Sparking a debate on coal: Case study on the Indian Government’s crackdown on Greenpeace

Non-governmental organisations working on rights based issues in India have recently been in the firing line of the government. The controversial Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), originally instituted during national emergency in 1976, has been further amended in recent times to arbitrarily restrict groups speaking out against human rights abuses and environmental problems in a rapidly industrialising economy. Yet again raising the spectre of the ‘foreign hand’, governments have proceeded to cancel the licences and freeze the foreign funds of NGOs. Using the case study of the crackdown on Greenpeace on account of its advocacy against coal development, this paper discusses the main instruments, tactics and arguments engaged in stifling the capability of NGOs to protest rights violations across the landscape. It analyses Greenpeace’s fight-back and the broader civil society response to the government’s crackdown on dissent. In labelling civil society groups as anti-national in an era of neoliberal economic growth, the government’s corporate bias stands fully exposed. In standing thus exposed through its crackdown on dissent, the government’s crackdown contributed to the sparking of two much needed debates in Indian society: about who benefits and who misses out from India’s economic growth, and about the social and environmental costs of coal.</jats:p

Sub-Fourier characteristics of a δ\delta-kicked rotor resonance

We experimentally investigate the sub-Fourier behavior of a $\delta$-kicked rotor resonance by performing a measurement of the fidelity or overlap of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) exposed to a periodically pulsed standing wave. The temporal width of the fidelity resonance peak centered at the Talbot time and zero initial momentum exhibits an inverse cube pulse number ($1/N^{3}$) dependent scaling compared to a $1/N^{2}$ dependence for the mean energy width at the same resonance. A theoretical analysis shows that for an accelerating potential the width of the resonance in acceleration space depends on $1/N^{3}$, a property which we also verify experimentally. Such a sub-Fourier effect could be useful for high precision gravity measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A clinical study on ultrasonographic measurement of cervical length at 18-24 weeks of gestation and pregnancy outcome

Background: Preterm labour and preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal mortality, whose incidence is approximately 10% of all live births worldwide. This study was undertaken to evaluate the cervical length ultra-sonographically at 18 to 24 weeks of gestation in asymptomatic women and study the pregnancy outcomes and predicting risk of preterm labour and delivery.           Methods: This hospital based prospective study was conducted by enrolling 1500 antenatal patients with gestations between 18 and 24 weeks, after fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Their cervical lengths were measured by USG and they followed through their pregnancy, labour and delivery & all the relevant data were recorded, studied & statistically analysed.         Results: Out of 1500 patients enrolled, 90 were lost to follow up. Therefore, all the result analyses were done for 1410 patients. Majority of the patients belonged to age group 21- 30 years (830= 58.86%), primigravida ( 47.87%), from urban background (67.17%), belonged to lower socio-economic status (61.70%), at 21 weeks of gestation (28.15%). 960 patients had labour at term (68.08%), 360 (25.54%) had preterm  and 90 (6.38%) had postterm labour. With cervical length 3.0 cm, 71 (9.59%) landed up in preterm labour. When statistically analysed, the association between cervical length and gestational age at which labour started were very significant and results showed ᵡ2=190.01 , df= 1,  P< 0.0001 (very significant ). As the cervical length increases, the median gestational age at which labour started also increases which was found to be significant (r = 0.98, P<0.01).Conclusions: Shorter cervices lead to shorter gestations and early labour. Thus ultrasonographic measurement of cervical length at 18-24 weeks of gestation is very important, more so in asymptomatic women and can be utilized as a tool for predicting adverse pregnancy outcome especially preterm labour and delivery

Larvicidal efficacy of Toddalia asiatica (Linn.) Lam against two mosquito vectors Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus

The hexane, acetone and methanol extracts of mature fruits and leaves from Toddalia asiatica was investigated to establish its bio-control potentiality under laboratory condition against fourth instars larvae of Dengue vector, Aedes aegypti and Filarial vector, Culex quinquefasciatus. Hexane extract of fruits of T. asiatica showed highest larvicidal activity against both mosquito vector. LC50 value of hexane, acetone and methanol extracts of fruits against A. aegypti were 37.23, 50.69 and 125.55 ppm and against C. quinquefasciatus were 33.23, 82.20 and 215.19 ppm, respectively. Hexane, acetone and methanol extracts of leaves also showed potency against A. aegypti with LC50 values of 133.80, 177.20 and 79.48 and against C. quinquefasciatus with LC50 values of 164.53, 175.28 and 87.87 ppm, respectively .These results suggested that T. asiatica is promising as larvicide against both targeted mosquitoes

Selective estrogen receptor modulator: efficacy in abnormal uterine bleeding in perimenopausal women

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding affects 50% women of perimenopausal age group. The use of ormeloxifene (SERMS) in management of AUB is well known. The objective of the present study was aimed to see the effects of ormeloxifene on different types of endometrium.in the medical management of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding (AUB).Methods: It was Prospective, interventional study. A total of 90 women who attended Outpatient Gynaecology Department, Guwahati with complain of AUB in perimenopausal age group (37-48) were prescribed 60mg ormeloxifene twice weekly for 3 months followed by once weekly for next 3 months after preliminary D and C.Results: Ormeloxifene was found to be more effective in reducing PBAC score and ET in patients with proliferative and secretory endometrium The reduction in mean PBAC score with ormeloxifene (175.3 to 20.93)(p value 0.0001) and ET (9.6 to 2.9 mm) (p value 0.0001) in proliferative endometrium, (179.2 to 14.8 (p value 0.0001) ) and ET 11.1 to 1.9 mm (p value 0.0003)in secretory endometrium was observed after 6 months. However, it was found not to be effective in reducing PBAC score and ET in patients with atrophic endometrium. Change in PBAC SCORE from 176.4 to 150.8 (p value 0.08) and in ET from 2.8 to 2.1mm( p value 0.3) was observed. No major side effects were reported.Conclusions: Ormeloxifene is effective in AUB with proliferative and secretory endometrium

Studies on the growth behavior of Chlorella, Haematococcus and Scenedesmus sp. in culture media with different concentrations of sodium bicarbonate and carbon dioxide gas

Growth studies were conducted on green algae Chlorella, Scenedesmus and Haematococcus strains in batch mode cultures. In this study, the effect of sodium bicarbonate salt (NaHCO3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas as carbon source on microalgal cultures were investigated. For this purpose, growth response of the aforementioned three strains under varying concentrations of NaHCO3 (15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 mg/L,) and CO2 gas (7929, 4758 and 4400 mg/L,) were investigated. The best growth response showed by chlorella strain was observed at 75 mg/L (ppm) bicarbonate (% increase in biomass=82.6mg/L/day for 12 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas concentration (189.1 mg/L/day for 7 days). While Haematococcus strain showed its best growth in 30 ppm bicarbonate (72.9 mg/L/day for 17 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas (134.1 mg/L for 7 days), the Scenedesmus strain showed its best growth in 45 ppm bicarbonate (30.9 mg/L/day for 17 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas (103.8 mg/L for 7 days). All the strains showed good growth when CO2 gas was supplied in terms of increase in cell number, biomass and lipid content compared to bicarbonate utilization as carbon source, except Haematococcus strain which fail to grow when high concentration of CO2 gas (7929 ppm) was supplied. Out of the three strains, it was Chlorella sp. which showed highest growth rate and lipid content when CO2 gas was supplied, (specific growth=0.704; 189.1% increase in biomass, g/L/day and 1.015 doubling/day, 31% lipid content in terms of dry cell weight).Key words: Microalgae, bicarbonate, biomass, lipid

Assessment of genetic divergence for quantitative traits in thermo tolerant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes

In the present study, 21 thermo tolerant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes were evaluated to delineate the extent of genetic diversity through 10 quantitative traits. The genotypes were categorized into 4 distinct clusters using D2 statistics. Cluster IV had the maximum number (10) of genotypes, where all heat tolerant genotypes grouped together, followed by cluster I (5). Intra cluster analysis revealed that the cluster IV had highest distance, while the inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster III and cluster IV (6.53) indicating the presence of wide range of variability among genotypes of the cluster. Cluster IV recorded maximum cluster mean for yield (579.0), average fruit weight (33.33) and fruit set per cent (54.8) and the cluster III recorded highest mean value for days to 50 percent flowering (67.33). Principal component analysis showed that the first two principal components (PC’s) accounting for 77.6 per cent of total variation. On the basis of inter cluster distance, cluster mean and principal component analysis observed in the present study, a crossing programme involving genotypes from cluster IV will be promising one for developing heat tolerant tomato hybrids

Low noise constant current source for bias dependent noise measurements

A low noise constant current source used for measuring the $1/f$ noise in disordered systems in ohmic as well as non-ohmic regime is described. The source can supply low noise constant current starting from as low as 1 $\mu$A to a few tens of mA with a high voltage compliance limit of around 20 Volts. The constant current source has several stages which can work in a standalone manner or together to supply the desired value of load current. The noise contributed by the current source is very low in the entire current range. The fabrication of a low noise voltage preamplifier modified for bias dependent noise measurements and based on the existing design available in the MAT04 data sheet is also described.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Review of Scientific Instrument

Sero-prevalence of West Nile virus in urban and peri-urban poultry farms of Guwahati, India

West Nile virus (WNV) is a zoonotic, emerging mosquito-borne virus which can cause severe disease in the form of encephalitis and acute flaccid paralysis in humans. In Assam, northeast India, arboviruses seem to be re-emerging, however, WNV has been little studied. The present investigation was carried out from April, 2018 to March, 2019 to study sero-positivity of WNV in chicken in urban and peri-urban areas of Guwahati, the capital city of Assam. Four urban and four peri-urban areas of Guwahati were selected. A total of 864 chicken serum samples (72 samples per month) were screened by ELISA and further confirmed by haemagglutination inhibition (HI), which revealed that 3.13% of the chickens had been exposed to WNV, with 0.69% sero-positivity in urban areas compared to 5.56% in peri-urban. Peak sero-prevalence of WNV were reported during the month of July and August with 8.33% each with lowest sero-prevalence being recorded in November (1.39%) and no sero-positive birds from December to April. These results indicate that WNV is one of the actively circulating flaviviruses in Assam, and human febrile and encephalitic cases should be screened for the disease