The relationship between psychological contract, job satisfaction, organisation citizenship behaviour and turnover intention

Psychological contracts, which are made up of employees’ beliefs about the reciprocal obligations between them and their organisation, lie at the foundation of employment relationships (Rousseau, 1989; Schein, 1965). Yet many trends, such as restructuring, downsizing, increased reliance, pressure on cost and high competition, have a profound impact on employees and organisations, leading to an impact on psychological contracts. These trends increasingly make it unclear what the employee and organisation owe each other. The intention of this study is to the relationship between, psychological contract, job satisfaction, organisation citizenship behaviour, and turnover intention in the factory workers of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in the Durban area of South Africa. This research made use of quantitative research methods in order to conduct this study using a cross sectional design. A composite questionnaire was used to gather the necessary data for the study using a sample of 63 employees, which constitute 26% of work force working in the factory of a pharmaceutical company, represented by the different departments that operate in the factory setup. The quantitative findings indicate that all three of the measurement scales were reliable due to Cronbach’s alpha coefficient exceeding 0.60. Out of the three dependent variables, psychological contract is found to be highly correlated to job satisfaction. The findings of the study revealed that psychological contract has a positive medium correlation with job satisfaction, and that psychological contract has a medium negative correlation with turnover intention, while it has negligible correlation with organisation citizenship behaviour for the samples. The findings of this research study contribute to the literature available in terms of the construct of psychological contract, job satisfaction, organisation citizenship behaviour and turnover intention. Consequently, the results from this study provided the management of this company with important information on psychological contract and its relationship with work-related behaviours

Implications of Biosecurity in Food Safety

Owing to growing population of world, efforts are being made to maximise food production. Food safety should not be compromised to meet the food requirement of increasing population. Biosecurity is the imperative approach to ensure food safety. This is a holistic approach that interlinks health, environment, security and trade. Increased incidents of foodborne diseases led to promotion of biosecurity as a major priority policy worldwide to curtail such incidents and ensure food safety. Microbial risk management is an essential component of food safety. National biosecurity programmes are essentially required to identify the prospective modes of introduction and spread of a disease in a country or region and to specify the control measures to curtail the risk associated with the disease. International standards for various biosecurity sectors are set mainly by Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organisation for Animal Health and Commission on Phytosanitary Measures, which are implemented through the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, 1995 of World Trade Organisation. Agricultural biosecurity is of utmost importance in the countries that are large crop and animal producers, and these countries are at risk from alien pests and pathogens. Adequate biosecurity programmes are essential in all the countries to protect global environment, agriculture and biodiversity. Developing countries, particularly with large populations aiming maximised food production require stringent biosecurity approaches to provide safe and nutritious food to the people

A comparative study of the relationship between the recovery of movement and the anatomical alignment in fractures around the elbow

Background: The injury around the elbow joint is a common condition in any age group, especially in children as a result of fall, during the course of a child's normal play. The aim of the present study was to study the relationship between the recovery of movements and the anatomical alignment in fractures around the elbow.Methods: In the present study, 110 cases of fractures around elbow were included. The treatment with conservative or operative procedure depends on the surgeon concerned and his priorities. Sixty-six cases were treated conservatively, and 56 cases required operative intervention. At the time of follow up examination, cases were assessed as to the anatomical and functional point of view according to Flynn's criteria. We evaluated the reduction as per alignment in anteroposterior axis, lateral axis, and angulation. The patients were followed up for over 24 months.Results: Patients who had good anatomical alignment (grade A) showed 96.87% satisfactory result as compared to the patient who had fair anatomical alignment (91.66%) and poor anatomical alignment (54.54%). Thus in grade A where alignment was up to 76 points, we had satisfactory result in 96.87% patients, where as in grade C where alignment was less than 50 points, the result in 45.5% of patients was poor.Conclusions: Patients who had good anatomical alignment achieved, showed higher recovery of movement compared to the patient who had fair anatomical alignment and poor anatomical alignment

Enhanced Production of Protective Antigen, a Potent Diagnostic Protein of Bacillus anthracis, the Causative Agent of Anthrax

Protective antigen (PA) produced by Bacillus anthracis is a highly immunogenic protein. Therefore, it has significant importance in serodiagnosis as well as a vaccine candidate for anthrax. In the present study, codons for PA gene were optimised and synthesised for its expression in Escherichia coli. Various expression conditions were optimised for scaled up production of rPA. The final yield of affinity chromatography purified protein was 40.8 mg/l during batch fermentation. For further purification, affinity purified protein was diafiltered and subjected to anion exchange chromatography. SDS-PAGE and Western blot was used to characterise the purified rPA protein. The diagnostic potential of purified rPA was evaluated in Western blot using standards reference serum AVR 801 and cutaneous anthrax clinical sera. The results of the present study established the optimum production of rPA in E. coli after codon optimisation for its subsequent use in diagnosis of anthrax infection

One step Purification and Characterisation of Abrin Toxin from Abrus Precatorius Seeds

Abrin is a plant toxin obtained from Abrus precatorius seeds. It belongs to the type II ribosomal inactivating proteins (RIPs) consisting of two chains namely, catalytically active A chain and sugar binding B chain linked by a single disulphide bond.  Due to high toxicity of abrin, its exposure or consumption can lead to serious public health problems. In the present work, we have extracted and purified the abrin toxin from Abrus precatorius seeds. The toxin was purified using a single step anion exchange chromatography. The purified protein was characterized by SDS-PAGE and MALDI- TOF to confirm its purity. The toxicity of purified abrin toxin was also confirmed by injecting the toxin in mice.  The purified protein was further used to raise antibodies in mice and characterized by indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. The results of present study established the use of single step ion exchange chromatography to purify abrin toxin for further development of its detection system

Production and Purification of Protective Antigen of Bacillus anthracis and Development of a Sandwich ELISA for its Detection

Anthrax, a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis is important for biowarfare as well as public health point of view. The virulence factors of B. anthracis are encoded by the two plasmids, pXO1 and pXO2. Protective antigen (PA), an 83 kDa protein encoded by pXO1 along with lethal factor (LF, 90 kDa) or edema factor (EF, 89 kDa), makes the anthrax toxin responsible for causing the disease. Current detection and diagnostic systems for anthrax are mostly based on PA, a potential biomarker of B. anthracis. The objective of the present study was to produce and purify the PA for development of a sandwich ELISA for its detection. In this study, pYS5 plasmid containing the full PA gene was transformed into an 8 proteases deficient Bacillus anthracis host BH480. The PA was produced under shake flask conditions and purified using the gel filtration chromatography. The reactivity of PA with rabbit and mouse anti-PA antibodies was confirmed by Western blotting. The antibodies were purified and used for the development of a sandwich ELISA for detection of PA. The detection sensitivity of ELISA was found to be 3.9 ng/ mL PA

EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF PRANAYAMA ON THE LUNGS

Yoga is a science which has been practised in India from over thousands of years. Besides the spiritual achievements, the practice of yoga is accompanied by a number of beneficial physiological effects in the body. Yoga and health goes hand in hand. Yoga calms and relaxes the mind and it strengthens and tunes the body and brings them into harmony with each another. Pranayama is an art of controlling the life force of breath [1]. It produces many systemic psycho-physical effects in the body, besides its specific effects on the respiratory functions. This study is designed to study the effects of pranayama (12 weeks) on the pulmonary function parameters. It is one of the best lifestyle modifications which have ever been devised in the history of mankind. There are many classical paths which have been described to reach the ultimate goal of healthy life. It is an ancient yoga technique, a spiritual and physical practice which integrates the mind and body. Pranayama is a type of yogic practice which produces many systemic psycho-physical effects in the body, besides its specific effects on the respiratory functions. So, it has become a standard fare at health clubs and community recreation programmes.Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are simple screening procedures which are performed by using a standardized equipment (spirometer) to measure the lung function. This test provides useful information about the minimum levels of the lung function. The breath holding time measures the level of the threshold of the respiratory center to the partial pressure of the carbon dioxide (Pco2) level.Pulmonary function tests have been studied in yoga and pranayama practitioners. They have shown that the regular practice of these pranayama techniques have proved to be beneficial for the human body. Pranayama has a favourable influence and it causes a marked improvement in the lung functions. This study is designed to study the effects of pranayama (12 weeks) on the pulmonary function parameters.In these clinical trial 60 patients of mild to moderate hypertensive patients were randomly selected and divided in to two groups. In each group 30 patients had taken. In Group A Pranayam had been given to the 30 patients of mild to moderate hypertensive patients and In Group B only placebo drug Prana had given to the 30 patients mild to moderate hypertensive patients. In all these two groups, group A was found as the most benefited because it showed significant changes in symptoms and Biochemistry investigations. Whereas in Group B (Placebo group) showed insignificant changes in symptoms as well as in Biochemistry investigations.    Key words-For Yoga- Pranayama, Yoga, Pulmonary Function Parameters FVC FEV1 FEF (25-75percent), and BHT For Hypertension-Vyan vikriti, vyan bala, Raktavritta vata, Raktagata vata, Dhamani Pratichaya, Siragata vata, Rasabhara, Dhamani Prapurnata, Vyanavrita vata etc. Â

Micro-irrigation in Indian Agriculture-progress, impact and estimation of indicative cost

70-78Agriculture sector is the largest consumer of total water resources available in India. In view of increasing demand from all sectors of economy, declining availability and changing climate necessitates to bring down the use of water in agriculture below 50 percent from its present level. Hence, it is being emphasized to adopt innovative agricultural technologies (micro-irrigation methods), crops/cropping system requiring low water and development of drought tolerant varieties. In present scenario, the micro-irrigation methods are being seen as an alternative for increasing water use efficiency in agriculture. This article describes significance of micro irrigation, progress made, farm level impacts, and estimate of indicative cost to be required for the adoption of potential area to be brought under this technology

Nonlinear modelling of sheep and goat populations in India

The objective of this paper was to study the trend in population of sheep and goat populations during 1951 to 2012 in India. The data were compiled from various issues of BAHS (Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics) for the period 1951 to 2012. Different nonlinear growth models such as Parabolic/Sikka, Brody, Brody modified, Wood, Logistic and Gompertz models were fitted to the census data of sheep and goat population. The goodness of fit of the models was tested by Coefficient of determination (R2), Adjusted coefficient of determination (R2), Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Akaike Information Criteria (AIC). The populations of sheep and goat in India during the year 1951 were 39.10 million and 47.20 million numbers respectively and reached 135.17 million and 65.06 million respectively in the year 2012. Based on the various measures of goodness of fit we observed that the Parabolic/Sikka model was the best fitted model for studying the pattern in the populations of sheep and goat in India. This model has been used to project the sheep and goat population in India during 2020, 2025 and 2030. If the present pattern of growth continued in near future then the projected sheep population will be 102.37 million numbers whereas goat population will be 151.57 million numbers in the year 2030. The present study will provide the pattern in which the changes have been observed in sheep and goat populations in India during 1951 to 2012

Spontaneous Rectal Perforation with Transanal Evisceration of the Small Bowel: A Rare Case Report

Transanal evisceration of the small bowel is a rare surgical emergency. Rectal perforation in such cases is usually due to an underlying rectal prolapse. We report a case of a middle aged (45 years) male with spontaneous rectal perforation and transanal evisceration of the small bowel. Approximately 150 cm of small bowel had eviscerated transanally and the patient required emergent abdominal exploration, reposition of the small bowel, and repair of the rectal perforation. Small bowel evisceration through the anal verge is an emergent condition and the aim was to prevent life threatening complications related to sepsis