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SUMMARYExperiments were performed upon twenty-eight male Californian rabbits anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone and breathing room air. Successive injections of glass bead emboli (diameter 125,am) caused an increase in respiratory rate, and decreases in tidal volume (tachypnoeic response) and platelet count. The tachypnoeic response was not observed in rabbits that had been rendered thrombocytopaenic by platelet antiserum. Induction of thrombocytopaenia by antiserum was accompanied by tachypnoea which was not significantly different (P > 0 05) from the response to emboli. The tachypnoeic response to antiserum, like that to emboli, was prevented by bilateral cervical vagotomy. Pre-treatment with aspirin (5 mg/kg), which inhibits the platelet-release reaction, also prevented the tachypnoeic response to both emboli and antiserum, although it did not prevent the fall in platelet count which followed injection of antiserum. These data support the hypothesis that the post-embolic reflex tachypnoea is platelet dependent and may be secondary to the platelet-release reaction.

Tricho-compost, a Trichoderma based compost fertilizer, was developed by mixing a definite concentration of spore suspension of a Trichoderma harzianum strain with measured amounts of processed raw materials, such as cowdung, poultry refuse, water hyacinth, vegetable wastes, sawdust, maize bran, and molasses. Tricho-leachate, a liquid by-product of the Tricho-compost, was obtained during decomposition of Tricho-compost materials. These bioproducts were tested both in the laboratory and in seedbed nurseries to evaluate their effectiveness against soil-borne pathogens for growing cabbage seedlings. Application of Tricho-compost and Tricho-leachate reduced the seedling mortalities of cabbage caused by Sclerotium rolfsii by about 98%. In laboratory tests, Trichoderma harzianum, after re-isolation from Tricho-compost and tricho-leachate, was also found to be highly effective to arrest the growth of S. rolfsii. T. harzianum destroyed the radial growth of S. rolfsii mycelium by 59.7% after five days, and effected total destruction of the mycelium in 10 days. In seedbed nurseries, soil applications of Tricho-compost and Tricho-leachate significantly increased the seedling germination rate and reduced the incidence of soil-borne diseases and infestation of root-knot nematodes. Field experiment showed that combined application of Tricho-compost and Tricho-leachate reduced the seedling mortalities by 40.9% to 64.5% in Gazipur and 53.3% to 62.1% in Bogra. Application of Tricho-leachate at 500 ml per sq. metre increased plant weight by about 55.6%, and reduced the seedling mortality by about 84.0% in Gazipur. Seedbed nurseries treated with Tricho-compost and Tricho-leachate had only Pythium spp as a soil-borne pathogen, whereas the control plot had as many as four soil-borne pathogens -Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium and Fusarium spp. Use of richo-compost and Tricho-leachate also reduced the infestation of root-knot nematode by about 80.7% to 91.0%. The results clearly showed that use of Tricho-compost and Tricho-leachate is highly effective for production of healthy cabbage seedlings. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v37i4.14390 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 37(4): 653-664, December 2012

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The crystal and molecular structure of a vanadyl deoxophylloerythroetioporphyrin (dpep) extracted from oil shale has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in space group P21/c of the monoclinic system with four formula units in a cell of dimensions a 12.912(3), b 14.151(4), c 18.404(8) �, β 70.34(2)�. Block matrix least-squares refinement gives a final R index of 0.077 for 2296 reflections. The planar molecules are packed almost parallel, with the chloroform solvent molecules lying between the planes and weakly associated with the vanadyl oxygen. The molecular structure establishes the presence of an isocyclic five-membered ring, which suggests that the molecule is a derivative of chlorophyll.