Pharmacokinetic data on doxycycline and its distribution in different biological fluids in female goats

A pharmacokinetic study of doxycycline after intravenous administration at 5 mg/kg body weight in goats revealed that a concentration of 0.5 g/ml was maintained for 5 min-2 h, 4–12 h, 2–12 h and 5 min- >48 h in plasma, interstitial fluid, milk and urine respectively. The low t1/2 of 0.73±0.11 h and high t1/2 of 16.63±1.58 h show that the drug is rapidly distributed but slowly eliminated from the body. The tissue:plasma concentration of 4.86±1.06 during the elimination phase [K12/(K21-)] indicates a high expected tissue concentration, which is supported by similarly increased drug concentration in interstitial fluid and milk. The high Vd_area of 9.78±0.86 L/kg observed denotes that, apart from its wide distribution, the drug may be stored in fat depots as it is known to be highly lipophilic. As the drug maintained a therapeutic concentration for a shorter time in plasma, and the calculated dose rate for maintaining a minimal plasma concentration of 0.5–1.5 g/ml is relatively high, it may not be of much use in treating septicaemia in this species. Since the observed tissue:plasma concentration was higher and a therapeutic concentration was maintained in interstitial fluid and milk for longer, the drug can be used for other systemic infections at a lower dose rate than that required for treating septicaemia. As the drug maintained a very high concentration in urine, it may be of particular value in treating urinary tract infections caused by sensitive micro-organisms.     

Contribution of Post-Anthesis Growth and Manganese Dynamics to Differential Grain Yield in Different Wheat Species

Manganese (Mn) deficiency has become a serious nutritional problem for wheat grown in alkaline coarse textured soil. The study aimed to investigate post-anthesis Mn partitioning in different wheat species. Cultivars of bread wheat (‘PBW509’, ‘DBW17’, ‘PBW550’ and ‘PBW636’); durum wheat (‘PDW291’) and triticale (‘TL2908’) were grown in 6.5 L pots with two treatments of Mn (0 and 50 mg Mn kg^?1 soil) in screen house and harvested at anthesis, 18- days post-anthesis, and maturity to record Mn uptake. Durum cv. ‘PDW291’ retained highest proportion of Mn in its vegetative parts under Mn deficiency resulting into lowest partitioning to the grain and had the lowest grain yield. All bread wheat cv. facilitated superior Mn partitioning to the grain, lesser retention in vegetative organs and higher Mn utilization efficiency, than triticale and durum wheat species. Cultivars producing higher yield on Mn deficit soils are viable alternative to foliar application of Mn.     

Temporal patterns of storage and flux of N and P in young Teak plantations of tropical moist deciduous forest,India

Teak(Tectona grandis Linn.f.) ranks among the top five tropical hardwood species and is being promoted for use in plantations in its non-native range due to its high economic value.However,there is a general lack of data on ecosystem functioning of teak plantations.We aimed at understanding storage and flux of nutrients related to young plantations of teak.Cycling of nitrogen(N) and phosphorus(P) in a chronosequence of plantations(1,5,11,18,24 and 30 years) was studied in the Moist Deciduous Forest Region of North India with the objective of investigating the nutrient cycling pattern at younger age since the current trend of harvesting age of the species in several tropical countries is being drastically reduced for quick return from this high value crop.Standing state,nutrient uptake,nutrient return and nutrient retranslocation in these plantations were estimated by tree harvesting and chemical analysis methods.The range of total standing nutrient across all these plantations was 20.3 to 586.6 kg·ha-1 for N and 5.3 to 208.8 kg·ha-1 for P.Net uptake of N ranged from 19.4 to 88.9 kg·ha-1·a-1 and P from 3.8 to 18.1 kg·ha-1·a-1.Retranslocation of N and P among all the stands ranged from 8.7 to 48.0 kg·ha-1·a-1 and 0.01 to 3.5 kg·ha-1·a-1,respectively.Range of total nutrient return was 25.8 to 91.3 kg·ha-1·a-1 for N and 2.7 to 10.1 kg·ha-1·a-1 for P.N and P use efficiency was between 107.4 and 192.5 g dry organic matter(OM) g-1 N,and 551.9 and 841.1 g OM g-1 P,respectively.The turnover time ranged from 2.04-13.17 years for N and between 2.40-22.66 years for P.Quantity of N and P in the soil nutrient pool ranged from 2566.8 to 4426.8 kg·ha-1 and 372 to 520 kg·ha-1,Storage and flux of components in different plant parts of different aged plantations were assessed and depicted in compartment models.Percentage storage in soil,litter and vegetation ranged from 82% to 99%,0.6% to 2.4% and 0.5% to 15% for N,respectively,and from 63% to 98%,0.5% to 2% and 1% to 35% for P,respectively.This information could be useful in managing external nutrient manipulation to crops of different ages for optimum biomass production or carbon sequestration.     

Molecular Characterization of Oxytocin Receptor Gene in Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Buffaloes are known for their productivity as compared to average yielding cows due to higher fat percentage, better feed conversion ability and disease resistance. On the other hand, the reproductive performances of buffaloes are often considered as poor owing to late sexual maturity, weak/silent oestrus, repeat breeder and prolonged intercalving interval. The study of cascade of events during oestrus and oestrous cycle can be useful for the improvement of reproductive efficiency of buffaloes. More precisely, the hormonal changes initiated at the molecular level within the animal determine the reproductive nature of the species. Nucleotide/protein sequence analysis serves as a vital tool in analysing the binding of the hormones for their effect or functions. In this study, we have reported cloning and characterization of the complete coding (cDNA) sequence of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in buffaloes. Buffalo OXTR gene contains an uninterrupted ORF of 1176 nucleotides corresponding to an inferred polypeptide length of 391 amino acids (aa). The molecular weight of the deduced aa sequence was found to be 43 kDa with an isoelectric point of 9.253 and 16.328 charge at pH 7.0. The deduced protein sequence consists of 38 strongly basic (+) (K,R), 22 strongly acidic (?) (D,E), 186 hydrophobic (A, I, L, F, W, V) and 95 Polar (N, C, Q, S, T, Y) aa. Results indicated that aspartate (D) at aa position 85 and D, R and C at aa positions 136, 137 and 138, respectively, are conserved in buffaloes. The buffalo OXTR gene shared a per cent similarity ranging from 84.7 to 98.1 and 88.5 to 97.7 at nucleotide and deduced aa sequence levels, respectively, with that of other species. Phylogram constructed on the basis of either nucleotide or deduced aa sequences of buffalo OXTR gene showed that buffalo, cattle and sheep have diverged from human and swine and formed a separate clad. The buffalo sequence has shown maximum similarity and closeness with cattle followed by sheep both at nucleotide and at aa level.     

Chemical composition and antioxidant property of holy basil (Ocimum sanctum L.) leaves, stems, and inflorescence and their in vitro callus cultures

In this study, the chemical constituents and antioxidant property of holy basil (Ocimum sanctum Linn.) field-grown plant parts (leaves, stems, and inflorescence) were compared with those of respective callus cultures induced from each explant in in vitro. The callus cultures were successfully initiated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) (1 mg/L) combined with different concentrations (0.1-0.5 mg/L) of kinetin as plant growth regulators. The distribution of phenolic compounds in these extracts was analyzed using reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography with reference standards. Interestingly, rosmarinic acid (RA) was found to be the predominant phenolic acid in all callus extracts in comparison with field-grown plant parts. In this study, the antioxidant activity of the extracts was evaluated with six different in vitro antioxidant-testing systems. Their activities of scavenging superoxide anion radicals, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH), hydroxyl radicals, hydrogen peroxide, chelating ferrous iron, and ferric ion reducing potential were assessed. The antioxidant activity was increased in all testing systems with increasing amounts of extract. However, at the same concentration, the callus extracts exhibited higher antioxidant activity in all of the testing systems than the extract obtained from field-grown plant parts. The data obtained from this study suggested the possibility of the isolation of a high content of RA from in vitro callus cultures rather than field-grown plant organs of holy basil.     

基于天气预报的参照作物腾发量中短期预报模型研究

以新乡市1970—2011年逐日实测气象资料代入FAO 56 Penman-Monteith(PM)方法算得的ET0作为基准值,对HG、P-T、M-K、M-C模型进行参数修正,将新乡市2012—2014年冬小麦生育期间预见期为1、3、5、7、10d的天气预报数据代入修正后的模型进行ET01~10 d的中短期预报,并以2012—2014年冬小麦生育期间逐日实测气象资料由PM公式算得的ET0为基准值,对天气预报的精度及ET0的预报精度进行评价。结果表明:经过参数修正后HG、P-T、M-K、M-C模型的精度均有提高;最高气温、最低气温、风速、日照时数的预报精度均随预见期的增加呈逐渐下降趋势,最低气温预报的精度稍高于最高气温;不同预见期的ET0预报模型中,P-T模型预报的ET0平均准确率在众模型中较高(95.06%),其次为HG-M模型(94.66%)、PMT1模型(94.34%)、M-K模型(93.89%),且P-T、HGM两种模型计算程序较简单,因此优选P-T、HG-M模型进行ET0的中短期预报。     

An improved enzyme preparation for rapid mass production of protoplasts as seed stock for aquaculture of macrophytic marine green algae

Preparation of protoplasts and their subsequent applications for both basic and applied research of marine macroalgae remains largely under developed due to lack of development of reliable methods with consistent yields of viable protoplasts. An improved enzyme preparation with a single commercial enzyme, e.g. 2% Cellulase Onozuka R-10 in 1% NaCl solution, was developed to produce protoplasts rapidly from different green algal genera of Ulva, Enteromorpha and Monostroma. The simple dissolution of enzyme powder in 1% NaCl resulted in exclusion of 2% Macerozyme R-10 from the mixture consisting of 2% Cellulase Onozuka R-10 with 3% NaCl earlier reported as superior for the same algae. Optimal conditions for the isolation of maximum yields of viable protoplasts were found to be with 2% Cellulase Onozuka R-10 incubated at 20 °C for 2 h in 1% NaCl solution with 0.8 M mannitol adjusted to pH 6.0. The protoplast yield with optimized enzyme mixture was as high as 102.8 × 10⁶ cells g^− 1 f. wt for M. oxyspermum while it was in the range of 74.4–88.6 × 10⁶ cells g^− 1 f. wt thallus for seven species of Ulva, and 82.5–95.4 × 10⁶ cells g^− 1 f. wt for three species of Enteromorpha. The regeneration rate of protoplasts isolated using this method ranged from 89 to 92% with normal morphogenesis. The seeding of nylon threads with isolated protoplasts of M. oxyspermum was successful and after 3–4 weeks the entire frame with nylon threads became thick green in color with tiny germlings in laboratory culture. Thus, the method described in the present study allow for rapid mass production of viable protoplasts that could be potentially used as a source for seed material for mariculture and for other applied phycological research.     

Crop water stress index for scheduling irrigation of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) based on water use efficiency considerations

The study was conducted to determine the feasibility of canopy temperature based crop water stress index (CWSI) for scheduling irrigation of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea). Field crop experiments were conducted in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (India) during three consecutive cropping seasons (2015, 2016 and 2017). The experimental field was divided into five plots with different levels of irrigation treatments based on depletion of total available soil water (TASW) in the crop root zone. The maximum soil moisture depletion (SMD) of TASW at 10%, 30% and 50%, full irrigated (non-stressed) and extremely dry (full stressed) conditions were maintained in respective plots. Relationships were developed between canopy-air temperature differential (T_C-T_A) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) for non-stressed and fully stressed conditions to generate non-water-stressed baseline (NWSB) and maximum water-stressed baseline (MWSB) baselines for Indian mustard crop. The CWSI was computed for different SMD of TASW by using a proven empirical approach based on the baselines. The irrigation treatment corresponding to 30% SMD with a mean CWSI of 0.4 resulted in optimal yield and maximum water use efficiency. Results of the study suggest that established CWSI value can be used to detect stress and schedule irrigations for Indian mustard.