Constraints in the adoption of Indigenous farming practices

Indigenous farming is a production system, based on renewal of ecological processes and strengthening of ecological functions of farm ecosystem to produce safe, healthy and sustainable food. Indigenous agriculture is being adopted by the farmers of Kolli Hills in centre Tamil Nadu for different reasons. However, a lot of constraints prevent the farmers in adopting indigenous farming practices, that include poor yield, poor marketing facilities, higher production cost and urbanizatio

MASCOT ON-BOARD COMPUTER BASED ON SPACEWIRE LINKS

The general concept of the “Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout” (MASCOT) is to provide a small landing system intended to be deployed from a supporting main spacecraft. It is specifically designed to be compatible with JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 (HY2, scheduled for launch in 2014) mission design and the environment given by the target asteroid 1999JU3. The design foresees an OBC for gathering, processing, compressing and storing of the scientific payload and the housekeeping data and to run system and subsystem tasks

WORK / LIFE BALANCE REFLECTIONS ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

The aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between employee satisfaction andwork/life balance. The construct used for this research consists of career opportunity, recognition,work tasks, payments, benefits, superior subordinate relationship, employee satisfaction, andwork/life balance. The study was conducted on a total of 210 respondents working in IT organization.This study makes a contribution to join two distinct research streams, namely employee satisfaction,and work/life balance. Findings suggest that high correlation exists between work task and employeesatisfaction with a mediator variable namely work-life balance

Plants used as Medicine by Paliyar Tribes of Shenbagathope in Virudhunagar District of Tamilnadu, India

The traditional medicinal uses of 58 angiospermic plant species belonging to 54 genera of 31 families for various diseases and ailments like wounds, cuts, stomach pain, diabetes, fever, cold, poisonous bites etc., by the Paliyar tribes of Shenbagathope in Virudhunagar district of Tamilnadu, India, are mentioned. Generally, fresh part of the plant is used for the preparation of medicine. When fresh plant parts are not available, dried parts are also used. Attention should be made on proper exploitation and utilization of these ethnomedicinally important plant species

Repurposing cancer drugs, batimastat and marimastat, to inhibit the activity of a group I metalloprotease from the venom of the Western Diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox

Snakebite envenomation causes over 140,000 deaths every year predominantly in developing countries. As a result, it is one of the most lethal neglected tropical diseases. It is associated with an incredibly complex pathophysiology due to the vast number of unique toxins/proteins found in the venoms of diverse snake species found worldwide. Here, we report the purification and functional characteristics of a group I metalloprotease (CAMP-2) from the venom of the western diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox. Its sensitivity to matrix metalloprotease inhibitors (batimastat and marimastat) was established using specific in vitro experiments and in silico molecular docking analysis. CAMP-2 shows high sequence homology to atroxase from the venom of Crotalus atrox and exhibits collagenolytic, fibrinogenolytic and mild haemolytic activities. It exerts a mild inhibitory effect on agonist-induced platelet aggregation in the absence of plasma proteins. Its collagenolytic activity was completely inhibited by batimastat and marimastat. Zinc chloride also inhibits the collagenolytic activity of CAMP-2 by around 75% at 50 M, while it is partially potentiated by calcium chloride. Molecular docking studies demonstrate that batimastat and marimastat are able to bind strongly to the active site residues of CAMP-2. This study demonstrates the impact of matrix metalloprotease inhibitors in the modulation of a purified, group I metalloprotease activities in comparison to the whole venom. By improving our understanding of snake venom metalloproteases and their sensitivity to small molecule inhibitors, we can begin to develop novel and improved treatment strategies for snakebites

Field dissipation of pendimethalin and alachlor in sandy clay loam soil and its terminal residues in sunflower (Helianthus annus L.)

Field experiments were conducted with sunflower as a test crop during 2010-11 to study the dissipation kinetics and the persistence of pendimethalin and alachlor in sandy clay loam soil and its terminal residues in sunflower. Herbicides were applied at recommended and double the recommended dose along with control and the treatments were replicated thrice in randomized block design. The soil and plant samples collected at periodical intervals for herbicides residue determination using GC equipped with ECD detector. Results shows that the degradation of both the herbicides in soil was faster at higher dose of application than at the lower dose and the concentration decreased with the advancement in crop growth. While pendimethalin persisted in soil for 60 – 90 days, the alachlor persisted in soil for 30 - 45 days depending on the quantity of application. Degradation of both the herbicides in soil followed first order kinetics with the mean half life of 14.6 and 9.8 days respectively for pendimethalin and alachlor. Residues of these herbicides were below 0.001 mg/kg at the time of harvest in soil, sunflower seeds and stalks showed that these herbicides a can be safely used for the control of weeds in sunflower cultivation