The shape of fisheries to come. Some thoughts on fisheries development and education with special reference to aquaculture

A brief discussion is presented on the current situation regarding world fisheries and the future role of aquaculture. The various components involved in fisheries, and affecting all changes in fisheries through time, include the biology of the species involved, environment, technology/engineering and socio-economics. The importance of education in fisheries and aquaculture development is also examine

The Sunnah and Elements of Flexibility in Determining the Times of Fajr and Imsak (beginning of fasting)

This article (in a PowerPoint format) outlines some of the essential aspects of a Muslim's belief and practice

XML documents clustering using a tensor space model

The traditional Vector Space Model (VSM) is not able to represent both the structure and the content of XML documents. This paper introduces a novel method of representing XML documents in a Tensor Space Model (TSM) and then utilizing it for clustering. Empirical analysis shows that the proposed method is scalable for large-sized datasets; as well, the factorized matrices produced from the proposed method help to improve the quality of clusters through the enriched document representation of both structure and content information

Challenges in the pre- and post-natal diagnosis of posterior fossa cysts: A case report and review of historical evolution of descriptive terminologies

Radiological diagnoses of posterior fossa cystic abnormalities during antenatal and postnatal periods pose significant challenges as they may have similar early imaging features. Some of the frequently described entities are arachnoid cysts and Dandy-Walker malformations. Blake’s pouch cyst is relatively underdiagnosed. The main aim of the study was to explore these diagnostic challenges in the context of various descriptive terminologies and their prognostic implications. Methods: We illustrate this through our case, where fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 36 weeks gestation showed small right cerebellum without hydrocephalus or hemorrhage. Possible differential diagnoses included Dandy-Walker malformation or posterior fossa malformations, facial hemangiomas, arterial anomalies, cardiac and eye anomalies, sternal clefting, and supraumbilical raphe. Results: Postnatal sonography noted posterior fossa cyst without hydrocephalus in a normal term infant, who went on to develop symptomatic hydrocephalus by 15 weeks. Computed tomography brain scan confirmed large subtentorial posterior fossa cyst and extensive internal hydrocephalus. Despite emergent ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion, head circumference continued to rise. MRI scan showed persistent cyst. Subsequently, infant underwent endoscopic fenestration of the cyst with balloon septostomy and now has an age appropriate developmental profile. Conclusion: There is considerable discordance between antenatal and postnatal neuroimaging findings as highlighted in our case. Diagnostic conundrum here was whether this was an arachnoid or Blake’s pouch cyst. Differentiating between posterior fossa fluid collections is crucial for management, prognosis, and parental counseling. Close postnatal follow-up is essential to avert complications due to acute hydrocephalus

Users’ Satisfaction on SC/ST Book Bank Scheme through Ordinal Logistic Regression Analysis

Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR) is used to predict an ordinal structured variable given one or more independent variables. In this study, OLR used to decide the level of satisfaction on SC/ST book bank scheme (ordinal independent variable), measured on a five-point Likert type scale from “completely dissatisfied-1 through completely satisfied-5, depending on the discernment of ‘life science’ and ‘engineering students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) or Tribe (ST)’. Model appropriateness depends on determining which explanatory variables considered for the model and selecting the link function (complementary log-log link function used in this study). Likewise, the model fitting perceptions, the accuracy of the analysis results, and the validity of the model uncertainties, for example, the test of parallel lines, were basically evaluated for deciding on the best model. One of the principal findings was that availability of essential textbooks for free, favorable library infrastructure facilities were notably significant with the student’s opinion towards the SC/ST book bank facility. Further, respondents faced difficulties with issues such as books that were no longer circulated on time, study materials had been low standard and did not cover the syllabus

Sanitizing Sociality: Owned Livelihoods, Embedded Economies and Social Wealth Among Delhi's Sanitation Workers

Low-income and socially marginalized people around the world regularly engage in anti-competitive practices. Often illegal and always offensive to those with faith in free markets, these practices rarely help the poor in general. They are, however, often tied to violence against other marginalized people and the obstruction of efficient public services, which can, in many cases, exacerbate the problems of the poor even further. How should we interpret such anti-market behavior? In this dissertation, I address this question through a case study of Delhi’s Balmiki community, a caste that is traditionally associated with sanitation-related work in northern India. Members of this caste, who are frequently referred to as “sweepers” or safai karamcharis, make up the vast majority of Delhi’s sanitation workforce. I show that the social life of this community is deeply permeated by anti-market social practices. Sometimes invisible to the state and sometimes a direct challenge to its authority, these practices help the Balmikis secure a sense of security in an otherwise precarious socio-economic landscape. Most salient among these practices is what I call “proprietary livelihood:” a system in which people effectively own their jobs rather than sell their labor on a market. In the first three chapters of this dissertation, I show how both informal and formal sector sanitation workers own their livelihoods, how their practices are similar to older forms of social organization in India and elsewhere, how their owned livelihoods constitute embedded and transparently social forms of wealth, and also how they use proprietary livelihood to protect themselves from the otherwise prevailing condition of expropriated freedom – a fundamentally modern/capitalist condition in which people’s material sustenance is separated from other aspects of their social lives. In the fourth chapter, I show how the practices of proprietary livelihood are intertwined with the anti-market practices of other members of the Balmiki community, specifically, a leader of organized crime and his political associates. In Chapter 5, I show how the practices of proprietary livelihood come into direct conflict with the bourgeois desires of upper-middle class homeowners to have “neat and clean” neighborhoods. In that same chapter, I also show how homeowner associations act as agents of proletarianization by subjecting the informal sanitation workers to the disciplinary processes of wage labor – processes that simultaneously destroy the transparently social nature of the sanitation workers’ wealth. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I critically engage the language that mainstream economists would use to conceptualize proprietary livelihood and the other forms of transparently social wealth found among Delhi’s Balmiki community. Mainstream economists would categorize these practices as forms of “rent extraction” and “rent seeking,” and they would argue that they introduce inefficiencies into Delhi’s sanitation system. I point out that this view would indeed be consistent with their neo-classical framework, but I go on to argue that the concept of rent itself – in both its classical and neo-classical formulations – is used to designate and domesticate transparently social forms of work and wealth that would otherwise disturb the economists’ worldview in which rational actors seek utility. I pursue this line of inquiry as part of a broader belief that we anthropologists should engage the terms and concepts of neoclassical economists more directly than we have thus far, not because they are correct, but because their dominance in the public sphere reflects the real-world dominance of the commodity form. In the process of making these arguments, I suggest three lines of further inquiry for anthropologists: (1) that we explore the possible existence of proprietary livelihood and similar forms of transparently social wealth in other contexts; (2) that we should pay a little less attention to wages, capital and commodities and consider for a while the role of rent in the everyday lives of people around the world (how they pay it, avoid it, extract it, and seek it); (3) that we should frame our inquiries in light of the condition of expropriated freedom, a condition that now prevails in almost every corner of the world

Impact of AQUA Satellite Data on Hurricane Forecast: Danielle 2010

This study focuses on the impact of AQUA satellite data from AIRS and AMSU on the forecast of hurricane Danielle by the Global Forecast System (GFS) model. The data assimilation method adopted to ingest the data is the Gridpoint Statistical method (GSI) which is based on the three dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation technique. Two experiments were carried out to investigate the impact of AQUA satellite radiance observation on the forecast of hurricane Danielle. The first experiment (Control) assimilated all the available data while the second experiment (No AQUA) incorporated all the observations but the AQUA satellite data. Data assimilation cycling started one week prior to hurricane genesis, on 15 August 2010 06 UTC. The root mean square track forecast error shows slightly negative impact at the early lead time and slightly positive impact at later lead time. However, the root mean square intensity forecast errors by the Control are shown to be lower than No AQUA for all forecast hours, indicating positive impact of the AQUA data on the intensity forecast

Islamic Law in US Courts: Judicial Jihad or Constitutional Imperative?

At the beginning of 2014, about a dozen states introduced or re-introduced bills to ban the use of Sharī’ah law. They hope to join the seven states that have ostensibly banned it to date. Anti-Sharī’ah advocates have cited a number of cases to back their tenuous claim that Sharī’ah is stealthily sneaking in through the doctrine of comity, but a close examination of the cases they cite contradicts their claim. Comity, when one court defers to the jurisdiction of another, has been accepted and denied based on legal principles and public policy, on a case-by-case basis. There is no creeping Sharī’ah overtaking the American legal system, but plenty of plain bigotry in the form of Islamophobia. The evidence suggests that courts treat claims by Muslims using religious law the same way they deal with claims brought by those of other faiths and those of no faith — sometimes they are accepted and sometimes they are rejected. The Paper concludes that, far from evidencing creeping Sharī’ah or a surrender to judicial Jihad, the cases only confirm that the American Constitution and legal principles stand firm and pre-eminent; Muslims merely have had access to the dockets, nothing more

A summary of common grading systems used in neurosurgical practice

BACKGROUND: Grading and scoring systems are routinely used across various specialties in medicine and surgery. They help us assess the severity of disease and often guide management as well. In addition, grading systems allow us to prognosticate and gauge outcomes. Neurosurgeons also utilize an array of scores and grading systems. This article aims to collate some of the common grading systems used in neurosurgical practice to be utilized as an easy reference especially for junior doctors and other health-care providers working in this field. METHODS: An initial literature search was carried out to look at the grading systems in use. These were then distilled down to the ones that are frequently used in clinical neurosurgical practice based on my own experience as a doctor working in a tertiary neurosurgical unit. Neuro-oncology scoring systems were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Grading systems are grouped based on the area of neurosurgical practice they fall into such as cranial, vascular, spinal, and miscellaneous. A brief description of each grading system is provided and the conditions when they can be used in a tabular format. Discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of each grading system is not included in the study. CONCLUSION: The list of grading systems in this article is not exhaustive. To the best of my knowledge, there seems to be no recent article, which summarizes them concisely. I hope that this summary will benefit the neurosurgical community and wider audience