A Study on the Status of Women’s Empowerment in urban Bangalore, India

The urge to empower is a human quality and a multidimensional phenomenon. It allows individuals or groups to participate and prosper in households, communities, and countries through political or development processes. Numerous studies have associated empowerment with many developmental outcomes. In the past decades, significant advances have been made among women in many fields like health, education, and employment. However, increasing incidence of violence against women, under-representation of women in decision-making, discriminatory laws governing marriage, land, property, and inheritance hinder women’s empowerment. It is further blocked by new challenges that have emerged over the last decade, such as tackling HIV/AIDS and dealing with trafficking of women and young girls. The present study is an attempt to measure to what extent women in urban Bangalore feel empowered in critical areas such as educational achievement, economic opportunity, health and well-being, decision-making, and autonomy in all matters. The research methodology involved the study of a sample population of women in urban areas of Bangalore City, India. Different women’s empowerment indicators were analyzed using a structured questionnaire which was distributed randomly to the female population in urban Bangalore. The main emphasis was on indicators such as women\u27s decision-making power in household affairs, financial autonomy, freedom of movement and access to education. Data analysis revealed that decision-making power in households and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with age, education, and employment. Very few women had the final say on how their earnings were spent. Control over cash earnings increased with age and education. The study also indicates that educational qualifications and access to employment are the essential factors that promote women’s empowerment, but the degree of achievement of the goal depends mostly on the attitude of the general population towards gender equality

GREEN PHYTO-SYNTHESIS OF GOLD NANOPARTICLES USING ACHYRANTHES ASPERA LINN SEED-EPICOTYLS LAYER EXTRACTS AND ITS ANTICANCER ACTIVITY

In the recent past decades, green phyto-process for the synthesis of metal incorporated nanoparticles has been evolving into an imperative branch of nanotechnology. We have reported a rapid, expedient and extracellular method for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles by reducing gold chloride with the help of aqueous seed-epicotyls layer extracts of Achyranthes aspera Linn (Amarantheceae).  This approach is simple, economic, stable for a long time, reproducible at room temperature and is synthesized in an eco-friendly mode to obtain a self-assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).  The resulting gold nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and FT-IR spectroscopic techniques. The anticancer activity of the gold nanoparticles was studied against HeLa (Cervical) cancer cell lines. We herein report for the first time, Achyranthes aspera Seed-Epicotyls assisted synthesis of biogenic gold nanoparticles; the nanoparticles are conspicuously smaller and better faceted compared with those synthesized by A. aspera leaf extracts previously reported. Synthesized gold nanoparticles showed potent anticancer activity at 50μg/ml concentration against cervical cancer cell lines.Keywords: Gold nanoparticles, anticancer activity, Achyranthes Aspera Linn.  Aqueous leaves Extract, SEM, XRD, HeLa cancer cell line

Effect of soil test based INM practices on the performance of Chilli(Capsicum annuum L.)

Experiment entitled “Effect of soil test based INM practices on the performance of Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)” was carried out at farmer’s field of Neeralakatti village, Dharwad (Karnataka) during kharif 2015. The experiment involving twelve different treatment combinations with water spray as control was laid out in randomized block design with factorial concept and replicated thrice to assess the performance of chilli for vegetative, earliness, yield and quality parameters. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the treatment combinations. INM found better for growth parameters (plant height, stem thickness, number of primary branches and number of secondary branches per plant), earliness (days to first and 50 % flowering) as well as yield parameters (number of flower and fruits per plant, per cent fruit set, average fruit weight, yield per plant and yield per plot) as reflected in vigorous plant and higher yield. Further INM was followed by inorganic practice. For quality traits like ascorbic acid content, per cent dry matter and chlorophyll content in fruits were found superior with organic practice, which was followed by INM practice

Employee Surveillance System Using Face Recognition

Advancement in technology has made face recognition system more prevalent and convenient to identify a person without a manual system which contributes to time consumption. In this system, facial recognition is by the means by which the employees are monitored. Our project addresses the problems present with manual surveillance by automating it in an efficient manner. Machine learning and deep learning have benefited people from all walks of life, and we plan to use machine learning in our surveillance system to build this specific project with the aid of Python and its comprehensive modules. The project involves a real-time detection of faces which are then matched with the corresponding face in the database. An excel sheet stores the time at which the login has taken place when the detection occurs. To achieve the goals, we used a combination of machine learning techniques and various logic-based algorithms

Hyperspectral radiometry for the detection and discrimination of damage caused by sucking pests of cotton

ABSTRACT Use of remote sensing techniques for detection of crop stress due to pests and diseases is based on the assumption that stresses induced by them interfere with photosynthesis and physical structure of the plant, affect absorption of light energy and thus alter the reflectance spectrum of plants. Field experiments were conducted to detect and estimate damage caused by sucking pests in cotton (cv. Surabi) at regular intervals using GER1500 spectroradiometer, from which canopy reflectance was recorded and vegetation indices (VI) were worked out. There was a decrease in near infrared (770-860nm) while blue (450-520nm), green (520-590nm) and red (620-680nm) reflectances increased compared to undamaged plants. The mean VI values in damaged plants were comparatively lower than undamaged plants in all days of observation. Among spectral bands, red band was highest to thrips and leafhopper damage while NIR band was found to be more sensitive to aphid damage. In the aphid damage sensitivity curves, the trough in green region was not very conspicuous while thrips and leafhopper damage curves had a clear low point in green region at 550 nm in all days of observation. Green red vegetation index (GRVI) was observed to be sensitive in differentiation of sucking pests damage

Aerometric monitoring system for pollution control

Air quality monitoring and analysis is needed in order to provide decision makers with reliable information about the pollution situation so that they can take appropriate measures to mitigate or prevent negative impacts whenever there is need. World Health Organization (WHO) has recently announced that air pollution is carcinogenic to humans. The results from the reviewed studies point in the same direction: the risk of developing lung cancer hss significantly increased in people exposed to air pollution. This finding elevates the urgency to create awareness among common people about the air, both outdoors and indoors. In our project "Aerometric Monitoring System for Pollution Control”, we use a device that consists of a cluster of sensors that are used to sense atmospheric characteristics continuously. Atmospheric characteristics include Temperature, Humidity, Gas index indicating presence of poisonous gases etc. Several such devices can be deployed in places where we need to estimate air pollution. This covers public domains like bus stands, railway stations, junctions etc. and private domains like households, small scale industries and so on. The aggregated data collected by these devices are uploaded to the Internet using IoT platform by establishing a connection. The data is then displayed on the IoT platform along with various graphical representations. This enables the public to access the data anywhere, any time

Studies on DC Magnetron Sputtered AZO Thin Films for HIT Solar Cell Application

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) is becoming an important and alternative transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material for solar photovoltaic applications due to its good electrical and optical characteristics, lower cost and more abundance, non-toxicity and stability in hydrogen plasma when compared to the popular indium tin oxide (ITO). In this work, AZO films are deposited on glass and silicon substrates with direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering using 5N pure Zinc Oxide target doped with 2 wt% Al2O3.The effect of deposition conditions on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the AZO films are investigated. The results demonstrated that the measured thickness of the deposited films are in the range 135- 490 nm. The X-ray diffraction studies reveal that the AZO films exhibit hexagaonal-wurtzite structure with the preferred orientation of grains along the (002) planes and an average crystal size of ~42 nm. At optimized sputter deposition parameters of an electrode distance of ~ 60 mm, substrate temperature of ~ 200 °C, target DC power of ~150 W and working pressure of ~2∙10¯³ mbar; the AZO films have shown an electrical resistivity of 1.27∙10¯³ Ω∙cm and an average optical transmittance value of 83.76% in the visible range for an optimal film thickness of ~265 nm. Finally HIT Solar Cells with AZO/p-a-Si:H/i-Si:H/n-c-Si/na-Si:H/Al structure have been fabricated by applying the optimized AZO films as front transparent electrodes. It is observed from the preliminary experiments that the fabricated cells have shown an initial photo conversion efficiency of 10.18% with an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 890 mV, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 15.68 mA/cm2 and a fill factor (FF) of ~ 73%

Linking International Agricultural Research Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Development

We applied an innovation framework to sustainable livestock development research projects in Africa and Asia. The focus of these projects ranged from pastoral systems to poverty and ecosystems services mapping to market access by the poor to fodder and natural resource management to livestock parasite drug resistance. We found that these projects closed gaps between knowledge and action by combining different kinds of knowledge, learning, and boundary spanning approaches; by providing all partners with the same opportunities; and by building the capacity of all partners to innovate and communicate