Archives-October 2012

The present study carried out among 50 respondents from ten self help groups in Dakshina Kannada district with the help of purposive sampling method. The study focused on the socio-economic development achieved and the areas of empowerment among the SHG members. The potential of self help group is widening the social involvement of the respondents, is evident from the fact that 67 percent of the respondents had not participated in public meetings before joining self help groups but all the respondents are participating in various kinds of public meetings. The participation in self help groups did show significant impact on some of the key decision-making areas of family life such as family planning, children’s marriage and sending girl child to school. The results reveal that majority (88 percent) of the respondents could take decisions with regard to family planning, 66 percent had a say in their children’s marriage. With regard to sending girl child to school 78 percent of the respondents could express their view. Majority (82 percent) of the respondents revealed that in all other decisions of the family they were consulted. The overwhelming responses of the respondents, clearly speaks of the change within themselves and their influence among the community members. There are still grey areas of concern where the intervention of social work practitioners are felt, especially in terms of creating a better understanding of their role in the intricate family matters and decision making processes. Gandhi’s concept of Community Development through Woman Empowerment can be a reality with the strides in the right direction ahead.

Heavy metal accumulation in waste water could affect aquatic life, human health and overall ecosystem adversely. Therefore, in recent years much emphasis has been given for the use of industrial waste water as low cost adsorbents for the removal of metallic contaminants from waste water. In this paper, the studies on removal of Cu (II) by adsorption on Limonia Acidissima hull powder as adsorbent have been investigated in a batch type experiments. The agitation time, adsorbent dosage, initial copper concentration, and the effect of solution pH are studied. Adsorption mechanism is found to follow Freundlich isotherm. The adsorption behavior is described by second order kinetics. The maximum percentage removal of copper is found to be 72.76 % for 100 ppm at pH=9 and 30⁰ C.

The Soret and Dufour effects of on mixed convection flow of a viscous incompressible radiating and dissipative fluid over an exponentially stretching vertical surface in a quiescent fluid is analyzed. Stretching velocity, wall temperature and wall concentrations are assumed to have specific exponential function forms. The governing system of partial differential equations is transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations and then solved numerically using the Runge-Kutta fourth order technique along with shooting method. The effects of the various parameters on the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are illustrated in graphically.

This paper describes the method for solving vibration problem of ring shaped electro–magneto -elastic plate of polygonal (Triangle, Square, Pentagon and Hexagon) cross-sections using Fourier Expansion Collocation Method. A mathematical model is developed to study the wave propagation in a electro-magneto-elastic plate of polygonal cross-sections using the theory of elasticity. The frequency equations are obtained from the arbitrary cross sectional boundary conditions, since the boundary is irregular in shape; it is difficult to satisfy the boundary conditions along the inner and outer surface of the plate directly. Hence, the Fourier Expansion Collocation Method is applied along the boundary to satisfy the boundary conditions. The roots of the frequency equations are obtained by using the secant method, applicable for complex roots. The computed non-dimensional frequencies are plotted in the form of dispersion curves and its characteristics are discussed. The problem may be extended to any kinds of cross-sections by using the proper geometrical relations.

Landslide is among the major hydro-geological hazards that affect large part of India, especially Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats. The paper presents an integrated GIS and Remote sensing approach for Landslide Hazard Zonation in part of Sirumalai hill, Tamil Nadu. Satellite data, topographic maps, field data and other information maps are used to the study were prepared in GIS environment. Numerical rating scheme for the factors was developed for the spatial analysis in GIS environment to arrive at landslide Hazard Zonation map of the area. Landslide Hazard Index (LHI) value is calculated and landslide hazard zonation is decide by the LHI histogram. The resulting of the landslide Hazard Index Frequency Mapping is classified in five classes: very high, high, moderate, low, very low. Field data on landslide bodies are used to evaluate and validate the LHZ Map.

This study is to find out the best optimum ratio of the mixed waste materials of high-density polyethylene and wood’s flour by comparing the mechanical properties of recycled product (WPC). In this study, the fabrication process of wood plastic composite (WPC) contained of virgin material, post-consumer high-density polyethylene, and wood’s flour is through a twin-screw extruder and hot compression machine. The WPC product with four different ratio filler content based on weight percentage, i.e. 0 wt %, 20 wt %, 30 wt % and 40 wt % , were tested using universal tensile machine and impact tester according to ASTM D 3039, ASTM D 790, and ASTM D 6110 . The results of experiment showed that tensile and flexural properties of the composite increased with the adding of the wood’s flour material. The testing showed, however, totally opposite to the result of the impact test. In overall, the results of observations showed that recycled WPC have better mechanical properties compared to non-recycled WPC.

The problem of mobilisation and spending of money during elections is critical to Africa and Tanzania in particular. Most sources of money are not known and corruption has therefore remained a central feature of Tanzania’s elections. Realizing this problem, the government has for many years instituted various mechanisms to address this vice. In some cases such mechanisms have been regarded as promoting corruption than preventing it as was the case with the “Takrima” Law which was declared unconstitutional by the High Court in 2006. To fill this legal vacuum, the government enacted the Election Expenses Act in 2010 with the aim of managing money in politics. The law was used during the 2010 general elections. I argue that this law is ineffective in several aspects to manage money in politics. As such the 2010 elections were marred with more corruption incidences and election malpractices.

The crystal structure of the title organic-inorganic hybrid material [C₃H₆N₃S₂]H₂PO₄, has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic space group Pna2₁ with the lattice parameters a = 7.662 (1), b = 26.553 (3), c =  4.4258 (6) Å, V = 900.4 (2) Å3, and Z = 4. The framework is built upon layers parallel to (0 1 0) made up from H₂PO₄^- entities associated by O---H...O strong hydrogen bonds. The organic cations are located between the layers and connect them via N-H…O and C-H…O hydrogen bonding network. The exocyclic C-N bond length reveals the presence of the imine and enamine tautomers in the starting reagent. Results from solid state ¹H, ³¹P, ¹³C and ¹⁵N spectroscopy are in good agreement with the X-ray structure. Density functional theory calculations allowed for the assignment of the carbon and nitrogen peaks to the independent crystallographic sites.

The crystal structure of the title organic-inorganic hybrid material C7H7N2•NO3 has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic space group Pca21 with the lattice parameters a = 15.824 (1), b = 6.5461 (4), c = 16.215 (1) (6) Å, V = 1679.64 (18) Å3, and Z = 8. The framework is built upon layers parallel to (0 0 1) made up from the nitrate anions and the ammonium groups associated by N---H...O and N---H...N hydrogen bonds. The organic entities are interconnected via weak C-H…N hydrogen bonds involving the nitrogen atoms of the nitrile groups, leading to an infinite one-dimensional chains running along the a-axis. These chains are located alternatively on either side of the ionic layers. Results from solid state 1H, 13C and 15N spectroscopy are in good agreement with the X-ray structure. Density functional theory calculations allowed for the assignment of some carbon and nitrogen peaks to the independent crystallographic sites. The IR spectrum is dominated by the antisymmetric stretching mode of NO3-, which splits into two components indicating that the symmetry of the nitrate anion is lowered by interaction with the ammonium group.

The present study was conducted in southern Western Ghats of Tamilnadu, India. It is one of the global biodiversity hotspots that includes Nilgiri biosphere and Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary (proposed). We studied the Diversity, Dominance and Evenness of butterflies in three different habitats (forest area, river bank, and crop area) during the period January 2011 to December 2011. A total of 92 species, from 65 genera and 5 families were recorded. Species diversity and abundance were maximum in the months of March-May and dropped to the minimum in the months of December-January. Forest area habitat had greater species diversity, while river bank habitat had greater number of individuals; crop area had the least diversity and abundance among the studied habitats. We have also recorded the endemism and flight period of some butterflies and their distribution within the habitats with their nectar source plants. Analyses were done to emphasize the importance of butterflies and the need for their conservation.