Archives-July 2016

The World cannot exist without Water. It is an important component to human survival. Water should be purified for a better life style. It is the basic duty of every individual to conserve water resources. Nagavati watershed is located in a part of Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu in South India. It lies between latitudes 11°45’N to 12°15’ N and 77°30’ E to 78°30 E longitudes. It covers within the Survey of India toposheet nos. 57H/16, 57L/4, 58E/13, and 58I/1 covering an area of about 500 sq.km. Fourty six representative groundwater samples were collected from pre-monsoon season during 2015 and those water samples were analysed by standard analytic methods and physical and chemical parameters such as pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, Hardness, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2, Cl , HCO3, CO3 , SO4, NO3 and F. Correlation study indicates that different parameters are strongly interrelated. The correlation and regression provide an excellent tool for the prediction of parameter values within a reasonable degree of accuracy.

This paper focuses the research deliberations of the Vikram Seth’s novels, A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music and The Golden Gate operating within the frame work of an imaginary, traditional society. Vikram Seth’s protagonists who are mostly men and women from urban middle class reflect that they are conscious of their predicament as individuals in the society. In view of all this, Vikram Seth the writer, if certainly not 'one thing', still more 'some things' than others? A tentative answer is that Seth's perspective is increasingly that of a globalized Indian, viewing the modern world through a prism that may be multicolored but is, ultimately, made in Asia. His first book, the tale of an Indian in China, today seems uncannily predictive of current geopolitical and economic trends, with the twin ascent of India and China now a key theme of the emerging century. By now, he clearly feels entitled to interpret the West, to both Western and Eastern readers, with a confidence and authority that betoken an Asia and an India that no longer consider themselves subordinate.

Concerning the increasing incidence of temporomandibular joint disorders and their impact on health status, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge of general dentists and dental specialists on temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in Shiraz.A questionnaire including 20 questions about knowledge of anatomy, signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatment was given to 50 randomly selected general dental practitioners and specialists, in Shiraz, Iran. The answers were analyzed with SPSS14. Out of 50 participants consisting of 26 men and 24 women (mean age of 38.9±10.8 and mean years of practice 12.5±10.4), 41 were general dental practitioners and 9 were specialists. Mean score of diagnosis and treatment knowledge of all participants was 27.4 ±4.9 out of 40 achievable scores. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of specialists and that of general dental practitioners (P < 0.05). Age, gender, years of practice and university of education did not make any significant difference to the scores.The results of this study indicated an acceptable knowledge of participants regarding TMD.

Nowadays, biodiesel is considered the most promising alternative fuel by the researchers due to its comparable properties with diesel fuel and also other socio-economic and environmental benefits .The investigation was conducted on a single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio diesel engine fuelled with pure diesel, B10% (5% Methanol+ 5% Rice bran oil + 90% Diesel), 20% (5% Methanol+15% Rice bran oil +80% Diesel) and 30% (5% Methanol+25% Rice bran oil+ 70% Diesel) at different loads, at different compression ratios and at different injection pressures. The water heat loss, exhaust heat loss and unaccounted heat loss decreased with the increase of biodiesel percentage in the blends. The heat balance was in respect of useful work (HBP), heat lost through cylinder jacket water (HJW), heat lost through exhaust gasses (HGas), heat carried away by the lubricating oil and other losses (Hrad). This research work provides an in-depth analysis of the engine heat losses in different subsystems of the engine. Finally, heat energy balancing of the engine has been done by showing all energy flows in and out of the engine.

This study was designed to assess the ameliorative properties of methanol extract of Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated with extract of Allium cepa on oxidative stress markers of CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity in wistar albino rats. Seventy wistar albino rats were used for the study and were grouped into 7 of ten rats in each. Groups 2-7 received a dose of 0.3ml/kg body weight (b.w) of CCl4 in 1:1 olive oil via intraperitoneally twice a week. Those in group 1 received only normal rat chow without CCl4. Groups 3, 4, 5 and 7 orally received a dose of 100mg/kg b.w, 200mg/kg b.w, 300mg/kg b.w and 200mg/kg b.w of the methanol extract respectively. Group 6 and 7 orally received a dose of 5.2mg/kg b.w of livolin and group 7 alone orally received a dose of 50mg/kg b.w of vitamin C. These treatments were administered for 30 days and the following biochemical markers; Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS), Catalase (CAT) and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) were estimated on day 10, 20 and 30 after treatment. Result showed that the values of TBARS significantly increased at p<0.05 on day 10, 20 and 30 in group 2 compared to group 1 while the values of CAT and SOD significantly decreased at p<0.05 on day 10, 20 and 30 in group 2 compared to group 1. The values of TBARS significantly decreased at p<0.05 on day 10, 20 and 30 in groups 3,4,5, 6 and 7 compared to group 2 while the values of CAT and SOD significantly increased at p<0.05 on day 10, 20 and 30 in groups 3,4,5,6 and 7 compared to group 2. These findings suggest that methanol fruiting body extract of Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated with extract of Allium cepa scavenged the free radicals responsible for oxidative stress initiated by CCl4 and subsequently ameliorated and substantially reversed the toxic effect of the tissue specific toxicant.

Crimped steel fibres with varying aspect ratio in the range of 30-60 were added in M-20 Concrete specimens. The fibre percentage chosen for study was 1% by volume. The concrete specimens were tested for 7 day, 14 day and 28 day compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength and the results obtained were compared with those of normal concrete mix without fibres. The results concluded that the addition of 1% fibres with an aspect ratio of 50 leads to maximum improvement in early as well as long term compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete.

Total Dominating Color Transversal Set of a graph is a Total Dominating Set which is also Transversal of Some ? - Partition of vertices of G. Here ? is the Chromatic number of the graph G. A Total Dominating Color Transversal Set of a graph G is called Minimal Total Dominating Color Transversal Set of the graph if no proper subset of it is a Total Dominating Color Transversal Set of G. In this paper, we determine a necessary and sufficient condition under which a Total Dominating Color Transversal Set becomes Minimal. We also obtain Minimal Total Dominating Color Transversal set of Generalised Petersen graph P (n, 1).

In this work, the experimental and theoretical spectra of 2-(trifluoroacetyle)acetophenone (2TFAAP) are studied and FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of title molecule have been recorded in the region 4000–400cm?1 and 3500–¬100cm?1, respectively. The structural and spectroscopic data of the molecule in the ground state have been calculated by using Hartree-Fock and density functional theory method with the B3LYP/6-31G basis sets. The vibrational frequencies are calculated and scaled values are compared with the experimental FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra. The DFT (B3LYP/6-31G) calculations are more reliable than the ab initio HF/6-31G calculations for the vibrational study of (2TFAAP). The optimized geometric parameters (bond lengths and bond angles) are compared with experimental values of the molecule. Stability of the molecule was analyzed using NBO analysis. Thermal properties of the molecule have been calculated for various range of temperature and HOMO-LUHO energies also calculated, it shows that the charge transfer occurs within the molecule.

This study examined the dependence of women on the harvesting, processing and marketing of Shea seeds a non-wood forest product (NWFPs) with a view of establishing its contribution to their economic empowerment in Saki, Oyo state. Data were obtained from a random sample of three categories of target groups; harvesters, processors and marketers of Shea butter in the study area by means of questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency table and percentages for clarity purpose. Results from the analysis revealed that women were actively involved in the Shea business across all levels with 73.3% gatherers, 100% processors and 70.70% marketers/middlemen, this is probably because women are involved in the provision of food security and family welfare in most communities worldwide. Twenty-nine (96.67%) of the processors and all the gatherers had Vitellaria paradoxa stands on their farmland which served as a major source of V. paradoxa fruits from which the Shea is processed while others without tree stands collected the fruits from nearby forest lands. The result also showed the rate of collection of shea nut by harvesters. 10%, 10%, 20%, 23.33%, 6.67% and 16.67% gathered between 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 tons of shea nuts respectively while 13.33% gathered less than 1 ton per annum. The average per capital income generated by the different categories of respondents in the business showed that harvesters (6.67%) earned between 10,000 and 50,000, 23.33% earned above >50,000, 26.67% earned above >90,000 and 43.33% earned above >130,000 as annual income for their families.

This research work examined the consumption pattern of Irvingia gabonensis in Ukwuani area of Delta State, Nigeria. The target respondents were the households in the study area. Data for the study was collected by administering structured questionnaires to and interview of one hundred (100) respondents. Data analysis was done using simple descriptive statistics, T-test and Chi-Square. The students T-test was used to compare the different uses of Irvingia gabonensis in the study area by the consumers/households. The result showed that 100% of the respondents are aware of the species; most of the respondents (89.4%) consume it while 10.6% did not utilze it. It was also discovered that, majority of the respondents (62.4%) use it for soup only while 37.6% consumed it as food and fruits. Most of the respondents (67.1%) sourced them from the markets, 4.9% from the collectors and 2.8% from forested areas. The result also confirmed that it is widely accepted (87.1%) in the study area. The study also revealed that the utilization rate of Irvingia gabonensis in the study area is increasing (76.5%) while 23.5% asserted that it is decreasing. Majority of the respondents (79.2%) confirmed that they use it because of its nutritional importance while 20.8% consume it because of its medicinal uses. The socio-demographic results showed that all of the respondents (100%) that used it are less than 30 years, 100% of students and civil servants utilize it more than other categories while the result of the Chi-square reveals that utilization depends on primary occupation and also educational background of the respondents. This paper therefore recommended among other things that domestication and interventions of this species should be encouraged for proper management and sustainability.