Job Stress of Agricultural Officers of Kerala State Department of Agriculture: A Psycho–Personal Analysis

The present study was undertaken in three zones of Kerala viz., Kasaragod from North Kerala,Thrissur from Central Kerala and Thiruvananthapuram from South Kerala. A sample of 90 Agricultural Officers was selected by using simple random sampling and information was gathered and analyzed. Job stress was the dependent variable of the study. A well - structured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents. The results revealed that majority of the Agricultural Officers were in medium job stress category

Emotional Intelligence of Agricultural Officers of Kerala State Department of Agriculture

The present study was conducted in the three zones of Kerala viz., Kasaragod from North Kerala, Thrissur from Central Kerala and Thiruvananthapuram from South Kerala. In this study an attempt has been made to measure the emotional intelligence of panchayat level Agricultural Officers of Kerala State Department of Agriculture, under Krishi Bhavan System. A sample of 90 Agricultural Officers was selected by using simple random sampling. Emotional Intelligence was the dependent variable of the study. A well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. The data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. The results showed that the scenario of existing status of emotional intelligence skills of respondents was good as most of them were in medium to high category

AVAILABILITY OF MINERAL ELEMENTS IN AN EXOTIC WEED ALTERNANTHERA TENELLA COLLA VAR. TENELLA VELDK

Objectives To study mineral status of an exotic weed Alternanthera tenella colla var. tenella veldk.Methods Mineral analysis in the leaves was carried out by acid digestion method as described by Toth et al. (1948). Sodium and potassium wereestimated by flame photometer, Model-Elico, ch-22A. Remaining inorganic elements viz. calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc,copper, and cobalt were estimated by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Perkin-Elmer, 3030 A.Result Potassium content of the leaves was high (4.11%) while nitrate content was very low (0.065%) with respect to major elements. In case ofminor elements manganese is present at higher concentration (190.75 ppm) while molybdenum in very less quantity (0.10 ppm).Conclusion This study reveals that leaves of A. tenella var. tenella may be used as supplementary diet to human as well as livestock.Keywords: Alternanthera tenella var. tenella, Exotic weed, Invasive alien, Mineral elements

Analysis of Different Buffer Management Strategies in Delay Tolerance Network Routing

Delay Tolerant Networks or DTNs are the results of the evolutions in the mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In such environments the link between the pair of nodes is frequently disrupted due to the dissemination nature, mobility of nodes, and power outages. Because of the environment nature in Delay Tolerant Networks like under water, ocean sensor networks etc., the delays may be very extensive. To obtain data delivery in such challenging and harsh networking environments, researchers have proposed a technique in which the messages is stored into the buffers of intermediary nodes until it is forwarded to the destination. The DTNs are based on the concept of store-carry-and-forward protocols. So, node have to store message for long or short period of time and when connection established replica will be sent to encountered node. A critical challenge is to determine routes through the network without even having an end-to-end connection. This combination of long term storage and message replication imposes a high storage and bandwidth overhead. Thus, efficient scheduling and dropping policies are necessary to decide which messages should be discarded when nodes’ buffers operate close to their capacity. If a relay buffer is full and needs to store a new packet, it has to decide either to keep the current message or to drop it. This paper will give survey on different transmission and dropping policies with their mechanism, their performance in different routing and their limitations

Tectaria polymorpha (Wall. ex Hook.) Copel. (Tectariaceae), a new distributional record for Kerala

Tectaria polymorpha (Wall. ex Hook.) Copel., is a rare species belongs to the family Tectariaceae. In southern India, so far it has been reported from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu States only. We report the occurrence of this species in Kerala State from Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, a part of Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve. Taxonomic treatment with detailed description, specimens examined, ecology, distribution, note, key to the species of Kerala and photographs are provided here for its easy identification

A REVIEW ON SCREENING METHODS OF BREAST CANCER, CANCER BIOMARKERS AND PHYTOCONSTITUENTS AGAINST BREAST CANCER

  A cancer biomarker refers to a substance or process that is used as an indicative the presence of cancer in the body. A biomarker may be a molecule secreted by a tumor or a specific response of the body to the presence of cancer. Biomarkers are utilized in three elementary ways as a diagnostic tool, prognostic tool, and predictive tool. The screening tests employed are clinical and breast exams, mammography, hereditary screening, ultrasound, and attractive reverberation imaging. Biomarkers involved in breast cancer are human epidermal growth factor-2, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, Cyclin D1, and Cyclin E. Specific bioactive phytoconstituents used as anticancer include curcumin, genistein, resveratrol, isothiocyanates, silymarin, diallyl sulfisoxazole, lycopene, apigenin, and gingerol. Hence, this review indicates the study of screening methods, various biomarkers in breast cancer and phytoconstituents against breast cancer

Knowledge and practices regarding pharmacoeconomics among resident doctors in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: With skyrocketing health care costs, even the essential care provided by the health care service providers need to be evaluated under the lens. The development of nationwide awareness of cost-benefit, cost-utility and cost-effectiveness of services is the need of the hour. The objectives of the present study were to assess the knowledge about pharmacoeconomics among resident doctors and to assess the clinical application of pharmacoeconomics among them.Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted among resident doctors involving both interns and post-graduates of a teaching medical college. There were 20 questions; initial ten were for knowledge assessment and next ten questions assessed practical applications. Questions assessed the knowledge regarding components of pharmacoeconomics, direct and indirect medical costs, and application of pharmacoeconomics, local cost-effectiveness decisions and advantages of pharmacoeconomics.Results: Of the 118 participants who took part in the study, 42 were clinicians working in medical college hospital, 12 were clinicians working in dental college hospital, 24 medial postgraduates, 30 dental postgraduates and 10 interns. Nearly 90% of the respondents opine that concepts of pharmacoeconomics are not followed in every teaching hospital in India. Many participants (90%) opined that health economics and pharmacoeconomic are different. Nearly 94% of participants have not under gone any training regarding pharmacoeconomics. More than 95% respondents have opined that principles of pharmacoeconomics has to be introduced into current medial undergraduate curriculum.Conclusions: This study shows light on the knowledge and practices of resident doctors regarding principles of pharmacoeconomics. This study has revealed the level of awareness of younger generation regarding pharmacoeconomics

PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF MANDUR BHASMA

Objective: Bhasmas are traditional Indian medicinal preparations that are standardized using quality control tests prescribed by Ayurveda and other guidelines. There is a need to study the adequacy of the existing quality control tests and to correlate these to the performance of the product. No attempt has been made in the literature to study the adequacy of these tests in determining the biological activity of a product and to suggests new analytical techniques for determining the quality. In the present work, an attempt has been made to compare marketed samples of Mandur bhasma with respect to various existing quality control tests and to analyze these samples using modern analytical techniques for the complete analysis of Mandur Bhasma. Adequacy of all the tests and techniques was studied with respect to the hepatoprotective activity of mandur bhasma in paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity in rats.Methods: The marketed products of three leading brands of Mandur Bhasma were analyzed for quality-control tests as prescribed by Ayurveda and other guidelines. These samples were also analysed using modern analytical techniques like AAS, IR, XRD, HPTLC, SEM. These formulations were then evaluated for their hepatoprotective activity in paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity in rats and the results obtained were correlated with analytical results.Results: It was found that all the three bhasma samples were passing in quality control tests as prescribed by Ayurveda and other guidelines. These samples produced similar results when analyzed using AAS and IR. The results were different when analyzed using colorimetry, HPTLC, SEM and XRD. The extent of hepatoprotection in rats with paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity was also found to be different in the three samples.Conclusion: The analysis was carried out on three different marketed samples, and a correlation has been reported. It was seen that although all the three formulations passed traditional quality control tests and the tests laid by regulatory guidelines, but still there were significant differences in their biological activity. Analysis of iron content using colorimetric method was found to be discriminating in estimating the biologically effective form of iron. It was also found that HPTLC, XRD and SEM should be further developed and validated as analytical tools in determining the quality of Mandur bhasma product.Keywords: Mandur bhasma, Colorimetry, IR, AAS, SEM, XRD, HPTLC, Hepatoprotective activit

SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF FEBUXOSTAT AND NAPROXEN IN SYNTHETIC MIXTURE BY REVERSE PHASE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD

Objective: To develop simple, precise, rapid, and accurate RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous estimation of Febuxostat and Naproxen in synthetic mixture. To perform complete validation of newly developed analytical methods as per ICH(Q2) R1 [32] Guideline. Methods: In RP-HPLC method for Febuxostat and Naproxen, chromatographic separation was carried out on Shimandzu LC-20AT, Hypersil BDS column (250mm x 4.6mm, 5 μm) using mobile phase ACN: Methanol: Phosphate Buffer (50:35:15 v/v) pH 5, detected at 288 nm, with flow rate 1.0ml/min and injection volume 20 μL. Results: For RP- HPLC Linearity of Febuxostat and Naproxen were found to be 4 – 12 μg/ml and 25 - 75 μg/ml respectively. For both the developed and validated methods the %RSD was found to be less than 2% and the % recovery was found to between 98-102 %. Conclusion: The developed and validated method was found to be simple, accurate, economical, robust and reproducible. There was no interference of any diluent and excipient in the determination of drugs from synthetic mixture. So, the method can be successfully applied for routine Quality control analysis

Causative Broadcast Encryption for Short Cipher Text

Encryption is used in a correspondence framework to secure data in the transmitted messages from sender to receiver. To execute the encryption in addition to decryption ye transmitter and receiver ought to have comparing encryption in addition to decryption keys. For transportation precautionary measure data to group required broadcast encryption (BE). BE sanctions a sender to securely broadcast to any subset of individuals and require a trusted gathering to disperse decryption keys. Group key Authority (GKA) protocol authorizes various clients to set up an unremarkable mystery channel by means of open systems. Praising that a noteworthy goal of GKA for dominant part applications is to incite a secret channel among group individuals, yet a sender can't discard any exceptional individual from unscrambling ye figure writings. By crossing over BE and GKA thought with a crossover primitive identified with as contributory broadcast encryption (CBE). With these primitives, a group of individuals travel through an unremarkable open encryption key while every part having there decryption key. A sender outwardly seeing general society group encryption key can delineate the decryption to subset of individuals from sender's winnow. A basic approach to induce these keys is to use the general population key appropriation framework concocted by Daffier and Hellman.. Key dispersion sets are adjusted to incite keys and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is used for the encryption and decryption of records; and this going to give the security to the archives over group correspondence