A molecular approach to reveal the genetic identity of parrot mussel and other sympatric mussel species distributed along the Kerala coast

Two commercially important mussel species are recorded from the Indian coast: green mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) and brown mussel P. indica (Kuriakose and Nair, 1976). Apart from this, a third type referred to as parrot mussel, which has shell shape of brown mussel, but with green shell colouration and suspected to be the hybrid of the above two species has also been reported from Kollam coast of Kerala, where both the species co-occur. In the present work, genetic identity of parrot and sympatric mussel species was determined using protein and genomic DNA markers. Protein markers viz. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and allozymes and the genomic DNA marker Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used for determining genetic identity of the three mussel groups. The green and brown mussels could be clearly differentiated using SDS PAGE. The parrot mussel protein pattern was similar to that of brown mussel, except for an additional band of molecular weight 48.7 Kda which is unique to brown mussel. Genus specific protein bands for Perna viz. 66 Kda, 43 Kda and 14.3 Kda, were detected in this study. Allozyme electrophoresis also followed a similar pattern. Of the 10 allozyme loci studied, seven revealed speciesspecific diagnostic differences between P.viridis and P.indica. They were AAT-1* (Aspartate Amino Transferase-1*), AAT-2*, ME (Malic Enzyme)*, PGM-2*(Phospo Gluco Mutase-2*), EST-1* (Esterase- 1*), EST-2*, IcDH* (Isocitrate Dehydrogenase)*. Parrot mussel shared all the alleles of brown mussel, and no hybrid pattern was observed. Species-specific alleles clearly differentiated green mussel from both brown and parrot mussel. The genetic distance of green mussel from brown mussel, estimated from allozyme data was 1.1145 and with parrot mussel it was 1.105. The genetic distance between parrot mussel and brown mussel was negligibly low (0.0005). Using allozyme and RAPD data, the Nei’s Unbiased Measures of genetic distance were calculated and the dendograms prepared based on these values clearly depicted the separation of parrot mussel from green mussel as well as the close resemblance of parrot mussel with brown mussel. The higher gene flow (1.1539) determined using RAPD marker also hints that brown and parrot mussel may be acting as single interbreeding population. Hence this study using molecular tools to test the genetic identity of parrot mussel has helped to conclude that parrot mussel is only a morphotype of brown mussel and not a true hybrid of the two

Association of Intronic Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) of CALM 1 gene with Osteoarthritis of the Knee in Indian Population: A Case-control Study

Osteoarthritis knee is one of the most prevalent disorders in the Indian subcontinent. The wide prevalence and varying features makes it a disease of disguise. Multiple etiological factors have been described. The most recent is genetic contribution in the causation of the disease. This case control study was conducted in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, CSM Medical University, Lucknow in collaboration with IIT, Kanpur. 120 cases and 120 controls were enrolled. Clinico-radiological features were noted and symptomatic clinical scoring was done. Genetic polymorphism in relation to intronic region of CALM 1 gene was studied by DNA extraction, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Statistical analysis was done using Stata software. There was no significant difference between age, sex and BMI among cases and controls (p value > .05). ESR (p value =0.0000), fasting blood sugar (p value= 0.0004) and serum uric acid (p value=0.0001) were significantly different among cases and controls. SNP was found in significantly higher number in cases than controls (p value = .0022). Heterozygosity was found only in 5 cases. Logistic regression has also proved significant association of occurrence of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) with disease. CALM-1 gene intronic SNP (rs3213718) is present in Indian population. Occurrence of this SNP is significantly affecting the disease

Macro Flora & Fauna of the Gulf of Mannar a checklist

The Gulf of Mannar (GoM) located along the south eastern tip of India falls in the Indo-Pacific realm and is one of the richest regions in the world from a marine biodiversity perspective. The region has a distinctive socio-economic and cultural profile shaped by its geography. It has an ancient maritime history and was famous for the production of pearls, an important item in trade with the Roman Empire as early as the first century AD. Rameshwaram along the GoM with its links to the legend Ramayana is an important pilgrim centre. The region has been and continues to be famous for its production of Indian sacred chanks. It has unique ecosystems mainly consisting of coral reefs, sea grass beds, salt marshes and mangroves which constitute important habitats for many species of commercially important finfishes and shellfishes. The GoM was established as a Biosphere Reserve (the first marine biosphere reserve in south and south east Asia) by 1989 by the Indian Government and the state of Tamil Nadu. A biosphere reserve is an area that is indented to secure the fundamental diversity of life in a region while continuing to advocate in economic growth. The overall objective of this Marine Biosphere Reserve is to conserve the Gulf of Mannar's globally significant assemblage of coastal and marine biodiversity and to integrate biodiversity conservation into coastal zone management plans. Thus, the GoM in addition to being a national priority also assumes global significance

Release of GLP-1 and PYY in response to the activation of G protein-coupled bile acid receptor TGR5 is mediated by Epac/PLC-ε pathway and modulated by endogenous H2S

Activation of plasma membrane TGR5 receptors in enteroendocrine cells by bile acids is known to regulate gastrointestinal secretion and motility and glucose homeostasis. The endocrine functions of the gut are modulated by microenvironment of the distal gut predominantly by sulfur-containing bacteria of the microbiota that produce H2S. However, the mechanisms involved in the release of peptide hormones, GLP-1 and PYY in response to TGR5 activation by bile acids and the effect of H2S on bile acid-induced release of GLP-1 and PYY are unclear. In the present study, we have identified the signaling pathways activated by the bile acid receptor TGR5 to mediate GLP-1 and PYY release and the mechanism of inhibition of their release by H2S in enteroendocrine cells. The TGR5 ligand oleanolic acid (OA) stimulated Gs and cAMP formation, and caused GLP-1 and PYY release. OA-induced cAMP formation and peptide release were blocked by TGR5 siRNA. OA also caused an increase in PI hydrolysis and intracellular Ca2+. Increase in PI hydrolysis was abolished in cells transfected with PLC-ε siRNA. 8-pCPT-2’-O-Me-cAMP, a selective activator of Epac, stimulated PI hydrolysis, and GLP-1 and PYY release. L-Cysteine, which activates endogenous H2S producing enzymes cystathionine--lyase and cystathionine--synthase, and NaHS and GYY4137, which generate H2S, inhibited PI hydrolysis and GLP-1 and PYY release in response to OA or 8-pCPT-2’-O-Me-cAMP. Propargylglycine, an inhibitor of CSE, reversed the effect of L-cysteine on PI hydrolysis and GLP-1 and PYY release. We conclude: i) activation of Gs-coupled TGR5 receptors causes stimulation of PI hydrolysis, and release of GLP-1 and PYY via a PKA-independent, cAMP-dependent mechanism involving Epac/PLC-/Ca2+ pathway, and ii) H2S has potent inhibitory effects on GLP-1 and PYY release in response to TGR5 activation, and the mechanism involves inhibition of PLC-/Ca2+ pathway

Surgical management of chronic fourth degree perineal tear: a single center experience

Background: The aim of this article is to present the ridge about the recognition, preoperative management, surgical technique and long term follow up of patients with chronic fourth degree perineal tear.Methods: Authors conducted a prospective study in the department of obstetrics and gynecology in SDM hospital of medical sciences from 2008 January to 2016 December. Data on age, parity, incontinence to flatus, solid or liquids stools, duration of symptoms, history of previous repair, duration of repair, post-operative stay, complications and recovery were collected and analyzed. A total of thirty cases of chronic perineal tear were studied.Results: A total of 30 patients underwent CPT repair. Average duration of surgery was 90 minutes. 27 out of 30 patients were discharged on post-operative day 10. Three patients were non-compliant to treatment. Of the total 30 patients, two patients were lost for follow up. Overall success rate was 93% including patients who underwent re-surgery for failed repair.Conclusions: The significant finding of the present study was that a secondary repair of an anal sphincter injury was not associated with an unfavorable subjective outcome in relation to symptoms of anal incontinence. A good insight of perineal and anal sphincter anatomy and adherence to the sound principles is essential. The success rate in this study is 93.3% highlighting that a diligently performed operation by a surgeon of adequate expertise likely results in satisfactory outcome

Mitochondrial ATPase 6/8 genes to infer the population genetic structure of silver pomfret fish Pampus argenteus along the Indian waters

Silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus is an economically important seafood species. The fishery resource of pomfret in Indian waters shows a dwindling catch since the last few years and the pomfrets caught were mostly undersized which calls for immediate attempts for management of resources. An accurate definition of population structure is important for management of this species. The genetic stock structure of P. argenteus distributed along Indian coast was identified using analysis of 842 bp of complete ATPase 6/8 genes of mitochondrial DNA. Altogether, 83 silver pomfret (P. argenteus) collected from 4 locations along Indian coast (Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) were sequenced. Twenty four haplotypes were identified among 83 individuals with haplotype diversity (0.87) and nucleotide diversity (0.0025). The significant pair-wise FST and AMOVA values, between samples from West Bengal (east coast) and other locations along the west coast (Gujarat and Kerala) indicated the occurrence of distinct population structure in silver pomfret along the coast

FPGA-Based Portable Ultrasound Scanning System with Automatic Kidney Detection

Bedsides diagnosis using portable ultrasound scanning (PUS) offering comfortable diagnosis with various clinical advantages, in general, ultrasound scanners suffer from a poor signal-to-noise ratio, and physicians who operate the device at point-of-care may not be adequately trained to perform high level diagnosis. Such scenarios can be eradicated by incorporating ambient intelligence in PUS. In this paper, we propose an architecture for a PUS system, whose abilities include automated kidney detection in real time. Automated kidney detection is performed by training the Viola–Jones algorithm with a good set of kidney data consisting of diversified shapes and sizes. It is observed that the kidney detection algorithm delivers very good performance in terms of detection accuracy. The proposed PUS with kidney detection algorithm is implemented on a single Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, integrated with a Raspberry Pi ARM processor running at 900 MHz

The Murchison Widefield Array: Design Overview

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a dipole-based aperture array synthesis telescope designed to operate in the 80-300 MHz frequency range. It is capable of a wide range of science investigations, but is initially focused on three key science projects. These are detection and characterization of 3-dimensional brightness temperature fluctuations in the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) at redshifts from 6 to 10, solar imaging and remote sensing of the inner heliosphere via propagation effects on signals from distant background sources,and high-sensitivity exploration of the variable radio sky. The array design features 8192 dual-polarization broad-band active dipoles, arranged into 512 tiles comprising 16 dipoles each. The tiles are quasi-randomly distributed over an aperture 1.5km in diameter, with a small number of outliers extending to 3km. All tile-tile baselines are correlated in custom FPGA-based hardware, yielding a Nyquist-sampled instantaneous monochromatic uv coverage and unprecedented point spread function (PSF) quality. The correlated data are calibrated in real time using novel position-dependent self-calibration algorithms. The array is located in the Murchison region of outback Western Australia. This region is characterized by extremely low population density and a superbly radio-quiet environment,allowing full exploitation of the instrumental capabilities.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the IEE

Hibiscus Plant Leaf Disease Detection using Modified Sigmoid Function in Logistic Regression

Hibiscus plants are popular improvements known for their vibrant blooms and lush foliage. However, like all plants, they are disposed to various diseases that can poorly affect their health and aesthetics. As tropical plants, hibiscus plants need full sun to limited shade to thrive. Too much direct sunlight can result in leaf sunburn, causing little white spots to appear on the foliage. Early detection of these diseases is critical for timely participation and active management. In recent years, progressions in image processing and machine learning have offered promising solutions for mechanized disease detection in plants. This study proposes a novel approach for the automated detection of hibiscus plant leaf diseases using machine learning techniques. Digital images of hibiscus leaves are developed using a high-resolution camera or smartphone camera. Early detection and classification of diseases in hibiscus plants are dangerous for effective plant management and disease control. To evaluate the performance of proposed method, a dataset of labelled hibiscus leaf images containing different disease types. The extracted features are used to train a machine learning model to classify the images into healthy or diseased categories. For identification and classification of disease type, the existing method is SVM Classifier with “Modified RBF kernel” and the proposed method is “Logistic Regression with Modified Hyperbolic Tangent Function”. The method's efficiency can be assessed by employing metrics such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score. Future research directions include further optimization of the classification model and integration of additional image processing techniques aimed at improved performance in real-world applications

HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF CAESALPENIA BONDUC AGAINST CCL4 INDUCED CHRONIC HEPATOTOXICITY

Objective: The leaves of Caesalpinia bonduc (CB) have been used against various disorders in folk medicine including the liver disorders. Earlier, we have shown the hepatoprotective effect of CB in acute hepatotoxicity model. The present study was designed to evaluate the anti-hepatotoxic and anti-fibrotic effect of the aqueous leaf extract of CB on CCl4 (carbon tetrachloride) induced chronic hepatotoxicity/fibrosis in Wistar rats.Methods: Animals were divided into three groups namely; preventive, curative and prophylactic, which was further subdivided into four groups each: Group I–untreated control, group II-CCl4 control, group III-CB+CCl4 and group IV–silymarin+CCl4. The aqueous extract of CB/silymarin was administered orally once, daily for eight weeks in the curative group and for four weeks in preventive and prophylactic groups respectively. The chronic liver damage/fibrosis was induced by intraperitoneal injection of CCl4 twice a week, for four weeks in preventive and prophylactic groups and for eight weeks in the curative group. Blood samples were collected for assaying serum biochemical parameters, and the livers were excised and processed for histology.Results: The data showed that supplementation of aqueous leaf extract of CB along with CCl4 significantly reduced the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), total bilirubin(TB) and prothrombin time(PT) thus further restoring the total protein(TP) and albumin(ALB) in preventive, curative and prophylactic groups when compared to CCl4 control. Significant improvement in the microscopic structure of the liver further confirmed the hepatoprotective effect of aqueous extract of CB over the liver injury and fibrosis induced by CCl4 in rats.Conclusion: The study, therefore, suggests that aqueous extract of CB might provide a novel and alternative approach for treating the chronic hepatotoxicity/liver fibrosis.Keywords: Caesalpenia bonduc, Liver, Chronic, CCl4, Fibrosis, Silymarin, Hepato-protectio