Training Requirements Of Entry Level Accountants: CA (India) vs. CPA (US)

In the accounting arena, tax returns are increasingly being outsourced to India. Tax returns that are outsourced to India are usually prepared by entry level accountants. Questions are often raised about the quality of education and training of entry level accountants in India. This article compares the training requirements and costs to become an entry level Chartered Accountant (CA) in India with the training requirements and costs to become an entry level Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the US. This topic is important because of the controversy that surrounds the quality of the training received by accountants in India who prepare tax returns for US clients. Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code requires written taxpayer consent before a tax return is outsourced to an overseas tax preparer. The article provides relevant information that may be shared with clients

Internet of Things: Beginning of New Era for Libraries

Libraries have adopted information technology be that IT-enabled content development, content management tools, content access and delivery tools or long term presentation tools. Libraries are always in the fore front where the adoption and usage of new technologies are concerned. Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling objects to collect data and transfer the data over a network without human intervention by using internet, sensors, and RFID. It is being used in various fields and is still emerging. Various innovative solutions are created. This paper explores the concept of IoT, its historical background and its potential applications in libraries. Some of the challenges which will be faced by the library professional while implementing it are also discussed

Invigorating Libraries with Application of Artificial Intelligence

“Survival of the Fittest” as quoted by Charles Darwin fits and suits in all walks of life. As on date, big debate is on regarding the existence and survival of libraries. Libraries need to adopt emerging tools and technologies to provide best services to the users on time with precision. Artificial intelligence has placed itself everywhere in everyday life. This paper is an attempt to expedite AI applications in libraries, not only for providing services to the existing users but also finding innovative ways to attract new users. The paper discusses AI, basic requisites, its applications in libraries, and barriers in its implementations. The paper concludes that AI is the need of today for libraries

Invigorating Libraries with Application of Artificial Intelligence

“Survival of the Fittest” as quoted by Charles Darwin fits and suits in all walks of life. As on date, big debate is on regarding the existence and survival of libraries. Libraries need to adopt emerging tools and technologies to provide best services to the users on time with precision. Artificial intelligence has placed itself everywhere in everyday life. This paper is an attempt to expedite AI applications in libraries, not only for providing services to the existing users but also finding innovative ways to attract new users. The paper discusses AI, basic requisites, its applications in libraries, and barriers in its implementations. The paper concludes that AI is the need of today for libraries

Student Misconceptions and Errors in Physics and Mathematics

This open access report explores the nature and extent of students’ misconceptions and misunderstandings related to core concepts in physics and mathematics and physics across grades four, eight and 12. Twenty years of data from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and TIMSS Advanced assessments are analyzed, specifically for five countries (Italy, Norway, Russian Federation, Slovenia, and the United States) who participated in all or almost all TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced assessments between 1995 and 2015. The report focuses on students’ understandings related to gravitational force in physics and linear equations in mathematics. It identifies some specific misconceptions, errors, and misunderstandings demonstrated by the TIMSS Advanced grade 12 students for these core concepts, and shows how these can be traced back to poor foundational development of these concepts in earlier grades. Patterns in misconceptions and misunderstandings are reported by grade, country, and gender. In addition, specific misconceptions and misunderstandings are tracked over time, using trend items administered in multiple assessment cycles. The study and associated methodology may enable education systems to help identify specific needs in the curriculum, improve inform instruction across grades and also raise possibilities for future TIMSS assessment design and reporting that may provide more diagnostic outcomes

IMAGE-BASED IDENTIFICATION OF MLB DISEASE OF MAIZE

Not AvailableIn recent years, deep learning techniques have become very popular in the field of image recognition and classification. Image-based diagnosis of diseases in crops using deep learning techniques has become trendy in the current scientific community. In this study, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model has been developed to identify the images of maydis leaf bight (MLB) (Cochliobolus heterostrophus) disease of maize (Zea mays L.) crop. A total of 1547 digital images of maize leaves (596 healthy and 951 infected with maydis leaf blight disease) have been collected from different agricultural farms using hand-held camera and smartphones. The images have been collected from the experimental plots of BCKV, West Bengal and ICAR-IARI, New Delhi during 2018–19. The architectural framework of popular state-of-the network ‘GoogleNet’ has been used to build the deep CNN model. The developed model has been successfully trained, validated and tested on the above-mentioned dataset. The trained model has achieved an overall accuracy of 99.14% on the separate test dataset.Not Availabl

Rice Phospholipase A Superfamily: Organization, Phylogenetic and Expression Analysis during Abiotic Stresses and Development

Background: Phospholipase A (PLA) is an important group of enzymes responsible for phospholipid hydrolysis in lipid signaling. PLAs have been implicated in abiotic stress signaling and developmental events in various plants species. Genome-wide analysis of PLA superfamily has been carried out in dicot plant Arabidopsis. A comprehensive genome-wide analysis of PLAs has not been presented yet in crop plant rice. Methodology/Principal Findings: A comprehensive bioinformatics analysis identified a total of 31 PLA encoding genes in the rice genome, which are divided into three classes; phospholipase A 1 (PLA 1), patatin like phospholipases (pPLA) and low molecular weight secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) based on their sequences and phylogeny. A subset of 10 rice PLAs exhibited chromosomal duplication, emphasizing the role of duplication in the expansion of this gene family in rice. Microarray expression profiling revealed a number of PLA members expressing differentially and significantly under abiotic stresses and reproductive development. Comparative expression analysis with Arabidopsis PLAs revealed a high degree of functional conservation between the orthologs in two plant species, which also indicated the vital role of PLAs in stress signaling and plant development across different plant species. Moreover, sub-cellular localization of a few candidates suggests their differential localization and functional role in the lipid signaling. Conclusion/Significance: The comprehensive analysis and expression profiling would provide a critical platform for th

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Internet of Things: Beginning of New Era for Libraries

Libraries have adopted information technology be that IT-enabled content development, content management tools, content access and delivery tools or long term presentation tools. Libraries are always in the fore front where the adoption and usage of new technologies are concerned. Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling objects to collect data and transfer the data over a network without human intervention by using internet, sensors, and RFID. It is being used in various fields and is still emerging. Various innovative solutions are created. This paper explores the concept of IoT, its historical background and its potential applications in libraries. Some of the challenges which will be faced by the library professional while implementing it are also discussed