Archives-July 2016

Economic empowerment of women precedes all other empowerment and in order to understand how SHG have enabled women economic empowerment, the present study was taken up in four villages of Dharwad taluk, Dharwad district of Karnataka state. One hundred and fifty nine SHGs were selected for the study. The study revealed that 184 women have taken up individual income generation activities and most of them in the young and middle age categories, had some formal education and were either home makers or involved occasionally in farming. Group income generation activities were taken up by 29 groups. The entrepreneurial activities varied from business/ trading, food and agriculture related to others like candle, agarbatti, flour mill, chilli pounding unit etc. Among individual activities chilli pounding unit earned the highest income of Rs. 40,000/ year followed by vermicelli making with an average Rs. 20,294/ year. Among group activities vermicelli earned highest income of Rs 40,000-50,000 followed by poultry with Rs. 30,000-40,000.

The purpose of this study was to detect the concentrations of various heavy metals in meat, liver, milk and fodder of buffaloes by using atomic absorption spectroscopy. For this purpose samples were collected from areas of Kasur and Ring road each having three different sites where fields are irrigated with the industrial effluents. During present investigations the level of most heavy metals in meat of buffaloes ranges from Zn 13.9 to 22.5, Co 0.625 to 33.125, Cu 0.15 to 12.8, Cd 0.14 to 20.4, Ni 2.45 to 27.54, Cr 0.242 to 0.406.However the concentration of these metals in liver of buffaloes ranges from Zn 10.81 to 77.43, Co 3.958 to 20.625, Cu 1.52 to 12.88, Cd 11.85 to 26.1, and Ni 1.29 to 23.38, Cr 0.3122 to 0.4061. In milk of buffaloes it ranges from Zn 3.197 to 18.15, Co 3.958 to 166.458, Cu 0.22 to 6.06, Cd 20.4 to 209, Ni 2.54 to 65.04, Cr 0.2653 to 3.844. Similar levels were seen in fodder of buffaloes Zn 13.15 to 25.05, Co 0.208 to 53.125, Cu 0.38 to 10.61, Cd 0.05 to 9, Ni 0.45 to 47.54, and Cr 0.383 to 0.4765. Generally most values of heavy metals have been found higher in milk of buffaloes from areas of Kasur. Detoxication of industrial effluents being used for irrigation purpose is highly recommended.

Traditionally, classicism and romanticism are conceived as peculiar and mutually exclusive literary movements with distinct literary styles and stylistic characteristics. This paper aims to trace some prominent writing traits of the Romantic era like spontaneity, preoccupation with imagination and subjectivity and focus on highlighting emotions and feelings in poetry as evident in the works of poets writing before the Romantic era. A close examination and in-depth reading of selected works showed that romantic traits are not confined to the Romantic era only but also appear to be recurring in the writings of Chaucer, Spenser and other poets who were writing much before Wordsworth proposed the characteristics of romantic poetry in The Prelude. This study, therefore, traces romantic traits in the works that do not fall into romantic era chronologically.

We assessed the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic as well as the antioxidant potential effects of the Opuntia streptacantha cladodes juice (OSCJ) in alloxan-induced diabetic rats (140 mg/kg of body weight (bw)). The results evidenced that alloxan-induced diabete, caused weight loss, polyphagia, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and the disturbance of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. The daily oral administration of OSCJ (30 g/kg of b.w during 4 weeks) to diabetic rats clearly improved the antioxidant status in liver and kidney. Such fact is materialized by a decrease in the lipid peroxidation product, thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances (TBARS) level and an increase in glutathione peroxidase (GPX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities. Histopathological investigation of the pancreatic tissue of alloxan-diabetic rats indicated the presence of necrosis in the islets of Langerhans cells. The curative effect of OSCJ was well evidenced by normal islets of Langerhans cells, which explain its antidiabetic effect.

The application of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical modeling and Hilbert transformation for the image enhancement and detection of buried engineering utilities using surface ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technique is demonstrated in a typical sedimentary terrain of Lagos Nigeria. Accurate delineation and precise location of such subsurface features is of effective use for engineering and environmental studies. A traverse magnetic (TM-) mode formulation was adopted for the models; and perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundaries were implemented for wave absorption at the modeling grid edges. Four synthetic models were developed; three single-layer models of a single pipe buried at depth (z) of 2m, two pipes 10m apart and concrete bars buried at z=1.5m, and one double-layered model of multiple pipes buried at z=1.5m. The electrical properties of the models are; single-layered earth-system (vadose zone): ?_r=9, ?=1mS/m ; pipes: ?_r=12, ?=1mS/m, bars: ?_r=16, ?=1mS/m. The two-layered subsurface, had a thin-layer of air-earth interface of ?_r=1 and ?=0, upper layer of vadose zone sediment and lower-layer (saturated zone) of ?_r=25 and ?=5mS/m. The µ was set equal to its free space value, µ_0 for all the materials. The 2D GPR data acquired in some parts of Southwestern Nigeria and processed using basic functions such as dewow, filtering and application of gains. The resulting GPR radargrams were subjected to advanced attribute analysis using Hilbert transformation (HF) in order to establish the suitability of HF for GPR signal image enhancement that would aid the interpretation of the location of the buried utilities. The model investigations revealed that the electrical and the magnetic properties of the medium hosting the buried utilities, and the depth of burial plays a major role in controlling the image resolution obtained in a sedimentary terrain. The results from the field data are in general agreement with the numerical FDTD modeling experiments.

This study was aimed to evaluate the synergistic antibacterial activity of the mangrove species Avicina marina and Rhyzophora apiculata leaf extracts tested with the non mangrove South Indian medicinal plants, Terminalia chebula, Punica granatum, and Vitis vinifera seed extracts against the multi drug resistant (MDR) bacterial isolates of clinical origine. The antibacerial synergistic activity of the chosen plant extracts were studied by agar well diffustion method. Compared to the single plant extracts, the antibacterial activity expressed by the combination of the Mangrove leaf extracts with the non mangrove medicinal plants seed extracts found to be greater due to the synergism . We recomond the T.chebula seed extract , which can be given / taken along with the mangrove plant leaf material to treat the ailments / drug resistant bacterial infections. We also suggest that the traditional medicine system can adapt the practice of giving the combination of the discrete plant materials / extracts to treat the bacterial infections especially to treat the drug resistant infections to achieve the success in their system of medical practice.

An on farm trial (OFT) was conducted during the year 2013 and 2014 to identify a suitable variety in upland situation through direct seeding in bio-physical and socio-economic condition of Chatra district. Experiment was conducted in Mardanpur village of Chatra block of Chatra district of Jharkhand where NICRA Project is under operation. The trial was designed in randomized block design consisting of 20 replications with five technological options i.e. TO1 : Farmers variety (Motkagora) with farmer practice N30P20K0, TO2 : Vandana with improved practice N40P20K20, TO3 : Anjali with improved practice N40P20K20, TO4 : Virendra with improved practice N40P20K20 and TO5 : CR-40 with improved practice N40P20K20. Farmer’s preference was also measured through a 5 points rating scale. Results indicated that TO3 i.e. improved variety Anjali with N40P20K20 under direct seeded condition in rain-fed Tar-III was found most suitable followed by TO4- Virendra with improved practice N40P20K20 and TO2 Vandana with improved practice N40P20K20 .

After several promotional activities carried out by different stakeholders the improved rice production technologies have not reached the farmers field. A study was conducted to identify the constraints faced by farmers in adoption of the improved rice production technologies. The study was conducted in five purposively selected blocks of Chatra district. In five randomly selected, one each from the selected blocks, villages 40 rice growers were selected randomly as respondents for each village covering 200 respondents in the study. Constraints identified by the respondents were grouped into six categories i.e. ecological, technological extension – related, infrastructural, economic & socio- cultural constraints. Results indicated that undulated topography and gravelly soil (94.5%) high fertilizer requirement in HYVS (89%) fragmented and scattered holdings (94.5%) inadequate advice and guidance by the charge agents (41%), low price of produce (98%) and open grazing of cattle (92%) perceived to be important constraints which diminished the adoption of improved rice production technologies.

The present study was carried out at farmers fields in Simdega district of Jharkhand during Kharif 2013 and 2014 to evaluate the effects of different methods of transplanting/seeding on yield and economics of medium land rainfed rice. The experiment was conducted with four methods of transplanting/seeding {T1: Farmers practice (Transplanting of 25-30 day old seedlings, more than 5 seedlings/hill at uneven distance and two manual weedings.), T2 : Cultivation under modified SRI (10-12 days old seedling, 25x25 cm2 spacing, single seedling/hill, two weeding by cono weeder and regular ponding of rain water in field.), T3 : Sowing of sprouted seeds by drum seeder and weeding two by cono weeder., T4 :Conventional practice (Transplanting of 20-25 days old seeding, 2-3 seedling/hill at 20x20 cm2 and two mannual weedings.) in 10 replications at farmers filed under RBD. All growth, yield attributing characters, yield and net return was found significantly highest in modified SRI (T2) followed by conventional method. Conventional method and sowing by cono weeder were found at par. The lowest performance was found under farmers practice.

We report the case of Mr. FL aged 60 , former smoking with 15 packs / year weaned ago 30 years, no particular medical history who underwent total cystoprostatectomy bladder tumor infiltrating the muscle 14 years ago enterocystoplasty with it .