Corrections and acknowledgment for ``Local limit theory and large deviations for supercritical branching processes''

Corrections and acknowledgment for ``Local limit theory and large deviations for supercritical branching processes'' [math.PR/0407059]Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051606000000574 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Taxonomic and molecular identification of Verpa bohemica: A newly explored fungi from Rajouri (J&K), India

A species of mushroom, Verpa bohemica was collected from lower Shivalik range of moist temperate Conifer forest of Rajouri and identified on the basis of morphological and molecular characterization. Universal fungus primers (ITS1 and ITS4) were used in amplification process of target region of rDNA (ITS1 5.8S I). Bioinformatics approach was followed for its molecular identification. Its rDNA sequence, when aligned in GenBank by performing BLAST, matches 100% with Verpa bohemica. The rDNA sequence of this species forms a distinct clade from the rest of species of the same genus. This species is being reported and explored first time from Rajouri Dist. of Jammu & Kashmir, India.&nbsp

Biodiversity of fresh water algae from Guindy campus of Chennai, India

The present work deals with the 35 fresh water algal samples and description of 62 taxa of biodiversity of fresh water algae from University of Madras Guindy campus of Chennai. Collections of 35 fresh water algal samples were carried out during the month of December 2010 to April 2011. Samples were examined in the laboratory and identified. The following algae were present Chlorococcum(1), Elakatothrix (1), Chlorella (1), Palmellococcus (1), Tetraedron  (1), Polyedriopsis (1), Chodatella (1), Oocystis (2),  Coelastrum (1), Scenedesmus quadricauda  (Turpin) Breb. var. longispina  (Chodat) G. M. Smith, Scenedesmus (3), Microspora (1), Rhizoclonium (1), Trentipholia  (2), Closterium (1), Cosmarium (5) of Chlorophyceae, Cyclotella (1),  Fragilaria (2),  Achnanthes (1), Amphora (1), Navicula (5), Pinnularia (1), Hantzschia  (1) and Nitzschia (1) of Bacillariophyceae and Microcystis (1), Chroococcus (3)  Chroococcidiopsis (1), Gloeocapsa (2), Gleocapsopsis (1), Aphanotheace (1), Chlorogloea (2), Oscillatoria (3), Phormidium (3), Lyngbya (3), Microcoleus (1), Microchaete tenera (1), Calothrix (1), Camptylonema (1)  and Hapalosiphon (1) of Cyanophyceae were recorded. Algae are described with photographs

IN VITRO ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AND GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY ANALYSIS OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF LEAVES OF ELETTARIA CARDAMOMUM L. MATON

Objective: The objective of the present study is to determine the possible phytoconstituents identified by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of an ethanolic leaves extract of Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton.Methods: The extraction of E. cardamomum was done by cold solvent extraction system at room temperature. GC-MS analysis of lyophilized ethanolic leaves extract of plant samples was carried out by GC-MS-GC Clarus 500 Perkin Elmer. Results: In E. cardamomum, 21 phytochemicals were identified among which retinal, 9-cis-showed the highest area (44.86%) and benzeneethanamine, α-methyl- showed the lowest area (0.12%). The major compounds identified were retinal, 9-cis-, 1-heptatriacotanol, phytol, n-hexadecanoic acid, naphthalene,decahydro-1,1,4atrimethyl-6-methylene-5-(3-methyl-2-4-pentadienyl)-[4aS-(4aα,5α,8aα)]-, β-pinene, 2H-pytan-3-ol,6- ethenyltetrahydro-2,2,6-trimethyl-and cyclopropane, trimethanol, (2-methyl-1-propanylidene).Conclusion: GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of hydrocarbon alkane, ester, terpenes, phenolic compounds, steroids, and fatty acids in E. cardamomum. These active phytoconstituents contribute to the medicinal efficacy of the plant, and the plant can be used for the sourcing of these compounds

A novel fuzzy and multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based gene assignment for clustering short time series expression data

Conventional clustering algorithms based on Euclidean distance or Pearson correlation coefficient are not able to include order information in the distance metric and also unable to distinguish between random and real biological patterns. We present template based clustering algorithm for time series gene expression data. Template profiles are defined based on up-down regulation of genes between consecutive time points. Assignment of genes to templates is based on fuzzy membership function. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to determine compact clusters with varying number of templates. Statistical significance of each template is determined using permutation based non-parametric test. Statistically significant profiles are further tested for their biological relevance using gene ontology analysis. The algorithm was able to distinguish between real and noisy pattern when tested on artificial and real biological data. The proposed algorithm has shown better or similar performance compared to STEM and better than k-means on a real biological data

Coral reef fish abundance and diversity of seagrass beds in Kavaratti atoll, Lakshadweep, India

The community organization of coral reef fishes in the seagrass sub-habitat of Kavaratti toll, Lakshadweep, India was studied during the period from January 1991 to June 1992. Twenty-seven families represented by 65 species were recorded by the visual censes method. The community diversity for families and species was 2.49 and 3.14 respectively. Juveniles and sub-adults of the most adult reef fish, which inhabit other sub-habitats, were recorded here. The high species diversity in the seagrass beds is due to their roles as nurseries, shelter and foraging grounds for many species. Labridae, Chaetodontidae, Acanthuridae and Mullidae were the most speciose families. Ocurrence of siganids was highly seasonal. The cover that seagrass canopy provides conceals many species and perhaps influenced counts. The occurrence of balistids could be related to the presence of interstitial and patches and abundant invertebrate food. Scorpaenids subsisted on abundant invertebrates and juveniles fishes. High counts and pronounced variations make seagrass beds unstable habitats. However, monsoon assemblages were relatively stable perhaps due to lack of excessive new recruits and a habitat shift by most species

Diversity of fungi as human pathogen

Worldwide human pathogenic fungi cause I nvasive diseases, pose a serious and growing health problem and are a major cause of death. Superficial mycosis is more prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries including India, where heat and moisture play an important role in promoting of Anthropophilic dermatophytes and tends to get worse during summer, with symptoms alleviating during the winter. Such fungi are known as Dermatophytes and usually colonize the outer layer of the skin, occasionally invade subcutaneous tissues, resulting in kerion development of ringworm symptoms. These symptoms develop by a number of different fungal species e.g. Trichophyton , Microsporum  and Epidermatophyton are proved most common causative agents. Such fungi attack various parts of the body and lead to Dermatophytosis as Tinea pedis (athlete's foot) affects  on the feet; Tinea unguium on the fingernails and toenails; Tinea corporis on the arms, legs and trunk, Tinea cruris (jock itch) groin area ; Tinea manuum  hands and palm area ,Tinea capitis on the scalp, Tinea barbae affects facial hair; Tinea faciei on the face etc..  The other superficial mycoses (not classic ringworm or dermatophytes) are Tinea versicolor caused by Malassezia furfur and Tinea nigra caused by Hortaea werneckii

Energy for a sustainable road/rail transport system in India

The main motivation for this study is that the strong transport-energy nexus has not received the attention it deserves, though energy is a crucial constraint on transport, and transport is a major determinant of energy demand. Also, many detailed treatments of the transport sector have not scrutinised the sustainability of the present pattern of development of this sector. Further, the prevailing paradigm guiding the development of the sector is made explicit and critiqued because it is often the root cause of its unsustainability. And, because treatments of transport policy issues tend to proceed without a clear statement of underlying goals and strategies, the entire hierarchy of interventions - from goals to strategies to policies - has been discussed. Finally, an attempt has been made to deal with both the supply and demand aspects of the transport sector. The study is restricted to road and rail transport since air and water (inland waters, and coastal and international seas) transport handle very small fractions of domestic traffic demand. The detailed discussions are preceded by overviews of the main features of the Indian transport system as well as of the energy sector as pertaining to transport. It is suggested that the goal of the Indian transport sector should be an efficient, capital-saving, non-import-intensive, affordable, service-oriented and environmentally sound transport system, i.e., a sustainable transport system. A strategy or broad plan to achieve this goal of a sustainable transport system should consist of several components: (1) minimisation of dependence on petroleum fuels, (2) maximisation of the level of safe, comfortable and time-saving transport services, (3) maximisation of the environmental soundness of the transport system, and in particular, reduction of local and global environmental pollution, (4) minimisation of the capital requirements for the transport modal mix that should also include non-motorised transport (NMT), and (5) minimisation of the energy used by the transport system without a reduction of the services provided. The detailed policies (plans or courses of action) to implement the above strategies for achieving a sustainable transport system fall into the following categories: (1) transport-energy database generation and use, (2) demand management, (3) technological improvements in road transport, (4) improvement of the capacity and quality of road infrastructure, (5) traffic management, (6) improvement of the railways, (7) improvement of urban transport, (8) providing a niche for non-motorised modes of transport, (9) pollution control and abatement, (10) costing and pricing, (11) modal shifts to achieve a least-cost freight modal mix, (12) modal shifts to achieve a least-cost passenger modal mix, (13) solutions to the transport sector's problems through measures in other sectors, (14) alternative fuels. Appropriate policy instruments or mechanisms for initiating and maintaining the policies as well as suitable policy agents to wield the policy instruments have also been identified. The market has the power of being an excellent allocator of money, materials and manpower, but unfortunately also has definite limits - it is not very good at looking after the poor, the environment, the long-term and the infrastructure and national strategic concerns such as self-reliance and external debt, all of which are of crucial relevance to the transport system. Hence, the visible hand of government and the people must complement the invisible hand of the market. In conclusion, both short-term low-cost measures to attract political decision-makers with short time-horizons and long-term measures have been mentioned. The short-term measures consist mainly of better maintenance, better driving practices, optimal routing of buses, dedicated routes for buses with traffic restrictions on these dedicated routes, special lanes for slow traffic, supply constraint on personal vehicles, export orientation to the production of personal vehicles, removal of kerosene and diesel subsidies, no long-haul truck permits, increase of truck taxes and shift of passengers travelling less than 300 km from rail to bus. The long-term measures consist mainly of increases in fuel efficiency, introduction of lower-power bus engines, increases in number of buses and/or suburban trains, investments on mass transportation infrastructure, home electrification, improvement of rail freight operations, truck-rail freight linkage, introduction of CNG for urban fleets, switches to biomass-derived fuels for transportation, biomass-derived fuels as petrol and diesel extenders, silviculture for biomass-derived fuels, and alternative cooking fuels and/or devices to replace kerosene

In-silico single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) mining of Sorghum bicolor genome

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may be considered the ultimate genetic markers as they represent the finest resolution of a DNA sequence (a single nucleotide), and are generally abundant in populations with a low mutation rate. SNPs are important tools in studying complex genetic traits and genome evolution. SNP mining can be done by experimental and computational methods. Computational strategies for SNP discovery make use of a large number of sequences present in public databases [in most cases as expressed sequence tags (ESTs)] and are considered to be faster and more cost-effective than experimental procedures. A major challenge in computational SNP discovery is distinguishing allelic variation from sequence variation between paralogous sequences, in addition to recognizing sequencing errors. For the majority of the public EST sequences, trace or quality files are lacking which makes detection of reliable SNPs even more difficult because it has to rely on sequence comparisons only. In the present study, online SNP and allele detection tool HaploSNPer (based on QualitySNP pipeline) and Sorghum bicolor genome was used. As a result, 77094 potential SNPs and 40589 reliable SNPs were detected in S. bicolor. In the 77094 potential SNPs detectedtransitions, transversions and indels were 34398, 35871 and 6825, respectively. In the 40589 reliable SNPs detected transitions, transversions and indels were 17042, 20500 and 3047, respectively.Key words: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), expressed sequence tags (EST), HaploSNPer