Dimensions and Determinants of Peoples’ Participation in Watershed Development Programmes in Rajasthan

Peoples’ participation has been at the centre-stage of the resource conservation and rural development efforts in the developing countries. The study on peoples’ participation in watershed development programmes in Rajasthan has revealed that a very low proportion of beneficiaries is contributing at different stages of the programme in terms of either labour or finances or both. The determinants of participation have been identified using Tobit regression. The institutional effectiveness has been found as the key factor towards guaranteeing involvement of people in the watershed programmes. The other factors positively related with peoples’ participation are training of farmers, age, and frequency of the visit of extension workers. A negative relationship has been found between participation and off-farm income. Therefore, efforts should be made for developing effective local institutions, capacity building through training of farmers and providing off-farm employment opportunities in the countryside itself for safeguarding the livelihoods of people in the rainfed areas.Agricultural and Food Policy,

HORIZONTAL LIFTS OF THE GOLDEN STRUCTURES FROM A MANIFOLD TO ITS TANGENT BUNDLE

The present paper aims to investigate `the horizontal lift' of $J$ satisfying $J^2-J-I=0$ and demonstrate its status as a type of golden structure. The Nijenhuis tensor $N^\ast$ of the horizontal lift $J^H$ on the tangent bundle is determined. Also, a tensor field $\tilde{J}$ of type (1,1) is studied and shown to be golden structure on the tangent bundle. Furthermore, several conclusions regarding the Nijenhuis tensor and the Lie derivative of the golden structure $\tilde{J}$ on the tangent bundle are deduced. Moreovber, a study is done on the golden structure $\tilde{J}$ on the tangent bundle that is equipped with projection operators $\tilde{l}$ and $\tilde{m}$. Finally, we construct an example of it

Growth of Vaishnavism in India: A Historical Study

India is a country with many religions. It has been the birth of many religions, like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Hinduism is also called Sanatana Dharma. Bhagwat, Pashupat, Lingayat, etc. all religions are a part of Sanatana Dharma. Vaishnavism is a part of the Bhagwat religion. The Development of Vaishnavism in India begins in the ancient period. Vaishnavism in India is mentioned by Heliodorus, the Greek ambassador in Taxila during the Sunga Period. In the Besnagar inscription of Gautami Putra Satkarni in Madhya Pradesh, we find the mention of Vaishnavism on the Garuda Pillar. In the Kushana period also, we find mention of the development of Vaishnavism. Many Images and sculptures of the Kushana period related to Vaishnava stories are found in the Mathura region. Three different idols of Ekansha, Baldeva, and Vasudeva have been found in the Devghar village of the Nawada district of Bihar. Which are kept now in Patna Museum. Vaishnavism developed a lot in the Gupta period. The reign of the Gupta kings is famous for the progress of the Brahmin religion. An inscription has been received from Tosham village of Hisar district of Haryana, which begins with the praise of Lord Vasudev Vishnu. This is a Gupta carpet inscription. Thus, we see that the development of Vaishnavism in India has been happening since ancient times, and even at the present time there are a large number of followers of Vaishnavism in India

Huriez syndrome: a rare palmoplantar keratoderma

The Huriez syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant transgradient palmoplantar keratoderma which is characterized by scleroatrophy of the fingers, nail changes and squamous cell carcinomas in affected skin. Herein, we present a non-familial case of very rare plamoplantar keratoderma with scleroatrophy - the Huriez syndrome in a 45 year old female patient

STUDY ON SERUM LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE LEVEL IN PRECANCEROUS, CANCEROUS, AND HEALTHY SUBJECTS

Objective: Present study was carried out to evaluate the serum level of lactate hydrogenase enzyme in normal, precancerous, and cancerous subjectsindependently, to probe into the possible interrelationship among them, by utilizing biochemical parameter as an adjunct or solely to diagnose themalignant condition.Methods: The study was carried out to evaluate the role of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as a biochemical parameter in the oral premalignantand malignant and normal subjects. Estimation of LDH was carried out by spectrophotometric method of Wroblewski and LaDue. Statistical analysiswas done using Student's t-test.Result: An increased level of LDH was found in serum in patients with oral premalignant and malignant lesions. Moreover, the raised level of LDH hada positive correlation with the histologic grading.Conclusion: Serum LDH in normal subject is 338.82 WL unit /ml. However the mean LDH value increases to 485.66 in premalignant lesion and to762.72 WL unit /ml in malignancy. Thus we conclude that serum LDH level increases in premalignant lesion and malignancy.Keywords: Lactate dehydrogenase, Leukoplakia, Oral cancer

Catalytic effect of acetate (C2H3O2) on coulombic efficiency and bio-electricity generation from wastewater sample prepared from domestic kitchen waste using dual chamber microbial fuel cell technology

In recent times, the use of energy resources, particularly non-renewable resources, have increased manifolds due to the ever-increasing global demands. This has led to an increase in depletion of the resources and environmental pollution. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) are a new concept that has proved to be the solution to the problem as a green energy resource. The paper focuses on generating electricity from wastewater prepared from kitchen wet waste kept for about 168 hours in an attempt to address the energy crisis while also treating it. A comparative analysis of the sample as prepared and with acetate has been studied and power generation, coulombic efficiency and change in chemical oxygen demand (COD) for wastewater were calculated and also the catalytic effect of acetate was analyzed. It was  observed that there was a substantial increase in coulombic efficiency and COD content .   A coulombic Efficiency  efficiency of 25.29% was obtained for the sample with acetate, whereas, without acetate it was calculated as 9.71%. The maximum power density was obtained from the polarization curves. It was observed that the maximum power density of pure kitchen wastewater was found to be 0.017 mW/m2; however, for kitchen wastewater with acetate, the power density increased considerably to 0.546 mW/m2 at an external resistance of 1Kῼ. Further, the maximum current densities observed were 2.239 mA/m2 and 8.771 mA/m2, respectively. The internal resistance of the constructed prototypes was also determined using the maximum power transfer theorem. In this study, a prototype was constructed and it was found that kitchen waste can be used as a source of electricity generation and leads to a green energy initiative.    

Exploring the Nature, Attributes and Consequences of Forgiveness in Children: A Qualitative Study

Researchers have unanimously suggested forgiveness to be closely linked with a host of positive life outcomes for people across all developmental periods. The scientific endeavours have largely been confined to the study of adults’ forgiveness mostly employing quantitative methods and, thus, have oversighted the study of children’s forgiveness despite its similar and noticeable relevance to their life outcomes. To bridge this gap, this study aims to explore the nature, attributes and perceived consequences of forgiveness for children. The study was carried out on full-time mothers of 4 male (5-10 years) and 4 female (4.50-9.50 years) children of the same local community. The mothers were interviewed about the nature of perceived wrongdoings, emotional, social and cognitive concomitants of forgiveness of their children. The contents of the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim followed by their analysis by the Thematic Analysis Method. The findings showed that the children’s transgression related to their immediate and tangible realities of life. The significant others played a facilitative role in their learning phase of forgiveness. The children easily accepted their wrongdoings. Some personality attributes regulated the understanding of their wrongdoings. Moreover, children’s forgiveness was more explicit and, thus, easy to understand spontaneously. The understanding and acceptance of wrongdoings of the children were generally guided by their preferences, relationships, moods and concreteness. In essence, the children’s forgiveness evinced close links with their social, emotional and interpersonal developments. The findings have been discussed considering the current empirical findings pertaining to the children’s forgiveness and some cultural concerns. The implications and directions for future research have been discussed along with some limitations

Priming with potassium solutions improves seedling growth and vigor in forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.)

In this study a laboratory experiment was conducted to assess the effect of different potassium priming sources on seedling growth and vigor of sorghum genotypes. Priming with KH2PO4 gave best results for SOG (23.052), RL (19.667) and VI (2,291.9). KCl found to be better at lower concentration (150mM) for all the characters i.e., FGP (73.11), MGT (3.90), SOG (21.776), RL (18.444) and VI (2,272.6). However, KNO3 gave better results at higher concentration (300mM) for MGT (3.11), SOG (16.779), RL (18.056) and VI (1471.0). KMnO4 was found to be better than KCl (300 mM) and KNO3 (150 mM and 300 mM) for FGP (60.0), SOG (19.187), RL (19.256) and VI (1,998.3). Among genotypes, CSV15 gave the best results for all the vigor indices. The interaction between genotypes and treatments was recorded to be non-significant for all the characters except FGP at 0.05 level of significance. It can be concluded that seed priming with different potassium sources showed better results over control for all the characters in different sorghum genotypes. So, it may serve as appropriate treatment for accelerating the seed vigor of sorghum

Performance of a Community-based Health and Nutrition-education Intervention in the Management of Diarrhoea in a Slum of Delhi, India

Diarrhoeal infections are the fifth leading cause of death worldwide and continue to take a high toll on child health. Mushrooming of slums due to continuous urbanization has made diarrhoea one of the biggest public-health challenges in metropolitan cities in India. The objective of the study was to carry out a community-based health and nutrition-education intervention, focusing on several factors influencing child health with special emphasis on diarrhoea, in a slum of Delhi, India. Mothers (n=370) of children, aged >12–71 months, identified by a door-to-door survey from a large urban slum, were enrolled in the study in two groups, i.e. control and intervention. To ensure minimal group interaction, enrollment for the control and intervention groups was done purposively from two extreme ends of the slum cluster. Baseline assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices on diarrhoea-related issues, such as oral rehydration therapy (ORT), oral rehydration salt (ORS), and continuation of breastfeeding during diarrhoea, was carried out using a pretested questionnaire. Thereafter, mothers (n=195) from the intervention area were provided health and nutrition education through fortnightly contacts achieved by two approaches developed for the study—‘personal discussion sessions’ and ‘lane approach’. The mothers (n=175) from the control area were not contacted. After the intervention, there was a significant (p=0.000) improvement in acquaintance to the term ‘ORS’ (65–98%), along with its method of reconstitution from packets (13–69%); preparation of home-made sugar-salt solution (10–74%); role of both in the prevention of dehydration (30–74%) and importance of their daily preparation (74–96%); and continuation of breastfeeding during diarrhoea (47–90%) in the intervention area. Sensitivity about age-specific feeding of ORS also improved significantly (p=0.000) from 13% to 88%. The reported usage of ORS packets and sugar-salt solution improved significantly from 12% to 65% (p=0.000) and 12% to 75% (p=0.005) respectively. The results showed that health and nutrition-education intervention improved the knowledge and attitudes of mothers. The results indicate a need for intensive programmes, especially directed towards urban slums to further improve the usage of oral rehydration therapy

Diagnostic reliability of Widal slide agglutination test for enteric fever- still a query

Background: Typhoid fever is a major public health problem associated with significant morbidity and mortality in many countries. The Widal slide agglutination test is a commonly used test for diagnosing enteric fever. Limited literature is available on its diagnostic ability in comparison to the tube agglutination test. Aim of this study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of the Widal slide agglutination test for the diagnosis of enteric fever.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in department of microbiology in Jawahar Lal Nehru medical college and hospital, Ajmer over a period of six months from September 2013 to March 2014. A total of 640 serum samples received in the microbiology department were processed for detecting the presence of anti O and anti H agglutinins against S. typhi, S. Paratyphi A and S. Paratyphi B by slide and tube Widal agglutination tests as per standard protocols. The significant titre for O and H agglutinin, 1:160 was taken as positive.Results: Of the 154 slide Widal positive samples, 115 (18%) samples tested negative by the tube agglutination test whereas only 39 (6%) samples were positive by both slide and tube agglutination.Conclusions: Slide Widal test has high sensitivity and NPV (100%) can be used as a screening tool but due to low specificity (83.93%) any positive sample should be confirmed by tube Widal test