The Indian monsoon: 5. Prediction of the monsoon

In this article we first consider the importance of prediction of the monsoon, and events such as the intense rainfall event over Mumbai in July 2005. We then discuss how meteorologists make short-, medium-, and long-range forecasts and the concept of the limit of predictability in a chaotic system such as the atmosphere. Problems and prospects of prediction on different time-scales are discussed by using one example of short-range forecasts and the prediction of the monsoon by dynamical and statistical methods. Finally we consider measures of the skill of a forecast and how high the skill has to be for it to be useful for applications

Active and break spells of the Indian summer monsoon

In this paper, we suggest criteria for the identification of active and break events of the Indian summer monsoon on the basis of recently derived high resolution daily gridded rainfall dataset over India (1951-2007). Active and break events are defined as periods during the peak monsoon months of July and August, in which the normalized anomaly of the rainfall over a critical area, called the monsoon core zone exceeds 1 or is less than −1.0 respectively, provided the criterion is satisfied for at least three consecutive days. We elucidate the major features of these events. We consider very briefly the relationship of the intraseasonal fluctuations between these events and the interannual variation of the summer monsoon rainfall. We find that breaks tend to have a longer life-span than active spells. While, almost 80% of the active spells lasted 3-4 days, only 40% of the break spells were of such short duration. A small fraction (9%) of active spells and 32% of break spells lasted for a week or longer. While active events occurred almost every year, not a single break occurred in 26% of the years considered. On an average, there are 7 days of active and break events from July through August. There are no significant trends in either the days of active or break events. We have shown that there is a major difference between weak spells and long intense breaks. While weak spells are characterized by weak moist convective regimes, long intense break events have a heat trough type circulation which is similar to the circulation over the Indian subcontinent before the onset of the monsoon. The space-time evolution of the rainfall composite patterns suggests that the revival from breaks occurs primarily from northward propagations of the convective cloud zone. There are important differences between the spatial patterns of the active/break spells and those characteristic of interannual variation, particularly those associated with the link to ENSO. Hence, the interannual variation of the Indian monsoon cannot be considered as primarily arising from the interannual variation of intraseasonal variation. However, the signature over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean on intraseasonal time scales is similar to that on the interannual time scales

Effect of physical factors on hydrolytic enzyme action of seed bone Alternaria Species

Impact of physical factors on hydrolytic enzyme production of Alternaria species was studied. Continuous light favored enzyme production in Alternaria species. Maximum enzyme activity occurred in 15 – 20 days in all the Alternaria species. Alternaria species produced hydrolytic enzymes maximum at 20 – 30oC temperature.All the species of Alternaria at 5.5 to 6.5 pH value produced maximum enzyme, however pH 3.5 and 8.5 inhibited enzyme activity

Incidence of Alternaria Species on Different Cereals, Pulses and Oil Seeds

Present paper deals with the study of diversity of Alternaria species on different cereals, pulses and oilseeds. Total nine species of Alternaria viz A. alternata, A. crassa, A. cihhorii, A. chrysanthemi, A. dianthicola, A. longipes A. porri, A. tenuissima and A. triticina were isolated from cereals like wheat, bajra, maize, barley and jowar . Eight species of Alternaria viz A. alternata, A. dianthicola, A. longipes, A. longissima, A. raphani, A. porri, A. sesame and A. tenuissima were reported on the pulses viz green gram, black gram, pea, red gram, cowpea and moth bean. Thirteen species of Alternaria like A. alternata, A. brassicicola, A. brassicae, A. carthami, A. helianthi ,A. longipes, A. longissima A. macrospore, A. ricini, A. raphani, A. sesame, A. sesamicola and A. tenuissima were occurred on six oil seeds like cotton, ground nut, sunflower, safflower, mustard and sesame

In Silico Vaccine Design for Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Clumping Factor A (ClfA)

Staphylococcus aureus a facultative anaerobic multidrug-resistant bacterium can cause a range of illnesses, from minor skin infections, such as pimples, boils, impetigo, folliculitis, cellulitis, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome, and abscesses and life-threatening diseases such as meningitis, pneumonia, bacteremia, sepsis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis and toxic shock syndrome. Pathogenic strains often promote infections by producing virulence factors and the expression of cell-surface proteins that bind and inactivate antibodies. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of S. aureus such as methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine. In spite of immense research and development, not much progress has been made with regard to an epitope based vaccine and till date there is no approved vaccine for S. aureus. This study aims to analyze and predict the possibility of designing a vaccine that could make humans immune to S. aureus. The surface protein ClfA is highly antigenic among the virulence factors of S. aureus which act as an adhesin often essential for infection was collected from a protein database and in silico tools were used to predict the T-cell epitopes by NetCTL 1.2 and B-cell epitopes by Bepipred from IEDB (Immune Epitope Database). Further, MHC Class I and Class II binding peptides were predicted using TepiTool from IEDB analysis resource. The peptide KPNTDSNAL was found as the most potential B-cell and T-cell epitope. The epitope was further tested for binding against the HLA molecule by computational docking techniques to verify the HLA and epitope interaction. However, the in silico designed epitope-based peptide vaccine against S. aureus need to be validated by in vitro and in vivo experiments

ENHANCEMENT IN THE COW FEED VALUE OF SOME AGRO-INDUSTRIAL BY-PRODUCTS MEDIATED BY SOLID STATE FERMENTATION WITHTRICHODERMA VIRIDE

Objective: The idea behind this work is to investigate the possible improvement in nutritional values of agro industrial by products namely black gram husk (Vignamungo), yellow pigeon pea husk (Cajanuscajan) and black chick pea husk(Cicerarietinum) using Trichoderma viride a fungus over a period of 15 days. Methods: The samples were analyzed for their proximate composition according to the standard methods of A.O.A.C. Results: Substantial improvement was observed in the protein content for black gram husk and black chick pea husk. The crude fibre of the treated samples of black gram husk, black chick pea husk decreased when compared to the untreated. But there was a trivial decrease in the protein content and increase in crude fibre content for Yellow pigeon pea husk treated with Trichoderma viride than untreated. Ether extract was found to be reduced for all the three treated samples. Significant reduction in the cell wall content of the husk samples was observed. Conclusion: Results of the study showed that fungal biodegradation of the agro industrial by-products can enhance their nutritional status. Using such by-products to feed cow can produce improved quantity of milk

Cutaneous tumours of vascular origin: two rare entities

Skin and subcutaneous tissue are the most common location of benign and malignant vascular tumors. The benign or malignant nature of the lesion may not always be identified clinically because of the varying presentations. The histology of the lesion, especially in malignancies may not exhibit definite vascular pattern.  In such cases, clinical presentation has to be correlated with histopathological picture as well as immunohistochemical characteristics to reach a specific diagnosis. Judicious use of immunohistochemical markers proves to be invaluable.  Two rare cases of cutaneous vascular tumors which presented at our institution are cited, the diagnosis of which involved correlation of these modalities

Pharmaceutico - Analytical Study of Lokanatha Rasa

Life science discoveries are helpful in improving the quality and standard of life and have applications in health and pharmaceutical industries. Rasashastra and Bhaishajya kalpana known as the art of vedic alchemy is a fusion between mineral and organic compounds. It is a branch of Ayurveda which has given great emphasis to the comprehensive knowledge of both mineral and herbal drugs, preparation, preservation and dispensing of the preserved drugs. It’s a pottali preparation having herbo- mineral ingredients. Lokanatha rasa is one of the pottali kalpa preparation done in tamra samputa method in lavana yantra. Ingredients are Parada, Gandhaka, Kaparda bhasma with nimbu swarasa and chitraka kwatha as bhavana dravya Indicated in kasa, swasa, grahani, prouda rajayakshma, arsha, shotha, gulma, dourbhalya. Lokanatha Rasa has PH 7.72. Elements present in Lokanatha rasa as confirmed by EDS study is Mercury - 44.12, Sulphur - 8.97, Calcium - 18.62, oxygen - 28.29

Isolation and characterization of extreme halophilic bacterium Salinicoccus sp. JAS4 producing extracellular hydrolytic enzymes

A extreme halophilic bacterium, strain JAS4 was isolated from the Arabal soil of west coast of Karnataka, India. The isolate is Gram positive, strictly aerobic, ferments several carbohydrates and has motile, coccoid shaped cells and non sporing, catalase- and oxidase- positive, that grew in presence of 2-25% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.5-11, with optimum growth at 10%(w/v) NaCl, with an optimum growth temperature of 340C, has potential to produce the extracellular enzymes such as Amylase, Protease, Inulinase and Gelatinase, but production of lipase was found to be negative. The phenotypic studies and genotypic analysis by 16S rRNA analysis showed that the bacterium belonged to the genera Salinicoccus of 98% BLAST sequence similarity and it is named as Salinicoccus sp. JAS4 and phylogenetic study was carried out using Mega5 software.  &nbsp

Unsteady boundary layer flow of thermophoretic MHD nanofluid past a stretching sheet with space and time dependent internal heat source/sink

In this study we analyze the boundary layer flow of a thermophoretic magnetohydrodynamic dissipative nanofluid over an unsteady stretching sheet in a porous medium with space and time dependent internal heat source/sink. The governing equations are transformed to ordinary differential equations by using similarity transformation. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained by using the Shooting Technique. The effects of non-dimensional governing parameters on the velocity, temperature, concentration profiles, friction factor, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are discussed and presented through graphs and tables. Accuracy of the results compared with the existing ones. Excellent agreement is found with earlier studies