Hierarchical Rank Aggregation with Applications to Nanotoxicology

The development of high throughput screening (HTS) assays in the field of nanotoxicology provide new opportunities for the hazard assessment and ranking of engineered nanomaterials (ENM). It is often necessary to rank lists of materials based on multiple risk assessment parameters, often aggregated across several measures of toxicity and possibly spanning an array of experimental platforms. Bayesian models coupled with the optimization of loss functions have been shown to provide an effective framework for conducting inference on ranks. In this article we present various loss function based ranking approaches for comparing ENM within experiments and toxicity parameters. Additionally, we propose a framework for the aggregation of ranks across different sources of evidence while allowing for differential weighting of this evidence based on its reliability and importance in risk ranking. We apply these methods to high throughput toxicity data on 2 human cell lines, exposed to 8 different nanomaterials, and measured in relation to 4 cytotoxicity outcomes

Improving Medication Reconciliation within 24 Hours of Admission to a Comprehensive Cancer Center

Lijo Saji and Carla Patel pictured.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/aprn-week-23/1005/thumbnail.jp

Piper hapnium : A rare Piper species from Peruvannamuzhi, Kerala - A new report

Piper hapnium is considered to be an endangered species of Piper. Occurrence of this species is reported mainly from the low-lying hills of Western Ghats. Though, scientists of Indian Institute of Spices Research conducted extensive surveys for collection of Piper species from the Western Ghats, P. hapnium (female plants) could be collected only once from the low land hills of Courtallum, Tamil Nadu. Earlier surveys conducted in the Silent Valley forests of Western Ghats (Ravindran et al. 1990) revealed the non-occurrence of P. hapnium in this area, though this sanctuary is identified as one of the rich centers for Piper diversity. &nbsp

Piper hapnium : A rare Piper species from Peruvannamuzhi, Kerala - A new report

Piper hapnium is considered to be an endangered species of Piper. Occurrence of this species is reported mainly from the low-lying hills of Western Ghats. Though, scientists of Indian Institute of Spices Research conducted extensive surveys for collection of Piper species from the Western Ghats, P. hapnium (female plants) could be collected only once from the low land hills of Courtallum, Tamil Nadu. Earlier surveys conducted in the Silent Valley forests of Western Ghats (Ravindran et al. 1990) revealed the non-occurrence of P. hapnium in this area, though this sanctuary is identified as one of the rich centers for Piper diversity. &nbsp

Two new high yielding, high 'curcumin, turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) varieties- 'IISR Kedaram' and 'IISR Alleppey Supreme'

Two turmeric (Curcuma longa) varieties, 'llSR Kedaram' (Acc. 126) and 'IISR Alleppey Supreme' (Acc. 585) were developed at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut, through selection and recommended for release for their high yield and curcumin content. 'llSR Kedaram', matures in 215 days and has an average yield of 5.28 t ha'] (dry rhizome) and 301.10 kg ha" curcumin whereas, 'IISR Alleppey Supreme', an Alleppey finger turmeric selection, matures in 220 days and yields 5.58 t ha'] (dry rhizome) and 309.69 kg ha" curcumin. &nbsp

Sex change in Piper thomsoni Hook . (Piperaceae)

Piper thomsoni, a dioecious Piper species endemic to north eastern India, was coll ected from Totopara forests (New Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal), multiplied and maintained at the Germplasm Conservatory, Experimental Farm, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Peruvannamuzhi (Kerala). The male plants conserved under partial shade exhibited sex change and a few berries developed on the spike. This appears to be the first report of sex change in the genus Piper. &nbsp

Closing the sea surface mixed layer temperature budget from in situ observations alone: Operation Advection during BoBBLE

Sea surface temperature (SST) is a fundamental driver of tropical weather systems such as monsoon rainfall and tropical cyclones. However, understanding of the factors that control SST variability is lacking, especially during the monsoons when in situ observations are sparse. Here we use a ground-breaking observational approach to determine the controls on the SST variability in the southern Bay of Bengal. We achieve this through the first full closure of the ocean mixed layer energy budget derived entirely from in situ observations during the Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE). Locally measured horizontal advection and entrainment contribute more significantly than expected to SST evolution and thus oceanic variability during the observation period. These processes are poorly resolved by state-of-the-art climate models, which may contribute to poor representation of monsoon rainfall variability. The novel techniques presented here provide a blueprint for future observational experiments to quantify the mixed layer heat budget on longer time scales and to evaluate these processes in models

IISR Mahima and IISR Rejatha - two high yielding and high quality ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) varieties

IISR Mahima (Acc. 117) and IISR Rejatha (Acc. 35), developed through selection from germplasm at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut are good quality, high yielding ginger varieties. Maturing in 200 days, IISR Mahima has given an average yield of 23.2 t ha-1 (fresh) with a dry recovery of 23%, essential oil 1.72%, oleoresin 4.48% and fibre content 3.26%. Rhizomes of Mahima are bold and this variety is resistant to root-knot nematode also. IISR Rejatha is a medium duration, bold variety with an average yield of 22.4 t ha-1 (fresh), dry recovery 19%, essential oil 2.36%, oleoresin 6.34% and fibre content 4.0%. &nbsp

Diversity study of leaf volatile oil constituent of Piper species based on GC/ MS and spatial distribution

Ten wild Piper species of Western Ghats were studied for leaf volatile oil constituents using GC/MS. The total number of major components (≥ 1%) in different species varied from 5 to 10. The leaf oil was rich in sesquiterpenoids. The most abundant compounds in Piper leaf oil of Western Ghats were β-Caryophyllene, Nerolidol and β - Elemene. Different accessions of P. nigrum collected from different parts of Western Ghats were used to study the spatial diversity of aroma with the help of DIVA GIS. The results indicated that the latitudinal influence was strong in aroma diversity. Total number of components varied from 17 to 73, while the major components found were 10 in P. nigrum leaves. The diversity index of the total component was 2.87. &nbsp

Climate-informed stochastic hydrological modeling: Incorporating decadal-scale variability using paleo data

A hierarchical framework for incorporating modes of climate variability into stochastic simulations of hydrological data is developed, termed the climate-informed multi-time scale stochastic (CIMSS) framework. A case study on two catchments in eastern Australia illustrates this framework. To develop an identifiable model characterizing long-term variability for the first level of the hierarchy, paleoclimate proxies, and instrumental indices describing the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) are analyzed. A new paleo IPO-PDO time series dating back 440 yr is produced, combining seven IPO-PDO paleo sources using an objective smoothing procedure to fit low-pass filters to individual records. The paleo data analysis indicates that wet/dry IPO-PDO states have a broad range of run lengths, with 90% between 3 and 33 yr and a mean of 15 yr. The Markov chain model, previously used to simulate oscillating wet/dry climate states, is found to underestimate the probability of wet/dry periods >5 yr, and is rejected in favor of a gamma distribution for simulating the run lengths of the wet/dry IPO-PDO states. For the second level of the hierarchy, a seasonal rainfall model is conditioned on the simulated IPO-PDO state. The model is able to replicate observed statistics such as seasonal and multiyear accumulated rainfall distributions and interannual autocorrelations. Mean seasonal rainfall in the IPO-PDO dry states is found to be 15%-28% lower than the wet state at the case study sites. In comparison, an annual lag-one autoregressive model is unable to adequately capture the observed rainfall distribution within separate IPO-PDO states. Copyright © 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.Benjamin J. Henley, Mark A. Thyer, George Kuczera and Stewart W. Frank