Electrical effects of gases on lead telluride thin films

Imperial Users onl

Social cleavages, Deras and politics in Eastern Punjab: A study of Dera Sacha Sauda

Abstract. The vicious conflicts erupted between the followers of Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, and fundamentalist Sikhs reveals that the violence not only deepen social cleavages but also enhances the cleavages in Sikh dominated society in Eastern Punjab. The paper’s argument is that the social cleavages in the political society of Punjab give birth to religious sects (Deras) which in turn feed on them in a vicious circle. Dera as an idea and institution is itself cleavages based which gives impetus to political articulation of a given subdued culture to come forth as a challenge to the mainstream socio-cultural and religious discourse. The Deras formed distinct religious symbols, cultural traits, daily code of conduct, rituals and prayers for their followers which dreaming them an egalitarian utopian society or social space. However, by doing so the Deras are enhancing the cleavages in the society instead the elimination of the cleavages. The Dera Sacha Sauda is taken as reference for the study.Keywords. Dera, Sacha Sauda, Cleavage, Politics, Punjab, Sikh, Society.JEL. Z12, Z13, Y40

Air Stripping of Volatile Organic Compounds from Groundwater: An Evaluation of a Centrifugal Vapor-Liquid Contactor

The performance of a centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor equipped with high specific surface area packing (\u3e2000 m2/m3) was evaluated for air stripping of jet fuel components from groundwater. Hydraulic test data indicated that the Sherwood flooding correlation which has been proposed for use in designing centrifugal vapor-liquid contactors overestimates the rotational speeds at which flooding occurs. For the mass transfer of performance, a concept of area of a transfer unit (ATU) was introduced to account for the change in fluid loading with radius of the packing torus. The ATU was found to be a strong function of the specific surface area of the packing and to a lesser extent a function of rotor speed and liquid flow rate. A correlation based on the specific surface area of the packing is proposed for predicting the ATU. A simple empirical model is also proposed for determining the power consumed in turning the packing torus at various operating conditions. Previous claims in the literature that centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor is resistant to fouling because of high shear force were found not to be valid for groundwater with high iron content

NORMS CONSTRUCTION AND GRADING FOR PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST ITEMS

The present study was conducted to construct norms for selected physical fitness test items of handball players. For the purpose of the present study, fourty eight (N=48), male Handball players of Panjab University, Chandigarh between the age group of 18-25 years were selected as subjects. The Muscular Strength was measured by Handgrip Strength Test, Muscular Power was measured by Vertical Jump Test, Muscular Endurance was measured by Pull-Up Test, Running Speed was measured by 20-Meter Dash, Running Agility was measured by Illinois Agility Test, Jumping Ability was measured by Standing Long Jump Test, Throwing Ability was measured by Overhead Medicine Ball Throw Test, Flexibility was measured by Sit and Reach Flexibility Test and Balance was measured by Stork Balance Stand Test. The data, which was collected by administering tests, was statistically treated to develop for all the test items. In order to construct the norms, Percentile Scale was used. Further, the scores were classified into five grades i.e., very good, good, average, poor and very poor. In Muscular Strength, the mean score was 49.562 and standard deviation score was 3.679. In Muscular Power, the mean score was 48.062 and standard deviation score was 2.276. In Muscular Endurance, the mean score was 6.958 and standard deviation score was 1.098. In Running Speed, the mean score was 4.6354 and standard deviation score was 0.143. In Running Agility, the mean score was 17.606 and standard deviation was 0.834. In Jumping Ability, the mean score was 2.7260 and standard deviation was 0.415. In Throwing Ability, the mean score was 13.562 and standard deviation score was 0.976. In Flexibility, the mean score was 4.625 and standard deviation score was 0.832. In Balance, the mean score was 46.354 and standard deviation score was 1.561of Panjab University, Chandigarh.  Article visualizations

Adaptive Display Intensity Control Using Digital Signal Processor

One of the major cause of eye strain and other problems caused while watching video displays is the relative illumination between screen and its surrounding. This can be overcome by adjusting the brightness of screen with respect to surrounding light. The display systems with the human eye features like automatic intensity control under varying background luminance conditions add more challenge to design of display systems. The Adaptive Intensity Control can be achieved by varying the display intensity according to the background intensity level taking into account the comfort level of the user. In this paper, various parameters important for automatic intensity control design have been discussed and a new methodology based on look up table generated using experimental values has been devised by which the display intensity can be adaptively varied maintaining an adequate contrast ratio in real time mode. In this paper, Signal Processor based adaptive display intensity control of display intensity has been proposed

Analysis of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil samples for the assessment of the average effective dose

The activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides namely 238Ra, 232Th and 40K are measured for soil samples collected from different locations of Faridkot and Mansa districts of Punjab. HPGe detector, based on high-resolution gamma spectrometry system is used for the measurement of activity concentration. The range of activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil from the studied areas varies from 21.42 Bq kg–1 to 40.23 Bq kg–1 , 61.01 Bq kg–1 to 142.34 Bq kg–1 and 227.11 Bq kg–1 to 357.13 Bq kg–1 with overall mean values of 27.17 Bq kg–1, 95.22 Bq kg–1 and 312.76 Bq kg–1, respectively. Radium equivalent activities are calculated for the analyzed samples to assess the radiation hazards arising due to the use of these soil samples in the construction of dwellings. The absorbed dose rate calculated from activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K ranges between 9.87 and 18.55, 38.01 and 88.68 and 9.40 and 14.79 nGy h–1, respectively. The total absorbed dose in the study area ranges from 61.10 nGy h–1 to 112.86 nGy h–1 with an average value of 84.80 nGy h–1. The calculated values of external hazard index (Hex) for the soil samples of the study area range from 0.36 to 0.68. Since these values are lower than unity, according to the Radiation Protection 112 (European Commission, 1999) report, soil from these regions is safe and can be used as construction material without posing any significant radiological threat to population. The corresponding average annual effective dose for indoor and outdoor measured in the study area are 0.42 mSv and 0.10 mSv respectively.Author Affiliation: Rohit Mehra, Surinder Singh and Kulwant Singh 1.Department of Applied Sciences, Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology, Malout-152 107, Punjab, India 2.Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar-143 005, Punjab, India E-mail : [email protected] of Applied Sciences, Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology, Malout-152 107, Punjab, India Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar-143 005, Punjab, Indi

Impact of Self-Help Group Formation on Social Indicators of Sustainability

Vegetable production has emerged as an important source of farm income from small farms in hilly states like Himachal Pradesh in India. Various researchers have studied agricultural sustainability taking into consideration three dimensions i.e. economic, environmental and social. Keeping in view the importance of the social sustainability which measures extent of social capability of farming system, present study was conducted in Himachal Pradesh to find out the ways to strengthen farm sustainability. Farm sustainability of self-help group member farmers and non-member farmers was studied and compared. Study revealed that the social sustainability of vegetable growers who were members of self-help groups was significantly higher when compared to non-member farmers

Current scenario of malaria vaccine

Malaria is one of the deadliest infectious diseases that affects millions of people worldwide including India. As an addition to chemoprophylaxis and other antimalarial interventions malaria vaccine is under extensive research since decades. The vaccine development is more difficult to predict than drug development and presents a unique challenge as already there has been no vaccine effective against a parasite. Effective malaria vaccine could help eliminate and eradicate malaria; there are currently 63 vaccine candidates, 41 in preclinical and clinical stages of development. Vaccines are being designed to target pre-erythrocytic stages, erythrocytic stage or the sexual stages of Plasmodium taken up by a feeding mosquito, or the multiple stages. Two vaccines in preclinical and clinical development target P. falciparum; and the most advanced candidate is the pre-erythrocytic vaccine RTS,S which is in phase-III clinical trials. It is likely that world’s first malaria vaccine will be available by 2015 at the country level. More efficacious second generation malaria vaccines are on the way to development. Safety, efficacy, cost and provision of the vaccine to all communities are major concerns in malaria vaccine issue