Impact Of Construction And Reclamation Activities On The Water Quality Of The Thane Creek, Central-West Coast Of India

Degradation of natural resources is a major environmental issue the world is currently facing. Estuaries, creeks and coastal water ecosystems are such natural resources that are important as breeding and feeding grounds for fishes and crustaceans. Human activities and alterations made by reclamation have had an adverse effect on their ecology. Due to this, water quality management in these ecosystems has become a necessity. Regular studies of the hydrological parameters are essential for this purpose, as they can assess the status of pollution and help in deciding the mitigation strategy. Water quality of 26 km stretch of Thane creek, central-west coast of India was analyzed in 5 regions of the creek from May 1999 to April 2000. The study revealed spatial and temporal patterns. Heavy suspended solid load (avg. 5.736 gm/L), frequent hypoxia (DO<2.5 mg/L) coupled with excess nutrients like Phosphate-Phosphorus (avg. 0.26 mg/L) and Nitrate-Nitrogen (avg. 0.96 mg/L) were the main features of the creek. The Thane city region showed more deterioration of water quality compared to the other regions in the creek. In this region the suspended solid load showed an increase of 713.69% and dissolved oxygen decreased by 21.55% compared to the data of 1992-93. This can be attributed to the severe onslaught of activities in this region like solid waste dumping, construction of 3 new bridges, etc. since 1993, thereby affecting the flushing characteristic. Hence in order to protect and preserve such ecosystems, alterations to the environment should be meticulously planned

Alaskan soil carbon stocks: spatial variability and dependence on environmental factors

The direction and magnitude of soil organic carbon (SOC) changes in response to climate change depend on the spatial and vertical distributions of SOC. We estimated spatially resolved SOC stocks from surface to C horizon, distinguishing active-layer and permafrost-layer stocks, based on geospatial analysis of 472 soil profiles and spatially referenced environmental variables for Alaska. Total Alaska state-wide SOC stock was estimated to be 77 Pg, with 61% in the active-layer, 27% in permafrost, and 12% in non-permafrost soils. Prediction accuracy was highest for the active-layer as demonstrated by highest ratio of performance to deviation (1.5). Large spatial variability was predicted, with whole-profile, active-layer, and permafrost-layer stocks ranging from 1–296 kg C m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt;, 2–166 kg m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt;, and 0–232 kg m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt;, respectively. Temperature and soil wetness were found to be primary controllers of whole-profile, active-layer, and permafrost-layer SOC stocks. Secondary controllers, in order of importance, were found to be land cover type, topographic attributes, and bedrock geology. The observed importance of soil wetness rather than precipitation on SOC stocks implies that the poor representation of high-latitude soil wetness in Earth system models may lead to large uncertainty in predicted SOC stocks under future climate change scenarios. Under strict caveats described in the text and assuming temperature changes from the A1B Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emissions scenario, our geospatial model indicates that the equilibrium average 2100 Alaska active-layer depth could deepen by 11 cm, resulting in a thawing of 13 Pg C currently in permafrost. The equilibrium SOC loss associated with this warming would be highest under continuous permafrost (31%), followed by discontinuous (28%), isolated (24.3%), and sporadic (23.6%) permafrost areas. Our high-resolution mapping of soil carbon stock reveals the potential vulnerability of high-latitude soil carbon and can be used as a basis for future studies of anthropogenic and climatic perturbations

Delivery complications and determinants of caesarean section rates in India : an analysis of National Family Health Surveys, 1992-93

Caesarean section rates have been increasing world-wide raising the question of the appropriateness of the selection of cases for the procedure. This paper examines the levels and correlates of delivery related complications and caesarean section deliveries in eighteen selected states of India in terms of specific maternal and institutional factors, using data from the National Family Health Surveys, 1992-93. Goa (15.3 per cent) and Kerala (13.7 per cent) were the two states with relatively higher caesarean section rates. There is reason to believe that the current caesarean section rates are part of a rising trend. This can not be attributed entirely to the rise in institutional deliveries alone because of the strong association between caesarean sections and private sector institutions. Apart from the fact that the states of Kerala and Goa are having relatively high caesarean section rates, in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh the risk of undergoing caesarean section in the private sector institutions is four or more times that in the public sector. It is possible that this extremely useful surgical procedure is being misused for profit purposes in the private sector in several states. There is therefore a need to examine this phenomenon using disaggregated data by the nature of caesarean sections, i.e. whether it was an elective or an emergency c-section along with the reasons for the choice. JEL Classification : I1, I18 Key Words: caesarean section, institutional deliveries, delivery complications, medical interventio

Occurrence and incidence of foot rot disease on fenugreek caused by Fusarium moniliforme in Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India

Pathological studies were carried out in Rohilkhand region during the crop season 2013-14 to assess the pathogenic disease incidence of foot rot of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum Linn.) caused by Fusarium moniliforme. A total of 75 fields were surveyed during the crop period at monthly interval during germination, vegetative, flowering and fruiting stages in five different localities of Rohilkhand region. The foot-rot disease of fenugreek was found in all fields (Bareilly, Baheri, Pilibhit, Budaun and Meerganj) selected for the study. Monthly occurrence of disease incidence of foot rot ranged from 44-58%. Maximum disease incidence was recorded in the month of Oct. (58%) followed by September (57%) and November (56%). January exhibited the lowest incidence (45%) of pathogenic disease. However, foot rot symptoms developed at early stage of plant growth and persisted up to the end of the crop

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A STABILITY INDICATING RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF VALSARTAN

Objective: A stability indicating RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of Valsartan using Telmisartan (10 µg/ml) as the internal standard.Methods: In this procedure Phenomenex ODS C-18(250×4.6 mm, packed with 5 micron) column was used with a new mobile phase consisting of methanol: acetonitrile: water (70:15:15 v/v) and the pH was adjusted to 3 by 0.1% glacial acetic acid with a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The eluents were monitored at 249 nm. Valsartan was subjected to stress conditions including hydrolytic degradation in acidic, basic and neutral conditions, oxidation, photolytic, UV degradation and thermal degradation.Results: Linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 10-90 µg/ml (R2 =0.999) and with a regression equation y=0.074x+0.005. The LOD and LOQ values were 0.261 and 0.791 µg/ml respectively. The drug had shown promising degradation in the acidic, basic, neutral, thermal and oxidative stress conditions.Conclusion: The method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity and robustness and revealed that it is specific, accurate, rapid, precise, reliable and reproducible enough to analyze commercial dosage forms as per ICH guidelines

Managing migration in the Philippines : lessons for India

This paper highlights the significance of international migration in the Philippines economy and society, discusses the supportive and regulatory role that the government of the Philippines plays in promoting it and draws the lessons that India might learn from the Philippines experience. Temporary labour migration to foreign countries is a policy priority of the Government of the Philippines which restricts official access to markets through recruitment by licensed agencies or the government itself. The Government retains a regulatory role, though most of the responsibility for recruiting workers is entrusted with the private sector with a view to protecting workers from abuse and discouraging illegal recruitment. International migrants receive several benefits- pre migration training, life insurance, pensions and loan facilities. Remittances are encouraged and investment programmes are offered. Filipinos abroad are given psychological counselling to maintain Filipino values and offered rights to vote in national elections. The Philippines government also lends its support to return migrants through tax-free shopping facilities, investment loans and subsidised scholarships. The efforts of the government have yielded substantial results even though short comings and failures do remain. The gains of government policies however far outweigh their inadequencies. India has several lessons to draw from the Philippines experiment in order to organise systematic flows of emigrants from India, namely, to take care of their working and living conditions abroad, to channel emigrants' savings into productive uses, to promote welfare funds of emigrant workers, to protect the interests of workers abroad during their sojourn and after return, to offer intending emigrants pre-departure orientation courses, to prevent all practices of breach of contract on the part of recruitment agencies and foreign employers and to increase the investment of Indian embassies in the affairs of Indian emigrants. Key words: Migration, Remittances, Employment, The Philippines JEL Classification: J21, J2

Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Pion Wave Function

We consider here chiral symmetry breaking through nontrivial vacuum structure with quark antiquark condensates. We then relate the condensate function to the wave function of pion as a Goldstone mode. This simultaneously yields the pion also as a quark antiquark bound state as a localised zero mode in vacuum. We illustrate the above with Nambu Jona-Lasinio model to calculate different pionic properties in terms of the vacuum structure for breaking of exact or approximate chiral symmetry, as well as the condensate fluctuations giving rise to $\sigma$ mesons.Comment: latex, revtex, 16 page

Occurrence of Streptomyces aurantiacus in Mangroves of Bhitarkanika

Thirteen strains of Streptomyces were isolated from phyllosphere of nine mangrove tree species found in Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem of Orissa. According to physiological, biochemical data, all 13 of the isolates were taxonomically identified to the genus Streptomyces as aurantiacus species. All strains are grayish, spirals and forming amorphous colony. Almost all utilized araginose, produced H2S, resistant towards rifampicin and penicillin, urea except few strains. However, they exhibited different extracellular activity like phosphate solubilization, lipase and L asparaginase production. This is a unique report from this mangrove ecosystem as far as Streptomyces occurrence is concerned