Volume 15, Issue 1, 2015 January-March


Volume 15, No 1 Pages:
2015 January-March Articles: 7

Not for your entertainment only, it is hazardous

The facts are in, and they are not what one might expect them to be. I would not dare belittle (though definitely not a fan) the use of social networks, particularly Facebook. The story of Facebook alone is an Oscar-worthy work (proved me right, The Social Network won the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing). It is true that it is a good way to keep connected with friends and families around the globe. But its merits appear to be outweighed its demerits. It serves as an effective method for personal abuses, bullying, deceit, and all sorts of misdemeanour. (I personally a young couple who are now divorced for half a decade sole on the ground of misused Facebook.) Some reposts say that there are over 80 million fake accounts–enough to establish to a strong nation. Take it this way, there are only 15 countries having more than 80 million population, those fake users are more than Germans and the rest of other nations. One can have a nation of imaginary friends!


The long-wavelength-limit of structure factor and chemical ordering in binary Ag-In melts

The long-wavelength-limit partial structure factors, Sxy(0), have been determined for liquid silver-indium (Ag-In) alloys using square well potential as perturbation over Percus-Yevick (PY) hard sphere reference system. Obtained Sxy(0) at various compositions of In have been employed to calculate isothermal compressibility and chemical ordering in the alloys. Further, homo-coordination and hetero-coordination in Ag-In alloys have been studied at microscopic level in terms of mutual and intrinsic diffusion coefficients


Coldwater fish diversity and abundance of upper reaches of Sonkosh river, Kokrajhar, Assam

River Sonkosh enters India at Jamduar (longitude of 89°51'39.4'' E and latitude of 26°43'59.8'' N), Kokrajhar district of Assam. It extends up to the Feshimari-Jaldhuaghat at a longitude of 89°47'26''E and latitude of 26°22'39''N. Cold water fish assemblages of Sonkosh river was investigated at three upstream stations from April, 2013 to March, 2014. During study period, 65 species of fishes belonging to 6 major orders and 18 families were recorded. The most number of species belongs to family Cyprinidae (29) and followed by Sisoridae (7), Nemacheilidae (6), Cobitidae (4), Channidae (3), Psilorhynchidae (2), Olyridae (2), Badidae (2), Anguillidae (1), Amblycipitidae (1), Bagridae (1), Siluridae (1), Schilbeidae (1), Eresthistidae(1), Belonidae (1), Mastacembelidae (1), Nandidae (1) and Tetradontidae (1). Diversity indices like Shannon-Wiener index (H), Simpson dominance index (D), Simpson index of diversity (1-D), Buzas and Gibson’s evenness (E) and Margalef’s index (d) were analyzed by using PAST Software (version 2.19).


Lizard (Reptilia: Sauria) diversity of Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mizoram, India

Knowledge on lizards, particularly the suborder Saurian, and their conservation aspects is very poor. An attempt was made to collect information on these small and lesser known animals so that an appropriate strategy can be formulated for their conservation. Inventorization study on Saurian fauna was conducted at Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mamit district, Mizoram, India, during the period of February 2011 to October 2014. 22 species of lizards were recorded and they can be classified into 5 families and 12 genera. Two species cannot be identified to the species level.


An in vitro trial of artesunate on intestinal helminth parasites

Artesunate is a prescription drug in the treatment of severe malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum. It has surpassed all other antimalarial drugs in terms of efficacy and safety. Serendipitous experiments in the 1980s began to unveil its true and broad-spectrum medical potential. It has been successfully shown to be highly effective antiviral, antitrematodal, antischistosomal, and anticancer molecule. Although the anthelmintic activity is now established beyond doubt, it has never been tested on parasitic tapeworms (cestodes) and roundworms (nematodes). We treated the cestode Raillietina tetragona and the nematode Ascaridia galli with different doses, ranging from 0.7, 1.5, 3, 6 to 12 mg ml-1. The cestodes were highly susceptible to the various doses of the drug. But the nematodes were not at all responsive. The findings suggest that artesunate is a good candidate in the treatment of cestode infections.


Some issues and concern from 2013 rockslide disaster at Laipuitlang, Aizawl, Mizoram, India

An abrupt rockslide on 11 May 2013 (Saturday 3:24 a.m. IST) forced a series of building collapse at Laipuitlang locality, Aizawl, Mizram, all the way down to Ramhlun Venglai locality covering an area of about 1025 sq m, which have been very high landslide prone regions of Aizawl. The tragedy caused 17 casualties, injuring 8 persons from the collapse of 15 houses. The colossal damage could have been due to a combination of the soft and high porous rock bedding, the steep slope, heavy rainfall, thunderstorm, anthropogenic destruction of the rock bed and overweight constructions. The study brings out some issues and concerned arising from the incident and management of the situation from the angle of disaster management.


Traditional food processing techniques of the Mizo people of Northeast India

Documentation is the basic method of preserving indigenous traditional knowledge. Indigenous knowledge is passed down through generations and is in reality a necessary means of understanding many aspects of science. The indigenous techniques of food processing by the Mizo residing in a landlocked state - Mizoram, in northeast India has not been recorded systematically. This article describes some of the most familiar techniques of Mizo traditional food processing techniques; however, minor differences have been observed among different parts within the state. It was amazing to observe that the Mizos utilize the available resources such as fire or sun for food preservation and developed their own way of innovative scientific methods for food processing. It has been recommended that a study on the nutritive values of the Mizo traditionally processed foods would be very significant to see the impact of such processing on the health of the Mizo community.