Observations on the exploitation of sea turtles along the Tuticorin coast, Tamil Nadu, India

Aqueous extract of seven species of marine macroalgae were screened for their antimicrobial potency against ten pathogenic bacterial strains. Ulva fasciata, Gracilaria corticata, Sargassum wightii and Padina tetrastromatica showed significantly higher activity against 70% of the tested bacterial isolates. The maximum zone of inhibition was noted for the red alga G.corticata against Proteus mirabilis (17mm) and brown alga P. tetrastromatica against the pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio harveyi (15mm). The general trend of inhibitory activity was higher towards Gram negative bacteria

A review of marine finfish culture research in India

The paper deals with a review of marine finfish culture research for development in India. Informations on the marine finfish seed resources and culture potential of the various estuaries, backwaters and coastal waters, the different species of finfishee cultured in mono and polyculture systems and development of technology for the culture of various species of marine finfishss in different culture systems are given. In India, the aquaculture practices so far have mainly dealt with miikfish, grey mullets, Indian Sandwhitting, rabbit fishes, perches and groupers in various ecosystems. Details of methods of pond construction, suitable areas for culture and production, constraints met with in maintenance, management and development of coastal fish farms are presented. The problems in marine finfish culture research for development in India are discussed

PERFORMANCE OF A FORCED CONVECTION SOLAR DRIER INTEGRATED WITH GRAVEL AS HEAT STORAGE MATERIAL FOR CHILI DRYING

An indirect forced convection solar drier integrated with different sensible heat storage maternal has been developed and tested its performance for drying chili under the metrological conditions of Pollachi, India. The system consists of a flat plate solar air heater with heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a centrifugal blower. Drying experiments have been performed at an air flow rate of 0.25 kg/s. Drying of chili in a forced convection solar drier reduces the moisture content from around 72.8% (wet basis) to the final moisture content about 9.1% in 24 h. Average drier efficiency was estimated to be about 21%. The specific moisture extraction rate was estimated to be about 0.87 kg/kWh

Resiliency training in Indian children: A pilot investigation of the Penn Resiliency Program

© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).This paper examines the effectiveness of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) in an urban Indian setting. The PRP is a program to prevent depression in early adolescence and has proved successful in changing children’s attributional style of life events. While the program has been successful in preventing symptoms of depression in Western populations, the current study explored whether this program could be effective with an Indian sample. The aim of the current study was twofold; first, to study the attributional style of early adolescents in India and identify negative effects (if any) and second, to gain insights in using the PRP as a tool to change explanatory styles in Indian children. A total of 58 children participated in the study (Intervention group n = 29 and Control group n = 29). An Analysis of Covariance comparing post-test scores on Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) while controlling for baseline scores indicated that children in the intervention group exhibited a significant reduction in pessimistic explanatory style and an increase in optimistic orientation compared to children in the control group. This indicates that the program was effective in changing negative attribution styles among upper-class Indian school children. Future work may look into the longer impact of the program as well as further considerations into adapting the program for a middle class population

Association of molluscan fauna with the coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar

Coral reefs are one of the important ecosystems in India. Major coral families of Gulf of mannar such as Acroporidae, Pocilloporidae, Poridae were collected. The above reef building corals harboured 51 numbers of molluscan species during this study. Pteria chinensis, Ostrea sp, Nerita rumphi and Cypraea tigris were noted from the study area. The gastropods are mostly associated with the coral reefs than the bivalves. The present study will reveal the diversity of molluscan fauna harbored in the different habitat of corals

Gait Velocity Estimation using time interleaved between Consecutive Passive IR Sensor Activations

Gait velocity has been consistently shown to be an important indicator and predictor of health status, especially in older adults. It is often assessed clinically, but the assessments occur infrequently and do not allow optimal detection of key health changes when they occur. In this paper, we show that the time gap between activations of a pair of Passive Infrared (PIR) motion sensors installed in the consecutively visited room pair carry rich latent information about a person's gait velocity. We name this time gap transition time and show that despite a six second refractory period of the PIR sensors, transition time can be used to obtain an accurate representation of gait velocity. Using a Support Vector Regression (SVR) approach to model the relationship between transition time and gait velocity, we show that gait velocity can be estimated with an average error less than 2.5 cm/sec. This is demonstrated with data collected over a 5 year period from 74 older adults monitored in their own homes. This method is simple and cost effective and has advantages over competing approaches such as: obtaining 20 to 100x more gait velocity measurements per day and offering the fusion of location-specific information with time stamped gait estimates. These advantages allow stable estimates of gait parameters (maximum or average speed, variability) at shorter time scales than current approaches. This also provides a pervasive in-home method for context-aware gait velocity sensing that allows for monitoring of gait trajectories in space and time

Farm Development and Management for Marine Finfish Culture at Muttukadu near Madras

In recent years, awareness has developed on the need to undertake 'aquaculture on scientific basis to augment increased fish production in India (Qasim, 1975; Anonymous, 1987). The scope Tor an organised system of marine fin fish culture in our country was reali sed by Hornell (1911) and thereafter development of coastal saline swamps, back waters, estuaries, salt pans and mangrove areas for the purpose of cultivating marine fin fishes