AIM The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of temperature and humidity prevalent under subtropical climate on the breeding values for fertility traits viz. service period (SP), pregnancy rate (PR) and conception rate (CR) of Murrah buffaloes in National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) herd. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fertility data on 1379 records of 581 Murrah buffaloes spread o...

One of the greatest challenges to production dairy farmers in most part of the tropical country is heat stress and the strain that it causes the lactating dairy cow. Climatic conditions in the most parts of India are such that the warm (or hot) season is relatively long, there is intense radiant energy for an extended period of time and there is generally presence of high relative humidity. Thu...

The rearing of large numbers of broiler chickens at geographically dispersed sites means that they have to be transported by road, over various distances, to centralized processing plants for slaughter. The birds may be exposed to a variety of stressors during transit, including the thermal demands of the transport microenvironment. The thermal environments experienced by broiler chickens durin...

Hydration forces between DNA molecules in the A- and B-Form were studied using a newly developed technique enabling simultaneous in situ control of temperature and relative humidity. X-ray diffraction data were collected from oriented calf-thymus DNA fibers in the relative humidity range of 98%-70%, during which DNA undergoes the B- to A-form transition. Coexistence of both forms was observed o...

The effect of moisture absorption on the glass transition temperature (T(g)) and stress/strain behavior of network polyurethane shape memory polymer (SMP) foams has been investigated. With our ultimate goal of engineering polyurethane SMP foams for use in blood contacting environments, we have investigated the effects of moisture exposure on the physical properties of polyurethane foams. To our...

The combination of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and chlorhexidine (CHX) forms a precipitate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of irrigating root canals with a combination of NaOCl and CHX on root dentin and dentinal tubules by using the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and a computer program (Photoshop CS2). Forty-four extracted single-rooted human teeth were ins...

Calculus formation on tooth surfaces is analogous to the formation of lime and scale deposits in plumbing. Magnetic water devices have been shown to significantly reduce scale deposits in industry; therefore an oral irrigator with a magnetic water device may have a similar effect on calculus. To test this hypothesis, a double-blind clinical study was established using 64 irrigators, 30 of which...

The ndh genes encoding for the subunits of NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex represent the largest family of plastid genes without a clearly defined function. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plastid transformants were produced in which the ndhB gene was inactivated by replacing it with a mutant version possessing translational stops in the coding region. Western-blot analysis indicated that no function...

Relative humidity sensors are common components in building heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and their performance can significantly impact energy use in these systems. A study was undertaken to test and evaluate the most commonly used relative humidity sensors in building HVAC systems, namely the capacitive and resistive types. Sensor models from six different manufac...