A study on constraints in adoption of scientific aquaculture practices

A study was undertaken to ascertain constraints faced by fish farmers in adoption of scientific aquaculture practices in East Champaran and West Champaran districts of Bihar. Information from 144 respondents was collected and analysed by calculating the Rank Based Quotient (RBQ) values. RBQ value for constraint faced by farmers were extreme climatic conditions (84.03), less extension programs and technical support (78.47), lack of contact with extension personnel’s (71.33), lack of awareness about scientific culture practices (65.28), inadequate credit facility (60.42), labour scarcity (57.64) and higher cost of material input (52.08).These constraints could be categorised under five heads namely extension constraints, financial constraints, production constraints, marketing constraints and social constraints. Average RBQ value for constraints related to extension was found to be 71.76 and ranked first. This was followed by financial constraint with RBQ value of 52.78. Production related constraint ranked third with an average RBQ value of 49.3 followed by marketing (32.87) and social constraints(27.08). Hypothesis that there is no significant difference with reference to rankings of constraints was tested by single factor ANOVA. Null hypothesis was rejected as Ftab=3.48>FNcal=2.61 with df=4 at 5% level of significance. There was a significant difference with reference to rankings of constraints. As the extension related constraints had the highest average RBQ value, it is clear that there is an urgent need of making effective strategy, engaging more fisheries extension professionals in this field along with capacity development of the existing extension professionals

Production economics and resource use efficiency of tomato under open field condition in Kapilvastu, Nepal

A study was conducted in Kapilvastu district with an objective to analyze the production economics and resource use efficiency of tomato production under open field condition. Altogether ninety tomato growers were purposely selected for household survey. Primary data were collected using pre-tested interviews and focus group discussion with tomato farmers and stakeholders. Data was analyzed using SPSS and STATA, and socio-demographic characteristics, Cobb-Douglas production function and resource use efficiency of the tomato farmers was studied. The tomato production in the studied site was found to be a labor-intensive venture as cost incurred for labor was about 39 percent of the total cost with gross margin of NRs. 7255.10 per kattha and net profit of NRs. 5464.1 per kattha. Cobb-Douglas production function analysis showed positive and significant relationship of cost on labor, seed, farm yard manure, inorganic fertilizer and micronutrients and other associated expenses with the gross income. The returns to scale of 1.02 indicated increasing returns to scale whereas resource use efficiency values indicated all input resources were underutilized in tomato production

Key Developments for Electric Vehicles in Local Transport

Environment protection in Metro cities is a growing concern. Automobile sector play a very important role in the vision of green friendly environment. Continual reduction of reserve of fossil fuel and increased level of pollution has further forced to think of alternative is an electric vehicle. Mission 2030 for Government of India-"All vehicle will be Electric Vehicle" has given a boost to the E-vehicle and it will lead to generate cumulative savings of 846 million tons of CO2 over the total deployed vehicle's lifetime. Many corporates have already jumped to this sector as it is future of automobile sector. Now, electric vehicle is a reality and available for local public transportation. This paper covers an overview of the present status of electric vehicles in India with respect to technological growth. Key challenges faced byelectric vehicle are also discussed

Causal Relationship of Transverse Left Ventricular Band and Bicuspid Aortic Valve

Objectives: Bicuspid aortic valve is the most common congenital lesion found in adults. It is can be seen in combination with a transverse left ventricular (LV) band. We aimed to find an essential relationship between the presence of transverse ventricular band and bicuspid aortic valve. Methods: 13 patients with transverse left ventricular band were investigated during a 6 month period from January 2019 to July 2019. LV band thickness and gradients at the site of the LV band were evaluated as part of its effect on LV hemodynamics. Morphology of aortic valve and LV outflow tract gradients were assessed. We aimed to establish the presence of robust LV band as a surrogate marker for bicuspid aortic valve and evaluate the effect of LV band on LV hemodynamics. Results: Mean age of study population was 41yrs. Majority had bicuspid aortic valve(n=11). Average thickness of transverse band was 6.2mm and average mean aortic gradient was4mmHg. Sequestration of blood was noted at the level of transverse band in all the patients with 2 separate jets at LVOT. Anterolateral jet was deflected from transverse band and showed higher velocity in comparison to the other jet, causing turbulence at the bicuspid aortic valve. No co-relation was found between the thickness of transverse band and aortic valve gradient. Conclusion: Presence of a robust transverse LV band can serve as a surrogate marker for bicuspid aortic valve. Keywords: Bicuspid aortic valve ; aortic stenosi

A Drug Repurposing Approach to Identify Therapeutics by Screening Medicines for Malaria Ventures Exploiting SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease

COVID-19 pandemic makes the human-kind standstill and results in high morbidity and mortality cases worldwide. Still, there are no approved antiviral drugs with proven efficacy nor any therapeutic vaccines to combat the disease as per the current date. In the present study, SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) has been taken as a potential drug target considering its crucial role in virus propagation. We have used 400 diverse bioactive inhibitors with proven antibacterial and antiviral properties for screening against Mpro target. Our screening result identifies ten compounds with higher binding affinity than N3 (used as a reference compound to validate the experiment). All the compounds possess desire physicochemical properties. Later on, in-depth docking and superimposition of selected complexes confirm that only three compounds (MMV1782211, MMV1782220 and MMV1578574) are actively interacting with the catalytic domain of Mpro. Furthermore, the selected three molecules complexed with Mpro and N3-Mpro as control are subjected to molecular dynamics simulation study (root means square deviation, root mean square fluctuation, hydrogen bonding, solvent-accessible area and radius of gyration). MMV1782211-Mpro complex shows a strong and stable interaction as compared to others. The MM/PBSA free energy calculation shows the highest binding free energy of –115.8 kJ/mol for MMV1782211 compound also cross-confirms our molecular docking study. Therefore, our in silico findings become very interesting towards developing alternative medicine against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro target. So, we can expect prompt actions in this direction to combat the COVID-19.</p

Prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among adolescents in the schools of Kalaiya, Nepal: a cross-sectional questionnaire based study

Introduction Adolescent students are vulnerable group for tobacco addiction. Tobacco use among school children is becoming a serious problem in developing countries. This study was carried out to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use and to determine associated factors among adolescent students of Kalaiya municipality. Material and Methods A cross sectional survey was carried out by self-administered questionnaire adapted from Global Youth Tobacco Survey to assess tobacco use among the representative sample of 1540 adolescent students selected by stratified random sampling from December 2014 to May 2015. Results Overall prevalence of ‘ever users’ of tobacco products was 25.3 %. Prevalence among boys and girls was 31 and 14.4 % respectively. Mean age at initiation of using tobacco was 13.38 ± 1.62 years. The correlates of tobacco use were: sex, ethnicity, family members and friends using tobacco products, and students exposed at home and public place. Conclusions School based interventions and tobacco education are necessary to prevent initiation and cessation of tobacco use. Legislations related to tobacco control should be enforced to decrease availability, accessibility and affordability of tobacco products. Social norms of tobacco use among parents and others at home as well as at public place should be modified to curb the tobacco use among school students

Modified Ring Routing Protocol for Mobile Sinks in a Dynamic Sensor Network in Smart Monitoring Applications

The stationary hierarchical network faces considerable challenges from hotspots and faster network breakdowns, especially in smart monitoring applications. As a solution to this issue, mobile sinks were recommended since they are associated with huge and balanced ways to transfer data and energy across the network. Again, due to the mobile sink node advertisement around the network latency and the energy utilization overheads introduced across the network, ring routing reduces the control overhead while preserving the benefits of the mobile sink, thereby optimizing the energy and improving the network life span. Consequently, we suggested a novel, distributed advanced ring routing strategy, in this work, for the mobile wireless sensor network. Extensive simulations and performance evaluation, in comparison to previous distributed mobile approaches, reveal a 37% and 40% boost in the network throughput and end-to end delay, respectively. Additionally, the lifespan of a network is determined by the control overhead and energy demand

Cloud Based Multi-Robot Task Scheduling Using PMW Algorithm

Scheduling of robots is one of the imperative assignment in a multi robot system. Scheduling is prerequisite when there is a multiple task need to be assigned to multi robot in an arranged manner. There is a growing need for robots to perform complex tasks autonomously. Multi-robot environment becomes complex as there are multiple factors need to be addressed simultaneously which require fast computation and more space. Using cloud computing platform could be one of the optimal solution for this problem. This paper presents the use of cloud computing platform for implementing the proposed Periodic Min-Max Algorithm (PMW) for multi robot task scheduling. Amazon web service (AWS) platform is utilized for deploying the algorithm for multi robot task scheduling. The task performed by the robots is considered as a single service in context with cloud platform and it withdraw an advantage when the number of services increases with time. Time requirement to complete the task and the load balancing parameter are analysed using the proposed approach and is compared with other relevant work. The results presented in the paper clearly shows the performance improvement in both the parameters. There is an improvement of about 3-7&#x0025; in both the parameters and are reported in the paper. The paper also emphasize on the deployment of cloud computing platform for the service robots. Time completion factor is analysed and reported in the paper to proof the advantage of using cloud platform for the service robots. The novel way of using the algorithm with cloud server seeks many advantage are also observed, analysed and presented in the paper