Effect of Ca-substitution on the magnetic and dielectric properties of Mn-Zn ferrites

Spinel Mn-Zn ferrites with composition MnxZn0.4Ca0.6-2xFe2+xO4,where x = 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 and 0.30 have been prepared by conventional ceramic technique sintered at 1300 °C for 4 hours. The influence of Ca-substitution on various properties of Mn-Zn ferrites have been studied in this work. Investigations were carried out by the measurements of Curie temperature, permeability, loss tangent, Q-factor, dielectric constant and AC resistivity of the samples. Curie temperature (Tc), the real part of initial permeability (µ´), loss tangent (tan ?), and AC resistivity have been found to be decreased while the Q-factor increases with the increase in Ca-content. The frequency characteristics of the dielectric constant and AC resistivity have been found to be decreased as the frequency increases. Maxwell-Wagner interfacial type of dielectric polarization was observed with the addition of Ca-content over the entire range of frequency considered

Coronal Mass Ejections - Propagation Time and Associated Internal Energy

In this paper, we analyze 91 coronal mass ejection (CME) events studied by Manoharan et al. (2004) and Gopalswamy and Xie (2008). These earth-directed CMEs are large (width $>$160$^\circ$) and cover a wide range of speeds ($\sim$120--2400 {\kmps}) in the LASCO field of view. This set of events also includes interacting CMEs and some of them take longer time to reach 1 AU than the travel time inferred from their speeds at 1 AU. We study the link between the travel time of the CME to 1 AU (combined with its final speed at the Earth) and the effective acceleration in the Sun-Earth distance. Results indicate that (1) for almost all the events (85 out of 91 events), the speed of the CME at 1 AU is always less than or equal to its initial speed measured at the near-Sun region, (2) the distributions of initial speeds, CME-driven shock and CME speeds at 1 AU clearly show the effects of aero-dynamical drag between the CME and the solar wind and in consequence, the speed of the CME tends to equalize to that of the background solar wind, (3) for a large fraction of CMEs (for $\sim$50% of the events), the inferred effective acceleration along the Sun-Earth line dominates the above drag force. The net acceleration suggests an average dissipation of energy $\sim$10$^{31-32}$ ergs, which is likely provided by the Lorentz force associated with the internal magnetic energy carried by the CME.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

In vitro digestibility and methane gas production of fodder from improved cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties

Open Access JournalIn vitro substrate degradability and methane gas production of fodder from cowpea and groundnut plants were evaluated in this study. Duplicate samples and three batch replicates (n = 3) of three groundnut varieties (Samnut 22, Chinese and Samnut 23) and two cowpea varieties (Padi Tuya and Songotra) were incubated in a buffered rumen fluid. The crude protein (CP) concentration of Songotra and Padi Tuya varieties was in the range of 112 to 154 g kg−1 dry matter (DM), respectively. Both neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were found to be higher in Samnut 22 with the other varieties having values below 400 g kg−1 DM. Significant differences were found among treatments for all the in vitro kinetic parameters. The highest (P <0.05) DM and organic matter (OM) degradability were observed in cowpea variety Padi Tuya. Methane gas production expressed as ml g − 1 DM incubated and ml g − 1 DM degraded were both higher (P <0.05) in cowpea varieties Padi Tuya, Songotra and groundnut variety Chinese. Total volatile fatty acid and the ratio of acetate: propionate did not differ among the treatments. Pearson correlation showed a significant positive association between CP and metabolizable energy (ME) and a negative association between CP and methane. The association between NDF, ADF and methane production, IVOMD and IVDMD was found to be negative. It can be concluded from the study that the cowpea varieties possessed superior and efficient degradability compared to the groundnut varieties

Micronutrients and Anaemia

Micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia remain as major health concerns for children in Bangladesh. Among the micronutrient interventions, supplementation with vitamin A to children aged less than five years has been the most successful, especially after distribution of vitamin A was combined with National Immunization Days. Although salt sold in Bangladesh is intended to contain iodine, much of the salt does not contain iodine, and iodine deficiency continues to be common. Anaemia similarly is common among all population groups and has shown no sign of improvement even when iron-supplementation programmes have been attempted. It appears that many other causes contribute to anaemia in addition to iron deficiency. Zinc deficiency is a key micronutrient deficiency and is covered in a separate paper because of its importance among new child-health interventions

Assessing the Role of CSR Practices of Commercial Banks in Enhancing Financial Inclusion: A Study on Banking Sector in Bangladesh

Financial inclusion is currently a high priority policy goal for developing and developed countries in order to ensure stable and equitable economic growth. This study aims to assess the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of commercial banks in enhancing financial inclusion in Bangladesh. The study also focuses on the benefits of financial inclusion and overall financial inclusion scenario of banking sector in the country. The study is based on secondary data extracted from the selected commercial banks for the period of 2008- 2012. The analyses show that geographic as well as demographic penetration of banking services in the country has increased significantly during the last five years. Consequently, financial inclusion in terms of total population has increased from 48.86 percent in 2008 to 63.46 percent in 2012. However, the overall financial inclusion through banking services has followed a modest pace. The study also found that the private commercial banks are contributing more in enhancing financial inclusion through CSR practices than state owned commercial banks and foreign commercial banks. The findings of the study might be valuable for the commercial banks to judge their performance in terms of CSR practices among the overall banking sector in the country. The study might also be useful for policymakers to promote more effective policies and guidelines to ensure an equitable financial inclusion for all the people including poor, underserved and underprivileged group of the society.   Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Commercial Bank, Financial Inclusion, Bangladesh  JEL Classifications: G2, M14

Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs

“Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs” The objective of the project was to contribute to the current research on reservoirs enhancement fisheries in tropical countries through the implementation of a series of action-research activities implemented in two small reservoirs in the Indo-Gangetic basin in India, and two very large reservoirs in Africa, the Lake Nasser (Egypt), and the Volta Lake (Ghana). Socio-institutional analyses were also conducted in these reservoirs to improve our knowledge regarding some of the main social processes that influence reservoir productivity. Overall the results of the project stress that while the natural biophysical constraints of the reservoirs are important in defining the ecological production processes, it is the socio-economic settings characterizing the community/societies around the reservoirs that eventually shape the human production enhancement possibilities

Contribution of Color Information in Visual Saliency Model for Videos

International audienceMuch research has been concerned with the contribution of the low level features of a visual scene to the deployment of visual attention. Bottom-up saliency models have been developed to predict the location of gaze according to these features. So far, color besides to brightness, contrast and motion is considered as one of the primary features in computing bottom-up saliency. However, its contribution in guiding eye movements when viewing natural scenes has been debated. We investigated the contribution of color information in a bottom-up visual saliency model. The model efficiency was tested using the experimental data obtained on 45 observers who were eye tracked while freely exploring a large data set of color and grayscale videos. The two datasets of recorded eye positions, for grayscale and color videos, were compared with a luminance-based saliency model. We incorporated chrominance information to the model. Results show that color information improves the performance of the saliency model in predicting eye positions

Micronutrients and Anaemia

Micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia remain as major health concerns for children in Bangladesh. Among the micronutrient interventions, supplementation with vitamin A to children aged less than five years has been the most successful, especially after distribution of vitamin A was combined with National Immunization Days. Although salt sold in Bangladesh is intended to contain iodine, much of the salt does not contain iodine, and iodine deficiency continues to be common. Anaemia similarly is common among all population groups and has shown no sign of improvement even when iron-supplementation programmes have been attempted. It appears that many other causes contribute to anaemia in addition to iron deficiency. Zinc deficiency is a key micronutrient deficiency and is covered in a separate paper because of its importance among new child-health interventions

Black Holes in Bulk Viscous Cosmology

We investigate the effects of the accretion of phantom energy with non-zero bulk viscosity onto a Schwarzschild black hole and show that black holes accreting viscous phantom energy will lose mass rapidly compared to the non-viscous case. When matter is incorporated along with the phantom energy, the black holes meet with the same fate as bulk viscous forces dominate matter accretion. If the phantom energy has large bulk viscosity, then the mass of the black hole will reduce faster than in the small viscosity case.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Int. J. Theor. Phy

Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs

The main objective of this 3.5 year project was to increase the productivity of reservoir fisheries and provide sustainable livelihoods to the rural poor through a series of interventions in tropical reservoirs. The main project activities focused on two reservoirs in the Indo-Gangetic basin (Dahob in Madhya Pradesh, and Pahuj in Uttar Pradesh, both in India), the Lake Nasser in Egypt as part as the Nile basin, and the Volta Lake in Ghana as part as the Volta basin. The project also encompassed an initial data inventory from a wide variety of tropical reservoirs within the three basins, and the detailed assessment of the selected reservoirs, including market evaluation and post-capture improvements. (PDF contains 117 pages