The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
the decreasing snow cover in Southwest Asia and the Himalaya is threatening marine life in central and western parts of the Arabian Sea, which lie thousands of kilometres (km) away. According to a study published in Science (April 22, Vol 308, No 5721), reduced winter and spring snow cover in …
An analytical method for the determination of OTC and TC residues in honey was developed. Sample treatment involves an extraction in EDTA-McIlvaine buffer, followed by a solid-phase cleanup step. With regard to the cleanup procedure, different SPE cartridges were evaluated and the results presented. The method was validated according to …
an international team of researchers, including several from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (jnu) and the Bose Institute in Kolkata, have sequenced the genome of the gut parasite Entamoeba histolytica. The unicellular organism causes a diarrhoeal disease that kills almost 100,000 of the 48 million people it annually infects, mainly in …
Considering the increasing urban population and the resulting urban liquid waste, an attempt has been made to ascertain the quality of the Pondicherry coastal water. Four sampling stations-two on the 1 fathom line and two on the 5 fathom line were fixed. The results revealed that the total coliform bacterial …
scientists from the us Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Johns Hopkins University have discovered two viruses in Cameroon, Africa, that belong to the retrovirus family, which causes several illnesses, including aids. The two
Antimicrobial compounds are commonly included in poultry diets for promoting of growth and control of diseases. The European Union banned feed grade antibiotic growth promoters, due to, not only cross-resistance, but also to the risk of possible drugs multiple resistances in human pathogenic bacteria. Only two such drug-related compounds are …
saving the act: The prime minister's office (PMO) has issued a directive that Union cabinet proposals having a bearing on decentralisation will have to be cleared by the newly-formed ministry of panchayati raj affairs, along with other ministries concerned. This is to ensure that ministries do not make parallel implementation …
An international team of scientists has sequenced the entire DNA sequence of the bacterium that causes the deadly legionnaires' disease. The Legionella pneumophila bacterium infects macrophages in lung tissue. These are cells that engulf and destroy foreign material. L pneumophila switches off the internal
Chocolate is an easy temptation as well as a universal one. So proves the recent siege on cacao crops in Guatemala. A particular variety of fungus with a weakness for cacao beans (source of chocolate) is currently posing a threat to this major crop of Guatemala. The plant disease, moniliasis, …
despite its genome sequenced three years ago, the cholera bacterium continues to dodge all efforts aimed at combating its menace. Now, scientists from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), have found out how Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium, renders the
An in vivo experiment was conducted to study the potential prebiotic effects of mushroom and herb polysaccharide extracts, Lentinus edodes extract (LenE), Tremella fuciformis extract, and Astragalus membranaceus Radix extract, on chicken growth and the cecal microbial ecosystem, as compared with the antibiotic Apramycin (APR). This investigation was carried out …
a bacterium commonly found in the Amazon rainforest promises to be a new source of ecofriendly plastic and life-saving medicines, if scientists who cracked its genetic code are to be believed. A consortium of 100 scientists, working for the Brazil National Genome Project, sequenced the genome of Chromobacterium violaceum. They …
rising temperature is adversely affecting fish and algae populations of a lake that is an important source of freshwater and food for East Africa. This is the finding of a study conducted by Catherine O'Reilly of Vassar College, usa; Andrew Cohen of the University of Arizona, usa; Simone Alin of …
bacteria have been genetically modified to act as drugs within human bodies. The organisms are designed to treat inflammatory bowel disease by producing a human immune protein that dampens inflammation. gm bacteria are widely used to make food and drugs; but the prospect of drug-producing gut bugs getting into the …
