Studies on DNA barcoding of sacred plant - Ficus religiosa L.

In the present investigation, DNA barcoding were made for the sacred trees of Main (Big) Temples in Cuddalore district, namely Ficus religiosa, to document their reliable identification, discrimination, similarities and evolutionary trend among them and with their related taxa for future use.  DNA isolation from leaf samples of present study species was carried out by using a modified CTAB method and good isolation was got for the species studied. Gradient PCR amplification was performed for the isolated DNA using matK gene and the primers matK472F & matK1248R.  The amplification success was 90-95%. PCR amplification was tested with 1 % agarose gel electrophoresis using ethidium bromide and the products were confirmed.  The PCR products were sent to Xcelris Labs Ltd. Sydney House, Premchand Nagar Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad 380054, India, for DNA sequencing and sequences were got for the species with the success rate of 95 %.  Pairwise sequence alignments were made with BLAST and multiple sequence alignments are made with ClustalW, and based on the sequence alignments, dentrograms were constructed using software Mega 5 and Neighbor joining method to study the phylogenetic aspects of the species studied and with their related taxa

Effect of exercise intervention on vestibular related impairments in hearing-impaired children

Objective: To analyze the methodological quality and compile the evidence from studies, which examined the efficacy of exercise interventions in the treatment of vestibular-related deficits in hearing-impaired children.Sources: Extensive search of computerized bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, CINHAL, EMBASE, SCOPUS, ISI of web science, Cochrane Library, and AMED) was performed from earliest to February 7, 2011.Data extraction: Potential articles were retained and analyzed by a single investigator to ensure the eligibility criteria. Methodological quality was analyzed using the PEDro scale.Results: Our search yielded 8326 articles. Finally, two potential citations were retained for inclusion after removing duplicates, and excluding articles that do not fulfill the criteria.Conclusion: Exercise programs that enhances the visual–motor and somatosensory abilities that enable substitution are more effective in improving the vestibular related deficits in children with hearing-impairment.Keywords: Vestibular impairment/hypofunction; Exercise/rehabilitation; Hearing impairment; Children; Review (publication type

Traditional Phytotherapy for Diabetes Used by the People of Perambalur District, Tamilnadu, South India

Diabetes is caused due to deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. It is a global problem and the numbers of people affected are increasing day by day. Plants provide a potential source of antidiabetic drugs. In India, most of the people, especially in rural areas use traditional medicine of plants to treat many diseases including diabetes. The aim of the present study was to document medicinal plants, traditionally used to treat diabetes by the people of Perambalur district. Traditional health practitioners were interviewed with standardized questionnaires in order to obtain information on medicinal plants traditionally used for the management of diabetes. Thirty species of 29 genera and 22 families were encountered during this study

Theoretical Bounds on Control-Plane Self-Monitoring in Routing Protocols

Routing protocols rely on the cooperation of nodes in the network to both forward packets and to select the forwarding routes. There have been several instances in which an entire network's routing collapsed simply because a seemingly insignificant set of nodes reported erroneous routing information to their neighbors. It may have been possible for other nodes to trigger an automated response and prevent the problem by analyzing received routing information for inconsistencies that revealed the errors. Our theoretical study seeks to understand when nodes can detect the existence of errors in the implementation of route selection elsewhere in the network through monitoring their own routing states for inconsistencies. We start by constructing a methodology, called Strong-Detection, that helps answer the question. We then apply Strong-Detection to three classes of routing protocols: distance-vector, path-vector, and link-state. For each class, we derive low-complexity, self-monitoring algorithms that use the routing state created by these routing protocols to identify any detectable anomalies. These algorithms are then used to compare and contrast the self-monitoring power these various classes of protocols possess. We also study the trade-off between their state-information complexity and ability to identify routing anomalies

Analysis of gamma rays induced variability in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

ArticleIn this study, a lentil variety, Idlib-3, was subjected to 100 Gy (LD50) gamma-ray irradiation. At M2, mutant families were characterized for the most beneficial agronomic traits. High genotypic coefficient of variation, broad sense heritability and genetic advance of the traits such as seed yield per plant and hundred-seed weight indicated expression of additive gene action and confirmed the response at early generation selection. Total number of pods per plant had positive correlation and the highest positive direct effect on seed yield per plant and hence the preference should be given for this trait during selection. The novel mutant families identified with early flowering, early maturity (families 5 and 90) in cluster I, and more first pod height (families 10,70 and 82) in cluster II could be utilized to breed short duration lentil varieties suitable for machine harvest

A minimally intrusive monitoring system that utilizes electricity consumption as a proxy for wellbeing

The purpose of this work was to test the hypothesis: `Off-the-shelf domestic electricity meters can be utilised to assist in monitoring the wellbeing of elderly people` Many studies have shown that it is, in theory, possible to use domestic electricity consumption to determine `activities of daily living` but the availability of systems for actual use is very limited. This work followed the Design Science Research Methodology to create a Java application running on the Google App Engine cloud service that interfaced with both electricity meters and voice and text services. The system was implemented and tested over a three month period with one older person and their carer. Results demonstrated that the technology readily succeeds in meeting the study`s initial objectives. The need for more sophisticated decision logic was apparent and a method to determine whether a home is currently occupied is likely to improve the ability to create more timely alerts

Off-the-shelf Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Devices Utilised in a Low Activity Detection Service

There is a growing awareness for the need to provide low cost solutions for the care of the elderly and in particular to allow them to keep living independent lives. In parallel to this there has also been significant advances in a number of technical areas including 1) monitoring electricity consumption for the purpose of reducing power costs, 2) non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), 3) using sensors to determine activities of daily living and 4) cloud computing. The purpose of this work was to demonstrate that it is possible to use a readily available consumer off the shelf electricity monitor to provide a low intrusive activity monitor for older persons. This work uses the Design Science Research Methodology and builds on the results of our previous work that used raw electricity usage data. In this work we are trailing the use of a meter that uses NILM to identify individual appliances in the home. The information on appliance use was analysed by a cloud base program and alerts were sent to the carer when lower than expected activity was detected. Participants both in this work and those reported in the literature have mentioned the annoyance of having multiple sensors in a home, especially if they emit either constant or flashing light. In contrast NILM allows the use of multiple electrical appliances to be monitored without the need for a large number of sensors to be deployed – just one sensor at the meter or fuse board. The confluence of a number of technologies has enabled the creation of a low intrusive and low cost monitoring system to have become a reality. The initial trial of the system has been shown to be a mostly reliable alternative to a system built on multiple sensors. Based on previous work that involved the deployment of multiple sensors, the new system is expected to be more acceptable as it has the desired attribute of becoming invisible to the user