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Cyanotiphia ruficauda Cameron, 1907 is the genotype of the monotypic genus Cyanotiphia Cameron, 1907. This species was previously known from a single female specimen, the holotype; after an extended period of 114 years, the male of this species is firstly described from North Sumatra, Indonesia. Material information of additional female records is also added.

Cosmic Ray Laboratory -- TIFR, Ooty, India is operating the largest tracking muon telescope as a component of the GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS at phase -- 3) experiment. The basic building blocks of the telescope are proportional counters (PRCs), a large number of which are fabricated in-house for the planned expansion of the existing muon telescope to double its area and enhance the solid angle coverage from 2.3\,sr to 3.7\,sr as well as achieving higher sensitivity for studying space weather and atmospheric phenomena, cosmic ray composition, etc. The existing muon telescope consists of 3712 PRCs, and after the planned expansion which requires an additional 3776 PRCs, the area of the telescope will increase from the present 560\,m$^2$ to 1130\,m$^2$. Each of the PRCs would need to be individually equipped with front-end electronics for processing the output signals. The output pulses from PRCs are extremely feeble, and their charges are in the order of $\sim$100\,pC. The tiny signal has to be isolated from potential sources of noise before its processing. High-performance, ultra-low noise, and cost-effective electronics are designed, developed, and mass-produced in-house for about 8000 channels of PRCs. The quality of data is improved significantly by interfacing the new electronics with PRCs of the existing muon telescope due to improved signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, and the data acquisition is made effective as a result of multifold improvement achieved by avoiding undesired interruptions in the data.

Transient global cerebral ischemia (tGCI) is a cerebrovascular disorder characterized by a brief decline in blood flow, neurological deficits, and is often predictive of stroke. Theobromine (TBR) is consumed worldwide in chocolates, tea, and cocoa products. TBR is a natural stimulant and vasoactive alkaloid that may protect against ischemic injury. In this study, neuroprotective potential of theobromine (TBR) was evaluated in 2-vessel occlusion transient global cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (tGCI/R) rat model. Rats were treated with TBR (50, 100 mg/kg, p.o.) for 7 successive days, and subjected to bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (20 min) or sham surgery after last dose of TBR. Severe neurological deficits accompanied by brain infarction, blood-brain barrier abnormalities, and oedema were noted in rats subjected to tGCI/R, and these effects were prevented by TBR. TBR protected against lipid peroxidation and enhanced glutathione level in brain against tGCI/R. TBR pre-treatment for 7 days prevented tGCI/R induced cell death (lactate dehydrogenase, caspase-3), vascular injury (MMP-9), and inflammation (TNF-α, NFκB) in rat whole brain. TBR protected against glutamate excitotoxicity and GABAergic decline in the brain of rats against tGCI/R injury. Findings of this study showed that TBR can alleviate chances of stroke by preventing acute episodes of cerebral ischemia.

Defect engineering to tune the light emission properties has been fetching lot of interest among scientific community for designing efficient optoelectronics and light-emitting diodes. Defect evolution in the trivalent ion-doped CeO2 and their dependence on the ionic radii of the trivalent dopant were probed using Rietveld refined powder X-ray diffraction, positron annihilation lifetime and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photoluminescence of Eu3+, a known structural probe, is monitored with codoping of two other trivalent ions Y3+ and La3+ whose ionic radii are on either side of Eu3+. The studies showed that smaller dopants like Y3+ create oxygen vacancies that are closely associated with Y3+ and codoping does not cause significant enhancement in asymmetry in the emission from Eu3+. At the same time, vacancies created by La3+ are not strongly associated with La3+, and due to their stronger association with Eu3+, the asymmetry in the emission is enhanced. The study shows the usefulness of emission from Eu3+ as probe in understanding the effect of different trivalent dopants using them as codopants to Eu3+. The studies are expected to help in tuning the oxygen vacancy concentration as well as their migration in CeO2 for technological applications such as catalysis, magnetism and conductors. This work highlighted role of defect engineering in tailoring the optical properties of red emitting CeO2:Eu3+ phosphor via aliovalent and contrasting Y3+ and La3+ co-dopant.

Background: The fore and hind limbs of the elephant are arranged in an almost vertical position under the body, similar to a pillar or leg of a table rather than being in the angular position seen in many other quadruped mammals to support great weight. The aim of this study is to elucidate the osteological outline on the humerus of Elephants, thereby making more contribution in filling the gap of knowledge and skills framework in this field. Methods: For the present study material from three Indian elephants were used. Some of the specimens were available at the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Mhow. Few skeletons were dug out from the ground which were buried from last 5-10 years in the premises of College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Mhow. Result: Humerus has a proximal and a distal extremity and a shaft. The shaft was consisted of four surfaces. The cylindrical shaped shaft of humerus was consisted of four surfaces. The Musculo spiral groove was limited by the lateral epicondyloid crest at the posterior surface of the shaft. The deltoid tuberosity was present in the proximal third of the shaft. The proximal extremity was consisted of the head, neck, two tuberosities and the intertubular groove. Distal extremity consisted of two condyles which were unequal in size and separated by a ridge.

Background: The fore and hind limbs of the elephant are arranged in an almost vertical position under the body, similar to a pillar or leg of a table rather than being in the angular position seen in many other quadruped mammals to support great weight. The aim of this study was to elucidate the morphological and morphometrical outline on the metacarpals in Elephants, thereby making more contribution in filling the gap of knowledge and skills framework in this field. Methods: For the present study, the material from three Indian elephants were used. Some of the specimens were available at the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Mhow. Few skeletons were dug out from the ground which were buried from the last 5-10 years in the premises of college. Result: There were five metacarpal bones lying between the carpal bones (above) and the digits (below). Metacarpals were long bones and each metacarpal consisted of a shaft and two extremities i.e., proximal and distal extremely. The 3rd metacarpal bone was the longest and well developed, while the 2nd and 4th metacarpals were almost equal in length and slightly shorter than the 3rd one.

Background: Stress is a serious health problem in dairy cattle resulting in decreased milk production along with disturbances in reproductive functions. India is currently losing nearly 2 per cent of the total milk production, amounting to a whooping over Rs. 2,661 crore due to rise in thermal stress among lactating cattle and buffaloes because of the global warming (Upadhyay et al. 2007). Methods: The present study was conducted on 18 thermal stressed cross-bred dairy cattle for a period of about 45 days for detection and amelioration of thermal stress with the objective to evaluate clinic-haemato-biochemical, oxidative stress indices. Three different groups were taken in study with each group having 6 animals. Result: Reduced milk yield, increased physiological parameters; respiration rate, heart rate, rectal temperature, were observed in positive control animals. Cortisol a stress hormone was estimated for evaluation and amelioration of thermal stress. Haematological examination revealed decreased Hb, PCV and lymphopenia and concomitant neutrophilia in Group 1 animals. Biochemical evaluation revealed hyperglycemia, increased total protein and plasma glycine, decreased calcium, Na, K and Cl levels while as cortisol, AST, ALT levels were found to be increased in thermally stressed dairy cattle to which no supplement was given. Oxidative indices showed decreased activity of GSH, catalase, SOD activity in thermally stressed cattle which were ameliorated with micro-nutrients and mineral supplements.

The depth of sweat gland of the skin in non-lactating cow at lateral surface was found higher in the present study and pregnant cow showed higher sweat gland length at dorsal aspect of the body. Whereas width was more in lactating cow. The sweat gland were tubule acinar glands. The secretary saccules were either oval or elongated in shape. The secretary portions were lined with flat cuboidal epithelial cells. These glands were located deeply in the dermis below the sebaceous glands. The secretary material was observed in the lumen of these glands. The sweat glands were lined by simple cuboidal epithelium with a oval nuclei.

The GRAPES-3 experiment located in Ooty, India, samples the electron and muon components in extensive air showers using an array of plastic scintillator detectors and a muon telescope (G3MT) consisting of proportional counters to study the composition of primary cosmic rays (PCRs) as well as γ-ray sources in the TeV–PeV energy range. The G3MT is designed with an appropriate mass absorber to shield the electromagnetic and hadronic components in the shower and to detect muons above 1 GeV×sec(θ) energy, incident from a zenith angle θ. We developed a simulation framework based on the GEANT4 toolkit to evaluate the response of shower particles such as muons, γ-rays, electrons and hadrons in the G3MT. We discuss the geometric modeling of the G3MT using GEANT4 starting with the proportional counter. We estimated the punch-through contribution of hadrons in the G3MT. We compare the simulated muon multiplicity distributions with the observed ones assuming PCR composition from a four population supernova remnant acceleration model namely H4a.

The extensive use of antibiotics in medical, as well as in veterinary practices has led to the development of antibiotic resistance which is of increasing global concern. The so called “superbugs” or the multi-drug resistant bacteria have made the present day antibiotics less effective. Therefore, search of an alternative is the need of hour, and for which antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) could be a good approach. AMPs are relatively short (12 to 100 amino acids), amphipathic peptides isolated from wide range of living organism. Four peptides were synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis method; Magainin (Pep-1) & Mastoparan (Pep-2) and Pep-3 and Pep-4 (novel hybrid of Magainin and Mastoparan). MIC of these peptides on E. coli (ATCC-25922) strain was found to be 12 μM, 24 μM, 11 μM, and 40 μM respectively. 100 clinical E. coli isolates were screened against these peptides at their respective 1 and 2xMIC. Percentage of isolates inhibited at 2xMIC for different peptides were Pep-1(74%); Pep-2(91%); Pep-3(86%); Pep-4 (75%). The MBC of the peptides on ATCC-25922 was same as 1xMIC and for majority of the resistant strains it was at 2xMIC. The percentage of haemolysis even at 4xMIC was

The main role of this study is to prepare the green polymer based anionic surfactant as an alternative to non-biodegradable surfactant for detergent applications. The detergent properties i.e., surface tension measurements, foaming property, emulsifying ability, dispersing property, FTIR analysis and wetting behaviour were studied using several rheological techniques. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) value was obtained at 6 mg/L of surfactant concentration showing no further remarkable changes in surface tension with increases in concentration. Low surface tension value was correlated with decrease in cohesive force exist between the molecules and allowed the surfactant easily adsorbed on the pore surface. The low surface tension value, reliable wetting characteristic, excellent emulsifying power, benchmark dispersing behaviour and suitable foaming property assuring the successful utilization of polymer based anionic surfactant for detergent applications

The GRAPES-3 is a near-equatorial extensive air shower experiment, located in Ooty, India at an altitude of 2200 m above mean sea level. It consists of a dense array of 400 scintillator detectors of 1 m$^{2}$ area each with 8 m inter separation. The array triggers showers induced by cosmic ray and gamma ray primaries in the TeV-PeV energy range. An associated muon telescope of 560 m$^2$ area is designed to record muons above 1 GeV energy in the triggered showers. Additionally, it is designed to trigger on individual muons, providing measurement of muon flux with a statistics of $\sim$4$\times$10$^{9}$ muons per day and an average angular resolution of 4$^{\circ}$. In this paper, we summarize the recent results obtained using air shower data on cosmic ray energy spectrum and composition below the Knee, cosmic ray anisotropy, angular resolution, gamma ray source searches and thunderstorm phenomena using the muon flux data.

Focal ischemia causes irreversible brain damage if cerebral blood flow is not restored promptly. Acute phase excitotoxicity and pro-oxidant and inflammatory events in the sub-chronic phase elicit coagulative necrosis, vascular injury, cerebral oedema, and neurobehavioral deficits. Earlier, in pre-clinical studies arbutin protected behavioral functions and improved therapeutic outcomes in different models of brain and metabolic disorders. Arbutin is natural hydroquinone that might protect against ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. In this study, cerebro-protective effects of arbutin were evaluated in the middle cerebral artery occlusion-reperfusion (MCAo/R) mouse model. Mice were administered arbutin (50, 100 mg/kg, i.p.) for 21 days, and subjected to MCAo/R or sham surgery on day 14. Results showed brain infarction, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, oedema, and neurological deficits 24 h post-MCAo/R injury that were prevented by arbutin. Behavioral evaluations over the sub-chronic phase revealed MCAo/R triggered spatial and working memory deficits. Arbutin protected the memory against MCAo/R injury and decreased hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, protein carbonyls, inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α, myeloperoxidase, matrix metalloproteinase-9, inducible nitric oxide synthase), and enhanced glutathione levels in the ischemia ipsilateral hemisphere. Arbutin decreased brain acetylcholinesterase activity, glutamate, and enhanced GABA levels against MCAo/R. Arbutin can alleviate I/R pathogenesis and protects neurobehavioral functions in the MCAo/R mouse model.

The GRAPES-3 extensive air shower (EAS) array located at Ooty is equipped with 400 plastic scintillator detectors spread over an area of 25000 m$^2$ and a muon telescope of area 560 m$^2$ built with 3,712 proportional counters. One of its principal objectives is to measure the primary cosmic ray energy spectrum in the TeV-PeV energy region. The response of the photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) used in the plastic scintillator detectors becomes nonlinear at densities $>$ 50 particles per m$^2$ in large EAS. We describe a technique to correct for the nonlinearity of these PMTs, thereby extending the dynamic range of the detector for observed particle densities up to 5000 particles per m$^2$. The details of the technique will be presented.

The GRAPES-3 experiment located in Ooty consists of an array of 400 plastic scintillator detectors spread over an area of 25000𝑚 2 and a large area (560 𝑚 2 ) muon telescope. Every day, the array records about 3 million showers induced by the interaction of primary cosmic rays in the atmosphere. One of the primary objectives of the experiment is to measure the energy spectrum and composition of the cosmic rays in the TeV-PeV energy range. However, some of the detected showers have cores outside the array. This fraction increases with energy due to the higher lateral spread of shower particles at higher energies. Identifying these events is thus crucial for accurate measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. This work will describe simple cut based as well as machine learning based strategies for identifying and excluding such events and their impact on the cosmic ray energy spectrum as measured by the Bayesian unfolding technique.

The Gamma Ray Astronomy at PeV EnergieS phase-3 (GRAPES-3) experiment is located at Ooty in India (11.4$^{\circ}$ N, 76.7$^{\circ}$ E and 2200 m above m.s.l.). It consists of a densely packed array of 400 plastic scintillator detectors and a large area muon telescope (560 m$^{2}$). It measures cosmic rays from several TeV to over 10 PeV energies providing a substantial overlap with direct experiments while covering the knee region. Shower parameters are reconstructed by fitting the observed particle densities with the NKG lateral distribution function (LDF). For this analysis, the QGSJET-II-04 hadronic interaction model is used to generate the air shower simulation data for proton, helium, nitrogen, aluminium, and iron primaries. Precise measurements of the average nuclear composition are obtained by fitting muon multiplicity distributions (MMDs) for all simulated primaries with the MMDs measured by the muon telescope. Details of the analysis and preliminary results for the extracted composition and elemental energy spectrum for proton and helium from a few tens of TeV to a few PeV will be presented.

The Moon acts as a shield against the cosmic rays, preventing them from reaching the earth, which gives rise to a deficit in the flux along the direction of the Moon. The observed deficit can be used for obtaining the absolute calibration of the angular resolution and to verify the pointing accuracy of the array. GRAPES-3 is an extensive air shower experiment located at Ooty, India consisting of a dense array of scintillator detectors. It records $\sim$$10^9$ showers per year with a median energy of 10 TeV. With the precise determination of the arrival time of shower particles and an accurate correction for the shower front curvature, a major improvement in the angular resolution of the array has been achieved. This was done by the array division methods including the left-right and even-odd methods. Here, we present a verification of the angular resolution estimates and the pointing accuracy by observing shadow of the Moon in the cosmic ray flux.

The GRAPES-3 is a high-altitude, near-equator extensive air shower array at Ooty, India which is designed to observe cosmic and gamma-rays in TeV-PeV energy range. It consists of a dense array of 400 scintillator detectors operating in conjunction with a 560 $m^2$ area muon telescope. Due to recent improvements in the measurements of shower arrival time and corrections for shower front curvature based on shower size and age, the angular resolution of the array has been significantly improved. By leveraging the resultant improved angular resolution and an efficient rejection of the cosmic ray background using the muon content of the shower, a search for gamma-rays above 30 TeV from the Crab Nebula has been performed. The results will be presented during the conference.