Ecological Strategy to Prevent Vulture Menace to Aircraft in India

Vultures are sincere scavengers. Though seen with disgust, they work silently as effective biological incinerators of nature by feeding and digesting the diseased and rotten animal carcasses. Vultures are shifting their natural habitat and proliferating unnaturally in the cities because of encroachment of forest, unplanned industrialisation, urbanisation, and uncivilised way of life prevailing in the society. Hence, the problem of vulture menace to aircraft has arisen. Vulture strikes to aircraft can be minimised by promptly lifting the dead animals/carcasses from different parts of the city to the permanent feeding ground, which should be out of buffer zone area and away from the flying path. and simultaneously discouraging the illegal skinning, specially in the vicinity of aerodrome. In this paper, an ecological solution of the vulture strike to aircraft is highlighted

CONDITION OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN HARDY'S NOVELS: SPECIAL REFERENCE IN ‘TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

Thomas Hardy was one of the most popular Novelist of Victorian age. His writings are reflective of the great movement from the Victorian to the modern age. He focuses on social problems like unjust marriage law, superstition, inequality, proprieties, orthodoxy and patriarchy by his Novels. Hardy tried tirelessly in order to change the male dominated society and to bring out the desired changes for the mutual benefit of women as well as man. The Victorian society of that century was rigid and uncompromising one towards women. Friendship between man and women was not acceptable in that time. Live in relationship is a social crime. Thomas Hardy showed his sympathy to the women in Victorian age that faces problems of unhappy marriage life, divorces, deception in love, merciless fate, hypocrisy, mistreatment and orthodoxy. Hardy tried to change the views of male-dominated Society for the benefit of women through his Novels. In his ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ Hardy tries to sketch pathetic condition of women. She suffers a lot in her life from the birth to last breath of life because of honest love, scarifies and faithfulness. Female protagonist of Hardy’s novels became the victim of patriarchal society. They face suppression, maltreatment, wife-selling, domestic violence, sexual harassment in their life. The condition of women was very pathetic; they had neither freedom of speech nor freedom to work according to their choice. They were used for physical pleasure. This situation was very accurately depicted by Thomas Hardy in his novels

Multi-environment analysis of grain quality traits in recombinant inbred lines of a biparental cross in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

A set of 286 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) along with the parents and a popular wheat variety in India were grown for two consecutive years at three locations belonging to the two major wheat growing zones of India and evaluated for four grain quality traits. Rare recombinants with high trait value appeared for protein content (PC), thousand-kernel weight (TKW), sedimentation value (SV), and kernel hardness (KH). The magnitude of environmental effects was more pronounced than genotypic effects and genotype-environment interaction (GEI). The cumulative contribution of environment and GEI components to the total variance was highest in the expression of PC followed by TKW, SV, and KH. The top five percent (14 RILs) of genotypes with high trait value were subjected to Eberhart and Russell (1966) (ER), genotype and genotype-environment (GGE) and additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) stability models. Five RILs were identified as stable in all the three stability models. RIL61 with 38.8%, RIL101 with 8.9%, RIL226 with 26.1% superiority over check variety were the most stable genotypes in all the three stability models for PC, TKW and KH, respectively. RIL113 was found to be stable genotype in ER and GGE models, whereas, RIL231 was the most stable genotype in AMMI and GGE models in the expression of SV. These common stable genotypes with high trait value identified through ER, AMMI and GGE models could be potential donors in active breeding programs to develop high yielding wheat varieties with improved PC, TKW, SV and KH

Determining the antioxidant activity of certain medicinal plants of Sonitpur, (Assam), India using DPPH assay

As part of a screening program for biologically active compounds in medicinal plants of northeast India, twelve plants were investigated for their phytochemical screening and anti-oxidant activity. The antioxidant activity was estimated by using 2, 2- diphenyl-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical assay. Oroxylum indicum, Ipomoea aquatica and Moringa oleifera exhibited strong antioxidant activity as compared to other plants. Oroxylum indicum showed the highest antioxidant activity. The present study indicated that these plants are of therapeutic potential due to their high free-radical scavenging activity. The role of phytochemical constituents of these important medicinal plants in traditional medicine treatment is discussed

Antioxidant and Antinociceptive Activity of Methanol Extract of Rhizomes of Iris Kashmairrania in Heat and Chemical-Induced Pain

Pain is a sensation which in many cases represents the only symptom for the diagnosis of several disorders. Throughout ages man has used many different remedies for pain relief, among which medicinal herbs are most common due to their efficacy and relative safety due to their natural origin. Iris kashmiriana Baker (I. kashmiriana) is an important member of the family Iridaceae, locally known as Mazarmund in Kashmir valley. The plant owes its significance because of its endemic nature to the region and its use in alternative medicine as emetic, cathartic, diuretic and expectorant since long time. This study evaluated the antioxidant and antinociceptive effect of the methanolic extract of I. kashmiriana rhizomes in mice. Qualitative phytochemical screening of methanolic extract was carried out to identify the phytoconstituents. The In vitro antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of I. kashmiriana rhizomes (IKME) was assessed against reducing power assay using standard protocols. The methanolic extract was assessed for antinociceptive activity using chemical and heat induced pain models such as hot plate and acetic acid-induced writhing test models in mice at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg (p.o.). Morphine sulphate (5mg/kg, i.p.) was used as reference analgesic drugs. The phytochemical screening results showed that the extract had flavonoids, steroids, saponins, phenolics and terpenoids which have been associated with anti-nociceptive activities. IKME demonstrated potent and dose-dependent antinociceptive activity in the chemical and heat induced mice models (p <0.001). Above findings suggest that I. kashmiriana rhizomes extract possesses significant antinociceptive activity in albino mice with reference to positive and negative control groups; however further studies on a large number of animals with clinical trials are required to confirm safe and effective use of this rhizomes extract in humans for pain purpose. Keywords: Iris kashmiriana, Iridaceae, Morphine sulphate, Phytochemical screening, Antinociceptive

Assessing glaucoma deterioration using Spaeth/Richman contrast sensitivity test

Purpose:To assess changes in the central and peripheral contrast sensitivity in severe primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients using a computer-based Spaeth/Richman contrast sensitivity test (SPARCS) over a period of 24 months.Methods:Our pilot, observational study included 15 patients (30 eyes) with severe POAG. Visual acuity, intraocular pressure, number of anti-glaucoma drugs, visual fields, and SPARCS score were recorded at first visit and at 12 and 24 months.Results:We observed changes in mean deviation (MD) from -19.37 +/- 5.04 to -20.63 +/- 4.07, mean pattern standard deviation (PSD) from 11.49 +/- 2.61 to 11.35 +/- 2.01, and mean SPARCS score from 54.97 +/- 15.66 to 53.50 +/- 16.42. We found no statistically significant difference between visual field parameters and SPARCS scores associated with the number or type of prescribed anti-glaucoma drugs. Spearman's correlation coefficient of SPARCS at baseline (SPARCS1) versus MD at baseline (MD1) was 0.274 (p = 0.142) and SPARCS1 versus PSD at baseline (PSD1) was -0.163 (p = 0.389). The correlation coefficient between SPARCS at 12 months (SPARCS2) versus MD (MD2) at the same time point was computed to be 0.391 (p = 0.03), whereas SPARCS2 versus PSD at 12 months was -0.212 (p = 0.262). Similarly, we found the coefficient to be 0.336 (p = 0.069) for SPARCS3 (SPARCS at 24 months) versus MD3 (MD at 24 months) and -0.242 (p = 0.197) for SPARCS3 versus PSD3 (PSD at 24 months). Correlation coefficients between SPARCS1/2, SPARCS1/3, MD1/2, MD1/3 PSD1/2, and PSD1/3 were 0.856, 0.865, 0.748, 0.722, 0.497, and 0.562, respectively (p < 0.001). MD changed by 9.46% +/- 12.73%, PSD by 0.64% +/- 14.03%, and average SPARCS by 3.31% +/- 12.73% over 24 months.Conclusion:The data from our study indicate the utilitarian application of SPARCS, an inexpensive and readily available tool for monitoring functional deterioration in cases with advanced glaucomatous damage, especially in resource-poor settings. Furthermore, it is a useful and reliable alternative to the imaging modalities where retinal nerve fiber layer measurement can be erroneous in advanced cases secondary to the floor effect

Quantum Locality

It is argued that while quantum mechanics contains nonlocal or entangled states, the instantaneous or nonlocal influences sometimes thought to be present due to violations of Bell inequalities in fact arise from mistaken attempts to apply classical concepts and introduce probabilities in a manner inconsistent with the Hilbert space structure of standard quantum mechanics. Instead, Einstein locality is a valid quantum principle: objective properties of individual quantum systems do not change when something is done to another noninteracting system. There is no reason to suspect any conflict between quantum theory and special relativity.Comment: Introduction has been revised, references added, minor corrections elsewhere. To appear in Foundations of Physic

Consistent Histories in Quantum Cosmology

We illustrate the crucial role played by decoherence (consistency of quantum histories) in extracting consistent quantum probabilities for alternative histories in quantum cosmology. Specifically, within a Wheeler-DeWitt quantization of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological model sourced with a free massless scalar field, we calculate the probability that the univese is singular in the sense that it assumes zero volume. Classical solutions of this model are a disjoint set of expanding and contracting singular branches. A naive assessment of the behavior of quantum states which are superpositions of expanding and contracting universes may suggest that a "quantum bounce" is possible i.e. that the wave function of the universe may remain peaked on a non-singular classical solution throughout its history. However, a more careful consistent histories analysis shows that for arbitrary states in the physical Hilbert space the probability of this Wheeler-DeWitt quantum universe encountering the big bang/crunch singularity is equal to unity. A quantum Wheeler-DeWitt universe is inevitably singular, and a "quantum bounce" is thus not possible in these models.Comment: To appear in Foundations of Physics special issue on quantum foundation