Women's role in reproductive health decision making and vulnerability to STD and HIV/AIDS in Ekiti, Nigeria

An exploratory study of women’s role in reproductive decision making in Ekiti shows that women in the state are increasingly taking active decisions on matters affecting their daily lives. More women than ever before believed that they could take decisions on family size, when to have a baby and choice of spacing period. The cultural barrier against short postpartum abstinence appeared to have diminished and sex during lactation was not considered a major cultural and religious taboo. Knowledge of contraception has become universal in recent years, and the majority of women take decisions on the method and timing of family planning. All women who used family planning considered their decision in this regard very important. The ability of women to take decisions on these issues may not only enhance their bargaining power but also reduce their vulnerability to STDs including AIDS from diseased or high-risk partners

Sea urchin diversity and its resources from the Gulf of Mannar

Gulf of Mannar is the richest marine biodiversity hotspot along the Southeast coast of India, encompassing the territorial waters from Dhanushkodi in the north to Kanyakumari in the south. It has a chain of 21 islands, located 2 to 10 km from the mainland along the 140 km stretch between Thoothukudi and Rameswaram. The area of Gulf of Mannar under the Indian EEZ is about 15,000 km2 where commercial fishing takes place only in about 5,500 km2 and that too only up to a depth of 50m. This marine ecosystem holds nearly 117 species of corals, 441 species of fin-fishes, 12 species of sea grasses, 147 species of seaweeds, 641 species of crustaceans, 731 molluscan species (Kumaraguru, 2006). There are around 950 species of sea urchin in class Echinoidea which comes under two subclasses found around the world’s oceans

Price Transmission, Volatility and Discovery of Gram in Some Selected Markets in Rajathan State, India

Market integration in many agricultural commodities had been extensively studied for the insight it provides into the functioning of such markets, thus giving valuable information about the dynamics of market adjustment, and whether there exist market imperfection, which may justify government intervention. This study empirically investigated price transmission, volatility and discovery of gram across four wholesale gram markets, viz. Jaipur, Kishangarh, Chomu and Malpura in Rajasthan state of India using Johansen's multivariate cointegration approach, VECM, Granger causality tests, GARCH, EGARCH and ARIMA. Monthly wholesale gram price data spanning from January 2011 to December 2015 sourced from AGMARKNET were used. Multivariate cointegration showed that all the selected gram markets were cointegarted in the long-run, meaning long-run price association among these markets. The degree of market integration observed is consistent with the view that Rajasthan state gram markets are quite competitive; thus, provide little justification for extensive and costly government intervention designed to enhance market efficiency through improve competitiveness. Therefore, in order to sustain the present system of market integration, there is need to evolve mechanism that will generate market information and market intelligence which would serve as a platform for guiding farmers in marketing their produce

Studies on the ketocarotenoid pigments in the sea urchin gonads of Stomopneustes variolaris from the Mandapam Coast of Gulf of Mannar

Sea urchin gonads of Stomopneustes variolaris is a delicacy in many parts of the world. The bright yellow orange colour of the gonad derives from the carotenoids pigments and an important organoleptic criterion for its quality. The major carotenoids naturally found in sea urchins are β-carotene, α-carotene, β-echinenone, zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin, lutein, astaxanthin, diatoxanthin, fucoxanthin and alloxanthin. In the present study sea urchin S.variolaris was collected along the Mandapam coast following the lunar phase during pre-monsoon period and they were subjected to the pigment analysis

Seaweed distribution on diversity on the intertidal rocks at Nochiyurani coast of Gulf of Mannar

The present study deals with 21 seaweed species from the intertidal rocks at nine sampling stations along Nochiyurani coast during six month period from January to June 2014. Among the different species of seaweeds, the dominant species Gracilaria corticata in all the sampling stations indicated it's adaptability to the surf zone. Acanthophora spicifera and Caulerpa scalpellifomis var. denticulata were the next two dominant species. The present study reveals that intertidal rocks occurring along the entire coast of Nochiyurani offer suitable substratum for the luxuriant growth of seaweeds. The lack of anthropogenic activity along this coast favours for the good growth of different seaweeds

Pathways to Reduce the Environmental Footprints of Energy Inputs in Sesame Production in Jigawa State, Nigeria

This research investigates the pathways tto reduce the environmental footprints of energy inputs in sesame production in Jigawa State of Nigeria using data elicited from 99 sesame farmers via multi-stage sampling technique. Energy efficiency was studied and degrees of technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) were determined using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Additionally, wasteful uses of energy by inefficient farms were assessed and energy saving of different sources was computed. Results revealed that only 9.4% DMUs were technically efficient with average TE score of 0.624; based on BCC model 34.4% DMUs were identified to be efficient with mean PTE score of 0.79; while based on scale efficiency only 12.5% DMUs were efficient with mean SE score of 0.804. Furthermore it was observed that approximately 38.17% (1505.58MJha-1) of overall input energies can be saved if performance of inefficient DMUs rose to a high level

A Compact Solid State Detector for Small Angle Particle Tracking

MIDAS (MIcrostrip Detector Array System) is a compact silicon tracking telescope for charged particles emitted at small angles in intermediate energy photonuclear reactions. It was realized to increase the angular acceptance of the DAPHNE detector and used in an experimental program to check the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule at the Mainz electron microtron, MAMI. MIDAS provides a trigger for charged hadrons, p/pi identification and particle tracking in the region 7 deg < theta < 16 deg. In this paper we present the main characteristics of MIDAS and its measured performances.Comment: 13 pages (9 figures). Submitted to NIM

Coherent states for polynomial su(1,1) algebra and a conditionally solvable system

In a previous paper [{\it J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.} {\bf 40} (2007) 11105], we constructed a class of coherent states for a polynomially deformed $su(2)$ algebra. In this paper, we first prepare the discrete representations of the nonlinearly deformed $su(1,1)$ algebra. Then we extend the previous procedure to construct a discrete class of coherent states for a polynomial su(1,1) algebra which contains the Barut-Girardello set and the Perelomov set of the SU(1,1) coherent states as special cases. We also construct coherent states for the cubic algebra related to the conditionally solvable radial oscillator problem.Comment: 2 figure

Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Surface Diffusion Near a Phase Transition Boundary

We study the non-Arrhenius behavior of surface diffusion near the second-order phase transition boundary of an adsorbate layer. In contrast to expectations based on macroscopic thermodynamic effects, we show that this behavior can be related to the average microscopic jump rate which in turn is determined by the waiting-time distribution W(t) of single-particle jumps at short times. At long times, W(t) yields a barrier that corresponds to the rate-limiting step in diffusion. The microscopic information in W(t) should be accessible by STM measurements.Comment: 4 pages, Latex with RevTeX macro

Equilibrium Properties of A Monomer-Monomer Catalytic Reaction on A One-Dimensional Chain

We study the equilibrium properties of a lattice-gas model of an $A + B \to 0$ catalytic reaction on a one-dimensional chain in contact with a reservoir for the particles. The particles of species $A$ and $B$ are in thermal contact with their vapor phases acting as reservoirs, i.e., they may adsorb onto empty lattice sites and may desorb from the lattice. If adsorbed $A$ and $B$ particles appear at neighboring lattice sites they instantaneously react and both desorb. For this model of a catalytic reaction in the adsorption-controlled limit, we derive analytically the expression of the pressure and present exact results for the mean densities of particles and for the compressibilities of the adsorbate as function of the chemical potentials of the two species.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.