Conservation of an endemic medicinal plant, Anaphalis eliptica DC. by employing plant tissue culture technique

The plant species, Anaphalis elliptica DC. (Asteraceae) is a medicinal herb endemic to high hills of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the Western Ghats. The in vitro propagation study of this species by using leaf, node and shoot tip explants, revealed the following results: Among the three explants used, leaf and node responded well for callus and shoot initiations respectively. The leaf explant produced callus effectively (91%) in the MS medium supplemented with BAP and NAA at 2.5 and 0.3 mg/l respectively, whereas the nodal explant produced higher amount of shoots (92%) in the basal medium containing the growth regulator, BAP alone at 3.0 mg/l. The leaf derived callus produced higher (80%) shoot initials and shoot multiplication in the MS medium augmented with BAP and NAA at 3.0 and 0.5mg/l respectively. Similarly, the in vitro nodal derived shoots produced higher shoot multiplication (87%) in MS medium supplemented with BAP at 3.0mg/l. The regenerated shoots of both the explants were successfully rooted on MS medium supplemented with IBA and NAA at 1.0mg/l each. After sequential hardening the leaf callus derived plantlets registered higher survivability rate (80%) in the hardening medium containing decomposed coir waste, perlite and compost in the ratio of 1:1:1 by volume. Similarly, the survivability rate of nodal derived plantlets was higher (84%) in the hardening medium composed by vermicompost and soil in the ratio of 1:1 by volume

Time series analysis for minority game simulations of financial markets

The minority game (MG) model introduced recently provides promising insights into the understanding of the evolution of prices, indices and rates in the financial markets. In this paper we perform a time series analysis of the model employing tools from statistics, dynamical systems theory and stochastic processes. Using benchmark systems and a financial index for comparison, several conclusions are obtained about the generating mechanism for this kind of evolut ion. The motion is deterministic, driven by occasional random external perturbation. When the interval between two successive perturbations is sufficiently large, one can find low dimensional chaos in this regime. However, the full motion of the MG model is found to be similar to that of the first differences of the SP500 index: stochastic, nonlinear and (unit root) stationary.Comment: LaTeX 2e (elsart), 17 pages, 3 EPS figures and 2 tables, accepted for publication in Physica

Genetic variations and degree of correlation in four ecological variants of Gaultheria fragrantissima Wallich in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats, India

The four ecological variants (ovate, lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate and oblanceolate leaf types) of Gaultheria fragrantissima (family, Ericaceae) in Nilgiris are varied much between them in respect of 12characters studied. The magnitudes of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were more or less equal for many characters and it indicates the leastinfluence of environmental factors. Generally, the high heritability compared with high genetic advance as per cent of mean and high GCV observed for plant height, stem girth size, root length, number ofbranches, number of inflorescence, number of fruits, oil yield, plant biomass and population density indicate the presence of additive gene action for these characters. Leaf thickness and oil content inleaves showed significant positive correlation with the population density of the species. Hence, selection for these 2 characters in all the four variants must be effective in achieving high population density of G. fragrantissima

ANTIMICROBIAL EFFICACY OF THE ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANT SPECIES, CANARIUM STRICTUM ROXB

Objective: This study is aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of alcoholic leaf extracts of the ethno medicinal plant species, Canarium strictum belongs to the family, Burseraceae used by Irula tribal community of Walayar valley, the Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India.Methods: Leaf samples were extracted with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, and methanol. Antimicrobial activity against 10 bacterial strains and 10 fungal species was studied by using disc diffusion method, and the minimum inhibitory concentration was determined using macro-broth dilution method.Results: All extracts showed a varied degree of antimicrobial activity against the tested pathogens. However, the methanol extract formed higher inhibition zone (16.41 mm) against the bacterium, Moraxetta sp. Methanol and the ethyl acetate extracts also showed a high degree of inhibition of the fungi, Mucor rouxii and Rhizopus sp. (20.67 and 15.72 mm respectively).Conclusion: The methanolic extract was found to be more effective in inhibiting the colonial growth of the tested pathogens. Therefore, the results confirm the traditional knowledge of Irula tribals on the use of this species for curing the infectious diseases.Keywords: Canarium strictum, Ethnomedicinal plant, Antimicrobial activit

Fortran and C programs for the time-dependent dipolar Gross-Pitaevskii equation in an anisotropic trap

Many of the static and dynamic properties of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) are usually studied by solving the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation, which is a nonlinear partial differential equation for short-range atomic interaction. More recently, BEC of atoms with long-range dipolar atomic interaction are used in theoretical and experimental studies. For dipolar atomic interaction, the GP equation is a partial integro-differential equation, requiring complex algorithm for its numerical solution. Here we present numerical algorithms for both stationary and non-stationary solutions of the full three-dimensional (3D) GP equation for a dipolar BEC, including the contact interaction. We also consider the simplified one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) GP equations satisfied by cigar- and disk-shaped dipolar BECs. We employ the split-step Crank-Nicolson method with real- and imaginary-time propagations, respectively, for the numerical solution of the GP equation for dynamic and static properties of a dipolar BEC. The atoms are considered to be polarized along the z axis and we consider ten different cases, e.g., stationary and non-stationary solutions of the GP equation for a dipolar BEC in 1D (along x and z axes), 2D (in x-y and x-z planes), and 3D, and we provide working codes in Fortran 90/95 and C for these ten cases (twenty programs in all). We present numerical results for energy, chemical potential, root-mean-square sizes and density of the dipolar BECs and, where available, compare them with results of other authors and of variational and Thomas-Fermi approximations.Comment: To download the programs click other and download sourc