Archives-December 

Nutrient status, availability, reachability are the basis of soil fertility studies in agricultural soils. The East Anglia experience evaluated soil nutrient dynamics from the following parameters: whole ecosystem and soil respiration, microbial carbon , soil total carbon, soil total nitrogen, soil C:N ratio, soil temperature and soil water filled pore spaces. The following land management practices were evaluated: grassland under permanent pasture on 5 y ley before stocking; grassland under permanent pasture sown with red clover a y before stocking; grassland under permanent pasture treated with N fertilizer a y before stocking; arable land under barley; with deciduous woodland as control. Each site was replicated four times and revisited at each time of sampling. Whole ecosystem respiration was measured once a day per month with portable environmental gas monitor. At the same time soil samples were collected for actual measurement of soil respiratory activity in the laboratory; together with soil water filled pore spaces. Significant differences were observed in whole ecosystem and soil respiration amongst land management practices with grassland under permanent pasture treated with N fertilizer a year before stocking giving the highest whole ecosystem and soil respiration, 67.8 and 33.9 mmol m-2 h-1 respectively. Respiratory activity was highest over the summer months and lowest over the winter months. Whole ecosystem and soil respiration were dependent on soil microbial C (R2 = 0.6 and 0.73 respectively). It pays to get it right when land management and nutrient dynamics are at stake.

The fungus X. badia was cultured on 3% aqueous malt enriched with 6% glucose in ten Thompson bottles for eight weeks. Solvent extraction with ethyl acetate and subsequent drying on a rotary evaporator, afforded a dark brown gummy solid (5.0 g). TLC studies indicated that the crude extract was a mixture of four components. The dark brown gum was chromatographed over silica gel in a column of size 80 cm x 2.5 cm. The column was eluted with toluene, ethyl acetate and acetic acid (50:49:1) and the eluent collected in volumes of 3.0 ml. Fraction 3 gave a yellowish oil (150 mg). The oil was triturated with n-hexane to give a white powdery solid (12 mg). The solid was recrystallized from the same solvent system, yielding white crystals (8 mg). Spectroscopic analysis of this compound indicated that it is R- mellein. This is the first report of this secondary metabolite from Xylaria badia.

In recent years, the particular importance of Dynamic Assessment in L2 (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994; Poehner & Lantolf, 2005; Poehner, 2008; Albeeva, 2008; Anton, 2009) has been acknowledged. However, there is a severe lack of research on the two important strands of DA in the L2 domain including Computerized Dynamic Assessment (henceforth, C-DA) and Group-based DA (Poehner, 2008). C-DA mostly follows an interventionist model with mediation offered from a menu of predetermined clues, hints, and leading questions selected in a lock-step fashion (moving from most implicit to most explicit) by the computer (Poehner, 2008. The present study, as an initial attempt in the domain of C-DA, reviews the development of the C-DA software programs designed to promote learners’ development. The study reports the data collection procedures and data analysis of the computer-based dynamic assessment of learners in first and second language contexts. The software program should generate important scores including non-mediated score, mediated score, and an LPS. Just two instances of the designed software generated all of these scores by means of computer. Moreover, the quality of hints offered is of significant value. C-DA can lead to hint-based education as opposed to spoon-feeding education.

Musculoskeletal pain (MSK) is a common issue during pregnancy. Some hormonal and anatomical changes that can affect the MSK system, creating complains about MSK pain.The objectives of the study to determine the prevalence and to assess the MSK pain and its associated factors among pregnant women. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 96 pregnant women attended in a selected tertiary public hospital situated in Dhaka city. Purposive sampling technique was used and data were collected from face to face interview with a structured administered questionnaire with consideration of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Severity of MSK pain was assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and data were analyzed by SPSS (Version 20). Results indicated as 59% prevalence of MSK pain was found among pregnant women with low back pain (LBP) being the common prevalent site as compared to others. The maximum age range of participants was 21 to 30 years old and housewives were more than half of the participants. Maximum completed below level of SSC. In addition, most of the participants had a history of normal delivery. However, there was a highly significant relation (p= 0.001) found between MSK pain with the month of pregnancy period. MSK pain was moderately high among pregnant women where certain factors are responsible for influencing MSK pain. To reduce the severity and prevalence of MSK pain, women should be aware of their number of pregnancy and some related factors.

The QRS complex is the most striking waveform within the electrocardiogram (ECG). QRS provides the fundamentals for almost all automated ECG analysis algorithms. We proposed a novel method for classification of ECG beats using shared counters. We first developed a real-time QRS detection technique using two-phase hashing to extract precise QRS points. Then we implement a novel ECG beat classifier to profile each patient’s normal cardiac behavior. Our technique relies more on the data stream corresponding to ECG beats than any particular feature. We use the concept of shared counters to minimize the memory requirement. The algorithm automatically adjusts parameters periodically to adapt to ECG changes as QRS morphology and heart rate. Having such profile is essential for various diagnosis (e.g., arrhythmia) purposes. One application of such profiling scheme is to automatically raise an early warning flag for the abnormal cardiac behavior of any individual.

ZnO is introduced as an alternative to TiO2 in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) due to its band gap similar to TiO2, higher electron mobility, and flexible procedures of preparations. Several samples of ZnO films are prepared with the hydrothermal synthesis method and the sol-gel technique, respectively. These ZnO films were assembled as photo anodes in DSSCs using N3 dye as the sensitizer. The performance of dye sensitized solar cells is mainly based on the dye as a sensitizer. Natural dyes have become a viable alternative to expensive and rare organic sensitizers because of its low cost, easy attainability, abundance in supply of raw materials and no environment threat. The nature of these pigments together with other parameters has resulted in varying performance. This review briefly discusses the emergence, operation and components of dye explained solar cells together with the work done on natural dye based dye sensitized solar cells over the years.

Over the last few decades use of fiber to reinforce plain cement concrete (PCC) to improve its ductility, tensile strength and crack and shrinkage resistance has gained a lot of popularity. Bamboo (Bambusa) is a fast-growing grass and abundantly available in India. It possesses sufficient strength, flexibility, toughness and is also very light in weight. Bamboo can be processed to obtain bamboo fibers of required dimensions which could be used as a substitute of steel fibers in order to improve ductility, tensile strength which in turn improves crack and shrinkage resistance of plain cement concrete. Bamboo fibers are also environment friendly and much cheaper than almost all other types of fibers used in concrete construction. Many studies have been carried out on bamboo reinforced concrete (BRC) which mostly deals with bamboo strips as reinforcement in concrete similar to that of steel bars in concrete. However there are very few literatures available on using bamboo in the form of fibers to reinforce concrete. This paper reviews various studies carried out on bamboo as reinforcing material in concrete especially in the form of fibers. Based on previous studies two types of predominantly used bamboo fibers, i.e., i) long slender type and ii) flat chip type, have been identified. The authors intend to conduct experimental investigation using these two types of fibers and comparative analysis also to be made between the test results of concrete specimens reinforced with these two types of fibers to identify its technical viability. Further investigations will be conducted using the type of fiber resulting better concrete properties with various volume content and aspect ratio. In addition, experimental study will also be taken up on concrete specimen partially replacing cement by pozzolanic material and using the same type of fiber.

In India at present the usage of Social Networking Sites (SNS) amongst college going students has vastly increased and the usage of SNS has extensive influence on these students in numerous ways, particularly on their interpersonal relationships. The present study is placed in this context to examine the influence of SNS on interpersonal relationships of college students and also to construct a profile which can capture the college students’ usage pattern of SNS. Five hundred college students were selected from both Bangalore and Mysore cities for generating primary data; questionnaire and interview schedule methods were used for the said purpose. In the present study the concept of social network and social networking sites are explained in detail through sociological perspective. A greater section of this article is dedicated for discussing the growth of SNS in India, particularly among the college students. It was found that the usage of SNS has effect on interpersonal relationships of college students, particularly with their members of family, friends and teachers. It was also found that due to the availability of SNS the communication between college students and their members of family, between college students and their friends has increased. In this study college going students’ usage pattern of SNS, their purpose of usage of SNS, the amount of the time they spend, their preferred SNS, degree of their trustworthiness of online friends and much more interesting aspects have been dealt keeping the scientific research as base. It provides an outlook for investigating the technological implications on society in the domain of sociology.

Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., and Neochloris sp. were isolated from fresh water ponds in and around Gandhigram, Dindigul District, Tamilnadu, India and used for lipid extraction. Different methods, including autoclaving, bead-beating, microwaves, sonication and a 10% NaCl solution treatments were tested to identify the most effective cell disruption method. The total lipids from three microalgal species were extracted using a mixture of chloroform and methanol. Fatty acid composition was detected by GC. Finally the sonication method was found to be the most applicable and efficient method of lipid extraction from microalgae. Neochloris sp. showed higher oleic acid productivity of 18.09 mg g-1 dw but Chlorella sp. was linoleic acid productivity of 17.61 mg g-1 dw when the cells were disrupted using the sonication method.

The concept of paper begin with a review of the salient theory and available body of literature of SCM in terms of responsibility, manufacturing practices, competitive advantages, SCM practices and overall performance of company. As the study composed of surveys of 92 manufacturing companies nearby Bhopal and in-depth interviews is discussed and their findings shared. Various statistical tools are used for the analysis of collected data. Their reliability and content are checked using reliability analysis. The discussion of findings and their implications, and concluded with some suggestions for future research.