Factors Affecting Fertilizer Consumption in Rajasthan

The present investigation was carried out to determine the factors affecting fertilizer consumption in Rajasthan from 1967-68 to 2014-15. The study period had been divided into following three phases; Post-green revolution- Phase I (1967-68 to 1980-81), Post-green revolution- Phase II (1981-82 to 1990-91) and Post-reform period (1991-92 to 2014-15).The regression analysis was done for the three temporal phases as well as for the overall period. High coefficient of multiple determination (R2) indicated that 90 per cent of total variation in fertilizer consumption was explained by the variables included in the linear regression model. Gross irrigated area was found to be the most important variable influencing the fertilizer consumption during the three phases as well as for overall period of study. Its coefficient was found positive and statistically significant (P<0.05). Area under high yielding varieties appeared to be the second most important variable significantly influencing the fertilizer consumption. Its coefficient was found positive and statistically significant (P<0.05) during the overall study period. The regression coefficient of rainfall was found to be statistically non-significant in all the three temporal phases of study period. Although it was positive in phase I and negative in phase II and III

A Hybrid Intuitionistic Logic: Semantics and Decidability

An intuitionistic, hybrid modal logic suitable for reasoning about distribution of resources was introduced by Jia and Walker. The modalities of the logic allow validation of properties in a particular place, in some place and in all places. We give a sound and complete Kripke semantics for the logic extended with disjunctive connectives. The extended logic can be seen as an instance of Hybrid IS5. We also give a sound and complete birelational semantics, and show that it enjoys the finite model property: if a judgement is not valid in the logic, then there is a finite birelational counter-model. Hence, we prove that the logic is decidable

A Distributed Kripke Semantics

An intuitionistic, hybrid modal logic suitable for reasoning about distribution of resources was introduced in [10]. We extend the Kripke semantics of intuitionistic logic, enriching each possible Kripke state with a set of places, and show that this semantics is both sound and complete for the logic. In the semantics, resources of a distributed system are interpreted as atoms, and placement of atoms in a possible state corresponds to the distribution of the resources. The modalities of the logic allow us to validate properties in a particular place, in some place and in all places. We extend the logic with disjunctive connectives, and refine our semantics to obtain soundness and completeness for extended logic. The extended logic can be seen as an instance of Hybrid IS5 [2, 18]

Reentrant violation of special relativity in the low-energy corner

In the effective relativistic quantum field theories the energy region, where the special relativity holds, can be sandwiched from both the high and low energies sides by domains where the special relativity is violated. An example is provided by 3He-A where the relativistic quantum field theory emerges as the effective theory. The reentrant violation of the special relativity in the ultralow energy corner is accompanied by the redistribution of the momentum-space topological charges between the fermionic flavors. At this ultralow energy an exotic massless fermion with the topological charge $N_3=2$ arises, whose energy spectrum mixes the classical and relativistic behavior. This effect can lead to neutrino oscillations if neutrino flavors are still massless at this energy scale.Comment: RevTeX file, 5 pages, one figure, submitted to JETP Let

A reduced semantics for deciding trace equivalence using constraint systems

Many privacy-type properties of security protocols can be modelled using trace equivalence properties in suitable process algebras. It has been shown that such properties can be decided for interesting classes of finite processes (i.e., without replication) by means of symbolic execution and constraint solving. However, this does not suffice to obtain practical tools. Current prototypes suffer from a classical combinatorial explosion problem caused by the exploration of many interleavings in the behaviour of processes. M\"odersheim et al. have tackled this problem for reachability properties using partial order reduction techniques. We revisit their work, generalize it and adapt it for equivalence checking. We obtain an optimization in the form of a reduced symbolic semantics that eliminates redundant interleavings on the fly.Comment: Accepted for publication at POST'1

Flow cytometric DNA ploidy analysis of ovarian granulosa cell tumors

Abstract The nuclear DNA content of 50 ovarian tumors initially diagnosed as granulosa cell tumors was measured by flow cytometry using paraffin-embedded archival material. The follow-up period of the patients ranged from 4 months to 19 years. Thirty-eight tumors were diploid or near-diploid, while 5 were aneuploid. DNA profiles of 7 tumors could not be evaluated. All 50 tumors were immunohistochemically tested for expression of intermediate filament proteins vimentin and cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen. The cells of all but 3 tumors expressed vimentin. These 3 vimentin-negative tumors were positive for cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen. They were highly aneuploid and though originally diagnosed as granulosa cell tumors, most likely represent undifferentiated carcinomas. Hence, only 2 typical granulosa cell tumors were aneuploid. In addition, frozen tissue samples from 9 of 10 granulosa cell tumors showed a DNA diploid content. Our results indicate that granulosa cell tumors tend to be diploid or have only minor ploidy abnormalities which is in line with their relatively benign character. An undifferentiated carcinoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of tumors with a high DNA index

Continual professional development for science lecturers: using professional capital to explore lessons for academic development

Personal observations suggest that science lecturers in higher education do not always feel comfortable engaging with the support offered through academic development initiatives. At a research-intensive university in the UK, research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach to establish how science lecturers engaged with continual professional development (CPD) activity. A total of 64 science lecturers completed 28-item surveys about their current experience, context, teaching preferences, and the practices that have supported their CPD as teachers. Surveys were analysed through a statistical package, and descriptive analysis responses were modelled for interest in CPD activity. Dependent model variables included: pedagogical training, teaching receiving greater weighting, and experimentation. Follow-up interviews were carried out with 10 survey respondents with analysis centring on developing a better understanding of CPD engagement. Professional capital was used as a theoretical lens to discuss the research findings which suggest future directions for academic developers and institutions in supporting CPD activity among science lecturers. These include academic developers acting as mentors and offering practical tips to these lecturers. Additionally, academic developers can act as weak ties in fostering institutionally important social networks and foster important collaborative research opportunities. Institutionally, promotion and recognition are key incentives to engage with CPD activity

Inclusion parameters of pioglitazone hydrochloride and glipizide with β-cyclodextrin and its methyl derivative: calorimetric and

Solution calorimetry, a direct method to determine the thermodynamic parameters was used to investigate the inclusion phenomenon (stability constant, K; complexation enthalpy, ΔHo) of two poorly soluble oral hypoglycemic agents, pioglitazone hydrochloride  (pioglitazone HCl) and glipizide with ß- cyclodextrin (ß-CD) and its methyl derivative (methyl-ß-CD). The inclusion complexes prepared by kneading were characterized in the solid state by differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray powder diffraction. The host-guest geometry and stoichiometry for the complexes indicated by proton NMR studies was confirmed by solution calorimetry. In case of pioglitazone HCl, two types of 1:1 complexes co-existing in solution have been revealed as pyridine ring as well as thiazoledione ring can be included in the cavity of cyclodextrin. The value of K1 and K2 determined using two class binding model utilizing non-linear least square regression was found to be 1940 M-1 and 1478 M-1 at pH 8 for complex with ß-CD. Glipizide, a bigger molecule showed 1:2 complex with ß-CD with a stability constant of 1880 M-1 at pH 8 with ß-CD. The magnitude of equilibrium constants decreased at pH 4 which is attributed to the presence of ionized species for both the drug molecules at lower pH. The inclusion of the drugs in the cyclodextrin cavity is an exothermic process accompanied by small negative value of ΔGo and positive value of ΔSo. The magnitude of equilibrium constant increased with the use of methyl-ß-CD for both drugs indicating their better complexing ability. This supports the enhanced solubility and dissolution rates observed with methyl-ß-CD.© 2010 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Pioglitazone, glipizide, encapsulation, solubility, calorimetry, equilibrium constant

Antimicrobial Activity of Actinomycetes Against Multidrug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Various Other Pathogens

Purpose: The rapid emergence of drug resistance among pathogenic bacteria, especially multidrugresistant bacteria, underlines the need to look for new antibiotics.Methods: In the present study, 134 different actinomycetes, isolated from the soil samples collected from different localities of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, were screened for antimicrobial activity against various test organisms including multidrug-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli in order to identify potential antibiotic producers.Results: Among these isolates, 51 (38 %) showed antimicrobial activity against one or more test organisms and six exhibited promising broad-spectrum activity against all the tested organisms. The observed cultural, morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics confirmed that these isolates are species of the genus, Streptomyces.Conclusion: Further studies on the bioactive metabolites from these cultures will be useful for discovering novel compounds of clinical and agricultural use.Keywords: Actinomycetes, Broad spectrum antibiotics, Multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Streptomyces