Environmental impact of cement dust pollution on foliar physiology, growth and yield of some commonly cultivated vegetable crops in Kashmir Himalayan Valley, India

The present paper evaluates the results of field experiments conducted during two consecutive growth seasons (2008–2009) to assess the environmental impact of cement dust pollution on foliar physiology (pigments), growth performance and yield of three commonly cultivated vegetable crops, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), radish (Raphanus sativus) and knol-khol (Brassica oleracea var. gongyloides) in Kashmir Himalayan valley, India. Two experimental sites (S1, S2) were selected in the vicinity of the cement factory at Khrew, Pulwama (Kashmir) at a distance of 0.5 km (S1) and 2 km (S2) and compared with a dust free control site (S3) located at about 6 km from the factory in a crosswind direction. The data revealed that cement dust had an adverse effect on morphological and biochemical characteristics of the crops. Differential level of crop sensitivity to cement dust was markedly evident. Knol-khol (Brassica oleracea var. gongyloides) reflected a higher degree of tolerance to particulate emissions as compared to tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and radish (Raphanus sativus). Photosynthetic pigment analysis showed adverse impact on chlorophyll-a, while chlorophyll-b marginally decreased in the leaves of tomato plants at S1; the effect being non-significant for the other test crops. Carotenoids also exhibited a remarkable reduction due to cement dust impact. The yield of tomato recorded severe losses (12.28–23.95%) as compared to radish (7.46–21.4%), while the effect was non-significant in knol-khol. Other growth and yield related attributes also followed a similar trend; tomato and radish showing remarkable effects in response to cement dust and knol-khol showed the least effect. The soil characteristics indicated significant reduction in available P. Except available N, other variables (pH, conductivity, available K, exchangeable Ca and Mg) recorded higher values in the polluted soils as compared to control. The need for installation of appropriate devices in cement manufacturing factories to combat the emission of dust in ambient environment together with environmental monitoring of agro-ecosystems is stressed

A Study on Adoption of Climate Resilient Technologies in Adopted Villages of Bandipora District under National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Project

The need to study the extent of adoption of climate resilient technologies (CRTs) under the changing climatic conditions have been at the centre of focus of many extension programmes, aimed at improving livelihood security under the current scenario. The current study was conducted in Bandipora District of Jammu and Kashmir with the objective to investigate the adoption rate of climate resilient technologies of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Project and to study the adoption behaviour of the beneficiaries of the Project implemented by Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Bandipora. Eighty beneficiaries were selected from 4 strata by proportionate allocation method (PAM). In addition to this, 40 non-beneficiaries were also selected from same villages by simple random sampling technique (RST). The present study investigates the extent to which climate resilient technologies are being adopted by the farmers under the Project National Innovations on Climate Smart Agriculture (NICRA) in the adopted villages of Bandipora District. It further studied the association of personal profile of respondents with the extent of adoption of Climate resilient technologies. A structured interview was employed to obtain data from 120 respondents. Results revealed during the study medium to high levels of adoption by the respondents of climate resilient technologies. The profile characteristics viz. Age, gender, marital status, education, family size, land holding, occupation, annual income, farming experience, trainings attended, extension contacts, information source, scientific orientation, economic motivation and innovativeness had positive and significant association with the extent of adoption of climate resilient technologies by the farmers

The Irish Catholic Female Religious and the Transnationalisation of Care: An Historical Perspective

The transnational turn in sociological studies of care and welfare is generating new research agendas focused on the circulation and hybridisation of social ideas, values, practices, resources, relations and provision across political borders. This article examines neglected aspects within care transnationalisation research by focusing on the involvement of the Irish Catholic female religious from a historical perspective. Successive histories of female religious care migrations reveal Catholic religious orders of women to be the epitome of a flexible, hyper-mobile labour force. The nature of religious life combined with the social, cultural, economic and organisational capacities of the Catholic Church rendered female religious orders pivotal to the formation of border-spanning care labour networks through which Catholic ideas and practices of carework circulated to forge and sustain links and connections between Ireland and many other places worldwide. The discussion emphasises the necessity of attending to ‘counter-geographies’ of global care migrations, the interlocking nature of religious and secular care migration and historical antecedents of contemporary care transnationalisation processes in future research programmes

Significant Implications of APOA1 Gene Sequence Variations and Its Protein Expression in Bladder Cancer

Apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1) is a potential biomarker because of its variable concentration in different types of cancers. The current study is the first of its kind to evaluate the association between the APOA1 genotypes of −75 G/A and +83 C/T in tandem with the APOA1 protein expression in urine samples to find out the risk and potential relationship for differentially expressed urinary proteins and APOA1 genotypes. The study included 108 cases of bladder tumors and 150 healthy controls that were frequency matched to cases with respect to age, sex, and smoking status. Genotyping was performed using PCR-RFLP and the urinary expression of the APOA1 protein was done using ELISA. Bladder tumor cases were significantly associated with the APOA1 −75 AA genotype (p < 0.05), while the APOA1 +83 C/T heterozygotes showed an association with cases (p < 0.05). The overall distribution of the different haplotypes showed a marked difference between the cases and controls in GT when compared with the wild type GC (p < 0.03). Bladder tumor cases that carried the variant genotype APOA1 −75AA were found more (70.0%) with a higher expression (≥20 ng/mL)of the APOA1 urinary protein and differed significantly against wild type GG (p = 0.03). Again, in low grade bladder tumors, urinary APOA1 protein was exhibited significantly more (52.4% vs. 15.4% high grade) with a higher expression (≥20 ng), while high grade tumor cases (84.6% vs. 47.5% low grade) showed a lower APOA1 expression (<20 ng/mL) (O.R = 6.08, p = 0.002). A strong association was observed between APOA1 −75G/A and risk for bladder tumor and its relation to urinary protein expression, which substantiates its possible role as a marker for the risk assessment of the disease and as a promising diagnostic marker for different grades of malignant bladder tumors