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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) deployment and placement are largely dependent upon the available energy, feasible scenario, and secure network. The feasible placement of UAV nodes to cover the cellular networks need optimal altitude. The under or over-estimation of nodes’ air timing leads to of resource waste or inefficiency of the mission. Multiple factors influence the estimation of air timing, but the majority of the literature concentrates only on flying time. Some other factors also degrade network performance, such as unauthorized access to UAV nodes. In this paper, the UAV coverage issue is considered, and a Coverage Area Decision Model for UAV-BS is proposed. The proposed solution is designed for cellular network coverage by using UAV nodes that are controlled and managed for reallocation, which will be able to change position per requirements. The proposed solution is evaluated and tested in simulation in terms of its performance. The proposed solution achieved better results in terms of placement in the network. The simulation results indicated high performance in terms of high packet delivery, less delay, less overhead, and better malicious node detection.

Long-term exposure to excessive fluoride causes chronic damage in the body tissues and could lead to skeletal and dental fluorosis. Cartilage damage caused by excessive fluoride intake has gained wide attention, but how fluoride accumulation blocks the development of chondrocytes is still unclear. Here, we report a negative correlation between the length and growth plate width after NaF treatments via apoptosis and autophagy, with shrinkage of cells, nuclear retraction, dissolution of chondrocytes. Whereas, fluoride exposure had no significant effect on the number and distribution of the osteoclasts which were well aligned. More importantly, fluoride exposure induced apoptosis of tibial bone through CytC/Bcl-2/P53 pathways via targeting Caspase3, Caspase9, Bak1, and Bax expressions. Meanwhile, the Beclin1, mTOR, Pakin, Pink, and p62 were elevated in NaF treatment group, which indicated that long-term excessive fluoride triggered the autophagy in the tibial bone and produced the chondrocyte injury. Altogether, fluoride exposure induced the chondrocyte injury by regulating the autophagy and apoptosis in the tibial bone of ducks, which demonstrates that fluoride exposure is a risk factor for cartilage development. These findings revealed the essential role of CytC/Bcl-2/P53 pathways in long-term exposure to fluoride pollution and block the development of chondrocytes in ducks, and CytC/Bcl-2/P53 can be targeted to prevent fluoride induced chondrocyte injury.

The present study was planned to evaluate the ameliorative effects of egg yolk antibodies (EYAs) in broiler chicken. For this purpose, 80-day-old broiler chickens were divided into four groups (A–D), where group A was kept as negative control. Experimental infection with C. perfringens (1 × 108 cfu/mL) was induced via oral route on days 17, 18 and 19 of the experiment in groups B, C and D. Groups C and D were passively immunized by anti-clostridial IgYs @ 1 mL per bird via oral and oral and intramuscular (I/M) routes respectively, on days 21 to 24, and on days 22 and 24 of the experiment, respectively. Two necropsies were performed (the first on day 26th and the second on day 35th). Birds in group B showed behavioral signs e.g., laziness, depression and diarrhea, gross post-mortem lesions e.g., increase in the relative weights (RW), due to acute swelling and congestion of liver and kidneys and ballooning and hemorrhages of jejunum and microscopic lesions e.g., congestion and necrosis in liver and kidneys’ parenchyma and disrupted epithelium with fewer goblet cells in jejunum, compared to the group A. Birds in groups C and D, showed significant improvements in clinical and behavioral signs, RW of liver, kidneys and jejunum, swelling, congestion and mononuclear cells’ infiltration in liver and kidneys and damages in the jejunal-wall, compared to group B. The most significant changes were found in birds of group C. Our study revealed ameliorative effects of EYAs on certain biological parameters however, further studies would be needed to justify a safer production and a reliable application of EYAs in NE outbreaks.

Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic for plant metabolic processes even in low concentration due to higher retention rates, longer half-life and non-biodegradable nature. The current study was designed to assess the bioremediation potential of Cd tolerant PGPR, Serratia sp. CP-13 together with two differentially Cd tolerant maize cultivars (MMRI-Yellow, Sahiwal-2002) selected amongst ten cultivars after screening. The maize cultivars were grown under different Cd treatments (0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 µM) in Petri plates both with and without Serratia sp. CP-13 inoculation. Treated plants were analyzed for their biomass accumulation, chlorophylls, carotenoids, proline, anthocyanin, protein, malondialdehyde (MDA), H2O2 as well as for antioxidants (POD, SOD, CAT) and mineral elements (Ca, Mg, Zn, K, Fe, Na, Cd). The maize cultivar MMRI-Yellow (tolerant) and Sahiwal-2002 (sensitive) exhibited significant reduction in leaf area, nutrient contents, plant biomass, activity of antioxidants, total proteins, photosynthetic pigments as well as flavonoids with increased production of H2O2, proline, MDA and relative membrane permeability (RMP) under Cd stress. However, this reduction was cultivar specific and recorded higher in cv. Sahiwal-2002 as compared to MMRI-Yellow. Application of Serratia sp. CP-13 significantly augmented plant biomass, photosynthetic pigments, antioxidative machinery, as well as flavonoids and proline while diminishing H2O2, RMP MDA production even under Cd stress in studied cultivars. Furthermore, CP-13 inoculation assisted the Cd stressed plants to sustain an optimal level of essential nutrients (Ca, Mg, Zn, K, Fe) except for Na and Cd which responded antagonistically. It was inferred that both inoculated maize cultivars exhibited better health and metabolism but substantial Cd tolerance was acquired by the sensitive cv. Sahiwal-2002 than the tolerant cv. MMRI-Yellow under applied Cd regimes. Furthermore, studied maize cultivars depicted maximum Cd tolerance in order of 30

The growing use of the internet has resulted in an exponential rise in the use of web applications. Businesses, industries, financial and educational institutions, and the general populace depend on web applications. This mammoth rise in their usage has also resulted in many security issues that make these web applications vulnerable, thereby affecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of associated information systems. It has, therefore, become necessary to find vulnerabilities in these information system resources to guarantee information security. A publicly available web application vulnerability scanner is a computer program that assesses web application security by employing automated penetration testing techniques that reduce the time, cost, and resources required for web application penetration testing and eliminates test engineers’ dependency on human knowledge. However, these security scanners possess various weaknesses of not scanning complete web applications and generating wrong test results. Moreover, intensive research has been carried out to quantitatively enumerate web application security scanners’ results to inspect their effectiveness and limitations. However, the findings show no well-defined method or criteria available for assessing their results. In this research, we have evaluated the performance of web application vulnerability scanners by testing intentionally defined vulnerable applications and the level of their respective precision and accuracy. This was achieved by classifying the analyzed tools using the most common parameters. The evaluation is based on an extracted list of vulnerabilities from OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project).

Chloride is an essential nutrient for plants, but high concentrations can be harmful. Silicon ameliorates both abiotic and biotic stresses in plants, but it is unknown if it can prevent cellular increase of chloride. Therefore, we investigated the influx of Cl− ions in two wheat cultivars different in salt sensitivity, by epifluorescence microscopy and a highly Cl−-sensitive dye, MQAE, N-[ethoxycarbonylmethyl]-6-methoxy-quinolinium bromide, in absence and presence of potassium silicate, K2SiO3. The Cl−-influx was higher in the salt-sensitive cv. Vinjett, than in the salt-tolerant cv. S-24, and silicate pre-treatment of protoplasts inhibited the Cl−-influx in both cultivars, but more in the sensitive cv. Vinjett. To investigate if the Cl−-transporters TaCLC1 and TaNPF2.4/2.5 are affected by silicate, expression analyses by RT-qPCR were undertaken of TaCLC1 and TaNPF 2.4/2.5 transcripts in the absence and presence of 100 mM NaCl, with and without the presence of K2SiO3. The results show that both transporter genes were expressed in roots and shoots of wheat seedlings, but their expressions were differently affected by silicate. The TaNPF2.4/2.5 expression in leaves was markedly depressed by silicate. These findings demonstrate that less chloride accumulates in the cytosol of leaf mesophyll by Si treatment and increases salt tolerance.

The rapid advancement in the area of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has provided numerous comforts to users due to its capability to support vehicles with wireless data communication. The exchange of information among vehicle nodes is critical due to the rapid and changing topologies, high mobility of nodes, and unpredictable network conditions. Finding a single trusted entity to store and distribute messages among vehicle nodes is also a challenging task. IoV is exposed to various security and privacy threats such as hijacking and unauthorized location tracking of smart vehicles. Traceability is an increasingly important aspect of vehicular communication to detect and penalize malicious nodes. Moreover, achieving both privacy and traceability can also be a challenging task. To address these challenges, this paper presents a blockchain-based efficient, secure, and anonymous conditional privacy-preserving and authentication mechanism for IoV networks. This solution is based on blockchain to allow vehicle nodes with mechanisms to become anonymous and take control of their data during the data communication and voting process. The proposed secure scheme provides conditional privacy to the users and the vehicles. To ensure anonymity, traceability, and unlinkability of data sharing among vehicles, we utilize Hyperledger Fabric to establish the blockchain. The proposed scheme fulfills the requirement to analyze different algorithms and schemes which are adopted for blockchain technology for a decentralized, secure, efficient, private, and traceable system. The proposed scheme examines and evaluates different consensus algorithms used in the blockchain and anonymization techniques to preserve privacy. This study also proposes a reputation-based voting system for Hyperledger Fabric to ensure a secure and reliable leader selection process in its consensus algorithm. The proposed scheme is evaluated with the existing state-of-the-art schemes and achieves better results.

Abstract Background Pseudorabies (PR) is an important emerging infectious disease that is characterized by fever, extreme itching and encephalomyelitis. However, it is still unclear whether Tibetan pigs are exposed to Pseudorabies virus (PRV) or not. The present study was conducted to investigate the seroprevalence of PRV infection in Tibetan pigs in Nyingchi area of Tibet through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A total of 368 serum samples from Tibetan pigs were collected during 2015. Results Results showed that 58 (15.76%) samples were found positive for PRV antibodies with further distribution of 18.23%, 13.42% and 6.25% from Nyingchi, Mainling and Gongbo’gyamda areas on the Tibetan plateau, respectively; along with 12.10%, 17.71% and 17.57% prevalence of PRV in juveniles, sub-adults and adults, respectively. The prevalence of PRV infection between male (14.61%) and female (16.84%) showed non-significant difference (P > 0.05). The risk factors of infection were found to be associated with feed type, age and altitude. Conclusions The present study depicts a serious concern with a new emerging infectious disease in Tibetan pigs in Tibet, China.

Internet of things is widely used in the current era to collect data from sensors and perform specific tasks through processing according to the requirements. The data collected can be sent to a blockchain network to create secure and tamper-resistant records of transactions. The combination of blockchain with IoT has huge potential as it can provide decentralized computation, storage, and exchange for IoT data. However, IoT applications require a low-latency consensus mechanism due to its constraints. In this paper, CBCIoT, a consensus algorithm for blockchain-based IoT applications, is proposed. The primary purpose of this algorithm is to improve scalability in terms of validation and verification rate. The algorithm is developed to be compatible with IoT devices where a slight delay is acceptable. The simulation results show the proposed algorithm’s efficiency in terms of block generation time and transactions per second.

Dendrimers are rising polymeric structures known for their flexibility in medication conveyance and high usefulness, whose properties are same biomolecules. These nanostructured macromolecules have shown potential capacities in capturing as well as conjugating the high subatomic weight hydrophilic/hydrophobic substances by host-visitor collaborations and covalent holding (prodrug approach) individually. In quantitative structure-property relationships (QSPR), topological indices are utilized to gather properties of dendrimers. Topological indices catch symmetry of dendrimer structures and give it a logical reasoning to predict properties, for instance, viscosity, boiling points, the radius of gyrations, etc. In this report, we intend to examine dendrimers through irregularity indices that are valuable in QSPR studies. We studied sixteen irregularity indices if diverse dendrimer structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has made eHealth an imperative. The pandemic has been a true catalyst for remote eHealth solutions such as teleHealth. Telehealth facilitates care, diagnoses, and treatment remotely, making them more efficient, accessible, and economical. However, they have a centralized identity management system that restricts the interoperability of patient and healthcare provider identification. Thus, creating silos of users that are unable to authenticate themselves beyond their eHealth application’s domain. Furthermore, the consumers of remote eHealth applications are forced to trust their service providers completely. They cannot check whether their eHealth service providers adhere to the regulations to ensure the security and privacy of their identity information. Therefore, we present a blockchain-based decentralized identity management system that allows patients and healthcare providers to identify and authenticate themselves transparently and securely across different eHealth domains. Patients and healthcare providers are uniquely identified by their health identifiers (healthIDs). The identity attributes are attested by a healthcare regulator, indexed on the blockchain, and stored by the identity owner. We implemented smart contracts on an Ethereum consortium blockchain to facilities identification and authentication procedures. We further analyze the performance using different metrics, including transaction gas cost, transaction per second, number of blocks lost, and block propagation time. Parameters including block-time, gas-limit, and sealers are adjusted to achieve the optimal performance of our consortium blockchain.

Web conversational services are exposed to several threats in which the social context between communicating participants is manipulated. Cybercrimes based on identity misrepresentation to obtain sensitive information are on the rise. Various scams and frauds are conducted by distributing malicious content, viruses, and spam over established communication sessions. In order to maintain overall security and enhance privacy, methods of estimating trustworthiness and reputation should be built into Web calling services. In this paper, we propose “TrustCall”a reputation-based trust model for real-time Web conversational services. In our approach, the reputation of a caller is evaluated using Authenticity Trust and Behavioral Trust. Authenticity Trust describes the legitimacy of a caller by collecting recommendations from other members of the network, whereas Behavioral Trust determines a caller's popularity based on its communication behavior. Other contributions include a threat taxonomy for Web calling services, including social threats, that directly target users. A set of experiments are conducted in order to prove the feasibility and effectiveness of our model.

The present study had the goal to assess the prevalence of paratuberculosis in 4 public livestock farms of the Punjab (Pakistan). It included 627 total animals of more than 2-year-old tested by Avian Tuberculin, i.e., Purified Protein Derivative. The results of the PPD test were confirmed by indirect ELISA and by Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) test. An overall prevalence of 1.3% was recorded. The values were between 0.0% and 3.03%. The results of odds ratio suggested that there are 2.18 time’s higher chances of disease when body weight of buffaloes is less than 500 kg; 1.65 times in dry than lactating animals; 2.58 times when small ruminants are present; and 1.19 times when cattle are absent. The total positive buffaloes observed by Avian PPD were 12, although only 10 were then confirmed by ELISA, and 8 by ZN faecal microscopy. The relative sensitivity and specificity of Avian PPD by considering ELISA as standard test were 80.0% and 89.47%, respectively. Similarly, the relative sensitivity and specificity of the ZN faecal test were 70.0% and 97.37%, respectively. The relative sensitivity and specificity of Avian PPD by considering ZN faecal test as standard were 100% and 90%, respectively. Among haematological parameters, platelets significantly decreased and MCH increased in paratuberculosis positive animals. It can be concluded that ELISA may be used as a screening test in future studies for paratuberculosis, tuberculin testing can be used when the ELISA is not affordable to assess the disease situation at the farm; while ZN microscopy, being it a non-invasive test, is a better option than skin testing.

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a chronic bacterial infection affecting many organs of the body particularly the lungs. Another organ seriously affected by TB is the hematopoietic system. TB patients co-infected with other disorders are more prone to death than TB alone. This study was aimed to investigate the variations in hematological profile of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients co-infected with chronic infectious and metabolic disorders. The study population (n = 366) include PTB patients (positive control) and PTB patients co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, diabetes, and myocardial infarction (MI). Healthy individuals (n = 95) were also included as normal control. All the study subjects were screened for PTB, diabetes, HCV infection, MI, and HIV infection. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to confirm MTB infection at molecular level. Among 366 Ziehl–Neelsen positive cases, 258 (70.5%) were confirmed PTB positive by PCR. Among them, 36.8% were infected with PTB only, while 24% were co-morbid with diabetes, 17.8% co-infected with HCV, 11.2% with diabetes and HCV, 4.2% with HIV, 2.3% with both HCV and HIV, and 3.4% co-morbid with MI. Significant ( P

ABSTRACT The excessive industrial use of dye producing plants has threatened the existence of these species and biodiversity. Exploration of abundantly available natural dye sources not only provide industrial benefits but also share the load of dye yielding plants. In the present study we used the inflorescence of munj sweet cane (Saccharum bengalense Retz.) to extract natural colorant for textile industry. This easily available plant is cheap source of natural colorants and good alternative of synthetic dyes. The munj sweet cane inflorescence extract and fabric was treated with microwave radiations. The dyeing aspects like temperature, time, fabrics to extract ratio, salt type and salt concentrations were optimized. Pre-and post mordanting was carried out and optimized using copper, iron, moringa and turmeric. All the samples were analyzed by spectra flash D65 10 Deg to determine the color strength (%) value. Results proved inflorescence extract of munj sweet cane (RS, two minutes) using aqueous media as a good source of natural dye. Three grams of sodium chloride as exhaustion agent was observed to be the best while 70 0C temperatures gave best colour strength. Among chemical mordants, iron proved to be good one for producing varying shades and better colour strength. Bio mordanting with turmeric was proved to be more beneficial for getting best color strength and new shades.

The impact of heavy metal, i.e., cadmium (Cd), on the growth, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange characteristics, oxidative stress biomarkers, and antioxidants machinery (enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants), ions uptake, organic acids exudation, and ultra-structure of membranous bounded organelles of two rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes (Shan 63 and Lu 9803) were investigated with and without the exogenous application of ferrous sulfate (FeSO4). Two O. sativa genotypes were grown under different levels of CdCl2 [0 (no Cd), 50 and 100 µM] and then treated with exogenously supplemented ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) [0 (no Fe), 50 and 100 µM] for 21 days. The results revealed that Cd stress significantly (p < 0.05) affected plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange characteristics, affected antioxidant machinery, sugar contents, and ions uptake/accumulation, and destroy the ultra-structure of many membranous bounded organelles. The findings also showed that Cd toxicity induces oxidative stress biomarkers, i.e., malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) initiation, and electrolyte leakage (%), which was also manifested by increasing the enzymatic antioxidants, i.e., superoxidase dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and non-enzymatic antioxidant compounds (phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanin) and organic acids exudation pattern in both O. sativa genotypes. At the same time, the results also elucidated that the O. sativa genotypes Lu 9803 are more tolerant to Cd stress than Shan 63. Although, results also illustrated that the exogenous application of ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) also decreased Cd toxicity in both O. sativa genotypes by increasing antioxidant capacity and thus improved the plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange characteristics, and decrease oxidative stress in the roots and shoots of O. sativa genotypes. Here, we conclude that the exogenous supplementation of FeSO4 under short-term exposure of Cd stress significantly improved plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange characteristics, regulate antioxidant defense system, and essential nutrients uptake and maintained the ultra-structure of membranous bounded organelles in O. sativa genotypes.

A pot experiment was conducted to assess the induction of drought tolerance in maize by foliar-applied α-tocopherol at early growth stage. Experiment was comprised two maize cultivars (Agaiti-2002 and EV-1098), two water stress levels (70% and 100% field capacity), and two α-tocopherol levels (0 mmol and 50 mmol) as foliar spray. Experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design in factorial arrangement with three replications of each treatment. α-tocopherol was applied foliary at the early vegetative stage. Water stress reduced the growth of maize plants with an increase in lipid peroxidation in both maize cultivars. Contents of non-enzymatic antioxidants and activities of antioxidant enzymes increased in studied plant parts under drought, while the nutrient uptake was decreased. Foliary-applied α-tocopherol improved the growth of both maize cultivars, associated with improvements in photosynthetic pigment, water relations, antioxidative mechanism, and better nutrient acquisition in root and shoot along with tocopherol contents and a decrease in lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, the increase of tocopherol levels in roots after α-Toc foliar application confers its basipetal translocation. In conclusion, the findings confer the role of foliar-applied α-tocopherol in the induction of drought tolerance of maize associated with tissue specific improvements in antioxidative defense mechanism through its translocation.

Copper (Cu) is an important micronutrient for a plant’s normal growth and development. However, excess amount of Cu in the soil causes many severe problems in plants—which ultimately affect crop productivity and yield. Moreover, excess of Cu contents causes oxidative damage in the plant tissues by generating excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The present experiment was designed to investigate the phytoextraction potential of Cu, morpho-physiological features and biochemical reaction of jute (Corchorus capsularis L.) seedlings using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) of 3 mM under different Cu levels (0 (control), 50 and 100 μM) in a hydroponic nutrient solution (Hoagland). Our results showed that elevated Cu rates (50 and 100 μM) in the nutrient solution significantly reduced plant height, fresh and dry biomass, total chlorophyll content and gaseous exchange attributes in C. capsularis seedlings. As the concentration of Cu in the medium increased (50 and 100 μM), the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and oxidative stress in C. capsularis seedlings also increased, which could have been controlled by antioxidant activity in particular plant cells. In addition, rising Cu concentration in the nutrient solution also increased Cu uptake and accumulation in roots and leaves as well as affected the ultrastructure of chloroplast of C. capsularis seedlings. The addition of EDTA to the nutrient solution significantly alleviated Cu toxicity in C. capsularis seedlings, showing a significantly increase in plant growth and biomass. MDA contents was not significantly increased in EDTA-induced plants, suggesting that this treatment was helpful in capturing ROS and thereby reducing ROS in in C. capsularis seedlings. EDTA modification with Cu, although the bioaccumulation factor in roots and leaves and translocation factor for the leaves of C. capsularis seedlings has significantly increased. These results indicate that C. capsularis has considerable potential to cope with Cu stress and is capable of removing a large quantity of Cu from the Cu-contaminated soil while using EDTA is a useful strategy to increase plant growth and biomass with Cu absorption capabilities.

Soil and water contamination from heavy metals and metalloids is one of the most discussed and caused adverse effects on food safety and marketability, crop growth due to phytotoxicity, and environmental health of soil organisms. A hydroponic investigation was executed to evaluate the influence of citric acid (CA) on copper (Cu) phytoextraction potential of jute (Corchorus capsularis L.). Three-weeks-old seedlings of C. capsularis were exposed to different Cu concentrations (0, 50, and 100 μM) with or without the application of CA (2 mM) in a nutrient growth medium. The results revealed that exposure of various levels of Cu by 50 and 100 μM significantly (p < 0.05) reduced plant growth, biomass, chlorophyll contents, gaseous exchange attributes, and damaged ultra-structure of chloroplast in C. capsularis seedlings. Furthermore, Cu toxicity also enhanced the production of malondialdehyde (MDA) which indicated the Cu-induced oxidative damage in the leaves of C. capsularis seedlings. Increasing the level of Cu in the nutrient solution significantly increased Cu uptake by the roots and shoots of C. capsularis seedlings. The application of CA into the nutrient medium significantly alleviated Cu phytotoxicity effects on C. capsularis seedlings as seen by plant growth and biomass, chlorophyll contents, gaseous exchange attributes, and ultra-structure of chloroplast. Moreover, CA supplementation also alleviated Cu-induced oxidative stress by reducing the contents of MDA. In addition, application of CA is helpful in increasing phytoremediation potential of the plant by increasing Cu concentration in the roots and shoots of the plants which is manifested by increasing the values of bioaccumulation (BAF) and translocation factors (TF) also. These observations depicted that application of CA could be a useful approach to assist Cu phytoextraction and stress tolerance against Cu in C. capsularis seedlings grown in Cu contaminated sites.

The present experiment was carried out to study the influences of exogenously-applied nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as seed primers on growth and yield in relation with different physio-biochemical parameters, antioxidant activities, and osmolyte accumulation in wheat plants grown under control (100% field capacity) and water stress (60% field capacity) conditions. During soaking, the seeds were covered and kept in completely dark. Drought stress markedly reduced the plant growth, grain yield, leaf photosynthetic pigments, total phenolic content (TPC), total soluble proteins (TSP), leaf water potential (Ψw), leaf turgor potential (Ψp), osmotic potential (Ψs), and leaf relative water content (LRWC), while it increased the activities of enzymatic antioxidants and the accumulation of leaf ascorbic acid (AsA), proline (Pro), glycine betaine (GB), malondialdehyde (MDA), and H2O2. However, seed priming with SNP and H2O2 alone and in combination mitigated the deleterious effects of water stress on growth and yield by improving the Ψw, Ψs, Ψp, photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes accumulation (GB and Pro), TSP, and the antioxidative defense mechanism. Furthermore, the application of NO and H2O2 as seed primers also reduced the accumulation of H2O2 and MDA contents. The effectiveness was treatment-specific and the combined application was also found to be effective. The results revealed that exogenous application of NO and H2O2 was effective in increasing the tolerance of wheat plants under drought stress in terms of growth and grain yield by regulating plant−water relations, the antioxidative defense mechanism, and accumulation of osmolytes, and by reducing the membrane lipid peroxidation.

In this study we analysed some of the serum enzymes, urea and creatinine to understand the pathological changes occurring in different organs of broilers due to urea and copper. The feeding for 15 days at or higher than 2% urea + 1gm copper sulphate caused significant rise in serum ALT, AST, AKP and creatinine. With further increase in time of 15 days, the levels of urea and LDH also increased significantly, this was seen even in birds fed 1% urea + 250 mg copper sulphate. We found increase in serum urea even in 1% urea fed birds and in all other groups where combination was used, however, serum creatinine increased significantly (P

The present study was conducted on 453 lactating cattle of various breed present at 21 farms. The milk samples from these animals were collected to diagnose mastitis using California Mastitis Test (CMT). The epidemiological data related to animals and management was collected and analyzed to draw conclusions. The results of t-test revealed significant association between body weight, udder depth, and lower teat end to floor distance (P

Mycobacterium caprae is a pathogen that can infect animals and humans. To better understand the epidemiology of M. caprae, we spoligotyped 791 animal isolates. Results suggest infection is widespread in Spain, affecting 6 domestic and wild animal species. The epidemiology is driven by infections in caprids, although the organism has emerged in cattle.

In this study, we investigated the effects of ethanol on different parameters in broilers. A-day- old broiler chicks (n = 90) were randomly divided into five groups from A to E (negative control) at 22 days of age. Ethanol (2, 4 and 6 ml) and tap water (6ml) were administered into the crop from 22 to 42 days of age daily. Administration of ethanol through a crop tube at experimental dose levels showed a better feed conversion ratio, while lower live body weight in all treatment groups in almost a dose-related manner. Results of different organs also revealed significant decrease in the relative weight of most of the organs including heart, proventriculus, kidneys, intestine, brain and pancreas. Similar were the effects on ventricular volume (left and right). The relative weight of the intestine decreased significantly at 28 days of age, while increased significantly at 35 and 42 days of age. There was a significant decrease in diameter of duodenum, jejunum and ileum. The results of the present study showed less effect on gizzard weight, especially at 42 days. While the relative weight of liver and lungs were not affected. We were unable to find consistent significant gross and microscopic pathological changes in organs/tissues under study. The study revealed that ethanol at these dose levels through crop route has effects on live weight and relative weights of most body organs/tissues.

The diagnostic accuracy of tuberculosis can be enhanced by new tests like gamma interferon used in conjunction with tuberculin test but these tests are quite expensive to be conducted on all animals in resource poor countries. The present study was conducted to clarify the usefulness of haematological parameters and changes in serum proteins along with tuberculin test in different animal species. In buffaloes, significantly lower RBC count, WBC count, Hb concentration, neutrophils and eosinophils while significantly higher monocytes percentage along with serum total proteins, albumin and globulins were observed in tuberculin positive reactors. In cattle, significantly lower RBC count, PCV, neutrophils and serum albumin, while lymphocyte percentage was significantly higher in positive reactor animals. In sheep, PCV was lower in positive reactors. In goats, basophils percentage was significantly higher (P = 0.002) in positive reactors. A significant positive correlation of Hb with RBC and PCV in positive reactor buffaloes, goats and sheep was observed. The correlation statistics for differential leukocyte percentage did not differ between positive and negative reactor animals of these species. In cattle and goats, albumin showed significant positive correlation with globulins in negatively reacting animals, while this correlation was non-significant in positive reactor animals. In buffaloes, albumin showed a significant positive correlation with globulins and this correlation was non-significant in negative reactor buffaloes. It was concluded that tuberculosis caused decrease in erythrocyte parameters including RBC count, PCV and Hb concentration, while it caused an increase in monocytes, eosinophils and lymphocytes.

A study was planned to investigate the effects of different doses of ethanol on body organs of Japanese quails. A total of 120 quails were randomly divided into five groups, A, B, C, D and E. Quails of groups A, B, C and D were given ethanol at concentrations of 2, 4, 8 and 16%, respectively in drinking water for four weeks, while birds of group E served as untreated control. The results at the end of 4th week revealed a significant effect on relative weight of heart, kidney and lungs in most treated groups. The increase in heart and lung weight was significant (P

Effects of higher levels of chromium alone and in combination with copper were investigated in broiler chicks divided into seven equal groups viz. A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Group G served as control receiving no treatment. Groups A, B and F received chromium chloride at the rate of 2 g/kg and nicotinic acid 150 mg/kg feed while C, D and F received chromium chloride 8 g/kg and nicotinic acid 150mg/kg. Broilers of groups A and C received copper sulfate at the rate of 200 mg/kg while groups Band D 400 mg/kg feed. Haematological parameters studied revealed non-significant difference between treatment groups and control in haemoglobin concentration and total erythrocyte counts. However, only at 4th week, lower PCV was observed in birds fed higher levels of chromium chloride alone. Increase in TLC was observed in birds fed low chromium alone or' with low levels of copper. Results of serum proteins including total protein, albumin and globulin during first three weeks showed significantly or relatively lower values in treatment groups than control. Serum globulins generally revealed non-significant difference between treatment groups and control.

Copper (Cu) is an important micronutrient for a plant's normal growth and development. However, excess amount of Cu in the soil causes many severe problems in plants-which ultimately affect crop productivity and yield. Moreover, excess of Cu contents causes oxidative damage in the plant tissues by generating excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The present experiment was designed to investigate the phytoextraction potential of Cu, morpho-physiological features and biochemical reaction of jute ( Corchorus capsularis L.) seedlings using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) of 3 mM under different Cu levels (0 (control), 50 and 100 μM) in a hydroponic nutrient solution (Hoagland). Our results showed that elevated Cu rates (50 and 100 μM) in the nutrient solution significantly reduced plant height, fresh and dry biomass, total chlorophyll content and gaseous exchange attributes in C. capsularis seedlings. As the concentration of Cu in the medium increased (50 and 100 μM), the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and oxidative stress in C. capsularis seedlings also increased, which could have been controlled by antioxidant activity in particular plant cells. In addition, rising Cu concentration in the nutrient solution also increased Cu uptake and accumulation in roots and leaves as well as affected the ultrastructure of chloroplast of C. capsularis seedlings. The addition of EDTA to the nutrient solution significantly alleviated Cu toxicity in C. capsularis seedlings, showing a significantly increase in plant growth and biomass. MDA contents was not significantly increased in EDTA-induced plants, suggesting that this treatment was helpful in capturing ROS and thereby reducing ROS in in C. capsularis seedlings. EDTA modification with Cu, although the bioaccumulation factor in roots and leaves and translocation factor for the leaves of C. capsularis seedlings has significantly increased. These results indicate that C. capsularis has considerable potential to cope with Cu stress and is capable of removing a large quantity of Cu from the Cu-contaminated soil while using EDTA is a useful strategy to increase plant growth and biomass with Cu absorption capabilities.