Spurt in fish landings along north Tamil Nadu coast

In the sudden spurt of unusually heavy fish landings a movement of deep water fishes to the inshore areas were observed and of this unusual landings along the coast during this period are presented. The heavy fish landings were observed for 15 days in landing centres adjacent of Pondicherry whereas it for 2 days in Kovalam region and in Madras. A slight drop in surface water temperature with low oxygen concentration (1.10 to 1.37ml/L) and low temperature (26.2 to 27.2°C) during this period were examined. Analysis of plankton samples showed a a bloom of Chaetoceros sp.in this period

A Comparative Genome-Wide Transcriptome Analysis of Glucocorticoid Responder and Non-Responder Primary Human Trabecular Meshwork Cells

Aim: To investigate genes and pathways involved in differential glucocorticoid (GC) responsiveness in human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cells using RNA sequencing. Methods: Using paired human donor eyes, human organ-cultured anterior segment (HOCAS) was established in one eye to characterize GC responsiveness based on intra ocular pressure (IOP) change and, in the other eye, primary HTM cell culture was established. For RNA sequencing, total RNA extracted from GC-responder (GC-R) and non-responder (GC-NR) cells after dexamethasone (DEX) or ethanol (ETH) treatment for 7d was used. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared among five groups and validated. Results: In total, 616 and 216 genes were identified as significantly dysregulated in Group #1 and #2 (#1: ETH vs. DEX-treated GC-R; #2: ETH vs. DEX-treated GC-NR), respectively. Around 80 genes were commonly dysregulated in Group #3 (overlapping DEGs between #1 and #2), whereas 536 and 136 genes were uniquely expressed in GC-R (#4) and GC-NR HTM (#5) cells, respectively. Pathway analysis revealed that WNT signaling, drug metabolism cytochrome p450, cell adhesion, TGF-β signaling, and MAPK signaling were associated with GC responsiveness. Conclusion: This is the first study reporting distinct gene signatures and their associated pathways for GC-R and GC-NR HTM cells. WNT and MAPK signaling are potential therapeutic targets for the management of GC-induced glaucoma

Penaeid prawn resources and potential for prawn culture

Our knowledge of the penaeid prawns of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is based on the pioneering works of Wood-Mason (1891, 1893), de Man (1892, 1911), Alcocfc and Anderson (1899), Alcock (1901, 1905, 1906) and Balss (1925), who reported about 120 species, most of them deep water forms. Recently, Silas and Muthu (1976 a, b) and Thomas (1977) recorded 12 littoral species for the first time from this region, of which one is new to science. Though data on the landings of penaeid prawns from these islands are available from 1965 onwards, no infor mation is available on the biology of the exploited stock. Basic information on the biology of important prawns n Andaman and Nicobar Island s collected during the survey, along with the data collected earlier are presen ted here. The potential for prawn culture is indicated

An unusual congregation of organisms in the catches off Kovalam, Madras

The fishermen belonging to Kovalam had a hectic activity in harvesting huge quantities of fish from the Kovalam bay from 26-8-'87 to 4-9-'87. Fishermen employed all available gears for catching the fish and prawns. According to them, this was due to the appearance of 'Vandal thanneer' or turbid water close to the shore. The present account embodies the results of the observations made on this unusual phenomenon

DYT1 mutations amongst adult primary dystonia patients in Singapore with review of literature comparing East and West

10.1016/j.jns.2006.03.009Journal of the Neurological Sciences247135-3

Magnitude of lobster resources of India

Lobsters inhabit our tropical waters in different concentrations in some parts of our coasts. The average annual catch of lobsters during the 10 year period of 1975-84 was 1763 toni.es forming 0.82% among the crustaceans ano 0.12 % in the total marire fish landings. Of these 73.56 % was from Gujarat and Maharashtra and 19.45 % from Tamil Nadu. Of the 6 species of spiny lobsters recorded, only 3 of them ana one species of slipper lobster support the fishery of this country. The catches of Panulirus polyphagus and Thenus orientalis were substantial forming about 46.71% and 46.44% respectively. The catch of Panulirus homarus was poor contributing to only 5.89% while that of Panulirus ornatus was almost negligible, being 0.96%. The magnitude of the catch for P. homarus and P. ornatus is so small that they should not be exploited more than the existing rate from the present fishing grounds. Either new grounds have to be found or the population should be raised by culture practices to meet the demand of the market

Fabrication and Characterization of an 8 × 8 Terahertz Photoconductive Antenna Array for Spatially Resolved Time Domain Spectroscopy and Imaging Applications

ABSTRACT: Terahertz (THz) technology is promising in several applications such as imaging, spectroscopy and communications. Among several methods in the generation and detection of THz waves, a THz timedomain system that is developed using photoconductive antennas (PCA) as emitter and detector presents several advantages such as simple alignment, low cost, high performance etc. In this work, we report the design, fabrication and characterization of a 2-D PCA array that is capable of detecting both the amplitude and phase of the THz pulse. The PCA array is fabricated using LT-GaAs and has 8 channels with 64 pixels (8 × 8). A novel approach using a spatial light modulator (SLM) to steer and focus the infrared probe beam towards pixels of the PCA array is presented. Each channel records the photocurrent generated by the THz signal (amplitude and phase) separately and frequencies up to 1.4 THz can be detected. Furthermore, the parameters such as directional time delay of the THz pulse, crosstalk between the channels etc., were characterized. Finally, we show that the proposed 2D PCA array design is flexible and can be used for accelerated THz spectral image acquisition