Note on hand jigging fishery for squids and cuttlefishes at Devipattinam in the Palk Bay and at Keelakarai in the Gulf of Mannar, south-east coast of India

Hand jigging for squids and cuttlefishes operated from thermocole float both at Devipattinam and Keelakarai has mainly three parts: Japanese made jig (bait like object with 1-2 tiers of hooks), weight attached to it, and 7 to 14 m long line tied to latter. The design and structure of the Japanese made jig have been described earlier (Mar. Fish. infor. Serv., T&E Ser.,137, 1995)

ADAPTIVE RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR WIRELESS MULTICAST MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS

Multiple antenna orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is a promissing technique for the high downlink capacity in the next generation wireless systems, in which adaptive resource allocation would be an important research issue that can significantly improve the performance with guaranteed QoS for users. Moreover, most of the current source allocation algorithms are limited to the unicast system. In this paper, dynamic resource allocation is studied for multiple antenna OFDMA based systems which provide multicast service. The performance of multicast system is simulated and compared with that of the unicast system. Numerical results also show that the propossed algorithms improve the system capacity significantly compared with the conventional scheme

Airborne mapping of complex obstacles using 2D Splinegon

This paper describes a recently proposed algorithm in mapping the unknown obstacle in a stationary environment where the obstacles are represented as curved in nature. The focus is to achieve a guaranteed performance of sensor based navigation and mapping. The guaranteed performance is quantified by explicit bounds of the position estimate of an autonomous aerial vehicle using an extended Kalman filter and to track the obstacle so as to extract the map of the obstacle. This Dubins path planning algorithm is used to provide a flyable and safe path to the vehicle to fly from one location to another. This description takes into account the fact that the vehicle is made to fly around the obstacle and hence will map the shape of the obstacle using the 2D-Splinegon technique. This splinegon technique, the most efficient and a robust way to estimate the boundary of a curved nature obstacles, can provide mathematically provable performance guarantees that are achievable in practice

Observations on the effect of bottom trawling on dislocation of non-edible biota in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, South East Coast of India

Observations on the dislocated non- edible biota by bottom trawlers in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar wcre made during 1995- 1998. Data was cullected at trawl landing centres. Rameswaram (Palk Bay) and Pamban (Gulf of Mannar). The average composition of non edible biota to the total trawl discard was 38. Mt and 33.9% at Rameswaram and Pamban respectively

Differential Effects of Lipid-lowering Drugs in Modulating Morphology of Cholesterol Particles.

Treatment of dyslipidemia patients with lipid-lowering drugs leads to a significant reduction in low-density lipoproteins (LDL) level and a low to moderate level of increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in plasma. However, a possible role of these drugs in altering morphology and distribution of cholesterol particles is poorly understood. Here, we describe the in vitro evaluation of lipid-lowering drug effects in modulating morphological features of cholesterol particles using the plaque array method in combination with imaging flow cytometry. Image analyses of the cholesterol particles indicated that lovastatin, simvastatin, ezetimibe, and atorvastatin induce the formation of both globular and linear strand-shaped particles, whereas niacin, fibrates, fluvastatin, and rosuvastatin induce the formation of only globular-shaped particles. Next, purified very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and LDL particles incubated with these drugs showed changes in the morphology and image texture of cholesterol particles subpopulations. Furthermore, screening of 50 serum samples revealed the presence of a higher level of linear shaped HDL cholesterol particles in subjects with dyslipidemia (mean of 18.3%) compared to the age-matched normal (mean of 11.1%) samples. We also observed considerable variations in lipid-lowering drug effects on reducing linear shaped LDL and HDL cholesterol particles formation in serum samples. These findings indicate that lipid-lowering drugs, in addition to their cell-mediated hypolipidemic effects, may directly modulate morphology of cholesterol particles by a non-enzymatic mechanism of action. The outcomes of these results have potential to inform diagnosis of atherosclerosis and predict optimal lipid-lowering therapy

Life Threatening Transverse-Lying Vegetable Foreign Body in the Larynx; A Case Report

Introduction: Foreign body (FB) in throat is one of the common presentations in emergency departments (ED). The foreign body may be stuck in the neck region through ingestion or due to iatrogenic injury. FB ingestion is rare in adults but still occurs. The ED treatment plan for patients suspected to have ingested a foreign body depends on the type and location of the FB, as well as the patient’s condition. In adults, the most common FBs ingested are chicken bone and fishbone. The ingested FB often gets lodged in the oropharynx and cricopharyngeal muscle regions. Case presentation: We report a 15-year-old female patient who presented with a foreign body in the throat. Lateral neck radiograph (LNR) revealed a radio-dense vegetable foreign body in the supraglottic region, lying transversely above the vocal cord. This is an unusual clinical and radiological presentation. A 4-cm long piece of beetroot was removed successfully via direct laryngoscopy under safe procedural sedation. Post-procedure, the patient recovered well, discharged within a few hours. Conclusion: Even though foreign body in throat is a common presentation, we report this case due to its anatomical position, type, size, and the unusual radiological appearance of the FB

Identification of Beryllium Hydride Isotopomer Lines in Sunspot Umbral Spectra

A high resolution spectrum of FTS sunspot umbra of NSO/Kitt Peak was used to conduct a search for the molecular absorption lines due to BeH, BeD and BeT isotopomers. Analysis led to estimates of identification of the molecular lines of bands A - X (0,0), (1,1) and (2,2) for BeH, A - X (0,0), (1,1), (2,2) and (3,3) for BeD and of A - X (0,0), (1,1) and (2,2) for BeT. Among the identified lines, those which are well resolved were selected for measurements to calculate equivalent widths. The values of effective rotational temperature T were estimated for bands A - X(1,1) and (2,2) of BeH, A - X(1,1) of BeD and A - X(2,2) of BeT to be 4228K, 4057K, 3941K and 3243K respectively