Soil quality of Bhilwara District (Rajasthan) in relation to pisciculture

The present paper deals with the physico-chemical data of 13 rainfed and drainable dry bundhs of Bhilwara District (India). All the dry bundhs studied showed a slightly alkaline pH ranging from 7.5 to 8.5. Electrical conductivity ranged from 2 to 8 millimhos/cm. Organic carbon in sediment fluctuated from 0.30 to 0.75%. Nitrogen, phosphate and potassium levels were fairly good, at 30 to 50 and 24 to 36 mg/100 g of soil respectively. Based on these data it was inferred that these dry bundhs were highly productive and suitable for freshwater fish culture

Social commerce in emerging markets and its impact on online community engagement

YesThis study aims to build on the understanding of social commerce in the emerging markets and how it influences online community engagement. The conceptual model was proposed using theories including the social support theory, the trust theory, the social presence theory, the flow theory and the service-dominant logic theory. Using Facebook online community, the data were collected from 400 respondents from Jordan and analysed using AMOS based structural equation modelling. Results revealed that social commerce constructs positively influence social support, community members’ trust and social presence. Furthermore, it was found that social support and social presence positively affect community members’ trust. We also found that community members’ trust positively influence flow whereas both community members’ trust and flow positively influence community engagement

Fish otoliths from the Ypresian (early Eocene) of Vastan, Gujarat, India

Sampling of about 1000 kg of sediment at the Vastan Lignite Mine provided otoliths of 20 teleost taxa of which nine could be described as new species: "genus Atherinidarum" rhomboides, "genus Atherinidarum" spinifer, "genus Percoideorum" thierrysmithi, "genus Centropomidarum" obesum, Acropoma massiva, "genus Acropomidarum" angulosum, "genus Ambassidarum" dominans, "genus Ambassidarum" celatum and "genus Menidarum" inflatum. All present-day relatives of the represented taxa occur in the marine realm. However, several of those fishes may have been able to penetrate into fresh water, e.g. the pristigasterids, atherinids, centropomids and ambassids. Primary freshwater fishes however, are lacking completely. All represented taxa are mainly confined to tropical, very shallow near shore habitats, and the association is completely devoid of oceanic fishes (mesopelagic and deep water bottom fishes). All these data suggest a protected shallow marine environment, not widely exposed to the oceanic realm, and probably with a regular influx of freshwater, maybe an estuary or a protected bay, with mangrove vegetation. It is probable that some of the represented taxa were able to intrude into fresh water

Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) fish otoliths from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds, India: a revision

The study of the Maastrichtian Deccan Intertrappean otolith association allows for the reconstruction of a fish fauna of 22 taxa, of which 16 are identified at species level. Three species are new: “genus Heterotidinarum” heterotoides, “genus Percoideorum” citreum and Dapalis erici. The represented taxa include typical freshwater ones, essentially freshwater ones with some marine intruders, near shore marine groups including a significant portion of freshwater intruders and predominantly marine fishes, including however some scarce freshwater residents. The most probable interpretation of such an association is that the Deccan Intertrappean Beds correspond to freshwater environments of a coastal area, where intrusion by marine elements or temporary connections with the marine realm existed. The Indian Maastrichtian and Ypresian faunas are compared with the European fossil record. The fossil record of osteoglossids, ambassids, and channids points to ancient Eurasiatic affinities of European freshwater and brackish Paleogene and Early Miocene fish faunas

Complement to the study of the Indian Paleocene osteoglossid fish genus <i>Taverneichthys</i> (Teleostei, Osteoglossomorpha)

A series of osteological characters of Taverneichthys bikanericus from the continental Paleocene of India are studied, allowing specifying its systematic position within the Osteoglossidae. It is shown that on the basis of its peculiar snout morphology this species occupies an intermediate position between genera such as Chanopsis and Phareodus, which possess a primitive snout with a large dermethmoid reaching the frontals and separating the two nasals from each other, and such as Brychaetus, Musperia, Opsithrissops, Osteoglossum and Scleropages, which exhibit an evolved snout. The latter presents nasals, which are articulated to the frontals, meeting each other on the mid-line, except at their anterior edge, where a small dermethmoid, largely separated from the frontals, is inserted between

Diffusion in supersonic, turbulent, compressible flows

We investigate diffusion in supersonic, turbulent, compressible flows. Supersonic turbulence can be characterized as network of interacting shocks. We consider flows with different rms Mach numbers and where energy necessary to maintain dynamical equilibrium is inserted at different spatial scales. We find that turbulent transport exhibits super-diffusive behavior due to induced bulk motions. In a comoving reference frame, however, diffusion behaves normal and can be described by mixing length theory extended into the supersonic regime.Comment: 11 pages, incl. 5 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review E (a high-resolution version is available at http://www.aip.de./~ralf/Publications/p21.abstract.html

Smart monitoring and controlling of government policies using social media and cloud computing

YesThe governments, nowadays, throughout the world are increasingly becoming dependent on public opinion regarding the framing and implementation of certain policies for the welfare of the general public. The role of social media is vital to this emerging trend. Traditionally, lack of public participation in various policy making decision used to be a major cause of concern particularly when formulating and evaluating such policies. However, the exponential rise in usage of social media platforms by general public has given the government a wider insight to overcome this long pending dilemma. Cloud-based e-governance is currently being realized due to IT infrastructure availability along with mindset changes of government advisors towards realizing the various policies in a best possible manner. This paper presents a pragmatic approach that combines the capabilities of both cloud computing and social media analytics towards efficient monitoring and controlling of governmental policies through public involvement. The proposed system has provided us some encouraging results, when tested for Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation by Indian government and established that it can be successfully implemented for efficient policy making and implementation

Proceedings and recommendations of the National Webinar on Implementation of Access to Plant Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing

A National Webinar on “Implementation of Access to Plant Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS)” was held on August 27, 2020. The meeting was co-organized by UN Environment Implemented GEF Project, Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Delhi Office, India and the Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources (ISPGR) and was attended by 200 stakeholders from academia, policy, management, farmers and private sector. This document provides briefly the deliberations held during the webinar and the major recommendations which emerged

Relationship Between the Thermodynamic Parameters, Structure, and Anticorrosion Properties of Al-Zr-Ni-Fe-Y Alloys

The influence of the chemical composition on the crystallization process, amorphous phase formation, and the anticorrosion properties of Al-Zr-Ni-Fe-Y alloys are presented. To reduce the number of experiments, a thermodynamic approach was applied in which the entropy and Gibbs free energy of representative alloys were optimized. The low glass-forming ability of Al-Zr-Ni-Fe-Y alloy systems was related to the crystallization of the Al3Zr phase from the melt. The structural analysis showed that phases containing Ni and Fe, such as Al19Ni5Y3, Al10Fe2Y, and Al23Ni6Y4, played a key role in the formation of amorphous alloys. According to this, the simultaneous addition of Ni/Fe and Y is important to prevent the crystallization of Al-based alloys in the melt. The formation of an amorphous phase in Al80Zr5Ni5Fe5Y5 alloys and the complete amorphization of Al85Ni5Fe5Y5 alloys were responsible for the high corrosion resistance compared with fully crystalline alloys. Moreover, the addition of Y had a significant impact on the anticorrosion properties. The XPS results showed that the alloys tended to form a passive Al2O3 and Y2O3 layer on the surface

1-O-Octadecyl-2-O-benzyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phospho-GS-441524 (V2043). Evaluation of Oral V2043 in a Mouse Model of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Synthesis and Antiviral Evaluation of Additional Phospholipid Esters with Enhanced Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity

Early antiviral treatments, including intravenous remdesivir (RDV), reduce hospitalization and severe disease caused by COVID-19. An orally bioavailable RDV analog may facilitate earlier treatment of non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Here we describe the synthesis and evaluation of alkyl glyceryl ether phosphodiesters of GS-441524 (RVn), lysophospholipid analogs which allow for oral bioavailability and stability in plasma. Oral treatment of SARS-CoV-2-infected BALB/c mice with 1-O-octadecyl-2-O-benzyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phospho-RVn (60 mg/kg orally, once daily for 5 days starting 12h after infection) reduced lung viral load by 1.5 log10 units versus vehicle at day 2 and to below the limit of detection at day 5. Structure/activity evaluation of additional analogs that have hydrophobic ethers at the sn-2 of glycerol revealed improved in vitro antiviral activity by introduction of a 3-fluoro-4-methoxy-substituted benzyl or a 3- or 4-cyano-substituted benzyl. Collectively, our data support the development of RVn phospholipid prodrugs as oral antiviral agents for prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections