Climate change impact on the feeding habits of Indian mackerel observed along the Kerala coast

While most food and feeding research in fisheries emphasize the feeding habits and diet components of the fish, the aim of the present work was to assess any change in the diet composition of Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1816) and identify the role of climate change in effecting it. Non-parametric statistical technique, the Generalized Additive Model (GAMs) was used for modeling the causal link of diet changes in relation to climate change using mgcv package of R software. Monthly Index of Relative Importance (IRI) was calculated for 36 months from January 2013 to December 2015 and major prey items in the diet were identified. Climatic variables - Sea Surface Temperature (SST), precipitation (Pr), Chlorophyll a (Chl a), salinity and Ekman transport or coastal upwelling index (CUI)) pertaining to the study area were extracted for the period. Length-wise IRI was compared to check the existing patterns in the feeding habits of the fish. The dominant prey items observed in the gut of Indian mackerel during the study period were diatoms ( Fragillaria sp., Nitzchia sp., Thalassiothrix sp., Thalassiosira sp. and Coscinodiscus sp.), dinoflagellates (Ceratium sp., Ornothocercus sp., Dinophysis sp. and Prorocentrum sp.), copepods (Calanoida, Cyclopoida and Harpacticoida), decapods (Acetes) and tintinnids (Tintinnopsis sp., Codenellopsis sp. and Flavella sp). GAM models were fitted with monthly IRI of the major prey items (copepods, diatoms, dinoflagellates, Acetes and tintinnids) in the gut and climatic variables. Model selection was done in terms of sharpening the relation between the predictors and the response variable using Akaike information criterion, R-squared and F-statistics. GAM model results revealed that occurrence of prey items in the diet of Indian mackerel were influenced by environmental variables. An increase in the relative importance of dinoflagellates, Acetes and tintintids in the diet over the historic period was observed. The study also revealed a shift in the diet composition of younger fishes. The results of the current study provide a more in-depth assessment of the nonlinear relationship between climatic variables and diet composition of Indian mackerel

Giant devil manta rays landed by purse seiner at Cochin fisheries harbour

Two specimens of giant devil ray, Manta birostris locally known as ‘Aanathirandi’ measuring 307 and 194.5 cm in TL, 534 and 416 cm in disc width and weighing about 780 and 570 kg respectively were landed at Cochin fisheries harbour on 19.05.14 and 20.05.1

Vinyl Azides Derived from Allenes: Thermolysis Leading to Multisubstituted 1,4-Pyrazines and Mn(III)-Catalyzed Photochemical Reaction Leading to Pyrroles

Thermolysis of phosphorus-based vinyl azides under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions furnished a new route for 1,4-pyrazines. A simple one-pot, Mn­(III)-catalyzed photochemical route has been developed for multisubstituted pyrroles starting from allenes and 1,3-dicarbonyls via in situ-generated vinyl azides. The utility of new phosphorus-based pyrroles is also demonstrated in the Horner reaction. The structures of key products are unequivocally confirmed by X-ray crystallography

Vinyl Azides Derived from Allenes: Thermolysis Leading to Multisubstituted 1,4-Pyrazines and Mn(III)-Catalyzed Photochemical Reaction Leading to Pyrroles

Thermolysis of phosphorus-based vinyl azides under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions furnished a new route for 1,4-pyrazines. A simple one-pot, Mn­(III)-catalyzed photochemical route has been developed for multisubstituted pyrroles starting from allenes and 1,3-dicarbonyls via in situ-generated vinyl azides. The utility of new phosphorus-based pyrroles is also demonstrated in the Horner reaction. The structures of key products are unequivocally confirmed by X-ray crystallography

Allenylphosphonates/Allenylphosphine Oxides as Intermediates/Precursors for Intramolecular Cyclization Leading to Phosphorus-Based Indenes, Indenones, Benzofurans, and Isochromenes

Utilizing internally available functional groups, a simple protocol for the efficient synthesis of phosphorus-based indenes, indenones, benzofurans, and isochromenes via intramolecular cyclization of allene intermediates/precursors is generated; the latter intermediates/precursors are conveniently obtained through aldehyde-, alkylidene-, and hydroxyl-functionalized propargyl alcohols and P^III–Cl precursors. The structures of key products have been unequivocally confirmed by X-ray crystallography

Deep Learning Techniques for Quantification of Tumour Necrosis in Post-neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Osteosarcoma Resection Specimens for Effective Treatment Planning

Osteosarcoma is a high-grade malignant bone tumour for which neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a vital component of the treatment plan. Chemotherapy brings about the death of tumour tissues, and the rate of their death is an essential factor in deciding on further treatment. The necrosis quantification is now done manually by visualizing tissue sections through the microscope. This is a crude method that can cause significant inter-observer bias. The suggested system is an AI-based therapeutic decision-making tool that can automatically calculate the quantity of such dead tissue present in a tissue specimen. We employ U-Net++ and DeepLabv3+, pre-trained deep learning algorithms for the segmentation purpose. ResNet50 and ResNet101 are used as encoder parts of U-Net++ and DeepLabv3+, respectively. Also, we synthesize a dataset of 555 patches from 37 images captured and manually annotated by experienced pathologists. Dice loss and Intersection over Union (IoU) are used as the performance metrics. The training and testing IoU of U-Net++ are 91.78% and 82.64%, and its loss is 4.4% and 17.77%, respectively. The IoU and loss of DeepLabv3+ are 91.09%, 81.50%, 4.77%, and 17.8%, respectively. The results show that both models perform almost similarly. With the help of this tool, necrosis segmentation can be done more accurately while requiring less work and time. The percentage of segmented regions can be used as the decision-making factor in the further treatment plans

Not Available

Not AvailableTwo specimens of giant devil ray, Manta birostris locally known as ‘Aanathirandi’ measuring 307 and 194.5 cm in TL, 534 and 416 cm in disc width and weighing about 780 and 570 kg respectively were landed at Cochin fisheries harbour on 19.05.14 and 20.05.14Not Availabl