Life Sciences

Vitamin D deficiency is a prevalent health problem worldwide. Several factors determine vitamin D status including ethnicity, nutrition, and extent of adiposity. Well-educated medical students are expected to have higher levels of vitamin D than that reported in the general population. The aim of this study was to determine vitamin D status in female medical and paramedical students studying at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Investigation on the spatial distribution of yellow mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks) was studied at the Department of Entomology, GKVK, Bangalore during 2008-09. The mite population comprising of eggs as wells as active stages were more abundant on leaves in the top canopy (165.69/leaf) of the chilli plant compared to the leaves in the middle canopy (111.18/leaf).

Field experiment was carried out at AICRP- Water Management block, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during 2010 - 2011 to study the effect of subsurface drip fertigation on growth, yield, quality and economics of banana cv. Rasthali. Banana requires high levels of nutrients for proper growth and production. It is estimated that a crop of fifty two tones in one hectare removes 320 kg of N, 32 kg of P2O5and 925 kg K2O every year. The frequent supply of nutrients with irrigation water in fertigation treatment significantly increased NPK uptake over drip irrigation.

This study was designed to assess the effectiveness of food aid in alleviating hunger in ward 29 of Mutare District through establishing the nature and assessing the benefits of food aid. A questionnaire was distributed to forty six (46) households in order to collect primary data for the study. Five (5) interviews two focus group discussions were done with five (5) headmen from different villages an average of six respondents per group respectively. The research was conducted April and August of 2012-2013 phase.

This study determined oil recovery potential of Hyptis suaveolens for its beneficial use. Pulverized leaves (500 g) of Hyptis suaveolens was hydro-distilled for 3 hours using Clevenger apparatus set up. The percentage yield of the oil was 0.29 % (v/w). The GC-FID analysis of the extractedoil revealed 36 chemical components (99.99 %) of which 72.54 % is mono-terpenoids, 21.96 % is sesquterpenoids and 5.49 % is non-terpenoid constituents.

The aim of this study is to determine the presence of pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the hospital environment. The samples for the study were obtained from the hospital wards and were taken from the indoor air during, before and after disinfection by means of settle plate method. Nutrient agar, Blood agar, Macconkey agar, and Sabouraud‘s dextrose agar were used for isolation of bacteria and fungi respectively. 35 bacterial species and 19 fungal species were cultured from the hospital wards.

An efficient protocol was described for rapid callus induction and regeneration from internodal explants of Vitex negundo (Verbenaceae) which is a woody, aromatic and medicinal plant. For callus induction and regeneration, Particular plant growth regulators were used, which are auxins such as 2,4-D and NAA in combination with cytokinin BAP. The explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS, 1962) medium augmented with different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins individually and in mixture of combinations for callus induction.

Batch absorption studies were carried out to evaluate the Pb2+ adsorption capacities of different fired clay soils with different particle size distributions. Adsorption efficiency was observed to increase with an increase in clay content. Adsorption efficiencies of the fired clay soils were also influenced by the firing temperature, the solutions acidity, initial Pb2+ concentrations, shaking time and adsorbent dose.

Anemia is a common health problem among women throughout the world. However, there has been minimal research on farm women’s concepts of anemia. The present study was thus undertaken with the objective to assess the agro-socio-economic factors related to haemoglobin content of farm women, of West Bengal, India. The study was confined to the women of age group of 19-60 years. A total of 211 women were selected randomly. Their haemoglobin (%) was measured by collecting blood samples.

Dyes are coloured substances which can adhere to the surface of material and are used to give colour to paper, food stuffs and various textiles such as cotton, wool, synthetic fibre, silk etc. Dyeing of textiles has been practiced for thousands of years. The present work focuses on dyeing of cotton and wool by dyes like malachite green and vasantha colour. Also the dyeing properties of cotton without using the mordant is also analysed.