Marital Violence and Women's Employment and Property Status: Evidence from North Indian Villages

Dominant development policy approaches recommend women's employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women's well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women's employment status and their well-being as measured by freedom from marital violence yields an ambiguous picture. Motivated by this ambiguity, this paper draws on testimonies of men and women and data gathered from rural Uttar Pradesh, to examine the effect of women's employment and asset status as measured by their participation in paid work and their ownership of property, respectively, on spousal violence. Unlike the existing literature, we treat women's work status and violence as simultaneously determined and find that women's engagement in paid work and ownership of property, are associated with sharp reductions in marital violence.domestic violence, employment status, property ownership, India

Intricate Relationship between Memory and Attention

Memory and attention are viewed as important cognitive processes which we use in our daily routine. Attention is regarded as a prerequisite for memory. Memory involves three stages namely encoding, storage and retrieval. Attention is found to be important for encoding. The study was carried out with the aim of determining the relationship between memory and attention. 20 Participants in the age range of 18-30 years served as participants. In the first second tasks, the stimuli was presented orthographically and the task of the participants were asked to recall the items in the absence and presence of noise. In the third and fourth tasks, the participants were asked to recall one specific item (not told beforehand) and recall all items respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that there was no difference between task 1 and task 2 and significant difference was seen between task 3 and 4 respectively showing that attention and memory are related

Sex And Heterochromatin: An Investigation Of Sexual Dimorphism In Drosophila Melanogaster

Over 30% of Drosophila genome is assembled into heterochromatin. Heterochromatin is relatively gene poor, transcriptionally less active and remains condensed during interphase. Previous studies established that roX RNA and some of the Male Specific Lethal (MSL) proteins, all components of the dosage compensation complex, are required for full expression of autosomal heterochromatic genes in male flies but not in females. This was surprising since heterochromatin is generally not thought to be sexually dimorphic. The genetic basis for the regulation of sex-specific heterochromatin was completely unknown. To determine if roX RNAs localize directly at the heterochromatic regions that they regulate, I generated an MS2-tagged roX1 allele (roX1MS2-6) using a novel gene engineering technique named `Targeted Gene Conversion\u27 (TGC). roX1MS2-6 was used to visualize in vivo roX1 localization in early Drosophila embryos, but subnuclear localization was only detectable on the X chromosome of males after the onset of dosage compensation (3hr AEL). I then performed genetic screens to determine the signal that dictates differentiation of male and female heterochromatin. I hypothesized that either the sex determination pathway, or direct karyotype sensing, could act as a signal. To determine the signal, I conducted targeted genetic screens using a reporter that responds differently to the loss of roX RNAs in males and females. I found that heterochromatic sex is independent of the female-specific components of the somatic sex determination pathway, as well as the male-limited Y-chromosome and MSL2, a dosage compensation protein that is only present in males. I then explored the possibility that direct sensing of sex chromosome karyotype bypasses the somatic sex determination pathway to determine heterochromatic sex. Examination of various chromatin regulators with known functions in homolog pairing identified Topoisomerase II (Top2) as an essential factor for feminization of XX heterochromatin. Intriguingly, Top2 also binds to a large block of satellite repeats present exclusively on the X chromosome (359bp repeats). I then discovered that deletion of X heterochromatin, which removes one copy of these satellite repeats, masculinizes heterochromatin in XX flies. Simultaneous loss of Top2 and deletion of X heterochromatin enhances masculinization of XX heterochromatin, but has no effect on somatic sexual differentiation. I postulate that the X-exclusive 359 bp heterochromatic satellite repeats and Top2 act together as a mechanism of direct karyotype sensing. This in turn regulates heterochromatin differentiation independent of all known sex determination pathways. My studies thus reveal a novel sex determination signal in Drosophila melanogaster that links fly karyotype to one aspect of sexual differentiation

DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE TO MEASURE THE BLADE TIP CLEARANCE OF AN AXIAL COMPRESSOR

Axial compressors, used in gas turbines, jet engines and also small scale power plants, are rotating, airfoil based compressors in which the working fluid flows parallel to the axis of rotation. There has been continuous struggle to maximize the efficiency of these compressors. One of the many ways to achieve the same is to minimize the tip clearance i.e. to reduce the distance between the blade tip and the housing. Experiments need to be conducted to measure the changes in the tip clearance while the  compressor is operating. Conventional devices to measure this tip clearance have proven to be costly if a small scale application is under consideration. Our aim in this project is to develop a device which will measure the blade tip clearance of an axial flow compressor economically. The literature review, development of the device, its working and results will be discussed in this paper

A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PHARMACOLOGICALLY ACTIVE PRINCIPLES AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF COMMONLY OCCURRING MUCUNA SPS. IN INDIA

The genus Mucuna (Fabaceae) includes about 150 species and almost all the species are reported to contain L-3,4-dihydroxy phenylalanine (L-Dopa), a non-protein amino acid that acts as precursor for the neurotransmitter dopamine, used in the treatment of Parkinsons disease. The present study was aimed to assess the pharmacologically active principles and antioxidant activities of Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC., Mucuna bracteata DC., Mucuna cochinchinensis (Lour.) A. Chev. black seeds sp. and Mucuna cochinchinensis (Lour.) A. Chev. white seeds sp. The aqueous extract of plant material was subjected to assess the pharmacologically active principles by using L-dopa quantification, determination of protein and flavonoids, total phenolic content, Inhibition of DPPH radical and Reducing power/Ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assays. The results obtained showed that, Mucuna cochinchinensis black seeds sp. has highest protein, total phenolic content, L-dopa content and DPPH radical scavenging activity. Mucuna bracteata seeds showed highest flavonoid content whereas, in FRAP assay Mucuna pruriens extract showed highest potential to reduce the ferric ions. It can be concluded from this study that, L-DOPA possesses antioxidant activity which was supported by in-vitro antioxidant assays. This indicates that the antioxidant activity of the aqueous extracts of all the Mucuna sps. may be due to the presence of L-Dopa content in its seed