Local agency, adaptation and the shadow system: The institutional architecture of social learning in rural areas of the UK and India

Rural communities across the world face at times a range of environmental, social and economic pressures that threaten their viability in their current form. The ability of local actors to exercise agency in response to potential and emerging threats is of key interest in understanding their capacity to adapt. This paper argues that top-down narratives which focus on canonical organisations and formal institutions are at best a partial account of rural adaptation. More attention needs to be paid to the shadow system, the web of informal and often hidden relationships that permeate public and private life. In the organisational and institutional literature, shadow systems have been discounted as either too complex to be tractable or an inevitable source of corruption and nepotism. Two case studies are presented to establish that neither claim is inexorably true: (i) the adaptation of dairy farmers to market and climate change in Carmarthenshire, South Wales and (ii) NGO mediation of community/state interaction in Tamilnadu, South India. In conclusion, some theoretical and methodological themes are highlighted for further research. These hold the potential to enable a better understanding of the shadow system, and its potential and pitfalls as a site of local agency in rural adaptation. Acnowledgements: This paper draws on learning from two research projects: (i) 'Rapid climate change in the UK: towards an institutional theory of adaptation', funded by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council's Environment and Human Behaviour Programme, and (ii) 'Thaan Vuzha Nilam Tharisu: The land without a farmer becomes barren', carried out by SPEECH, a Tamil NGO, as part of a larger International Institute for Environment and Development research programme – 'Policies that Work for Sustainable Agriculture and Regenerating Rural Economies.� The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and institutional assistance that made this research possible

Synthesis of environmentally-friendly polyurethane dispersions based on soybean oil- derived polyols and their applications in advanced water-based and uv-cure coatings

Polyurethane dispersions (PUD) have established themselves as most versatile polymeric binder in coating, adhesive, sealant, and elastomer industries. Like any other polymers, PUDs also have certain limitations, such as hydrolytic stability, water resistance, and oil resistance. In order to develop these properties, two different polyol families were synthesized. The first polyol can be used in ambient curable systems, and the second can be utilized in ultraviolet radiation cure coatings. For ambient curable systems polyether chemistry based soy-polyol was developed from epoxidized soy fatty acid methyl ester (ESFAME). The cationic ring opening of oxirane oxygen groups from ESFAME resulted in polyol with average hydroxyl number 88 mgKOH/g and number average molecular weight 1517. The indigenous soy-polyol was used as soft segment polymeric chain backbone of aqueous PUD. The PUDs with varying soft segment to hard segment ratios were developed and characterized for film properties, surface properties, chemical resistance, and thermal properties. The PUD (55% bio content) with reasonable aforementioned properties was utilized for further developmental work, where hydrophobicity and oleophobicity of the coatings were improved to meet the goal of the project. Siliconated (Si) and fluorinated (F) polyol was utilized with indigenous soy-polyol, and 7 different polyurethane polymeric chains were fabricated with varying Si and F concentration. The topographical morphologies of these PUDs were monitored with AFM, and the hydrophobicity was monitored with contact angle instrument. All other basic film properties, water and oil resistance properties were thoroughly discussed. Also, the PUDs !! vi! were self-crosslinked with carbodiimide and excellent water resistance and oil resistance coatings were achieved from this research. For ultraviolet curable coatings, novel hydroxylated acrylic epoxidized soybean oil was synthesized from commercially available epoxidized soybean oil (ESO). It was characterized for viscosity, hydroxyl number, iodine number, molecular weight, FT-IR, and NMR studies. The UV-cured coating films were designed from this indigenous acrylated ESO (AESO) and they were tested for pencil hardness, pendulum hardness, impact resistance, adhesion strength, and thermal properties. In order to further improve the mechanical properties, AESO was used in dual curable coatings. The developed instant radiation curable and ambient curable coatings resulted in excellent chemical resistance, optimum mechanical and thermal properties. The advantage of hydroxyl groups of AESO was taken to develop 9 different UV-curable PUDs. The coating properties were characterized based on constant crosslink density, increasing crosslink density. Once again, topographical studies were conducted with AFM, and contact angle studies were used to determine the UV-PUDs water resistance

Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Evidence from ASEAN Countries

The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of various macroeconomic factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. The selected macro-economic factors are gross domestic product (GDP), foreign exchange rate and inflation rate and these are independent variables of the study. FDI is determining through the amount of inflow during the study period and it is treated as a dependent variable. For the analysis the study undertakes the trend & growth analysis and applied Panel data analysis for 10 ASEAN countries over the period of five years from 2009 to 2013.The study conducted Pooled OLS model and random effect model. To identify the individual specific effect correlated with independent variable of the study applied fixed effect model. Finally the study applied Hausman test to find out the suitable model among the random effect and time effect. The result of the study stated that the trend and growth of FDI inflow is positive and progressive. The macro economic factors of GDP and inflation are significant and impact on FDI inflow, foreign exchange rate is not significant and there is no impact on FDI inflow. Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, macroeconomic factors, ASEAN countries, Gross domestic product (GDP), foreign exchange rate and inflation rat

Bank performance in the perception of Islamic financing receivables (IFR) and its components

Bank Muscat (BM) is a prominent contributor in financial services in Oman, which focuses on corporate, personal, Islamic, global, and investment banking activities. BM provides loans and advances to their customers in two different categories viz., loans and advances (conventional) and Islamic financing receivables (IFR). As per the BM’s statement of financial position, IFR includes three types of credits to their customers are housing finance, corporate finance, and consumer finance. The objectives of the study are to identify the growth percentage, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), trend and growth of IFR and its components of BM, during the study period (2013 to 2018). The study is based on secondary data, it has been collected from annual reports of BM. The overall result of the study indicates that the growth percentage of IFR and its components are positive throughout the study period and CAGR for IFR, housing finance, consumer finance, and corporate finance are 31.79%, 19.37%, 32.08%, and 52.32% respectively. The growth rate for all four items indicates a positive value. For the entire period of the study, the actual value of IFR and its components has reached the trend value. Overall, the performance of BM is satisfactory in respect of IFR and its components

A study on Relationship between firm size and profitability: Selected Private sector Banks in India

The study is to identify the relationship between firm size and profitability of selected private sector banks in India. This study is classified as quantitative research followed with a descriptive research design. The Reserve Bank of India’s publication of annual trend and progress of banking in India in June 2018, indicates that the total number of private sector banks in India is 21. The study selected the first five banks based on the hierarchy of the value of its total assets. The study is based on secondary data and it has been collected from the annual reports of the respective banks. The period of study is five years from 2015 to 2019. Firm size such as bank size is measured through the natural log of the book value of deposits, assets, and advances (independent variables) and the profitability is measured through the natural log of the book value of the net profit of the bank (dependent variable). The data analysis includes descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, and linear regression. On the basis of the analysis, the study found that there is a significant relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable. Further, there is a positive correlation and statistically significant between these variables. Keywords : Bank size, deposits, assets, advances, net profi

Influence of Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer on Growth and Biochemical Characteristics of Arachis hypogea L. under field trial

In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer (SLF) of the brown seaweed Sargassum wightii Grev. on the growth, biochemical and pigment characteristics of Arachis hypogea. The 1.0% concentration of water extract showed better results of growth parameters, biochemical and pigments constitutions. Combined effect of 1.0% SLF plus different proportions of recommended rate of chemical fertilizers were also made on A. hypogea. Among the different concentrations of SLF investigated, the plants that received with 1.0% SLF showed maximum fresh weight, dry weight, root and shoot length, number of branches, leaf area and content of total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a and b, protein, carbohydrate and lipid. Similarly the plants that applied with 1.0% SLF plus 25% recommended rate of chemical fertilizers showed enhanced characteristics. Arachis hypogea treated with 1.0% SLF of S. wightii plus 25% recommended rate of chemical fertilizers showed an increased the above parameters

Potassium in winery waste waters used for irrigation and soil structural decline

Long-term application of winery waste water containing high levels of potassium will lead to build-up of exchangeable potassium in soils which can cause soil structural problems similar to exchangeable sodium. Conflicting reports on the effect of exchangeable potassium, being either equal to or less than that of sodium, are found in the literature. We investigated the dispersive and flocculating powers of cations viz. Na, K, Mg and Ca on the basis of our concept that the degree of ionicity (or covalency) of clay-cation bonds determine the dispersion and flocculation of soil clays. Our experimental results were in conformity with the theoretical values of flocculating powers of cations. Compared to Na=1, the flocculating power of the other common cations would be K=1.8, Mg=27, and Ca=45. Flocculating power gives the inverse of dispersive effects. Based on these notions, a ratio analogous to the SAR (sodium adsorption ratio), but which incorporates the differential effects of Na and K in dispersing soil clays, and also the differential effects of Ca and Mg in flocculating soil clays was derived as: Cation ratio of soil structural stability (CROSS) = (Na+0.56K)/ [(Ca+0.6Mg)/2]0.5. Where the concentrations of these ions are expressed in millimole of charge/L. The effectiveness of CROSS in predicting the soil structural decline, particularly when potassium is dominant in irrigation water, was tested using a few soils from South Australia. The results on clay dispersion from soils and soil saturated hydraulic conductivity confirm the superiority of CROSS compared to SAR which is currently used for the evaluation of the quality of irrigation waters

ISOLATION, SCREENING AND DETERMINATION OF Α-AMYLASE ACTIVITY FROM MARINE STREPTOMYCES SPECIES

Objective: This study was aimed to isolate potent amylase producing Streptomyces from the marine source.Methods: Soil samples were collected from less explored mangrove regions of Muthupet, Tamilnadu. Isolation of Streptomyces was performed by serial dilution plate technique using starch casein agar (SCA) (pH 7.2 and temp 28 °C). Morphological and biochemical characteristics were studied using Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology. Preliminary screening and quantification of amylase activities were analysed in selected Streptomyces isolates by starch agar plate and dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method respectively.Results: Totally 65 isolates were separated from the marine soil. Among them, 23 strains showed different morphological features. These strains were subjected to amylase activity. Eight Streptomyces isolates (S1-S8) exhibited positive for amylase activity. The zone of clearance was exhibited in the range of diameters between 4-20 mm. Fermentation was prompted with inorganic salt starch agar, international Streptomyces project (ISP-4) media at 28 °C and incubated in an orbital shaker at 250 rpm for 96 h (pH 7.5). The quantitative estimation of amylase activity was exhibited selected eight isolates in the range between 2.4±0.002-5.9±0.005 (U/ml). The Streptomyces species S4, S5 and S6 exhibited strong amylase activity in both qualitative and quantitative level.Conclusion: This work motivating the amylase producing Streptomyces are originated in mangroves and it proved Streptomyces sp. S6 has a more efficient source of amylase production

The nature of clay-cation association dictates clay behaviour in aqueous suspensions

Dispersive behaviour of soil clays has been explained by soil scientists using hypotheses involving various electrical diffuse double layer forces generated between colloidal clay particles suspended in water (e.g. Quirk, 2001). In natural soils, however, clay particles in soil aggregates exist as complex heterogeneous intergrowths of different clay structures intimately associated with silt, sand and biopolymers, and are confined, without being in colloidal suspension in water