Performance, Competitiveness and Determinants of Tomato Export from India

The performance and competitiveness of export of tomato and its products from India have been analyzed to find (i) production and export performance of tomatoes in India, (ii) impact of trade liberalization on export of tomato and its products, (iii) major destinations of Indian tomato and tomato products, and (iv) determinants of tomato export. The export performance ratio (EPR) has been estimated to examine the export competitiveness of India in tomato and tomato products. Annual compound growth rate and coefficient of variation for two periods, before (1985-1994) and after (1995- 2004) the commencement of WTO have been estimated to study the impact of trade liberalization on the export performance of India in tomato and its products. Export demand function has been estimated using OLS technique and the factors affecting the export of tomato and its products from India have been identified. The study has revealed that the existence of high instability in export of tomato and its products require the attention of policymakers to retain hold on the international market.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India: Performance, Destinations, Competitiveness and Determinants

The performance, competitiveness, major destinations and determinants of cucumber and gherkin export from India have been studied. Export performance ratio has been used to estimate the competitiveness, and log linear type of demand function has been used to determine the export determinants. It has been observed that India has made tremendous progress in the export of cucumber and gherkin products during the past 15 years (1990-2005). The export has increased by about 128.5- times with an impressive annual compound growth rate of 37.46 per cent, as against only 4.38 per cent in the world market. The major export destinations for cucumber and gherkin have been identified as France, USA, Russia, Belgium and Spain. An increasing and high value of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and a positive and increasing value for revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) have indicated high potential in their export, particularly for the provisionally-preserved and prepared/preserved products. One per cent increase in volume of international trade in cucumber and gherkin may increase the demand from India by 5.96 per cent. This indicates that India is highly competitive in export of cucumber and gherkin and has ample scope to further increase its export. The study has also revealed that exchange rate is a more dominant determinant of export from India than price of commodity.International Relations/Trade,

Community participated management of chaur (floodplain) fisheries: A case study of mahisar chaur in Samastipur district of Bihar, India

Mahisar chaur, situated in north-eastern part of Samastipur district of Bihar, is spread over 607.29 ha area with an average water depth of 2.5-3 m. The chaur was flood prone and remained inundated with water for most part of the year and hence was not suitable for agriculture. With collective efforts of land owners, a drainage canal along with sluice gate was constructed to manage the flow of water in the chaur to take up both the agriculture and fishery enterprises in the chaur. Now the chaur is being successfully utilized for fishery by a cooperative society of land owners during the period of water logging (June/July to October) and for agriculture, by individual farmers during November to April. The present study investigated into income and employment generation and management practices of chaur (floodplain) in Samastipur (Bihar), India for suggesting suitable measures to improve production and productivity from the resource. For the purpose, primary data was collected from 60 sample respondent by personal interview method with the help of pre-tested questionnaire specially designed for the study. Fishery and agriculture was the two enterprises undertaken by land owners in the chaur. During rainy season when entire chaur isinundated with water fisheries is practised with community participation while agriculture is practiced during rabi season by individual farmers on their land holdings. Cropping intensity in chaur was 199.05 percent which indicate about two time use of same area for different economic activity. The overall net income from both the agriculture and fishery in chaur was INR 43,041.94 (US$ 791.08) per hectare per annum and employment generation was 78.11 man days per hectare per annum. The contribution of agriculture in total income was 69.52 percent while that of fisheries was 30.48 percent. Retention of water in central part of the chaur for rearing of juveniles caught during draining out of chaur may improve fish productivity which in turn may increase income and employment opportunity and share of fisheries in total income

Opterećenje tekućinom i prijenosna sposobnost bubrega u dvogrbe deve u dehidraciji i rehidraciji zimi i ljeti

The effect of dehydration and rehydration was studied during winter and summer on solute loads and transfer function of kidney in healthy adult female dromedary camels. Kidney solute loads (KSLs) which included plasma loads (PL) and tubular loads (TL) were determined for glucose, proteins, urea, creatinine, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and phosphorus. The dehydration period was of 24 days in winter and 13 days in summer. Water was provided ad libitum during control and rehydration periods and was restricted completely during dehydration period. The mean value of TFK during summer control was significantly (P≤0.05) lower than that in winter control. In winter the mean values of TFK during rehydration phases differed significantly (P≤0.05) from control values. A similar trend was observed during summer, except that the calculations for TFK could not be made at hour ½ and at hour 2 of rehydration since animals did not void urine. During dehydration periods in both seasons PL and TL mean values decreased significantly (P≤0.05) from respective control mean values. It was concluded that during dehydration reduction in kidney solute loads was indicative of the water conservation ability of camels because reduced plasma loads and tubular loads resulted in trapping of constituents in the plasma to hold more water.Istražen je učinak dehidracije i rehidracije u tijeku zime i ljeta na opterećenje tekućinom i prijenosnu sposobnost bubrega u zdravih ženki dvogrbe deve. Opterećenje obuhvaća plazmalno (PO) i tubularno (TO) opterećenje, a određivano je za glukozu, bjelančevine, mokraćevinu, kreatinin, natrij, kalij, klor, kalcij i fosfor. Razdoblje dehidracije trajalo je 24 dana zimi i 13 dana ljeti. Životinje su po volji pile vodu tijekom kontrolnoga i rehidracijskoga razdoblja, ali vodu nisu dobivale u tijeku dehidracijskoga razdoblja. Srednja vrijednost prijenosne sposobnosti bubrega u tijeku ljetnih mjeseci bila je značajno niža (P≤0,05) u odnosu na zimsko kontrolno razdoblje. Zimi su se srednje vrijednosti prijenosne sposobnosti bubrega za vrijeme rehidracije značajno razlikovale u odnosu na kontrolne vrijednosti (P≤0,05). Sličan je trend zabilježen ljeti, osim što izračuni nisu mogli biti učinjeni sat i pol te dva sata nakon rehidracije, jer životinje nisu izlučivale mokraću. Srednje vrijednosti PO i TO bile su značajno manje u odnosu na kontrolu (P≤0,05) u tijeku dehidracijskoga razdoblja u oba godišnja doba. Zaključuje se da je smanjeno opterećenje bubrega u tijeku dehidracije dobar pokazatelj sposobnosti čuvanja vode s obzirom na to da smanjeno plazmalno i tubularno opterećenje dovodi do zadržavanja sastojaka u plazmi koji imaju sposobnost osmotskoga zadržavanja vode

Udio vode u tjelesnim tekućinama ovce pasmine Marwari u razdoblju dehidracije i rehidracije.

In order to assess the compartmental water management of Marwari sheep various body water compartments were determined during the periods of control, dehydration and rehydration. The control mean values of total body water, extracellular, plasma volume, blood volume, red cell volume, intracellular fluid volume and interstitial fluid volume were 20.0 ± 0.8, 1.80 ± 0.1, 2.8 ± 0.20, 0.56 ± 0.02, 9.3 ± 0.4, 11.0 ± 0.4 and 7.5 ± 0.3 litre, respectively, thereby forming 64.26%, 5.78, 8.99, 1.79, 29.88, 35.34 and 24.10% of the body mass, respectively. Significant (P≤0.05) decline was found with progression of dehydration in all the water compartments with a different pattern. Maximum loss was observed from the plasma volume (50%), whereas minimum loss was in the intracellular fluid compartment. Again upon rehydration, the pattern of water replenishment was different in various compartments. Immediately after rehydration the maximum gain was observed in blood volume and the slowest gain in intracellular and red cell fluid compartments. Decreased plasma volume was related with a significantly (P≤0.05) higher serum aldosterone during dehydration period. Simultaneously, dehydration functioning as a stress increased the levels of serum cortisol accompanied by increase in serum creatinine, creatine kinase, γ-glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase activities significantly (P≤0.05).U svrhu istraživanja prometa vode između pojedinih odjeljaka tjelesnih tekućina u ovce Marwari ustanovljene su različitosti volumena tjelesnih tekućina za vrijeme dehidracije, rehidracije i u kontrolnom razdoblju. Kontrolna srednja vrijednost ukupne vode u tijelu iznosila je 20,0 ± 0,8 L, izvanstanične tekućine 1,80 ± 0,1 L, volumena plazme 2,8 ± 0,20 L, volumena krvi 0,56 ± 0,02 L, volumena crvenih krvnih stanica 9,3 ± 0,4 L, volumena stanične tekućine 11,0 ± 0,4 L i volumena intersticijske tekućine 7,5 ± 0,3 L. Tako se 64,26% ukupne tjelesne mase odnosilo na ukupnu vodu u tijelu, 5,78% na izvanstaničnu tekućinu, 8,99% na volumen plazme, 1,79% na volumen krvi, 29,88% na masu vode u crvenim krvnim stanicama, 35,34% na volumen stanične tekućine i 24,10% na volumen intersticijske tekućine. Značajno (P≤0,05) smanjenje volumena svih tjelesnih tekućina bilo je ustanovljeno nastupom dehidracije. Najviše se smanjio volumen plazme (50%), dok je gubitak stanične tekućine bio najmanji. Dinamika vraćanja tjelesnih tekućina nakon rehidracije također je bila različita. Odmah nakon rehidracije, najveći porast ustanovljen je u volumenu krvi, a sporiji porast zabilježen je za volumen stanične tekućine i tekućine u crvenim krvnim stanicama. Smanjeni volumen plazme za vrijeme dehidracije bio je u korelaciji sa značajnim povećanjem (P≤0,05) razine serumskoga aldosterona. Istodobno je dehidracija kao stres značajno (P≤0,05) utjecala na povećanje razine serumskog kortizola popraćene povećanjem serumskoga kreatinina i povećanjem aktivnosti kreatinin kinaze, γ-glutamil transferaze i alkalne fosfataze

Impact of WTO on Potato Export from India

Attempts are being made to export potatoes from India since 1970s but the quantities exported have been negligible and variable in spite of the fact that Indian potatoes are technically excellent and moderately export competitive. With the liberalization of Indian economy and establishment of WTO it was expected that the WTO regime would increase the price level in the international market due to implementation of proposed heavy cut in agricultural subsidies by the developed countries and hence the export of potatoes from India may get a boost. Under this backdrop, the study has ascertained the effect of establishment of WTO on export of potatoes from India. The study has indicated a declining export competitiveness of Indian potatoes in the post-WTO era, which requires immediate attention of policymakers as well as researchers in India to improve the export competitiveness by increasing the productivity and decreasing the cost of production. A need has been emphasized on giving some export incentives and easing some of the major infrastructural bottlenecks. Frozen-potatoes export from India had depicted competitiveness in the post-WTO era which can be encouraged to capture the fast expanding market of the product. The potato export from India can be made stable by either encouraging big export houses in the potato export or establishing a “Potato Board†to look into various aspects of potato export from the country.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Pediatric urolithiasis: What role does metabolic evaluation has to play?

Background Pediatric urolithiasis is a perplexing problem faced by pediatricians as well as urologists across the globe. By early diagnosis and treatment of these risk factors, future stone formation may be prevented. Aim: To evaluate the clinical, biochemical and metabolic characteristics of the patients and the interventions required to prevent recurrence.Methods: In this retrospective study, cohort of pediatric patients presenting with urolithiasis at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal formed the study population. Patient’s records served as study tools. Medical records department was approached and data was collected. Metabolic evaluation was done in all children. Urine tests included urinalysis, urine culture, 24 hours urinary pH, volume, calcium, oxalate, citrate, uric acid, and creatinine. Finally a total of 58 pediatric urolithiasis cases were included in this study.Results: Mean age of study subjects was 6.85±1.27 years. Top three presentations of pediatric urolithiasis were symptoms of Urinary tract infection (UTI), abdominal pain and flank pain in 29.3%, 24.1% and 17.2% children respectively. Gross hematuria was observed in 15.5% of cases. 82.6% of stones were renal stones. Calcium oxalate stone was most common (50%) variety found. Hyperoxaluria was the most common (79.3%) metabolic abnormality detected. 31% had stone recurrence during follow up and 8 of these had >1 metabolic abnormality. Only 6/28 (21.4%) patients managed conservatively had stone recurrence whereas 12/30 (40%) managed with a procedure had stone recurrence.Conclusions: Metabolic evaluation for urolithiasis helps us to identify children those at increased risk for recurrent stone disease. Thus metabolic evaluation is a must in all pediatric patients as it helps in segregating patients needing medical therapy.

Unsupervised Discovery of Extreme Weather Events Using Universal Representations of Emergent Organization

Spontaneous self-organization is ubiquitous in systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. While organized structures that emerge dominate transport properties, universal representations that identify and describe these key objects remain elusive. Here, we introduce a theoretically-grounded framework for describing emergent organization that, via data-driven algorithms, is constructive in practice. Its building blocks are spacetime lightcones that embody how information propagates across a system through local interactions. We show that predictive equivalence classes of lightcones -- local causal states -- capture organized behaviors and coherent structures in complex spatiotemporal systems. Employing an unsupervised physics-informed machine learning algorithm and a high-performance computing implementation, we demonstrate automatically discovering coherent structures in two real world domain science problems. We show that local causal states identify vortices and track their power-law decay behavior in two-dimensional fluid turbulence. We then show how to detect and track familiar extreme weather events -- hurricanes and atmospheric rivers -- and discover other novel coherent structures associated with precipitation extremes in high-resolution climate data at the grid-cell level

Traditional Indian Herb Emblica Officinalis & Its Medicinal Importance

Emblica Officinalis (Amla, EO and E. officinalis) is one of the most important herbs in the Indian traditional medicine system, especially Ayurveda and also known as King of all medicinal plants. Emblica officinalis is famous Ayurvedic herb (the name means sour in Sanskrit) is one of the most useful medicines in the Indian pharmacopoeia, and is considered to be one of the strongest uvenatives (Rasayana), particularly for the blood, bones, liver and heart. It is an exceptionally rich source of vitamin C containing thirty times the amount found in oranges. It is one of the oldest oriental medicines mentioned in Ayurveda as potential remedy for various ailments. Emblica officinalis (Amla) is widely used in the ayurvedic medicines and believed to increase defense /immune power against diseases. Several parts of the plant are used to treat a variety of diseases, but the most important is the fruitâ€. The fruit is rich in quercetin, phyllaemblic compounds, gallic acid, tannins, flavonoids, pectin and vitamin C and also contains various polyphenolic compounds. A wide range of phyto-chemical components including terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, and tannins have been shown to posses' useful biological activities. Many pharmacological studies have demonstrated the ability of Emblica officinalis as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antitumour, antigenotoxic, antiinflammatory activities, anticancer, anti HIV-reverse transcriptase, antidiabetic, antidepressant, antiulcerogenic, hair growth tonic, wound healing activities, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and many other traditional uses of the plant. The present study also includes macroscopy, microscopy, preliminary Phyto-Constituent and Physico-chemical evaluation.Keywords: Amla, Emblica officinalis, Vitamin C, Ayurvedic Medicines, Hair Growth Tonic, Antioxidant, Anticancer, Phyto-Constituent, Physico-chemical, Macroscopy, Microscopy, Traditional Uses

A study to assess factors contributing for the occurrence of incisional hernia among patients operated with pfannenstiel incision and management with mesh repair

Background: Incisional hernia is due to failure of lines of closure of abdominal wall following laparotomy. Bowel or a part of bowel or omentum can bulge through the gap. The early occurrence (within 5 years) is mainly due to early sepsis and obesity. Objective of present study was to assess the factors contributing for the occurrence of incisional hernia.Methods: All the women who were operated between March 2014-December 2016 using a low transverse Pfannenstiel incision and who did not have any other lower (vertical) incisions and laparoscopic surgeries were followed up in the outpatient department. 1,252 cases were followed up during the above-mentioned period and the detail history was elicited and meticulous physical examination was conducted. USG Abdomen was done in all the cases. Out of 1,252 cases 25 were having incisional hernia and mesh repair was done for incisional hernia.Results: Nearly 2% of these cases had incisional hernia. Obesity was the main risk factor in 36% of the study participants followed by wound infection in 32%.Conclusions: Obesity, redo surgeries, size of the incision and type of suture materials used contribute to the formation of incisional hernia. Although the incidence is low still incisional hernia can occur following Pfannenstiel low transverse abdominal incision