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Joint Forest Management (JFM) represents a radical departure from the tradition of centralised forest management in India. Forest Department (FD) all over the country has started to forge alliances with local communities to regenerate degraded forests adjoining villages. The strides it has made in less than a decade-with 20 states issuing JFM orders; large numbers of forest officers, NGOs and villagers experimenting with new approaches and relationships; and between four to five million hectares of degraded forests regenerating under local care are remarkable. The local community is given more formal access and usufruct rights over a forest patch which they regenerate by protection and plantation. Given its potential of restoring both the health of our forest and the self respect and dignity of impoverished forest users through assured access to forest resources for securer livelihoods, enthusiastic supporters of JFM have understandably tended to monitor positive impacts of achievements through studies and research. A set of studies were conducted during 1995-96 on self-initiated Community Forest Management (CFM) and Joint Forest Management (JFM) systems, with the aim to largely serve as the benchmark or baseline studies to gain a preliminary understanding. Juttadapalem, a small tribal village in the district of Vishakapatnam, A.P., is one of the sites where SPWD supported a research programme in collaboration with Andhra University, Vishakapatnam. The present paper discusses the findings of the sub-network on ecology and economics with Juttadapalem as a case study.

We have successfully developed low loss thin films of high temperature superconductors (HTSC) on MgO as well as LaAIO3 substrates. This effort aims at the development of application oriented innovations, such as HTSC based passive microwave devices. As an initial attempt in developing microwave devices, we have designed, fabricated and tested HTSC microstrip resonators at X-band using YBCO thin films on LaAIO3 substrates. The film was grown using Pulsed Laser Ablation Technique. These resonators were tested and found to have quality factors up to 4500 in microstrip configuration and upto 10,000 in inverted microstrip configuration. These test results are presented in this paper. Superconducting Microwave Filters with high Q and very small size have been designed in various microstripline configurations. Design analysis and sensitivity analysis are carried out and simulated results are presented. The design is on LaAIO3 substrate of size 11 mm x 6mm x 0.5 mm, for C-band, five section filter. The hairpin co...

The angiographic incidence of intramyocardial bridging (MB) is 0.7-4.5% [Angelini et al.: Prog Cardiovasc Dis 25:75-88, 1983]. Morphological and physiological patterns of MB have recently been described, observing coronary flow velocity patterns, intravascular ultrasound, and angiography [Flynn et al.: Cathet Cardiovasc Diagn 32:36-39, 1994; Ge et al.: Circ Res 89:1725-1732, 1994]. We describe a reversal of the normal flow velocity characteristics within a MB, due to a hemodynamically significant stenosis in the proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD). After successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) of the proximal LAD stenosis, there was normalization of the flow velocity pattern within the MB and the appearance of a spike and dome pattern distal to the MB.

Saphenous vein graft (SVG) intervention has been associated with an increased incidence of distal embolization. Long lesions and lesions associated with thrombus are particularly at increased risk. This study was performed to determine whether abciximab may decrease this risk in high risk SVG angioplasty. From June 1994 to June 1998, 84 patients with at least one high risk factor, i.e., lesion length20 mm or angiographic evidence of thrombus, underwent Transluminal extraction atherectomy (TEC) procedure followed by balloon dilatation or stenting. Of these 84 patients, 37 who had procedure after September 1995 underwent TEC with abciximab (Abciximab Group) and 47 who had their procedure before that date had TEC without abciximab thereby serving as historic control (Non-Abciximab Group). All patients had normal pre-procedure CK and CK-MB. Total creatine kinase (CK) and CK-MB were measured every 8 hr post-procedure for 24 hr. Baseline demographics, angiographic characteristics, incidence of LV dysfunction and triple vessel disease were similar between the two groups. Graft age was similar between two groups (122 +/- 70 vs. 117 +/- 54 months). Graft diameter, pre and post-procedure percent stenoses were not different between the two groups. Stents were used in 65% in the Abciximab group and 45% in Non-Abciximab group (P = 0. 14). There was no in-hospital repeat PTCA, urgent bypass surgery, or cardiac death. There was no difference between the two groups in regards to the incidence of any elevation of total CK (27% vs. 21. 3%) or CK-MB (54% vs. 51%). When used in conjunction with TEC in treating high risk vein graft lesions, abciximab did not reduce post procedure CK-MB elevation in this patient population.

Shahi K. S. ( ) E-mail: kedar_shahi@rediffmail.com Enemas have been used since times immemorial as a method of alleviating a variety of disorders as well as to administer fluids and drugs. Physicians should be aware of possible injury from enemas administered in treating constipation. Although generally safe and well tolerated enemas can cause serious complications therefore safety must be insured before undertaking the procedure.

There is an inverse relation between mortality from cardiovascular causes and the number of elective cardiac procedures (coronary angioplasty, stenting, or coronary bypass surgery) performed by individual practitioners or hospitals. However, it is not known whether patients with acute myocardial infarction fare better at centers where more patients undergo primary angioplasty or thrombolytic therapy than at centers with lower volumes.We analyzed data from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction to determine the relation between the number of patients receiving reperfusion therapy (primary angioplasty or thrombolytic therapy) and subsequent in-hospital mortality. A total of 450 hospitals were divided into quartiles according to the volume of primary angioplasty. Multiple logistic-regression models were used to determine whether the volume of primary angioplasty procedures was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality among patients undergoing this procedure. Similar analyses were performed for patients receiving thrombolytic therapy at 516 hospitals.In-hospital mortality was 28 percent lower among patients who underwent primary angioplasty at hospitals with the highest volume than among those who underwent angioplasty at hospitals with the lowest volume (adjusted relative risk, 0.72; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.60 to 0.87; P0.001). This lower rate, which represented 2.0 fewer deaths per 100 patients treated, was independent of the total volume of patients with myocardial infarction at each hospital, year of admission, and use or nonuse of adjunctive pharmacologic therapies. There was no significant relation between the volume of thrombolytic interventions and in-hospital mortality among patients who received thrombolytic therapy (7.0 percent for patients in the highest-volume hospitals vs. 6.9 percent for those in the lowest-volume hospitals, P=0.36).Among hospitals in the United States that have full interventional capabilities, a higher volume of angioplasty procedures is associated with a lower mortality rate among patients undergoing primary angioplasty, but there is no association between volume and mortality for thrombolytic therapy.

Summary: Percutaneous balloon angioplasty has been found to be useful for the treatment of intracranial atherosclerotic arterial stenosis. Nonetheless, an ongoing risk of this procedure is arterial dissection, which increases the hazards of acute closure, stroke, and restenosis. Stenting of the intracranial vasculature recently has been shown to be feasible in a variety of circumstances. To our knowledge, however, stenting of the middle cerebral artery has not been possible until now primarily because of difficulty with tracking stents across the carotid siphon. We describe the successful treatment of a symptomatic middle cerebral artery stenosis achieved using a balloon-expandable flexible coronary stent.

Divalent cations, like magnesium, are crucial for the structural integrity and biological activity of RNA. In this article, we present a picture of how magnesium stabilizes a particular folded form of RNA. The overall stabilization of RNA by Mg2+ is given by the free energy of transferring RNA from a reference univalent salt solution to a mixed salt solution. This term has favorable energetic contributions from two distinct modes of binding: diffuse binding and site binding. In diffuse binding, fully hydrated Mg ions interact with the RNA via nonspecific long-range electrostatic interactions. In site binding, dehydrated Mg2+ interacts with anionic ligands specifically arranged by the RNA fold to act as coordinating ligands for the mental ion. Each of these modes has a strong coulombic contribution to binding; however, site binding is also characterized by substantial changes in ion solvation and other nonelectrostatic contributions. We will show how these energetic differences can be exploited to experimentally distinguish between these two classes of ions using analyses of binding polynomials. We survey a number of specific systems in which Mg(2+)-RNA interactions have been studied. In well-characterized systems such as certain tRNAs and some rRNA fragments these studies show that site-bound ions can play an important role in RNA stability. However, the crucial role of diffusely bound ions is also evident. We emphasize that diffuse binding can only be described rigorously by a model that accounts for long-range electrostatic forces. To fully understand the role of magnesium ions in RNA stability, theoretical models describing electrostatic forces in systems with complicated structures must be developed.

Salt dependent electrostatic effects play a central role in intermolecular interactions involving nucleic acids. In this paper, the finite-difference solution to the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann (NLPB) equation is used to evaluate the salt dependent contribution to the electrostatic binding free energy of the minor groove binding antibiotics DAPI, Hoechst 33258 and netropsin to DNA using detailed molecular structures of the complexes. For each of these systems, a treatment based on the NLPB equation accurately describes the variation of the experimentally observed binding constant with bulk salt concentration. A solvation formalism is developed in which salt effects are described in terms of three free energy contributions: the electrostatic ion-molecule interaction free energy, delta delta G degrees im; the electrostatic ion-ion interaction free energy, delta delta G degrees ii; and the entropic ion organization free energy, delta delta G degrees org. The electrostatic terms, delta delta G degrees im and delta delta G degrees ii, have both enthalpic and entropic components, while the term delta delta G degrees org is purely a cratic entropy. Each of these terms depends significantly on salt dependent changes in the counterion and coion concentrations around the DNA. In each of the systems studied, univalent ions substantially destabilize charged ligand-DNA complexes at physiological salt concentrations. This effect involves a salt dependent redistribution of counterions near the DNA. The free energy associated with the redistribution of counterions upon binding is dominated by the unfavorable change in the electrostatic ion-molecule interactions, delta delta G degrees im, rather than the change in the cratic entropy of ion organization, delta delta G degrees org. In addition, the observed slope of the salt dependence of the free energy is determined by electrostatic ion-molecule and ion-ion interactions as well as the cratic entropy of ion release. These findings are in contrast to models in which the cratic entropy of counterion release drives binding.

In this paper, finite-difference solutions to the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann (NLPB) equation are used to calculate the salt dependent contribution to the electrostatic DNA binding free energy for both the lambda cI repressor and the EcoRI endonuclease. For the protein-DNA systems studied, the NLPB method describes nonspecific univalent salt dependent effects on the binding free energy which are in excellent agreement with experimental results. In these systems, the contribution of the ion atmosphere to the binding free energy substantially destabilizes the protein-DNA complexes. The magnitude of this effect involves a macromolecular structure dependent redistribution of both cations and anions around the protein and the DNA which is dominated by long range electrostatic interactions. We find that the free energy associated with global ion redistribution upon binding is more important than changes associated with local protein-DNA interactions (ion-pairs) in determining salt effects. The NLPB model reveals how long range salt effects can play a significant role in the relative stability of protein-DNA complexes with different structures.

In the first part of this paper discussion centres on definition of computer networks, resource sharing possibilities and problem areas, network alternatives etc to give a general picture of computer networks, their capabilities and limitations etc.In the second part, relevance of introducing computer networks in India, need for taking up review of application areas for optimization of resources, present and likely computer networking demand alongwith available options and designed approach for growth of computer networks are discussed. Efforts are mainly directed to invite audience suggestion towards evolving an approach which could lead to optimum resource utilization as well as promote appropriate application of this exciting technology of seventies in India.

A case of pharyngeal diverticulum is reported in a young man of 20 years, with dysphagia of acute onset. The patient was successfully operated upon with a one stage diverticulectomy and cricopharyngeal myotomy.

Fibreoptic endoscopy is a highly efficient diagnostic tool which is now being increasingly used in pediatric age group also. However, certain special considerations like the use of special instruments, use of general anesthesia in younger children and various indications of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy need to be clearly emphasized. Over a period of 24 months, 132 children underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examination in our section. Diagnostic endoscopy was carried out on 102 occasions and therapeutic on 162 occasions. Most of the children below 3 years of age required general anesthesia for the procedure. Children above 3 years of age could be managed by intravenous diazepam and pentazocine. The commonest cause of upper gastrointestinal bleed in children was variceal (60.6%) followed by erosive gastritis (27.2%). In children with recurrent abdominal pain no underlying cause was detected at endoscopy. Injection sclerotherapy was found to be a safe and effective mean for control of variceal bleed and most of the foreign bodies ingested by children and still lying proximal to 2nd part of duodenum could be successfully retrieved endoscopically.