Helminth infection in coldwater fishes of Suru river Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India

A helminthological survey of coldwater fishes of Ladakh was carried out from November 2007 to April 2009 (18 months). A total of 93 fishes belonging to two species viz., Schizothorax plagiostomus and Diptychus maculatus were collected and examined from different collection sites of Suru river, Kargil. A total of 2 helminth species viz., Neoechinorhynchus yalei Datta, 1936 and Rhabdochona himalayai Fotedar & Dhar, 1977 belonging to two helminth groups, i-e. Acanthocephala and Nematode were reported. It was found that out of 93 hosts examined, 31 were found infected with 43 parasites recovered in total, with an overall prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of 33.33%, 1.38 and 0.46 respectively. Distribution of helminth infection and its relation with sex and size of host was analysed. The helminth infection showed no significant relationship with sex of hosts however it showed mostly significant relation to size of host

Growth, fruit set and yield of Santa Rosa plum as affected by nitrogen and boron under rainfed conditions of Kashmir Valley

Present experiment was carried out in a seven year old private plum orchard near SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar Campus, Srinagar during 2012 and 2013, to examine the response to nitrogenous fertilizer and boron on growth, fruit set and yield of plum var. Santa Rosa. Urea @ 500 g (N1), CaNO3 @ 1450 g (N2), N1 + 50 g boron (N3) and N2 + 50 g boron (N4) were applied at T1 = Full dose in spring, T2 = Full dose after harvest and T3 = 3/4 dose in spring and 1/4 dose after harvest. Observations were recorded on parameters viz. incremental tree girth, shoot extension growth, plant height, plant spread, leaf area, fruit set, fruit drop, yield, yield efficiency. All the growth parameters were high in treatment combination N1T1. Maximum fruit set (19.68 % and 20.90 %) was recorded in N3T2, yield (20.60 kg/tree and 22.88 kg/tree) was recorded in N4T2, yield efficiency (0.45 and 0.46 kg/cm2) was recorded in N4T2 and minimum fruit drop (4.25 % and 4.55 %) were recorded under the treatment combination N4T2 and N4T3, respectively in the both the years. Both sources of nitrogen and boron can be considered as best fertilizer in plum orchards for improving the growth, fruit set, fruit yield, yield efficiency

Kerr-Schild type initial data for black holes with angular momenta

Generalizing previous work we propose how to superpose spinning black holes in a Kerr-Schild initial slice. This superposition satisfies several physically meaningful limits, including the close and the far ones. Further we consider the close limit of two black holes with opposite angular momenta and explicitly solve the constraint equations in this case. Evolving the resulting initial data with a linear code, we compute the radiated energy as a function of the masses and the angular momenta of the black holes.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Revised version. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Answer Set Programming for Non-Stationary Markov Decision Processes

Non-stationary domains, where unforeseen changes happen, present a challenge for agents to find an optimal policy for a sequential decision making problem. This work investigates a solution to this problem that combines Markov Decision Processes (MDP) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) with Answer Set Programming (ASP) in a method we call ASP(RL). In this method, Answer Set Programming is used to find the possible trajectories of an MDP, from where Reinforcement Learning is applied to learn the optimal policy of the problem. Results show that ASP(RL) is capable of efficiently finding the optimal solution of an MDP representing non-stationary domains

Concurrent bandits and cognitive radio networks

We consider the problem of multiple users targeting the arms of a single multi-armed stochastic bandit. The motivation for this problem comes from cognitive radio networks, where selfish users need to coexist without any side communication between them, implicit cooperation or common control. Even the number of users may be unknown and can vary as users join or leave the network. We propose an algorithm that combines an $\epsilon$-greedy learning rule with a collision avoidance mechanism. We analyze its regret with respect to the system-wide optimum and show that sub-linear regret can be obtained in this setting. Experiments show dramatic improvement compared to other algorithms for this setting

Molecular epidemiology of clinical and carrier strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the hospital settings of north India

BACKGROUND: The study was conducted between 2000 and 2003 on 750 human subjects, yielding 850 strains of staphylococci from clinical specimens (575), nasal cultures of hospitalized patients (100) and eye & nasal sources of hospital workers (50 & 125 respectively) in order to determine their epidemiology, acquisition and dissemination of resistance genes. METHODS: Organisms from clinical samples were isolated, cultured and identified as per the standard routine procedures. Susceptibility was measured by the agar diffusion method, as recommended by the Nat ional Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS). The modified method of Birnboin and Takahashi was used for isolation of plasmids from staphylococci. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing of clinical and carrier Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains isolated during our study was performed as described previously. RESULTS: It was shown that 35.1% of Staphylococcus aureus and 22.5% of coagulase-negative staphylococcal isolates were resistant to methicillin. Highest percentage of MRSA (35.5%) was found in pus specimens (n = 151). The multiple drug resistance of all MRSA (n = 180) and Methicillin resistant Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus aureus (MRCNS) (n = 76) isolates was detected. In case of both methicillin-resistant as well as methicillin-sensitive Saphylococcal isolates zero resistance was found to vancomycin where as highest resistance was found to penicillin G followed by ampicillin. It was shown that the major reservoir of methicillin resistant staphylococci in hospitals are colonized/infected inpatients and colonized hospital workers, with carriers at risk for developing endogenous infection or transmitting infection to health care workers and patients. The results were confirmed by molecular typing using PFGE by SmaI-digestion. It was shown that the resistant markers G and T got transferred from clinical S. aureus (JS-105) to carrier S. aureus (JN-49) and the ciprofloxacin (Cf) and erythromycin (E) resistance seemed to be chromosomal mediated. In one of the experiments, plasmid pJMR1O from Staphylococcus aureus coding for ampicillin (A), gentamicin (G) and amikacin (Ak) resistance was transformed into Escherichia coli. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for A and G were lower in E. coli than in S. aureus. However, the MIC for Ak was higher in E. coli transformants than in S. aureus. CONCLUSION: There is a progressive increase in MRSA prevalence and multi-drug resistance in staphylococci. Vancomycin is still the drug of choice for MRSA infections. The major reservoir of methicillin resistant staphylococci in hospitals is colonized/infected inpatients and colonized hospital workers. Resistance transfer from staphylococci to E. coli as well as from clinical to carrier staphylococci due to antibiotic stress seemed to be an alarming threat to antimicrobial chemotherapy

Ruminal lactic acidosis in cow: clinical assessment

ABSTRACT Ruminal lactic acidosis is a condition that arises in ruminants due to the ingestion of excess quantities of easily digestible grains leading to diarrhea, anorexia and physiological derangements which can be fatal in severe cases. A clinical case of cow with history of rice flour ingestion showing signs of acute ruminal lactic acidosis was managed. The pH of ruminal fluid was 5.1. The number of live protozoa in the ruminal fluid was almost nil. Blood analysis confirmed marked alterations due to dehydration. Electrolyte imbalance was evident in biochemical tests. Cow was treated with intraruminal administration of Magnesium hydroxide and Sodium bicarbonate. Full recovery was achieved without any complications