to the GenBank (Accession Nos. HQ840717 and HQ845208). Nucleotide sequences of the two African soybean witches'-broom (SoyWB) phytoplasma strains were 100% identical. The virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) pattern derived from these sequences using iPhyClassifier software (4) was similar to the reference pattern of the 16Sr group II, subgroup C (cactus phytoplasma, Accession No. AJ293216), with a pattern similarity coefficient of 0.99. A BLASTn search revealed that the African SoyWB phytoplasma sequences had a nucleotide sequence identity of 99% with those of soybean phytoplasma from Thailand (Accession No. EF193353), cactus phytoplasma from China (Accession No. EU099561), and several other members of 16SrII group. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the clustering of these strains with members of 16SrII group. In 1984, the occurrence of phyllody and witches'-broom symptoms in soybean in Mozambique was reported (2), however, no comprehensive details on the pathogen are available. To our knowledge, this is the first report of phyllody and witches'-broom disease in soybean in Malawi and the first molecular evidence of association of a 16SrII-C group ‘Candidatus phytoplasma’ with the disease in Malawi and Mozambique. Phyllody and witches'-broom is a destructive disease, and its widespread occurrence can adversely affect soybean production in sub-Saharan Africa. Identification of alternative hosts and vector species would improve our understanding of the disease's epidemiology and contribute to development of appropriate tactics to prevent escalation of this problem into a major disease

Niche separation in sympatric lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) and Nilgiri langur (Presbytis johnii) in an Indian tropical rain forest

The study was carried out on one group each of lion-tailed macaques and Nilgiri langurs living as sympatric groups in a rainforest in Anaimalai Hills, Western Ghats, south India. Whereas the lion-tailed macaques were found to be frugivorous/ insectivorous, the Nilgiri langurs were primarily folivorous. Fruit was the only shared component in the diet of the two species. The lion-tailed macaques occupied a higher substratum than the Nilgiri langurs not only for their routine activities, but also for overall feeding and fruit feeding. The presence of lion-tailed macaques resulted in further lowering the feeding substratum and increased passivity in Nilgiri langurs. Food specialization and vertical stratification differentiate the niches of these two sympatric species

Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Quality Changes in Cocoa and Whey Protein Enriched Functional Dairy Drink During Storage

Cocoa and whey protein enriched functional dairy drink was subjected to storage studies at refrigeration temperature 4±1°C in the present study. The samples were studied for microbial and physicochemical tests during storage. The results in this study suggest that the product can be stored upto 18 days at 4±1°C. A decrease in pH from 7.01 to 6.49 for whey protein enriched product and from 6.94 to 6.41 in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product was observed at the end of shelf life. The FFA increased from 0.72 to 1.46 meq./ml at the end of shelf life of 18 days in case of whey protein enriched product and from 1.16 to 2.02 meq./ml in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product. An increase in the HMF content of the functional drink was recorded from 59.84 to 134.56 µmol/l at the end of 18 days of storage in case of whey protein enriched product and from 1.16 to 2.02 µmol/l in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product. The total bacterial counts and yeast and mould counts were increased from 3.14 to 6.48 log cfu/ml and 1.14 to 2.10 log cfu/ml respectively in whey protein enriched functional drink. The coliform count was observed to be nil in both the variants of the functional dairy drink of throughout the storage period

Status and conservation of lion-tailed macaque and other arboreal mammals in tropical rainforests of Sringeri forest range, Western ghats, Karnataka, India

The lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), an endangered primate species, was surveyed in the tropical rainforests of Sringeri in the state of Karnataka, south India. A total of 10 groups and a solitary adult male were found in approximately 90 square kilometers of rainforest. The other sympatric arboreal mammals found included common langurs, bonnet macaques and Malabar giant squirrels. The liontailed macaques are sympatric with other primates and giant squirrels in the undisturbed core areas. More towards the human habitations and disturbed areas, the lion-tailed macaques are absent and the forest is occupied by commensal species. The habitat features and the population structure indicate that this region is a potential area for maintaining a biologically viable population of lion-tailed macaques. However, a number of factors such as extraction of fuel wood, collection of minor forest produce, grazing by domestic livestock and plantation of commercial tree species are causing a serious threat to the habitat. The effect of habitat degradation on arboreal wildlife is discussed and the steps are suggested to minimize the effect of human disturbance on habitat

Low-pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition of Silicon Nanoparticles:Synthesis and Characterisation

emiconductor nanostructures such as quantum wells, quantum wires or quantum dots exhibit superior properties in comparison to their bulk forms. Quantum dots are described aszero-dimensional electron gas system, as carriers are confined in all the three directions. Densityof states is discrete function of energy. Allowed energy spectrum is discrete like in an atom.Energy band gap is broadened due to carriers confinement. Semiconductor quantum dots exhibittypical coulomb blockade characteristic which is exploited for development of new generationof nanoelectronic devices namely single-electron transistor, memories, etc, whose operationdepends on quantum mechanical tunneling of carriers through energy barriers. Thesesemiconductor nanostructures emit light in visible range upon excitation by optical means. Inrecent years,  research  has been focused on different nano-scale materials; metals (Au, Ag, Fe,Mn, Ni), metal oxides (SnO2, ZnO2), compound semiconductors (GaAs, GaAlAs, CdSe, CdS,GaN), and elemental semiconductors (silicon and germanium). As silicon is the most favouredmaterial in the established integrated circuits manufacturing technology, research is being donefor controlled synthesis and characterisation of Si nanoparticles. The Si nanoparticles havebeen synthesised on oxide and nitride layers over  Si substrate by IC technology compatiblelow-pressure chemical vapour deposition technique. Atomic force microscopy (AFM)characterisation has been extensively carried out on the samples. It is shown that the tip radiusand shape of tip lead to less accurate estimate of the actual size. The AFM images have been evaluated based on the real surface topography and shape of the tip. Photolumine scence (PL) studies have been performed to characterise the samples. The PL measurements showed visiblelight emission from synthesised silicon nanoparticles.Defence Science Journal, 2008, 58(4), pp.550-558, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.58.167

A drone-based networked system and methods for combating coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It is similar to influenza viruses and raises concerns through alarming levels of spread and severity resulting in an ongoing pandemic worldwide. Within eight months (by August 2020), it infected 24.0 million persons worldwide and over 824 thousand have died. Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are very helpful in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. This work investigates the drone-based systems, COVID-19 pandemic situations, and proposes an architecture for handling pandemic situations in different scenarios using real-time and simulation-based scenarios. The proposed architecture uses wearable sensors to record the observations in Body Area Networks (BANs) in a push-pull data fetching mechanism. The proposed architecture is found to be useful in remote and highly congested pandemic areas where either the wireless or Internet connectivity is a major issue or chances of COVID-19 spreading are high. It collects and stores the substantial amount of data in a stipulated period and helps to take appropriate action as and when required. In real-time drone-based healthcare system implementation for COVID-19 operations, it is observed that a large area can be covered for sanitization, thermal image collection, and patient identification within a short period (2 KMs within 10 min approx.) through aerial route. In the simulation, the same statistics are observed with an addition of collision-resistant strategies working successfully for indoor and outdoor healthcare operations. Further, open challenges are identified and promising research directions are highlighted