Oil Spill Occurrences along Indian Exclusive Economic Zone

Oil Spill Occurrences along Indian Exclusive Economic Zon

Stranding of whale shark off Madhavpur, Gujarat

A dead male whale shark (Rhincodon typus) was found off Madhavpur coast, near the fish landing centre on morning of 28th September, 2017. The investigations were covered at the joint team of ICAR-CMFRI and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Veraval, Gujarat. The carcass showed an injury below the first dorsal fin but cause of its death could not be ascertained. Some measurements of the stranded whale shark were recorded before it was burie

Characterisation and reproductive biology of four Physalis L. species from Ile-Ife, Nigeria

The nutritional, medicinal and economic values of many Physalis species have been established. However, some Physalis species in Nigeria have been used interchangeably or misidentified. Consequently, there is the need to re-affirm the taxonomic status of these species. Morphological characters and SDS-PAGE were employed to identify and reveal the genetic relationship that exits among the four Physalis species studied. Furthermore, pollen fertility, pollination and germination studies were carried out in order to compile relevant information on reproductive biology of these Physalis species. The results revealed that all the four species studied are annuals. Physalis peruviana has the longest life span. The mean height of the four species studied ranged from 48.08±6.11 to 97.20±6.51 cm with the highest recorded in P. peruviana. The morphological characters subjected to SLCA grouped P. pubescens and P. peruviana together and branched at higher levels of similarity (0.98). In addition, SDS-PAGE showed that P. peruviana, P. angulata and P. pubescens are distantly related to P. micrantha. High pollen stainability (80.6% - 92.6%) was recorded in all the Physalis species studied. Therefore, from this study, it can be concluded that all the four species studied are distinct species with a common origin and they are highly fertile

Dead Bryde's whale washed ashore at Veraval, Gujarat

Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera edeni Anderson, 1879) measuring 10.4 m in length and weighing about 7 tons was found washed ashore on the beach of Veraval on 4th august 2017. Locally called as “Machchh” it was found in dead condition with small injuries in the caudal peduncle and genital region. With the intervention and supervision of forest officials, it was towed ashore and a veterinary officer conducted post-mortem after which it was buried on the shore. Occurrenc

Evaluation of Some Microbiological and Physico-chemical Composition of Domestic Wastewater in Rivers and Bayelsa States

Aims: This research study aims at ascertaining the inhibitive contributions of these domestic effluents even as they flow from drains into the rivers. Study Design: The microbiological and physico-chemical composition of domestic wastewater in Rivers and Bayelsa States was achieved experimentally. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Rivers and Bayelsa states, Nigeria, between August 20016 and January 2017. Methodology: The waste water samples were aseptically collected from domestic points using 1 litre sterile polyethylene bottles filled with ice and was immediately taken to the laboratory for analysis to improve reliability of data and they were stored at 4°C for further analysis. Results: The physicochemical analysis of wastewater collected from 20 stations were investigated. These parameters were analyzed by standard methods. The color of the collected sewage water was pale yellow to black and was turbid in some selected stations. Unpleasant odor was observed in all selected stations. The pH of the wastewater varied from 6.0 to 7.3, while the water conductivity ranges from 650 to 2390 μScm-1. The maximum total suspended solid was 182 mg/l, and the maximum biological oxygen demand was 569.5 mg/l. The chemical oxygen demand of the selected stations varied widely (507.1 – 602.9 mg/l), and the dissolved oxygen content varied from 0.01 to 0.242 mg/l. The nitrate content was found to be maximum in station G (18.5 ppm), and the samples show high content of bacteria in all the stations. Conclusion: This study anchors on the need for effective sewage treatment of domestic, industrial and municipal effluent before they are discharged into the environment. This will help to meet up with the long-term challenges of environmental pollution, improve standard of living and health, and also enhance economic opportunities and good sustainable development

Karyotypic studies of four Physalis species from Nigeria

Mitotic chromosomes from root tips of four Nigerian Physalis species were investigated using standard cytogenetic methods. P. angulata has chromosome number of 2n = 48 with karyotypic formula of 2M + 5m + 16sm + 1st, while P. micrantha, P. peruviana and P. pubescens showed the same chromosome number of 2n = 24 with karyotypic formulae of 1M + 1m + 9sm + 1st, 4M + 6m + 1sm + 1st and 1M + 1 m + 2sm + 8st, respectively. The karyotypes show that P. angulata is more advanced when compared to the other three diploids studied

Solidworks Simulation of Mechanical Properties of Recycled Plastics/Nanocomposite Faces Sandwich Panels

Sandwich panels are lightweight, high strength materials desired by engineers for various applications. However, many contributions cited the replacement of the metallic surfaces with reinforced polymeric composites for additional weight reduction purpose but none observed for recycled plastics. Accordingly, this work plans to investigate the mechanical behavior of sandwich panels made of recycled plastic/Nano reinforced composites under tension, compression, and bending load using Solidworks simulation. The data were obtained from previous works, and the complementary data were collected using different approaches. All models revealed that polycarbonate (PC) skin dominated over polypropylene and high-density polyethylene due to the highest modulus of elasticity. However, the results indicated that the core unless reinforced the outer skins will be separated as a result of residual strain at interfaces. Consequently, the core of PC skin sandwich panel reinforced with two thin sheets which lead to improvement in loading endurance from 500 to 1500N without exceeding the allowable limits of the materials and leading to the birth of environmentally intimated material termed green sandwich panel

A Java Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of Mobile Agent Platforms.

Mobile agents are emerging as a promising paradigm for the design and implementations of distributed applications .Manyof these Mobile Agent platforms have been developed, new one, and new versions of old agents, kept on appearing everyyear, so choosing the right or most suitable platform for a particular application area; based on their performance is achallenge for both the developers and the users. This paper carried out a qualitative comparison across three selected, Javabased Mobile Agent System, Aglet Tracy, and JADE. Two of them (Aglets and JADE) were selected for quantitativeevaluation on their time of transfer/retrieval of compressed data files. In our implementation, Aglet version 2.02 and JADE3.4.1 were used. A java simulation program was developed and used in measuring the performance of the two mobileagents, using transmission time and compressed time as performance metrics. In this paper work, a unique portnumber(2080) was chosen for the loading of classes and mobility of agents. Ten dummy data files (also refer to as Load orMessage) were created with sizes ranges from 100Kb to 1 Mb. A gzip compression tool was used to compress each of thesefiles and sent through the Aglet and JADE enabled network. The transmission time (in milliseconds) for each correspondingfiles size (in Bytes) in the two Mobile agents were recorded. We deduced from our qualitative results that, Tracy plug-infeatures give users room for reusability and extension. Aglets provide weak security and poorly scalable. JADE has astrong security, scalable and its multi agent feature will enrich its usage on the internet. Our quantitative results show thattransferring/retrieving of compressed data file is faster in JADE than in Aglets. The integrity of the files are also kept safe, inboth mobile agents, that is after decompressions they can still be reused.Keywords: Aglet, Gzip, JADE, Compression ratio, Mobile Agent Networ

Novel <i>IRF6 </i>mutations in families with Van Der Woude syndrome and popliteal pterygium syndrome from sub-Saharan Africa

Orofacial clefts (OFC) are complex genetic traits that are often classified as syndromic or nonsyndromic clefts. Currently, there are over 500 types of syndromic clefts in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database, of which Van der Woude syndrome (VWS) is one of the most common (accounting for 2% of all OFC). Popliteal pterygium syndrome (PPS) is considered to be a more severe form of VWS. Mutations in the IRF6 gene have been reported worldwide to cause VWS and PPS. Here, we report studies of families with VWS and PPS in sub-Saharan Africa. We screened the DNA of eight families with VWS and one family with PPS from Nigeria and Ethiopia by Sanger sequencing of the most commonly affected exons in IRF6 (exons 3, 4, 7, and 9). For the VWS families, we found a novel nonsense variant in exon 4 (p.Lys66X), a novel splice-site variant in exon 4 (p.Pro126Pro), a novel missense variant in exon 4 (p.Phe230Leu), a previously reported splice-site variant in exon 7 that changes the acceptor splice site, and a known missense variant in exon 7 (p.Leu251Pro). A previously known missense variant was found in exon 4 (p.Arg84His) in the PPS family. All the mutations segregate in the families. Our data confirm the presence of IRF6-related VWS and PPS in sub-Saharan Africa and highlights the importance of screening for novel mutations in known genes when studying diverse global populations. This is important for counseling and prenatal diagnosis for high-risk families