Survey of Fungi in Foodstuffs Stored in ASC Warehouses in Assam Region

The paper describes the isolation and characterisation of various fungi present in common foodstuffs stored in Army warehouses located in hot humid climate of Assam. Fungal contamination in the food commodities is highest in the rainy season and lowest in winter. Among the fungi isolated, Aspergillus niger, A. Fumigatus, Rhizopus nigricans and species of Mucor and Penicillium were found in all the samples analysed. Amongst these, members of Aspergillus dominated in the rainy season and Penicillium. Rhizopus nigricans was predominant in the winter months

Parasitization Efficiency of Kairomonal Dust Formulations against Egg Parasitoid \u3cem\u3e Trichogramma \u3c/em\u3e spp (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Agriculture arose independently in many different regions, as people gradually lived closer together, became less nomadic, and focussed their food production on plants that were amenable to repeated sowing and harvesting. Historically, insects have been the most significant herbivores, and the evolution of plants is closely associated with the evolution of insects. The study of plant defences against herbivory is important, not only from an evolutionary view point, but also in the direct impact that these defences have on agriculture, including human and livestock. Success of natural enemies particularly well recognized egg parasitoid, Trichogrammatid (Balakrishnan et al., 2004) in pest management depends upon its host acceptance and searching efficiency in a highly complex crop environment due to release of several volatile compounds termed as allelochemicals (synomones and kairomones). Grasses planted around the perimeter of the crop attract and trap the pests, Desmodium, planted between the rows of maize repel the pests and control the parasitic plant Striga, via Push-Pull technology in which the target crop is intercropped with herbivore repellent plants (push), while attractant plants (pull) are planted around this intercrop. The intercrop, in addition to repelling the herbivores, attracts and conserves natural enemies thereby ensuring continued suppression of the pests. Thus, volatile compounds released by sudan grass, napier grass and other highly attractive hosts were captured by absorption into a porous polymer to enable identification of semiochemicals likely to have attractant activity at the levels released by the plant. This is exploited by smallholder farmers in eastern Africa in the management of cereal stem borers in maize and sorghum (Khan, et al., 2007). Modifying insect behaviour in pest management programs through the utilization of non-toxic semiochemicals is recognized as a promising alternative to conventional approaches. The purpose of a formulation comprising kairomone is the dilution of the highly concentrated compound down to a level at which it will be effective in orientation of a natural enemy towards host insects or its niche without causing harm to the non-target organisms and the natural habitat. It is important to note that the pesticide formulation is a physical mixture of one or more biologically active chemicals and inert ingredients, which provide effective and economical control of the pests, while kairomonal formulation is aimed to enhance the parasitism or predation capacity of a target natural enemy. However, concerted efforts on the application aspects of kairomones especially development of suitable kairomonal formulation against Trichogramma spp. is extremely scanty. The present study was carried out to identify effective kairomonal compound, optimum concentration and appropriate application technique to increase the parasitizing efficiency of T. chilonis

Heartbeat and Temperature Monitoring System for Remote Patients using Arduino

This paper describes the working of a wireless heartbeat and temperature monitoring system based on a microcontroller ATmega328 (arduino uno). Most monitoring systems that are in use in today\u27s world works in offline mode but our system is designed such that a patient can be monitored remotely in real time. The proposed approach consists of sensors which measures heartbeat and body temperature of a patient which is controlled by the microcontroller. Both the readings are displayed in LCD monitor. Wireless system is used to transmit the measured data from the remote location. The heartbeat sensor counts the heartbeat for specific interval of time and estimates Beats per Minute while the temperature sensor measures the temperature and both the data are sent to the microcontroller for transmission to receiving end. Finally, the data are displayed at the receiving end. This system could be made available at a reasonable cost with great effect

Optical observations of the bright long duration peculiar GRB 021004 afterglow

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson $B,V$ and Cousins $R$ and $I$ photometric passbands are determined for the bright long duration GRB 021004 afterglow from 2002 October 4 to 16 starting $\sim$ 3 hours after the $\gamma-$ray burst. Light curves of the afterglow emission in $B$,$V$,$R$ and $I$ passbands are obtained by combining these measurements with other published data. The earliest optical emission appears to originate in a revese shock. Flux decay of the afterglow shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well-observed GRBs. Rapid light variations, especially during early times ($\Delta t < 2$ days) is superposed on an underlying broken power law decay typical of a jetted afterglow. The flux decay constants at early and late times derived from least square fits to the light curve are $0.99\pm0.05$ and $2.0\pm0.2$ respectively, with a jet break at around 7 day. Comparison with a standard fireball model indicates a total extinction of $E(B-V)=0.20$ mag in the direction of the burst. Our low-resolution spectra corrected for this extinction provide a spectral slope $\beta = 0.6\pm0.02$. This value and the flux decay constants agree well with the electron energy index $p\sim 2.27$ used in the model. The derived jet opening angle of about $7^{\circ}$ implies a total emitted gamma-ray energy $E_{\gamma} = 3.5\times10^{50}$ erg at a cosmological distance of about 20 Gpc. Multiwavelength observations indicate association of this GRB with a star forming region, supporting the case for collapsar origin of long duration GRBs.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, BASI, 31, 1

Thermal Time Scales in a Color Glass Condensate

In a model of relativistic heavy ion collisions wherein the unconfined quark-gluon plasma is condensed into glass, we derive the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann cooling law. This law is well known to hold true in condensed matter glasses. The high energy plasma is initially created in a very hot negative temperature state and cools down to the Hagedorn glass temperature at an ever decreasing rate. The cooling rate is largely determined by the QCD string tension derived from hadronic Regge trajectories. The ultimately slow relaxation time is a defining characteristic of a color glass condensate.Comment: 5 pages, ReVTeX format, nofigure

Optical afterglow of the not so dark GRB 021211

We determine Johnson $B,V$ and Cousins $R,I$ photometric CCD magnitudes for the afterglow of GRB 021211 during the first night after the GRB trigger. The afterglow was very faint and would have been probably missed if no prompt observation had been conducted. A fraction of the so-called ``dark'' GRBs may thus be just ``optically dim'' and require very deep imaging to be detected. The early-time optical light curve reported by other observers shows prompt emission with properties similar to that of GRB 990123. Following this, the afterglow emission from $\sim 11$ min to $\sim 33$ days after the burst is characterized by an overall power-law decay with a slope $1.1\pm0.02$ in the $R$ passband. We derive the value of spectral index in the optical to near-IR region to be 0.6$\pm$0.2 during 0.13 to 0.8 day after the burst. The flux decay constant and the spectral slope indicate that optical observations within a day after the burst lies between cooling frequency and synchrotron maximum frequency.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, A&A Letters, 408, L2

Post-Outburst Phase of McNeil's Nebula (V1647 Orionis)

We present a detailed study of the post-outburst phase of McNeil's nebula (V1647 Ori) using optical B,V,R,I and NIR J,H,K photometric and low resolution optical spectroscopic observations. The observations were carried out with the HFOSC, NIRCAM, TIRCAM and NICMOS cameras on the 2m HCT and 1.2m PRL telescopes during the period 2004 Feb-2005 Dec. The optical/NIR observations show a general decline in brightness of the exciting source of McNeil's nebula (V1647 Ori). Our recent optical images show that V1647 Ori has faded by more than 3 mags since Feb 2004. The optical/NIR photometric data also show a significant variation in the mags (Delta V = 0.78 mag, Delta R = 0.44 mag, Delta I = 0.21 mag, Delta J = 0.24 mag and Delta H = 0.20 mag) of V1647 Ori within a period of one month, which is possibly undergoing a phase similar to eruptive variables, like EXors or FUors. The optical spectra show a few features such as strong Halpha emission with blue-shifted absorption and the CaII IR triplet (8498A, 8542A and 8662A) in emission. As compared to the period just after outburst, there is a decrease in the depth and extent of the blue-shifted absorption component, indicating a weakening in the powerful stellar wind. The presence of the CaII IR triplet in emission confirms that V1647 Ori is a PMS star. The long-term, post-outburst photometric observations of V1647 Ori suggest an EXor, rather than an FUor event. An optical/IR comparison of the region surrounding McNeil's nebula shows that the optical nebula is more widely and predominantly extended to the north, whereas the IR nebula is relatively confined (dia ~ 60 arcsec), but definitely extended, to the south, too.Comment: 25 pages (4 figures in JPEG format), Accepted for the publication in MNRAS. Preprint is also available at: http://www.tifr.res.in/~ojha/McNeil.htm

Genetics- and genomics-based interventions for nutritional enhancement of grain legume crops: status and outlook

Meeting the food demands and ensuring nutritional security of the ever increasing global population in the face of degrading natural resource base and impending climate change is the biggest challenge of the twenty first century. The consequences of mineral/micronutrient deficiencies or the hidden hunger in the developing world are indeed alarming and need urgent attention. In addressing the problems associated with mineral/micronutrient deficiency, grain legumes as an integral component of the farming systems in the developing world have to play a crucial role. For resourcepoor populations, a strategy based on selecting and/or developing grain legume cultivars with grains denser in micronutrients, by biofortification, seems the most appropriate and attractive approach to address the problem. This is evident from the on-going global research efforts on biofortification to provide nutrient-dense grains for use by the poorest of the poor in the developing countries. Towards this end, rapidly growing genomics technologies hold promise to hasten the progress of breeding nutritious legume crops. In conjunction with the myriad of expansions in genomics, advances in other ‘omics’ technologies particularly plant ionomics or ionome profiling open up novel opportunities to comprehensively examine the elemental composition and mineral networks of an organism in a rapid and cost-effective manner. These emerging technologies would effectively guide the scientific community to enrich the edible parts of grain legumes with bioavailable minerals and enhancers/promoters. We believe that the application of these new-generation tools in turn would provide crop-based solutions to hidden hunger worldwide for achieving global nutritional security