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The disturbances caused to forests by human interferences have a significant impact on forest hydrology and the nutrient cycle. The stemflow, throughfall, interception loss, and runoff are the major components of the forest hydrology and play an active role in nutrients cycling. A study was therefore carried out in the Sal forests under various disturbance gradients in Himalayan foothills to quantify the rainfall partitioned components i.e. stemflow, throughfall, and interception loss; runoff; and chemical elements in rainfall partitioned components. During the study period, a total of 37 rainfall events were recorded for the rainfall partitioning study. Results showed that the significantly highest average stemflow was observed in the undisturbed Sal forest (3.7 ± 0.2%) and lowest in the disturbed Sal forest (1.7 ± 0.1%). A significantly highest average throughfall was observed in the disturbed Sal forest (65.2 ± 1.7%) and lowest in the undisturbed forest (57.8 ± 1.8%). Although the highest average interception loss was observed in the undisturbed forest (38.5 ± 1.8%) and lowest in the disturbed Sal forest type (33.2 ± 1.8%), it was not significant (p = 0.05). Significantly highest average runoff (22.2 ± 1.7%) was observed in the disturbed Sal forest while the lowest runoff (8.5 ± 1.8%) was observed in the undisturbed Sal forest type. It was also observed that nutrient enrichment i.e. N, P, and K to the soil through stemflow and throughfall was 18.6 times, 23.1 times, and 10.8 times more as compared to incident rainfall. From the statistical analysis, it was observed that average canopy spread, ground biomass, and average crown projection area were the most important parameters of the Sal forests which affected the proportion of rainfall partitioned components and runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The torque ripple, current fluctuation and variable switching frequency of conventional hysteresis current controller (CHCC) under different loading condition and motion variation is inevitable, which demands effective implementation of the existing current controller by which it will be possible to get rid of these limitations. This paper presents enhancement in performance of a vector controlled based Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) drive system by using an adaptive hysteresis current controller (AHCC). This controller minimizes torque ripple, current error and is capable of providing nearly constant switching frequency by modifying its bandwidth according to the changes in the system parameter or when the system is subjected to any kind of disturbances and load variation. Initially the study is carried out in MATLAB-Simulink environment and then the test result is experimentally validated through hardware implementation with the help of DSP TMS320F2812 which provides a complete digital control system with high effectiveness and fast computational skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes (PE) in the microvasculature contributes directly to the virulence and severe pathology of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The scavenger receptor CD36 appears to play an important role in PE adherence. Recently several mutations in the CD36 gene have been found to be associated with variability in susceptibility to P. falciparum infection in different ethnic populations. We investigated the possible association of T188G CD36 gene polymorphism with severe clinical manifestations of malaria in 95 adult patients with severe malaria admitted to SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack, Orissa, India (‘severe’ group) and 95 ethnically matched controls attending outpatient clinics at primary health centres (‘mild’ group). The frequency of the wild-type (T188T) allele of the CD36 gene was 0.91 in the ‘severe’ group and 0.78 in the ‘mild’ group of patients, while mutant (T188G) allele frequency was 0.09 in the severe group and 0.22 in the mild group. The Hardy-Weinberg equation indicates that the mutant allele is under selection pressure and disease association analysis shows that the presence of the heterozygote mutant allele renders protection against severe malaria (χ2 =10.67, odds ratio=3.51, 95% CI 1.67–7.36). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The frequency and severity of adverse reactions are the main reasons for low compliance of mass drug administration (MDA) under the Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (PELF). This paper reports the frequency and types of adverse reactions during two MDAs during January 2002 and September 2004 in the State of Orissa, India. Of the people who consumed the drugs, 15.5% in the 2002 MDA and 16.5% in the 2004 MDA reported one or more adverse reactions. This rate is higher (49.7%) in a group of individuals who were monitored for 6 days from the day of consumption of drugs during the 2002 MDA. However, many of these reactions were mild. No significant difference was found in the frequency of adverse reactions between MDA with diethylcarbamazine (DEC) alone and with DEC and albendazole. Significant gender differences were found in the 2004 MDA but no such differences were found in the 2002 MDA; however, the frequency of adverse reactions increased with age. Of all the adverse reactions, systemic adverse reactions typically associated with microfilarial death were more frequent. The frequency of adverse reactions was higher in microfilaraemics compared with amicrofilaraemic controls. The present study warrants developing an active adverse reaction surveillance system to minimise the impact of adverse reactions on MDA compliance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Decontamination by modified Petroff’s method is being practiced in many laboratories carrying out Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture and drug susceptibility testing. The method exposes mycobacteria to 4% sodium hydroxide for 30 min. However, laboratories in developing countries with limited resources might be using a type of centrifuge that does not open during power failures and exposes the mycobacteria to alkali for longer periods. Out of 28 smear-positive specimens processed, 85.7%, 85.7% and 60.7% of specimens showed a positive culture after exposure to alkali for 0.5, 1.0 and 72 h. Laboratories compelled to expose the mycobacteria for a longer duration of time can still attempt isolation for culture as only a small amount of bacteria are needed for culture positivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of the specificity of cytotoxicity generated in vitro and in vivo against infected bovine lymphoblasts revealed that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) obtained from cattle immune to Theileria parva recognized parasite-induced alterations associated with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens on the membrane of infected autologous cells. By comparison, cytotoxicity generated in vitro in an autologous Theilerial-lymphocyte culture (AuTLC) contained both CTL and activity akin to that of natural-killer (NK) cells. The addition to the AuTLC of 2 inhibitors of glycosylation, tunicamycin (Tun) and 2-desoxy-D-glucose (2-DOG) abolished both the proliferative response and the generation of cytotoxicity. While the addition of Tun or 2-DOG in conventional cell-mediated lympholysis (CML) assays did not modify the effector function of cytotoxic cells, pretreatment of target cells with either compound prevented lysis by CTL, but not by NK cells. Although parasite-induced antigens have not been purified from infected bovine lymphoblasts, the present study indicated that these are likely to be glycoprotein or carbohydrate in character, and that their recognition on autologous cells is a consistent feature of CTL from immune cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a theoretical submerged flow equation for chimney weir. Linear head-discharge relationship for chimney weir; Submerged flow studies for sharp-crested weirs; Dimensions of chimney weir models; Analysis of results; Conclusions.

Abstract: A study was conducted at Rayagada district of Odisha, India, among smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) patients to determine the resistance pattern to first-line drugs. Sputum samples were collected from 405 new and 37 previously treated patients and were tested at Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar. Resistance to any anti-tubercular drug was observed to be 5.2% among new cases and 16.1% among previously treated patients, while multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) was found to be 0% in new and 8.1% in previously treated cases. Such a low level of resistance may be due to the limited use of TB drugs outside the ongoing program. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]