Report on the first occurrence of Bathynomus giganteus, a deep sea isopod from the west coast of India

A deep sea isopod specimen was collected from Cochin Fisheries Harbour, while unloading the catch on 14.03.2006. The giant isopod was caught by a trawler operated at a depth of 520 meters off Ezhimala, Kannur district of Kerala. The specimen was identified as Bathynomus giganteus (Fig 1A &B) belonging to the order isopoda, suborder flabellifera and family cirulanidae

Performance Comparison of Total Variation based Image Regularization Algorithms

The mathematical approach calculus of variation is commonly used to find an unknown function that minimizes or maximizes the functional. Retrieving the original image from the degraded one, such problems are called inverse problems. The most basic example for inverse problem is image denoising. Variational methods are formulated as optimization problems and provides a good solution to image denoising. Three such variational methods Tikhonov model, ROF model and Total Variation-L1 model for image denoising are studied and implemented. Performance of these variational algorithms are analyzed for different values of regularization parameter. It is found that small value of regularization parameter causes better noise removal whereas large value of regularization parameter preserves well sharp edges. The Euler’s Lagrangian equation corresponding to an energy functional used in variational methods is solved using gradient descent method and the resulting partial differential equation is solved using Euler’s forward finite difference method. The quality metrics are computed and the results are compared in this paper.

Estimated marine fish landings (in tonnes)in India during 2002 and 2003

Estimated marine fishing landing in India during 2002 and 2003 is 2.59 and 2.58 millon tonnes respectively. Gear wise landing were also estimated during this period

Marine Fish Calendar. 4 Cochin

The article provides details about the marine fish landing at Cochin fisheries harbour, Kerala during the period 1981-1985. It was found that the majority of the landing was contributed by purse seine followed by trawlers, drift gill nets, boat seines, hooks and lines etc

The Indian White prawn Penaeus indicus in the Purse seine catches

White prawn shoal was sighted by purse seine fishermen about 20 km SW of Cochin at about 30-35 m depth, while steaming to the purse seine fishing grounds. The catch was composed mainly of fairly large sized prawns numbering 25-30/kg of females and 3G-40/kg of males (head on). The size ranged from 145 to 185 mm with the dominant modes at 151-155 and 166-170 mm for females and 135 to 170 mm with the dominant mode at 150-155 mm for males . In the purse seine catch the sexes were of almost equal distribution; the females constituting 50.4% of the population. In this context the present observation of unusual landings of fairly large sized P. indicus in abundance in the purse seines is especially interesting, which could have been the result of the large scale migration of the species into the columnar waters during premonsoon and monsoo

On a juvenile whale shark Rhincodon typus Smith landed at Cochin

Report on an immature female whale shark of 1.5 tonnes caught about 20 km southwest of Cochin, India

Emergent behaviour and phase transitions in spatially distributed multi-cellular metabolic networks

Overflow metabolism is a ubiquitous phenomenon whereby cells in aerobic conditions excrete byproducts of glycolysis, such as lactate or acetate, into the medium in a seemingly wasteful and polluting fashion. Whilst overflow may confer microbes a fitness advantage by allowing them to overcome a finite oxidative capacity, its occurrence in higher organisms is harder to assess. Important insight was however obtained in recent experiments conducted at single-cell resolution, which revealed that accumulation of overflow products in tumor cell cultures known as the Warburg effect arises from imbalances in the dynamic and heterogeneous inter-cellular exchange network through which cells collectively regulate the microenvironment. Here we provide a quantitative characterization of this scenario by integrating metabolic network modeling with diffusion constraints, statistical physics theory and single-cell experimental flux data. On the theoretical side, we clarify how diffusion-limited exchanges shape the space of viable metabolic states of a multi-cellular system. Specifically, a phase transition from a balanced network of exchanges to an unbalanced overflow regime occurs as the mean cellular glucose and oxygen uptakes vary while single-cell metabolic phenotypes are highly heterogeneous around this transition. We then show that time-resolved data from human tumor-stroma cell co-cultures consistently map to this crossover region, supporting the idea that environmental deterioration reflects a failure of coordination among recurrently interacting cells. In summary, our findings suggest that, rather than deriving from multiple independent cell-autonomous processes, environmental control is an emergent feature of multi-cellular systems.Comment: Main(14 pages)+ supporting information(14 pages). Comments are welcom

Analysis of 1.2kV GaN polarisation superjunction diode surge current capability

Surge current capability of power diodes is one of the essential parameters that needs to be considered for high power density operations in power electronic applications. Gallium Nitride (GaN) is emerging as the next generation of power semiconductor devices due to its superior material characteristics. This work presents the device working principle, characteristics, and the surge capability of 1200V GaN polarisation superjunction (PSJ) hybrid diodes. The experimental results show that the GaN PSJ diode can withstand a surge current of 60A which is around 8 times its rated current and a surge energy of 5.4J. Additionally, despite having a merged PiN and Schottky structure, no bipolar current flow due to the activation of p-doped GaN can be observed until breakdown. This can also be confirmed through the device forward characteristic which shows a unique saturation behaviour at about 76A without any bipolar region

Antimicrobial and Larvicidal Activities of Different Ocimum Essential Oils Extracted by Ultrasound-Assisted Hydrodistillation.

Infectious diseases and their vectors have remained a concern for human population from their historical origin. Microbial pathogens have also emerged as a potent threat to the healthcare systems even in developed countries. Essential oils remain a less explored method for infectious disease control; besides, the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of essential oil production has emerged as promising source of bioactive volatiles over conventional methods. This study analyzed the possible use of UAE- Essential oils (EOs) from different species of Ocimum plants (Ocimum basilicum (OB), O. gratissimum (OG), O. tenuiflorum (OT), and O. canum (OC)) in the management of microbial pathogens and mosquito larval control. The antibacterial activity was estimated in terms of a disc diffusion assay and minimum inhibitory concentrations against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella enteritidis. The larvicidal property was found using three important mosquito vectors and the LC50 value was determined. Furthermore, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties were estimated in terms of radical scavenging activities and the inhibition of lipoxygenase enzyme activity. The EOs exhibited significant DPPH radical scavenging (high in OG), hydrogen-peroxide scavenging (OB) and lipoxygenase inhibition (OB). The antibacterial activity was high in OB and OG (p < 0.05) and the larvicidal activity was of higher sensitivity against Aedis and Culex, whereas Armigeres was more resistant. However, no sign of toxicity in the Allium cepa model or non-targeted organism Guppy fishes was observed. Overall, the UAE extracted Ocimum essential oils were found to be effective against various human pathogenic microbial organisms, with OB and OG being highly active. Likewise, the EOs was also able to induce mortality in the larval forms of various mosquito vectors

Morin hydrate downregulates inflammation-mediated nitric oxide overproduction and potentiates antioxidant mechanism against anticancer drug doxorubicin oxidative hepatorenal toxicity in rats

Objective: Doxorubicin (DOX) is a frontline antineoplastic drug that kills cancer cells through genotoxic mechanism; however, it induces organ toxicities. This study assayed whether morin hydrate (MOH) could abrogate DOX hepatorenal toxicity in rats. Materials and Methods: There were 4 groups of rats: Control, MOH, DOX and MOH + DOX. Rats were administered MOH (orally, 100 mg/kg bw) for 7 consecutive days, while DOX was injected (40 mg/kg, ip) on the 5th day only. Hepatorenal function markers, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities were estimated in both organs. Hepatorenal glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO) levels were estimated with histopathology. Results: DOX significantly (p<0.05) reduced antioxidant enzyme activities and GSH level, while NO and MDA levels increased (p<0.05) compared to the control. DOX prominently altered hepatorenal indices and induced histopathological alterations. MOH abrogated the DOX hepatorenal toxicity and alleviated the histological lesions in the liver and kidney. Conclusion: MOH restored the indices via antioxidant mechanism and downregulation of NO overproduction in rats