Restoration of a highly degraded forest, which had lost its natural capacity for regeneration, was attempted in the Nanmangalam Reserve Forest in Eastern Ghats of India. In field experiment, 12 native tree species were planted. The restoration included inoculation with a consortium of 5 native plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB), with the addition of small amounts of compost and a chemical f...

Traditional approaches to model pronunciation variations either require expert knowledge or extensive speech databases. In the cases where non-native speech is considered they are too costly, especially if a flexible modelling of various accents is desired. We propose to exclusively use native speech databases to derive non-native pronunciation variants. We use a phoneme recognizer to generate ...

The primary hypothesis for successful exotic plant invasions is that the invaders have escaped the specialist consumers that control them (Enemy Release Hypothesis). However, few studies have rigorously tested this assertion with biogeographical experiments or considered the effects of soil organisms. We tested the Enemy Release Hypothesis and the enhanced role of mutualisms by comparing densit...

Wadatsuminoki (Nothapodytes amamianus) is an endangered tree species observed in only Amami Oshima Island located in southern part of Japan. According to the Red list published by Ministry of Environment, it is classified as 1A (Critically endangered) and naturally remaining number is only 20. It contains camptotesin which is used for anti-cancer drugs. Kagikazura (Uncaria rhynchophylla) is an ...

Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of blindness. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and determinants of retinopathy among diabetics in Al-Ain city, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: The study was part of a general cross-sectional survey carried out to assess the prevalence of diabetes (DM) complications including retinopathy among known diabe...

The Atlantic Forest with its exuberant vegetation of high level of biodiversity is classified as one hotspot of the world. Chemical composition of leaves from native trees and underlying soils was evaluated by INAA. The predominant species Euterpe edulis, Bathysa meridionalis, Hyeronima alchorneoides, Marlierea tomentosa, Gomidesia flagellaris, and Gomidesia spectabilis belonging to the diverse...