On a whale shark caught at Vizhinjam, Kerala

On 20th June 2005, a female whale shark Rhincodon typus entangled in a ozhukuvala net at about 1000 hrs from 45 meter depth was dragged to the Vizhinjam landing centre

Polymicrobial skin lesions in the red spot emperor, Lethrinus lentjan (Lacepede 1802) during mass incursion towards shore along Kanyakumari coast, south India

Mass incursion of fishes with polymicrobial skin lesions, fin erosions and scale loss was recorded in the red spot emperor Lethrinus lentjan (Lacepede 1802) along the Kanyakumari coast, south India during August 2009. An estimated 2.5 t of fish, mostly the red spot emperors were found to migrate in live condition to the shore areas in a stressful state. Microbiological analyses of tissue from sampled fishes revealed three distinct types of bacterial colonies forming 5.2 x 105 CFU g-1 of the infected tissues. The predominant bacterial colonies were characterized as Aeromonas sp. (70.0%) followed by Flavobacterium sp. (20%) and Vibrio sp. (10%). The Aeromonas isolate was highly susceptible to norfloxacin while the Flavobacterium and Vibrio isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol. The Aeromonas and Vibrio isolates exhibited protease and amylase enzyme activities in vitro, suggesting their possible role in the progression of skin lesions and scale loss. The possibilities of ambient unknown stressors weakening the fish and subsequent infections by these bacterial isolates are discussed

Vizhinjam Marine Aquarium Haven for Marine Ornamentals

There has been a huge growth of public aquaria since the opening of the first public aquarium display in the Fish House at the London Zoo in t 826, and particularly in the past 20 years (Hall and Douglas 2003)

Enhanced QoS and QoE Support through Energy Efficient Handover Algorithm for UMTS Architectures

Spectrum inefficiency is a significant issue because of the increasingly more solicitation of transmission capacity by the end clients. Accomplishing high transmission rates and elevated levels of Quality of Service (QoS) speaks to in any case an open issue. Long haul Evolution (LTE) has been proposed as the reason for the fourth era versatile cell systems (4G) that points of the LTE standard are higher client bit rates, lower delays, expanded range proficiency, diminished expense, and operational effortlessness. In any case, this innovation is as yet being worked on and a few open issues must be still explored, for example, obstruction coordination, and power utilization, assets the board and handover procedures. The point of this work is to ensure the decrease of intensity utilization utilizing another handover calculation dependent on green arrangement. Also, the proposed conspire ensures the minimization of superfluous handovers. In any case, the issue in this technique is doesn't mulls over of the impact of green strategies in high force hubs. Along these lines, in the proposed framework the impact of high force hubs are thought of. This situation is expanded more than one full scale cell and various kinds of low force hubs, for example, pico-cell and microcells. In this situation, the force sparing is broke down during the handover strategies. Think about these issues; another strategy is proposed called Dynamic base Station arranging (DBSP) for accomplishing vitality productivity. The fundamental idea is to kill a BS individually that will insignificantly influence the system by utilizing a recently presented thought of system sway, which considers the extra burden increases brought to its neighboring BSs. So as to additionally diminish the flagging and execution overhead over the air and back take, utilize the estimated estimations of system sway as their choice measurements. A trial result shows that the proposed strategy accomplishes high vitality proficiency under different situations. In this work the presentation of an UMTS organize situation is assessed by utilizing different estimations of the priority bits of the CBR application

Open Sea Floating Cage Farming of Lobsters Successful Demonstration by CMFRI off Kanyakumari Coast

Lobsters. a seafood item, are highly relished throughout the world. In India, lobsters are mostly available in rocky " coastal habitats. Impacted by their delicious taste, the demand for lobsters is increasing at a fast rate in the national as well as international markets

Growth performance of the seabass Lates calcarifer (Blotch) in sea cage at Vizhinjam Bay along the south-west coast of India

The growth potential of the Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer in floating sea cage was assessed by rearing them in a large HDPE floating cage moored at Vizhinjam Bay, south-west coast of India. Seabass seed (mean weight and mean total length, 2.5 g and 53 mm respectively) were nursery reared in hapas in December 2008, fed on pellet feed and grown to an average size of 28 g and 135 mm in 60 days, with a survival rate of 60%. Subsequently, the juveniles were stocked into the cages at a stocking rate of 60 nos. m-3 in February 2009, fed on trash fish and reared for a period of 112 days during which they grew to an average size of 540 g and 328 mm. Weight gain per day increased from 0.2 g in December 2008 to 7.71 g in May 2009, while SGR decreased from 5.88 to 2.47. The hydrological parameters viz., temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen and microbial load recorded were at optimal levels for the normal growth of seabass. The results obtained indicated that cage culture of seabass in the sea can provide significant advantages in terms of faster growth and effective utilisation of water volume

Rare occurrence of the Torpedo shrimp

Torpedo shrimps Kishinouyepenaeopsis maxillipedo (synonym of Parapenaeopsis maxillipedo) occur along the Indo-West Pacific, Sri Lanka, Malaya and Australia. In India, K. maxillipedo has been reported from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman Islands and recently from Kerala. On 8th July 2019 seven specimens of Torpedo shrimps were found in the gill net catch at Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram district, on the south west coast of Keral

Analysis of Barthel index and care giver strain index in stroke patients in tertiary care hospital in South India

Background: Stroke patients have high rate of mortality and morbidity and survivors suffer from physical, cognitive and emotional issues. Quality of life of stroke survivors depends on severity of disability. These disability or morbidities not only affect stroke survivors but also has impact on physical and psychological wellbeing of caregivers providing support for daily routine. Aim of this study is to analyse the dependency using Barthel Index in stroke patients and care giver strain (CSI) among caregivers. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study in a tertiary care hospital in South India. Study duration of 5 months. 150 Patients admitted for stroke meeting the inclusion criteria were included for the study. Caregiver was interviewed after Informed consent and briefing of purpose of study. Berthel index and modified care giver strain index questionnaire was filled by interviewer with caregiver. Findings were described in simple descriptive manner. Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Of 150 patients male 64% female 36%. Care giver strain score of <7 (40%), 8-14 (42%), >14 (18%). Sleep deprivation 68%, physical strain 85%, family adjustment problems 32%, work adjustment problems 67%, financial strain 76%, emotional adjustment problems 33%, personal plans problems 44%, upsetting behavior problems 44%. Only 17% termed it as inconvenient, 24% completely overwhelmed, 29% confining. Barthel index of >80 able to live independently (13%), 61-80 minimally dependent (32%), 41-60 partially dependent (26%), 21-40 very dependent (13%), <20 total dependency (16%). Conclusions: In stroke care caregiver strain is high when patient is dependent for routine activities. This includes physical as well as psychological strain. There is need to develop strategic home based or community based programs to reduce caregiver stress and improve their quality of life

LDL levels and ejection fraction in ischemic stroke patients: a hospital based cross-sectional study

Background: Ischemic stroke is a top contributor to mortality amongst non-infectious diseases. Atherosclerosis is a major risk factor. This study aims to assess LDL levels and ejection fraction in ischemic stroke patients. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Government Thoothukudi Medical College from November, 2022 to April, 2023. 35 patients admitted in the neuromedicine ward and diagnosed as acute ischemic stroke were included in the study after informed consent and ethical clearance. Patients with acute neurological deficit and evidence of infarct on diffusion-weighted MRI were included. Patients with no evidence of infarct on DWI, those already on lipid lowering therapy, patients with a history of cerebrovascular disease or transient ischemic attacks were excluded. Blood for lipid profile taken after 8 hours of overnight fasting. Echocardiography done for all patients. Results: Of the 35 patients, 26 (74.28%) were men, mean age was 62.4. 57.14%  ischemic stroke patients had their LDL levels elevated, 28.57% had decreased HDL, 28.57% had total cholesterol levels elevated, and in 14.28% triglycerides was elevated. This study also observed the cardiac status of the patients which showed 29% patients had decreased ejection fraction. Conclusions: This study concluded that most patients had elevated LDL levels which is an independent risk factor of ischemic cerebrovascular disease. LDL levels were also associated with decreased ejection fraction in a significant number of patients. Thereby it can be concluded that elevated LDL cholesterol levels can add to the cardiac risk, potentially contributing to stroke morbidity and mortality

Performance assessment off a commercial scale solar biomass hybrid dryer for quality seed maize production: Presentation

Though several maize varieties have been developed and introduced over the years in Ghana, farmers still face challenges of access to quality seed maize. Among the major constraints is lack of proper drying systems to quarantee quality of seed produced. Peculiar to most parts of Africa, drying of maize in the open, on bare ground along shoulders of roads is still a common practice in Ghana. In this study, a 5-tonne capacity solar biomass hybrid dryer was developed for drying maize for seed and food/feed in Ghana. Effect of drying air temperature in the dryer on the physiological quality and germination of maize kernels was investigated. Maize grains were dried in the open sun simulating farmers practice and using the dryer at 4 varying levels (L1, L2, L3 and L4) with corresponding heights (0.6m, 1.2m, 1.8m and 2.4m) respectively. Harvested maize at 22.8% moisture content was dried at the varying levels until reaching overall mean moisture content of 12.8 ± 0.2% (wb). Results showed that, drying air temperatures in the dryer increased in accordance with height with lowest mean temperature of 44.4 ± 4.6°C recorded at L1 and mean maximum of 52.8 ± 5.4 °C at L4. The increase in drying temperature at L4 increased kernel stress crack index by an average of 14% and reduced germination by 33%. However, drying temperatures at L1-L3 and in the open sun had no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the germination potential of maize grains. This satisfies the dryer’s potential to be used for drying maize grains for high quality seed production on commercial scale.Though several maize varieties have been developed and introduced over the years in Ghana, farmers still face challenges of access to quality seed maize. Among the major constraints is lack of proper drying systems to quarantee quality of seed produced. Peculiar to most parts of Africa, drying of maize in the open, on bare ground along shoulders of roads is still a common practice in Ghana. In this study, a 5-tonne capacity solar biomass hybrid dryer was developed for drying maize for seed and food/feed in Ghana. Effect of drying air temperature in the dryer on the physiological quality and germination of maize kernels was investigated. Maize grains were dried in the open sun simulating farmers practice and using the dryer at 4 varying levels (L1, L2, L3 and L4) with corresponding heights (0.6m, 1.2m, 1.8m and 2.4m) respectively. Harvested maize at 22.8% moisture content was dried at the varying levels until reaching overall mean moisture content of 12.8 ± 0.2% (wb). Results showed that, drying air temperatures in the dryer increased in accordance with height with lowest mean temperature of 44.4 ± 4.6°C recorded at L1 and mean maximum of 52.8 ± 5.4 °C at L4. The increase in drying temperature at L4 increased kernel stress crack index by an average of 14% and reduced germination by 33%. However, drying temperatures at L1-L3 and in the open sun had no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the germination potential of maize grains. This satisfies the dryer’s potential to be used for drying maize grains for high quality seed production on commercial scale