Remunerativeness led acreage response of arecanut in Karnataka state

The decision of farmers regarding allocation of farm resources, in general, and land resource which have supply inelasticity is crucial. This decision of farmers in case of commercial plantation crops will be highly influenced by the policies and programmes formulated by the government. The formulated developmental programmes mainly aim at increasing the overall production of the economy and its success depends on the reactions of farmers to such programmes. The increased production can be achieved either through extensive or intensive cultivation or the mix of two. In this context it becomes imperative to have a better insight about the farmers’ response to various price and non-price factors. To understand the behavioural mechanism of arecanut growers in major areca growing districts of Karnataka, Nerlovian lagged adjustment model was employed. The result revealed that it is the expected price (remunerativeness) which has resulted in extensive cultivation in most of the areca growing belts. The result was contrasting in case of Dakshina Kannada where the response of farmers to expected price was negative, which might be due to the fact that growers in this region have shifted to alternative crop i.e., rubber, which is equally remunerative due to wide prevalence of yellow leaf disease. The other likely reason would be the limitation of area for further expansion, since area expansion has met its saturation in the locality. To prove the remunerativeness of arecanut enterprise, representative district Shimoga was chosen. The economics of arecanut cultivation revealed that it is remunerative compared to other major crops of the study area

A Dissolution-Precipitation Mechanism is at the Origin of Concrete Creep in Moist Environments

Long-term creep (i.e., deformation under sustained load) is a significant material response that needs to be accounted for in concrete structural design. However, the nature and origin of concrete creep remain poorly understood and controversial. Here, we propose that concrete creep at relative humidity ≥ 50%, but fixed moisture content (i.e., basic creep), arises from a dissolution-precipitation mechanism, active at nanoscale grain contacts, as has been extensively observed in a geological context, e.g., when rocks are exposed to sustained loads, in liquid-bearing environments. Based on micro-indentation and vertical scanning interferometry data and molecular dynamics simulations carried out on calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H), the major binding phase in concrete, of different compositions, we show that creep rates are correlated with dissolution rates - an observation which suggests a dissolution-precipitation mechanism as being at the origin of concrete creep. C-S-H compositions featuring high resistance to dissolution, and, hence, creep are identified. Analyses of the atomic networks of such C-S-H compositions using topological constraint theory indicate that these compositions present limited relaxation modes on account of their optimally connected (i.e., constrained) atomic networks

Epidemiological Study of Thoracolumbar Pott’s Spine at a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India

The vertebral column is involved in less than 1% of all the cases of tuberculosis. It can associated with major neurological deficits due to compression of adjacent neural structures with significant deformity of spinal column. Therefore, early diagnosis and management of spinal TB has special importance in preventing these serious complications. In order to extract current trends in diagnosis and medical or surgical treatment of spinal TB we performed a review with patients admitted to our hospital between 2016 and 2017. Although the development of more accurate imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging and advanced surgical techniques have made the early diagnosis and management of spinal TB much easier, these are still very challenging topics. In this review we aim to discuss the diagnosis and management of spinal TB based on studies with acceptable design, clearly explained results and justifiable conclusions

Free-troposphere ozone and carbon monoxide over the North Atlantic for 2001-2011

In situ measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) at the Pico Mountain Observatory (PMO) located in the Azores, Portugal, are analyzed together with results from an atmospheric chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and satellite remote sensing data (AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) for CO, and TES (Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer) for O3) to examine the evolution of free-troposphere CO and O3 over the North Atlantic for 2001-2011. GEOS-Chem captured the seasonal cycles for CO and O3 well but significantly underestimated the mixing ratios of CO, particularly in spring. Statistically significant (using a significance level of 0.05) decreasing trends were found for both CO and O3 based on harmonic regression analysis of the measurement data. The best estimates of the possible trends for CO and O3 measurements are -0.31 ± 0.30 (2-σ) ppbv yr-1 and -0.21 ± 0.11 (2-σ) ppbv yr-1, respectively. Similar decreasing trends for both species were obtained with GEOS-Chem simulation results. The most important factor contributing to the decreases in CO and O3 at PMO over the past decade is the decline in anthropogenic emissions from North America, which more than compensate for the impacts from increasing Asian emissions. It is likely that climate change in the past decade has also affected the intercontinental transport of O3

Presence of glucose, xylose, and glycerol fermenting bacteria in the deep biosphere of the former Homestake gold mine, South Dakota

Eight fermentative bacterial strains were isolated from mixed enrichment cultures of a composite soil sample collected at 1.34 km depth from the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, SD, USA. Phylogenetic analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that these isolates were affiliated with the phylum Firmicutes belonging to genera Bacillus and Clostridium. Batch fermentation studies demonstrated that isolates had the ability to ferment glucose, xylose, or glycerol to industrially valuable products such as ethanol and 1,3-propanediol (PDO). Ethanol was detected as the major fermentation end product in glucose-fermenting cultures at pH 10 with yields of 0.205–0.304 g of ethanol/g of glucose. While a xylose-fermenting strain yielded 0.189 g of ethanol/g of xylose and 0.585 g of acetic acid/g of xylose at the end of fermentation. At pH 7, glycerol-fermenting isolates produced PDO (0.323–0.458 g of PDO/g of glycerol) and ethanol (0.284–0.350 g of ethanol/g of glycerol) as major end products while acetic acid and succinic acid were identified as minor by-products in fermentation broths. These results suggest that the deep biosphere of the former Homestake gold mine harbors bacterial strains which could be used in bio-based production of ethanol and PDO

Prescription practices and availability of artemisinin monotherapy in India: where do we stand?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The World Health Organization has urged all member states to deploy artemisinin-based combination therapy and progressively withdraw oral artemisinin monotherapies from the market due to their high recrudescence rates and to reduce the risk of drug resistance. Prescription practices by physicians and the availability of oral artemisinin monotherapies with pharmacists directly affect the pattern of their use. Thus, treatment practices for malaria, with special reference to artemisinin monotherapy prescription, in selected states of India were evaluated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Structured, tested questionnaires were used to conduct convenience surveys of physicians and pharmacists in eleven purposively selected districts across six states in 2008. In addition, exit interviews of patients with a diagnosis of uncomplicated malaria or a prescription for an anti-malarial drug were also performed. Logistic regression was used to determine patient clinical care, and institutional factors associated with artemisinin monotherapy prescription.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five hundred and eleven physicians from 196 health facilities, 530 pharmacists, and 1, 832 patients were interviewed. Artemisinin monotherapy was available in 72.6% of pharmacies and was prescribed by physicians for uncomplicated malaria in all study states. Exit interviews among patients confirmed the high rate of use of artemisinin monotherapy with 14.8% receiving such a prescription. Case management, i.e. method of diagnosis and overall treatment, varied by state and public or private sector. Treatment in the private sector (OR 8.0, 95%CI: 3.8, 17) was the strongest predictor of artemisinin monotherapy prescription when accounting for other factors. Use of the combination therapy recommended by the national drug policy, artesunate + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, was minimal (4.9%), with the exception of one state.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Artemisinin monotherapy use was widespread across India in 2008. The accessible sale of oral artemisinin monotherapy in retail market and an inadequate supply of recommended drugs in the public sector health facilities promoted its prescription. This study resulted in notifications to all state drug controllers in India to withdraw the oral artemisinin formulations from the market. In 2010, artesunate + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine became the universal first-line treatment for confirmed <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>malaria and was deployed at full scale.</p

Modern Machine Learning Tools for Monitoring and Control of Industrial Processes: A Survey

Over the last ten years, we have seen a significant increase in industrial data, tremendous improvement in computational power, and major theoretical advances in machine learning. This opens up an opportunity to use modern machine learning tools on large-scale nonlinear monitoring and control problems. This article provides a survey of recent results with applications in the process industry.Comment: IFAC World Congress 202

Correction: Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions

Correction for ‘Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions’ by J. A. Perlinger et al., Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2018, 20, 195–209. In the original article, there were errors in some numerical values in Table 3 and in the text in Sections 3.1 and 4.1. The corrected Table and Sections are shown below. The changes are to the magnitudes of mercury species deposition to the Great Lakes region, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the Adirondack region of the Lakes basin. The changes to the Adirondack values reduce the numerical differences in these magnitudes compared to magnitudes of total mercury deposition to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The changes to the mercury species deposition to the Great Lakes region and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have no implications. The changes do not impact the conclusions of the article