March 2014

Methanol extract from cotoneaster fruit by using soxhlet apparatus was obtained. While aqueous extract was prepared by using magnetic heater. 1 g of solvent residue was dissolved in 10 ml of dimethyl sulphoxide, in same time, 1g of aqueous extract was dissolved in 10 ml of dimethyl sulphoxide, to obtain concentration of 100mg / ml, this depend for preparation of the 100, 50, 25 mg /ml for antimi-crobial activity assay for decoctions, for aqueous extract 1 g of air-dried plant material was added to 10 ml. of distilled water, left for 24 hours, mean while for alcoholic extract 1 g of powdered fruit added to 10 ml methanol (70 %) left for 24 hours. This 100 mg /ml depend for preparation of the 100, 50, 25 mg /ml for antibacterial activity assay. Isolated pure bacteria used in this study were: E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtlis, Pseudomonasspp and Proteus spp. The results showed that agar well diffusion method was more valuable to determine the antibacterial effects of both aqueous and alcoholic extracts of cotoneaster sp. In comparison with agar disc method, the alcoholic extract was more effective and showed higher antibacterial effect against all bacteria sp. In comparison with aqueous extract also both aqueous and alcoholic extract were concentration dependent as they were more effective at concentration 50 mg /ml in comparison with 25 mg /ml . at 100 mg /ml were highly effective in comparison with 25 and 50 mg ml the plants used in this study could be potential source of new antimicrobial agents.

In low resource - countries like Benin, HIV viral load is rarely available for monitoring antiretroviral treatment, which is generally based in these settings on clinical assessment together with T-cell CD4 count. In this study, we present our experience of setting up HIV viral load in Cotonou and the relative contribution of this test in monitoring such patients. From May 2013 to January 2014, 139 participants aged above 15 years were tested for both T-cell CD4 count and HIV viral load. We observed that HIV viral load was above 3 Log10 copies/ml in 15 participants (10.8%) though their CD4 count was above 350 cells/µl. HIV viral load could help for early detection of patients with incomplete virologic response to antiretroviral treatment in Cotonou.

An Insect diversity survey was carried out at Rashikbil wetland Region and South Khayerbari, Westbengal, India. The diurnal insect diversity was very high, with a mean of twenty eight species recorded during our exploration. Diurnal insects were only photographed through digital camera to prevent injury and damage. A pitfall trap study were mediated in Rasikbil wetland Region for quantitative assessment of surface dwelling forms. A total of seven order and seventeen families were identified from both of the study sites. Twelve species were recorded from Rashikbil Wetland Region and eighteen species from South Khayerbari Eco park of which three species were never been reported from these sites previously. Such findings provide important data to enhance the need and effort in biodiversity conservation. Forest fires, illegal hunting for wild animals and orchids, felling of trees and agricultural activities are among the threats to these sites which directly affect its insect diversity. To mitigate these threats, it is important to adopt a multi-disciplinary and participatory approach in a smart partnership involving relevant stakeholders and the local communities in monitoring, enforcement and promoting environmental awareness.

Hospital’s key primary mission is to ensure continuous ward care service with appropriate number of nursing staffs and the right mix of nursing skills. The planning and scheduling is done to avoid additional non essential cost for hospital. Nurses’ preferences are taken into considerations such as the number of night shift and consecutive rest days. To present a mathematical modeling technique by means of linear programming as an efficient tool to solve problems related to optimization in healthcare. Hospital must be staffed 24 hours a day by a limited number of nurses. This paper illustrates how a linear programming solves the nurses scheduling problems. This paper illustrates how linear programming has been effectively used in Nurses scheduling at a multi-speciality Hospital in Coimbatore.

The present investigation was conducted to estimate genetic variability parameters and correlations that exist for grain iron concentration and yield attributing characters and also to identify transgressant lines based on grain iron concentration in rice. One hundred and sixty recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of IRRI38 X Jeerigesanna were grown under aerobic condition at University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore in augumented experimental design during wet seasons of 2011 and 2012.Grain iron concentration of RILs ranged from 7 to 24ppm. Nine transgressant lines were identified based on high iron concentration in grains, ranging from 14-24ppm. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for all the traits. Grain iron concentration and grain yield per plant showed high phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation. Number of productive tillers per plant (r=0.55) and number of tillers per plant (r=0.46) exhibited significantly positive correlation with grain yield per plant. Grain iron concentration showed negative correlation (r = -0.004) with grain yield per plant. Path coefficient analysis indicated that number of productive tillers per plant (0.869) and number of tillers per plant (0.744) have positive direct effect on grain yield per plant. Grain iron concentration (-0.012) showed negative direct effect on grain yield. Therefore, breeding for high iron concentration and high yield should be executed separately.

A survey has been conducted in Kalyandurg area of Ananthapur district in Andhra Pradesh, India to determine the status of production technology, pre-harvest and post harvest techniques among Banana growers. The survey was done using Commodity System Assessment Methodology (CSAM) with few modifications as per requirement, which was originally developed by Jerry LaGra. The observations made were documented, which showed that the farmers are mostly following modern farming techniques for production but still lack enough knowledge about pre-cooling, pre-harvest and post-harvest handling techniques. There is a need to keep the farmers update to date for the any new production technology practices, new varieties, crop diversification, crop rotation, export potential and about processed products.

Medicinal plants are important sources for isolation of pharmaceutical drugs. The current available drugs are in many ways either inefficient or unaffordable to ever increasing forms of microbial infections. Screenings of medicinal plants used by the traditional medicinal healers are the main sources for formulation of herbal drugs. Phytochemicals present in plants are economically important sources of drugs, fragrances, pigments, food additives and pesticides. The present paper reports the analysis of qualitative, quantitative and antimicrobial properties of Centella asiatica L., Lawsonia inermis L. and Eclipta alba L. Centella asiatica was found to have maximum contents of Flavonoids and phenolics whereas Lawsonia inermis has maximum contents of tannin. Antimicrobial analysis study showed that Centella asiatica has maximum antibacterial property against Escherchia coli MTCC68 and the plant extract of Eclipta alba showed maximum antimicrobial property against Staphylococcus aureus MTCC3160. The present work will help in understanding the comparative phyotochemical and antimicrobial properties of Centella asiatica, Lawsonia enermis and Eclipta alba. Centella asiatica, and set forward towards isolation and characterization of the bioactive compounds present in these medicinally important plants.

Most of the studies reported the effects of metals on fish under the exposure to a single metal, whereas the fishes in the polluted water bodies are typically exposed to mixtures of metals. Hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate the acute toxicity of copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) in single and co-exposure on mortality rate and behavioural changes in freshwater fish Cyprinus carpio. The static and renewable bioassay method was adopted to determine the lethal concentration (LC50) of tested metals through probit analysis. The 96 hr LC50 values were 38.36 mg/L for Cu, 92.23 mg/L for Cd and 23.90 mg/L for Cu plus Cd, respectively. The dose and time dependent increase in mortality rate was observed in C. carpio in response to individual and combined exposure of Cu and Cd. Behavioural response under this investigation showed prominent changes of erratic swimming activity, increase in opercular movement, exudation of mucous over the bodies, loss of equilibrium and body dispigmentation in C. carpio exposed to Cu, Cd and Cu plus Cd mixture at their various lethal concentrations. Comparing the 96 hr LC50 and behavioural changes, that Cu plus Cd was the most toxic, followed by Cu and Cd. The results further show that the single exposure of Cu was more toxic than the Cd, but in the binary exposure of Cu and Cd, both are interact with each other and enhance the toxic effect which indicates synergism. The observed data suggest that C. carpio considered as a good biomarker to access the metallic contaminants of freshwater aquatic bodies.

The wireless channel is central within this context, thus estimating the channel is the key to make CR operational, taking in consideration that the transmission-reception technology is available. In this thesis, we design a MIMO system using OFDM modulation technology to transmit and receive two signals over the mobile wireless channel. First formulate the pilot design as a new optimization problem. We use MIMO concept to enhance system capacity and robustness of the wireless transmission. In Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) based cognitive radio (CR) systems, with the increasing demand for data rate and reliability in Wireless communications and devices, several issues become very important like bandwidth efficiency, quality of service and radio coverage. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of selective adaptive arrays signal processing and selective space-time block coding signal processing and compare their performance under perfect CSI available at both the transmitter and receiver. By comparing their performance, we see that selective adaptive arrays signal processing outperforms selective space-time coding signal processing when perfect CSI is available at both the transmitter and receiver.

Today we want fast ways of communication; research on even more faster alternatives is going. In present time, 4th generation wireless communication standards is among one of such technologies. The building block of this technology is MIMO-OFDM system. But one of the drawbacks associated with OFDM is high PAPR. In this paper, we propose a new nonlinear companding algorithm that transforms the MIMO OFDM signals into the desirable statistics form defined by a linear piecewise function. By introducing the variable slopes and an inflexion point in the target probability density function, more flexibility in the companding form and an effective trade-off between the PAPR and bit error rate performances can be achieved. The presented theoretical analyses are well verified via computer simulations.

The video compression is used to reduce the size of the video files. The MPEG files are compressed then the fine details of video are lost their originality due to quantization. Lost details of video not appear after decompression. The better video processing algorithms and many techniques like pre-processing and low pass filters are used to reduce the compression error. The character recognition is used to find the data in written or printed document or any data source. In this character recognition, data is scanned by a special scanner. Pattern matching algorithms is used in character recognition to find character that may be in any form. In the proposed coder scanned document are compressed using video codec method. The scanned page will decomposed in to N number of blocks. Then that will arrange in sequence to build video. Video sequence is compressed using advanced video codec (H.264/AVC). The pattern matching algorithm is used to reduce the data lost during the decompression. This method will give high quality of video compression compared with conventional methods. The performance and evaluation will be shown by Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Metric (SSM). Simulation results are shown by using MATLAB R2013a.

Energy has always been an issue since Wireless Sensors came into existence (WSN). Any of the WSN systems consist of number of small and low cost sensor nodes. These sensor nodes powered by small batteries. Usually, for many applications, once WSN is deployed in such areas where human cannot reach on daily basis. Sensors gather required data and send to the sink node. As WSN works on batteries there is need of system which preserve the energy and balanced the overall usage of network. This system offers Energy optimization by using various technologies like load balancing, Sleep scheduling.

Digital image manipulation software is now readily available on personal computers. It is therefore very simple to tamper with any image and make it available to others. Insuring digital image integrity has therefore become a major issue. Watermarking has become a popular technique for copyright enforcement and image authentication. The main aim of this project is to provide software which will help to detect the manipulation in the photo. Most digital cameras employ an image sensor with a color filter array such as shown on the left. The process of Demosaicing interpolates the raw image to produce at each pixel an estimate for each color channel. With proper analysis, traces of Demosaicing are exhibited in the peak of an analysis signal. The presence of Demosaicing indicates the image is from a digital camera rather than generated by a computer.

Manjula Padmanabhan’s oeuvres are often branded as ‘feminist’ since they primarily focus on social issues that are totally women centric and told from their point of view. Her scripts penned realism like ‘dowry deaths’, gang rape, alienation, and marginalization of Indian women in a patriarchal discourse. Her well-acclaimed dramatic piece Lights Out! (2000), delineates the darker side of patriarchy that is insensitive to female sensibility. It forefingers on the trial and tribulations of a macabre crime, i.e. the daily rape of an anonymous woman, that is never shown onstage combined with routine tea, candlelight dinner and the gracious conversations of hosts and guests in a middle-class flat. This paper attempts to read beyond the narrative where this ‘space in erasure’ is viewed through the ‘Third Space theory,’ enunciated by the social theorist Homi Bhabha. This ‘in-between’ space provides an emancipated terrain for the subjugated women to extend their novel strategies of selfhood or resistance there by breaking the First space-Second space dualism.

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are significant relationship between age and psychological well-being components among graduate students. Psychological well-being is measured using the Scales of Psychological Well-being with six dimensions including: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relationships with others, purpose in life and self-acceptance. A total of 534 graduate students (155 males and 379 females) were selected from one Malaysian university. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation. The finding of this study revealed significant correlation between age and autonomy, personal growth, purpose in life and overall psychological well-being. In addition, the result indicated that majority of the respondents practiced moderate level in the six dimensions. However, there were no significant correlation between age and environmental mastery, positive relationship, and self-acceptance among the graduate students.

Back ground and objectives: Falls are the major problem associated with old age. Many studies have explored the relationship between falls and physical performance but those studies were focused mainly on the frail elderly having several health problems. Hence it is important to clarify and evaluate the relation between falls and physical fitness in healthy elderly. The aim of this study was to analyze the correlation between the falling risk and physical fitness in healthy elderly and determining the top parameters affecting the fall risk. Methodology: this study was cross sectional design which includes 60 elderly subjects whose mean age was 73.17±5.81 years. All the elderly subjects were selected on the basis of their cognitive function (MMSE.24) and fulfilled the physical fitness criteria as determined by SFT. All healthy subjects then underwent fall risk and balance assessment to evaluate the correlation between fitness, balance and fall risk. Results: A strong positive correlation of BBT and SLST with chair stand, arm curl and 2 min step test was found, but the correlation of BBT and SLST with” 8 foot up-and go test “ were negative. However, no significant correlations of BBT and SLST with chair sit and reach test, back scratch test (p.0.001) was found. The results of regression analysis showed that chair test was the top most parameter of SFT which affects fall risk and balance. Conclusion: Falling risk increases with declining of upper and lower extremity muscle strength, aerobic endurance, agility and dynamic balance performance. Lower extremity strength was most relevant with fall risk and balance. it was concluded that the older persons falling risk, balance and physical fitness level should be evaluated in some intervals .according to their falling risk, balance and physical fitness level, the rehabilitation programmes should be planned.

The art of preservation of bodies is very old dating back to centuries. But in recent times the motive for Preserving the human bodies has Changed. Advancements in Science and Technology combined with advancements in Biotechnology and Nanotachnology have been combined in the Latest Techniques of Cryopreservation of human bodies referred to as Cryonics The art of Preservation of Dead Bodies has progressed to preservation of bodies by freezing or cryopreserving. The Purpose is basically to preserve life. It can be used to freeze bodies for times until the time the cure for their cause of death is available. Advanced nanorobots will keep all human body cells in perfect repair, preventing disease Lately the Cryopreservation techniques are being adapted with the purpose of preserving people’s bodies after death in hope that in the future, medicine will be able to revive them.

This study aimed to cover a part of neurotoxic effects of Ivermectin on domestic pigeons, for this purpose the up and down method were utilized to determine the intramuscular median lethal dose of Ivermectin in pigeons, functionally observed markers were used to illustrate the behavioural changes that caused by Ivermectin to each injected pigeon in addition to motor behavioural reflexes. The results of 24 hours intramuscular median lethal dose was 84.4 mg/kg, about 4-8 hours were needed to appearance of toxicosis, signs were ataxia, unilateral laying against the surface, slight to total mobility impairment, mild disturbance in muscular tone ranged from hypotonia to atonia, with passive resistance to catch, on the other hand there was absence in all examined reflexes (click, palpebral and righting). In conclusion, Ivermectin has moderate neurotoxic effect on domestic pigeons; it exhibits inhibitory central and peripheral impacts via dual Gabaergic and Glycinergic neural pathways.

The main objectives of this study were to determine the knowledge pertaining to diabetes mellitus of traditional healers in Khartoum State, and to explore some of their practices towards their patient’s advices, treatments, diagnosis, following up and referral systems. The target population of the study consisted of 40 herbalists. The sample was purposive and interviews guided by semi-structured open-ended questionnaires were used. The results obtained indicated that the healers had a primary knowledge about diabetes and had a willingness to learn more about the disease. 90% of the herbalists stated that diabetes is due to disturbances in the pancreas, and the main causes of the disease were diet high in fats and carbohydrates (22.5%), or due to genetical factors (20%). The most two well known symptoms stated by the studied herbalists were frequent urination (87.5%) followed by thirst (67.5%). More than half of the herbalists (55%) believe that diabetes could be completely cured. Concerning the average number of patients, 55% of healers mentioned that more than 10 diabetic patients usually visit the traditional healers’ center per month. For a better monitoring and control of diabetes in Sudan training of traditional healers was urgently needed. Further studies concerning the effectiveness of medicinal plants used for treating diabetes are also needed.

Propofol has been described as a potent hypnotic drug producing anaesthesia within one arm-brain circulation time, possessing a rapid recovery time and causing minimal postoperative sequelae. It has also been associated with dose-dependent fall in blood pressure on induction with a slightly higher incidence and longer period of post-induction apnea. It may be used for adults before an uncomfortable procedure, to relax and reduce awareness but not cause deep sleep. It is also used to reduce awareness and cause sleep for adults who are being treated in an intensive care unit. Our report of A 48yr old female, weight 55 kg and height 152 cm, posted for excision of fibroadenoma of right breast. Her medical history included high blood pressure, diabetes, and gastroesophageal reflux. Medications on admission included telmisartan, omeprazole, metformin. She was asymptomatic on all these medications. She showed that induction with propofol can cause bradycardia. There are several reports in the literature as well which suggested that how during propofol anaesthesia a low heart rate may occur. The bradycardia may be prevented by premedication with atropine.

Aims and Objectives: To identify the specific pathogenic organisms risk factors responsible for infection in corneal ulcer patient. Materials and Method: The present study was undertaken on 100 patients of corneal ulcer attending the outpatient department of Navodaya medical college hospital and research centre, Raichur, with special reference to the etiology and predisposing factors, examination in detail for morphological features, microbiological work up, management and follow up. Results: Out of 100 patients in 100 eyes, M: F ratio was 1.7:1. Most common age group affected was between 31 – 50 years for all types of infectious keratitis 37.5%, 44.1%, 37.5% and 49.99% for bacterial, mycotic, mixed and sterile keratitis. Socio-economically poor classes had 87% of keratitis. Keratitis occurred more frequently in the residents of rural areas 79%. Trauma was found to be the most common predisposing factor 60% followed by chronic dacryocystitis 6%,chronic steroid use 6%, lid disorders 6%, dry eye 5%, corneal degenerations / dystrophy 4%, contact lens use 1%, diabetes 1%, none 11%. Inferonasal cornea was involved with highest frequency in bacterial and central cornea in fungal keratitis. Staphylococcus epidermidis 37.04% was the most common bacterial isolate followed by staphylococcus aureus 24.07%. Fusarium sp. 33.3% and aspergillus sp. 33.3% were most common of fungal isolates. Conclusion: Central corneal ulceration is a common problem in surroundings of Raichur and most often occurs after a superficial corneal injury with organic material. Bacterial keratitis is maginally higher than fungal keratitis. Staphylococcus epidermidis is most common bacterial and Fusarium spp. And aspergillus spp are the most common fungal isolate. Staining can be the efficient tool for starting the specific medical therapy in the management of corneal ulcer in the places where culture facilities are not available.

In this study, the main objective was to document all pesticide plants used in Wayanad district, a questionnaire based interview conducted among 200 rural farmers. All the data were recorded in previously designed data sheets to reflect different objectives. Sixty eight species belonging to 33 families were recorded during the survey. For analysis, Informant consensus factor (ICF) was calculated to indicate information homogeneity. The ICF value 1.00 is observed for Azadirachta indica and is considered as the most important pesticide species from the study area. Other important pesticide plant species are Allium sativum (0.97), Nicotiana tabacum (0.94), Zingiber officinale (0.71), Pongamia pinnata (0.64) and Curcuma longa (0.64). The minimum ICF value 0.04 is recorded for Anamirta cocculus followed by Euphorbia hirta (0.045), Lobelia nicotonifolia (0.045) and Derris brevipes (0.05) indicates the limited usage of this plant as bio-pesticide. Some important pesticide plants like Derris brevipes, Madhuca longifolia, Quassia indica, Toddalia asiatica were reportedly becoming increasingly rare and would need conservation efforts. Research on active components, pesticide preparations, application rates and environmental impact of botanical pesticides are a prerequisite for sustainable agriculture and recording this knowledge before it disappears with the aging farmers was seen as urgent.

Muthupet range now consists of six Reserved Forests, viz, Muthpet RF, Thuravikadu RF, Vadakadu RF, Maravakadu RF, Thamarankottai RF, and Palanjur RF. Maravakadu RF (area: 1490.12 ha.): Maravakadu RF was created as per G.O.Ms.No.721, forests and Fisheries, Dept., 6th July 1979 with an area of 1356.07 ha. The Maravakadu RF Extn. Bit-I was created as per Govt.Ir. no.56675/FR-III/86-9, dt 20.8.87 with an area of 134.05. ha. The Maravakadu RF is located in Pattukottai taluk of Thanjavur district. The term “endophytes” includes a suite of microorganisms that grow intra-and/or intercellularly in the tissues of higher plants without causing over symptoms on the plants in which they live, and have proven to be rich sources of bioactive natural products (Tan and Zou, 2001). Suaeda monica leaves and rhizosphere soil of the plant was collected during four seasons, premonsoon, monsoon, post monsoon and summer. Sterilized and fragmented leaves were maintained in petridishes with Potato Dextrose Agar medium (PDA) at 280 C until the isolation of the fungi. Soil fungi was isolated using Warcup, 1950 method. Thirty species representing 11 genera, 3 morphotypes determined as mycelia sterilia. Maximum number of fungi isolated from the fresh leaves of Suaeda monica. Phoma sp, Aspergillus sp and Penicillium sp were most frequently isolated. 9 species recorded from soil and endophytic fungi. Choanephora present only in rhizosphere soil. Maximum number of fungi isolated from summer season, minimum number of fungi isolated from monsoon season. Majority of the fungi belongs to Ascomycota and Deuteromycota.

Heavy metals are constantly being released into the ecosystem resulting in soil pollution which in turn enters in to the food chain through crops and also affect the microbial health in soil. Some heavy metals are essential for plants and microbes in trace amount but become toxic at high concentration whereas, others are toxic even in trace amount. Since microbial growth is affected by the presence of heavy metals in soil, in the study attempt was made to determine the effect of two metals viz., cadmium and nickel on mycelial and carpogenic growth of R. solani. The results revealed that as nonessential heavy metal cadmium is highly toxic to R. solani at 2-3ppm and nickel although be an essential metal element, however becomes toxic above 60 ppm concentration.

Microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria and viruses produce a mixture of structurally related compounds referred to as secondary metabolites which have no function in their physiological development. The natural products of microbial origin are categorized into insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, herbicides and nematicides. The major insecticides of microbial origin include avermectins, milbemectins and spinosyns isolated from actinomycetes. Bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis and Photorhabdus luminescens are considered to be potential insecticides. Fungicides and bactericides from microbes comprise of strobilurins, blasticidin, kasugamycin, and validamycin among which, strobilurins are the new generation fungicides effective against both higher as well as lower fungi. Different species of Pseudomonas and Trichoderma have emerged as potential biocontrol agents for the major diseases of commercial crops. Hence, several beneficial microorganisms have been found to be the active ingredients of a new generation of microbial pesticides or the basis for many natural products of microbial origin.

In this study, production of biosurfactant by Lactobacillus rhamnosus isolated from vagina of Iraqi healthy women was studied. The optimal condition of biosurfactant production including aeration, growing at different temperature for different incubation periods of times were studied. Anaerobic condition for 24 hours at 30°Cwas fitting to biosurfactant production. Additionally, biosurfactant was extracted by chloroform: methanol (2:1) and partially purified by acid precipitation, surface activity of crude and partial purified biosurfactant were studied, antibacterial, antiadhesion and antibiofilm activities were evaluated against some Urinary tract infectioncausative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Burkholderia cepacia and Staphylococcus aureus isolated from urine samples of Iraqi women suffering from UTI. Crude biosurfactant showed surface activity higher than partial purified biodurfactant.Both crude and partial purified biosurfactant showed inhibitory effect against UTI causative bacteria at concentration (32) mg\ml against S.aureus, K.pneumonia and B.cepacia, and (64) mg\ml against E.coli, and showed inhibitory effect on adherence and biofilm formation of these bacteria, K.pneumoniawas more sensitive to biosurfactant follow by S.aureus, while B.cepacia was more resist.

An investigation was carried out to studies on sulphur fractions in soils of Lohara tahsil of Osmanabad district during 2011-12. For study, 180 representative soil samples were collected from 30 different villages of Lohara tahsil. The collected soil samples were grouped into three orders viz, Vertisols, Inceptisols and Entisols. Out of the total surveyed soil samples, 37 per cent soil samples were grouped under Vertisols while, 40 and 23 per cent soil samples were grouped under Inceptisols and Entisols, respectively. These soil samples were analysed for chemical properties and sulphur fractions. The soils of Lohara tahsil were alkaline in reaction and found safe limit of electrical conductivity for growing crops. Organic carbon content in study area was low to medium while, these soils were calcareous in nature, Available S were categoried as low while, total and other remaining forms of S were noted as low to medium in soils. The pH, EC and CaCO3 were negatively but significantly correlated with sulphur forms whereas, organic carbon was positively and significantly correlated with all forms of sulphur under Vertisols, Inceptisols and Entisols of Lohara tahsil of Osmanabad district.

The research work was conducted to demonstrate the management strategies of the floodplain area and socio-economic improvement of people for floodplain aquaculture of Begumgonj upazilla situated in Noakhali District of Bangladesh. Data were collected through focus group discussion and interviewing with farmers and committee members of the floodplain (dogi) management. The studied floodplain (dogi) area (Sonali community based fish culture project) is 12 acre which was brought under floodplain aquaculture project by RFLDC-DANIDA. Almost 90000 fish fingerlings were stocked in floodplain during May-June. Average fish production in the Sonali community based fish culture project were 13% prawn, 50% carp, 4% SIS and 33% large fingerling. Average expenditure of fish culture was BDT 89025.00 and income from floodplain was BDT 141500.00. The results of the present study indicate that community-based fish culture in floodplain is technically feasible, economically profitable, environmentally non-destructive, and socially acceptable. In marketing systems, local agents, whole sellers, local fish traders and retailers may be present as a middleman.

The In recent years many researchers has been focused on the use of biomass residues as low cost and locally available adsorbents for the removal of different organic and inorganic chemicals by the adsorption process. In this study the powder of Oleaster Seed were used in their charcoal form for the removal of Bovine serum Albumin (BSA)and Egg white Albumin(EWA)from aqueous solution. Various experimental parameters such as BSA and EWA concentrations, contact time, adsorbent dose, pH and temperature were studied to establish the conditions for the removal of BSA and EWA. Isotherm data were fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm equations. Results showed that the maximum extent of adsorption occurs in pH=5 and pH=3 at a temperature of 302K for Oleaster Seed charcoal respectively. Thermodynamic data ΔG, ΔH and ΔS showed that the adsorption process is exothermic on the surface of Oleaster Seed.

Treatment and disposal of large amount of oily produced water is a considerable economic and environment burden for oil and gas industry. The treatment of produced water requires the separation of suspended and dissolved component such as emulsified oil droplets. The goal of this research is to prepare chitosan as a natural polymer from chitin to yield clean oily produced water has enough beneficial uses like drilling, stimulating, or water flooding. The prepared chitosan characterized by the FT-IR spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction. Then, the percentage of oil droplets removal was evaluated by HPLC and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). It was found that the chitosan could successfully remove 81.45% of residual oil at 0.01ppm dosage, under mixing time at 20 min, mixing rate 200 rpm, sedimentation time for 30 min and a pH value ranging from 5.0 to 6.0.

This work Investigates using the Ansys fluent CFD tool, the pressure difference exerted on a bluff body object and discusses the flow field from inlet to outlet. The objectives of this work are to discuss the flow field from inlet to outlet, to investigate the pressure difference exerted 25mm upstream and 25mm downstream of the bluff body object for different volumetric flow rates (4 l/s, 5 l/s and 8 l/s).The total pressure losses across the plate for the 4 l/s, 5 l/s and 8 l/s flows are 17.38 kPa, 27.14 kPa and 69.62 kPa respectively. These losses are partly due to the level of turbulence with the 8 l/s flow having the maximum turbulence intensity of over 250% exceeding those of the 4l/s and 5l/s flows which are ~130% and ~160% respectively. When compared with the mean operating pressure (101.325 kPa), these pressure losses represents 17.1%, 26.8% and 68.7% change for 4l/s 5 l/s and 8 l/s flows respectively.

The problem of Magneto-Marangoni-convection is investigated in a two layer system comprising an incompressible electrically conducting fluid saturated porous layer over which lies a layer of the same fluid in the presence of a vertical magnetic field. The lower rigid surface of the porous layer and the upper free surface are considered to be insulating to temperature perturbations. At the upper free surface, the surface tension effects depending on temperature are considered. At the interface, the normal and tangential components of velocity, heat and heat flux are assumed to be continuous. The resulting eigenvalue problem is solved exactly for both parabolic and inverted parabolic temperature profiles and analytical expressions of the Thermal Marangoni Number are obtained. Effects of variation of different physical parameters on the Thermal Marangoni Number for both profiles are compared.

In the present work the thermal performance analysis of a simple open cycle gas turbine power plant which is situated at Uran in district Raigad of Maharashtra, India is carried out at varying ambient temperature and pressure ratio and a comparison is made from the stipulated ISO conditions. The analysis of the cycle has been carried out using software developed in C++. The results show that for every 50C rise in ambient temperature the gas turbine loses 0.44 % in terms of thermal efficiency and 0.5 MW of its useful power. Also there is a loss of 3.36 % in thermal efficiency at pressure ratio 9 as ambient temperature increases from 283 K to 313 K, this loss increases up to 3.89 % at pressure ratio 21, which reveals that, as pressure ratio increases percentage loss in thermal efficiency increases on increasing the ambient temperature. The thermal performance analysis reveals that, the ambient temperature and compression ratios are strongly influence the performance of gas turbine power plant.

The study was conducted to examine the distribution of the invasion of water hyacinth on the lake surface Tondano. Research methods spatial approach to the analysis and interpretation process of digitization of satellite imagery application SIGs that ArcGIS 10. The data used are: Landsat satellite image of Quick bird with a spatial resolution of 0.6 meters recording in 2006 and 2011. Based on the results obtained image interpretation, the distribution of water hyacinth invasion (Eichornia crassipes) has grown and spread of high speed, so the plant is considered a weed that damages aquatic environments and greatly contribute to water quality, lake eutrophication and silting process. The rate of spread of water hyacinth is different in each observation station, due to differences in content of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphate in the water. Based on the analysis of satellite imagery interpretation and digitization of 2006 wider distribution of water hyacinth 130.77 hectares or 2.82% in 2011 and increased to 292.66 hectares or 6.32%. This means that during the period 2006 - 2011 water hyacinth increased by 161.89 ha with an average annual growth of 32.38 Ha. Based on the data rate distribution hyacinth invasion, may predict the next few years will be entirely Tondano lake surface is covered by water hyacinth management if no serious action.

The interaction between picric acid (acceptor) and o-phenanthroline (donor) have been studied spectrophotometrically in THF solvent for the evaluation of reliable value of association constant in the formation of weakly bounded charge transfer complex. The value of association constant (K) was calculated using standard equations such as Benesi-Hildebrand, Scott, Foster Hammick Waldley, Rose Drago Ayad, El-Hati, Lang, Scatchard, Seal-Sil Mukherjee, at wavelengths358.5 378, 400 and 420 nm in THF solvent. The value of association constant of the 1:1 complex insolution, calculated by different standard equations ranges between 1561 and 4928. The wide range of variation of the calculated values of K led us to guest for the reliable value. The reliability of different calculated values was examined. The Benesi- and Hildebrand method was found to give most reliable value of K. The most reliable value of K for complex was found to be 1907. The stoichiometry of the complex was established spectrophotometrically by Jobs’s method of constant variation.

Economic and social development is a common theme pursued by the human race. The United Nations (UN) has adopted a far more robust and inclusive measure of comparability of human development amongst countries, the human development Index (HDI) which incorporates socio-economic, political and related themes. The HDI measure is a more appropriate tool for comparative measure of the development of the human race across countries as opposed to Per capita GDP measures. Whereas, entrepreneurial activities are critical to economic development and indeed social, cultural, political, technological and environmental improvement of the society, we are not clear on the extent or nature of the relationship that may exist between the two phenomena. Our study would attempt to filter critical components, characteristics, activities and attitudes in entrepreneurship and set up a hypothesis to test if there is a causal relationship between both phenomena, and to isolate specific variables that best discriminate and or describe the behavior of the groups amongst the dependent variable cases.

Business creates assets to self by using natural resources by creating social environmental liabilities by degradation of environment. Traditional double entry financial accounting is more concern about quantification of business transactions in terms of money. Traditional money measurement concept accounting is limited when it comes to measuring natural wealth degradation. We are behind the times… Jet pilots don’t use rearview mirrors. If we want to account for the environment, it is necessary to look ahead. Developing future accountants who can measure quantitatively the environmental degradation depends on the present commerce and management teachers who have ability to understand and teach the methods to measure, costs related to environmental degradation. It is a pleasure, challenge and duty of the commerce and management faculty throughout the world in particular in India to understand the importance of implementation of environmental accounting as a part of university curriculum as a nation building exercise. The present paper aims to discuss the significance of environmental accounting in Indian university curriculum. The data required for the study have been collected from primary and various secondary sources. This research is descriptive in nature. Understanding reliable estimates of environmental damages, upstream/downstream costs of pollution, recovery from the market (carbon credit), cost of management activities, research and development costs, costs for social programs and costs for handling environmental damage will help commerce teachers to inculcate knowledge in commerce students and the government to implement the environmental accounting in the near future in India.

This paper assesses the financing mechanisms of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) education policy focusing on the sustainability of the programme in terms of fostering the desired equity and quality of education provided. It is concerned with one main question: What is the unfinished business in the current education financial arrangement in Kenya? To answer the question, the paper sets out to achieve three objectives: To profile the current trends in enrollment and equity in secondary school education in Kenya; to assess the funding strategy for the secondary education sectors in the country; and to examine the emerging challenges and implications of the free education policy in Kenya in order to establish the unfinished business. The source of data for the paper was a combination of secondary data through desk literature review and primary data from interviews with 136 secondary school teachers and principals pursuing their school-based degree programmes at Kenyatta and Mount Kenya Universes during the 2012/2013 academic year. The major finding is that while on the one hand the implementation of the policy has resulted into exponential quantitative growth in students’ enrollment; on the other hand , the education sector is fraught with multifarious and intertwined finance related challenges of providing quality and equitable education thereby resulting in conspicuously wide and severe regional and gender disparities in access to, and quality of education. The funds meant for the day secondary schools are grossly inadequate and irregularly remitted to schools and this has exacerbated acute shortages of essential learning physical and human resources forcing teachers to resort to unconventional instructional techniques. The overall impact has been low quality outcomes of education and emergence of compulsory latent user charges to be shouldered by the already over-burdened poor households, especially those residing in urban slums and ASAL regions. It is concluded that the unfinished business in the current Government funding strategy is to make is sustainable and hence there is an urgent need to devise alternative additional sources of funding in order to increase the current capitation from a flat rate of Khs.10, 265 to 32,747 for boys and 33,707 for girls who should get an extra Ksh.960 to meet their sanitary needs. It is recommended that day secondary schools in Kenya should be encouraged to generate extra funds from income generating activities and work out mechanisms of eradicating all bottlenecks related to additional educational financial burden for children from poor socio-economic backgrounds that hinder them from accessing equitable and quality education.

Investigation of the bituminous sand in parts of the eastern Dahomy basin was conducted to establish its lateral continuity across the area. The study area cuts across Irele and Odigbo Local Government Areas of Ondo State and Ovia-West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Five core holes (BTW–1, BTW–2, BTW-3, BTW-4, and BTW-5) each of diameter 75mm were bored using mechanical rig. BTW-1 and BTW-2 are located at Ayadi village and Ajana-Ejidokun in irele and Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State respectively while BTW-3, BTW-4 and BTW-5 are located within Ibru Farm in Ovia-West Local Government Area of Edo State. Seven different lithologic units (Lateritic Topsoil, Sand, Shaly-sand, Shale, Limestone, Bituminous sand and Basement) were identified. The average overburden thickness in the study area is 14.8m while the average depth to the basement is 34m. Wells BTW-3, BTW-4 and BTW-5 encountered basement at shallow depths of 30m, 42m and 30m respectively indicates reduction in depth to basement towards north-eastern sector of the study area. The average Correlation of the holes revealed two bituminous horizons encountered by wells BTW-2, BTW-3 and BTW-4 while wells BTW-1 and BTW-5 encountered one bituminous horizon. The average thickness of the first bituminous horizon is 1.7m while that of the second bituminous horizon is 3m. Results of the study have established lateral continuity of the bituminous sand across the area but with reduced thickness towards Ovia-West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria.

The Role Of Traditional Education in the Development of the African Child is a paper that is intended to highlight the importance of restructuring the style and type of education used in the socialisation of the African Child at the early stages of his/her life in other for the child to imbibe the socio-cultural values of his/her society alongside the western type education. In my findings and research in personal identity crises, it is noted that when an individual does not properly assimilate a particular culture where he/she finds himself/herself. Such an individual does not come out well rounded. The paper has highlighted those forms of traditional types of education that should be integrated with the western type education and why.

Between January 2013 and December 2013, the medical records of 602 medical and applied medical students at King Abdulaziz University were audited to determine the risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Fifty-two students (8.6%) had a positive purified protein derivative (PPD) test. From the positively tested students 27 students (51.9%) had an induration of ≥10 mm, while 25 students (48.1%) had an induration of > 12 mm. Of the students who tested positive, 23 students (44.2%) did not present for follow up or receive treatment; 2 students (3.8%) did not complete treatment. A chest X-ray was done in students with a positive PPD. Of these, 5.76% students had a positive X-ray finding, but they were not offered treatment. Overall, applied medical students at King Abdulaziz University are at risk of contracting tuberculosis. Students should be screened for tuberculosis as early as in the preclinical years to protect both students and patients. Students who test positive should be counseled and treated to prevent infection.

X-ray is one of the ionizing radiation that penetrates living tissues and generate chemically active free radicals these in turn potentially causes DNA damage. This study aimed to determine hematological changes, in particular total white blood cells count (TWBC), red blood cells count (RBC) and platelets count in X-ray workers in Sudan. Following informed consent, one hundred and twenty individuals; sixty apparently healthy volunteer X-ray technicians worked 8 hours a day for six days per week, and age and sex matched sixty unexposed healthy control were enrolled. TWBC, RBC and platelets count were determined for all participants. A significant correlation between a reduction in the TWBC count and the duration of the exposure to X-ray radiation was determined, however, no significant differences were observed in the mean values of RBC, TWBC and Platelets count between the X-ray technicians and the un-exposed healthy controls. We concluded that long-term exposure to X-ray may cause a low degree of severity of disease which is expressed in terms of haematological changes

Craniovertebraljunction shows the presence of various anatomical variations and abnormalities. The present case report describes a case of fusion of superior articular facets of atlas vertebra with the occipital condyles, observed during the routine osteology classes for undergraduate medical students of MVJ Medical College and Research Hospital, Bangalore. Such type of complete or partial fusion of atlas vertebra with occipital bone is known as occipitocervical synostosis. Occipitalisation of atlas is associated with various neurological signs and symptoms ranging from mild headache to sudden unexpected death due to the narrowing of foramen magnum compressing the spinal cord or brain stem.

Introduction: The shortage of health professionals in rural areas is a global problem. The urban and rural maldistribution of doctors results in severe problems regarding access to and performance of health care services. Retaining doctors in rural areas is a challenging task for a number of reasons, ranging from personal preferences to difficult work conditions and low remuneration. The objective of the study was to understand the factors influencing medical and dental house surgeons choice to work in rural PHC’s as a basis for designing policies to redress geographic imbalances in health professional’s distribution. Method: A total of 385 dental and medical house surgeons provided a unique contingent valuation data in a cross sectional survey conducted in 4 medical and 4 dental colleges in Maharashtra, using a questionnaire concerning their preferences, related incentives to work in various rural and remote primary health centres of Maharashtra state, India. Results: The response rate obtained for the study was 89 %, (n= 344), with only 24% of house surgeons expressing their willingness to serve in rural/remote primary health centres. Most of them stressed for increase in salary, better accommodation and infrastructure of the hospitals as the factors for increasing their retention in remote rural areas. Conclusion: Although most Indian students are motivated to study medicine and dentistry by the desire to help others, this does not translate into willingness to work in rural areas. Efforts from the government to build intrinsic motivation during medical and dental training to serve in these deprived areas should be in focus with addition to improved working and living conditions and better remuneration.

Background: The patients suffering from hypertension demonstrate a higher risk development of CHD. Arterial hypertension (AH) is one of the main factors to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and general mortality. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the difference in the frequency of risk factors and in-hospital outcome in hypertensive and normotensive patients with AMI in Durres population, Albania. Methods: The study included 454 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) admitted to in the Cardiology Department, Regional Hospital of Durres, Albania between January 2009 to October 2012 . In hypertensive and normotensive patients with AMI were analysed risk factors (cigarette smoking, age, gender, hypertension and blood lipids, diabetes, obesity, family history, previous MI,AMI localization) Results: Of 454 pts ,327(72.03%) were male and 127 (27.97%) were women. 264 (58.1%) patients were hypertensive. Comparing to men,women presented less frequently with hypertension (64.39% vs 35.61% to women respectively). Hypertensive pts were younger than normotensive pts (61.93±11.21 vs 64.81±10.85, p 0.005). We did not find significant differences in age among females or males in both groups (hypertensive vs normotensive). According to the age group a statistically significant difference was recorded only in the age group from 45-54 years. (12.1%vs 21.1% in normotensive (p 0.008). Hypertensive patients had obesity (p=0.017; RR:1.59; CI95%: 1.093-2.325) and dislipidemia (p<0.001, RR:4.04; CI95%: 2.651-6,161). Normotensive patients had smoking habits (p=0.002) and family history (p=0.021), No significant differences were found between hypertensive and normotensive patients with regard to other risk factors. In-hospital mortality was higher in hypertensive patients.13(4.9%) out of 14(3.1%) patients with fatal MI were hypertensive.(p=0.005, OD: 5.73;CI95%: 1.263-7.088). Conclusion: In hospital mortality was higher in hypertensive as compared to normotensive patients with AMI. Hypertensive patients were younger than normotensive patients. No significant differences were found between hypertensive and normotensive patients with regard to other risk factor. Women were older than men in both groups. It is not sufficient to analyze risk factors of patients with AMI stratified by hypertension status to accurately predict the early outcome.

Introduction: Examination of students’ beliefs about themselves, or self-theories, may provide important insight into their behaviour and these results shall contribute to the body of knowledge demonstrating the utility of the motivational concepts for understanding health sciences students’ effort and achievement. This study shall examine the relationship between the students’ believes about their intelligence, their curiosity and inquisitiveness, and whether these adaptive personal beliefs are predictive of their academic achievements. Method:A Sample of 245 students were randomly selected from different colleges offering medical and health sciences courses from various newly established universities in Saudi Arabia. Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale and Curiosity and Exploratory Inventory were used for measuring the outcomes. Result:It was found that the incremental intelligence beliefs accounted for 25% of the variance in students’ course grades, F(3,563) = 40.98, p < .05, adj. R² = .31, whereas exploratory curiosity accounting for 13% and absorptive curiosity accounting for 8% of the total variance. Discussion: In our sample, the students’ incremental beliefs were significantly higher than their entity beliefs. Our results also showed that the students who believe intelligence is malleable are more likely to inquisitive behaviours; in our sample, the inquisitive behaviour were significantly positively associated with students’ course grade leading to excellence in academic performance.

Pyogenic Granuloma is a type of inflammatory localized gingival enlargement of the oral cavity which is benign tumor like lesion. It occurs due to deleterious effects of chronic low grade irritation, trauma, hormonal factors and some drugs. This case report highlighted the presence of massive localized gingival enlargement in a 12 years old female child. History, Clinical, Radiological and Histopathological analysis showed that this is a case of pyogenic grnuloma. This is unique because of 12 years old child, rapidly growing nature and large size of lesion.

In India, the potential yield losses due to weeds in wheat are estimated upto 50 per cent depending upon degree of weed infestation, weed species and management practices. Due to improper application and stage, losses of herbicides increased manifold, be fond of significant reduction in crop yield with adverse effect on soil health. Nozzles used by farmers for herbicide spray, play a vital role in efficacy of herbicides. The efficacy of different nozzle systems viz. hollow cone, even flat fan, twin orifice flat fan, and full cone were assessed for the application of post emergence herbicides in irrigated wheat with a control treatment. The herbicides i.e. sulfosulfuron and 2,4-D were applied after 25 days after sowing of the crop, cv. HD 2864. Sprayer nozzle performance was evaluated in terms of weed density (m-2) weed biomass, plant height (cm), number of effective tillers/plant, grains/spike, wheat grain yield and wheat straw, at farmers’ field in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh during 2007-08 and 2008-09. Statistical analysis indicated that the nozzle type had significant effects on grain yield and dry biomass of weeds. The results revealed that the knapsack sprayer fitted with twin orifice flat fan nozzle for herbicide application, gave better weed control due to its comparatively less spray drift than the others. The weed density was observed highest in the herbicide applied using hollow cone nozzle due to its fine droplet size responsible for high spray drift and lowest in twin orifice flat fan nozzle followed by even flat fan and full cone nozzles respectively. The weed control efficiency of herbicides applied through full cone nozzle was also higher than the hollow cone nozzle. The yield attributes, grain and straw yield of wheat was noted high with twin orifice flat fan nozzle due to its better herbicide efficacy.

Studies of age based female mate preference suggested that female preference for male age in different taxa was found to be mixed and various hypotheses have been proposed with conflicting prediction. The present study in D. malerkotliana noticed that females of all ages preferred to mate with a middle aged males more frequently than young or old males. Further middle aged males showed significantly greater courtship acts to courting females. The female showed least rejection behavior and copulated longer with middle aged male than young or old males. Female mated with middle aged male had produced a significantly greater number of progeny but insignificant variation was found in eggs laid by female mated with different male age classes. Female mated with middle aged male lived shorter. Thus our study in D. malerkotliana shows the occurrence of age based female mate preference and female preferred middle aged male to obtain direct fitness benefits.

Male mating a second female after the first (male remating) is a common feature particularly in mass culture of Drosophila. Female remating is not frequent as that of male remating, but yet it is reported in few species here we report that males of D.gangotri and D.nagarholensis, remounting the same female for second and subsequent times immediately after first mount. There was no relation between courtship latency and mating latency or copulation duration (first mount). However, the copulation duration of second and subsequent mounts gradually decreased in both the species. D.gangotri and D.nagarholensis also showed female remating. Even during female remating, the repeated male mounting occurred. Only the copulation duration of first mating and second mating of D.gangotri was not significant. Males of D.nagarholensis remounted the same female for three times, whereas D.gangotri mounted the same female twice, immediately after first mount. The male remounting is absent in D.kikkawaii and D.bipectinata. Fitness traits (Fecundity, hatchability, viability, fertility and sex ratio) were studied and result showed significant variation between first, second, third mounts for D.nagarholensis. In case of D.gangotrii except hatchability and sex ratio all other fitness traits showed significant variation between first and second mount.

This study sought to assess the structure and performance of the milk market in Western Kenya. Quantitative data was collected from 385 milk consumers in four counties, while qualitative data was obtained from officials of selected cooperatives, Ministry of livestock and Kenya Dairy Board. Frequencies, percentages, means, correlation and chi square tests were used to analyze data. The findings of this study revealed that farmers and traveling traders supplied 58% of total milk traded, with 70% of the milk passing through the informal channel. Problems associated with milk suppliers included adulteration with water (65.5%), addition of chemicals (18%) and physical dirt (13.5%). There was a significant correlation between channel and contamination of milk (p<0.05). The region’s milk deficit was 177million litres/year, with demand estimated to be 392 million litres against a production of 215 million litres. The main milk markets included households, hotels, institutions who bought raw milk at USD 0.70 per litre while cooperatives bought at between USD 0.37 and USD 0.65. Consumers surveyed preferred quality (56%), price (27%), quantity (9%), packaging (5%) and reliability (3%) as attributes influencing choice of milk supplier. Based on these findings, milk marketing strategy in the region should prioritize quality and pricing. Though households, hotels and institutions offered good prices, they were unsustainable, scattered and unable to absorb increased volumes in an upgrading strategy designed to increase milk production. It is recommended that cooperatives, though comparatively buy milk at lower price, are the better option.

Rapid growth of construction activity, to meet the modern day requirements of increasing population and housing and infrastructure development needs of the society, has immensely boosted the demand for building materials in Kolhapur district. Stone quarrying continues to play major role in this process. However, the activity has caused serious environmental degradation and socio-economic conflicts in the study area. The major environmental and socio-economic problems related to quarrying revealed during this study include, landscape alteration, hill cutting affecting local biodiversity, generation of unproductive wastelands, dust pollution, noise pollution, illegal stone extraction, accidents and in some areas lowering of groundwater table.

Since time immemorial Simarouba glauca have been used as a natural medicine in the tropics. Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and Penicillium puberulum are well known transmitters of aflatoxin. Crude methanol and ethanol extracts from fresh and dried leaves of Simarouba glauca were tested for their inhibitory activity against pathogenic aflatoxin producing fungus Aspergillus parasiticus. Screening for the antifungal activity using well diffusion assay showed the inhibition against the tested fungi. Ethanolic extracts were found to be more effective as compared to methanolic extracts against the fungus. The present study shows that Simarouba glauca could be new a source for antifungal agent. The continuance of this study should include the isolation of the compounds responsible for the antifungal activity present in this medicinal plant.

Background: Oral mucositis is a common, dose limiting and potentially serious complication of both radiotherapy and chemotherapy of head and neck cancer. Homeostasis of both malignant and normal host cells are affected. This study is conducted mainly to evaluate application of oral leukocytes as an indicator of mucositis progression during the course of chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). Methodology: 30 patients who were diagnosed as having malignancy and were undergoing CRT as treatment option using Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) were selected and followed up through course of treatment. The procedure involved clinical scoring, collection of oral washings and preparation of buccal smears from both study group and control group. Results: The results revealed a significant occurrence of oral mucositis in almost all patients during followup. There was a significant increase in percentage of oral leukocytes in patients when compared to controls (P<0.005). There was a significant decrease in blood leukocyte level when compared to control (P<0.005). The changes in the oral neutrophil counts correlated with WHO clinical score. Conclusion: Assessment of oral leukocyte especially neutrophils can be considered for evaluation and prediction of mucositis development during CRT. Therefore, this assessment may be useful in research studies aimed at preventing mucositis and can also be used as an adjunct in tracking mucositis development and plan therapy.

Photochemistry, a sub discipline of chemistry is the study of interactions between light and atoms or molecules. Photochemistry describes chemical reactions that proceed with the absorption of light. Everyday examples include photosynthesis, the degradation of plastics and the formation of vitamin D with sunlight. Photochemical reaction of thioamide derivatives gave the cyclised, oxidized and dehalogenated compounds. Thioamide derivatives are well known for their antimicrobial activities and they have drawn much attention because of their novel heterocyclic chemistry. Light is clearly manifesting itself as a unique reagent in organic synthesis as many of the novel reactions involve photochemical reaction as a key step. The synthesized thioamides are characterized by IR, 1H, 13C, Mass and analytical spectral data.

Phase transfer catalyzed free radical polymerization of butylmethacrylate (BMA), using peroxydiphosphate (PDP) as an initiator and hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HDTMAC) as a phase transfer catalyst was studied. The polymerization reactions were carried out in ethyl acetate – water bi phase media at 50 ± 0.10C in an inert atmosphere under unstirred condition. The effect of various kinetic parameters such as different concentration of monomer, initiator, phase transfer catalyst (PTC) different acid strength and temperature were studied. The reaction orders with respect to monomer, initiator and the phase transfer catalyst concentrations were found to be 1, 0.5 and 0.5 respectively. The rate of polymerization (Rp) was independent of acid strength and ionic strength. Based on the experimental results obtained, a suitable mechanism has been proposed for the polymerization reaction and its significance was discussed.

Electronic resources play a vital role in the field of science, medical, engineering and Commerce etc studies. Electronic access to technology journals has become important and valuable tool for researchers, students and faculty. The user community is becoming more and more familiar with these tools and now they have started using them very regularly. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), has set up the “Indian National Digital Library in Science and Technology (INDEST) consortium.” and UGC Infonet by UGC and so on these monitoring body also want to promote use of electronic services. Electronic Services are also more demanding by the library users so it’s important to planning these sources for maximum utilization of these sources.

In this paper, the system deals with content based retrieval by using three dominant content retrieval techniques and queries used to retrieve the videos. The query sets are given to identify the relevant videos. Media Professionals utilize this audio-visual archives to capture the video material. The primary goal of this project is to investigate how to retrieve the videos by using content based retrieval. The performance of content based video retrieval will improve with the help of cross referencing and multimodal re-ranking method. This project utilizes logged searches, content purchases, session information, and simulators to create realistic query sets and relevance judgments. This paper also guides how to take into account the information needs and retrieves data already present in the audiovisual archive, and demonstrate that retrieval performance can be significantly improved when content-based methods are applied to search. The improvements of the audio visual archives can be established effectively and to produce good results.

Sulphonated carbon derived from plant viz., Nelumbo Nucifera has been prepared and blended with Phenol-Formaldehyde Resin (PFR) by varying the percentage of blending (%w/w) and Physico-chemical parameters like, density, gravimetric swelling (%) attritional breaking (%) and Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of various metal ions have been determined. For a given metal ion, CEC decreases with the increase in percentage of blending NNSC with PFR. The blending of PFR upto 30% (w/w) of Nelumbo nucifera retains almost all the essential physico-chemical characteristics including CEC, as compared to that of the PFR. It is concluded that the sulphonated Nelumbo nucifera carbon could be used as blending material in the PFR to lower the cost of the ion-exchange resin for water and wastewater treatment, especially for the removal of metal ions.

This project is designed to improve Electrical versus Thermal efficiency. We have used infrared penetration heating system to improve efficiency up to 95% thermal efficiency and 100% electrical efficiency. We are going to construct a furnace model to improve our system by reducing the weight factor of the furnace by changing the forming procedure of the furnace casing by using of composite insulation material. A real fabrication model is to analyze IR heating system. IR lamps will be used to provide heat. From the furnace, the temperature is sensed by the thermocouple, which is based on the principle of See back effect. Temperature acquired from the thermocouple is indicated on the screen of the computer. The computer will also compare the temperature acquired with the set temperature and control action if any will be done by the solid-state relay that avoids instantaneous heating. The infrared (IR) heating has the potential to be used for solutionizing of metal forgings with benefits of reduced energy consumption, increased productivity, and improved microstructure and mechanical properties.

This paper guides us about the impact of Exchange rate Pakistan rupee in terms of US Dollar and KSE 100 index. We take the data of period comprises from January 01, 2006 to December 31, 2012 excluding year 2013due to general elections of Pakistan, which held in May 2013 after which stock market took a boom. We applied different statistical tools to analyze the obtained data. We also analyze the causal relationship between both the time series. First of all we carry out normality test and found that both PKR-USD exchange rate and KSE 100 index are non-normally distributed. We conclude through unit root test that both series are stationary at the level form. Furthermore we found negative correlation in between KSE100 indices and USD-PKR exchange rate though very weak relationship exists. Furthermore we check for causal relationship between two time series through Granger Causal Test and found that bidirectional relationship exists between KSE 100 indices and Exchange Rate.

This study focuses on investigating the effect of leverage, capital intensity and its impact on firm’s profitability of the motor vehicle industries of Pakistan. For this purpose, two independent variables, i.e. leverage and capital intensity were in use into concern to recognize their effect on dependant variable, i.e. firm’s profitability. This study concluded that the leverage and capital intensity is significantly associated with firm’s profitability as total debt, long term debt and total long term debt to total assets are positively associated with return on sales while total assets to gross sales are positively associated with return on assets. Therefore the cautious decisions should to be taken in provisions of firm’s profitability which in return would help in signifying financial restructuring for this sector in future.

Background: Throughout the last decades many studies have been tended to investigate, identify and treat different linguistic or non-linguistic errors made by learners in their spoken and written language. Sometimes instructors' errors are involved in few researches also. Aims: This study is concentrated on investigating the linguistic errors (LEs) that were found out in the test sentences (TSs)- interrogatives (InTSs) and imperatives (ImTSs)- made by instructors who are non- native speaker nor specialists in English language. This study aims to answer these questions: 1- Which type of TSs are used more frequently? And why? 2- Are there LEs in these TSs? And what are their categories ? 3- What are the reasons behind committing them? and how can they be avoided? Methods: (323) TSs written in (51) test papers are subjected to the statistical investigation and analysis. These TSs were used to test scientific materials taught in English in Baquba Technical Institute. Conclusions: Results show that ImTSs are used more frequently than the InTSs because the former easily constructed and achieve the same purpose, i.e., elicitation of information. In these TSs, (439) LEs are identified and divided into three categories: syntactic (which is divided into six classes), punctuation and spelling respectively. The reasons behind these LEs are attributed to the shortage in the instructors' competence of the linguistic principles and rules that govern the language construction. Consequently, these instructors use English language but they do not know it systematically. Finally, the present study sets up recommendations to avoid these LEs in the test papers and in other types of writings.

The tension and cinematic events unfolding in Ukraine, especially in its part of Crimea, is a move seemingly replicating the cold war. The political impasse is triangular in nature due to the involvement of Moscow, the west and Kiev in the crisis. The paper examines the nature of the current crisis in Ukraine and analyses the relationship between the hitherto Russo-American containment and rivalry under the era of cold war. With the aid of library instruments, the paper discovers that, secession of Crimea is a reality, where Russia will never allow her borders threatened by the existence of the west in Ukraine. The paper concludes that, Russia and the west are in a critical contest for the ownership and control of Ukraine, as the situation exacerbates, the annexation of Crimea by Russia is the best solution, that is, win-win situation. The paper also recommends that, maximum restraint should be exercised by the united states and NATO under the European union, as excess pressure may result to a third world war, among other things.

Land use mapping is important for evaluation, management and conservation of natural resources of an area and the knowledge on the existing land use is one of the prime pre-requisites for suggesting better use of land. In this study, three mapping approaches (unsupervised, supervised and GIS post processing) were used to identify, demarcate and map the land use/ Land cover categories in the Uppar Odai Sub-Watershed, Tamil Nadu, India. The following land cover classes were discriminated: Evergreen forest, Deciduous forest, Rabi only, Kharif only, Current fallow, Scrub / Degraded forest and Built-up. The results showed that the cultivated land still covering about 39 % of the Uppar odai sub watershed. While current fallow covers 35 % of the total sub watershed. The Uppar odai sub watershed land cover map confirmed the intensive agricultural activities. This paper also showed that Landsat-like sensors can provide feasible land cover maps of Uppar odai sub watershed, although ancillary data are required to help image interpretation.