Invariant and screen semi-invariant lightlike submanifolds of a metallic semi-Riemannian manifold with a quarter symmetric non-metric connection

This research work introduces the structure of invariant and screen semi-invariant lightlike submanifolds of a metallic semi-Riemannian manifold with a quarter symmetric non-metric connection, elaborated with examples. It delves into the characterization of integrability and parallelism of distributions inherent in the structure of these submanifolds. Additionally, it presents findings pertaining to totally geodesic foliations for invariant and screen semi-invariant submanifolds

PREVALENCE OF REFRACTIVE ERRORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN AN URBAN SETUP: A PROSPECTIVE AND OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of refractive errors and their types by their age, sex, and class among the students of secondary school in an urban area of state of Punjab, North India. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on a total of 1545 school children, aged between 10 and 16 years studying in 6th–10th class. Sample size included 822 males and 723 females. Snellen’s distant test types and self-illuminated streak retinoscope were used for this study. Results: Cumulative prevalence of refractive errors was found to be 35.21% among the students. The distribution among the type of refractive errors was: Myopia – 65.07%, Hypermetropia – 14.89%, and Astigmatism – 20.04%. The prevalence among the male and female students was 34.91% and 35.55%, respectively. Conclusion: This study supports the screening of school children for visual acuity and their refractive errors so that they can be identified to improve their quality of life at present and also to prevent any long-term visual disability

Application of Response Surface Methodology for Optimizing Arginine Deiminase Production Medium for Enterococcus faecium

Arginine metabolism in Enterococcus faecium sp. GR7 was enhanced via arginine deiminase pathway. Process parameters including fermentation media and environmental conditions were optimized using independent experiments and response surface methodology (central composite design). Fermentation media (EAPM) were optimized using independent experiments which resulted in 4-fold increase in arginine deiminase specific activity as compared to basal medium. To further enhance arginine deiminase activity in E. faecium sp. GR7 and biomass production including a five-level central composite design (CCD) was employed to study the interactive effect of three-process variables. Response surface methodology suggested a quadratic model which was further validated experimentally where it showed approximately 15-fold increase in arginine metabolism (in terms of arginine deiminase specific activity) over basal medium. By solving the regression equation and analyzing the response surface cartons, optimal concentrations of the media components (g/L) were determined as arginine 20.0; tryptone 15.0; lactose 10.0; K2HPO4 3.0; NaCl 1.0, MnSO4 0.6 mM; Tween 80 1%; pH 6.0 for achieving specific arginine deiminase activity of 4.6 IU/mG with concomitant biomass production of 12.1 mg/L. The model is significant as the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.87 to 0.90 for all responses. Enhanced arginine deiminase yield from E. faecium, a GRAS lactic acid bacterial strain, is desirable to explore in vitro therapeutic potential of the arginine metabolizing E. faecium sp. GR7

Relationship of Preparedness and Burden among Family Caregivers of Cancer Patients in India

Introduction: Caregiving is a demanding physical and emotional journey, but most family caregivers assume the role with limited caregiving skills and few resources that may lead to increased levels of stress and feelings of inadequacy causing caregiver to view their role as burdensome. In an effort to understand the negative consequences of caregiving, the present study is aimed at finding the relationship of preparedness for caregiving and burden among family caregivers of cancer patients. Methods: An exploratory, co-relational, cross sectional survey assessed 225 eligible family caregivers of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy in selected hospital of Punjab. Measures involved Socio demographic Data Sheet, Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA), and Preparedness for Caregiving Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation. Results: Preparedness for Caregiving had moderate negative correlation with burden at 0.01 level of significance (r= -0.531**). Female caregivers and those having sufficient unpaid help in caregiving responsibility had high level of perceived preparedness for caregiving. Burden was high in those caregivers who had no help in caregiving responsibility and belonged to other district (more distance from treatment center). Conclusion: Study concluded that low perceived Preparedness for Caregiving results in high burden. Oncology nurses should take the measures to increase the preparedness for caregiving among family caregiver of cancer patients. Study findings also warrant early assessments of caregiver preparedness so that supportive interventions may be targeted to the caregivers who are at risk of poor outcome. Keywords: Preparedness for Caregiving, burden, family caregiver, cancer

Structural and thermal properties of vanadium tellurite glasses

V2O5-TeO2 glasses containing 10 to 50 mol% V2O5 were prepared by melt quenching and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), density, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Raman studies.XRD confirmed the amorphous nature of vanadium tellurite samples. The density of the glasses decreases and the molar volume increases on increasing the concentration of V2O5. The thermal properties, such as glass transition temperature Tg, crystallization temperature Tc, and the melting temperature Tm were measured. Tg decreases from a value of 288°C to 232°C. The changes in Tg were correlated with the number of bonds per unit volume, and the average stretching force constant. Raman spectra were used to elucidate the short-range structure of vanadium tellurite glasses

Effect of nutritional supplements on queen cell production in honey bee (Apis mellifera)

Honey bees are an important means of earning a living both at small and commercial levels. Maximum benefits can be obtained from strong colonies and in order to maintain strong colonies a good beekeeper requeens the colonies every second year. This requires a number of queens. The advances in beekeeping technology have made it possible to rear queens artificially or naturally. There is scope for improvement of these methods. The aim of the present study was to investigate if nutritional supplements could facilitate queen cell production in spring and autumn seasons. Becosule, thiamine, yeast and sugar solutions were fed to the honey bee colonies. The greatest number of queen cells was produced in the yeast fed colonies in spring. Bee mortality was observed in case of becosule. Perhaps the formulation contained some components which were toxic to honey bees. The effect on queen cell production by the different nutrients was in the order of Yeast > Thiamine > Becosule

Engineering students’ perceptions for engineers and engineering work

Background: Engineering is well ahead of many other disciplines in terms of establishing strong and evidence-based research and practice relating to employability. Despite this, there are high rates of student and graduate attrition in many countries. One possible reason for this is that students enter engineering study without a sense of motivation and commitment, and without understanding the realities of either their degree program or engineering work. Purpose: Educational institutions provide the learning foundation upon which competence for a professional engineering career is established; however, understanding how students position learning in relation to their future careers is a neglected area of research. Working with engineering students in their first semester of study, this research aimed to extend current understanding of students’ thinking about competencies, identity, self-efficacy, motivation, career preview, and both career aspirations and fears.Study Design: Twelve hundred first-year engineering students at an Australian university participated in in-class workshops in which they considered their future lives and work. Responses were coded using the Engineers Australia (EA) graduate competencies as a framework. In this paper we report findings from the first cohort of students (n=260), of whom 49% were international students with English as their second language. Results: Students most frequently characterised engineers in line with the EA competency Professional and Personal Attributes. Striking differences emerged between international and local (domestic) students’ perceptions of difference between the characteristics of engineers and their own attributes. These extended to Engineering Application Ability, Knowledge and Skill Base, and characteristics of engineers that are not EA competencies. Conclusions: Implications for engineering education include changes to the information that guides course and career choice; the role and impact of foundation-year, including career-oriented learning; and the structure and delivery of pedagogical approaches that explore engineering identity. In considering these implications, language and cultural diversity warrant further attention

The adsorption and reaction of ketones on the surface of group 10 metal catalysts, a density functional theory study

The hydrogenation of ketones over cinchona modified transition metal surfaces is an important step in many applications in heterogeneous catalysis, such as the production of unsaturated alcohols from a-0 unsaturated ketones. In the gas-phase simple ketones, such as acetone, do not have a significant population of the enol isomer. Even so deuterium exchange studies clearly point to the involvement of the enol form in hydrogenation catalysis over some group 10 metals. Two different aspects of the nature of the intermediates involved in the model enantioselective hydrogenation reaction are investigated in this work. In Chapter 5, a combined semi-empirical and ab initio conformational analysis of cinchonidine reveals four stable structures of the alkaloid, two Open and two Closed forms. The reaction energies for the formation of the diastereomeric complex between protonated cinchonidine conformers and the s-cis and s-trans isomers of ethyl pyruvate and butane-2,3-dione are used to predict the relative concentrations of these intermediates. For both reactants, the complex involving the Open(3)H+ structure with the s-cis conformation of the reactant, favouring the pro (R) lactate and hydroxybutanone are optimised to be the dominant intermediates formed in the hydrogenation reaction, providing theoretical enantiomeric excesses of 33% and 98%, respectively. In Chapters 6 and 7, periodic density functional theory calculations are used to examine the chemisorption of formaldehyde and acetone as model keto groups for the pyruvate on (111) surfaces of Pd and Pt. To test computational methods the adsorption of ethene on Pt(III) is investigated. The CASTEP program is found to overbind the ethene molecule to the surface. The corresponding adsorption energies are overestimated by between 10 and 20% when compared to analogous data generated with the VASP code. The overestimation is caused by the use of ultrasoft pseudopotentials generated at the local density approximation level. Reliable adsorption data for the chemisorption of formaldehyde and acetone is obtained with the VASP program, which uses pseudopotentials based on the projector augmented-wave model. The relative energies suggest that the Pt surface is more reactive than the Pd, and that the adsorption of the enol isomer of acetone is thermodynamically stable compared to the keto form. Small activation barriers for the favourable modes of chemisorption are calculate

An insight into drought stress and signal transduction of abscisic acid

The sustainable crop production is one of the major issue in the era of urbanization, industrialization, and globalization. In the environment, there are number of abiotic and biotic factors which are hampering the sustainable production of crops. The drought is one of the constraints which directly/indirectly affects the crop yield. It has various negative effects on the normal physiology and biochemistry of the plants. Therefore, researchers must have to work in the field of developing drought-tolerant crop plants to meet the food needs of the exponentially growing population of the world. The present study is the outcome of an extensive literature survey on the basic perturbations of drought to the crops, role of abscisic acid (ABA) in stressful conditions and its signal transduction