Drivers of Agricultural Diversification in India, Haryana and the Greenbelt Farms of India

The present study discusses factors responsible for agricultural diversification at different levels : country (India), state (Haryana) and farms of Kurukshetra district in Haryana. The study regressed alternate measures of diversification namely, the Simpson index and concentration of non-food crops, on several possible factors such as income, land distribution, irrigation intensity, institutional credit, road density, urbanization and market penetration. The regression analysis suggests that increased road density, urbanization encourages commercialization of agriculture and with commercialization, farms in a region are increasingly specialized under certain crops and crop-groups as per the resource, infrastructure and institutions of the region.agricultural diversification, agriculture, India, Haryana

PdTe a 4.5K Type II BCS Superconductor

We report on the structure and physical properties of bulk Palladium Tellurium superconductor, which is synthesized via quartz vacuum encapsulation technique at 750 C. The as synthesized compound is crystallized in hexagonal crystal structure. Magnetization and Magneto-transport measurements provided the values of lower and upper critical field to be 250 and 1200 Gauss respectively at 2 Kelvin. The Coherence length and GL parameter are estimated from the experimentally determined upper and lower critical fields, which are 45 nm and 1.48 respectively. The jump in Cp(T) at Tc is found to be 1.33 and the Debye temperature and electronic specific heat constant are 203 Kelvin and 6.01mJ/mole-K2 respectively.Comment: 13 pages Text + Figs: Accepted in Sup. Sci. and Tec

Role of MgO impurity on the superconducting properties of MgB2

We address the effect of MgO impurity on the superconducting properties of MgB2. The synthesis of MgB2 is very crucial because of sensitivity of Mg to oxidation which may lead to MgO as a secondary phase. Rietveld refinement was performed to determine the quantitative volume fraction of MgO in the samples synthesized by two different techniques. Both the samples were subjected to magnetization measurements under dc and ac applied magnetic fields and the observed results were compared as a function of temperature. Paramagnetic Meissner effect has been observed in a sample of MgB2 having more amount of MgO (with Tc = 37.1K) whereas the pure sample MgB2 having minor quantity of MgO shows diamagnetic Meissner effect with Tc = 38.8K. M-H measurements at 10K reveal a slight difference in irreversibility field which is due to MgO impurity along with wide transition observed from ac magnetic susceptibility measurements. The magnetotransport measurements R(T)H using RN = 90%, 50% and 10% criterion on pure sample of MgB2 has been used to determine the upper critical field whereas the sample having large quantity of MgO does not allow these measurements due to its high resistance.Comment: 15 pages text + Fig

Studies on invasive keratinophilic Dermatophytes of human hair

Background: Tinea Capitis (TC) is a dermatophyte infection of the scalp hair follicles and intervening skin. TC is mainly caused by anthropohilic and zoophilic species of the genera Trichophyton and Microsporum. On the basis of the type of hair invasion, dermatophytes are also classified as endothrix, ectothrix or favus. Despite the availability of effective antifungal agents, dermatophytic infections continue to be one of the principal dermatological diseases in Mysore. Objectives: To study the genus and species variants, of fungus causing Tinea Capitis infection and epidemiological factors responsible for the disease in Central Mysore. Materials and methods: Clinically suspected 527 patients with dermatophytes infection cases were included in our study, where 58 cases were diagnosed and confirmed as a Tinea Capitis patients only selected for our study. Suspected lesion like scalp skin scraping and hair plucking samples were collected after disinfecting the site with 70% of ethyl alcohol. Samples were collected in a sterile thick black envelope, folded, labelled and brought to the laboratory for further processing according to slandered Mycological protocol. Results: A total of 527 patients with dermatophytes infection suspected cases were included in our study, where 58 cases (11.0%) were confirmed as a Tinea Capitis. Majority of the dermatophytic infections were seen between April to October i.e. 51, 63, 52, 30, 51, 60 and 57 respectively, so this signified that hot and humid climate favour for dermatophytic infection. There was 33 cases of endothrix infection and only 12 cases of ectothrix infection and 13 cases were not ascertained but P value is significant (P< 0.001) Among all dermatophytes Tinea Capitis was mainly caused by only one genus i.e. T. tonsurans 29/58 (34.4%), T. violaceum 8/58 (31.0%), T. verrucosum 4/58 (6.8%) and T. mentagrophytes 8/58 (13.7%) were isolated.   Conclusion: The prevalence of dermatophyte infections among children was (11.0%), which is most common among the other clinical type of infection. Poverty, lower socioeconomic status, unhygienic condition, hot humid climate and young age group child is the major factors which intensify the dermatophyte infection as a cause of Tinea Capitis. There for continuous isolation identification and conformation of dermatophyte is essential to treat with antifungal drugs for their complete cure. Key words: Tinea Capitis, dermatophytes, Trichophyton tonsurans