Responsible Fisheries Kerala Fish Workers Open New Path in Co-Governance

Traditional fish workers and trawl operators in Kerala, long at loggerheads, have framed a code of responsible fishing practices. The article argues that this landmark agreement between two hitherto irreconcilable groups was borne out of a crisis in pelagic fish resources. It also argues that the agreement holds important lessons for multi-stakeholder governance in the fisheries sector

Exploring Zeptosecond Quantum Equilibration Dynamics: From Deep-Inelastic to Fusion-Fission Outcomes in 58^{58}Ni+60^{60}Ni Reactions

Energy dissipative processes play a key role in how quantum many-body systems dynamically evolve towards equilibrium. In closed quantum systems, such processes are attributed to the transfer of energy from collective motion to single-particle degrees of freedom; however, the quantum many-body dynamics of this evolutionary process are poorly understood. To explore energy dissipative phenomena and equilibration dynamics in one such system, an experimental investigation of deep-inelastic and fusion-fission outcomes in the $^{58}$Ni+$^{60}$Ni reaction has been carried out. Experimental outcomes have been compared to theoretical predictions using Time Dependent Hartree Fock and Time Dependent Random Phase Approximation approaches, which respectively incorporate one-body energy dissipation and fluctuations. Excellent quantitative agreement has been found between experiment and calculations, indicating that microscopic models incorporating one-body dissipation and fluctuations provide a potential tool for exploring dissipation in low-energy heavy ion collisions.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, including Supplemental Material - Version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Marine Fisheries Policy Brief-1 സമുദ്ര മത്സ്യമേഖലാ നയ പരിപ്രേക്‌ഷ്യം - 1 കേരളം (Marine Fisheries Policy Brief-1 Kerala Malayalam version)

Marine Fisheries Policy Brief-1 സമുദ്ര മത്സ്യമേഖലാ നയ പരിപ്രേക്‌ഷ്യം - 1 കേരളം (Marine Fisheries Policy Brief-1 Kerala Malayalam version

Marine Fisheries Policy Brief-1 Kerala

Kerala which has a coastline of 590 km ranks first in marine fish production of India, contributing nearly 25% (5.81 lakh tonnes on average) to the total annual production. The export of marine products from the State earns valuable foreign exchange besides affording innumerable job opportunities in the industry. The population depending on fisheries has steadily increased over the years and stood at 6,02,234 in 2005 (Anon., 2005). Kerala has been in the forefront of absorbing innovative and new technologies in fishing practices, which have led the marine fisheries sector to take a complex structure. The 1980s was an important period in the development of marine fisheries in Kerala. In the first half of the period the motorized sector grew rapidly and became the most important sector yielding the maximum catch in 1988. By that time, ringseine became very popular in exploiting the pelagic resources and replaced the boatseines to a very great extent. Huge size of the new net (450 to 1000 m long) and large number of crew (30 to 50) needed for its operation necessitated larger boats with high capacity outboard engines (3 outboard engines of 40 hp each). This facilitated extension of fishing grounds for the motorized sector. The fishing grounds covered by the mechanised sector also extended by increasing the boat size and fishing effort and efficiency through multi-day fishing during the late 90s

Antibacterial properties of Passiflora foetida L. – a common exotic medicinal plant

Passiflora foetida L. (stinking passion flower) is an exotic medicinal vine. The antibacterial properties of leaf and fruit (ethanol and acetone) extracts were screened against four human pathogenic bacteria i.e. Pseudomonas putida, Vibrio cholerae, Shigella flexneri and Streptococcus pyogenes by well-in agar method. The results showed the leaf extract having remarkable activity against all bacterial pathogens compared to fruits. This study supports, the traditional medicines (herbal extracts) to cure manydiseases like diarrhea, intestinal tract, throat, ear infections, fever and skin diseases

Quantitative ecology of phytoplankton in the Cochin backwater

A one-year study on the standing crop in terms of chlorophylls, primary production and total-cell counts of four station grids has shown that there were regional and seasonal variations in the magnitude of phytoplankton production in the Cochin backwater. Statistically treated using a microcomputor, a multiple regression relationship has been established between parameters within stations. But th<^ Correlation coefBclent and Standard Regression coefficient have revealed that the plankton production and the related parameters at all the stations were independent of each other and the parameters varied from station to station. Probable reasons are briefly discussed

Ultrasonic Cleaning and Re-use of HEPA Filters in Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing Facility

In the nuclear industry, High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are used as an important engineering safeguard to prevent the potential release of airborne radioactive particulates into the environment during the plant operations. These filters have high efficiency (99.97%) in removing particulate matters in the sub-micron range and are widely used in the entire fuel cycle from the stage of mining/milling to nuclear waste management operations. Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) at Hyderabad manufactures nuclear fuel for all the commercial nuclear power reactors in the country.The fuel is in the form of high density Uranium dioxide (UO2) pellets clad in Zircalloy- 4 tubes. Many chemical and metallurgical processes are employed for the production of UO2 pellets starting from the raw material magnesium diuranate (MDU). HEPA filters are used for final filtration of off-gases from these processes as well as the working areas/plants. Each fully loaded HEPA filter contains around 3-5 kgs of uranium bearing fine powder, which needs to be recovered as it is a costly material. Normally, HEPA filters are used once-through, as suitable technique for nondestructive decontamination has not been developed. This has resulted in a large accumulation of loaded HEPA filters at NFC, which is a cause for concern. The reuse of the HEPA filt-ers depends on the extent of decontamination achieved. As the conventional cleaning techniques are found to be ineffective, the decontamination of HEPA filters presents a challenging problem. Therefore, development work was taken up at NFC to evolve a suitable decontamination technique for HEPA filters. A state-of-the-art ultrasonic decontamination technique using commercial acetone has been developed at NFC. The technique offers a suitable nondestructive method to ensure removal of uranium fines from the filter media completely and thereby rendering the HEPA filter suitable for reuse. The observations and results of this development work are presented in this paper