Role and performance of Agri-input dealers in extension services in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India

The present study was designed to study the role and performance of input dealers in extension services and the relationship of farmers and dealers from a farmer perspective. For this study, a survey was taken in the Coimbatore district using a purposive random sampling technique with a well-structured interview schedule. The study found that most dealers had 40-50 farmers as customer per day at peak and offseason. Regarding technical assistance given to farmers, 90.00 per cent of the farmers asked for the brand. Delivery in prime season (1.181) followed by credit period (0.633), company officials behaviour (0.600) are the primary factor in the satisfaction of dealers with the company. Regarding the level of satisfaction of the farmers, Product choice (93.33%), Credit facility and availability of the product (90.00%) were the primary satisfaction criteria of the farmers with input dealers. It was concluded from the study that agro chemical company have field assistant at the block and village level to assess the farmers’ problem. In addition, the company having a strong research unit to develop is a need-based product for farmers. They had proper follow up activities in the farmer’s field. Therefore, Agri-input dealers were the first focus of the farmers at the village level. The Agriculture department could use the Agri-input dealers to transfer technology at farmers level and its reach would be high

Influence of dental chair backrest inclination on the three dimensional positioning of the mandible: A Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: The maxillo-mandibular component of the craniofacial system consists of a group of organs and tissues that act harmoniously with interdependent mechanism. In conjunction with the neuromuscular system, the temporomandibular joint allows the mandible to perform various movements in the three dimensions. The mandibular position is influenced by various factors and functions like mouth opening, speech and chewing. Patient position and head orientation in the dental chair plays a major role in occlusal rehabilitation. So the head position of the patient plays a major role while recording centric relation and in prosthetic rehabilitation. Thus it is important to identify the influence of backrest inclination, on the registration of the mandibular position during dental treatment procedures. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To study the influence of dental chair backrest inclinations on the 3-Dimentional positioning of the mandible. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total of 10 subjects with permanent dentition up to second molar with healthy periodontium and normal motor and temporomandibular functions to be selected. The chair was stabilized to check mandibular positions at 2 inclinations: 90°and 180°. To register the mandibular position, inter-occlusal records were made in centric relation for each subject at the said inclinations. Two CBCT were made for each subject with the inter-occlusal records registered at two different inclinations of the dental chair backrest respectively. The CBCT images were analyzed to study the 3-dimentional positioning of the mandible to the temporomandibular joint. RESULT: There was a significant retrusion of the mandible coupled with an upwards and forwards rotation of the mandible. The mandible is also superiorly positioned as seen by the reduction of the intra capsular space. CONCLUSION: It is essential to make registrations of the mandible with the patient seated erect and the chair at 90*, or else a change in mandibular position will complicate rehabilitation

Evaluation of stability of swipe gesture authentication across usage scenarios of mobile device

Background: User interaction with a mobile device predominantly consists of touch motions, otherwise known as swipe gestures, which are used as a behavioural biometric modality to verify the identity of a user. Literature reveals promising verification accuracy rates for swipe gesture authentication. Most of the existing studies have considered constrained environment in their experimental set-up. However, real-life usage of a mobile device consists of several unconstrained scenarios as well. Thus, our work aims to evaluate the stability of swipe gesture authentication across various usage scenarios of a mobile device. Methods: The evaluations were performed using state-of-the-art touch-based classification algorithms—support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbour (kNN) and naive Bayes—to evaluate the robustness of swipe gestures across device usage scenarios. To simulate real-life behaviour, multiple usage scenarios covering stationary and dynamic modes are considered for the analysis. Additionally, we focused on analysing the stability of verification accuracy for time-separated swipes by performing intra-session (acquired on the same day) and inter-session (swipes acquired a week later) comparisons. Finally, we assessed the consistency of individual features for horizontal and vertical swipes using a statistical method. Results: Performance evaluation results indicate impact of body movement and environment (indoor and outdoor) on the user verification accuracy. The results reveal that for a static user scenario, the average equal error rate is 1%, and it rises significantly for the scenarios involving any body movement—caused either by user or the environment. The performance evaluation for time-separated swipes showed better verification accuracy rate for swipes acquired on the same day compared to swipes separated by a week. Finally, assessment on feature consistency reveal a set of consistent features such as maximum slope, standard deviation and mean velocity of second half of stroke for both horizontal and vertical swipes. Conclusions: The performance evaluation of swipe-based authentication shows variation in verification accuracy across different device usage scenarios. The obtained results challenge the adoption of swipe-based authentication on mobile devices. We have suggested ways to further achieve stability through specific template selection strategies. Additionally, our evaluation has established that at least 6 swipes are needed in enrolment to achieve acceptable accuracy. Also, our results conclude that features such as maximum slope and standard deviation are the most consistent features across scenarios

A Cross Sectional study on Sedentary Behavioural Time in Children Aged 12-15 Years and Its association with Sleep Duration

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. To find out the sedentary behavioral time in children aged 12-15 years. 2. To analyze the association between sedentary behavior and sleep duration. METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted at one urban and two rural schools in Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, India between January 2019 to June 2019. One hundred and fifty students from urban area and 150 students from rural areas were surveyed after getting approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee. Healthy children aged 12 – 15 years were included. Those children who are on antiepileptics and antipyretics were excluded. To assess the sedentary time and sleep duration, we used questionnaires comprising questions on baseline characteristics, socio-economic status, total sleep duration per day in weekdays and weekend days and individual domains of sedentary behavior per day on weekdays and weekend days. The total sleep duration per day during weekdays and weekend days were also measured. All the parameters and expressed data were compared in both the groups. RESULTS: We found that children were spending an average time of 11.7 hours per day in sedentary behaviour and the average sleep duration per day was 7.9 hours per day. We found negative correlation between sedentary time and sleep duration in our study population. CONCLUSION: Higher sedentary behavioural time was associated with shorter sleep duration in children in our study

Touch-screen Behavioural Biometrics on Mobile Devices

Robust user verification on mobile devices is one of the top priorities globally from a financial security and privacy viewpoint and has led to biometric verification complementing or replacing PIN and password methods. Research has shown that behavioural biometric methods, with their promise of improved security due to inimitable nature and the lure of unintrusive, implicit, continuous verification, could define the future of privacy and cyber security in an increasingly mobile world. Considering the real-life nature of problems relating to mobility, this study aims to determine the impact of user interaction factors that affect verification performance and usability for behavioural biometric modalities on mobile devices. Building on existing work on biometric performance assessments, it asks: To what extent does the biometric performance remain stable when faced with movements or change of environment, over time and other device related factors influencing usage of mobile devices in real-life applications? Further it seeks to provide answers to: What could further improve the performance for behavioural biometric modalities? Based on a review of the literature, a series of experiments were executed to collect a dataset consisting of touch dynamics based behavioural data mirroring various real-life usage scenarios of a mobile device. Responses were analysed using various uni-modal and multi-modal frameworks. Analysis demonstrated that existing verification methods using touch modalities of swipes, signatures and keystroke dynamics adapt poorly when faced with a variety of usage scenarios and have challenges related to time persistence. The results indicate that a multi-modal solution does have a positive impact towards improving the verification performance. On this basis, it is recommended to explore alternatives in the form of dynamic, variable thresholds and smarter template selection strategy which hold promise. We believe that the evaluation results presented in this thesis will streamline development of future solutions for improving the security of behavioural-based modalities on mobile biometrics

Safety and Pharmacological Profile of Thirikadugu Dravagam

The drug Thirikadugu dravagam was selected from the siddha literature “yaakobu vaithiya chinthamani” 700 to evaluate the safety and Pharmacological profile in animal models. The ingredients of the test drug was identified and authenticated by Botanist, The standard operative procedure were followed. Review of various information Relevant to the study Both Modern and Siddha Aspect supported the study. According to AYUSH protocol Physical characterization, like PH, Specific Gravity were evaluated. PH of Thirikadugu dravagam is 4..65, Even though it is acidic, Siddhars indicated this for internal use with equal amount of water, to Neutralise the acid. Specific Gravity is commonly used in pharmaceutical laboratory to determine the concentration of the solution. Specific gravity of Thirikadugu dravagam is 0.9992. Elemental analysis is also essential to ensure the Safety and efficacy of drug. Test drug shows heavy metals below the detected limit. GC-MS: Have been used for identification of large number of components present in natural and biological systems. Hence the drug is consider as safe drug. chemical analysis: chemical analysis of the drug Thirikadugu dravagam reveals that the presence Chloride. Calcium, alkaoloids. All these analytical studies shows, The drug is safe and shows Sufficient Molecules of therapeutic benefits for the safety and efficacy of the Drug Thirikadugu Dravagam. Toxicological studies: Before going to clinical study, It is essential to evaluate the toxicity studies. These studies are important to Globalise the siddha system of medicine. Based on these Acute, Sub-acute, and Sub-chronic studies were carried out using wistar albino rats. This study reveals that, no significant toxic effect of the drug Thirikadugu dravagam upto the higher dose level of 10ml/kg in acute oral toxicity, sub- acute and sub chronic toxicity studies. Therefore the drug Thirikadugu dravagam is safe on animal experimentation, and there is no toxicity of administration. Hence it can be classified under the category of drug with non-toxic. Pharmacological studies: Pharmacological study was carried out in animal models The experimental data showed that Thirikadugu dravagam has bronchodilator, Anti-histaminic Anti-inflammatory activity and the results are as follows, Bronchodilator activity: The contractile of tracheal chain in vitro has often been utilized for the study of contractile response of agonists as well as antagonist. spasmogen such as histamine produces dose dependent contraction of guinea pig tracheal chain preparation. In the present study, the trial drug Thirikadugu dravagam significantly inhibited the histamine- induced contractions of isolated guinea pig tracheal chain preparation, indicating Bronchodilator activity Anti-histaminic activity: The result of present study suggested that guinea pig exposed to histamine aerosol showed singns of progressive Dysponea leading to convulsions. The two doses of Thirikadugu dravagam prolonged the latent period of convulsion as compared to control following the exposure to histamine aerosol. Thus our findings suggest that Thirikadugu dravagam possess significant antihistaminic activity. Anti- inflammatory activity: Thirikadugu dravagam exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity when compare to the control. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: AIM: To evaluate the Safety and Pharmacological Profile of the Test Drug “THIRIKADUGU DRAVAGAM" in Animal Models. OBJECTIVES: Review of various information relevant to the study from Siddha and modern literature. Preparation of the drug according to Siddha literature. 1. Analytical study of the prepared drug a) Organoleptic & physical characterization, b) Chemical analysis to evaluate acidic and basic radicals, c) TLC & HPTLC Finger print analysis, d) Elemental analysis(ICPOES), e) Gas chromotography (GS-MC). 2. Toxicity studies: a. Acute oral toxicity study OECD – 423 Guideline. b. 28 day Repeated oral toxicity study OECD – 407Guideline. c. 90 days chronic toxicity study OECD – 408 Guideline. 3. Pharmacological activities in animal models: a. Bronchodilator activity (Isolated tracheal chain preparation method). b. Anti-histaminic activity of Thirikadugu dravagam in vivo. c. Anti-inflammatory activity (Carageenan induced paw odema). RESULTS: In My research, studies like Organoleptic characters, physical characters, chemical analysis, phytochemical analysis, Elemental analysis, Gas chromatography, Toxicity and pharmacological studies have been carried to know the potency and efficacy of the drug Thirikadugu dravagam. Botanical aspect explains the active principle and medicinal uses of the plants. Gunapadam review brings the effectiveness of the drug in treating Bronchial ashtma. The pharmacological review explains about the methodology of Bronchodilator, Anti-histaminic activity and the drugs used. Analytical study of the drug is more essential to derive the efficacy, potency of the drug by analysing it by various studies. Following are the results of physicochemical, Phytochemical analysis, estimation of basic and acidic radicals, Elemental analysis, GSMC have been done and tabulated. Toxicological results of the drug and pharmacological activity of the drug were derived. Its result has been tabulated and interpretation was made below. Thus it is to give a complete justification to bring the effectiveness of the trial drug Thirikadugu dravagam. SUMMARY: The test drug Thirikadugu dravagam was selected from the siddha literature “Yaaakobu vaithiyachinthamani” for its Bronchodilator, Antihistaminic and Antiinflammatory activities. The test drug was prepared by the given procedure. All the ingredients were identified and authenticated by the experts. Review of literature in various categories was carried out. Siddha aspect, botanical aspect disclosed about the drug. The drug was subjected to analysis such as physicochemical, photochemical, chemical analysis, ICPOES, GC-MS which provided the key ingredients present in the drug thus it accounts the efficacy of the drug Toxicological study was made according to OECD guidelines comprising acute, subacute and sub chronic toxicity study. It screens the safety of the drug. Pharmacological study was done. It revealed of Thirikadugu dravagam in animal model, Bronchodilator, Anti-histaminic activity using Guinea pig and Antiinflammatory activities in wistar albino rats. Results and discussion gives the proper justifications to prove the potency of the drug. Conclusion gives a compiled form of the study and explains the synergistic effect of all the key ingredients and activities that supports the study. Thus the herbal formulation Thirikadugu dravagam is validated for its Safety and efficacy for treating Bronchial asthma and it would be a great drug of choice. CONCLUSION: From the literature evidence, physicochemical analysis, Chemical analysis, Toxicological evaluation and Pharmacological studies, the drug Thirikadugu Drvagam has Bronchodilator, Anti-histaminic and anti-inflammatory activity. It is concluded that the drug Thirikadugu Dravagam can be used in the management of Bronchial asthma and the related Respiratory disorders