Transforming self help groups (SHGs) to successful micro enterprises - the prospects and imperatives

The two prime objectives of the Millennium Development Goals are eradication of poverty and attainment of equality of gender. Even though, the world has witnessed an expeditious economic growth in the past, it was unbalanced because the gap between the covered and uncovered primary sectors of the society. This ultimately questioned the sustainability of the growth rate. Now, the global economy is facing recession and it has not reached the gross root levels of the excluded sectors of the society In India, the GDP growth rate has almost touched double digits; whereas the agricultural sector has recorded a growth rate of less than 3%. Therefore, there was a pragmatic shift from farming sectors to non-farming sectors. One of the successful concepts to have emerged in 1990's is the Self Help Groups (SHGs from now on). The emergence of self help groups has created a positive impact with the bankers. Tamilnadu has recorded the second highest growth in SHGs, at all India level, with the number of SHGs crossing 3.65 lakhs, of which nearly 70% are from rural areas. SHGs has helped farmers to come out of the clutches of local moneylenders, to acquire skills such as communication, leadership, financial literac etc. These SHGs are slowly becoming successful micro enterprises with competition from the corporate sector.This paper, a part of the research study undertaken by the authors attempts to analyze the prospects, problems and the requisites of transforming SHGs to successful Micro-enterprises and suggests ways and means for a smooth transition

ANALYSIS OF T – BEAM BRIDGE DECK SLAB

Generally, structures are subjected to two types of load: static and dynamic. However, the majority of civil engineering structures are designed with the assumption that all applied loads are static. The effect of dynamic load is not considered because the structure is rarely subjected to dynamic loads; more so, its consideration in analysis makes the solution more complicated and time consuming. This feature of neglecting the dynamic forces may sometimes become the causes of disaster, particularly in the case of earthquake. Therefore it is proposed to do “dynamic analysis of bridge deck†for various span of bridge by varying number of longitudinal girders. The detailed study is carried out for “T-Beam Bridgeâ€, for various span 16m, 20m, 24m and 28m under IRC class AA loading condition

A retrospective study of 'non-compliant' patients in controlled clinical trials of short course chemotherapy

In a total of 2,332 pulmonary short-course chemotherapy studies conducted during 1975-1985, there were 60 ‘noncompliant’ patients who had received less than 75% of the prescribed treatment. A retrospective study was undertaken to find out the reasons for default in these patients since the Tuberculosis Research Centre has very stringent criteria of selection of patients for their, studies, an adequate system. of motivation of the patients and well organised infrastructure for retrieval of the defaulters. Unwillingness for treatment was stated as the reason for default by 20 patients and adverse reactions to the drugs by 16 patients. Other major reasons given were pressure of work (14 patients), frequent outstation visits (13) and migration (12)

Chemotaxonomic studies on Tragia involucrata Linn.

In the present work a common plant in and around trichy, botanically equated as Tragia involucrata Linn belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae, has been studied from chemotaxonomic point of view. The study explained the identification and characterization of the compounds isolated from this plant. The chloroform extract of T. involucrata L was subjected to FT-IR and GC-MS to identify the compounds present in it. The compounds identified were Ar- Tumerone; 9, 10 Anthracenedione 1,8-dihydroxy-3-methyl; Friedelane-3-one. The therapeutic potentials of the active principles identified were already assessed. Ar-Tumerone was already reported from Curcuma longa L and the antibacterial and wound healing activity of this compound was well established. Chemistry of T. involucrata L reported in this present work can contribute significantly in providing chemical evidence in support of its inclusion in the family Euphorbiaceae and assigning the position to the genus Tragia.© 2009 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Tragia involucrata, Chemotaxonomic studies, Ar-Tumerone

The Burden of Surgical Cancellations and No-Shows : Quality management study from a large regional hospital in Oman

Objectives: The operating theatre (OT) is a vital facility that utilises a considerable portion of the hospital’s budget; thus proper OT utilisation is essential. Surgical cancellation is a leading cause of OT underutilisation. This study aimed to report the rate and reasons for surgical cancellations and no-shows in a large regional hospital in Oman. Methods: This study took place as part of a retrospective quality management project at the Ibri Regional Hospital, Ibri, Oman. All elective surgical procedures scheduled between January and December 2014 were included. Cancelled procedures were reviewed to determine the reasons for cancellation. Results: A total of 4,814 elective procedures were scheduled during the study period; of these, 1,235 (26%) were cancelled. Patient no-shows were the most prevalent reason for surgical cancellation (63%), followed by surgical reasons (17%); in contrast, OT-associated reasons were responsible for only 2% of cancellations. According to speciality, general surgery had the highest percentage of total cancellations (65%), while ear, nose and throat had the highest rate of surgical cancellations among their scheduled cases (42%). Conclusion: Ibri Regional Hospital had a higher surgical cancellation rate due to no-shows than those reported in the literature. Regular audits, quality management projects and the appointment of a dedicated procedure booking coordinator may enhance proper utilisation of the OT, potentially saving funds, conserving resources and alleviating the burden of cancellations

Five-year findings of a comparison of ambulatory short course chemotherapy with radical surgery plus chemotherapy for tuberculosis of the spine in Madras

A controlled clinical trial was undertaken to compare the efficacy of short course chemotherapy given alone or combined with radical surgery in the treatment of spinal tuberculosis without paraplegia. Patients with active spinal tuberculosis involving the vertebral bodies and without paraplegia were randomly allocated to one of the following three regimens. (a) Rad 6 : Radical anterior resection with bone grafting plus six months of daily isoniazid and rifampicin. (b) Amb 6 : Ambulatory chemotherapy with six months of daily isoniazid and rifampicin, without surgery. (c) Amb 9 : Same as (b) but the duration being nine months. The patients were intensively followed up for five years from the start. At five years, 98% of 86 Amb 9, 91% of 82 Amb 6 and 88% of 82 Rad 6 patients had a favourable status. It is concluded that ambulatory chemotherapy for 6 or 9 months is highly effective in the treatment of spinal tuberculosis. Radical surgery did not enhance the efficacy of the short course regimen

Quantum Key Based Burst Confidentiality in Optical Burst Switched Networks

The optical burst switching (OBS) is an emergent result to the technology concern that could achieve a feasible network in future. They are endowed with the ability to meet the bandwidth requirement of those applications that require intensive bandwidth. There are more domains opening up in the OBS that evidently shows their advantages and their capability to face the future network traffic. However, the concept of OBS is still far from perfection facing issues in case of security threat. The transfer of optical switching paradigm to optical burst switching faces serious downfall in the fields of burst aggregation, routing, authentication, dispute resolution, and quality of service (QoS). This paper deals with employing RC4 (stream cipher) to encrypt and decrypt bursts thereby ensuring the confidentiality of the burst. Although the use of AES algorithm has already been proposed for the same issue, by contrasting the two algorithms under the parameters of burst encryption and decryption time, end-to-end delay, it was found that RC4 provided better results. This paper looks to provide a better solution for the confidentiality of the burst in OBS networks

A new anti-feedant clerodane diterpenoid from tinospora cordifolia

Phytochemical investigation of the chloroform extract of Tinospora cordifolia yielded a new clerodane diterpenoid tincordin (1) along with tinosporide (2), 8-hydroxytinosporide (3), columbin (4), 8-hydroxycolumbin (5) and 10-hydroxycolumbin (6). The structure of the new compound was elucidated comprehensively using 1D and 2D NMR methods. All major clerodane diterpenoids isolated were tested for their efficacy as insect antifeedants against Earias vitella, Plutella xylostella and Spodoptera litura.Department of Science and Technology, Government of Indi

A STUDY ON USE OF FACEBOOK BY PG STUDENTS OF SELECTED DEPARTMENTS IN SRI RAMAKRISNA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE, COIMBATORE

The study on use of face book by students is a paper that represents a evaluation of more than one hundred studies on the social networking website face book. The paper focuses on face book use, which is currently the most researched theme the main studies for each group are presented, with an emphasis on the most influential ones in the field. The focus of this fictional examination is on the commonalities and difference that start from the results. As a result, one could notice that face book is mainly used to keep in touch with other people, but not in a conventional way as uses tend to spy on other users profiles this phenomenon leads to a growing exhibitionism, which is in turn related to individuals personality teats .use of face book is also influenced by peers and experience with the website