Philautus sanctisilvaticus (Anura: Rhacophoridae), a new frog from the sacred groves of Amarkantak, Central India

A new species of Philautus is described from the vicinity of Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in south-eastern India. The new species is compared with congeners from peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Since the members of the genus are restricted to wet evergreen forests of the region, remnant patches of wet forests within a now largely degraded and arid Eastern Ghats are apparently refugia, supporting species that are tolerant of mesic conditions. K e y w o r d s : taxonomy, amphibians, Philautus, new species, Eastern Ghats, India

Leptobrachium smithi Matsui, Nabitabhata, and Panha, 1999 (Anura: Megophryidae), an Addition to the Fauna of Myanmar (Burma)

Three specimens of Leptobrachium from the collections of the Zoological Survey of India are identified as Leptobrachium smithi. These specimens were collected by Limborg in 1877. These are the first confirmed records of Leptobrachium smithi for Myanmar

A new species of Scutiger (Anura : Megophryidae) from Nagaland, North Eastern, India

The anuran genus Scutiger, assigned by some (e.g. Frost, 1 985 and Duellman, 1 993) to the family Pelobatidae, and by other more recent workers (e.g. Fu et al., 1 997; Fu & Murphy, 1 997) to Megophryidae, contains 32 nominal species. While the apparent centre of radiation of the genus is China, three species (S. nyingchiensis Fei, 1 977; S. occidentalis Dubois, 1 977 and S. sikimmensis Blyth, 1 854) have been recorded from India (Inger & Dutta, 1 986; Dutta, 1 997). Until now, a single species, S. sikimmensis, has been recorded from the north-eastern region of India (see Chanda, 1 994). A well-preserved adult male Scutiger received by the Zoological Survey of India serves as the basis for the description of a new species. The material was collected from Nagaland, in north-eastern Indi

Immunohistochemical Evaluation of p63, E-Cadherin, Collagen I and III Expression in Lower Limb Wound Healing under Honey

Honey is recognized traditionally for its medicinal properties and also appreciated as a topical healing agent for infected and noninfected wounds. This study evaluates impact of honey-based occlusive dressing on nonhealing (nonresponding to conventional antibiotics) traumatic lower limb wounds (n = 34) through clinicopathological and immunohistochemical (e.g., expression of p63, E-cadherin, and Collagen I and III) evaluations to enrich the scientific validation. Clinical findings noted the nonadherence of honey dressing with remarkable chemical debridement and healing progression within 11–15 days of postintervention. Histopathologically, in comparison to preintervention biopsies, the postintervention tissues of wound peripheries demonstrated gradual normalization of epithelial and connective tissue features with significant changes in p63+ epithelial cell population, reappearance of membranous E-cadherin (P < .0001), and optimum deposition of collagen I and III (P < .0001). Thus, the present study for the first time reports the impact of honey on vital protein expressions in epithelial and connective tissues during repair of nonhealing lower limb wounds

Synthetic and structural investigation of ZnO nano-rods, hydrothermally grown over Au coated optical fiber for evanescent field-based detection of aqueous ammonia

We present the fabrication of modified clad optical fiber coated with ZnO nanorod over Au thin film to be served as ammonia gas sensor. The deposited material ZnO synthesized by hydrothermal process and modified clad fiber is coated by Autoclave technique. The as-synthesized materials are characterized by XRD, XPS, FTIR, Raman spectra and its hexagonal nanorods morphology was checked by FESEM. The ZnO coated over Au thin film fiber is found to be a good candidate towards ammonia sensing. The developed sesnor exihibted sensitivity (%) ~ 0.638 of ammonia gas at room temperature

Catalogue of amphibian types in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India

The amphibian types in the collection of the National Zoological Collection, maintained by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata (Calcutta), as well as those held by the regional stations at Dehra Dun and Chennai, are listed, up to 1 September 2000. The list includes many historical specimens collected and/or described by pioneering European naturalists, including Edward Blyth, Thomas Jerdon, William Blanford, William Theobald, Ferdinand Stoliczka, Nelson Annandale, and John Anderson, as well as those more recently described from expeditions to the Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala, by the staff of the ZSI during the present century. The annotated list includes original citations, registration numbers, nature of types, and present status of every taxon. Additional remarks are provided where necessary. A total of 346 type specimens of amphibians are represented, including those representing 105 anuran species, one caudate species and nine apodan species, from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Syntypes from the original type series of two name-bearing taxa have lost their type status through the designation of lectotypes. In addition, the types of 39 name-bearing taxa described by the staff and members of the Asiatic Society of Bengal cannot be located in the ZSI collection

Irreversible Hemichorea–Hemiballism in a Case of Nonketotic Hyperglycemia Presenting as the Initial Manifestation of Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Hemichorea–hemiballism (HCHB) is a hyperkinetic movement disorder with features of both chorea and ballism occurring on the same side. Case report: We present a case of HCHB due to nonketotic hyperglycemia (NKH) that was the initial presentation of diabetes and was irreversible clinically even after 6 months of optimal blood sugar control. Discussion: Although HCHB due to hyperglycemia is a potentially reversible condition in the majority of patients, prolonged uncontrolled hyperglycemia may cause ischemic insult and persistent symptoms. Hyperglycemia should always be kept in the list of differentials while dealing with patients who are newly diagnosed with HCHB

Inhomogeneous polarization evolution resolves a fundamental issue in non-Hermitian transverse optical beam shifts

Depending on the system parameters, the transverse optical beam shift in reflection can be non-Hermitian with real eigenvalues and non-orthogonal eigenstates. We reveal that such an unusual resemblance with typical PT (parity-time)-symmetric systems originates from the beam's momentum domain polarization evolution. Specifically, for partial reflection, the momentum domain inhomogeneous polarization evolution of the beam is at the heart of all the peculiarities in the corresponding eigenspectrum of the transverse shift operator. These findings put forward the notion of novel non-Hermitian spin-orbit photonics and enable common polarization optical elements to act as PT-symmetric non-Hermitian systems