Archives-December  

Plants respond with changes in their pattern of gene expression and protein products when exposed to low temperatures. Thus ability to adapt has an impact on the distribution and survival of the plant, and on crop yields. Many species of tropical or subtropical origin are injured or killed by nonfreezing low temperatures, and exhibit various symptoms of chilling injury such as chlorosis, necrosis, or growth retardation. In contrast, chilling-tolerant species are able to grow at such cold temperatures. Conventional breeding methods have met with limited success in improving the cold tolerance of important crop plants involving inter-specific or inter-generic hybridization. Recent full-genome transcript profiling studies, in combination with mutational and transgenic plant analyses, have provided a snapshot of the complex transcriptional network that operates under cold stress. The changes in expression of hundreds of genes in response to cold temperatures are followed by increases in the levels of hundreds of metabolites, some of which are known to have protective effects against the damaging effects of cold stress. Various low temperature-inducible genes have been isolated from plants. Most appear to be involved in tolerance to cold stress and the expression of some of them is regulated by C-repeat/dehydration-responsive element binding (CBF/DREB1) transcription factors. Genetic analysis has revealed important roles for cellular metabolic signals, and for RNA splicing, export and secondary structure unwinding, in regulating cold-responsive gene expression and chilling and freezing tolerance. Numerous physiological and molecular changes occur during cold acclimation which reveals that the cold resistance is more complex than perceived and involves more than one pathway. The findings summarized in this review have shown potential practical applications for breeding cold tolerance in crop and horticultural plants suitable to temperate geographical locations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of marketing mix strategies used by travel agencies in Mauritius during off peak seasons, in order to determine how to stimulate demand for international travel services and thus maximise the organisation’s revenue. This study explores the impact of off peak season on marketing mix strategies of travel agencies in Mauritius. The researcher adopted a quantitative research method. The target population comprised of 91 licensed travel agencies in Mauritius and the factor analysis carried out in the survey enabled the identification of latent factors that could affect the performance of travel agencies. The results of the findings led to the development of a marketing framework that travel agencies could consider in order to maximize their profitability during low seasons.

One of the most obvious and controversial matters seen in the modern literature is circularity of structure. Not being found only in the content of these works, i.e. the speech and thought of the characters, the incident and the actions of such works, circularity also penetrates to the form of such works. The case is that, circularity is not a futile element. It fortifies an aesthetic effect of the works on the reader to a great extent. Furthermore, it represents the circularity of human thought and life and consequently the circularity of his confusion and frustration what he cannot find a convincing answer for it and its occurrence. This article tries to discuss circularity in The Blind owl written by one of the most famous modern Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat.

In Wireless sensor networks the major concern is how to conserve the nodes' energy so that network lifetime can be extended significantly. Employing one static sink can rapidly exhaust the energy of sink neighbors. Furthermore, using a non-optimal single path together with a maximum transmission power level may quickly deplete the energy of individual nodes on the route. This all results in unbalanced energy consumption through the sensor field, and hence a negative effect on the network lifetime. In this paper, we present a comprehensive taxonomy of the various mechanisms applied for increasing the network lifetime. These techniques, whether in the routing or cross-layer area, fall within the following types: multi-sink, mobile sink, multi-path, power control and bio-inspired algorithms, depending on the protocol operation. In this taxonomy, special attention has been devoted to the multi-sink, power control and bio-inspired algorithms, which have not yet received much consideration in the literature. Moreover, each class covers a variety of the state-of-the-art protocols, which should provide ideas for potential future works. Finally, we compare these mechanisms and discuss open research issues.

The behavior of electron and the nucleons are simulated through soft computing using MatLab language meant for Science and Engineering. Since the electrons and nucleons movement confined around nucleus and within the nucleus, to visualize the behavior the coordinates were taken with incremental value of 0.001 and less to visualize the behaviour. The graphical output shows the path and tendency of electron movement around the nucleus of Hydrogen atom. These curves show that the energy of electron is not constant but increases with the principal quantum number(n) and azimuthal quantum number(l).Some quantum mechanical problems have been solved and reported.

Marketing and advertising experts seek for novel methods and intelligent means to attract consumers and customers. Subliminal messages can play crucial role in attracting consumers in the branding world. The important task in advertising is to find novel techniques for convincing the consumers to use the products and services. The first impression of the word “advertising” is the publicities on posters and via public media which are in fact audio and visual media. However, advertising industry affects the behaviors of consumers unconsciously with the aid of the tools they use via promoting the emotions followed by changes in their purchase decisions. Utilization of subliminal stimuli is among the new methods deployed by marketing specialists for sales of products aimed at persuading the customer and changing their minds in purchase process. The present study proposes role of subliminal perception in effectiveness of non-personal advertisements. The model is researcher-made and derived from literature review. Having reviewed historical background of the respective research and codifying the objective relationships between variables within a theoretical framework, subliminal perception was tested using three indexes namely, personal factors, stimulus-related factors, and attention to stimulus. Personal factors were analyzed using three components (perceptual consciousness, acceptance, and experience) and stimulus-related factors were taken into account using four components (color, freshness, size, and situation). The data were collected via codification of a structured questionnaire with 5-choice Likert scale consisting of 4 general and 33 specialized questions. The questionnaire was distributed among the sample members after checking its reliability and validity levels. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to verify normality of data distribution. The results corroborated normality of data distribution. Statistical parametric test was also applied to analyze and test the research hypotheses. The data were analyzed using LISREL software. Based on the results of structural equations method and confirmatory factor analysis, personal factors influenced effectiveness of non-personal advertisements with a value of 0.52%. The respective values for stimulus-related factors and attention to stimulus were respectively equal to 0.45% and 0.67%. Furthermore, the independent variable of subliminal perception influenced effectiveness of non-personal advertising with a value of 0.33%.

In today’s competitive business scenario manufacturing industries are under the pressure to reduce cost and cycle time. It is a lean manufacturing concept with a systematic approach to identify and eliminate waste through continuous and sustained improvements by manufacturing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection. This paper is to Design and Integrate Assembly Lines ‘A’ and ‘B’ based on ‘Lean Concept’ using MTM/UAS analysis for determine the time and to identify the improvement. The study was carried out in 2 assembly lines in a reputed manufacturing industry. The paper concentrates only on assembly line and where assembly line ‘B’ is to be accommodated into assembly line ‘A’. The main focus of the paper is to study the existing system and designing the new solution based on Lean Line Design concept which would follow the standards of the manufacturing industry.

The IQACs in the educational institutions of higher learning on the recommendation of NAAC can definitely contribute to the aspects such as increasing involvement of human resources, reduction of work pressure on management, human resource work in a smarter way than harder way, conversion of average into high achievers, enhancement in human resource efficiency, existence of better academic environment, collective administrative decision making, transparency in the financial transactions, better work culture, new dimension to education sector and raising the level of job satisfaction in various degrees. The sample has been taken from 44 institutions of higher education in Haryana. The coordinators of IQACs in each college were contacted to respond to the queries. These 44 institutions include 19 urban aided institutions (13 co-ed. And 6 women colleges), 8 urban government institutions (5 co-ed. and 3 women colleges), 11 rural aided institutions (3 co-ed. and 8 women colleges) and 6 rural government institutions (3 co-ed. and 3 women colleges).

Resources hub NCBI and EBI with databases like KEGG, METACYC etc. were used for computational comparative analysis of metabolic pathways in E.coli and A. thaliana to determine common enzymes and motifs according to same EC number. The extent of conservation in the metabolic pathways like glycolysis, citrate pathway, pyruvate pathway, nucleotide sugar pathway, riboflavin pathway, carboxylate pathway, galactose pathway, methane pathway, urea pathway and pentose phosphate pathway present in both E.coli and A. thaliana was analyzed. Among the ten metabolic pathways shared by both organisms, seven enzymes were identified in pentose phosphate pathway of both organisms according to their EC number. Nine motifs were present in methane pathway and nucleotide sugar pathway of E. coli. In A. thaliana maximum eight motifs in methane pathway and one in each pentose phosphate pathway, riboflavin pathway and urea pathway was identified. Comparison of E. coli and A. thaliana metabolic pathways shows that central set of pathway is largely conserved in terms of pathways, domain architect and motifs present. There was difference in the position of the motifs present in the enzymes that perform the same function so the variation in the stretch of amino acid conferring a specific structure needs to be distinguished.

Conflicting and stressful situation at work place, disturbs the mental peace, weakens a person psychologically and create complexities in social and familial relationship. A better understanding of conflict and conflicting situations improve individual’s proficiency of managing conflict. The present study analyzed the relationship of Conflict Management Proficiency (CMP) and Stress of managers. Standardized scales for conflict management and stress assessment were used for estimating the CMP and stress of the subjects from private and public sectors, for establishing relationship between the correlation coefficient was computed. Results revealed that on an average the managers had ‘above average’ CMP and ‘low stress’. There was found a significant negative correlation between CMP and stress in subjects of all the categories. Therefore it was concluded that the CMP and stress were negatively correlated, the increase or decrease of either of the factor may be impact on quality, quantity and productivity of work.