Redressing Ecological Poverty Through Participatory Democracy: Case Studies from India

or the rural poor – who depend above all the land for their survival – a central development challenge is to sustain a base of natural capital that can support a robust local economy. In India, government mismanagement of forests, grazing lands, and water resources has often alienated rural people and exacerbated resource degradation. This paper shows the potential to reverse these trends when local people gain control over natural resources and manage them through systems of participatory democracy. Four case studies from semi-arid, hilly regions of India illustrate how democratic control of natural assets can lay the basis for ecological restoration and sustainable livelihoods.

Laser Field Induced Birefringence and Enhancement of Magneto-optical Rotation

An initially isotropic medium, when subjected to either a magnetic field or a coherent field, can induce anisotropy in the medium and can cause the polarization of a probe field to rotate. Therefore the rotation of probe polarization, due to magnetic field alone, can be controlled efficiently with the use of a coherent control field. We demonstrate this enhancement of the magneto-optical rotation (MOR) of a linearly polarized light, by doing detailed calculations on a system with relevant transitions $j=0\leftrightarrow j=1\leftrightarrow j=0$.Comment: 9 pages including 4 Figure

Tubercular dactylitis with deformity ipsilateral involvement of hand and foot in an adult: a case report

Tubercular dactylitis is a rare entity and usually involves bones of hands and feet, involvement of feet is less common. Here we report case of 18 years old female with neglected tubercular involvement of her left thumb and left great toe of foot with hallux varus deformity. Her diagnosis was delayed as she did not seek any healthcare advice for a long time and also lack of suspicion of entity. This entity which should be kept in mind when making differential diagnosis that can be treated conservatively when diagnosed early

Demographic correlates of nicotine dependence in psychiatric patients

Background: Tobacco and nicotine dependence has high prevalence in patients with psychiatric disorders. The present study was conducted to delineate demographic correlates of tobacco and nicotine dependence in psychiatric patients.Methods: 102 patients were sampled from Institute of Mental Health and Hospital, Agra. Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence for Smoking, Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence for Smokeless Tobacco, The Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) were used along with a proforma for recording demographic and clinical details of the patients.Results: The results suggested that the severity of nicotine dependence in total sample was as Very Low in 2.9%, Low in 15.7%, medium in 42.2%, and High in 39.2%. The results of association between demographic variables and nicotine dependence suggested that there was statistically significant association between nicotine dependence and gender, place of residence, marital status, type of family, annual income, history of mental illness, History of substance use and duration of tobacco use.Conclusions: The medium and high level of nicotine dependence amount to 81.40% sample is of true concern which warrant for an active intervention for tobacco cessation programs in majority of the patients

Prospects of improving flooding tolerance in lowland rice varieties by conventional breeding and genetic engineering

Flooding is a recurrent phenomenon in several lowland rice-growing areas in India and elsewhere. Even though rice is a reasonably flooding-tolerant crop, the annual loss incurred by farmers due to floods is large. There are excellent traditional rice types with high level flooding tolerance. Combining high level flooding tolerance to high grain yield through conventional breeding has been successful to a limited extent so far but there are enormous opportunities for the same. There are also hopes that flooding tolerance can be genetically engineered in rice using a transgenic approach. We take a look on the prospects for improvement of rice to flooding stress through conventional breeding and through plant genetic engineering

Numerical Study on Post-Earthquake Fire Resistance of Concrete Filled Tube Column

Earthquakes cause devastating damage to the buildings and structures, but if earthquake events are followed by fire may cause more damage than the earthquake itself. After a major earthquake, the ability of the structure to resist fire drastically reduces. So, the risk of fires following earthquakes are considered significantly higher than normal. Recently, steel-concrete composite structures have been increasingly used in modern structures due to the respective advantages of steel and concrete. Concrete filled steel tube (CFT) columns are an excellent example of composite construction because of its efficiencies and advantages. One important advantage is their high fire resistance because in this system, the steel tube prevents the concrete core from spalling and the concrete core provides additional capacity to the steel tube. Many researchers have studied behavior of axially loaded CFT columns under cyclic loading and fire loading separately

Production of high temperature tolerant transgenic plants through manipulation of membrane lipids

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Opterećenje tekućinom i prijenosna sposobnost bubrega u dvogrbe deve u dehidraciji i rehidraciji zimi i ljeti

The effect of dehydration and rehydration was studied during winter and summer on solute loads and transfer function of kidney in healthy adult female dromedary camels. Kidney solute loads (KSLs) which included plasma loads (PL) and tubular loads (TL) were determined for glucose, proteins, urea, creatinine, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and phosphorus. The dehydration period was of 24 days in winter and 13 days in summer. Water was provided ad libitum during control and rehydration periods and was restricted completely during dehydration period. The mean value of TFK during summer control was significantly (P≤0.05) lower than that in winter control. In winter the mean values of TFK during rehydration phases differed significantly (P≤0.05) from control values. A similar trend was observed during summer, except that the calculations for TFK could not be made at hour ½ and at hour 2 of rehydration since animals did not void urine. During dehydration periods in both seasons PL and TL mean values decreased significantly (P≤0.05) from respective control mean values. It was concluded that during dehydration reduction in kidney solute loads was indicative of the water conservation ability of camels because reduced plasma loads and tubular loads resulted in trapping of constituents in the plasma to hold more water.Istražen je učinak dehidracije i rehidracije u tijeku zime i ljeta na opterećenje tekućinom i prijenosnu sposobnost bubrega u zdravih ženki dvogrbe deve. Opterećenje obuhvaća plazmalno (PO) i tubularno (TO) opterećenje, a određivano je za glukozu, bjelančevine, mokraćevinu, kreatinin, natrij, kalij, klor, kalcij i fosfor. Razdoblje dehidracije trajalo je 24 dana zimi i 13 dana ljeti. Životinje su po volji pile vodu tijekom kontrolnoga i rehidracijskoga razdoblja, ali vodu nisu dobivale u tijeku dehidracijskoga razdoblja. Srednja vrijednost prijenosne sposobnosti bubrega u tijeku ljetnih mjeseci bila je značajno niža (P≤0,05) u odnosu na zimsko kontrolno razdoblje. Zimi su se srednje vrijednosti prijenosne sposobnosti bubrega za vrijeme rehidracije značajno razlikovale u odnosu na kontrolne vrijednosti (P≤0,05). Sličan je trend zabilježen ljeti, osim što izračuni nisu mogli biti učinjeni sat i pol te dva sata nakon rehidracije, jer životinje nisu izlučivale mokraću. Srednje vrijednosti PO i TO bile su značajno manje u odnosu na kontrolu (P≤0,05) u tijeku dehidracijskoga razdoblja u oba godišnja doba. Zaključuje se da je smanjeno opterećenje bubrega u tijeku dehidracije dobar pokazatelj sposobnosti čuvanja vode s obzirom na to da smanjeno plazmalno i tubularno opterećenje dovodi do zadržavanja sastojaka u plazmi koji imaju sposobnost osmotskoga zadržavanja vode