Cradle of Creativity: Strategies for in-situ Conservation of Agro Biodiversity

Given the inter-relationship of different agro ecological sub-systems in any country, success of the strategy of diffusion of varieties invariably adversely affects the conservation of agro biodiversity. At the same time, given the climate change and other fluctuations in the environment, in-situ conservation of agro biodiversity is most essential for future survival of the society. This study is a part of a long term investigation being pursued by the first author about the micro level changes at plot level in the farmers’ fields and their implications for micro policy at national and international level. Same villages were studied in 1988-89 and 2000-02 to look at the degree of erosion of agro biodiversity. In addition, a survey on preferred incentives for in-situ conservation was also conducted among the local communities. The implications of the study for monetary and non-monetary incentives for conservation have been drawn. Different models of incentives for possible action research have been described. There are not too many studies that provide micro level evidence over a decade on the subject. The findings were presented to the national policy makers though actual response in practice so far has been limited.

Paclitaxel delivery by micro/nano encapsulation using layer-by-layer assembly

A novel formulation of paclitaxel (PTX) has been developed by providing multilayer assembly over drug loaded porous CaCO3 microparticles (CaCO3 MP) using combination of biocompatible and biodegradable polyelectrolytes (PE’s). PTX was encapsulated into the nanopores of preformed CaCO3 MP prepared by the co-precipitation method. Infrared (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) provides evidences that PTX has been encapsulated into nanopores of CaCO3 MP and not crystallized on the surface. PTX loaded CaCO3 MP (CaCO3-PTX) was found to be highly stabilized against thermal decomposition as evinced by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) indicating decomposition at 600°C and 250°C for CaCO3-PTX and PTX respectively. The multilayer assembly over CaCO3-PTX was effectuated by alternate deposition of protamine sulfate (PRM) and sodium alginate (SA) using LBL technique followed by subsequent core removal [PTX- (PRM/SA)5]. The pay load efficiency of PTX in this system was found to be 78.98±2.14%. The developed system was further evaluated for surface morphology, size and size distribution, surface charge, core removal and layer-by-layer growth due to sequential adsorption of PE’s. The release data of PTX-(PRM/SA)5 was comparable with marketed formulation of PTX (PTX-M) and CaCO3-PTX when performed in simulated intestinal fluid (SIF pH=7.4). The release profile of PTX-(PRM/SA)5 indicates that PEs based multilayer matrix is capable to provide barrier to PTX release as it has been found to follow first order matrix diffusion kinetics with 64±4.8% release within 24 hrs. The t50% of PTX-M, CaCO3-PTX and PTX-(PRM/SA)5 was found to be 70, 90 and 480 minutes respectively. This alternative delivery system of PTX disguised in the form of LBL assembly could have immense application for the treatment of metastasized mammary glands vis-à-vis existing formulation of PTX which is by and large criticized for having certain toxic excipients to be given parentrally. Moreover, the proposed system provides ample of opportunity to modify the surface for targeted application of PTX.
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Changing Facet of Supply Chain Management – Is Human Factor No More Relevant? – A Study on Developing Countries

AbstractThe world is getting rapidly digitized in every aspect. Supply chains across industries and geographic locations must also adopt the new technologies that replace human labor in order tor remain relevant and functional. That is not to say that the need for human labor is completely non-existent. For developing and emerging economies, where the extent of digitization is still dismally low because of various factors, the relevance of the human facet of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is still hugely relevant and essential. This article investigates the importance of the human factor in the management of digitized supply chain in the modern world, from the perspective of the developing countries. The research reveals that there is no substitute for human labor, especially in situations where there is need for speed in decision making and where computer programs run on historical knowledge become incapable of offering a solution. Key words: digitization, supply chain, supply chain management, human, labor, RPA, AI, ML, labor displacement.

File Detection in Network Traffic Using Approximate Matching

Virtually every day data breach incidents are reported in the news. Scammers, fraudsters, hackers and malicious insiders are raking in millions with sensitive business and personal information. Not all incidents involve cunning and astute hackers. The involvement of insiders is ever increasing. Data information leakage is a critical issue for many companies, especially nowadays where every employee has an access to high speed internet.In the past, email was the only gateway to send out information but with the advent of technologies like SaaS (e.g. Dropbox) and other similar services, possible routes have become numerous and complicated to guard for an organisation. Data is valuable, for legitimate purposes or criminal purposes alike. An intuitive approach to check data leakage is to scan the network traffic for presence of any confidential information transmitted. The existing systems use slew of techniques like keyword matching, regular expression pattern matching, cryptographic algorithms or rolling hashes to prevent data leakage. These techniques are either trivial to evade or suffer with high false alarm rate. In this thesis, 'known file content' detection in network traffic using approximate matching is presented. It performs content analysis on-the-fly. The approach is protocol agnostic and filetype independent. Compared to existing techniques, proposed approach is straight forward and does not need comprehensive configuration. It is easy to deploy and maintain, as only file fingerprint is required, instead of verbose rules