Women Reproductive Rights in India: Prospective Future.

Reproductive rights were established as a subset of the human rights. Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children. Issues regarding the reproductive rights are vigorously contested, regardless of the population’s socioeconomic level, religion or culture. Following review article discusses reproductive rights with respect to Indian context focusing on socio economic and cultural aspects. Also discusses sensitization of government and judicial agencies in protecting the reproductive rights with special focus on the protecting the reproductive rights of people with disability (mental illness and mental retardation)

Formability of Metal-Matrix Composite based on Aluminium Alloy 6061 - Reinforced with Silicon Carbide Particulars

Aluminium alloy reinforced with hard ceramic materials has improved specific strength, specific modulus and wear resistance . Increasing amount of these reinforcing materials decreases ductility and CTE values . Many of these properties are desirable in aerospace , marine and automotive applications . There is no substantial data available as regards to forming characteristics of newly developed composite alloy.The present work has been undertaken with a view to assess quantitatively the forming behavior of 6061-Al/SiCPcomposites developed through conventional casting routes.The cast composites were upset tested and drawn during study of formability. Ring compression tests developed by Male and Cockcroft have been used for determining the friction factor during upsetting of rings . The reduction capacity test was modelled using Avitzur 's equations for forging of thin discs to estimate friction factor during upset forging a solid cylindrical disk under dry conditions . Friction factor has been estimated using a computer based on equation developed by Venugopal et al.Increasing silicon carbide content from 10 vol% to 20 vol% resulted in decreased formability based on upset test. Initially this decrease was of the order of 20% which later decreased by 25%. The rate of decrease of formability was more pronounced beyond 15 vol% of silicon carbide particulate addition . Paper reports the systematic investigation carried out with composite rings of geometry 6:3:2 (OD:ID:Height) under different lubricating conditions to estimate co-efficient of friction.Interfacial frictional value decreased on changing the lubricating conditions from dry to 220 grade lubricant, and this was of the order of 20-25%. Lubricant 220 and furnace oil were foun to have similar characteristics between 25-45% deformation in height. Paper also reports the results of reduction capacity test during upset forging of samples with aspect ratio of 2 and 2.5. It was revealed that the friction factor has strong dependence on deformation percentage. The friction factors determined by means of ring compression test and reduction capacity test with aspect ratio 2 are not in good agreement in cast Al 6061-SIC r composite, however, they are very close when aspect ratio was increased to 2.5. Further work on forming behaviour of the composite is in progress and it is expected that these will fill up the existing gap in the development of metal matrix composites

Seed abortion in Pongamia pinnata (Fabaceae)

In Pongamia pinnata only one of the two ovules develops into a seed in most of the pods. Since pollen was not found to be limiting and reduced fertilization could not completely explain the observed frequency of seed abortion, it implied an effect of postfertilization factors. Aqueous extracts of developing seeds and maternal tissue (placenta) did not influence abortion in vitro, suggesting that abortion may not be mediated by a chemical. Experimental uptake of 14C sucrose in vitro indicated that both the stigmatic and the peduncular seed have similar inherent capacities of drawing resources, but the peduncular seed is deprived of resources in the presence of the stigmatic seed. This deprivation of the peduncular seed could be offset by supplying an excess of hormones leading to the subsequent formation of two seeds in a pod. The prevalence of single-seeded pods in P. pinnata seems therefore to be a result of competition between the two seeds for maternal resources. The evolutionary significance of single-seeded pods in P. pinnata is discussed with respect to possible dispersal advantage enjoyed by such pods

Soil fertility status of coconut and arecanut growing soils

The present study was undertaken to assess the soil fertility status of major coconut and arecanut growing soils in different agro-climatic conditions of Karnataka. Based on the agro-climate variability, thirty typical soil pedons representing five different agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of Karnataka, namely, eastern dry zone (EDZ), southern dry zone (SDZ), southern transitional zone (STZ), hilly zone (HZ), and coastal zone (CZ) were studied for their physicochemical properties. The study revealed that soils of semi-arid (EDZ and SDZ) and sub-humid (STZ) zones have near neutral to moderately alkaline reaction and humid region soils (coastal and hilly zones) have high acidity. The soils are non-saline with low cation exchange capacity. Greater soil organic carbon was recorded in arecanut soils than coconut under all ACZs except coastal zone. The major nutrients status of the soil samples indicated that the available nitrogen is low in all the pedons; the pooled data of available nitrogen content was higher in arecanut (166.3 kg ha-1) than coconut (152.6 kg ha-1), and hilly zone soils recorded higher available nitrogen. A wide range of available P2O5 was noticed in coconut and arecanut soils, ranging from 1.0 to 64.2 kg ha-1. The coconut soils (11.5 kg ha-1) recorded higher available P2O5 than arecanut soils (9.62 kg ha-1) when data were pooled. The soils were low to medium in available potassium, and a higher available K2O content was recorded in arecanut soils (151.7 kg ha-1) compared to coconut (110.1 kg ha-1). The available K2O ranged from 66.8 to 511.7 kg ha-1 in the surface and 37.6 to 461.2 kg ha-1 in sub-surface soils

Differential metabolism of alprazolam by liver and brain cytochrome (P4503A) to pharmacologically active metabolite

Cytochrome P450 (P450) is a superfamily of enzymes which mediates metabolism of xenobiotics including drugs. Alprazolam, an anti-anxiety agent, is metabolized in rat and human liver by P4503A1 and P4503A4 respectively, to 4-hydroxy alprazolam (4-OHALP, pharmacologically less active) and α-hydroxy alprazolam (α-OHALP, pharmacologically more active). We examined P450 mediated metabolism of alprazolam by rat and human brain microsomes and observed that the relative amount of α-OHALP formed in brain was higher than liver. This biotransformation was mediated by a P450 isoform belonging to P4503A subfamily, which is constitutively expressed in neuronal cells in rat and human brain. The formation of larger amounts of α-OHALP in neurons points to local modulation of pharmacological activity in brain, at the site of action of the anti-anxiety drug. Since hydroxy metabolites of alprazolam are hydrophilic and not easily cleared through blood-CSF barrier, α-OHALP would potentially have a longer half-life in brain

Negative diffraction pattern dynamics in nonlinear cavities with left-handed materials

We study a ring cavity filled with a slab of a right-handed material and a slab of a left-handed material. Both layers are assumed to be nonlinear Kerr media. First, we derive a model for the propagation of light in a left-handed material. By constructing a mean-field model, we show that the sign of diffraction can be made either positive or negative in this resonator, depending on the thicknesses of the layers. Subsequently, we demonstrate that the dynamical behavior of the modulation instability is strongly affected by the sign of the diffraction coefficient. Finally, we study the dissipative structures in this resonator and reveal the predominance of a two-dimensional up-switching process over the formation of spatially periodic structures, leading to the truncation of the homogeneous hysteresis cycle.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Cocoa Care - An Android Application for Cocoa Disease Identification

India is an agricultural country. The correct and timely identification of diseases in crops is very much essential in agriculture. To obtain more valuable products, a product quality control is basically mandatory. Cocoa is an economically important crop that nowadays enlarges its production in southern India. To assist the farmers growing cocoa, we developed an android application Cocoa-Care. This application automatically identifies the diseases of cocoa crops, thereby helps the farmers who have little or no information about the disease. This application is developed by applying digital image processing techniques on the diseased cocoa images. Our approach replaces the manual disease inspection by the android application that identifies the cocoa disease from the captured image and suggests the possible remedies for the farmer. We used moment based texture features for the image representation and description. The matching is performed by nearest neighbor classifier. The results obtained are promising and this application can be used in the real time

Acid-base properties of Cu<SUB>1-x</SUB>Co<SUB>x</SUB>Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> ferrospinels: FTIR investigations

Systematic IR spectroscopic studies were undertaken to investigate the acid-base properties of Cu-Co ferrospinels Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x=0 to 1) employed in phenol methylation to produce 2,6-xylenol. The IR spectra of the ferrospinels reveal that Fe3+ and Co2+ ions are mainly responsible for the various hydroxy groups on the surface. Temperature dependent IR studies of pyridine adsorbed on spinels and on the spinel phase with deliberately added metal oxide exemplify the contribution of the metal ions and their coordination state towards Lewis acidity. IR studies of the spinel surface with adsorbed CO2 and adsorption studies of electron acceptors such as 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1-4-benzoquinone and p-dinitrobenzene were carried out to evaluate the nature of the basic sites and the strength and distribution of the electron donor sites present on the spinel surface. It was found that the acidity (basicity) of the Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 spinel system increases (decreases) from x=0 to 1. A correlation between acidity, basicity and catalytic performance reveals that an intermediate acid-base character enhances the phenol methylation activity