Archives-February 2013

Hydrogen peroxide induce the oxidative stress on the cells. The free oxygen radicle denature the protein by oxidizing the thiole group of protein having cysteine or methionine amino acid that donate proton to free oxygen species thus creating un even di sulphide bonds in protein. Besides H2O2 reduces protein synthesis in various ways with increasing concentration of infusion as well as time. Glutathione which is a natural anti oxidant in cell tries to reduce the oxidative stress in the cell. Glutathione is a tri peptide of glutamate, cysteine and glycine produced by cells. Glutathione prevent oxidation which protect cell and its components from free radicles, reactive oxygen species and peroxides. The ratio of oxidised and reduced glutathione within a cell is indicator of state of oxidative stress on the cell. Thiole group of glutathione donates proton to reduce the oxidative stress on the cell. In an in vitro experiment, liver cell of goat were cultured in M199 media and production of glutathione per milligram of protein with respect to different concentration of hydrogen peroxide as well as different time, glutathione production and protein synthesis was measured by standard method. The production of glutathione per milligram of protein increases with increase in concentration of H2O2 and time.

Pluralism in health care practices needs the pragmatism to have strong roots in the cultural practices. Any community which has to have continuous confrontation with nature develops methods which are not disturbing the balance which is naturally established and existing. Further these communities opt for the methods which are easy to follow and easy to practice. Migrating communities have more opportunities to face different kinds of environment and certainly develop more methods to face the disturbances in health conditions. Lambani community is one such community with history of migrating life style. Lambani community is characterizd by the socio-cultural practices which are connected to nature, especially to forest and products of forests. Being a community with long history of nomadic life styles, is having greater chances to accommodate various health practices found in other communities while dealing with them during their migratory course of community development. Further, unique language and life style of this community prevented whatever information gathered in community to remain within the community for long time. Thus this community got more chances to collect knowledge them sharing health care practices which involve utilization of forest products are more easier to follow and practice few of these practices existed even today the community to maintain health under certain conditions. Information about their health care practices passes from generation to generation. However, certain resource persons who adopt the life style to serve community with their health care knowledge are also present in this community. These persons though some time collect nominal reward for having rendered their service as knowledge resource of the community. A study of these practices and those of knowledge resource persons have been made in Davanagere District of Karnataka state, India. Role of knowledge of health care practices and resource persons in community has been discussed. Pressure of modernization on these practices and reaction of the community have been observed and recorded for the discussion.

The present study is based on an empirical survey of 150 self help groups in the 4 districts of north Karnataka region covering 400 members (100 members from each district) with a focus on two major aspects of the (SHG) covered by the study viz., motivational factors and purpose for joining the SHG and the financial assistance to members by the SHG and their utilization. The major purposes for which the selected members joined their respective SHGs included financial security, enhancing their social status, increasing self esteem, attaining power and increasing family business/trade. Responses of the members are almost indicative of all these socio-economic purposes. Major motivational sources for joining the SHG included own decision, friends, relatives, caste leaders, panchayat chairman / members, Anganwadi teachers, NGOs, bank officials and others. The study revealed that ‘own decision’ and ‘friends’ were the major sources of motivation for joining the SHGs. The area of assistance needed by SHG members have been wide ranging including using own and bank finances for loan advancing to members, providing raw materials, ensuring supply of electricity through Karnataka Electricity Board(KEB), arranging training, providing marketing information ,technical assistance etc. Large number of respondent members of SHGs have obtained bank loan through SHGs. Major Purposes of obtaining loan related to dairy business and agriculture. The overall results of the survey indicated a positive impact in membership of SHG on the respondents’ socio economic status as a result of their membership and involvement in SHGs.

Human Evolution is traced to a period of about two million years. The early evidence comes from East Africa. Gradually human occupation spread to other parts of the world. With the invention of making and controlling fire, man could adopt himself to cold environments. In. the course of his adaptations, many inventions made his life comfortable and enjoyable. Man's activities have considerable impact on the earth. It may be quite difficult to isolate the contribution made by man for the changing environment. The expansion of holes in the protective layer of Ozone in the atmosphere IS attributed to the release of certain chemicals produced by man for the purpose of cooling used in refrigerators, many observations regarding the temperature of the earth indicate that slowly the atmosphere is getting warmer which may lead to the melting of ice and rising of water levels in oceans and endangering a larger populations which lives in low¬-laying coastal areas of the world. Part of the warming is traced to the release of emission gases resulting in farm fuels. There are moves to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels so that the global warming can be checked to a great extent. An evolution of the state of environment and the measures taken to maintain the balance is presented in the paper.

The paper reviews pollination studies in oil palm in West Africa, the Far East and South and Central America. The main types of pollination in the oil palm, anemophily and entomophily, and other forms of pollination are discussed. The floral characters of the oil palm that promote anemophily and entomophily are: abundant smooth dry pollen grains, enlarged stigmatic surfaces, reduced perianth, coloured perianth and a raised female inflorescence. The critical role played by insects and the resulting increases in yield of fresh fruit bunches (ffb) and oil following introductions of pollinator insects into the plantations in the Far East and Central and South America are mentioned. The introduction of insect pollinators into areas in the Far East with poor fruit set rates led to the cessation of assisted pollination and increased profitability. The introduction of the insect pollinators led to as much as 36 – 80 % improvement in fruit set, a 12 % increase in fruit-to-bunch ratio and a 28 – 54 % increase in mean bunch weight. The oil-to-bunch ratio increased by 9 % and a 43 % improvement recorded in the kernel-to-bunch ratio. Insects belonging to the Elaeidobius spp. (Coleoptera: Curculiondae; Derelominae) are the main insects involved in pollination of the oil palm. Other insects listed are the Prosoestus spp., Microporium spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidilidae) and Atheta spp. (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). Mystrops spp. are of economic importance in South and Central America. The insects generally carry pollen on their hairy bodies and wings. The bigger and more hairy insects are more efficient pollinators and contribute to adequate fruit set and increased yield. Pollinator insect populations may be conserved through the selective use of insecticides, the proper timing of application, and the mode of application to achieve sustainable production.

The growing concern about the profuse use of texting endangering the standard forms in language prompted the present research to determine the presence or absence of SMS features in the academic writing of the participants. Triangulation was used for data collection i.e. questionnaires for learners and educators and samples of the learners’ English written work were examined for SMS features. Suppliance in Obligatory Context was used for data recording. Simple average and ratio were used for descriptive analysis of the data. Contrary to the expectation, there were no significant evidences of these features in the sample. It seems being proficient in standard forms, these learners are context conscious and can switch to the appropriate register or style when writing formally .Thus the present study has de mystified the popular belief about texting adversely affecting writing and thus destroying Standard English. Moreover, the evidences of one punctuation mark used in place of another indicate there can be other factors like carelessness or lack of knowledge of students and the lack of training, feedback or emphasis by educators or the system. So the matter of concern should be the general neglect of punctuation even out of the context of texting.

This study investigates the relationship between metacognitive awareness and comprehension of an expository text among secondary school students. It also determines the relationship between the students’ level of metacognitive awareness and their gender, school type, stream and language achievement. A quantitative approach using an Index of Reading Awareness and a set of comprehension test based on an expository test was administered to 110 Form Four students from a national and a national-type schools in Penang Island, Malaysia. The gathered data revealed that metacognitive awareness and comprehension had weak correlation. Besides, no significant relationship was detected between metacognitive awareness and gender, or school type and stream. However, there was a relationship between metacognitive awareness and language achievement. The study underscored that students who score high in the level of metacognitive awareness may not necessarily score as high in comprehension. Furthermore, metacognitive awareness can also be applied to a variety of texts of different subject matters as well as different languages.

Prodigiosin is a powerful red pyrrole pigment produced by several bacteria, especially in Serratia marcescens. Prodigiosin has a wide biological activity profile with antifungal, immunosuppressive and anti-proliferative activity. Investigations were made in the present study to identify the activity of Prodigiosin against virus and bacteria related affected diseases. 3D modeling of HBV, HIV, HCV, Pl.vivax, and H1N1proteins were performed by comparative modeling approach using PDB ID’s:1QGT, 1ESX, 1CU1, 1V0B, 2WR3 as template in MODELLER program. The best models were chosen based on Procheck analysis, energy minimized and applied for active site description in QsiteFinder. The Ligand-Protein interactions were calculated by autodock tool to monitor the probable drug targets and their applications.

Developing countries face increasing local demand for energy in rural areas, they also have both economic and environmental pressure on agricultural lands. The possibility of growing energy crops such as [Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schneider] has the potential to enable some smallholder farmers, producers and processors to cope with these pressures. In this concern, A field experiment was carried out at a private farm in Manshyet El Gammal, Tamiah district, Fayum Governorate to study the effect of foliar application with tap water (control),  zinc (300 ppm Zn-EDTA), potassium (2.0% KNO₃) or ascorbic acid (200 ppm) on vegetative growth and some physiological aspects of Jojoba [Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schneider] under three drip irrigation treatments ( irrigation every 3,5 and 7 days ( represent optimum, moderate and severe water stress. Increasing irrigation interval significantly decreased all the studied growth characters, as well as the content of potassium and zinc.  While it increased the content of chlorophyll a+b , proline, soluble carbohydrates as well as the value of succulence and osmotic potential. Foliar application with potassium, zinc or ascorbic acid positively affected all the growth and physiological criteria of the tested plants compared with (control treatment). Foliar application with potassium surpasses the other foliar application treatments especially by prolonging the irrigation interval period.

The health of the economy is closely related to the soundness of its banking system. The banking sector influences the economic growth and development in terms of both quality and quantity, there by changing the nature of economic growth. Assessment of the bank's performance in terms of earnings level may reveal more about government policy than about the bank's own efficiency. The indicators commonly used for assessing productivity of banks are Business per employee/Branch, advances per employee/Branch, number of accounts per employee/branch etc. the results obtained by different factors need not be the same and may often be contradictory. Employee productivity performance analysis is a popular technique for the appraisal of financial performance of a bank. It simply means the total resources invested and the profits generated on the investment per employee of the bank. For a bank, its employees are the most valuable corporate asset. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate profitability of a bank in terms of its employee's productivity. The present paper therefore is an attempt to compares the parameters of employees’ productivity and parameters of branch productivity. This study investigated the effects of amalgamation on the financial performance of Regional Rural banks in India. The research compared the pre-merger and post merger financial performance of KVGB and PGB which were amalgamated during 2005. The results indicate that the productivity ratios that have marginally improved after the amalgamation.Both findings suggest ways in which the bank can increase the profitability of its branch network.