Morphometry and Geomorphological Investigations of the Neugal Watershed, Beas River Basin, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh Using GIS Tools

An attempt has been made to study the detailed morphometric and geomorphological characteristics of the Neugal Watershed, which is a part of the Beas River Basin, in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India.  For detailed study of this watershed, geographical information system (GIS) was used in the evaluation of slope, linear stream ordering and relief aspects of morphometric parameters and also in presentation of geomorphological subdivisions of the basin. Surface Tools in ArcGIS-10 software and ASTER (DEM) were used in the preparation of watershed boundary, slope-aspect and different thematic maps like drainage density, slope and relief. More than eight morphometric parameter of different aspects have been computed. It is observed that the stream frequency decreases as the stream order increases and the densities of 1st order streams are higher in the northern, southern and south-eastern part of the Neugal watershed area. Based on the relationship between absolute and relative relief in the study area, it can be indicated that the relative relief increases with the increase in the absolute relief and shows active correlation. In Neugal watershed, the slope is controlled by the structure, and the erosional processes which have resulted in varied landform leading to environmental hazards. Keywords: Morphometric parameters, Geomorphological analysis, Neugal watershed, Relief, Environmental hazard

Isolated Amoebic Abscess of Spleen

Amoebic liver abscess is the most common extraintestinal manifestation of amoebiasis. Extrahepatic amoebic abscesses have occasionally been described in the lung, brain, and skin and presumably result from hematogenous spread. Isolated amoebic abscess of spleen has been reported scarcely in literature. We report here a case of isolated amoebic abscess of spleen

Domestic cooking fuel and lung functions in healthy non-smoking women

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the pulmonary functions in healthy non-smoking women who used either biomass or liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as their sole cooking fuel. The effects of passive smoking, ventilation, over crowding and cooking index were also taken into account. Methodology: The study was conducted over a period of two years from January 1994. One hundred healthy non-smoking women were included 50 cooked solely with biomass and 50 cooked with LPG. A standardised respiratory symptoms questionnaire was administered to all the subjects and spirometry was carried out. Results: Passive smoking showed no significant difference between the two groups. No statistically significant differences was found in lung functions in the two groups except for the PEFR, which was significantly lower (P < 0.01) in women using biomass. No correlation was observed between different variables and pulmonary functions. The step-wise multivariate linear regression analysis showed no correlation between cooking fuel and the pulmonary functions. Conclusion: The absence of the expected adverse effects of biomass on pulmonary functions was possibly due to better ventilation in the kitchens of subjects in the biomass group compared to previous studies

The Role of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Psychiatric Disorders

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of the most extensively studied and widespread growth factors in the brain. BDNF and its receptors are the critical factors having multipotent impact on the central nervous system (CNS). The biological function of BDNF primarily mediated by two receptors, tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) receptor and p75 neurotrophin receptor. BDNF contributes a pivotal role in neuronal and glial development, modulation and maintaining overall synaptic plasticity of the brain; therefore, widely involved in psychiatric diseases. Current hypotheses indicates that abnormal BDNF level, a vital condition for psychiatric and neurodegeneration diseases are mainly due to the disruption of the BDNF-associated signaling cascades. It is, therefore, crucial to understand how BDNF coordinate the psychiatric diseases in the brain. This review begins with the history of BDNF and its biology in brain homeostasis and focuses on several aspects of BDNF signaling. In addition, the review addresses the impact of BDNF level in diverse neuropsychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and, possible biological mechanisms of BDNF that may shed new insight for future therapeutic use and drug development

Genotype By Environment Interaction and Stability Analysis for Maize Hybrids in North Western Himalayas Ecology

Genotype (G) x Environment (E) interaction of 25 medium maturity maize hybrids tested at three environments inNorth-Western Himalayas was analyzed to identify stable high yielding hybrids for mid-hill conditions. The G x Einteraction was studied using different stability statistics viz; Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction(AMMI), AMMI stability value (ASV), rank-sum (RS), and yield stability index (YSI). Combined analysis of varianceshows that genotype, environment, and G x E interaction is highly significant. This indicated the possibility of selectionof stable genotypes across the environments. The results of the AMMI analysis showed that the first two principalcomponents (PC1-PC2) were highly significant (P<0.05). The partitioning of TSS (total sum of squares) exhibitedthat the environment effect was a predominant source of variation followed by genotypes and G×E interaction,suggesting the possible existence of different environmental groups. The first two interaction principal componentaxis (IPCA) cumulatively explained 82.87% of the total interaction effect. The study revealed that G11 and G7 werefound to be stable based on all stability statistics and GGE biplot assessment. Based on GGE biplots, it is concludedthat E3 is the best environment for testing the hybrids for more extensive adaptability and E2 and E1 locations can beused to identify location-specific hybrids. Grain yield is positively and significantly correlated with rank-sum (RS)And yield stability index (YSI). The above-mentioned stability statistics could be useful for identification of stablehigh yielding genotypes, whereas, GGE biplots facilitated visual comparisons of high yielding genotypes acrossthe multi-environments

Concurrent infections by all four dengue virus serotypes during an outbreak of dengue in 2006 in Delhi, India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Co-circulation of multiple dengue virus serotypes has been reported from many parts of the world including India, however concurrent infection with more than one serotype of dengue viruses in the same individual is rarely documented. An outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) occurred in and around Delhi in 2006. This is the first report from India with high percentage of concurrent infections with different dengue virus serotypes circulating during one outbreak.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Acute phase sera from patients were tested for the presence of dengue virus RNA by RT-PCR assay. Of the 69 samples tested for dengue virus RNA, 48 (69.5%) were found to be positive. All the four dengue virus serotypes were found to be co-circulating in this outbreak with DENV-3 being the predominant serotype. In addition in 9 of 48 (19%) dengue virus positive samples, concurrent infection with more than one dengue virus serotype were identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first report in which concurrent infections with different dengue virus serotypes is being reported during an outbreak from India. Delhi is now truly hyperendemic for dengue.</p

Traffic Engineering in Software Defined Networks: A Survey, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2016, nr 4

An important technique to optimize a network and improve network robustness is traffic engineering. As traffic demand increases, traffic engineering can reduce servicedegradation and failure in the network. To allow a network to adapt to changes in the traffic pattern, the research community proposed several traffic engineering techniques for the traditional networking architecture. However, the traditional network architecture is difficult to manage. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking model, which decouples the control plane and data plane of the networking devices. It promises to simplify network management, introduces network programmability, and provides a global view of network state. To exploit the potential of SDN, new traffic engineering methods are required. This paper surveys the state of the art in traffic engineering techniques with an emphasis on traffic engineering for SDN. It focuses on some of the traffic engineering methods for the traditional network architecture and the lessons that can be learned from them for better traffic engineering methods for SDN-based networks. This paper also explores the research challenges and futuredirections for SDN traffic engineering solutions

Genetic variability of kernel provitamin-A in sub-tropically adapted maize hybrids possessing rare allele of β-carotene hydroxylase

Vitamin-A deficiency is a major health concern. Traditional yellow maize possesses low provitamin-A (proA). Mutant crtRB1 gene significantly enhances proA. 24 experimental hybrids possessing crtRB1 allele were evaluated for β-carotene (BC), β-cryptoxanthin (BCX), lutein (LUT), zeaxanthin (ZEA), total carotenoids (TC) and grain yield at multi-locations. BC (0.64–17.24 µg/g), BCX (0.45–6.84 µg/g), proA (0.86–20.46 µg/g), LUT (9.60–31.03 µg/g), ZEA (1.24–12.73 µg/g) and TC (20.60–64.02 µg/g) showed wide variation. No significant genotype × location interaction was observed for carotenoids. The mean BC (8.61 µg/g), BCX (4.04 µg/g) and proA (10.63 µg/g) in crtRB1-based hybrids was significantly higher than normal hybrids lacking crtRB1-favourable allele (BC: 1.73 µg/g, BCX: 1.29 µg/g and proA: 2.37 µg/g). Selected crtRB1-based hybrids possessed 33% BC and 40% BCX compared to 6% BC and 5% BCX in normal hybrids. BC showed positive correlation with BCX (r = 0.90), proA (r = 0.99) and TC (r = 0.64) among crtRB1-based hybrids. Carotenoids didn't show association with grain yield. Average yield potential of proA rich hybrids (6794 kg/ha) was at par with normal hybrids (6961 kg/ha). PROAH-13, PROAH-21, PROAH-17, PROAH-11, PROAH-23, PROAH-24 and PROAH-3 were the most promising with >12 µg/g proA and >6000 kg/ha grain yield. The newly identified crtRB1-based hybrids assume significance in alleviating malnutrition

High SMAD7 and p-SMAD2,3 expression is associated with environmental enteropathy in children

This work was supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (SAA: OPP1066200, PK: OPP1066118, GM: OPP1131242)