Technology of mussel culture

Culture of edible molluscs is now recognised as an effective way of enhancing food production and sea mussels among all the known cultivable organisms, give the highest production rate for two reasons : (1) they feed directly on the primary producers namely the phytoplankton and (2) it is farmed three-dimensionally in the water colunm at the farm site. The world production of mussels amounted to 13,37,551 tonnes in 1988 (FAO, 1992) of which 10,86,310 t originated from culture. China ranks first in the production of cultured mussels in the world, followed by Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark and France

Farm technology

Mussels are sedentary a nimals growing attached to hard substrates along the coastal region by means of self secreted threads called byssus. They can be transpl anted from their natural habitats t o any artificial hard objects in the sea where they will re-attach secreting fresh byssus threads

A pattern based model driven approach to model transformations.

The OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) initiative has been the focus of much attention in both academia and industry, due to its promise of more rapid and consistent software development through the increased use of models. In order for MDA to reach its full potential, the ability to manipulate and transform models { most obviously from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to the Platform Specic Models (PSM) { is vital. Recognizing this need, the OMG issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) largely concerned with nding a suitable mechanism for trans- forming models. This paper outlines the relevant background material, summarizes the approach taken by the QVT-Partners (to whom the authors belong), presents a non-trivial example using the QVT-Partners approach, and nally sketches out what the future holds for model transformations

A model driven approach to model transformations.

The OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) initiative has been the focus of much attention in both academia and industry, due to its promise of more rapid and consistent software development through the increased use of models. In order for MDA to reach its full potential, the ability to manipulate and transform models { most obviously from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to the Platform Specic Models (PSM) { is vital. Recognizing this need, the OMG issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) largely concerned with nding a suitable mechanism for trans- forming models. This paper outlines the relevant background material, summarizes the approach taken by the QVT-Partners (to whom the authors belong), presents a non-trivial example using the QVT-Partners approach, and finally sketches out what the future holds for model transformations

A model driven approach to building implementable model transformations.

The OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) initiative has been the focus of much attention in both academia and industry, due to its promise of more rapid and consistent software development through the increased use of models. In order for MDA to reach its full potential, the ability to manipulate and transform models { most obviously from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to the Platform Specic Models (PSM) { is vital. Recognizing this need, the OMG issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) largely concerned with nding a suitable mechanism for trans- forming models. This paper outlines the relevant background material, summarizes the approach taken by the QVT-Partners (to whom the authors belong), presents a non-trivial example using the QVT-Partners approach, and nally sketches out what the future holds for model transformations

Production of Akoya pearls from the Southwest coast of India

The Indian pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould) is typically capable of producing pearls of 3–5 mm diameter. The feasibility of production of pearls similar to Akoya pearls of 6–8 mm diameter was studied from the southwest coast of India. Along with this, mortality and retention rates of implanted oysters, rate of nacre production, thickness of nacre deposited, quality and type of pearls produced and effect of hydrographic variations on the mortality of implanted oysters were also studied. A total of 706 oysters were implanted, 311 with 5 mm, 395 with 6 mm nuclei and stocked in 30 cages for a period of 317 days. The mortality rates were highest, 0.173 ± 0.22 for the 6 mm nucleus implanted oysters followed by 5 mm nucleus implanted oysters at 0.107 ± 0.025 during the first 30 days after implantatio

Growth and biometric relationships of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould) on transplanting from the Gulf of Mannar to the Arabian Sea

Comparative studies were made on the growth and biometric relationships of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould) Tuticorin stock at (Tuticorin (TST) ^ parent stock) transplanted from the Tuticorin Bay (8.71N;78.21E) in the Gulf of Mannar along the Indian southeast coast to Kollam Bay (8.81N; 76.51E) in the Arabian Sea along the Indian southwest coast (Tuticorin stock at Kollam (TSK) ^ transplanted stock). At the time of transplantation, Kollam Bay did not have a native stock, however, within a year, the transplanted stock spawned and oyster spats were collected from within the farm (Kollam stock (KS) ^ progeny stock). The growth in dorso-ventral measurement and total weight in Kollam Bay was 1.4^1.6 times and 3.1to 6.8 times respectively greater than that observed at Tuticorin

A Pattern Based Approach to Defining the Dynamic Infrastructure of UML 2.0

The 2U Consortium has recently submitted a proposal for the definition of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. This uses an innovative technique of rapidly “stamping out” the definition using a small number of patterns commonly found in software architecture. The patterns, their instantiation, and any further language details are described using precise class diagrams and OCL, this enables the definition to be easily understood. The main focus of the 2U approach is on the static part of the definition. A further concern when modelling software, using languages such as the UML, is describing the dynamic behaviour of the system over time. The contribution of this paper is to provide a template that can be used to “stamp out” the dynamic part of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. We argue for the suitability of the dynamic template because it makes little commitment to concrete abstractions and can, therefore, be used to support a broad spectrum of behavioural languages

Bibliography of the Indian Ocean 1931 – 1961 - A supplement to the ‘Partial Bibliography’

This Bulletin is a continuation of Bulletin No. 4 issued from this Institute as a Supplement (for the 1900-1930 period) to the ‘Partial Bibliography of the Indian Ocean’ brought out by the U. S. Program in Biology in 1962. In spite of various handicaps my colleagues have managed to bring together as many relevant references as possible for the 1931-1961 period, which did not find a place in the ‘Partial Bibliography’. There are in all 2682 references of which the greater part comes under fishes (827), crustaceans (418) and molluscs (293). The preparation of the Bulletin was undertaken at my suggestion by Messrs. R. S. Lal Mohan, D.B. James and K.K. Appukuttan who completed the same without prejudice to their routine work. It is needless to say that they had sacrificed a great deal of their spare time for this purpose and gives me great pleasure to record my sincere thanks and appreciation for their high sense of responsibility, co-operative spirit and devotion to duty. My thanks are also due to other members of the staff who in various ways helped in the completion of the Bulletin

Involvement of B cells in non-infectious uveitis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Non-infectious uveitis—or intraocular inflammatory disease—causes substantial visual morbidity and reduced quality of life amongst affected individuals. To date, research of pathogenic mechanisms has largely been focused on processes involving T lymphocyte and/or myeloid leukocyte populations. Involvement of B lymphocytes has received relatively little attention. In contrast, B-cell pathobiology is a major field within general immunological research, and large clinical trials have showed that treatments targeting B cells are highly effective for multiple systemic inflammatory diseases. B cells, including the terminally differentiated plasma cell that produces antibody, are found in the human eye in different forms of non-infectious uveitis; in some cases, these cells outnumber other leukocyte subsets. Recent case reports and small case series suggest that B-cell blockade may be therapeutic for patients with non-infectious uveitis. As well as secretion of antibody, B cells may promote intraocular inflammation by presentation of antigen to T cells, production of multiple inflammatory cytokines and support of T-cell survival. B cells may also perform various immunomodulatory activities within the eye. This translational review summarizes the evidence for B-cell involvement in non-infectious uveitis, and considers the potential contributions of B cells to the development and control of the disease. Manipulations of B cells and/or their products are promising new approaches to the treatment of non-infectious uveitis