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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an emerging, economically important viral disease of goats and sheep in the Indian subcontinent. In the present investigation, 15 hill goats were experimentally infected with 2 ml of 10% splenic suspension of a virulent isolate of PPR virus (PPR/Izatnagar/94) that had caused heavy mortality (>75%) in goats during 1994 outbreaks in northern India. More than 86% (13 of 15) animals died between 9 and 13 days post inoculation at the height of temperature or when temperatures were declining. Necropsy findings included congestion of gastrointestinal tract (GIT), nasal sinuses, consolidation of antero-ventral lobes of lungs, engorged spleen, and occasionally oedematous lymph nodes. Histopathological examination of major organs of GIT revealed degeneration and necrosis of labial mucosa, severe mucosal and submucosal congestion, degeneration and necrosis of intestinal epithelium and lymphoid cell depletion from Peyer's patches along with presence of syncytia at times. Lungs showed broncho-interstitial changes and presence of intracytoplasmic and intranuclear eosinophilic inclusions in alveolar macrophages and syncytial cells. These changes in lungs were frequently complicated with serofibrinous pneumonia (57%, eight of 14). Lymphocytolysis and occasional syncytia formation were evident in the lymphoid tissues. Immunohistochemical (IHC) findings included presence of PPR virus antigen in the labial, intestinal, and bronchiolar epithelial cells, pneumocytes, macrophages and syncytial cells in lungs, and lymphoid (intact and necrotic) and reticular cells in lymphoid organs. The findings of the study indicated the highly virulent nature of the PPR virus isolate (PPR/Izatnagar/94), causing 100% mortality and characteristic pathological changes in the target organs such as lungs, intestines and lymphoid tissues. The results of the IHC study suggested that indirect immunoperoxidase could be an alternative method in the absence of more sophisticated methods of laboratory diagnosis of PPR virus infection in goats.

We have examined longitudinally an ICT for a development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable-albeit localized-social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an-albeit inconsistently-celebrated ICT for a development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period. (c) 2008 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Due to the advancement in science, enhanced knowledge on the physiological aspects of almost all the tissues and the organs of the human body is gained. One of the most important prevalent topics needed for discussion is obesity and its effect on the metabolic changes leading to disorders in the human body such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases in addition to chronic diseases such as stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, some cancers, and inflammation-based pathologies. In recent years, obesity is a serious socioeconomic issue, which has become one of the major health problems all over the world, affecting people of all ages, sex, ethnicities and races. Obesity is a complex and multifactorial disease caused by the interaction of a myriad genetics, dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors and it is characterised by an excessive weight for height due to an enlarged fat deposition in the adipose tissue, which is due to a higher calorie intake than the energy expenditure. The pharmaceutical drugs are currently available to treat obesity but generally they have unpleasant side effects. Recent researches demonstrated the potential of natural products to counteract on obesity. Now the novel promising approach is the usage of dietary supplements and plant products and their bioactive compounds that could interfere on pancreatic lipase activity, food intake, lipid metabolism and adipocyte differentiation. In a similar way, hundreds of extracts are currently being isolated from plants, fungi, algae or bacteria and are screened for their potential inhibitions of activity against obesity. Natural products may have a synergistic activity that increases their bioavailability and action on multiple molecular targets.

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