North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Ruthenium. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Performance of repulsive particle swarm method in global optimization of some important test functions: a fortran program

Abstract: The Repulsive Particle Swarm (RPS) method of global optimization is perhaps the simplest to understand and implement. Due to its simplicity, it can be easily modified to suit the purpose and therefore, it has better prospects as well. The method has been frequently used in the field of artificial intelligence. It is well founded on philosophical and methodological grounds (bounded rationality and efficacy of decentralized decision-making to reach the global best) also. The method of RPS has been programmed (in FORTRAN) and run to optimize 32 test functions (such as Ackley, Beale, Booth, Dixon & Price, Easom, Griewank, Himmelblau, Hump, Levy, Michalewics, Rastrigin, Rosenbrock, Schwefel, Shubert, Trid, etc). The program has successfully optimized these functions. The paper also provides graphical presentations of most of these functions and the FORTRAN codes of RPS method.

Changes in microbial biomass and activity in relation to shifting cultivation and horticultural practices in subtropical evergreen forest ecosystem of north-east India

Abstract: The present study conducted in the Nokrek biosphere reserve (BR) of Meghalaya in north-east India aimed at analyzing the impact of human activities such as shifting agriculture (‘Jhum’) and horticultural practices on temporal and spatial changes in microbial biomass and dehydrogenase and urease activities in soil. Microbial biomass-C (MBC) and -N(MBN) as well as dehydrogenase and urease activities were significantly (P

Anthelmintic efficacy of ethanolic shoot extract of Alpinia nigra on tegumental enzymes of Fasciolopsis buski, a giant intestinal parasite.

Abstract: Ethanolic shoot extract of Alpinia nigra, a traditionally used anthelmintic medicinal plant among the Tripuri tribes of north-east India, was tested in vitro to determine its anthelmintic efficacy in gastrointestinal trematode Fasciolopsis buski, using alterations in the activity of vital tegumental enzymes viz. acid phosphatase (AcPase), alkaline phosphatase (AlkPase) and adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase). Live adult F. buski treated in vitro with different concentrations of the plant extract showed significant decline in the visible stain histochemically and enzyme activities. Quantitatively, the total enzyme activity of AcPase, AlkPase and ATPase was found to be reduced by 45, 41 and 43%, respectively compared to the control. The reference drug, praziquantel also showed more or less similar effect like that of the plant extract. The results suggest that the tegumental enzymes of the parasite may be an important target of action for active component(s) of A. nigra, which appears to act transtegumentally.