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District South 24-Parganas is surrounded by river Hoogly (Ganga) in the West, North 24 Parganas and Bangladesh in the East, the North 24- Parganas and Kolkata in the North and extended up to the fringes of Sundarbans approaching the Mangrove reserves towards Bay of Bengal. Quite naturally the district has an interesting combination of its people and at the same time its floristic composition. In course of the survey of Aquatic Flora of South 24- Parganas, West Bengal, the first authors had collected information regarding traditional use of some plants South 24- Parganas for the treatment of the common ailments; interacting with the local people particularly the ethnic people like Santals and some displaced families from Bangladesh and others. In the present paper, some commonly useable aquatic plants from different families have been enlisted with botanical name, traditional uses including ethno - veterinary application etc.

Recently, different types of collective processes in dusty plasmas have become prime interest amongst plasma physicists. Dust particles are present in every variety of plasmas and play a vital role in plasma crystals, semiconductor material processing, low-temperature physics, nanomaterials etc. Keeping these in mind, we have done an experiment on a cogenerated unmagnetized dusty plasma in a stainless-steel chamber between two parallel electrodes with one electrode (anode) is grounded while the other is, a graphite cathode, connected with a bipolar pulsed dc power supply. It is experimentally observed that in cogenerated unmagnetized dusty plasma the carbon dust cloud is fluctuating as a breathing mode like a heart beat mode observed in dust void, both magnetized and unmagnetized plasma. The theoretical model suggests that, in cylindrical geometry, the Bessel's differential equation gives a clear cut picture for the condition of occurrence of dust rotation (m ≠ 0) or the dust breathing mode (at m = 0, where m is the order of Bessel function). Our experiment clearly shows that the whole dust cloud is fluctuating in an unmagnetized plasma not only the void fluctuation.

Mitochondria are active in the continuous generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), (e.g., superoxide), thereby favouring a situation of mitochondrial oxidative stress. Under oxidative stress—for example, ischaemia–reoxygenation injury to cells—mitochondria form superoxide, which in turn is converted to hydrogen peroxide and the potent reactive species, hydroxyl radical. Alternatively, mitochondrial superoxide may react with nitric oxide to form potent oxidant peroxynitrite and as a consequence, mitochondrial function is altered. An increase in the release of calcium from mitochondria by oxidants stimulates calcium-dependent enzymes such as calcium-dependent proteases, nucleases, and phospholipases, which subsequently trigger apoptosis of the cells. In principle, calcium can leave mitochondria by different ways: by non-specific leakage through the inner membrane by “pore formation,” by changes in the membrane lipid phase, by reversal of the uniport influx carrier, by the specific calcium/hydrogen (or sodium) antiport system, by channel-mediated release pathways, or by a combination of two or more of these pathways. Additionally, the release of calcium from mitochondria can also occur either by oxidation of internal nicotinamide adenine nucleotides to ADP ribose and nicotinamide or by oxidation of thiols in membrane proteins. Once calcium efflux has been triggered, a series of common pathways of apoptosis are initiated, each of which may be sufficient to destroy the cell. Apoptosis requires the active participation of cellular components, and several genes have been suggested to control apoptosis. The proto-oncogene bcl-2 suppresses apoptosis through mitochondrial effects. Overexpression of bcl-2 in the mitochondrial membrane inhibits calcium efflux, but the underlying mechanisms are not clearly known. Further studies are needed to explore the nature of the apoptosis-inducing pathways, the precise mechanisms of calcium efflux, the molecular partners of bcl-2 oncoproteins at the level of the outer–inner membrane contact sites, the molecular biology of the apoptosis-inducing factor formation and release, and the essential molecular targets of apoptosis-inducing proteases. Clarification of these issues might facilitate the understanding of mitochondrial response on cellular calcium dynamics under oxidant stress.

Analysis of defects in externally driven dust-density wavefronts (DDWs) in cogenerated dusty plasma has been carried out. The DDWs are excited for threshold positive bias through another T-shaped electrode which is placed inbetween two main discharge electrodes. Spatiotemporal evolution of the DDWs reveals a wave defect and non-propagating wave mode in the DDW field. A space-time plot and the time-resolved Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) were employed to analyze the spatiotemporal wave data at a specific location in the wave field.

Ocular myiasis in humans is a rare phenomenon. Here two cases are reported who came to a tertiary care centre with features of unilateral acute catarrhal conjunctivitis. Fly larvae were detected on slit lamp examination and removed after immobilising it with topical 4% lignocaine. Topical antibiotics and steroid drops were prescribed for 2 weeks. The samples were identified as Oestrous ovis by the entomology department of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata. The signs and symptoms regressed within 48 hours. The cases are being reported to create awareness among the ophthalmologists regarding larval conjunctivitis especially in developing countries like India, where the general standard of hygiene is low and fly infestation is common.

A void (i.e. the complete absence of macroscopic dust particles) can be generated in the bulk plasma region of a cogenerated dusty plasma with the help of a positively dc-biased ring electrode placed between two electrodes of dc discharge. This void region can then be dynamically controlled by varying the external positive bias voltage through the ring electrode.