An Assessment of Economic Losses due to Avian Flu in Manipur State

The impact of 2007 outbreak of avian flu in the state of Manipur has been reported. The loss due to the disease has been found to be 14 per cent of the total value of livestock outputs in the entire state. More than 3 lakh birds were culled and 24 tonnes of poultry feed was destroyed post-flu. It has been found that the more affected were the producers and the input industry than traders and retailers. In dealing with such eventualities, compensation should be adequate and timely so as to ensure better compliance for effective control and stamping out of the disease. The study has suggested that the compensation rates may be fixed as per the prevailing economic condition of less-developed states like in the North-Eastern region, taking into consideration flock size, family size of farmers, proportion of income from poultry to total family income, level of nutritional security achieved from family poultry and border status of the state.Livestock Production/Industries,

Linear and Weakly Nonlinear Triple Diffusive Convection in a Couple Stress Fluid Layer

The effect of couple stresses on linear and weakly nonlinear stability of a triply diffusive fluid layer is investigated. Several departures not observed either in singly or doubly diffusive couple stress fluid layer have been identified while analyzing the linear stability of the problem. In contrast to the doubly diffusive couple stress fluid system, oscillatory convection is found to occur even if the diffusivity ratios are greater than unity. The presence of couple stress is to increase the threshold value of solute Rayleigh number beyond which oscillatory convection is preferred. Moreover, disconnected closed oscillatory neutral curves are identified for certain choices of physical parameters indicating the requirement of three critical values of Rayleigh number to specify the linear stability criteria instead of the usual single value. Besides, heart-shaped oscillatory neutral curves are also found to occur in some cases and the effect of couple stress parameter on some of these unusual behaviors is analyzed. A weakly nonlinear stability analysis is performed using modified perturbation technique and the stability of steady bifurcating non-trivial equilibrium solution is discussed. Heat and mass transfer are calculated in terms of Nusselt numbers and the influence of various physical parameters on the same is discussed in detail

Effect of Horizontal AC Electric Field on the Stability of Natural Convection in a Vertical Dielectric Fluid Layer

The stability of buoyancy-driven parallel shear flow of a dielectric fluid confined between differentially heated vertical plates is investigated under the influence of a uniform horizontal AC electric field. The resulting generalized eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using Chebyshev collocation method with wave speed as the eigenvalue. The critical Grashof number Gc, the critical wave number αc and the critical wave speed cc are computed for wide ranges of AC electric Rayleigh number Rea and the Prandtl number Pr. Based on these parameters, the stability characteristics of the system are discussed in detail. It is found that the AC electric Rayleigh number is to instill instability on convective flow against both stationary and travelling-wave mode disturbances. Nonetheless, the value of Prandtl number at which the transition from stationary to travelling-wave mode takes place is found to be independent of AC electric Rayleigh number. The streamlines and isotherms presented demonstrate the development of complex dynamics at the critical state

Spectroscopic Investigations on Polyvinyl Alcohol Film with Complex of Terbium Ions along with Bismuth Nanoparticles for Improved Green Emission

In this chapter, bismuth nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by the pulsed laser ablation technique at different pH in different aqueous solutions (namely, water (H), water + sodium hydroxide (HN), and water + hydrochloric acid (HC)). The NPs in aqueous solutions have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-Vis-NIR absorption techniques. The NPs are spherical, core shell, and hollow spheres in H, HN, and HC, respectively. The vibrational features have been studied using Raman technique and correlated with solid NPs, hollow NPs, core shell NPs, and NPs complex, etc. The Bi NPs were subsequently scattered with Tb3+ ions and their complex with salicylic acid (Sal) and 1,10-phenanthroline in aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol to get thin polymer films. Then photoluminescence properties of Tb3+ ions and the (Tb(Sal)3(Phen)) complex were studied using 266 nm and 355 nm as excitation wavelengths to seek into the influence of Bi NPs on their emissive properties. Terbium ions in case of (Tb(Sal)3(Phen)) complex together with NPs demonstrate an intense and extended emission spectrum in the 375–700 nm range for transition arising even from 5D3 and 5D4 levels to different 7FJ levels on 266 nm excitation. Alternatively, the luminescence intensity of Tb3+ ions complexed with Sal and Phen in the thin polymer films is improved appreciably as compared with Tb3+ ions in the presence of Bi NPs on excitation with 355 nm

Tests for Two-Sample Location Problem Based on Subsample Quantiles

This paper presents a new class of test procedures for two-sample location problem based on subsample quantiles. The class includes Mann-Whitney test as a special case. The asymptotic normality of the class of tests proposed is established. The asymptotic relative performance of the proposed class of test with respect to the optimal member of Xie and Priebe (2000) is studied in terms of Pitman efficiency for various underlying distribution

Impedance studies on high energy Li3+ irradiated PZT thin films

The ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.48Ti0.52)O3 (PZT) thin films prepared by the pulsed laser deposition technique were studied for their response to high energy lithium ion irradiation through impedance spectroscopy. The Debye peaks, observed in the impedance and modulus plots of irradiated films, shifts towards higher frequencies compared to those of unirradiated films. This is equivalent to the trend observed with increase in temperature in the unirradiated films due to the dielectric relaxation. The irradiated films showed a decrease in the grain resistance compared to the unirradiated films. The activation energy of dielectric relaxation increases from 1.25 eV of unirradiated film to 1.62 eV of irradiated film. The observed modifications in the irradiated film were ascribed to the modifications in the grain structure due to the high value of electronic energy loss. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A Review Over Genetic Algorithm and Application of Wireless Network Systems

AbstractTele-communication and network industry are becoming extremely fascinated by the use of evolutionary smart sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. This technology promises to overcome several challenges within WSNs needed for real time data protection via optimization technique: Genetic Algorithm. This paper reviewedthe use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to solve certain limitation of wireless sensor networks. It further presents major application areas of wireless sensors networks. Longerdistance gap between a sensor and destination in a sensor network can remarkably reduce the energy of sensors and can degrade the life of a network. GA can prolong the network lifetime by minimizing the total communication distance

Recent Advances in Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (l.) Millspaugh) Research

Pigeonpea or red gram [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh] is an important food legume of the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. It occupies a prime niche in sustainable farming systems of smallholder rainfed farmers. It occupies a prominent place in Indian rainfed agriculture. It is an integral component in various agro ecologies of the country mainly inter cropped with cereals, pulses, oilseeds and millets. It is the second most important pulse crop next to chickpea, covering an area of around 4.42 m ha (occupying about 14.5% of area under pulses) and production of 2.86 MT (contributing to 16% of total pulse production) and productivity of about 707 kg/ha. It is mainly consumed as dry split dhal throughout the country besides several other uses of various parts of pigeonpea plant. Enhancing the productivity of the crop assumes specific significance in India mainly to combat protein malnutrition as it is the main source of protein to the predominant vegetarian population. The productivity of pigeonpea has remained low and stagnant over the last few decades thus this prompted scientists to search for novel ways of crop improvement. To tackle this challenge, ICRISAT and IIPR are working on number of innovative ideas like, genome sequencing (Varshney et al. 2012), development of CGMS hybrids with 30 to 40 % yield advantage over traditional varieties, development of photo insensitive super early maturing lines, introgression of cleistogamous flower structure to maintain genetic purity of elite lines, use of obcordate leaf shape as NEP to assess genetic purity of hybrid parental lines and development of disease resistant hybrids and elite breeding lines. These aspects are described briefly below

Synthesis of Novel 3-Aryl-N-Methyl-1,2,5,6-Tetrahydropyridine Derivatives by Suzuki coupling: As Acetyl Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system, which is also associated with progressive loss of memory and cognition. The development of numerous structural classes of compounds with different pharmacological profile could be an evolving, promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of AD. Thus, providing a symptomatic treatment for this disease are cholinomimetics with the pharmacological profile of Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors. In view of this, we have synthesized novel 3-aryl-N-methyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine derivatives 5a-k by Suzuki coupling and screened the efficacy of these derivatives for their AChE inhibitor activity

First report of outbreaks of the fall armyworm Spodoptera Frugiperda (J E Smith) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), a new alien invasive pest in West and Central Africa

Article purchasedThe fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda is a prime noctuid pest of maize on the American continents where it has remained confined despite occasional interceptions by European quarantine services in recent years. The pest has currently become a new invasive species in West and Central Africa where outbreaks were recorded for the first time in early 2016. The presence of at least two distinct haplotypes within samples collected on maize in Nigeria and São Tome suggests multiple introductions into the African continent. Implications of this new threat to the maize crop in tropical Africa are briefly discussed