Emergent Life Sciences Research

5-9

Authors: Bidhya Maharjan, Dipak Khanal

An experiment was conducted in Horticulture field of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Paklihawa, Nepal to know the status of Scarabaeid beetle species and population by using light trap. Weekly monitoring of scarabaeid beetles adults with 85 watt vapor lights run from dawn to dusk during April, May, June and July in a field with multiple crops in 2014 showed that beetle populations were higher in May and June than in April and July. Overall, 227 specimens of Scarabaeid beetles were collected and 36% were Coprius indicus (Blanchard), 18% were Anomala mongiloca (Faldermann), 11% were Holotrichia spp., 9% were Cyclocephala spp., 8% were Phyllophaga spp., 6% were Heteronuchus lioderes (Redtenbachen), 5% were Onthophagus madoqua (Arrow), 5% were Alissonotum binodulum (Fairmaire), 2% were Maladera castanea (Arrow), and 0.5% (1 beetle) was Popillia birmaniaca (Arrow).

46-51

Authors: Sajitha V., Smitha Asok Vijayamma

This study was designed to assess the quality of pond water in Athiyannoor panchayath, Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala, with respect to the physico-chemical parameters including Temperature, pH, EC (Electrical Conductivity), TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), TA (Total Alkalinity), DO (Dissolved oxygen), TH (Total Hardness), NaCl (Salinity), Ca (Calcium), Mg (Magnesium), Cl (Chloride), Na (Sodium) and K (Potassium). The results were evaluated and compared with WHO and BIS water quality standards. From the data obtained, the water quality index was calculated to quantify overall pond water quality status of the area. It is found that based on the WQI results the samples are falling under excellent category and hence suitable for domestic purposes.

59-63

Authors: Sandra Yesudasan Miranda, Vineetha P., Smitha Asok Vijayamma

Sacred groves are small forest patches or remnants of forests that are biodiversity-rich areas and revered in the name of God. Rapid urbanization and the concomitant development of infrastructure have taken a heavy toll on these unique ecosystems. The present study has identified and mapped seven selected Sacred groves in Thiruvananthapuram district and also analyzed the land use in the area using Remote Sensing data. The accuracy of unsupervised classification-based image and supervised classification-based predicted land use was compared and Kappa accuracy was assessed. The results showed moderate classification accuracy. The area-wise details of different land use categories were also obtained as part of the study

67-72

Authors: Amit Gupta, Sushama R Chaphalkar

Biotechnology covers a broad spectrum of scientific applications that are applied in many sectors including health and agriculture. It involves the usage of living organisms, or its parts in order to deliver innovative methods of production and create new products e.g. new vaccine production (through disease diagnosis) to avoid disease-attack; genetically modified plants (to develop resistance against various pests); bacteria having the ability to cleaning up oil spills etc. All these features are related to biotechnology that is totally applicable to human health care. In other words, biotechnology related to human healthcare has a tremendous impact on the necessity of patients and their families as it not only revolves around medicines and diagnostics that are produced employing a biotechnological process, but also involve gene and cell therapies, recombinant DNA products, tissue engineered products and controlling environment pollution. Today, the majorities of innovative medicines either produced using biotechnology or through diagnostic products, are made readily available to the society by applying modern biotechnology in their development and/or expansion processes