2,268 research outputs found
Suitability of Chlorella ellipsoidea as food for production of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus
Rotifers are valuable live food for larval fish and crustacean in aquaculture. In the present study, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the suitability of Chlorella ellipsoidea as food for production of the rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus. The experiment was carried out in three treatments using dried powder Chlorella ellipsoidea (T1), fresh live Chlorella ellipsoidea (T2) and Bakers yeast (T3) as food with three replications. For supplying food to rotifers, C. ellipsoidea was cultured sufficiently in different inexpensive culture media before rotifer culture and it was continued up to the end of the rotifer culture experiment. The ranges of environmental factors analyzed were suitable for both C. ellipsoidea and rotifers culture during the experimental period. Maximum cell densities of C. ellipsoidea were recorded in inexpensive pulse bran extract medium during the culture period. The mean population densities (means ± SEM) of B. calyciflorus were significantly (p<0.01) highest in T2 (28.6 ± 4.64 (x103) individuals L-1) compared to T1 (11.6 ± 1.24 (x103) individuals L-1) and T3 (11.4 ± 1.82 (x103) individuals L-1). The findings of present study revealed that fresh cultured C. ellipsoidea was the best food for production of the rotifer, B. calyciflorus. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v3i2.17843 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 3 (2): 41-48, December, 201
Absorption on horizon-wrapped branes
We compute the absorption cross section of space-time scalars on a static D2
rane, in global coordinates, wrapped on the S^2 of an AdS_2 X S^2 X CY_3
geometry. We discuss its relevance for the construction of the dual quantum
mechanics of Calabi-Yau black holes.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure
Domestic Violence and its Determinants: A cross-sectional study among women in a slum of Kolkata
Background: Violence against women is one of the major public health and human rights issue in the world today which is prevalent in all human societies irrespective of religion, socioeconomic status, and culture. Therefore, recognized as a significant barrier to women empowerment and their health. Aims & Objectives: The aim of this study was to find out the extent of different type of domestic violence and to identify various risk factors for domestic violence against married women. Material & Methods: The present study is a community based cross-sectional study carried out in a slum of Kolkata. Simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of the samples. The study participants were interviewed using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Result: 97 married women participated in the study. 32.9% of the study population reported some form of domestic violence. In a logistic regression analysis, significant association was found between domestic violence and alcohol abuse by the spouse, level of education of the spouse, per capita income and occupation of the women. Conclusion: This study confirms, high prevalence of all forms of violence against women, which underscores the need for policy makers to increase their recognition of domestic violence as a critical target in public health concern
What are the tuberculosis care practices of informal healthcare providers? A cross-sectional study from Eastern India
India is the highest TB burden country, accounting for an estimated 26% of the global TB cases. Systematic engagement of the private sector is a cornerstone of India's National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination (2017-25). However, informal healthcare providers (IPs), who are the first point of contact for a large number of TB patients, remain significantly underutilized in the National TB Elimination Program of India. Non-prioritization of IPs has also resulted in a limited understanding of their TB care practices in the community. We, therefore, undertook a descriptive study to document IPs' TB care practices, primarily focusing on their approach to screening, diagnosis, treatment and referral. This cross-sectional study was carried out from February to March 2020 in the Birbhum District of West Bengal, India. Interviews were conducted utilizing the retrospective case study method. A total of 203 IPs participated who reported seeing at least one confirmed TB patient in 6 months prior to the study. In that duration, IPs reported interacting with an average of five suspected TB cases, two of which were later confirmed as having TB. Antibiotic use was found to be common among IPs (highest 69% during the first visit); however, they were prescribed before the patient was suspected or confirmed as having TB. We noted the practice of prolonged treatment among IPs as patients were prescribed medicines until the second follow-up visit. Referral was the preferred TB case management approach among IPs, but delayed referral was observed, with only one-third (34%) of patients being referred to higher health facilities during their first visit. This study presents important findings on IPs' TB care practices, which have consequences for achieving India's national goal of TB elimination
A frequentist framework of inductive reasoning
Reacting against the limitation of statistics to decision procedures, R. A.
Fisher proposed for inductive reasoning the use of the fiducial distribution, a
parameter-space distribution of epistemological probability transferred
directly from limiting relative frequencies rather than computed according to
the Bayes update rule. The proposal is developed as follows using the
confidence measure of a scalar parameter of interest. (With the restriction to
one-dimensional parameter space, a confidence measure is essentially a fiducial
probability distribution free of complications involving ancillary statistics.)
A betting game establishes a sense in which confidence measures are the only
reliable inferential probability distributions. The equality between the
probabilities encoded in a confidence measure and the coverage rates of the
corresponding confidence intervals ensures that the measure's rule for
assigning confidence levels to hypotheses is uniquely minimax in the game.
Although a confidence measure can be computed without any prior distribution,
previous knowledge can be incorporated into confidence-based reasoning. To
adjust a p-value or confidence interval for prior information, the confidence
measure from the observed data can be combined with one or more independent
confidence measures representing previous agent opinion. (The former confidence
measure may correspond to a posterior distribution with frequentist matching of
coverage probabilities.) The representation of subjective knowledge in terms of
confidence measures rather than prior probability distributions preserves
approximate frequentist validity.Comment: major revisio
Extraction of bodily features for gait recognition and gait attractiveness evaluation
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-012-1319-2. Copyright @ 2012 Springer.Although there has been much previous research on which bodily features are most important in gait analysis, the questions of which features should be extracted from gait, and why these features in particular should be extracted, have not been convincingly answered. The primary goal of the study reported here was to take an analytical approach to answering these questions, in the context of identifying the features that are most important for gait recognition and gait attractiveness evaluation. Using precise 3D gait motion data obtained from motion capture, we analyzed the relative motions from different body segments to a root marker (located on the lower back) of 30 males by the fixed root method, and compared them with the original motions without fixing root. Some particular features were obtained by principal component analysis (PCA). The left lower arm, lower legs and hips were identified as important features for gait recognition. For gait attractiveness evaluation, the lower legs were recognized as important features.Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award and HEFCE
Isotopic variation of parity violation in atomic ytterbium
We report on measurements of atomic parity violation, made on a chain of
ytterbium isotopes with mass numbers A=170, 172, 174, and 176. In the
experiment, we optically excite the 6s2 1S0 -> 5d6s 3D1 transition in a region
of crossed electric and magnetic fields, and observe the interference between
the Stark- and weak-interaction-induced transition amplitudes, by making field
reversals that change the handedness of the coordinate system. This allows us
to determine the ratio of the weak-interaction-induced electric-dipole (E1)
transition moment and the Stark-induced E1 moment. Our measurements, which are
at the 0.5% level of accuracy for three of the four isotopes measured, allow a
definitive observation of the isotopic variation of the weak-interaction
effects in an atom, which is found to be consistent with the prediction of the
Standard Model. In addition, our measurements provide information about an
additional Z' boson.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
How managers can build trust in strategic alliances: a meta-analysis on the central trust-building mechanisms
Trust is an important driver of superior alliance performance. Alliance managers are influential in this regard because trust requires active involvement, commitment and the dedicated support of the key actors involved in the strategic alliance. Despite the importance of trust for explaining alliance performance, little effort has been made to systematically investigate the mechanisms that managers can use to purposefully create trust in strategic alliances. We use Parkhe’s (1998b) theoretical framework to derive nine hypotheses that distinguish between process-based, characteristic-based and institutional-based trust-building mechanisms. Our meta-analysis of 64 empirical studies shows that trust is strongly related to alliance performance. Process-based mechanisms are more important for building trust than characteristic- and institutional-based mechanisms. The effects of prior ties and asset specificity are not as strong as expected and the impact of safeguards on trust is not well understood. Overall, theoretical trust research has outpaced empirical research by far and promising opportunities for future empirical research exist
Scalar-field Pressure in Induced Gravity with Higgs Potential and Dark Matter
A model of induced gravity with a Higgs potential is investigated in detail
in view of the pressure components related to the scalar-field excitations. The
physical consequences emerging as an artifact due to the presence of these
pressure terms are analysed in terms of the constraints parting from energy
density, solar-relativistic effects and galactic dynamics along with the dark
matter halos.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, Minor revision, Published in JHE
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