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S. P. Sharma , Ram Kishore , K. Thangavelu , S. Rai

Abstract

The May-June beetle, Anomala blanchardi Blanch is one of the major pests of primary tasar food plants, Terminalia arjuna Bedd. and T. tomentosa W & A causing 10-15% loss to the foliage with an average incidence of 15-20 adults per bush. An experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effect of Amrutguard a Neem (Azadirachta indica A. juss) formulation on mortality and feeding inhibition efficacy against adults of A. blanchardi. Observations reveal that maximum mortality (77.77%) was recorded when adults of A. blanchardi were fed with 30 ppm Azadirachtin treated leaves as compared to control (6.66%). Results indicate that in the said concentration the excretion oflitter was minimum (0.39 g/treatment) vis-a-vis control (1.527 gl treatment). This reflects the minimum feeding due to strong antifeedant properties of Azadirachtin. The paper deals with the use of non-wood products of neem in the pest management thereby minimizing crop loss and load of insecticides in the forest ecosystem.

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S. K. Gangwar , S. Rai

Abstract

Rainfed Mulberry in South Bihar showed better growth rates of shoot length, foliage area, fresh and dry biomass as well as leaf weight during spring season under bottom or middle pruning conducted during preceding November month. All the growth rates had shown strong correlation with each other and their association with leaf yield was of the order of dry biomass growth rate> fresh biomass growth rate> leaf weight growth rate> foliage area growth rate> linear branch growth rate. Leaf yield was well predicted by dry weight growth rate with 87.6% precision.

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R. Prasad ¹, S. Rai ¹, Alok Kumar ¹, G. N. Dwiyedi ², A. K. Tripathi ², M. L. Yadav ²

Affiliations
1 Mineral Physics Division, Geological Survey of India, Lucknow-226024, IN
2 Project Mineral Investigation (Peninsular), Geological Survey of India, Lucknow-226024, IN

Abstract

A rare mineral Beudantite PbFe₃ (AsO₄)(SO₄)(OH)₆had been identified by X-ray diffraction technique in a weathered mineralised quartz vein, emplaced in phyllitic sequence. Its cell parameters are a=7.32Å. and c=17.13Å that are comparable to those of JCPDS-ASTM standard. Its association with corkite suggests that the area may have potential for silver and gold.

Keywords

Mineralogy, Beudantite, Corkite, XRD, Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh.

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S. Rai ¹, C. Haldar ¹

Affiliations
1 Pineal Research Lab, Reproductive Biology Unit, Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi- 221 005, IN

Abstract

The significance of annual variation in metabolic (thyroxine) and chronobiotic (melatonin) hormones in relation to immune adaptation of the Indian palm squirrel was investigated. The squirrel is summer breeder and, hence, remains healthy during reproductively active phase (Feb - Aug) when melatonin level is low and thyroxine level is high. Our data show that the circulating levels of melatonin (MEL) and thyroxine (T₄) have their respective annual rhythms, which are inversely related. Thyroxine level is low during the winter months (Sep-Jan) when metabolic activity of this rodent is also low. During this period melatonin level is high because of the short photoperiod and the squirrels indicate poor reproductive activity, with low gonadal steroids, which could be due to high circulating melatonin. The immune parameters also present an annual rhythmicity, which is parallel with circulating melatonin level, but inversely related to thyroxine level. This suggests that the metabolic hormone, thyroxine, and the chronobiotic hormone, melatonin, might be responsible for maintenance of the immune system to adapt the rodent for the rigors of the seasonal environmental changes.

Keywords

Annual Variation, Immune Parameters, Melatonin, Squirrel, Thyroxine.

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Anshu Prakash Mishra ¹, A. C. Pandey ¹, S. Rai ¹

Affiliations
1 Nehru Science Center, K. Banerjee Center of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies, University of Allahabad, Allahabad - 211 002, IN

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine Sea surface temperature (SST), Sea surface circulation (SSC) and Vertical velocity (VV) fields from simulation of 25 layers coarse resolution Modular ocean model (MOM version 3.0) with prescribed wind forcing for the region 74.25°S to 65°N, 180°W-180°E.

It is found that distribution of SST simulated by the model shows its consistency with the observed climatology. However, simulated SST in the areas of Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) region and east of North America near equator exhibit slight warming with respect to observation, which may be due to model deficiency and forcing problems. Circulation features suggest that one of the strongest current viz. Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC) along with other major current systems viz. Gulf stream current, North and South Pacific current, Agulhas current, Labrador current, Canary current, etc. are captured well by the model. In the Indian Ocean and other ocean basins, current patterns are well captured by the model simulation. Intense upwelling as well as downwelling areas is marked in the horizontal distribution of VV, which is as expected. VV show quasi-stagnant and convergent regions suggesting that floating materials may be accumulated during January/July in the real ocean and wind driven circulation may act as an important contribution for such transport of floating materials in these regions. An attempt has also been made to understand the fluctuations of the SST in NINO 3.4 region during the period of model simulation using SST anomalies.

Keywords

Modular Ocean Model (MOM), Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Vertical Velocity, Sea Surface Current, Sea Surface Temperature, Quasi-Stagnant, Convergent.

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S. Rai ¹, S. S. Singh ¹, C. Haldar ¹

Affiliations
1 Pineal research Lab, Reproductive Biology Unit, Department of Zoology, BHU, Varanasi-221 005, IN

Abstract

The immune system was believed until recently, to be closely integrated with other physiological circuits such as the central nervous and neuroendocrine system of which pineal is a integral constituent (Gupta 1990). A lot of in vivo and in vitro studies have been performed to explain the immunoregulatory role of melatonin but till date there is very less report, available in the laboratory animals in this context. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the immunoregulatory role of pineal melatonin together with IL-1, i.e. synergic effect (IL-1 produced by LPS induced peritoneal macrophages) on the spleenocyte and thymocyte proliferation of the spleen and thymus respectively of F. pennanti. IL-1 is well known to induce proliferation of lymphocytes in rodents (Durum et ai, 1985; Mannel et al., 1985). This capacity of IL-1 has been utilized in its wisely used bioassay (Gearing et al., 1985).

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S. Lahiri ¹, S. Rai ¹, C. Haldar ¹

Affiliations
1 Pineal Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN

Abstract

Endogenous melatonin is involved in regulation of reproductive function of the photoperiodic species. A circannual rhythmicity of the pineal gland in relation to reproduction has been observed in a tropical seasonally breeding mammal, Funambulus pennanti. A trade-off relation is known to exist between melatonin and the gonadal steroids. In vitro suppression of splenocyte proliferation by testosterone and the reversal of this effect by melatonin supplementation have already been reported. Melatonin receptors have been detected in the lymphoid tissues by binding of 2-[¹²⁵I] iodomelatonin to splenocytes and thymocytes. We analyzed the presence of melatonin receptor adopting Western blot technique. We found that MTl receptor protein, one of the variants of melatonin receptor, is expressed in both the thymus and spleen tissue and the expression is suppressed by testosterone treatment. This substantiates the direct immunomodulatory role of melatonin. To find the significance of steroid toxicity at molecular level, particularly testosterone, it is important to study its effect on the expression pattern of these receptors.

Keywords

Melatonin, Melatonin Receptor, Spleen, Steroid, Testosterone, Thymus.

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