Njavara (shashtika in Sanskrit), a rice (Oryza sativa L.) landrace described in ancient Sanskrit treatises of Ayurveda for its nutritive and medicinal properties, is traditionally used in Kerala for Ayurveda treatments. We characterized the genetic resources of Njavara using 24 morphological traits and 664 amplified fragment length polymorphic (AFLP) markers. Different multivariate methods revealed four morphologically distinct types (morphotypes) in the Njavara germplasm, which were Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Lepidopterism is a disease caused by the urticating scales and toxic fluids of adult moths, butterflies or its caterpillars. The resulting cutaneous eruptions and systemic problems progress to clinical complications sometimes leading to death. High incidence of fever epidemics were associated with massive outbreaks of tiger moth Asota caricae adult populations during monsoon in Kerala, India. A significant number of monsoon related fever characteristic to lepidopterism was erroneously treated as infectious fevers due to lookalike symptoms. To diagnose tiger moth lepidopterism, we conducted immunoblots for tiger moth specific IgE in fever patients’ sera. We selected a cohort of patients (n = 155) with hallmark symptoms of infectious fevers but were tested negative to infectious fevers. In these cases, the total IgE was elevated and was detected positive (78.6%) for tiger moth specific IgE allergens. Chemical characterization of caterpillar and adult moth fluids was performed by HPLC and GC-MS analysis and structural identification of moth scales was performed by SEM analysis. The body fluids and chitinous scales were found to be highly toxic and inflammatory in nature. To replicate the disease in experimental model, wistar rats were exposed to live tiger moths in a dose dependant manner and observed similar clinico-pathological complications reported during the fever epidemics. Further, to link larval abundance and fever epidemics we conducted cointegration test for the period 2009 to 2012 and physical presence of the tiger moths were found to be cointegrated with fever epidemics. In conclusion, our experiments demonstrate that inhalation of aerosols containing tiger moth fluids, scales and hairs cause systemic reactions that can be fatal to human. All these evidences points to the possible involvement of tiger moth disease as a major cause to the massive and fatal fever epidemics observed in Kerala.

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As hazard function, the role of reversed hazard rate function is well known in reliability analysis. This function is useful in the analysis of left censored lifetime data as well as in the study of parallel systems. In this paper, we discuss nonparametric estimation of reversed hazard rate function for the complete sample as well as for the right­censored observations. Properties of estimators are investigated Performance of the estimators is studied using a simulated data We illustrate the procedures with real data sets.

This paper presents the application of Markov chain model with non-stationary transition probabilities to study the monthly data of the power distribution in Niger state in the wet, Dry-Hot and Hamatten/DryHot seasons. The result indicates an optimal power distribution of over 150,000MWwith probability 0.49 during the wet season, 0.25 during the hot-dry season and 0.19 in the hot-cold season respectively. The variation of power distribution directly affects the electricity consumers. Markov chain model could be used as a predictive tool for determining the power distribution pattern at different seasons in the Study area. These predictions might be used for the management of (NCC) for effective distribution of megawatts. Keywords: Markov Chain, Transition probability, Non-stationary, Power Distribution Electric power distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electric power, it carries electricity from the transmission system to individual consumers. Onochie, et al (2015) said that adequate power supply is the hallmark of a developed economy. Any nation whose energy need is epileptic in supply, prolongs her development and risks losing potential investors. Again, it is an unavoidable prerequisite to any nation's development. Electricity generation, transmission and distribution are the three stages of delivering electricity to consumers. The delivery of electricity to consumers in Nigeria has multidimensional problems (Sule, 2010) focused on capacity of electricity generation in Nigeria and the major factors affecting electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the country. The factors are none diversification of sources of energy used in electricity generation, poor maintenance culture, electrical power transmission line losses due to long distance between generating stations and load centers. Studies have been carried out on electricity consumption around the globe. Ubani, (2009) determined the electricity consumption pattern in south-south geopolitical region of Nigeria. The results showed that there were significant differences in electricity consumption pattern amongst the five states that constitute the south-south geopolitical region. River state had the highest mean of consumption rate, followed in descending order by Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibon and Bayelsa states. He recommended for strategic and systematic distribution of electricity to ensure adequate supply in south-south geopolitical region. Abubakar, (2005) studied Markov chain model with stationary and non-stationary transition probabilities for asthmas disease. The effect of treatment on the disease is also considered. The model could be used to study the condition of asthma patient in the Nigeria environment when the relevant data could be obtained. Mohammed, (2013) modeled the three state Markov model considered for both discrete and continuous time for the reservoir elevation. The effect of the varying season condition was also studied in the model. The model was used to analyse the data obtained from the dam. The res...