Southeast Asian Dipterocarp origin and diversification driven by Africa-India floristic interchange.

The evolution and diversification of ancient megathermal angiosperm lineages with Africa-India origins in Asian tropical forests is poorly understood because of the lack of reliable fossils. Our palaeobiogeographical analysis of pollen fossils from Africa and India combined with molecular data and fossil amber records suggest a tropical-African origin of Dipterocarpaceae during the mid-Cretaceous and its dispersal to India during the Late Maastrichtian and Paleocene, leading to range expansion of aseasonal dipterocarps on the Indian Plate. The India-Asia collision further facilitated the dispersal of dipterocarps from India to similar climatic zones in Southeast Asia, which supports their out-of-India migration.

Coexistence of allergic rhinitis and asthma in Indian patients: The CARAS survey.

Context: Asthma patients often suffer from concomitant allergic rhinitis (AR). However, there is paucity of such data from India.

Aims: This questionnaire-based survey evaluated the coexistence of AR in Indian asthmatics, and examined the inter-relationship between the two disease conditions.

BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene.

Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series.

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.

India Biodiversity Portal: An integrated, interactive and participatory biodiversity informatics platform.

Background: This paper describes a growing biodiversity platform, launched in 2008, which organizes knowledge on the biodiversity of India. The main objective and originality of the India Biodiversity Portal (IBP) is to aggregate curated biodiversity data of different kinds (e.g.

Contrasting effects of defaunation on aboveground carbon storage across the global tropics.

Defaunation is causing declines of large-seeded animal-dispersed trees in tropical forests worldwide, but whether and how these declines will affect carbon storage across this biome is unclear. Here we show, using a pan-tropical data set, that simulated declines of large-seeded animal-dispersed trees have contrasting effects on aboveground carbon stocks across Earth's tropical forests. In our simulations, African, American and South Asian forests, which have high proportions of animal-dispersed species, consistently show carbon losses (2-12%), but Southeast Asian and Australian forests, where there are more abiotically dispersed species, show little to no carbon losses or marginal gains (±1%).

How do habitat filtering and niche conservatism affect community composition at different taxonomic resolutions?

Understanding how local species assembly depends on the regional biogeographic and environmental context is a challenging task in community ecology. In spatially implicit neutral models, a single immigration parameter, I(k), represents the flux of immigrants from a regional pool that compete with local offspring for establishment in communities. This flux counterbalances the effect of local stochastic extinctions to maintain local species diversity.

Beta diversity in spatially implicit neutral models: a new way to assess species migration.

The spatially implicit neutral model (SINM) of S. P. Hubbell predicts species' abundance distributions at two levels: local communities where extinction balances immigration, characterized by the immigration number I, and the metacommunity, a source pool of migrants where speciation balances extinction.

Estimating parameters of neutral communities: from one single large to several small samples.

The neutral theory of S. P. Hubbell postulates a two-scale hierarchical framework consisting of a metacommunity following the speciation-drift equilibrium characterized by the "biodiversity number" theta, and local communities following the migration-drift equilibrium characterized by the "migration rate" m (or the "fundamental dispersal number" I).

Pharmacological validation of Kantha chendooram for antiulcer activity in modified pylorus ligated (shay) rat model.

The use of metals and minerals is predominant in siddha system of medicine. As per siddha concept, peptic ulcer is known as Valigunmam, the basic abnormality appears to be the derangement of metabolism in the stomach and duodenum resulting in malfunctioning of the secretory process of gastric mucosa. Chendooram is a group of siddha drugs which is used for anemia, obesity, rheumatic diseases; abdominal tumours etc.

Standardization of kantha chendooram.

Siddha is a traditional medical system of India. According to siddha system of medicine, chendooram is a red colour powder generally made of metallic compounds. Mercury is used in the form of rasa chendooram (red oxide of mercury).

PHARMACOLOGICAL VALIDATION OF Musa paradisiaca BHASMA FOR ANTIULCER ACTIVITY IN ALBINO RATS - A PRELIMINARY STUDY.

Siddha system of medicine is one of the ancient systems of medicine in India. According to Siddhars, peptic ulcer is known as Valigunmam with its signs and symptoms as detailed in Siddha literature matching modern terminology of peptic ulcer. Bhasma refers to calcinated metals and minerals.

Persistent left superior vena cava.

Congenital venous anomalies are relatively common and some have clinical implications. An example of persistent left superior vena cava was found during a routine dissection. This vein was carefully dissected and followed to its termination in the right atrium.

Modern pollen rain from the Biligirirangan-Melagiri hills of southern Eastern Ghats, India.

A total of 39 soil surface samples collected between 11 degrees 30'N 76 degrees 45'E and 12 degrees 45'N 78 degrees 15'E from the mainly deciduous forests in the Biligirirangan-Melagiri hills of the southern Eastern Ghats were analysed for their pollen content. The samples are distributed among four different deciduous and evergreen vegetation types between 210 and 1700m altitudes and fall within three distinct rainfall regimes. The aims of this paper are to provide new data on the modern pollen rain from the Southern Eastern Ghats, a region characterized by a unique and complex climate and vegetation, and to interpret these data using multivariate statistics and the diagram of pollen percentages.

Chronic berylliosis of the lung: report of a case.

We report a case of chronic berylliosis of the lung in a patient who was exposed to copper beryllium alloy, which was mistaken and being treated as miliary tuberculosis. The relevant literature is reviewed.