A new species of Corallana Dana, 1852 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Corallanidae) from the Andaman Islands, northern Indian Ocean

Corallana mishrai sp. nov. collected from dead mangrove roots at Kodiyaghat, South Andaman, Andaman Islands, India is described and illustrated in detail. Corallana mishrai sp. nov. the first definitive record of the genus from India, is characterized by: frontal lamina with short straight (or very weakly convex) lateral margins and the anterior margin forming a strong acute median point; pleotelson length 0.76 greatest width, posterior margin with 5 robust setae; uropodal exopod 7 times longer than greatest width, extending beyond endopod by one fourth of its length; endopod lateral margin slightly convex with 4 RS and PMS, apex forms a slightly obtuse angle with long simple setae, mesial margin weakly convex with 2 RS and PMS; mandible bidentate; transverse row of 6 tubercles present on pereonite 1 and pleonites 2, 3 and 4 lacking lateral tubercles. The status of the genus and its species are reviewed, and two species are transferred to new combinations: Argathona kulai (Bruce, 1982) comb. nov. and Tachaea bidentata (Jones et al. 1983) comb. nov.

A Novel Median-Point Mode Decomposition Algorithm for Motor Rolling Bearing Fault Recognition

Precise fault recognition of motor rolling bearing fault is playing a significant role in any machinery and equipment. However, conventional decomposition methods fail to completely reveal the fault signal information of motor rolling bearing due to mixed modes problem. To solve the problem, the median-point mode decomposition (MMD) method is presented. The MMD method uses sort-based inversion to sort out each variation of the same time interval for better and specific mode decomposition, with the assistance of the advanced envelope curve formed by the median points between adjacent extreme points. It certainly alleviates the mixed mode during the iteration of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Therefore, comparison results are simulated in the proposed MMD method with conventional methods. Experiment of motor rolling bearing fault is operated for fault recognition in order to demonstrate the MMD algorithm.

Study on optimal start-up time and water usage volume of blowdown residue discharge of mesh filter

The water volume used for blowdown of a mesh filter is one of the important indicators to evaluate the economic benefit of a mesh filter. The amount of water used for drainage of the mesh filter can be controlled by setting the start-up time of the blowdown residue discharge of the mesh filter. Through the indoor prototype test, the sediment of the Manas riverbed in Xinjiang, China, was used as the filter medium to test the mesh filter and analyze the water usage volume at each stage. The test focused on the analysis of the trend of the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the mesh filter over the filtration time. The results showed that as the filtration time was prolonged, the inlet and outlet pressure difference of the mesh filter showed an S-shaped curve with time. The pressure difference between the inlet and outlet can be divided into four stages, i.e., the start of filtering to the first inflection point of the abrupt change in the pressure difference, the first inflection point of the abrupt pressure difference change to the median point of filtering, the median point of filtering to the second inflection point of the abrupt change in the pressure difference, and the second inflection point of the abrupt pressure difference change to the end of filtering. At the same time, the water usage volume for blowdown was calculated under various working conditions. This paper analyzed the start-up time of blowdown at three different time points, i.e., after the completion of the entire filtration cycle of the traditional mesh filter, at the first inflection point of pressure difference, and at the second inflection point of pressure difference. The tests were performed under the condition that the filtration cycle of the mesh filter was ten days. The results have shown that compared with the traditional screen filter that starts the blowdown at the end of the entire filtration cycle, starting the blowdown at the first inflection point of pressure difference can save 200–300 m3 of water resources for a single mesh filter, and starting the blowdown at the second inflection point of pressure difference can save 30–90 m3 of water resources for a single mesh filter. Meanwhile, the working conditions in the analyses in this paper were consistent with the actual engineering operating conditions. It is recommended that the mesh filter in the micro-irrigation system use the first inflection point of pressure difference to control the start-up time of the blowdown residue discharge, which can not only save water resources, but also ensure that the mesh filter runs at the optimal filtering conditions.

Examining the Determinants of Privatization: The ASEAN Context

This paper examines the economic, political, and institutional determinants of the propensity of privatization, as well as the sensitivity of privatization, in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) context over the observation period from 1988 to 2008, with the Asian Financial Crisis being the median point of the observation period. This is particularly to investigate the organic progression of the privatization of ASEAN nations as an isolated endogenous phenomenon. This paper, using a two-stage quantitative technique, aims to exhibit the novel, and to a degree inventive, insights that are unique to the context of ASEAN, as well as to identify the potential policy implications directed towards how ASEAN policymakers may steer their national development policies to manufacture the constructive economic, political, and institutional conditions needed to foster privatization processes. The findings indicate that GDP per capita, current account balance, and stock market capitalization are statistically the key moving parts that contribute to the propensity of privatization, as well as the sensitivity of privatization, in the ASEAN context.

Redescription of Ryukyua circularis (Pillai, 1954) (Isopoda, Cymothoidae), parasite of the Bleeker smoothbelly sardinella Amblygaster clupeoides Bleeker, 1849 from India

Ryukyua circularis (Pillai, 1954) is recorded here for the first time on the host Amblygaster clupeoides Bleeker, 1849 from Indian waters. The species is redescribed with illustrations of the gravid female, adult male and manca from its type locality, and the known hosts and geographical records of the species are reviewed. Ryukyua circularis is readily identified from the oval to rounded body shape, widest at pereonite 3–5; cephalon deeply immersed in pereonite 1; mandible palp with the spiny surface, article 3 with a long terminal setae; pleonite 1–3 partially overlapped by a posterolateral margin of pereonite 7; pleotelson anterior lateral margins weakly convex, posterior margin evenly rounded, without median point.

Fully Automatic Teeth Segmentation in Adult OPG Images

In this work, the problem of segmenting teeth in panoramic dental images is addressed. The Random Forest Regression Voting Constrained Local Models (RFRV-CLM) are used to perform the segmentation in two steps. Firstly, a set of mandible and teeth keypoints are located, and then that points are used to initialise each individual tooth model. A method to detect missing teeth based on the quality of fit is presented. The system is evaluated using 346 manually annotated images containing adult-stage teeth. Encouraging results on detecting missing teeth are achieved. The system is able to locate the outline of the teeth to a median point-to-curve error of 0.2 mm.

Cytological Studies on Two Species, Xanthium strumarium Linn. and Bidens pilosa Linn. Var. minor (Blume) Sherff (Asteraceae-Heliantheae) from Nepal

Karyotype, meiosis and pollen stainability of the taxa Bidens pilosa L. var. minor (Blume) Sherff and Xanthium strumarium L. collected from central part of Nepal was cytologically carried out. Results obtained from this investigation showed that chromosome number in somatic cells were recorded to be 2n=36 in Bidens pilosa and 2n=32 in Xanthium strumarium using aceto-orceine squash technique. Likewise haploid chromosome number in reproductive cells were recorded to be n=18 in Bidens pilosa and n=16 in Xanthium strumarium using aceto-carmine squash technique. The range of chromosome length found to be 0.4 to 2.1 µm in Bidens pilosa and 0.4 to 1.6 µm in Xanthium strumarium. Karyotype formula was M16+m2+sm14+st4 for Bidens pilosa and M18+ sm12+st2 for Xanthium strumarium. Based on the position of the centromeres, the chromosomes were categorized into four types with centromere at median point, median region, sub median region and terminal region in Bidens pilosa whereas three types, namely chromosomes with centromere at median point, sub median region and sub terminal region in Xanthium strumarium . In Bidens pilosa karyotype is asymmetrical and slightly asymmetrical karyotype is found in Xanthium strumarium. Absolute length recorded in Bidens pilosa were 19.2µm and 15.8. µm in Xanthium strumarium . Pollen stainability is found to be 94.0 percent in Bidens pilosa and 92.7 percent in Xanthium strumarium.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(1): 66-71