Analyzing Portrayals of Modern Women and Popular Culture in Television Soap Operas of Pakistan

Media convergence has phenomenally transformed Indian television audience's soap opera viewing experience by offering digital exposure to diversified content. The paper presents an exploratory study, analyzing Indian viewers' reception of the dramatized portrayals of modern women and popular culture in television soap operas of Pakistan. The study finds reasons for Pakistan’s soap operas' popularity and registers Indian readers' guided interpretations of polysemic televised projections of women and culture. Triangulation methodology is employed including questionnaire, telephonic interviews, and participatory observations. Discourse analysis of celebrated soap opera 'Humsafar' detected a research problem that women participate in reinforcing misogynic value systems with rigidly dichotomized and objectified roles, treated with an androcentric gaze. The paper introduces “altagonist” as a hybrid character category that negotiates between the bipolar roles. The study concludes that dramatized representations of Pakistani women are at the crossroads of east-west cultures, struggling with patriarchy, expanding their gender capacities, and initiating behavior change. The research paper holds crucial relevance in the Indian subcontinent to re-open an academic doorway for participatory communication on television soap operas as integral units of South Asian Popular Culture

Incidence and Determinants of Low birth weight babies at rural tertiary care hospital in central Uttar Pradesh

Background: An infant’s birth weight is a reliable index of intrauterine growth and a sensitive predictor of newborn chances of survival, growth and long-term physical and psychosocial development. Low birth weight has been defined as birth weight <2.5 kg regardless of gestational age. The incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in India varies between 25–30% and of which 60–65% are because of intrauterine growth retardation. Aim & Objective: To determine the incidence and various determinants of low birth weight among babies delivered at rural tertiary care hospitals in central Uttar Pradesh. Methods and Material: The study was conducted at UPUMS, Saifai, Etawah, among pregnant women who delivered babies from 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018. Details regarding age of the mother, gravida, parity, gestation period, presence of complications, the procedure for delivery and birth weight of the newborn were recorded and analyzed using SPSS software (version 23)   Results: A total of 7615 deliveries were conducted (53.2% were males, 46.8% were females). The mean birth weight of babies was 2.65 Kg with S.D ± 0.52. Preterm babies were 32% while 67% were term babies and 23% of babies were low birth weight. There was a statistically significant association between birth weight of babies and factors like age of mother, parity of mother, gestation period, and presence of complications during the antenatal period. Conclusions: Prompt identification of high-risk factors, prevention of premature delivery, increasing the use of health services during pregnancy and management of the risk factors would reduce the incidence of low birth weight

Prevalence and Pattern of Substance Abuse among 18 to 60 years Male in a Rural Area of District Etawah, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract: Adolescent and young people’s behavior is of major concern due to Substance abuse. According to WHO, Substance abuse is consistently or sporadic drug use inconsistent with or unrelated to acceptable medical practice. Globally, alcohol and tobacco as a risk factors cause 4.0% and 4.1% of the overall burden of disability respectively. Objective: To determine the prevalence of substance abuse among 18 to 60 years’ male in rural Etawah and to identify type and pattern of substance abuse. Material and Methods: It was a community based cross sectional study carried out in five block of district Etawah for a period of one and half year. 1500 participants were interviewed using pre designed pre-tested questionnaire and data regarding socio demographic profile and pattern of abuse were collected. Data was entered in Microsoft excel sheet and analyzed by SPSS version 24 using appropriate statistical test. Result: Among 1500 participants, majority were below 30 years of age (i.e. 42.8%). In this study prevalence of Substance use among was 47% [707/1500]. Among all the other substance use, smokeless tobacco showed highest prevalence. Conclusion: Substance use is common in both urban as well as in rural area. So there is a need to educate and aware people regarding bad effects of drug abuse

Coastal sea level response to the tropical cyclonic forcing in the northern Indian Ocean

The study examines the observed storm-generated sea level variation due to deep depression (event 1: E1) in the Arabian Sea from 26 November to 1 December 2011 and a cyclonic storm "THANE" (event 2: E2) over the Bay of Bengal during 25–31 December 2011. The sea level and surface meteorological measurements collected during these extreme events exhibit strong synoptic disturbances leading to storm surges of up to 43 cm on the west coast and 29 cm on the east coast of India due to E1 and E2. E1 generated sea level oscillations at the measuring stations on the west coast (Ratnagiri, Verem and Karwar) and east coast (Mandapam and Tuticorin) of India with significant energy bands centred at periods of 92, 43 and 23 min. The storm surge is a well-defined peak with a half-amplitude width of 20, 28 and 26 h at Ratnagiri, Verem and Karwar, respectively. However, on the east coast, the sea level oscillations during Thane were similar to those during calm period except for more energy in bands centred at periods of ~ 100, 42 and 24 min at Gopalpur, Gangavaram and Kakinada, respectively. The residual sea levels from tide gauge stations in Arabian Sea have been identified as Kelvin-type surges propagating northwards at a speed of ~ 6.5 m s−1 with a surge peak of almost constant amplitude. Multi-linear regression analysis shows that the local surface meteorological data (daily mean wind and atmospheric pressure) is able to account for ~ 57 and ~ 69% of daily mean sea level variability along the east and west coasts of India. The remaining part of the variability observed in the sea level may be attributed to local coastal currents and remote forcin

Agro-morphological characterization of lentil germplasm of Indian National Genebank and Development of a core set for efficient utilization in lentil improvement programs

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the major cool-season pulse crops worldwide. Its increasing demand as a staple pulse has led to the unlocking of diverse germplasm collections conserved in the genebanks to develop its superior varieties. The Indian National Genebank, housed at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, India, currently has 2,324 accessions comprising 1,796 indigenous and 528 exotic collections. This study was conducted to unveil the potential of lentil germplasm by assessing its agro-morphological characteristics and diversity, identifying trait-specific germplasm, and developing a core set. The complete germplasm set was characterized for two years, i.e., 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, and data were recorded on 26 agro-morphological traits. High phenotypic variability was observed for nine quantitative and 17 qualitative traits. A core set comprising 170 accessions (137 Indian and 33 exotic) was derived based on the characterization data as well as geographical origin using a heuristic method and PowerCore software. This core set was found to be sufficiently diverse and representative of the entire collection based on the comparison made using Shannon-Weaver diversity indices and χ2 test. These results were further validated by summary statistics. The core set displayed high genetic diversity as evident from a higher coefficient of variance in comparison to the entire set for individual traits and overall Shannon-Weaver diversity indices (entire: 1.054; core: 1.361). In addition, the total variation explained by the first three principal components was higher in the core set (70.69%) than in the entire collection (68.03%). Further, the conservation of pairwise correlation values among descriptors in the entire and core set reflected the maintenance of the structure of the whole set. Based on the results, this core set is believed to represent the entire collection, completely. Therefore, it constitutes a potential set of germplasm that can be used in the genetic enhancement of lentils

Genomic plasticity associated with antimicrobial resistance in Vibrio cholerae.

The Bay of Bengal is known as the epicenter for seeding several devastating cholera outbreaks across the globe. Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of cholera, has extraordinary competency to acquire exogenous DNA by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and adapt them into its genome for structuring metabolic processes, developing drug resistance, and colonizing the human intestine. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in V. cholerae has become a global concern. However, little is known about the identity of the resistance traits, source of AMR genes, acquisition process, and stability of the genetic elements linked with resistance genes in V. cholerae Here we present details of AMR profiles of 443 V. cholerae strains isolated from the stool samples of diarrheal patients from two regions of India. We sequenced the whole genome of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) V. cholerae to identify AMR genes and genomic elements that harbor the resistance traits. Our genomic findings were further confirmed by proteome analysis. We also engineered the genome of V. cholerae to monitor the importance of the autonomously replicating plasmid and core genome in the resistance profile. Our findings provided insights into the genomes of recent cholera isolates and identified several acquired traits including plasmids, transposons, integrative conjugative elements (ICEs), pathogenicity islands (PIs), prophages, and gene cassettes that confer fitness to the pathogen. The knowledge generated from this study would help in better understanding of V. cholerae evolution and management of cholera disease by providing clinical guidance on preferred treatment regimens.DBT Indi

Materiality Analyses: Evolution and Importance

Firms deal with a range of issues that they report in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. However, not all issues are relatively important to correctively reflect environmental, social and economic impacts and influence stakeholder’s decisions. In addition, there is variability in reporting practices. At this point, corporate materiality analyses come to the rescue for the firms and aid them in prioritizing and reporting the most important issues. Materiality analyses have gained increased popularity and adoption by firms globally. GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) rates materiality as the most important criteria while publishing CSR reports. The current study\u27s objective was to understand how materiality analyses have evolved. With the evolution, are there any trends that could be observed? For the study, 14 firms were chosen belonging to different sectors. The firms used were Firms of Endearment. Fortune 100 and two of the big four consulting firms. The study was carried by using two-order scheme for coding data by using Gioia methodology into different categories in NVIVO (software for qualitative research). Categories were created, and frequency of the each of the categories were computed. Percentage values were calculated using the frequency of each of the categories. There were positive and contradicting trends that were observed in the evolution of materiality analyses for current research. The findings from the current research give a new perspective to look at materiality and pave the way for more investigation in this area

Sodium alginate polymer nanoformulation as promising carrier for berberine delivery: Synthesis, morphology and in-vitro evaluation

The present study focused on the fabrication of berberine sodium alginate nanoparticles with a combination approach of conventional nanoprecipitation method with ionic complexation to improve its poor water solubility. The optimization of nanoformulation was done by Central Composite Design and was evaluated for DLS, entrapment efficiency, morphology, FTIR, DSC, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial efficacy and drug release kinetics. The particle size of optimized nanoformulation was in the range of 20 nm to 100 nm with an entrapment efficiency of 94.47%. Antibacterial efficacy of optimized nanoformulation was checked by measuring the zone of inhibition for both gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. The optimized nanoformulation showed enhanced antimicrobial activity compared with berberine and control nanoformulation against all bacterial strains. Also, a sustained release of berberine over about 48 h was achieved with nanoformulation and the drug release followed zero-order kinetics. Thus, berberine sodium alginate nanoparticles can potentially increase the oral bioavailability of berberine and can be utilized for controlled delivery thereby reducing the side effects

High Pass Filter Design and Analysis Using Nuttall and Parzen Windows

ABSTRACT Digital Signal Processing is concerned with the digital representation, transformation and manipulation of signals and the information they contain. The use of digital processors to analyze, modify or extract information from signals. In this paper high pass filter has been designed and simulated using different window techniques. Nuttall and Parzen windows techniques are used along with Rectangular windows techniques for design analysis and comparison by using matlabs. The simulated result show that Nuttall window has very good side lobe behavior and this technique gives 6.248% improvement in main lobe width

Assessment of knowledge and perception regarding male sterilization (Non-Scalpel Vasectomy) among community health workers in Jharkhand, India

Introduction: In India, community health workers are the main source of information for family planning services and male population want to interact and discuss with them to clear their doubts about male oriented family planning methods. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and perception of community health workers regarding the modern male sterilization method. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Simdega district of Jharkhand. The target population was the community health workers and randomly selected from four randomly selected from blocks out of total seven in the district. A self-administered quantitative questionnaire was used for data collection comprising questions related to knowledge and perception of community health workers about modern male sterilization method. Results: 43% CHWs didn’t know that this method is different from traditional male sterilization method and around 62% thought man’s sexual performance get affected after NSV and 77% did not have any idea about time required to resume normal work. Conclusions: The poor knowledge and wrong perception could be one of the main reasons for poor male participation in family planning process in India