Emerging Paradigms for Development Planning: A Case of Thrissur, the Cultural Capital of Kerala

AbstractThrissur, renowned as the cultural capital of Kerala is a city with a strong legacy of cultural, historic and traditional aspects. It is one of its kind in Kerala with a well-planned ring and radial pattern of development. The paper presents an overview of various aspects of the city development such as history, culture, heritage, geography, environment, demography and trade & commerce based on secondary sources. The growth of the city with respect to its development phases and emerging issues are also discussed. General recommendations for improvement of the city are suggested with regard to the current situation

Genetic diversity of Myanmar rice and their implementation on management methods

Myanmar has diverse agronomic landscape and potentially preserves high level of genetic resources for important crop species. However, little study on rice landrace diversity in Myanmar has been done. Genetic and phenotypic variation to characterize rice genetic resource in Myanmar was analyzed using molecular markers as well as common garden experiments. Two populations of rice landraces, a seedbank population maintained by seed-propagation in a genebank for several generations and an “onfarm” population collected from agricultural lands were used. A functional (cytochrome P450 related PBA) and neutral (SSR) markers were used in this study. Phenotypic characteristics of representative agronomic traits in rice, such as culm length, panicle length, number of tillers and days to heading, were measured in both populations. Multivariate analysis suggested that the seed-bank and on-farm population had different genetic bases with both functional and neutral markers. There was no significant relationship between the functional and neutral markers based on Mantel test. In addition, PCA analyses of agronomic traits showed that a variation in the seed-bank population had narrower genetic bases than the on-farm population. Genetic bias caused by ‘unconscious selection’ during the genebank management processes may have occurred in the landraces. The importance of the conservation on on-farm landraces of Oryza sativa and its wild relatives was proposed in order to ensure the genetic resources for further breeding and conserve biological diversity.Key words: Oryza sativa, rice, landrace, on-farm, diversity, conservation

Economical (k,m)-threshold controlled quantum teleportation

We study a (k,m)-threshold controlling scheme for controlled quantum teleportation. A standard polynomial coding over GF(p) with prime p > m-1 needs to distribute a d-dimensional qudit with d >= p to each controller for this purpose. We propose a scheme using m qubits (two-dimensional qudits) for the controllers' portion, following a discussion on the benefit of a quantum control in comparison to a classical control of a quantum teleportation.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, v2: minor revision, discussions improved, an equation corrected in procedure (A) of section 4.3, v3: major revision, protocols extended, citations added, v4: minor grammatical revision, v5: minor revision, discussions extende

Evaluation of two mobile health apps in the context of smoking cessation: qualitative study of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) versus non-CBT-based digital solutions.

BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) apps can offer users numerous benefits, representing a feasible and acceptable means of administering health interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is commonly used in the treatment of mental health conditions, where it has a strong evidence base, suggesting that it represents an effective method to elicit health behavior change. More importantly, CBT has proved to be effective in smoking cessation, in the context of smoking-related costs to the National Health Service (NHS) having been estimated to be as high as £2.6bn in 2015. Although the evidence base for computerized CBT in mental health is strong, there is limited literature on its use in smoking cessation. This, combined with the cost-effectiveness of mHealth interventions, advocates a need for research into the effectiveness of CBT-based smoking cessation apps. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was, first, to explore participants' perceptions of 2 mHealth apps, a CBT-based app, Quit Genius, and a non-CBT-based app, NHS Smokefree, over a variety of themes. Second, the study aimed to investigate the perceptions and health behavior of users of each app with respect to smoking cessation. METHODS: A qualitative short-term longitudinal study was conducted, using a sample of 29 smokers allocated to one of the 2 apps, Quit Genius or Smokefree. Each user underwent 2 one-to-one semistructured interviews, 1 week apart. Thematic analysis was carried out, and important themes were identified. Descriptive statistics regarding participants' perceptions and health behavior in relation to smoking cessation are also provided. RESULTS: The thematic analysis resulted in five higher themes and several subthemes. Participants were generally more positive about Quit Genius's features, as well as about its design and information engagement and quality. Quit Genius users reported increased motivation to quit smoking, as well as greater willingness to continue using their allocated app after 1 week. Moreover, these participants demonstrated preliminary changes in their smoking behavior, although this was in the context of our limited sample, not yet allowing for the finding to be generalizable. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the use of CBT in the context of mHealth apps as a feasible and potentially effective smoking cessation tool. mHealth apps must be well developed, preferably with an underlying behavioral change mechanism, to promote positive health behavior change. Digital CBT has the potential to become a powerful tool in overcoming current health care challenges. The present results should be replicated in a wider sample using the apps for a longer period so as to allow for generalizability. Further research is also needed to focus on the effect of greater personalization on behavioral change and on understanding the psychological barriers to the adoption of new mHealth solutions

SO(5) Invariance and Effective Field Theory for High-Tc Superconductors

We set up the effective field theories which describe the SO(5)-invariant picture of the high-Tc cuprates in various regimes. We use these to get quantitative conclusions concerning the size of SO(5)-breaking effects. We consider two applications in detail: (i) the thermodynamic free energy, which describe the phase diagram and critical behaviour, and (ii) the Lagrangian governing the interactions of the pseudo-Goldstone bosons with each other and with the electron quasiparticles deep within the ordered phases. We use these effective theories to obtain predictions for the critical behaviour near the possible bicritical point and the pseudo-Goldstone boson dispersion relations, as well as some preliminary results concerning their contribution to response functions. We systematically identify which predictions are independent of the microscopic details of the underlying electron dynamics, and which depend on more model-dependent assumptions.Comment: 40 pages, plain TeX, companion article for the letter cond-mat/961107

Embracing complexity and uncertainty to create impact: Exploring the processes and transformative potential of co-produced research through development of a social impact model

© 2018 The Author(s). The potential use, influence and impact of health research is seldom fully realised. This stubborn problem has caused burgeoning global interest in research aiming to address the implementation 'gap' and factors inhibiting the uptake of scientific evidence. Scholars and practitioners have questioned the nature of evidence used and required for healthcare, highlighting the complex ways in which knowledge is formed, shared and modified in practice and policy. This has led to rapid expansion, expertise and innovation in the field of knowledge mobilisation and funding for experimentation into the effectiveness of different knowledge mobilisation models. One approach gaining prominence involves stakeholders (e.g. researchers, practitioners, service users, policy-makers, managers and carers) in the co-production, and application, of knowledge for practice, policy and research (frequently termed integrated knowledge translation in Canada). Its popularity stems largely from its potential to address dilemmas inherent in the implementation of knowledge generated using more reductionist methods. However, despite increasing recognition, demands for co-produced research to illustrate its worth are becoming pressing while the means to do so remain challenging. This is due not only to the diversity of approaches to co-production and their application, but also to the ways through which different stakeholders conceptualise, measure, reward and use research. While research co-production can lead to demonstrable benefits such as policy or practice change, it may also have more diffuse and subtle impact on relationships, knowledge sharing, and in engendering culture shifts and research capacity-building. These relatively intangible outcomes are harder to measure and require new emphases and tools. This opinion paper uses six Canadian and United Kingdom case studies to explore the principles and practice of co-production and illustrate how it can influence interactions between research, policy and practice, and benefit diverse stakeholders. In doing so, we identify a continuum of co-production processes. We propose and illustrate the use of a new 'social model of impact' and framework to capture multi-layered and potentially transformative impacts of co-produced research. We make recommendations for future directions in research co-production and impact measurement

The long non-coding RNA PCAT-1 promotes prostate cancer cell proliferation through cMyc.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent an emerging layer of cancer biology, contributing to tumor proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Here, we describe a role for the oncogenic lncRNA PCAT-1 in prostate cancer proliferation through cMyc. We find that PCAT-1-mediated proliferation is dependent on cMyc protein stabilization, and using expression profiling, we observed that cMyc is required for a subset of PCAT-1-induced expression changes. The PCAT-1-cMyc relationship is mediated through the post-transcriptional activity of the MYC 3\u27 untranslated region, and we characterize a role for PCAT-1 in the disruption of MYC-targeting microRNAs. To further elucidate a role for post-transcriptional regulation, we demonstrate that targeting PCAT-1 with miR-3667-3p, which does not target MYC, is able to reverse the stabilization of cMyc by PCAT-1. This work establishes a basis for the oncogenic role of PCAT-1 in cancer cell proliferation and is the first study to implicate lncRNAs in the regulation of cMyc in prostate cancer

Social representations and the politics of participation

Recent work has called for the integration of different perspectives into the field of political psychology (Haste, 2012). This chapter suggests that one possible direction that such efforts can take is studying the role that social representations theory (SRT) can play in understanding political participation and social change. Social representations are systems of common-sense knowledge and social practice; they provide the lens through which to view and create social and political realities, mediate people's relations with these sociopolitical worlds and defend cultural and political identities. Social representations are therefore key for conceptualising participation as the activity that locates individuals and social groups in their sociopolitical world. Political participation is generally seen as conditional to membership of sociopolitical groups and therefore is often linked to citizenship. To be a citizen of a society or a member of any social group one has to participate as such. Often political participation is defined as the ability to communicate one's views to the political elite or to the political establishment (Uhlaner, 2001), or simply explicit involvement in politics and electoral processes (Milbrath, 1965). However, following scholars on ideology (Eagleton, 1991; Thompson, 1990) and social knowledge (Jovchelovitch, 2007), we extend our understanding of political participation to all social relations and also develop a more agentic model where individuals and groups construct, develop and resist their own views, ideas and beliefs. We thus adopt a broader approach to participation in comparison to other political-psychological approaches, such as personality approaches (e.g. Mondak and Halperin, 2008) and cognitive approaches or, more recently, neuropsychological approaches (Hatemi and McDermott, 2012). We move away from a focus on the individual's political behaviour and its antecedents and outline an approach that focuses on the interaction between psychological and political phenomena (Deutsch and Kinnvall, 2002) through examining the politics of social knowledge