Migration, Adaptation and Survival in Bharti Mukherjee’s Jasmine

Bharti Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine is undoubtedly an inspiring novel. It deals with the themes of exile, migration, homelessness, assimilation and eventual survival. This paper explores the process Jasmine follows to fight her fate. She leaves her home, goes to abroad and faces a lot of difficulties but ultimately assimilates in their culture. The only aim she carries is survival. She does not waste her time in crying over the loss but rebuilds herself and changes her ways in order to stay there. She understands something at the very early stage of her life for which people take a lifetime. It is all about survival. She has to adept in order to be alive. She does not hesitate to change her name, clothes, and even in culture to achieve that aim. This paper explores how important it is to assimilate as early as possible in order to grow in life

Overweight and Obesity and its associated factors among high school students of Dibrugarh, Assam, India

Background: The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity is emerging as a public health problem in urban India and also contributes to obesity and various non-communicable diseases among adult population. Hence, it is necessary to identify potential risk factors for childhood obesity and formulate early interventions to control this epidemic. Aims & Objectives: To assess the magnitude of overweight and obesity among high-school students of Dibrugarh and to determine factors associated with it. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study including students enrolled in 8th- 10th grades in schools of urban Dibrugarh, Assam was conducted from October 2012 to June 2013 wherein 1000 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Information regarding dietary intake, amount of physical activity was collected using pre-designed, pre-tested questionnaire followed by anthropometric measurements which included body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumference was done. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS-16 software. Results: Of the 1000 students enrolled, 119 (11.9%) were overweight, 71 (7.1%) were obese and 225 (22.5%) had high waist-hip ratio. The factors significantly associated with overweight and obesity were higher socio-economic class, frequent intake of fast food items, sedentary lifestyle with less physical activity. Conclusion: Children belonging to higher socio-economic group, consuming fast food and involved in less physical activity were more predisposed to overweight and obesity.&nbsp

Advancing Archaeological and Geomorphological understanding of the Indian Coast using Old Cartographic and Visual Records

Indian coast has been charted and mapped extensively by various European colonisers such as Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French, since the 16th century, for the purpose of navigation, guiding safe landing, and also for political and military interests. These maps and charts often depict geomorphic features such as shoals, lagoons, and coastlines, along with historical sites as landmarks. However, the geomorphic and archaeological content in these early cartographic documents is mostly unexplored and/or undervalued. The present study has explored and critically evaluated these early maps with the following objectives – 1) to provide a methodology to integrate information from the historical sea- charts, maps, paintings and satellite images using GIS to derive meaningful geomorphic and archaeological information; 2) to explore the usability of historical maps in the investigation of the lost or unidentified archaeological features with respect to the dynamic shoreline; and 3) to advance the understanding of the long-term (few centuries) coastal geomorphology. The study has made original contributions by highlighting the richness and potential of these early maps in advancing the archaeological and geomorphic understanding; this has been achieved by developing and demonstrating a coherent methodology through integrating knowledge, concepts, and methods from different associated disciplines (i.e., remote sensing, GIS, cartography, archaeology, and geomorphology). Generally, geospatial analysis of coastline changes is limited to the period of availability of satellite images (last ~50 years). However, the present study demonstrates the ability and method to use historical maps and extend the spacio-temporal analysis of coastal areas to the last few centuries. The thesis has systematically used geomorphic information from early maps to identify archaeological sites and the location of archaeological sites as a reference to understand long-term (past few centuries) coastal geomorphic processes. More specifically, the present work led to finding hitherto unexplored archaeological remains of colonial forts on coasts of Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala. The study also helped in understanding and dating the long-term dynamics of spits of central Kerala, the evolution of the Thamirabarani delta, and the formation of the Thoothukudi tombolo. The interdisciplinary approach used in this research has fetched multifaceted outcomes and pointed at directions for future research

Some incomplete Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative operators

Several investigations were done by many researchers on extended fractional derivatives operators using different kinds of extended Beta functions (see, e.g.,([4],[7],[8],[18],[20]), and references therein). In this sequel, we develop some new properties on incomplete extended Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative operators with the help of new incomplete extended Beta functions. Other than this, we also present the above defined new incomplete extended Beta function, graphically within a wide range of assumed parameters.Publisher's Versio

Smile4life Reflexive Mapping Exercise. Better Health and social care for homeless people (Aberdeen) : Reflexive Mapping Exercise of services and organisations to support people experiencing homelessness or at risk to become homeless in Aberdeen

Acknowledgments The production of this publication is the result of a multi-agency collaboration between different sectors working to prevent and to mitigate homelessness in Aberdeen City. We would like to express our most sincere and special gratitude to the various organizations and services existing in Aberdeen who have collaborated by sending their information and subsequent updates which were essential for the development of the project and for the unveiling of our reality, in terms of the guarantee of rights, not just for those who are in a vulnerable situation, but all citizens in Aberdeen. We would like to thank Aberdeen City Council, and to Shelter Scotland for our partnership working and the national discussion platform for health and social care integration.Publisher PD

Role of Feature Selection in Building High Performance Heart Disease Prediction Systems

In the last few years, there has been a tremendous rise in the number of deaths due to heart diseases all over the world. In low- and middle-income countries, heart diseases are usually not detected in early stages which makes the treatment difficult. Early diagnosis can help significantly in preventing these diseases. Machine learning-based prediction systems offer a cost-effective and efficient way to diagnose these diseases in an early stage. Research is being carried out to increase the performance of these systems. Redundant and irrelevant features in the medical dataset deteriorate the performance of prediction systems. In this paper, an exhaustive study has been done to improve the performance of the prediction systems by applying 4 feature selection algorithms. Experimental results prove that the use of feature selection algorithms provides a substantial increase in accuracy and speed of execution of the prediction system. The prediction system proposed in this study shall prove to be a great help to prevent heart diseases by enabling the medical practitioners to detect heart diseases in early stages