On the variability and increasing trends of heat waves over India

Over India, heat waves occur during the summer months of April to June. A gridded daily temperature data set for the period, 1961–2013 has been analyzed to examine the variability and trends in heat waves over India. For identifying heat waves, the Excess Heat Factor (EHF) and 90th percentile of maximum temperatures were used. Over central and northwestern parts of the country, frequency, total duration and maximum duration of heat waves are increasing. Anomalous persistent high with anti-cyclonic flow, supplemented with clear skies and depleted soil moisture are primarily responsible for the occurrence of heat waves over India. Variability of heat waves over India is influenced by both the tropical Indian Ocean and central Pacific SST anomalies. The warming of the tropical Indian Ocean and more frequent El Nino events in future may further lead to more frequent and longer lasting heat waves over India

Study of community awareness regarding contraception and its practices

Background: Family planning (FP) programmes impact women’s health by providing universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services and counselling information. The ability to decide freely the number, spacing and timing of one’s children is a basic human right, endorsed at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. Family planning programmes are associated with lower fertility and lower maternal mortality. Through family planning programmes, women gain access to contraceptives, increasing the likelihood that they can achieve their desired family size. Methods: Married women 18-49 years of age were recognised and randomly selected from different areas Indore. Preformed questionnaire containing demographic information and relevant questions was used for data collection. Results: About 80.6% women were aware about PNC contraception. Majority undergone female sterilization (40.0%), 24.8% were using condoms, followed by IUCDs (6.5%) and contraceptive pills (4.7%). Conclusions: In this cross sectional study, awareness regarding contraceptive practices and taboos was not found to be at par with the requirement and lower in concurrence with low education, income, rural residence. Specific intervention programs need to be planned to improve their health practices and thereby improving the health status of the mother and child

COVID-19 infection-associated coagulopathy and its association with adverse outcomes in Indian gravidas: a prospective analysis

Background: Objective of the study was the determination of trends of coagulation parameters and association between pregnant women with COVID-19 infection with adverse outcomes. Methods: Design of the study was a prospective observational study. The study was conducted at the Maulana Azad Medical College and associated Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi. A total of 142 pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 infection were recruited and studied prospectively between May 2020 and April 2021. Trends of coagulation parameters were compared in groups divided based on the adverse outcomes. 11 patients had adverse outcomes which included ICU admission or mortality. There were no adverse outcomes in the remaining 131 patients. Results: The comparison of trends of coagulation parameters in both groups was studied. D-dimer and INR values were significantly higher, while fibrinogen level was significantly lower in COVID-19 subjects with adverse maternal outcomes than in those in which adverse maternal outcomes were not present (p<0.05). No significant difference was observed in other coagulation parameters like APTT. Conclusions: Universal screening of coagulation parameters of all pregnant women with COVID-19 can be considered because of the association of adverse maternal outcomes with deranged D dimer and fibrinogen in our study

Assessment of nitric oxide and uric acid in patients of leprosy

Background: Leprosy is an old, dreaded infectious disease caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium mycobacterium leprae. Leprosy still continues to be a significant public health problem in few countries including India. Oxidative stress caused by derangement in the balance between ROS and natural antioxidants plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of leprosy. Hence this study attempts to assess the oxidative stress and antioxidant status in terms of Nitric oxide and uric acid.Methods: A case control observational study was carried out in100 untreated leprosy patients and compared with 50 healthy controls.  Leprosy patients were divided as paucibacillary and multibacillary. Serum Nitric oxide and uric acid levels were estimated in both groups to find out correlation of Nitric Oxide with uric acid.Results: There was a significant rise in serum NO in both PB and MB leprosy as compared to controls. The uric acid level was significantly decreased in both PB and MB leprosy patients as compared to controls.Conclusions: Elevated NO levels indicate oxidative stress in leprosy patients, denoting its crucial involvement in the pathogenesis and nerve damage in leprosy. Low uric acid indicates decrease defence of antioxidants in leprosy

Fabric Fault Detection Using Digital Image Processing

This paper helps to detect the fault in fabric. For the good quality of fabric the inspection of fabric is very important .The faults in fabric causes poor quality in fabric. This may affects the economical growth of the Industry. The old methods which are used for fault detection such as Human Visual Inspection, Regular Band based Methodology, Gabor Wavelet Filter Methodology etc which are time consuming &stressful. So to reduce time and stress the new method introduced is Automatic Fabric fault inspection .Due to this method, at the time of manufacturing itself we get high quality fabric it implies the high speed of production.The detection of local fabric defects is one of the most problems in computer vision.For this problem the solution is that at the time of manufacturing fabric in textile the faults present on fabric are identified by MATLAB software using some Image Processing techniques. Image Processing is very helpful because all the techniques applied on the faulty image is useful to acquire fault free image

Fueling growth and financing risk: The benefits and risks of China’s development finance in the global energy sector

This repository item contains a working paper from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.This paper is organized in four parts. Part one presents an overview and estimates of China’s emerging development finance architecture. Part two exhibits our estimates of the extent to which China’s development banks are financing energy projects in developing countries in comparative perspective. Part three identifies some of the risks associated with China’s overseas energy investments. Part four summarizes our findings and provides suggestions for further research and policy

Nutritional and rheological properties of pumpkin seed based fruits spread

Fruit spread is prepared by combining sugar with processed fruit juice, concentrated fruit juice, or whole fruit. Pumpkin (Curcurbita maxima) seeds are commonly seen as industrial waste and discarded. Pumpkin seed was roasted and made into powder form.  β-carotene rich fruits such as mango, papaya, and muskmelon were used to extract the pulp. To obtain a desired consistency of fruit spread, the fruit pulp (25%) was blended with roasted seed powder (70%) Fruits were scattered at 5° to 10° Brix and sugar was added. To extend the shelf life and improve the quality of the spreads, they were pasteurised at 60°C for 30 minutes. The spreads were packaged in two different types of packaging material food grade glass containers and polypropylene containers. They were kept in refrigerated conditions at 4°C for further analysis. After organoleptic evaluation, the fruits spreads were analysed for nutritional content, textural properties and microbial content. Pumpkin seed based fruit spreads have 15.23 to 15.64% moisture, 6.7 to 7.18 %  protein, 4.53  to 4.89% fat, 5.29 to 5.69% fiber and 15.36  to 28.67% carbohydrates. The pumpkin seed based fruit spreads had 15.41 to 23.04°Brix of total soluble solids. The fruit spreads had 85.82 to 764.54 g hardness, -88.54 to-205.45 g adhesiveness, 0.87 to 0.95 springiness,0.48 to 0.74 cohesiveness, 64.78 to 344.06 gumminess and 61.53 to 311.64 chewiness. The pumpkin seed based fruits spread had viscosities of 2.21 to 3.58 centipoises. The mango based fruit spreads had the highest score values among the fruit spreads. The fruit spread encompassed enormous bioactive compounds when compared to other fruit spreads available on the market

Seasonal availability and population structure of Eurobowmaniella simulans W. Tattersall, 1915 (Crustacea: Mysida) along Vizhinjam coast, Kerala, India

Eurobowmaniella simulans is the commonly available species of mysid along the Vizhinjam coast of Kerala. Sampling of mysids has been carried out over a period of one year from March 2014 to February 2015 to study the seasonal availability and population structure. Monthly samples of mysids consisted of individuals in various developmental stages, from juveniles to mature mysids around the year, but their percentage availability varied. The peak availability of mysids was recorded during September (2014) (avg. 48,731 numbers per haul) and their availability was lowest in July (2014) with an average of 2 individuals per haul. The availability of brooding or ovigerous females were observed throughout the year and highest and lowest percentage availability was during November (2014) and April (2014) respectively. Morphometric measurements of E. simulans revealed that their average size (TL) ranged from 2.35±0.52 mm- (juvenile) to 7.47±1.75 mm (adult). Sex could be first distinguished externally when mysid attains the total length between 4.1 mm and 5 mm. Analysis of variance of different water quality parameters and mysid density comparing seasons revealed that there was significant variation of mysid availability between seasons (P < 0.05). Multivariate Pearson’s correlation analysis of water quality parameters and mysid density showed that there was a significant relation with chlorophyll a content (P < 0.001) of seawater. The present study also revealed that mysids are available in harvestable quantities for aquaculture purposes from August to November