Estimating egg mass-body mass relationships in birds

Abstract The mass of a bird’s egg is a critical attribute of the species’ life history and represents a fundamental component of reproductive effort. Indeed, the tradeoff between the number of eggs in a clutch and clutch mass lies at the heart of understanding how environmental attributes such as nest predation or adult mortality influence reproductive investment. However, egg masses have not been reported for the majority of avian species. We capitalized on the strong allometric relationship between avian body mass and egg mass to produce egg mass estimates for over 5,500 species previously lacking such information. These estimates are accompanied by measures of the robustness of the regressions used to produce them (e.g., sample size, root mean square error [RMSE] of estimation, coefficient of determination, and degree of extrapolation), thus allowing independent evaluation of the suitability of any estimate to address a particular research question relating to avian life history. Most estimates (~5,000) were based on family-level egg mass–body mass regressions, with the remainder derived from other relationships such as ordinal regressions. We compared estimating regressions based on adult vs. female body masses and, after finding little difference between the 2, based our final estimates on adult masses as those were more numerous in the literature. What small differences between adult- and female-based regressions that did occur were not related to sexual size dimorphism across families. These new estimates, coupled with ~5,000 egg masses reported in the literature, provide a foundation of over 10,000 species for wider investigations assessing variation in reproductive effort in birds over a broad array of ecological and evolutionary contexts

Law, Finance, and Politics: The Case of India

The process of liberalisation of India's economy since 1991 has brought with it considerable development both of its financial markets and the legal institutions which support these. An influential body of recent economic work asserts that a country's 'legal origin'-as a civilian or common law jurisdiction-plays an important part in determining the development of its investor protection regulations, and consequently its financial development. An alternative theory claims that the determinants of investor protection are political, rather than legal. We use the case of India to test these theories. We find little support for the idea that India's legal heritage as a common law country has been influential in speeding the path of regulatory reforms and financial development. There is a complementarity between (i) India's relative success in services and software, (ii) the relative strength of its financial markets for outside equity, as opposed to outside debt, and (iii) the relative success of stock market regulation, as opposed to reforms of creditor rights. We conclude that political explanations have more traction in explaining the case of India than do theories based on 'legal origins'.India, Law and Finance, Investor Protection, Economic structure and financial structure

Land Rental Markets in India: Efficiency and Equity Considerations

Despite the fact that land rental is restricted to varying degrees in India, the participation in this market is widespread and it is observed to operate relatively efficiently in 12 villages studied in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The estimated probit models predicted that the rental market transferred land to those with relatively smaller holdings, but greater ability to make productive use of land, more assets to invest, more adults available for labour and fewer off-farm opportunities. Also land is rented out predominantly to younger farmers and to farmers not involved in off-farm jobs. Renting in is predicted to be relatively higher in the villages which are remote and weakly integrated into mainstream infrastructure and institutions. Land rental markets make an important contribution towards land use redistribution in the villages where land rental is high and where land distribution without land rental is relatively more unequal. The study recommends that existing policies restricting land rental should be eased, and investment towards infrastructure development and off-farm employment generating projects expanded.land rental markets, economic efficiency, equity, India, Land Economics/Use,

Passive Energy Recapture in Jellyfish Contributes to Propulsive Advantage over other Metazoans

Gelatinous zooplankton populations are well known for their ability to take over perturbed ecosystems. The ability of these animals to outcompete and functionally replace fish that exhibit an effective visual predatory mode is counterintuitive because jellyfish are described as inefficient swimmers that must rely on direct contact with prey to feed. We show that jellyfish exhibit a unique mechanism of passive energy recapture, which is exploited to allow them to travel 30% further each swimming cycle, thereby reducing metabolic energy demand by swimming muscles. By accounting for large interspecific differences in net metabolic rates, we demonstrate, contrary to prevailing views, that the jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) is one of the most energetically efficient propulsors on the planet, exhibiting a cost of transport (joules per kilogram per meter) lower than other metazoans. We estimate that reduced metabolic demand by passive energy recapture improves the cost of transport by 48%, allowing jellyfish to achieve the large sizes required for sufficient prey encounters. Pressure calculations, using both computational fluid dynamics and a newly developed method from empirical velocity field measurements, demonstrate that this extra thrust results from positive pressure created by a vortex ring underneath the bell during the refilling phase of swimming. These results demonstrate a physical basis for the ecological success of medusan swimmers despite their simple body plan. Results from this study also have implications for bioinspired design, where low-energy propulsion is required

Anharmonic oscillators and the null bootstrap

We employ the technique of perturbative analytic null bootstrap to obtain the energy eigenvalues and ladder operators of the sextic anharmonic oscillator up to second order in the coupling. We confirm our results by deriving the same from traditional perturbation theory. We further perform the bootstrap approach on non-Hermitian PT symmetric Hamiltonians, focusing on the shifted harmonic oscillator and the celebrated cubic anharmonic oscillator.Comment: v2:references added, minor changes in the presentation at a few place

GC-MS ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION OF BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES USING MOLECULAR DOCKING OF CODIUM DECORTICATUM (WOODWARD) M. HOWE AGAINST CANCER

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the phytochemicals and the prediction of biological activities in the petroleum ether extract of marine green macro alga Codium decorticatum (Woodward) M. Howe (Green algae) collected from Mandapam, Tamil Nadu, India. Methods: The characterization of biochemical was done by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopic (GC-MS) spectra analysis and the biological activities were analyzed using the Prediction of Activity Spectra for Substances (PASS) technique. Results: GC-MS spectral analysis showed a prevailing compound 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, mono(2-ethylhexyl) ester (100%) with retention time of 22.33 min. The PASS result showed 1,933 different kinds of biological activities, namely, anti-cancer (93.5%), anti-seborrheic (89.4%), antieczematic (81.2%), anti-hypercholesterolemic (81.5%), antiviral (81.2%), insulin promoter (79.4%), and anti-inflammatory (77.8%). Conclusion: The present study confirmed the inter-molecular hydrogen bonding of the bioactive compound 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, mono(2-ethylhexyl) ester with the active site of ARF6 (PDB ID 2w83) and the binding energy is −7.49 kcal/mol. Four hydrogen bond interactions were present at GLY80, THR81, GLY80, and GLY80 at the active site

EFFICACY OF FLAXSEED CRACKERS IN AMELIORATING CLINICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL HYPERANDROGENISM IN YOUNG ADULT SOUTH INDIAN WOMEN DIAGNOSED WITH PCOS

Young women of reproductive age are more prone to hormonal/endocrine disorders, the most common being Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Research in different cultural contexts to enhance the physical, emotional, social, and reproductive health of women has been the focus of several scientific studies. High lignan foods reduce the bioavailability of free testosterone through increasing Sex hormone Binding globulin (SHBG) levels. A randomized single-blind placebo-controlled trial was carried out among women of 20 - 25 years from a single on-campus hostel facility in Chennai, India based on the Rotterdam criteria of PCOS diagnosis. The results showed a statistically significant lower serum free testosterone concentrations (1.02 ± 0.428 ng/dl) in the flax group compared to the placebo (1.64 ± 0.504 ng/dl), after the study period. Similarly, it was noted that the lowered levels of Sex hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) were elevated to 15.22 ± 14.593 nmol/L as compared to only 9.64 ± 5.124 nmol/L in the placebo though not statistically significant, thus creating a promising platform for improving the imbalances in the hormone levels. Also, elevated serum insulin concentration was lowered in the flax group (15.67 ± 6.928 µU/mL) than the control group (19.09 ± 8.526 µU/mL). The FG score significantly reduced in the flax group thus alleviating the clinical manifestation of hirsutism. Lowering of free testosterone, serum insulin, and elevation of serum SHBG levels is attributed to the phytoestrogen (SDG) present in flaxseeds and can be an ideal alternate replacing the conventional drugs for PCOS

Diagnostic errors in paediatric cardiac intensive care

AbstractIntroductionDiagnostic errors cause significant patient harm and increase costs. Data characterising such errors in the paediatric cardiac intensive care population are limited. We sought to understand the perceived frequency and types of diagnostic errors in the paediatric cardiac ICU.MethodsPaediatric cardiac ICU practitioners including attending and trainee physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses at three North American tertiary cardiac centres were surveyed between October 2014 and January 2015.ResultsThe response rate was 46% (N=200). Most respondents (81%) perceived that diagnostic errors harm patients more than five times per year. More than half (65%) reported that errors permanently harm patients, and up to 18% perceived that diagnostic errors contributed to death or severe permanent harm more than five times per year. Medication side effects and psychiatric conditions were thought to be most commonly misdiagnosed. Physician groups also ranked pulmonary overcirculation and viral illness to be commonly misdiagnosed as bacterial illness. Inadequate care coordination, data assessment, and high clinician workload were cited as contributory factors. Delayed diagnostic studies and interventions related to the severity of the patient’s condition were thought to be the most commonly reported process breakdowns. All surveyed groups ranked improving teamwork and feedback pathways as strategies to explore for preventing future diagnostic errors.ConclusionsPaediatric cardiac intensive care practitioners perceive that diagnostic errors causing permanent harm are common and associated more with systematic and process breakdowns than with cognitive limitations.</jats:sec