Susceptibility of Indian Leather for Fungal Attack

Fungi play an important role in the degradation of leather and service leather goods. In the present study 20 types of Indian tanned leathers have been tested for their resistance/susceptibility against mycobial attack. 9 common species i.e. Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumiqatus, A. nidulans, A. terreus, A. sulphureus, Penicillium cyaneum, Paecilomyces varioti and Mucor sp. were isolated from various types of leather samples. E. I. tanned (goats & cows) and pure vegetable upper leathers were found highly susceptible and supported very good fungal growth. Vegetable chrome, full chrome B, and blue chrome tanned (buffalo) were relatively resistant and chrome tanned split (cows) leather was found most resistant

Farming System Approach for Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Mountain Regions — A Case of Himachal Pradesh

This paper has examined the emerging issues, extent of transitions and their implications for the sustainable and balanced development of agriculture in the mountain areas of the country. The study undertaken in low and mid-hill regions of Himachal Pradesh is based upon the data collected during the period 2002-03 from 200 sample households selected from 10 villages, representing five major mountain farming systems (MFS), viz. maize-based, paddy-based, vegetable-based, fruit-based and livestock-based. It has been found that over a period of time lot of changes have taken place in the socio-economic milieu and agricultural practices in mountains. The cropping pattern, extent of diversification and commercialization have been found to vary considerably across different MFS. A high degree of externalities has developed particularly under vegetable- and fruit-based farming systems. The proportion of purchased inputs has increased while the share of farm-produced inputs (own seeds, FYM, family labour, bullock labour, feed and fodder, etc.) has decreased. Thus, the system interlinkages and in-built complementary relations among sub-systems are getting distorted with commercialization through vegetables and fruits. The shortage of fodder, decrease in the number of farm animals and thus FYM-scarcity, are the burgeoning signs of unsustainability, particularly on vegetable- and fruit-based systems. Therefore, the sustainable plans developed for different systems have revealed the possibility of increasing profitability by optimum combination of sub-components like cereals, pulses, vegetable crops, fruits, fodder resources and livestock and thus maintaining the crucial balance to harness in-built complementary relations of the sub-systems. The increasing externalities in the MFS clearly show the crucial role of markets and marketing in the agricultural development that needs greater policy support in future.Agricultural and Food Policy,

System Synergy of Farming System and Common Property Resources in Mountain Regions: A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh

The study conducted in the hilly region of Himachal Pradesh has revealed that the average size of operational holding in the region is small (0.69 ha) and therefore the common property resources (CPRs) assume significant importance for sustaining the livelihood of people. The ‘kuhls’ emanating water of CPRs are the main sources of irrigation. The consumption of different products from CPR lands has been found to increase with decrease in the size of landholdings, which underlines the need to increase the productivity of CPR lands. The analysis of linkages between different farm sectors has revealed strong forward linkages of CPRs with livestock and agriculture and weak backward linkages with other sectors. The farm forestry and CPR lands have depicted weak linkage, but strong indirect linkages. The gravity water irrigation kuhls (channels) have also revealed strong linkages with agriculture and livestock. The analysis of linkages has suggested that there is a need to strengthen the backward linkages of agriculture, livestock and farm forestry with CPRs. The study has suggested to strengthen the management and conservation of CPRs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Loss of oral mucosal stem cell markers in oral submucous fibrosis and their reactivation in malignant transformation

The integrity of the basal stem cell layer is critical for epithelial homoeostasis. In this paper, we review the expression of oral mucosal stem cell markers (OM-SCMs) in oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) to understand the role of basal cells in potentiating cancer stem cell behaviour in OSF. While the loss of basal cell clonogenicity triggers epithelial atrophy in OSF, the transition of the epithelium from atrophic to hyperplastic and eventually neoplastic involves the reactivation of basal stemness. The vacillating expression patterns of OM-SCMs confirm the role of keratins 5, 14, 19, CD44, β1-integrin, p63, sex-determining region Y box (SOX2), octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct-4), c-MYC, B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukaemia virus integration site 1 (Bmi-1) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) in OSF, OPMDs and OSCC. The downregulation of OM-SCMs in the atrophic epithelium of OSF and their upregulation during malignant transformation are illustrated with relevant literature in this review

Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) for Bangladeshi Vehicles

This paper presents Automatic License Plate extraction character segmentation and recognition method for license plate of Bangladeshi vehicles with chain code and neural network In Bangladesh license plate models are not followed strictly Characters on plate are in Bangla and English languages and also are in one or two lines Due to dissimilarity in the model of license plates vehicle license plate extraction character segmentation and recognition are key issue Different types of algorithm already applied and the performance is examined for English license plate We describe the license plate extraction character segmentation and recognition work with Bangla characters License plate extraction is performed using Sobel filter connected component analysis and morphological operations Character segmentation is performed in different levels by using scanning the binary image horizontally and vertically and connected component analysis Character recognition is carried out using chain code generation and stored knowledge of the networ

Magnetic Properties of Fe and Ni Doped SnO2 Nanoparticles

In this work, we report the room temperature ferromagnetism in Sn1‐xFexO2 and Sn1‐xNixO2 (x = 0.00, 0.03 and 0.05) nano‐crystalline powders. All the samples were prepared using co‐precipitation method. X‐Ray Diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x‐ray analysis (EDAX), UV‐ visible absorption spectroscopy and room temperature magnetization measurements were performed to study the crystal structure, morphology, elemental analysis, optical band gap and magnetic properties of Fe and Ni doped SnO2. TEM results depict the formation of spherically shaped and small sized nanoparticles of the diameter of ~ 3 nm.  The band gap energy of the Fe and Ni doped samples found to decrease with increasing their concentrations. The higher saturation magnetization was observed in low concentration Fe and Ni doped tin oxide

Magnetic Properties of Fe and Ni Doped SnO2 Nanoparticles

In this work, we report the room temperature ferromagnetism in Sn1‐xFexO2 and Sn1‐xNixO2 (x = 0.00, 0.03 and 0.05) nano‐crystalline powders. All the samples were prepared using co‐precipitation method. X‐Ray Diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x‐ray analysis (EDAX), UV‐ visible absorption spectroscopy and room temperature magnetization measurements were performed to study the crystal structure, morphology, elemental analysis, optical band gap and magnetic properties of Fe and Ni doped SnO2. TEM results depict the formation of spherically shaped and small sized nanoparticles of the diameter of ~ 3 nm.  The band gap energy of the Fe and Ni doped samples found to decrease with increasing their concentrations. The higher saturation magnetization was observed in low concentration Fe and Ni doped tin oxide

Institutionalization of quality assurance within district health management: Experiences from Maharashtra and Karnataka

The Population Council, with financial support from UNFPA, provided technical assistance to the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, India in implementing a quality assurance (QA) program and helped its institutionalization in the district level of health management. An analysis of all the facilities covered as of December 2007 revealed substantial gaps in the infrastructure and human resources available to provide good-quality services, as well as adherence to standards for providing the services. To build the capacity to undertake QA visits, the Population Council and state authorities organized a series of events to orient and train state and district officials, facility-level workers, and members of the District Quality Assurance Group. The district health officers of both districts have subsequently established a mechanism to monitor and assess the extent to which the facilities have taken initiatives to address the gaps identified during QA visits. There are indications that the QA process is being institutionalized in the overall National Rural Health Mission/Reproductive and Child Health program

Comprehensive characterization and validation of chromosome-specific highly polymorphic SSR Markers from Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cv. Tunisia Genome

The simple sequence repeat (SSR) survey of ‘Tunisia’ genome (296.85 Mb) identified a total of 365,279 perfect SSRs spanning eight chromosomes, with a mean marker density of 1,230.6 SSRs/Mb. We found a positive trend in chromosome length and the SSR abundance as marker density enhanced with a shorter chromosome length. The highest number of SSRs (60,708) was mined from chromosome 1 (55.56 Mb), whereas the highest marker density (1,294.62 SSRs/Mb) was recorded for the shortest chromosome 8 (27.99 Mb). Furthermore, we categorized all SSR motifs into three major classes based on their tract lengths. Across the eight chromosomes, the class III had maximum number of SSR motifs (301,684, 82.59%), followed by the class II (31,056, 8.50%) and the class I (5,003, 1.37%). Examination of the distribution of SSR motif types within a chromosome suggested the abundance of hexanucleotide repeats in each chromosome followed by dinucleotides, and these results are consistent with ‘Tunisia’ genome features as a whole. Concerning major repeat types, AT/AG was the most frequent (14.16%), followed by AAAAAT/AAAAAG (7.89%), A/C (7.54%), AAT/AAG (5.23%), AAAT/AAAG (4.37%), and AAAAT/AAAAG (1.2%) types. We designed and validated a total of 3,839 class I SSRs in the ‘Tunisia’ genome through electronic polymerase chain reaction (ePCR) and found 1,165 (30.34%) SSRs producing a single amplicon. Then, we selected 906 highly variable SSRs (> 40 nt) from the ePCR-verified class I SSRs and in silico validated across multiple draft genomes of pomegranate, which provided us a subset of 265 highly polymorphic SSRs. Of these, 235 primers were validated on six pomegranate genotypes through wet-lab experiment. We found 221 (94%) polymorphic SSRs on six genotypes, and 187 of these SSRs had ≥ 0.5 PIC values. The utility of the developed SSRs was demonstrated by analyzing genetic diversity of 30 pomegranate genotypes using 16 HvSSRs spanning eight pomegranate chromosomes. In summary, we developed a comprehensive set of highly polymorphic genome-wide SSRs. These chromosome-specific SSRs will serve as a powerful genomic tool to leverage future genetic studies, germplasm management, and genomics-assisted breeding in pomegranate

High-Entropy Alloys as Catalysts for the CO2 and CO Reduction Reactions: Experimental Realization

Conversion of carbon dioxide into selective hydrocarbon using a stable catalyst remains a holy grail in the catalysis community. The high overpotential, stability, and selectivity in the use of a single-metal-based catalyst still remain a challenge. In current work, instead of using pure noble metals (Ag, Au, and Pt) as the catalyst, a nanocrystalline high-entropy alloy (HEA: AuAgPtPdCu) has been used for the conversion of CO2 into gaseous hydrocarbons. Utilizing an approach of multimetallic HEA, a faradic efficiency of about 100% toward gaseous products is obtained at a low applied potential (−0.3 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode). The reason behind the catalytic activity and selectivity of the high-entropy alloy (HEA) toward CO2 electroreduction was established through first-principles-based density functional theory (DFT) by comparing it with the pristine Cu(111) surface. This is attributed to the reversal in adsorption trends for two out of the total eight intermediates—*OCH3 and *O on Cu(111) and HEA surfaces