July 2013

Background: The hospital nurse workforce is experiencing greater workloads resulting in shorter hospital stays, rising average patient acuity, fewer support resources, and a national nurse shortage. Higher nurse workloads are associated with burnout and job dissatisfaction. Patients have the right to expect quality of care. Patient satisfaction with nursing care is considered an important factor in explaining patients' perceptions of service quality. In pediatric settings, nurses have unique caring roles because of the vulnerable and intensive nature of their pediatric patients and the special bonds that can form especially when caring for patients and their mothers lasts for long periods of time. Aim: examines the relationship between nurses’ burnout and mothers' satisfaction with pediatric nursing care. Design: descriptive correlation design. Subjects: Convenient sample of 60 mothers and 55 nurses were involved in this study. The study was conducted at Pediatric Intensive Care unit (P.I.C.U). at Tanta University Hospital. Tools: Two tools were used in this study. An Interviewing Patient's Satisfaction Questionnaire (IPSQ) that was used to measure the patients' satisfaction regarding nursing care. The second tool was Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results: There was low level of nurses' personal accomplishment and high level of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion, mothers' dissatisfaction was also, found. There was statistical significant negative correlation between nurses' personal accomplishment (burnout) and mothers' satisfaction regarding needs and expectations. Reduced personal accomplishment, depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and inappropriate work condition are the factors that lead to nurses’ burnout. Patient dissatisfaction results from nurses' communication, meeting children's need and expectations with highest percent in nurses' skill and competences. Recommendation: Developing an educational program for pediatric nurses to improve their communication skills.

During routine cadaver dissection of dorsal aspect of hand of 54 and 60 years of male, multiple tendons of Extensor Pollicis Brevis (EPB) were found on right and left side respectively. On the other side EPB maintained the normal anatomy. Variations in muscles of thumb have always attracted hand surgeons as they can be used for tendon transfer. Surgery and physiotherapy point of view multiple tendons of EPB are important. The clinical significance and embryological basis of multiple tendons of EPB is discussed.

Untreatable bacterial infections become treatable due to the discovery of antibiotics in the previous century but their inappropriate and irrational uses ultimately led to emergence of resistant microbial population. Genes responsible for conferring resistance are transferred horizontally via conjugation; transduction or transformation. Tetracyclines and beta lactams represent 50% each of the total antibiotics used in feeds and global antibiotic consumption respectively. Due to development of antibiotic resistance there may be failure of the resistant bacteria to respond to the prescribed treatment; risk of infectious diseases becoming uncontrollable; financial burden; advanced therapeutic approaches may get jeopardized and ultimately resistant organisms may spread to distant countries and continents. Both intrinsic and acquired resistance mechanisms are involved in bacterial antibiotic resistance. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE) are among the most striking antibiotic resistant microbes in the recent years. Factors driving antibiotic resistance include: inadequate national commitment; improper surveillance; irrational use of drugs; poor disease prevention and insufficient diagnostics and therapeutics etc. Limiting infectious diseases; judicious uses of antibiotics; precise selection and completing the full course of antibiotics; and regular surveillance, monitoring and continuous vigilance are the steps to limit antibiotic resistance. The most common antibiotic-resistant organisms sourced from animals are some strains of E. coli; Salmonella etc., which can also infect humans. Disc diffusion method and Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods; gas chromatography (GC); High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV mass spectrometry (MS) and nano quantity analyte detectors; microfluidic methods and electrochemical methods; European Union four-plate test (EU4pt); Frontier Post Test (FPT) are used to detect antibiotic residues. Use of penicillin or sulphonamides has raised public health and industrial issues. Prevention and control measures require involvement of various governmental agencies for accurate testing and screening; surveillance and monitoring. Along with this alternative therapeutic approaches viz. bacteriophages; virophage and mycophage; avian egg yolk antibody; cytokines and herbal; panchgavya and vaccine therapy; and diagnostics are the need of hours. The present review discusses all these aspects of antibiotic resistance and their solutions ultimately for social benefit with particular reference to emerging antibiotic resistance in animals and humans, its challenges, detection, antibiotic residues, prevention and control measures along with current and future scenario at International level, which would be helpful for formulating strategies for safeguarding health of animals as well as humans.

Basal ganglia are group of subcortical nuclei which are components of modular circuits involving cerebral cortex, thalamus and brain stem related with cortical functions. Basal ganglia includes four to five distinct loop which is responsible for parallel processing of information and grouped into two distinct direct and indirect pathways. Thus, this dual system provides a motor centre exhibiting both excitatory and inhibitory effect. These circuits are involved in movement disorders categorized as Hyperkinetic and Hypokinetic movement disorder. In recent year, with the upcoming studies it has been clear that functions of basal ganglia not only focuses motor disturbances but also involves cognitive and emotional functions as well.

Several studies show a high prevalence of somatoform disorders in general population. Patients with somatoform disorders have severe functional impairments and poor QOL resulting in higher health care utilization and significant suffering from illness related symptoms. A cross sectional study was undertaken on a purposive consecutive sample of 100 subjects with diagnosis of somatoform disorder to assess the Quality of Life and health care utilization. Tools used were WHO Quality of Life Bref tool and a structured data sheet. Quality of life was found to be low in all physical, psychological, social relationship and environment domains in comparison with population norms. Low QOL was found to be associated with gender, marital status, education status, occupation status, annual family income and duration of illness. Health care utilization was found to be high, with about 58% of subjects making nearly 40 visits to health practitioners before seeking treatment from study setting. Nearly about 46% of subjects reported spending about Rs. 30,000 each for their treatment outside study setting. The findings suggest that subjects with somatoform disorder made higher health care utilization and reported low QOL which was found to be associated with certain socio demographic factors.

Cancer is considered as one of the leading cause of death worldwide, especially in the economically developed countries. Over 12.7 million cancer cases with the death tolls reaching up to 7.6 million were in 2008 throughout globe. The situation is no any different in a country like India where death toll per year reaches upto 5.8 lakhs out of the 8.5 lakhs diagnosed clinical cases. Conventional therapies based on surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunoadjuvant therapy, cryotherapy, apoptin therapy and nanoparticles (to facilitate better drug delivery) are widely used but are having side effects, resulting in fatal outcome. Under such circumstances, herbal therapy forms an integral part of the alternative approach as they are cheaper and are without having any toxic effect. More than 50% of all modern drugs in clinical use are herbal products, many of them having the ability to control cancer and importantly, over 60% of cancer patients use them. Plants are used against various types of tumors/cancers such as sarcoma, lymphoma, carcinoma and leukemia. Natural non-steroidal anti-inflammatory substances and their roles to prevent cancer need to be explored. Broadly, the anticancer mechanisms of herbs have been divided into two distinct categories viz. direct cytotoxicity and immunomodulation. Several herbs add to the versatility of cancer management by boosting up the immune system and thereby, preparing the body to defend against future or existing cancer and include Morinda citrifolia, Catharanthus roseus, Taxus brevifolia, Camptotheca acuminate, Podophyllum species, Tinospora cordofolia, Glycyrrhiza glabra etc. having promising anticancer properties. India is an abode of several botanical plants effective against tumours of brain and uterus; abdomen and glandular organs; throat and breast cancer. Thus, it is anticipated that plants can provide potential bioactive compounds for the development of new therapies to combat cancer. But their efficacy in humans and animals need to be evaluated. Thus, rigorous safety and quality evaluation, comparative clinical studies using modern techniques, proper standardization methods, and good manufacturing practices are extremely important. Isolation and purification of biologically active components from the bulk extracts need to be carried out side by side to understand the basic mechanisms of the drug action. All these form the topic of discussion of this review in order to find out solution to this grave disease of mankind and animals without causing much stress and side effects.

Nickel nanoparticles around 12nm were prepared by chemical reduction of Nickel Chloride dissolved in Ethylene glycol, in which hydrazine act as a reducing agent and NaOH as stabilizer. The powder XRD study confirms that the average size of the particle is 12nm.The Ni particles show the characteristic of super paramagnet with saturation magnetization (Ms) and the remanent magnetization (Mr) at 5K is 2.55 emu/g and 1.11 emu/g, respectively.

In this paper, we present many new fourth -order optimal families of Ostrowski's method for computing zeros of system of nonlinear equations numerically. In this paper, we extending the idea of the proposed families of Ostrowski's method to system of nonlinear equations .It is proved that the above said families have fourth order of convergence. Several numerical examples are also given to illustrate the efficiency and the performance of the presented families.

This paper evaluates the shear strength of masonry wall panels reinforced with FRP composite systems under out-of-plane loading conditions. An analytical model and experimental study were developed to predict the out-of-plane shear strength of the FRP reinforced masonry walls. The experimental study was performed on eighteen 1000×600×200 mm walls reinforced with FRP on one side while the model is based on the theories of elasticity and fracture mechanics. The presented study accounts for the shear contribution of the masonry units and the fiber overlays. The experimental program presented in this paper is used for validation of the analytical model. A parametric study is performed to evaluate the shear strength of the walls for various geometric properties of the fiber reinforcement. It was found that the shear strength of the retrofitted system is a function of the thickness of the FRP system used. As a result of this investigation, guidelines for selecting the thickness of the FRP retrofitting systems can be determined for any required shear strength.

In this paper, a new method is proposed to find the optimum solution of fuzzy networking problem. The fuzzy networking problem has been transformed into crisp network problem and it is solved by using forward and backward calculation. In this problem, denotes the duration from activity i to activity j. The distance is taken as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, which are ranked by using ranking method. The proposed method is easy to understand and to apply for finding the fuzzy critical path of fuzzy networking problem. Numerical example shows that the fuzzy ranking method gives an effective result of fuzzy networking problem.

This paper investigates how individual dimensions of Arik airline service quality determines airline image and passengers’ loyalty to the airline. To investigate the effects of individual dimensions of airline service quality, data was collected from a total of 600 respondents by the administration of a well structured questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL scale to determine their level of satisfaction on the attributes of airline service quality. Factor analysis was carried out on the data collect and three major service quality dimensions were factored out as variables to be used. Pearson correlation coefficient was determine to ascertain the significant relationship between the service quality dimensions and the airline image. Also a relationship was furher determined between the airline image and the passengers loyalty to the airline. Result from the analysis proved that there existed a strong statististically significant relationship between the service quality variables and the airline image, indicating that the quality the service the airline offers has a positive relationship with the airline image and the airline image also has a positive relationship with the passengers repeat patronage. Airline managers were thus advised to improve on the quality of service rendered to passengers since the study showed that one of the determinants of the airline image and the airline image also determines the passengers choice of repeat patronage.

In the present shoe shine enterprises scenario, service quality is a vital competitive advantage to maintain customer support and build great base for the enterprise. However, customer loyalty is little known and these categories of enterprise continue to be marginalized. This study examined the influence of service quality on customer loyalty in the shoe shine enterprises in Eldoret town Kenya. The specific objective of this study was to assess the effect of tangible of a service on customer loyalty. The study was based on the SERVQUAL model. The research design was a survey. A selection of 23 shoe shine enterprises guided the study to arrive at a sample size of 230 respondents selected randomly. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data. The main findings of this study indicated that, tangible of a service had a significant relationship with customer loyalty. Equally, customers considered tangible of a service as a critical indicator of their perception of service quality. This study concludes that service quality had a higher impact on loyalty in the shoe shine enterprises in Eldoret town Kenya. Arising from the conclusion of this study, it is recommended that county governments provide infrastructure for shoe shine enterprises to design modern shoe shine enterprises resulting to increased profitability in the long run as a result of repeat purchase.

This study assessed the influence of strategic factors on students’ choice of Kabarak University. The study considered the following specific objectives; to determine the enrolment trends at Kabarak University, to determine the extent to which financial factors influence the students’ choice of Kabarak University, to determine the extent to which marketing factors influence the students’ choice of Kabarak University. It adopted Census method to select the six (6) members of management, while systematic random sampling technique was used to select two hundred and eighty (280) students to whom questionnaires were administered. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis was used to analyse the data. The questionnare was the main instrument used for data collection. The study found out those financial factors such as, flexible fees payment policy influenced students’ choice to the university more than more than the martketing factors such as product development. The paper recommends that to improve enrolment in the University, there is need to recognize the fact that Kabarak university enrolment is declining and thus the University should design, implement and evaluate all inclusive change strategies. Secondly, the University should put more emphasis on the finacial factor that mostly influenced students to the University. Fee payment policy should be made very flexible to attract more students from needy and poor families.

Aquaculture is one of the fast growing and intensively spread in coastal regions especially in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. A large extent of coastal regions and fertile lands which are having rich resource potentials of flora and fauna are converted into fish ponds. This sector provides huge employment directly and indirectly especially in the coastal regions. The un-presidential and indiscriminate growth of aquaculture brings structural changes in the land use patterns especially in the coastal regions. As a result several complex problems arised in various spheres and create adverse effects on physical, environmental and socio economic fronts. Keeping the above aspects under consideration, an attempt is made to analyze the extent of the growth of aquaculture activity as well as determine land use changes reported over the period. Further the study assessed the impact of aquaculture and their adverse effects arised in physical environmental and socio economic aspects. Besides this suitable remedial measures are suggested for the overall improvement of the situation. The study has chosen coastal regions of West Godavari District as the study area because the higher extent of aquaculture activity is clustered in these regions and also reported rapid land use changes and environment and economy due to aqua culture at grass roots levels.

Employee Engagement is a buzzword and a challenge for the human resource department of almost all the organizations. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about his or her work, thus willing to invest his/her talent for the fullfillment of organisations goal. It is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. In short, it is a positive attitude and a strong emotional bond held by the employees towards the organization and its values which futher develops into organisation citizenship behaviour. It is due to this that measuring the engagement levels of the employees has become important for the organizations. With the above backdrop this paper focuses on conceptualising employee engagement with drivers of employee engagement and further highlights the relative importance of these drivers in terms of employee engagement.

The main objective of this paper is to use the powerful Geographic information system and remote sensing to generate a geometric network for street in Khartoum center, for the purpose of management of the street network with in transportation system of the city. The data used in this paper was satellite image from Google earth and digital map from Ministry of Infrastructure, Department of Roads and Bridges. The present research comes to the conclusions that the Powerful geometric network has been designed and manipulated for the study area, within the GIS environmental and the geo-database with dataset and feature classes have been created to represent the reality of the geographic features in the study area. The application of the street geometric network has been subjected to different cases to evaluate their potentiality for meeting the essential requirements. The model shows great flexibility and powerful management facilities in production solutions for the real world problems concerning the traffic flow direction and motion distribution, such as the best route and the closest facility. The developed model is dynamic, so it could be modified, updated and subjected to further query processes among the study area.

Objective:- Foramen ovale is located in the greater wing of sphenoid bone. It has great clinical significance in percutaneous trigeminal rhizotomy for neuralgia. This study presents variations in dimensions and shape of foramen ovale. Methods:- 30 dry human skulls were studied in the department of anatomy, Yenepoya medical college, mangalore. Length and width of foramen ovale was measured. Results:- out of 60 sides, mean length and width of foramen ovale was 7.85±1.32 and 3.95±1.27 on right side and 7.3±1.27 and 4.1±1.28 on left side. Majority of foramen studied were oval in shape.5 of 30 skulls showed the presence of foramen of Vesalius. One of the foramen showed the presence of bony bridging across the foramen. Conclusion:- This study is of great surgical significance in case of trigeminal neuralgia, fine needle aspiration technique in perineural spread of tumour and also in neurovascular compression.

Since the origin of earth temperature has played a significant role in the beginning of life on this planet. Continuous increase in the temperature of the earth is referred to as global warming that may have long term effect. Increased use of fossil fuels; use of natural gas and coal; population explosion; industrial wastes and agricultural fertilizers along with anthropogenic activities contribute to global warming. Increased level of Carbon dioxide (CO2) also has a negative impact on the marine ecosystem. The outcomes of global warming include rise in sea levels and expansion of tropical and sub-tropical deserts. Importantly, the risk of contracting diseases both in human and animals increases. Increase in global temperature primarily by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, has lead to the emergence of threat of diseases in human and animals particularly those of vector borne diseases like Blue tongue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, Dengue, Hanta virus etc. Species extinctions due to change in habitats and transport of livestock facilitates movements of viruses and arthropods (especially ticks) from one place to another. Variation of temperature and humidity have lead to increased growth of bushy plants, thereby increasing rodent population thus causing an increased risk of contracting various rodent borne infections (viz. Leptospirosis; Plague etc.). El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signal on vector-borne diseases due to changes in temperature have direct effects (in form of flood, famine, drought and extreme weather conditions of heat and cold) and indirect effects (in terms of changes in transmission and outbreaks of infectious diseases, especially of the diseases transmitted by vectors and vehicles) on human health. To mitigate the effect of global climatic change on infectious disease incidences and geographic spread, combined efforts consisting of mitigation to reduce further emissions of greenhouse gas; adaptation of intervention measures to reduce the damage caused by warming and geo-engineering (recycling) to reverse global warming must be properly implemented. In addition, vector control, improved reporting of animal diseases affected by climate change, strengthening of surveillance and disease investigation capacities in human and animal population, association and coordination of Medical and Veterinary institutions with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as international professional bodies and animal welfare organizations are all crucial to prevent and control emerging infectious diseases linked to global warming. Researchers, scientists, professional, environmentalist, administration, government and persons must work together to overcome this threat. The present paper describes the problem of global warming in general, its causes and multi-dimensional impacts, effect on animal productivity, interaction between climate change, pathogen and vectors, and presents a special focus on important emerging pathogens / infectious diseases of animals and humans being flaring up due to fluctuating environmental conditions, appropriate prevention and control measures to be followed to combat global warming in the current scenario and future perspectives.

The present study was designed to investigate and compare the sensitivity of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), fluorescent antibody test (FAT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the detection of bovine rotavirus during neonatal calf diarrhea. A total of 112 faecal samples of diarrhoeic calves below three months were collected from organized dairy farms of Namakkal (Tamil Nadu) and Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), India. Out of these, 27 faecal samples (24.10%) were found positive for rotavirus by ELISA and TEM. The percent positivity ranged from 18.86 % to 55.55% in different organized farms. The rotavirus samples when subjected to isolation in MDBK cells resulted in successful isolation of bovine group A rotavirus in twenty samples. The characteristic cytopathic effects (CPE) were observed from second passage onwards and comprised of clumping and rounding of infected cells, detachment of monolayer, intracytoplasmic eosinophilic inclusions, syncytia and leaving empty vacuole space in MDBK cell line. Rotavirus antigen in cell culture adapted virus was detected by direct fluorescent antibody test (dFAT). The sensitivity and specificity of ELISA and TEM were 100% and 92.32% respectively, considering virus isolation followed by dFAT as standard test. Study indicates that ELISA is most suitable and sufficient test for routine diagnosis of bovine rotaviral as compared to laborious TEM analysis for diarrheic samples; however, isolation of the virus in cell culture remains indispensable for the identification of doubtful specimens. To our knowledge, this is the first report from India employing TEM, ELISA and cell culture based FAT for detection and comparison of these tests for bovine rotavirus group A from diarrhoeic calves.

Brucellosis is a notable disease, most widespread bacterial zoonoses that still of veterinarian, public health and economic concern in many developing countries including India. Early detection and segregation of infected animals are important in order to control the disease. The present study was done with the objective of isolation and identification of B. melitensis from naturally infected sheep in Sharanpur District, UP (India) using bacteriological and the classical serological techniques; RBPT, STAT, Modified-STAT and i-ELISA. Out of 145 ovine serum samples collected, 48(33.1%) were found to be positive by RBPT taken as a primary screening test. From 48 positive serum samples, 39(81.25%) were found to be positive by STAT, 37(77.08%) by Modified-STAT and 35(72.92%) by i-ELISA. Thus, i-ELISA showed 4 (8.33%) less positive, reduced doubtful by 3 (6.25%) and showed 7 (14.58%) more negative as compared to STAT and 2 (4.16%) less positive, reduced doubtful by 1 (2.08%) and showed 3 (6.25%) more negative to modified-STAT. On the basis of colony morphology, staining characters, phenotypic and biochemical characterizations, the organisms from clinically infected sheep knee joint fluid and aborted foetal samples were isolated and identified as B. melitensis. In addition, two isolates of B. abortus were also identified from liver sample of aborted bovine foetus.

An experiment was laid out under mist chamber at Horticultural Research Center, Chauras Campus, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand, India, during the month of February, 2011. Three different lengths of terminal stem cuttings (20, 35 and 50 cm) of Bougainvillea glabra cv. Torch Glory were planted in the root trainers after treatments of IBA solutions of 3000, 4000 and 5000 ppm concentrations by quick dip method. Rooting media was prepared by mixing equal amount of sandy soil and FYM. Among all the treatments, maximum number of sprouted cuttings (90.0%), number of sprouts per cuttings (30.22), number of primary roots (33.00), fresh and dry weight of roots were observed under C1L2 (35 cm long cuttings treated with 3000 ppm, concentration of IBA) treatments. The maximum length of sprout per cuttings (3.25 cm), height of plant (63.86 cm), and profuse secondary rooting were found under C1L3 (50 cm long cuttings treated with 3000 ppm concentration of IBA) while diameter of sprouts per cuttings (0.48 cm) was recorded under C3L2 (35 cm long cuttings treated with 5000 ppm concentration of IBA). The maximum number of leaves on new growth (7.48) was observed under C3L3 (50 cm long cuttings treated with 5000 ppm concentration of IBA) treatment. The length of longest root (9.90 cm) was recorded under C2L3 (50 cm long cutting treated with 4000 ppm IBA) treatment, while diameter of longest root (0.13) was recorded under C1L1 (20 cm long cuttings treated with 3000 ppm concentration of IBA). All the cuttings treated with IBA produce callus formation while all the rooted cuttings under the C1L3, C2L1, C2L2 and C2L3 (50, 20, 35 and 50 cm long cuttings treated with 3000, 4000, 4000 and 4000 ppm concentration of IBA, respectively) treatments produce secondary rooting.

The current project analyzes the requirement of iron for the growth, chlorophyll a content and productivity of three fresh water phytoplankton viz. Chlorococcum humicola, Chlorella ellipsoidea and Scenedesmus bijuga. The test organisms were treated with different concentrations of iron like 0.0075ppm, 0.015ppm, 0.03ppm, 0.06ppm and 0.12ppm supplied in the form of FeCl3. The culture devoid of iron was kept as control. Results obtained revealed the indispensable role of iron for the growth of these organisms as they showed decreased values for all the parameters in iron deficient medium. Optimum concentration of iron for the growth and productivity of Chlorococcum humicola was found to be in the range 0.0075ppm to 0.015ppm and it was 0.015ppm for Chlorella ellipsoidea and Scenedesmus bijuga. Iron scarcity exerted more retarding effect on the growth of Chlorella ellipsoidea. Chlorococcum humicola appeared as more susceptible to the toxic effect of higher concentrations of iron than other two test algae. The above observations suggest that algal species vary in their tolerance to iron.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the influence of dietary supplementation of probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus sp.) on growth performance, enzyme activity and water quality parameters of common carp. The Probiotic was isolated from the intestine of common carp. The feeding trail was conducted for 60 days, to determine the effect of dietary probiotic on the growth and health status of fish. The fish with a similar body weight (24±1 gm) were distributed randomly into five treatment groups, which fed a feed containing Lactobacillus sp. in four concentrations viz., 1.0 (T1), 1.5 (T2), 2.0 (T3) and 2.5 (T4) X 107 CFU g-1 feed. The control group (T5) was fed without Lactobacillus sp. for the same period. Blood samples were collected at the intervals of 15, 30, 45, 60 days. The digestive enzymes such as protease, amylase and lipase activity were analyzed. Water quality parameters such as Temperature, pH, Dissolve oxygen, Alkalinity, Hardness, and Ammonia were examined. The Lactobacillus sp treated fish (T3, 2.0 X 107 CFU g_1 feed) showed maximum percentage of growth performance and better enzyme activity than in other groups. The results suggest that Lactobacillus sp. Could be used effectively as a probiotics for the use in aquaculture.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are widespread in the environment and they have adverse effect on human beings. They are difficult to remove from environment by natural processes. In order to mitigate this problem, the efficiency of microorganisms has been evaluated for the degradation of poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The soil samples were collected from three different places viz., Kolli hills, PAHs contaminated soil and garden soil. Bacterial and fungal strains were isolated from the collected soil samples and the physical parameters of soil were analysed. The ligninolytic activity of the isolated microorganisms were estimated and identified. Fifteen bacterial and seven fungal strains were isolated. Of them, seven bacteria and two fungi showed maximum ligninolytic activity

Moringa oleifera root extract was screened to encounter the characteristic biochemical and histopathological alterations followed by subchronic exposure to beryllium. Female albino rats were administered beryllium nitrate at doses of 1mg/kg i.p. once a day for 35 consecutive days followed by treatment of different doses of Moringa oleifera (50,100,150 and 200 mg/kg p.o.) for 7 consecutive days. Administration of beryllium nitrate induced oxidative stress resulting in elevation of lipid peroxidation, reduction in reduced glutathione with decrease in the activities of superoxide-dismutase and catalase in liver and kidney. Beryllium nitrate significantly elevated leakage of serum alanine-aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate-aminotransferase (AST), urea, bilirubin and creatinine whereas hemoglobin and blood sugar were decreased. A significant fall was observed in activitities of alkaline phosphatase, adenosine triphosphatase in liver and kidney; glucose-6-phosphatase and glycogen in liver due to beryllium intoxication. Beryllium also disturbed the histoarchitecture of liver and kidney. The different doses of Moringa oleifera root extract reversed the alterations of all the variables more towards the control at biochemical as well as histopathological level. It was concluded that dose of 150 mg/kg of Moringa oleifera was found to be most effective in attenuating beryllium induced oxidative stress, biochemical and histopathological alterations

The present study was carried out from September 2011 to August 2012 to detect the prevalence of coccidian infection in lambs of age 1-6 months in different seasons in North Kashmir. A total of 180 samples (84 male and 96 female) were examined for the infection. During the study, it was found that a total of (53.33%) samples were infected with coccidian oocysts. The maximum prevalence was found during summer season (72.9%), followed by autumn (54.5%), (45.6%) in spring and (38%) in winter. Out of 96 examined female samples, (60.4%) were found to be positive and out of 84 male samples (45.2%) were found positive for the infection.

To evaluate the influences of nitrogen levels and weed density on growth indices of wheat a two years field experiment was conducted at Research Field of Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz-Iran in 2007-8 and 2008-9 cropping season. The results showed that increasing nitrogen application from 90 to 210 kg N ha-1 increased the negative interference effects of wild mustard and wild oat on Total Dry Matter (TDM), Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Crop Growth Rate (CGR). Inter specific competition of wild mustard and wild oat significantly decreased the plant height, TDM, LAI and CGR and maximum values were noted in zero density of wild mustard and wild oat. Among the nitrogen levels the highest TDM, LAI and CGR was observed in the application of 150 kg N ha-1.

A study of aquatic bacteria along with some physical parameters like temperature and pH was carried out during the month of November and December 2010, in Yusmarg area of Kashmir valley at four sites differing from each other markedly in terms of biotic and abiotic factors, to assess the density and diversity of bacterial flora. During the study the bacterial flora showed variation in relation to the physical parameters. The colony count was maximum at Site IV Reservoir outlet (300) followed by Site III Reservoir Intlet (135), Site I Dudhganga (95) and site II Tank Area (75). The total bacterial population was maximum at Site IV Reservoir outlet (1.8×10⁵ in Nov and 1.2×10⁵ in Dec.) and minimum at Site II Tank Area during both the months (4.5×10⁴ in Nov and 3.0×10⁴ in Dec.). Among the strains of isolated bacteria 28% were Gram positive (GP) and 72% were gram negative (GN). Most dominant of the isolated strains 60% were Cocci followed by 24% bacilli, 12% Diplococci (DC), and 4% Streptococci (SC). It was also found that 12% of strains were Gram Positive Cocci (GPC), 48% were Gram Negative Cocci (GNC), 8% were Gram Negative Bacilli (GNB), 16% were Gram Positive Bacilli (GPB), 12% were Gram Negative Diplococci (GND) and 4% were Gram Negative Streptococci (GNS).

The present study aims to diagnose the predominant types of Clostridium perfringens from the cases of diarrhoea in cattle from Tamil Nadu. A total of 16 rectal swabs were aseptically collected from same number of cattle and were processed for the isolation and identification of C. perfringens. The molecular typing of the bacteria was carried out by the polymerase chain reaction assay, which revealed the identification of 14(87.5%) C. perfringens isolates from diarrhoeic cattle. The ultrastructure studies of the bacterial isolates in SEM were observed to be in clusters of thick rods with variable in length and mostly occurred in pairs. Out of six toxin genes namely alpha toxin (cpa), beta toxin (cpb), epsilon toxin (etx), iota toxin (iA), enterotoxin (cpe) and beta2 toxin (cpb2) used for typing the isolates, only cpa of 324bp fragment were detected from all the 14 isolates. The PCR result suggested that isolates from the diarrhoeic cattle belonged to the C. perfringens genotype A, which is also the most frequently isolated genotype of C. perfringens in cattle. PCR has established a sensitive and reliable investigative tool for the rapid detection of C. perfringens.

Since the 1970’s, the emergence of a separate and distinct black feminist literary tradition has been instrumental in exploding western literary and critical concepts and practices and has heralded the beginning of a new era in the adoption of unconventional narrative techniques by African-American novelists like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor to name only a few. Significantly, these authors have been able to articulate through their innovative narratives the experience of the marginal groups of America, especially that of African-American* women, so long unheard and suppressed in the body of American Literature. Also, deriving from the oral heritage of folk tales, myths and lore, of slave narratives, spiritual songs and gospels, blues and jazz music (always a dominantly Negro* domain) and of a varied and complex black* experience in America, their narratives have captured the verve and vigor of the colloquial speech of real men and women while being evocative and lyrical in their ability to condense and represent the essence of African-American (marginal) experience in America. If “great narratives” or “grand narratives” like history, epic, romance, legend, allegory and even the novel in its traditional sense may be viewed in terms of dominant voices recording the stories of the powerful colonizing forces, the narratives negotiating spaces in history and articulating untold sagas of the oppressed are “little narratives” that tell the stories of the marginalized groups that have hitherto hovered at the periphery of social and political visibility and cognizance. Gloria Naylor, who won the American Book Award in 1983 for her first novel The Women of Brewster Place has represented in all her novels the diversity, richness, whimsicalities, and idiosyncrasies of the African-American experience. Here, an attempt has been made to analyze Gloria Naylor’s Bailey’s Café as a narrative that has represented the disordered urban experience of the Negroes in America, their disillusionment, frustration and pain and their struggle for survival and story of endurance. The paper has also tried to explore how structurally, stylistically and thematically, the narrative of the novel resembles blues and jazz music — music that has traditionally symbolized the essence of black culture and crystallized their emotions and trials and has been regarded as a metaphor for the African-American experience in America (Norton Anthology: 22).

The increased biomass level of bambara groundnut husk (BGH) in the environment through dumping as a refuge due to high consumption rate of bambara groundnut products has been an environmental concerned. The effect of mechanical properties of the recycled polyethylene (RPE) and recycled polyethylene with 20 percent virgin polyethylene (MPE) was investigated. The weight fractions of the BGH filler loading for this experiment were 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35 percent and processed for the reinforcement of RPE and MPE at 150MPa and 1600C in an injection moulding machine to examine the mechanical properties on the composites. The tensile strength and modulus, flexural strength and modulus, and hardness of the composites increases with increased filler weight fraction of the filler up to 25 percent in the composites and impact strength of the composites decreases with increased filler weight fraction. The increased tensile strength signified that BGH filler may be used for the reinforcement of RPE and MPE. There is significant improvement on the mechanical properties of the MPE composite compared with RPE composite at p < 0.01 and p < 0.05.

The present study is aimed to analyse the physic-chemical parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) salinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and chloride and sulphate were analysed during November 2012 to March, 2013. The temperature was high in March, 2013. pH was high in January,2013. The dissolved oxygen was high in November, 2012 and salinith was more in March, 2013. TDS was more in March and BOD and COD was high in January, 2013. Chloride and sulpahate was high in February, 2013.

The study was conducted in the Dal lake, which is situated on the northeast of Srinagar at latitude 340,07/ N and longitude 740, 52/ E on the right bank of river Jhelum. Four water- sampling sites (Viz: Hazratbal, Nishat, Nehru park and Nigeen) were selected for study. The water samples were analyzed for pH, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, chlorine, hardness, total alkalinity, ammonium nitrogen, sulphate and phosphorus on fortnightly basis for six months. The results showed that the maximum value of pH was observed at Nehru Park (DD3) 10.66±0.21 mg/1 and the minimum 8.14±0.01 mg/1 at Telbal Nallah (DH4) respectively. The conductivity value, an indication of total nutrient concentration, was notably higher at various sites of Dal Lake. The maximum value of conductivity is 426.3±10.12µs/cm and the minimum 186.3±7.11µS/cm at Telbal Nalah (DH4) and near Heemal Hotel (DD2) respectively. The D.O. ranged between 10.31±0.01 mg/l at Centaur hotel (DD4) to 5.0±0.01 mg/1at Telbal nallah (DH4).The turbidity value was recorded to be maximum of 45.02±0.01 at Dhobighat (DH1) and minimum of 1.90±0.00 mg/1 at Central site (DH2). The higher values of C.O.D prevail over the entire lake water, particularly at DH4 of Telbal Nalah 84.33±1.9 mg/1 and the lowest value at DD3 of Nehru park (42.40±6.1 mg/1) respectively. The maximum value of chloride, hardness, total alkalinity, ammonium, nitrogen sulphate and phosphorus was observed at Hazratbal basin. This study has clearly demonstrated that the Hazratbal basin of Dal Lake is highly polluted in comparison to other sites owing to regular addition of urine and human waste dumped into the lake along with run off of chemical fertilizers from the waste drainage basin around it.

Normal and disease-specific genes can be identified by making use of the existing microarray and RNA (NGS) sequencing data. The study attempts to identify potential biomarkers for the mammalian testis. Available NGS analysis database and software were first compiled and compared. NGS data corresponding to normal human and mouse testes have been collected after careful selection. The read data were aligned using Top Hat tool and ‘Cufflinks’ & ‘Cuffcompare’ tools were then used to obtain the transcript-specific FPKM values. The processed data were compared across different reports, and a score has been assigned to identify the consistent transcripts. The final transcript list was then compared to the microarray data from MgEx-Tdb. The top-scoring transcripts have been identified as the potential biomarkers for the normal human testis. In addition, potential marker transcripts have also been identified for specific testis cell types in the mouse. These in turn could help in detecting any abnormality, and also assist in research towards male contraception. This study has identified four genes which are ACTB, SMC6, PCMT1, SON along with their transcripts as potential biomarkers for normal human and mouse testis. Only certain transcripts show higher expression in normal testis condition and hence genes-transcript pairs can be good biomarkers.

The effect of different dietary protein levels on growth and feed conversion ratio was studied in the Schizothorax plagiostomus. The fishes weighing 45-52g were reared in happas and fed on experimental diet. In this completely randomized designed experiment, five formulated diets of different dietary protein levels (25%, 30%, 35%, 40% & 45%) were tested. The fishes were fed by hand and fed at 5% of biomass. The results showed that dietary protein had significant effect on body weight, weight gain percent and specific growth rate. The body weight gain and specific growth rate of fishes fed with diet with dietary protein level of 35% was significantly higher (0.05) than that of 25%, 30%, 40% & 45%. The feed conversion ratio varied between 7.5 to 9.6 and was lowest in 35% dietary protein diet. Among the formulated diets evaluated in the present study, 35% dietary protein diet proved best considering the growth and feed conversion ratio of the fishes.

The precision of an estimate of the population mean or total, besides sample size depends on the variability among the units of the population. To increase the precision of the estimate, we could divide the population into number of groups (called strata) such that variability within the group is minimum and maximum between the groups. In this paper, we examine the role of stratification in sample surveys and illustrate through a numerical illustration as to how stratification reduces the sampling variance which is the main objectives of a good sampling technique.

In reptiles exhibiting temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), maternally derived yolk steroids may play a role in the sex determination. The present study explores the correlation, if any, existing between hatchling sex ratio and maternally derived yolk steroid hormone concentrations [17β-estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T)] in the lizard, Calotes versicolor, which exhibits a unique FMFM (Female-Male-Female-Male) pattern of temperature-dependent sex determination. Ten clutches of C. versicolor eggs were collected and incubated at two male-producing (MPTs) (25.5±0.5°C & 34±0.5°C), two female-producing temperatures (FPTs) (23.5±0.5°C & 31.5±0.5°C) and at pivotal temperature (28.5±0.5°C). The yolk material was collected from eggs at oviposition (stage 27) as well as at hatching (stage 42) and homogenized. Subsequent to extraction of steroids from yolk, the concentrations of E2 & T were measured by ELISA using specific antibodies for each hormone. Results reveal a noteworthy within season inter-clutch and negligible intraclutch variation in both the yolk steroid hormone (E2 &T) concentrations among the 10 clutches. At oviposition, the steroid profile reveals that the level of T was much higher than that of E2 in all the clutches examined. However, at hatching concentration of E2 was greater than that of T. Eggs incubated at low FPT (23.5±0.5°C) and low MPT (25.5±0.5°C) had low steroid hormone concentrations when compared to the eggs incubated at high FPT (31.5±0.5°C) and MPT (34±0.5°C). Intermediate levels of yolk steroids were observed in eggs incubated at pivotal temperature (28.5±0.5°C). Hence, it is emphasized that high temperature has stimulatory effect on yolk steroid levels in this species. Therefore, based on these findings we conclude that the sex ratios are rather temperature dependent than on the maternal allocation of steroids at oviposition

The present study aimed to explain the effect of biotic and abiotic elicitor derived from yeast extract and Salicylic acid on cell suspensions evolved from superior callus lines of G. sylvestre (Retz) R. Br. ex. Schult. Cell suspension cultures maintained in MS liquid medium were treated with 265 cells/ml and 530 cells/ml homogenate of the elicitor on the 14th day. Growth of G. sylvestre callus in terms of biomass revealed 5 fold enhancements when treated with 530 cells/ml. elicitor on fourteenth day in callus line-1. The type of callus line and concentration of the elicitor influence the biomass growth of G. sylvestre callus in suspension culture and gymnemic acid production was accomplish with the help of biotic and abiotic elicitor treatment. (as confirmed by HPTLC analysis)

Computers have become ubiquitous in our everyday activity in recent years and have been object of study for eventual adverse health effect. In this paper, variations of the induced magnetic fields with distance from liquid crystal display (LCD) computer monitors have been investigated. A total of 10 different LCD monitors of different models were used for this study. The magnetic fields were measured using a TriField Gauss meter at 5cm steps from the screen up to 40cm. The results showed that the induced magnetic fields decreased as distance from the screen increased. It was also found that magnetic fields from the LCDs for desktop computers are lower than laptops. The induced magnetic fields were generally found to be very low and below the hazardous threshold of the International occupational and general public recommended exposure limit. Thus, there is no conclusive evidence from the study that the use of LCD computer monitors could be associated with health hazard such as spontaneous abortion.

This paper proposes a new approach for the classification of the power system disturbances using Wavelet-Multi resolution Decomposition and multi-level Support Vector Machine (SVM).The proposed approach is carried out at different serial stages. First, the original signal is decomposed in to the different level using the wavelet multi-resolution analysis (MRA). This decomposed signal is used to find the energy distribution of the wave. Next, the energy feature is used as input vector for training the SVM classifier. The appropriate input feature is used for classify the PQ event using SVM classifier. Multi-Level SVM technique is used to classify Power disturbances. Hence, Power disturbances are detected and classified with higher efficiency.