Targeted trawl fishery for moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur off Mangalore for surumi production

Moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur has been forming a part of the trawl fishery off Mangalore, caught from a depth beyond 100 m ever since deepsea trawling started off the coast. This is not a preferred edible species in Karnataka and was not a species considered for targeted fishery

Unusual catch rates of cuttlefish in a multiday trawler

Cuttlefish is one of the commercially important group of cephalopods caught by multi-night trawlers along the coast of Karnataka. The catch rate of cuttlefish in multiday trawlers varies from <5 kg/haul during December-April period to 50-300 kg/haul during the peak fishing season in August- September

Observations on the landing of Odonus niger at Mangalore

The redtoothed triggerfish (Odonus niger) of the family Balistidae is a reef associated species landed by trawl nets operated along the Karnataka coast. This species forms dense aggregations in inshore waters and were not targeted till recently due to their poor market demand. The triggerfish shoals are intentionally avoided by the trawlers and the incidental catches are either discarded or brought ashore when there is available deck space for storage. Such small quantities landed are auctioned along with the miscellaneous fish groups. Some interest was evinced on this species by the fish meal traders due to limited availability of raw materials during the year 2008

High abundance of large sized rock cods (Epinephelus spp.) off Karnataka coast during the postmonsoon month of September

some of the multi-day units ventured into deeper waters (60-80 m) and obtained good catches of reef cods (Fig: 1) along with threadfin breams and cuttle fishes. Encouraged by this, more number of multi-day units were put into operation in September of the following year (1995) and got still better catches of reef cods

Tropical Dominating Sets in Vertex-Coloured Graphs

Given a vertex-coloured graph, a dominating set is said to be tropical if every colour of the graph appears at least once in the set. Here, we study minimum tropical dominating sets from structural and algorithmic points of view. First, we prove that the tropical dominating set problem is NP-complete even when restricted to a simple path. Then, we establish upper bounds related to various parameters of the graph such as minimum degree and number of edges. We also give upper bounds for random graphs. Last, we give approximability and inapproximability results for general and restricted classes of graphs, and establish a FPT algorithm for interval graphs.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Agarala: A traditional fishing boat of Karnataka

Agarala boat or coracle is a traditional fishing boat used for estuarine and riverine fishing in Karnataka. These traditional boats ensure sustainable fishing using eco-friendly fishing methods. The main fish species caught in these crafts are Sillago sihama, Sphyraena obtusata, Mugil cephalus, Aries aries, Gerres filamentosus, Lutjanus argentimaculatus, Leiognathus splendens, Cynoglossus macrostomus, Psettodes erumei, Platycephalus indicus, Etroplus suratensis, Anodontostoma chacunda, Portunus pelagicus, P.sanguinolentus, Scylla serrata, Thryssa mystax, and Opisthopterus tardoore. Fishing with agarala in the estuarine waters is largely at subsistence level and is carried out by a minor section of the fishermen community. The following paper documents and reports for the first time, the use of such unique fishing boats, in the Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka. The main objective of the study was to explore the nature of crafts, the unique design of the crafts used and types of fishes caught. Fishing in agarala provides a good source of income to the fishermen using these simple, traditional environment friendly and cost effective crafts which make sustainable use of the scarce fishery resources

Influence of Environmental Factors on Growth Rate of Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) in Suspended Culture

Growth response of Crassostrea madrasensis to varying environmental factors in the Mulki estuary of Karnataka was investigated from April 2004 to March 2005. Temperature, salinity, pH, particulate organic matter (POM), particulate inorganic matter (PIM), total particulate matter (TPM) and chlorophyll a (Chl a) levels were correlated with growth in shell length. Marked seasonal patterns in growth rate were observed in relation to changes in environmental factors. Growth curve indicated a rapid phase (16.21±1.2 mm month-1) initially (May-June) followed by a slow phase (0.8±0.52 mm month-1) coinciding with the drop in salinity (August-September). Considering the temporal variations of environmental factors, their influence on growth rate was analysed seasonally. The growth rate was significantly correlated with Chl a concentrations in all the seasons. A pronounced seasonal cycle was noticed in Chl a levels resulting from blooms in pre-monsoon (April-May) and post-monsoon (October) seasons

Single-dose pharmacokinetics of isoniazid and rifampicin in patients with chronic renal failure

The pharmacokinetics of Isoniazid and Rifampicin were studied in 18 patients with mild or moderate renal failure (creatinine clearance : 10.1-50.0 ml/min) and 17 patients with severe renal failure (creatinine clearance < 10.0 ml/min) and the findings compared with those in 16 healthy subjects. The renal excretion of Isoniazid, Acetylisoniazid, Rifampicin and Dcsacetylrifampicin was severely inhibited in patients with renal failure. Plasma Rifampicin and Isoniazid concentrations in rapid acetylators were similar in healthy subjects and both the groups of patients. In slow acetylators, plasma Isoniazid concentrations and exposure (AUC) and half-life of the drug, calculated on the basis of these concentrations were appreciably higher in patients than in healthy subjects (P < 0.01); the mean values in the two groups of patients were, however, similar. The correlations between plasma creatinine or creatinine clearance and peak concentration, exposure or half-life of Isoniazid were poor (r < 0.28) in the slow acetylators. These findings suggest that in patients with renal failure, it is not necessary to reduce dosage of Rifampicin or of Isoniazid in rapid acetylators but advisable in respect of Isoniazid in slow acetylators to lessen the risk of toxic reactions

Natural language analysis of online health forums

Despite advances in concept extraction from free text, finding meaningful health related information from online patient forums still poses a significant challenge. Here we demonstrate how structured information can be extracted from posts found in such online health related forums by forming relationships between a drug/treatment and a symptom or side effect, including the polarity/sentiment of the patient. In particular, a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) system is deployed, where information in sentences is linked together though anaphora resolution. Our NLP relationship extraction system provides a strong baseline, achieving an F1 score of over 80% in discovering the said relationships that are present in the posts we analysed