General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

Notes:
African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is a disease spread by an infected tsetse fly, found in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa.The vast majority of human cases result from the transfer of T. brucei trypanosomes by tsetse flies as they suck human blood. Sleeping sickness is caused by two different parasites, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.

Notes:
Panthera pardus is the scientific name of leopard, one of the five “big cats” in the genus Panthera. It is a member of the family Felidae with a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. It belongs to the Chordata phylum, Mammalia class and Carnivora order.

Notes:
While fertilization is necessary for organisms that reproduce sexually, individuals that reproduce asexually?do so without the need for fertilization. These organisms produce genetically identical copies of themselves through?binary fission, budding, fragmentation, parthenogenesis, or other forms of asexual reproduction.

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Solitary cymose inflorescence refers to a determinate inflorescence composed of a single flower. Examples include poppy, gardenia (ornamental plant), tulip, etc. Flowers are said to be solitary when the plant bears only one, or when single flowers appear on the ends of lateral branches that are remote from one another.

Notes:
Persons with AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, Rabies, Septicaemia, Acute leukemia (Blood cancer), Tetanus, Cholera, and infectious diseases like Meningitis and Encephalitis cannot donate eyes. Even people with diabetes, asthma, hypertension, or persons wearing spectacles and who had undergone cataract surgery can also donate eyes.

Notes:
The skin is the soft outer covering of vertebrates that guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments, and internal organs. The cutaneous membrane is the technical term for our skin. The skin’s primary role is to help protect the rest of the body’s tissues and organs from physical damage such as abrasions, chemical damage such as detergents, and biological damage from micro organisms. Our skin is made of three general layers. In order from most superficial to deepest they are the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue.

Notes:
Bharat Biotech, a vaccine company, in December 2017, received Pre-Qualification tag from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Typbar TCV or Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine. The WHO tag would allow the firm to access global public vaccination programmes. Typbar TCV is the first typhoid vaccine, clinically proven to be administered to children from six months of age to adults and confers long term protection against typhoid fever.

Notes:
The mottling of dental enamel is an extremely common disorder, characterized by hypomineralization of tooth enamel caused by ingestion of excessive fluoride during enamel formation. It is also known as dental fluorosis. Common causes of fluorosis include: fluoridated drinking water (particularly during infancy), ingestion of fluoride toothpaste, use of fluoride tablets, and consumption of processed foods made with fluoridated water.

Notes:
Herbivorous animals have longer intestines than that of carnivorous animals. This is because their diet is grass and plants, made up of fibre and cellulose which are hard to digest. As a result, the herbivorous animals need a longer digestive track to digest their foods completely.

Notes:
A seed can germinate in the absence of adequate light. It’s only photoblastic seeds which need light exposure for germination such lettuce, maize, etc. Small seeds generally germinate better in light than in darkness, while large seeds do not exhibit a difference in germination between these two conditions (Milberg et al. 2000. 2000. Large seeded species are less dependent on light for germination than small-seeded ones.