Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), is a common sleep-disorder, which might emanate from decreased pharyngeal muscle tone, craniofacial obesity, and craniofacial deficiencies amongst others. Current treatments are continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) and/or mandibular advancement appliances. These treatments attempt to normalize the upper airway, with little regard to osseous and soft tissue features. Skeletal class III malocclusion with OSA is a complex orthodontic/orthopedic problem. Patients with skeletal class III malocclusion and OSA have underdeveloped maxillae from childhood, which can lead to sleep breathing disorders. This preliminary study tests the hypothesis that biomimetic oral appliance therapy (BOAT) can be used in conjunction with surgery to reduce AHI and ameliorate OSA. This study included two male patients aged 24yrs (case A) and 31 yrs (case B) with class III malocclusion who had been diagnosed with OSA. Prior to treatment, the craniofacial region was imaged using 3D cone-beam CT scans. They were then treated with FDA-cleared BOAT (mRNA appliance ® and DNA appliance®). After 9 to 24 months of treatment, AHI was reassessed, without any appliance in the mouth during sleep, by a home sleep test (HST). Post-treatment, the upper airway volume was reassessed with another 3D cone-beam CT scan. For case A, the mean AHI decreased from 31hr-1 to 3hr-1. The upper airway volume (from the posterior nasal spine to the epiglottis) increased from 16.7cm3 to 20cm3, a 12% increase. For case B, the mean AHI decreased from 36.6hr-1 to 3.2hr-1, while the upper airway volume increased from 17cm3 to 23cm3, a 13% increase. The study suggests that decreases in AHI may be associated with non-surgical upper airway remodeling in adults with OSA and craniofacial deficiencies secondary to skeletal class III malocclusion. N/A.

Drought is very common adverse environmental factor limiting crop production in most of the tropical and subtropical regions of India, thus limiting up productivity. Limited moisture stress is the major constraint in productivity. To generate information on the effect of moisture stress on various traits which contribute for yield would be helpful in developing tolerant coriander genotypes. The result revealed that plant height; umbels per plant and biological yield per ten plants are most important yield component character in limited moisture condition.

Crop classification is an important task in many crop monitoring applications. Satellite remote sensing has provided easy, reliable, and fast approaches to crop classification task. In this study, a comparative analysis is made on the performances of various deep neural network (DNN) models for crop classification task using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) and optical satellite data. For PolSAR data, Sentinel 1 dual pol SAR data is used. Sentinel 2 multispectral data is used as optical data. Five land cover classes including two crop classes of the season are taken. Time series data over the period of one crop cycle is used. Training and testing samples are measured and collected directly from the ground over the study region. Various convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) models are implemented, analysed, evaluated, and compared. Models are evaluated on the basis of classification accuracy and generalization performance.

Livestock farming has been an integral part of Nepalese agriculture systems since time immemorial. Giardia duodenalis is a cosmopolitan intestinal parasite present in a wide range of hosts. Very little or no information is reported on the prevalence of giardiasis in livestock of Nepal. This study was done during Jan 18 to July 19, 2014 to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of Giardia duodenalis infection in dairy cattle of Chitwan, Nepal. A total of 96 fresh fecal samples were collected from various dairy pocket areas and were transferred to collection bottles with 10% formalin. Wet smears of the samples were prepared, stained with lugol’s iodine and then viewed under microscope at 400× magnification. The overall prevalence was found to be 44.79% (43/96). Based on the risk factors assessment survey, age was found to be significantly associated with the prevalence of Giardia duodenalis . The prevalence was found significantly ( P < 0.05) higher in 1–6 months age group compared to > 3 years. Similarly, higher prevalence was found in diarrheic animals compared to their counterparts ( P < 0.05). Though higher prevalence was recorded in unhygienically housed animals, it was statistically non-significant ( P < 0.05). Giardiasis should be considered as an important cause of diarrhea and further advanced diagnostic approaches should be employed for the confirmation of giardiasis in dairy cattle.

Dairy industry is growing in Nepaland western dairy pocket area is the main milk producing area in Chitwan district. This study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with N. caninum in western dairy pocket area in Chitwan district of Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2014 to July 2014 among the small holder dairy farms, and out of 2188 animals from different sampling villages, 186 (8.5%) animals were randomly selected. Individual blood samples (5-10 ml) were collected and screened for N. caninum antibodies by ELISA test kit. The study showed that apparent overall prevalence of N. caninum to be 4.84% and true prevalence, 4.07%. The prevalence varied from a low of 0% to a high of 13.16% in various VDCs. The prevalence rates among Holstein-Friesian cross and Jersey cross Cattle were 6.94% and 3.51% respectively. The seroprevalence of N. caninum was found to be 16.13% and 2.5% in animals with and without history of abortion respectively, showed statistically significant different (p value <0.05). Similarly, prevalence were 13.64% and 3.66% in animals with and without presence of dog respectively and 8.5%, 3.39% and 0% in the animals of age group of 3-5 years, 1-3 years and above 5 years respectively, showed statistically non-significant association (p value <0.05). This study shows that N. caninum is associated with abortion in dairy cattle of Chitwan region. The study may contribute the base line data of N. caninum in Nepal for future preventive strategy for stake-holders and government.

This study was carried out to evaluate the best preservation methods and suitable variety for guava pulp preservation. Two guava varieties (L-49 and Lalit) pulp preserved with nine different treatments viz., potassium meta bi-sulphite 0.1% (T1), sodium benzoate 0.1% (T2), potassium meta bi-sulphite + sodium benzoate 0.05% each, sodium benzoate + potassium sorbate 0.05% (T4), potassium meta bi-sulphite + potassium sorbate 0.05% each (T5), potassium sorbate 0.025% (T6), potassium sorbate 0.05% (T7), potassium sorbate 0.1% (T8) and frozen storage -20°C (T9) and replicated four times with two experimental sets under Factorial CRD. The results revealed that at the end of storage (90 days) analyzed good qualitative characters organoleptic value (flavor, taste, colour, texture and overall acceptability) and colour a* and b* value by in low temperature storage (-20°C) followed by addition of potassium meta bi-sulphite 0.1%, sodium benzoate + potassium meta bi-sulphite 0.05% each and potassium sorbate 0.1%.

Autophagy is a catabolic process, which involves recycling of cellular elements and it seems to play a major role in etiopathogenesis of cancers. Autophagy is thought to buffer metabolic stress, thereby aiding in cell survival. Also, it is found that inhibiting autophagy under deficient nutrition can restore cell death to apoptosis. Therefore, autophagy plays a dual role in cancer therapeutics. Globally oral cancer is a major concern of numerous deaths, so comprehensive work needs to be undertaken in the field of its progression and to determine positive treatment modalities. There exists a serious dearth of knowledge to understand and comprehend the process of autophagy, and it is beyond doubt that further research in this field would bring forth several new methods of cancer prevention and treatment.

The present study was conducted in Varanasi District of Uttar Pradesh with the objective of Socio-Personal correlation for decision making and adoption of dairy practices by Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) beneficiaries On critical examination of data on the distribution of respondents with socio-personal variable, fifty percent of the total respondents were of the middle aged revealing that dairy as a profession demands a good deal of managerial experience with physical fitness. The studies on forces behind the adoption of new dairy practices have revealed that the herd size, occupation, and social participation with the adoption were positively correlated and family education level of the respondent was highly positively correlated with adoption, while farm size was negatively correlated with the adoption The relationships between age, caste and family size were not significant with adoption of diary practices.It may be concluded that the majority of lower caste like scheduled caste and scheduled tribe have shown keen interest and could be benefited through Integrated Rural Development Programme.

During the period from 2001 to 2014, a total of 24754 faecal samples were evaluated to assess the epidemiological profile of gastrointestinal (GI) parasites and performance of sheep under three different worm management strategies (conventional, modified and targeted selective) at the Sheep Breeding Farm, Fatehpur in arid Rajasthan. The climatic observations showed existence of suitable period for translation of exogenous stages of Haemonchus contortus and Trichstrongylus spp from mid-June to early October and from late October to early March, respectively. The overall incidence of strongyle worms (dominated by H. contortus) ranged from 51.1 (modified treatment) to 66.5% (conventional treatment) (P<0.001) and varied among months in all the three strategies. The incidence of other GI parasites viz., Trichuris spp, Strongyloides papillosus and Moneizia spp was very low while, incidence of Eimeria spp was moderate (27.7%). The monthly intensity of strongyle infection varied significantly (P<0.001) in all the treatment strategies and a peak was observed in October, August and August-September in conventional, modified and targeted selective treatment schemes, respectively. The mean herbage larval count varied significantly (P<0.001) from 32.7±22.1 (March) to 858.2±291.7 L3/kg dry matter of herbage (September). It was found that use of minimum anthelmintic intervention through modified or targeted selective treatment approach in farm flocks had no adverse effect on flock productivity and performance. It was concluded that conventional approach was not based on parasite epidemiology and there is no merit in adopting the conventional strategy in preference to the modified or targeted selective treatment strategy. The latter two strategies were more rewarding and provided better opportunities for gainful interaction between epidemiology, weather and management of flocks, reduced anthelmintic drench frequency, better rotational use of anthelmintic types, reduced selection pressure in parasite population and unwanted expenditure incurred on anthelmintics.

The overuse of conventional fuels in various industrial and power sectors is leading to problem of energy crisis in the present scenario. Imposition of emission norms by government regulating bodies to reduce environmental pollution is getting increased attention to search for a cleaner burning fuel. Producer gas or syngas is expected to play an important role in meeting the existing gap between the energy supply and energy demand. Dolochar, a solid waste generated in sponge iron plant invariably contains 15-30% unburned carbon. Conventionally, a sponge iron unit generates about 0.25 tons of dolochar as solid wastes for the production of 1 tonne of sponge iron. The commercial recovery of carbon values from these wastes through advanced gasification process may provide added advantage to the economy and efficient utilization of resources as well as environmental pollution control. A cyclone type entrained flow gasification system may be considered as a suitable option to gasify these high ash content wastes by blending it with low grade coal. In order to develop a suitable prototype gasifier to handle these high ash content feedstock, four cold model reactors with different geometries were designed and fabricated by adopting cyclonic principle and the characteristics of each reactor with respect to ash separation efficiency and total pressure drop were evaluated. Based on the cold model studies, a prototype entrained flow gasifier having a barrel internal diameter 0.325 m and L/D ratio 6.5 with a furnace volume of 0.13 m was designed and the performance of the prototype reactor with respect to Equivalence Ratio (ER), adiabatic flame temperature, steam to fuel ratio on gas composition, cold gas efficiency, turndown ratio and conversion rates etc were theoretically discussed to create more understanding of this system.

Favorable temperatures for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivation are between 25 and 30°C during the day and 20°C at night. Average global temperatures are increasing by approximately 0.3°C per decade. A 2–4°C increase over the optimal (25°C) temperature adversely affects plant growth, flowering, gamete development, embryo development, and seed germination; inhibits the ability of pollinated flowers to develop into seeded fruit; inhibits fruit ripening; and reduces yield. Drought resulting from insufficient rainfall and/or altered precipitation patterns is another important climatic stress factor for tomato, often accompanied by relatively high temperature, in which evapotranspiration is affected and photosynthetic kinetics and crop productivity reduced. Application of genomics in tomato, to discover novel and high-throughput genetic and molecular technologies as an indirect selection tool, provides the potential for increasing efficiency of breeding by reducing the genotype × environment interaction, facilitating efficient introgression of superior alleles from wild species into plants, promoting gene-pyramiding control of quantitative traits, and enhancing development of stress-tolerant, higher yielding varieties. Advances in genetics and genomics have improved the understanding of structural and functional aspects of plant genomes. The CBF/NHX1/DREB1 genes have been used successfully to engineer drought tolerance in tomato. These genes are transcription factors implicated in tomato response to drought and heat stress. There are few tomato varieties/species which can easily adapt to stress tolerance as environmental conditions change. Some tomato varieties and wild species are heat and drought tolerant. The focus of research is to use tools and techniques to deliver global integration and overcome effects of environmental stresses on tomato.

This experimental work presents a technique to determine the better surface quality by controlling the surface roughness and flank wear. In machining operations, achieving desired surface quality features of the machined product is really a challenging job. Because, these quality features are highly correlated and are expected to be influenced directly or indirectly by the direct effect of process parameters or their interactive effects. Thus The four input process parameters such as spindle speed, depth of cut, feed rate, and diameter have been selected to minimize the surface roughness and flank wear simultaneously by using the robust design concept of Taguchi L9(3 4 ) method . Taguchi’s optimization analysis indicates that the factors level, its significance to influence the surface roughness and flank wear for the facing operation.

To study the epidemiology of gastrointestinal (GI) parasites, 3872 faecal samples from 14 flocks (10 stationary and 4 migratory) of arid Rajasthan were evaluated at monthly interval. The monthly incidence of strongyle infection ranged from 35.2% (March) to 82.3% (July) in migratory and remained almost similar to stationary flocks during monsoon (July to October). The incidence of other GI nematodes was low in both the rearing systems. The monthly intensity of strongyle infection ranged significantly (p 1000 epg during September-October compared to stationary flocks. Generic composition of strongyle larvae exhibited predominance of Haemonchus contortus followed by Oesophagostomum spp. and Trichostrongylus spp. The incidence was higher in migratory flocks from October to March i.e. during migration and this could be attributed to travelling stress and en route exposure of flocks to contaminated pastures in semi-arid/irrigated area. During February-March the major source of grazing was post harvested fields in migratory route and this resulted in further decrease in FECs possibly as a consequence of absence of infection in post-harvested crop residues and occurrence of hypobiosis phenomenon. Unfavourable climatic conditions, possible onset of hypobiosis, failure of larval translation on pasture, denudation of grass cover/mat in grazing area, practices of grazing in harvested field or on top feeds resulted in significant decline in FEC from November onwards without any anthelmintic intervention. The flock performance remained almost similar in both the system of flock management. Thus, worm management programme based on interaction between epidemiology, weather and management of flocks resulted into reduction in drench frequency, reduced selection pressure in parasite population, extend life of existing anthelmintics and reduced the unwanted expenditure incurred by farmer on anthelmintic use.

The study was undertaken to develop and evaluate a colour chart to identify degree of anaemia in sheep of Rajasthan for management of haemonchosis and maintaining the anthelmintic susceptibility in population of parasites for longer period. Initially each sheep in a flock was monitored at monthly interval for correlating the intensity of Haemonchus contortus infection and blood profile (packed cell volume and haemoglobin). At each occasion photographs of conjunctivae were taken and a colour chart was developed (indicating 1–5 degree of conjunctiva colour) to indicate packed cell volume and anaemic status of the sheep. Based on the colour chart, the animals falling in category 1 to 3 were considered as normal while those falling in category 4 and 5 were considered as anaemic. The correlation between faecal egg count and degree of anaemia was positive in wormy season. The colour of conjunctiva was found to have negative correlation with haematological values. In subsequent years the colour chart was applied to all sheep flocks at Sheep Breeding Farm, Fatehpur (Rajasthan). It was observed that monthly proportion of sheep falling in category 4 or 5 were maximum of 17.35% in the month of September, 2008. The system was suitable in detecting the susceptible animals during wormy season. With this approach of targeted selective treatment (TST), the average frequency of anthelmintic drench in flock was 22.93±4.03% per annum compared to > 100% in conventional strategic treatment. In conclusion, though TST approach require some time and labour investment for selecting the animals for treatment but significantly reduced the cost of anthelmintic drenching as well as selection pressure for anthelmintic resistance.