Volume 12, Issue 4, 2012 October-December


Volume 12, No 4 Pages:
2012 October-December Articles: 5

Monitoring of bamboo flowering using satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques in Mizoram, India

Mizoram is endowed with bountiful natural resources, of which bamboo is the prominent and most abundant of the forest resources. With about 32% of the total geographical area of the state occupied by bamboo, this valuable and important resource has a peculiar lifecycle where it flowers and dies after every 48 years. Such being the case, bamboo flowering has a huge impact not only on the vegetative composition but also the socio-economic condition of the state. The spatial distribution and progression of the bamboo flowering in Mizoram was monitored and studied for a period of 5 years (2005 to 2009) using satellite remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques, involving applications of vegetative index models. The cumulative progression in flowering pattern shows successive increase in flowering areas which recorded a maximum of 73.83% out of the total bamboo forest, at the end of the study period. The present study also gives a comparative analysis of the district-wise spatial distribution of bamboo flowering that may serve as a useful data for preparation of schemes to mitigate the impacts of bamboo flowering in future.


Traditional gears used for capturing and preservation of fish by Mishing community of northern bank of the Brahmaputra River, Assam, India

A survey of two district of north bank of the mighty Brahmaputra drainage system conducted among the Mishing community to record the traditional fishing gears used in wetland fishing. Among the recorded 32 gears the most common are Kawai Langi (gill nets), Tongi Jal (lift nets), Jakai, Borchalani, Juluki (bamboo traps) and Danari Barashi (fishing line). The community has adapted two distinct fish preservation technique namely ‘Perup hukati’ (dried and smoked small fish) and Numsing hukati (powder of dried and smoked fish).


Seasonal variation in water quality of Tuirial River in vicinity of the hydel project in Mizoram, India

The present investigation deals with the analysis of important water quality parameters (pH, DO, and BOD) of Tuirial river (in vicinity of the Tuirial Hydel Project) in Mizoram have been analysed for a period of two years, i.e. from January 2008 to December 2009. The findings revealed that pH of water ranged from 7.19 at Site 2 during winter season of 2009 to 7.95 at Site 3 during rainy season of 2009; DO content of water ranged from 6.2 mgL-1 at Site 4 during rainy season of 2008 to 8.1 mgL-1 at Site 1 during winter season of 2008; BOD content of water ranged from 0.2 mgL-1 at Site 1 during winter season of 2008 to 1.2 mgL-1 at Site 4 during rainy season of 2008. The results indicate that all values are within the prescribed limit of water quality standard laid down by various scientific agencies like B.I.S, U.S.P.H and W.H.O. Successive increase in BOD content of water from Site 1 to Site 4 (upstream to downstream) showed cumulative effect of sewage discharge and marked increase in values at Site 3 and 4 may be due to discharge of sewage containing more organic matter.


On a generalized almost contact metric normal manifold

The present paper deals with the study of the geometrical properties of some almost contact metric manifolds such as generalized almost contact metric normal manifold and nearly M-manifolds. Almost contact manifolds play an important role in differential geometry. The author has proved that a generalized almost contact metric normal manifold admits nearly M-manifold.


Proteins – structure, properties and their separation by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

This paper deals with three basic aspects: 1) basics of protein structure in relation to physico-chemical characterization, protein stability, importance of disulfide bond and their structure; 2) basic principles involved in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and SDS-PAGE and the rationale behind the use of disc electrophoresis; and 3) detailed protocol involved in SDS-PAGE in terms of reagent preparation, sample preparation and loading, staining and destaining, calculation of relative mobility and pairwise comparisons between species.