A preliminary study of the fish populations along the Malabar Coast

The study on the inshore fish population of the Malabar Coast was undertaken with a view to ascertaining the species of fishes occurring in the coastal waters, their relative intra- and inter-specific fluctuations at different times of the yea.l'j their sizes, sex proportions, maturity, life histories and their behaviour in relation to the biological and physico chemical environment. It is intended to form an introduction to the detailed investigations on the biology and bionomics of individual species of food fishes of this coast

Blocked All-Pairs Shortest Paths Algorithm on Intel Xeon Phi KNL Processor: A Case Study

Manycores are consolidating in HPC community as a way of improving performance while keeping power efficiency. Knights Landing is the recently released second generation of Intel Xeon Phi architecture. While optimizing applications on CPUs, GPUs and first Xeon Phi's has been largely studied in the last years, the new features in Knights Landing processors require the revision of programming and optimization techniques for these devices. In this work, we selected the Floyd-Warshall algorithm as a representative case study of graph and memory-bound applications. Starting from the default serial version, we show how data, thread and compiler level optimizations help the parallel implementation to reach 338 GFLOPS.Comment: Computer Science - CACIC 2017. Springer Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 79

Energetics and economics of blue-green algal contribution to rice crop system

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Comparison of different methods of assessing in vitro resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to rifampicin

Background & objectives: Definitions of in vitro resistance to rifampicin in. strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by different methods have not been consistent, leading to variations in the interpretation and validity of results. This study compared three methods of defining in vitro resistance to rifampicin. Methods: (i) A total of 598 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were concurrently compared by the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen medium; (ii) 54 strains tested by the MIC method were retested by the proportion method and the BACTEC radiometric method; and (iii) 72 strains which yielded an MIC of 64 mg/l by the MIC method were retested by the same method. Results: Out of 598 cultures tested by the MIC and the proportion methods, identical classification as susceptible or resistant was observed in 99.7 per cent. A 100 per cent agreement was observed when 54 strains were tested by the MIC, proportion and BACTEC radiometric methods. When 72 strains with an MIC of 64 mg/l were retested by the same method, 61 (85%) yielded a lower MIC, 9 (12%) gave the same MIC while 2 (3%) yielded a higher MIC of 128 mg/l, reflecting perhaps the inherent limitations of the variations in the inoculum size. Interpretation & conclusion: All 3 definitions of resistance, viz., an MIC of 128 mg/l, a proportion of I per cent or more on 40 mg/l by the proportion method, both on L-J medium and a growth of 1 per cent or more on 2 mg/l by the radiometric method were found to be equally satisfactory

Mackerel and Oil Sardine Tagging Programme 1966 – 67 to 1968 – 69

The importance of mark-release experiments as a means to understand certain aspects of the biology of fish such as rate of growth,migration, age, stocks and races has long been realised by fishery scientists and considerable work has been done on these lines in the United States of America, United Kingdom and Japan. In India tagging was successfully attempted for the first time on Hilsa in the Hooghly estuary (Pillay, 1959) and subsequently on grey mullets and other brackish water fishes in Chilka Lake (Jhingran and Patro, 1959; Jhingran and Misra, 1962). As a part of field training, the Fisheries Officers of the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Bombay carried out tagging on major carps (Catla catla, Cirrhina mrigala and Labeo rohita) in Madhya Pradesh and on lesser sardines and mackerel at Panaji, Goa, during July-September 1966 and from 11th to 20th December 1966 respectively (Johannes Hamre et al., 1966). The tagging in these instances was done on large numbers of fish but confined to certain centres only

Inactivators of Isoniazid, Based on The Ratio of The Urinary Excretion of Acetylisoniazid To Isoniazid

Following an intramuscular injection of isoniazid 3 mg/kg body-weight, the urinary excretion of isoniazid and acetylisoniazid during the periods 0-1, 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4 h was determined for 124 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. On the same occasion, the serum isoniazid concentration at 4½ h was determined by microbiologic assay. The ratios of acetylisoniazid to isoniazid in the urine collections at 2, 3 and 4 h. were bimodally distributed. Rules were derived from these. ratios for classifying subjects as slow or rapid inactivators of isoniazid. There was 100% agreement between the classification based on each of these ratios and that based on the serum isoniazid concentration at 4½ h

Effects of magnetic doping and temperature dependence on phonon dynamics in CaFe\_{1-x}Co\_{x}AsF compounds (x = 0, 0.06, 0.12)

We report detailed measurements of composition as well as temperature dependence of the phonon density-of-states in a new series of FeAs compounds with composition CaFe1\_{1-x}Co\_{x}AsF (x = 0, 0.06, 0.12). The composition as well as temperature dependence of phonon spectra for CaFe\_{1-x}Co\_{x}AsF (x = 0, 0.06, 0.12) compounds have been measured using time of flight IN4C and IN6 spectrometers at ILL, France. The comparison of phonon spectra at 300 K in these compounds shows that acoustic phonon modes up to 12 meV harden in the doped compounds in comparison to the parent CaFeAsF. While intermediate energy phonon modes from 15 meV to 25 meV are also found to shift towards high energies only in the 12 % Co doped CaFeAsF compound. The experimental results for CaFe\_{1-x}Co\_{x}AsF (x = 0, 0.06, 0.12) are quite different from our previous phonon studies on parent and superconducting MFe2As2 (M=Ba, Ca, Sr) where low-energy acoustic phonon modes do not react with doping, while the phonon spectra in the intermediate range from 15 to 25 K are found to soften in these compounds. We argue that stronger spin phonon interaction play an important role for the emergence of superconductivity in these compounds. The lattice dynamics of CaFe\_{1-x}Co\_{x}AsF (x = 0, 0.06, 0.12) compounds is also investigated using the ab-initio as well as shell model phonon calculations. We show that the nature of the interaction between the Ca and the Fe-As layers in CaFeAsF compounds is quite different compared with our previous studies on CaFe2As2.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Tuberculosis prevalence survey in Kashmir valley

A tuberculosis prevalence survey was conducted in about 18,000 persons in Kashmir valley situated about 1650 m above the mean sea level. All persons were tested with 3 IU of PPD-S and 10 units of PPD-B. Persons aged 5 yr and above were X-rayed (70 mm X-ray), and from such persons whose photofluorograms were interpreted as abnormal two specimens of sputum were collected and bacteriologically examined. In addition, a large X-ray of the chest was taken for children aged 0-4 yr who had reactions of 10 mm or more to PPD-S. They were then clinically examined by a paediatrician, taking into account all available data, for evaluation for any evidence of tuberculosis. The results of the survey showed that the prevalence of non-specific sensitivity (59%) in the Kashmir valley is significant. The prevalence of tuberculous infection was 38 per cent. The prevalence of culture positive tuberculous patients (3 per 1000) and that of abacillary X-ray positive patients (14 per 1000) were found to be similar in the two sexes contrary to the usual experience of a higher prevalence among males. Results from studies of phage typing, susceptibility to thiophen-2-carbonic acid hydrazide (TCH) and virulence in the guineapig of strains obtained from patients diagnosed in the survey showed that most of these strains belonged to phage type A, were resistant to TCH and were not of low virulence. Regional variations in the prevalence rates were seen, the- problem of tuberculosis appeared to he more in the Baramulla district as compared to Srinagar and Anantnag districts. A comparison of results obtained from the present survey with those obtained from the BCG trial in Chingleput (Tamil Nadu) revealed that the tuberculosis situation in the two areas was quite different

Statistical theory of timedependent diffusioncontrolled reactions in fluids and solids

The transient effect in a diffusion limited reaction is described by a time-dependent rate coefficient: k(t) = a + b exp(c 2 t)erfc(ct 1/2), where a, b, and c are expressed in terms of the diffusion coefficient (D), the encounter distance (R), and the absolute rate coefficient (k a ); and for ionic reactions, the Onsager length (r e ). Time resolved fluorescence quenching studies on cresyl violet-potassium iodide system in water confirm the validity of the above equation. The values of D and R obtained from the fluorescence quenching studies are in good agreement with the values inferred from other sources, and the value of ka is reasonable