Regeneration of plants from alginate-encapsulated shoots of Rhododendron dalhousiae Hook. F.

A method has been developed for plant regeneration from alginate-encapsulated nodal segments of Rhododendron dalhousiae. Shoot tips collected from in vitro proliferated shoots were used for synthetic seed production. For encapsulation, nodal segments were mixed with MS medium supplemented with 3% sodium alginate and incubated with calcium chloride (60 mM). The maximum frequency (69%) of conversion of encapsulated shoot tips into plantlets was achieved on MS medium containing 25 ?M 2-isopentenyladenine (2iP) along with additive such as, 100 mg L-l polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), 100 mg L -l ascorbic acid, 10 mg L-l citric acid. The presence of 2iP (25 ?M) with IAA (0.6 ?M) improved re-generation. Amongst the two gelling agents used higher shoot proliferation as well as better growth were observed in cultures grown on Agar in comparison to Phytagel medium. Encapsulated nodal segments stored at 4°C for 25 days also showed successful conversion, followed by development into complete plantlets when returned to regeneration medium. Liquid medium was superior over solid medium for root formation and growth. IBA (1.0 ?M) was more effective than other auxins for root induction. Plantlets with developed shoot and roots were hardened off to survive ex vitro conditions and successfully established in greenhouse. Possibility of direct sowing of synthetic seeds in the soil was also examined

Study of knowledge, attitude and practice of copper T as a method of contraception among antenatal women

Background: Family planning is defined by WHO as a way of thinking and living that is adopted voluntarily, upon the basis of knowledge, attitudes and responsible decisions by individuals and couples, in order to promote the health and welfare of family groups and thus contribute effectively to the social development of a country. The main objective was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding family planning and the practice of contraceptives among the antenatal women.Methods: A hospital based, cross sectional study was conducted in obstetrics and gynaecology department of SGT medical college, hospital and research institute over a period of 6 months. Convenient sampling was used to identify and interview 500 pregnant women, using a semi structured questionnaire. Data was entered and analysed with SPSSv21.Results: In our study, 74.2% participants have the knowledge about Cu-T as a method of contraception and 39% participants considered it a safe and economical method of contraception, 16.2% participants used PPIUCD and 40.2% considered it as unsafe method. Uses of PPIUCD was significantly associated with increasing age, illiteracy and non-working participants. Around one third participants were having uncertain attitude towards use of PPIUCD.Conclusions: In our study we observed that uses of PPIUCD is still lower side and there is a need to be motivate the people for effective and appropriate use of contraceptives when required and arrest the trend towards unwanted pregnancy.

Dynamic effect in capillary pressure-saturation relationship for CO2-H2O-sand system: application to CO2 sequestration

The non-uniqueness in capillary pressure (Pc) and saturation (S) relationship is of concerns to researchers of two-phase systems in porous media. This is because of its effect on the effective monitoring and control of the two-phase flow in porous media, especially the case of CO2-brine system encountered in geological carbon sequestration. This work aims to investigate the dynamic effects in Pc-S relationship for CO2-water system and quantify it by the parameter known as the dynamic coefficient

MAN-SUMER-ISM IN RETAIL: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FROM EMERGING RETAIL FORMATS OF URBAN ODISHA

When it comes to shopping in-store, both genders vehemently agree that long lines to check out hinder their enjoyment when it comes time for some retail therapy. Since the term “mansumer” was coined in December 2012, retailers have worked to identify how purchasing patterns differ between women and men. The rise of e-tail has leveled the playing field between male and female shoppers. The Mansumer Myth states that retailers falsely belief that men should be treated differently than women because they are more efficient and concerned about time, they are not influenced by browsing and they make logical rather than emotional decisions. Everything from advertising style, message, and media, to product design, store layout, sales training, and customer service policies are designed to appeal specifically to both sexes. Failure to address the idiosyncrasies of gender can have real financial consequence for retailers. The purpose of this study is to compare men and women for differences in shopping from emerging retail formats

Characterization of CO2-brine migration with criteria for detection of CO2 leakage in the porous media

The issue of global warming and the proposed geological carbon sequestration have increased the interests in the supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and brine/water as two-phase flow system in porous medium. Like other two-phase flow systems in porous media, the capillary pressure (Pc), relative permeability (Kr) and electrical properties (e.g., bulk electrical conductivity (σb) and bulk dielectric constant (εb) ) of the fluid-fluid-porous media systems can be used as the characterization parameters since they are all functions of water saturation (S). But the non-uniqueness of these functions pose challenges to their applications in the efficient and reliable monitoring of the subsurface processes involving two-phase flow system, especially CO2-water/brine system. This work invetsigates the non-uniqueness in the Pc-S, εb-S and σb-S relationships for scCO2-brine/water system in silicate and carbonate media. The work further explore the application of silicone rubber as membrane in the detection of CO2 leakage in the subsurface.Finally, simple criteria is established to distinguish the presence of various gases in the subsurface and design simple household application of the leakage detection system

FLIM-MAP: Gene Context Based Identification of Functional Modules in Bacterial Metabolic Pathways

Prediction of functional potential of bacteria can only be ascertained by the accurate annotation of its metabolic pathways. Homology based methods decipher metabolic gene content but ignore the fact that homologs of same protein can function in different pathways. Therefore, mere presence of all constituent genes in an organism is not sufficient to indicate a pathway. Contextual occurrence of genes belonging to a pathway on the bacterial genome can hence be exploited for an accurate estimation of functional potential of a bacterium. In this communication, we present a novel annotation resource to accurately identify pathway presence by using gene context. Our tool FLIM-MAP (Functionally Important Modules in bacterial Metabolic Pathways) predicts biologically relevant functional units called ‘GCMs’ (Gene Context based Modules) from a given metabolic reaction network. We benchmark the accuracy of our tool on amino acids and carbohydrate metabolism pathways

Arribazón de medusa azul Porpita porpita en las playas de Visakhapatnam, India (Bahía occidental de Bengala)

Porpita porpita occurs in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, and the mass numbers of stranded colonies seem to be increasing. Although its presence in Indian waters is minimal, this is the first record ever made of P. porpita in Visakhapatnam coastal waters. The present study provided a detailed description of the species and its global distribution. Further, the perceived increase in gelatinous zooplankton blooms in the observed area indicates that jellyfish can negatively affect fisheries because they compete with zooplanktivorous fish, prey upon fish eggs and larvae, and indirectly compete with higher trophic levels by reducing the plankton available to planktivores. Conversely, jellyfishes also play a vital role in regulating global marine plankton food webs, spatio-temporal dynamics, and biomass, which is a role that has been generally neglected so far.Porpita porpita se encuentra en las aguas tropicales y subtropicales de los océanos Pacífico, Atlántico e Índico, y el número masivo de colonias varadas parece estar aumentando. Aunque su presencia en las aguas de la India es mínima, este es el primer registro de P. porpita en las aguas costeras de Visakhapatnam. El presente estudio proporcionó una descripción detallada de la especie y su distribución global. Además, el aumento percibido en las floraciones de zooplancton gelatinoso en el área observada, indica que las medusas pueden afectar negativamente a las pesquerías porque compiten con los peces zooplanctívoros, se alimentan de huevos y larvas de peces, e indirectamente compiten con niveles tróficos más altos al reducir el plancton disponible para los planctívoros. Por el contrario, las medusas también juegan un papel vital en la regulación de las redes alimentarias del plancton marino global, la dinámica espacio-temporal y la biomasa, un papel que generalmente se ha descuidado hasta ahora.  

Fabrication and Evaluation of Low Density Glass-Epoxy Composites for Microwave Absorption Applications

In the present work, fabrication and evaluation of low density glass – epoxy (LDGE) composites suitable for absorbing minimum 80 per cent of incident microwave energy in 8 GHz to 12 GHz (X-band) is reported. LDGE composites having different densities were fabricated using a novel method of partially replacing conventional S-glass fabric with low density glass (LDG) layers as the reinforcement materials. Flexural strength, inter laminar shear strength and impact strength of the prepared LDGE composites were evaluated and compared with conventional High density glass-epoxy (HDGE) composites to understand the changes in these properties due to replacement of S-glass fabrics with LDG layers. To convert LDGE structures to radar absorbing structures controlled quantities of milled carbon fibers were impregnated as these conducting milled carbon fibers can act as dielectric lossy materials which could absorb the incident microwave energy by interfacial polarisation. Electromagnetic properties namely loss tangent and reflection loss of carbon fiber impregnated LDGE composites were evaluated in 8 GHz -12 GHz frequency region and compared with HDGE composites. It was observed that both LDGE and HDGE composites have shown loss tangent values more than 1.1 and minimum 80 per cent absorption of incident microwave energy. Thus the results indicates that, LDGE composites can show EM properties on par with HDGE composites. Furthermore these LDGE composite could successfully withstand the low velocity impacts (4.5 m/s) with 50 J incident energy. Due to their ability to show good mechanical properties and light weight, LDGE composites can be used as a replacement for conventional HDGE composites to realise radar absorbing structures