Necessity of Particle size studies of Ores from Bihar by the Mineral Industry

The measurment of particle size of various minerals, specially of the friable ores, which are commonly found in Bihar and the study of properties of material as function of size have applications in several fields. Recently, the subject has attracted the attention of industrial researchers. In this paper the necessity of particle size studies of ores of Bihar as applicable in general to the mining and mineral industries is discussed

Comparison of Pelvic Plexus Blockade to other Conventional Techniques of Analgesia in Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Prostate Biopsy

Objectives: To compare the degree of pain, efficacy and safety of pelvic plexus block to other conventional techniques of analgesia in 12 core transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy of prostate.Materials and Methods: The study included 160 consecutive cases of prostate biopsy, prospectively randomized into four groups of 40 each –Men in group 1 (control arm) received lignocaine gel (2%) only; Group 2 received lignocaine gel with basal periprostatic nerve block (BPNB) with 2% lignocaine; Group 3 received lignocaine gel (2%) with apical periprostatic block (APNB) with 2% lignocaine and Group 4 received lignocaine gel with pelvic plexus block. Pain was recorded on a 10 point visual analogue scale by a nurse.Results: Patients in pelvic plexus block group had lowest pain score (1.25±0.43) while lignocaine injection than BPNB (1.53±0.45) and APNB (1.58±0.50, P value = 0.008). The mean pain score among 4 groups while taking the biopsy cores were 4.85, 2.67, 2.48 and 1.95, respectively. Patients who received pelvic plexus block experienced least pain than BPNB and APNB groups (p value 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). Perineal pain persisted longer in pelvic plexus block group than apical and periprostatic groups. Duration of dysuria was less in pelvic plexus nerve block group.Hematuria and rectal bleed complications were comparable in all groups.Conclusion: Prostate biopsy should be performed with either periprostatic nerve block (basal or apical) or pelvic plexus block under Doppler ultrasonography guidance. Pelvic plexus block provides superior analgesia to basal and apical periprostatic block

Evaluation of Grass Bales Stored under Cover and Plinth System of Storage

The feed and fodder requirement for dairy animals is primarily met by roughages, green fodder and homemade concentrate mixtures. Roughages are high in crude fibrous material which essentially consists of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and to some extent lignin. Livestock production is backbone of Indian Agriculture and source of employment in rural areas for centuries. To meet the demand of feeding these huge livestock population an adequate supply of feed throughout the year is the prerequisite for successful animal production programmes. A huge gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder exists in our country. This huge gap between requirement and availability of livestock feeds like dry fodders, green fodders could however be bridged by proper post harvest management of all kind of forage resources and search for alternate source of protein rich forage supplement. The most common livestock feed resources are crop reduces (straw, stover, haulms etc). All of these fodder resources are highly voluminous and having lower density varying from 40-70 kg/m3 due to which there transportation, storage and handling are very cumbersome and expensive and therefore cannot be utilized up to a maximum extent. Storage is a repeated phase during transit of agricultural produce and the product needs to be stored from one harvest to next thus, demanding additional carry over as safe guard, against speculation in price and market demand or against shortage and famine

A Novel Tractor Operated Grass Seed Harvester Developed in India

The demand of green and dry fodder in India is estimated to increase to 1170 and 650 m tonne whereas availability is expected to be at 411.3 and 488 m tonne in 2025, respectively, depicting deficit of about 64.9% green fodder and 24.9% dry fodder (Vision 2030, ICAR - IGFRI, Jhansi, 2011). In forages, availability of quality seed is only 25-30% in cultivated fodder and less than 10 % in range grasses and legumes (Vision 2050, IGFRI). Prices paid for grass seeds of native species vary from Rs.5,000 to 6,500 per kg for clean, un-haired seeds due to excessive use of manual labour in seed collection and removing hairy portion. In order to increase the capacity of collection of grass seeds from standing crop, A tractor operated grass seed harvester was developed under a collaborative research project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research two Institutes viz. Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute and Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, keeping in view the requirements of common grasses used as feed material in Indian context. This grass seed harvester was made using nylon brushes arranged in specific fashion on a rotating cylinder and a winding reel in front of rotating cylinder to collect grass seed from the grasses standing in the fields, where tractor can operate. The specific features of this machine were variable speed of rotating cylinder brush, helical arrangement of brushes on the cylinder to carry the detached seed in to the seed box, variable height of operation and front mounting of the machine on tractor. This machine was tested for seed collection in Pennisetum pedicellatum (Dinanath grass), Cenchrus cilliaris (Anjan grass ) and Megathyrsus maximum (Guinea grass). Seed collection capacity of the machine was 4.24 to 7.12 kg/h in Dinanath grass during 2nd operation, 2.10 to 3.56 kg/h in Anjan grass and 1.61 to 3.56 kg/h in Guinea grass at the full maturity of the grass seeds in two passes of the machine in to and fro direction. The field capacity of seed collection operation ranged from 0.21 to 0.47 ha/h for the grasses in which it was operated

Semi-Mechanized Harvesting Solutions for Cultivated Fodder Crops

In case of harvesting and threshing, the level of mechanization in India is 60-70 per cent for wheat and rice and less than five per cent for other crops (Mehta et al., 2014) that include fodder also. Herrmann et al.(2011) established that overall area capacities of machine decreased the by 4-24 per cent on taking finer chopping length of 4-6 mm compared to common chopping length of 8-10 mm in the ensiling chain of maize - establishing that finer work in ensiling commands less capacities and higher input costs. Since there is a strong correlation between effective field capacity and both crop yield and field area (Amiama et al., 2008), it is advisable to go for appropriate machine for fodder harvesting depending on the requirement of crop and field. Semi-automatic machines provide comparatively low cost workable solution in such conditions. In semi-mechanized harvesting of fodder, cutting of crop is done by machine and subsequent operations of collection, gathering, feeding to chaffing machines and feeding to animals are done manually. Such machines are discussed here

Phase transition and scaling behavior of topological charged black holes in Horava-Lifshitz gravity

Gravity can be thought as an emergent phenomenon and it has a nice "thermodynamic" structure. In this context, it is then possible to study the thermodynamics without knowing the details of the underlying microscopic degrees of freedom. Here, based on the ordinary thermodynamics, we investigate the phase transition of the static, spherically symmetric charged black hole solution with arbitrary scalar curvature $2k$ in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity at the Lifshitz point $z=3$. The analysis is done using the canonical ensemble frame work; i.e. the charge is kept fixed. We find (a) for both $k=0$ and $k=1$, there is no phase transition, (b) while $k=-1$ case exhibits the second order phase transition within the {\it physical region} of the black hole. The critical point of second order phase transition is obtained by the divergence of the heat capacity at constant charge. Near the critical point, we find the various critical exponents. It is also observed that they satisfy the usual thermodynamic scaling laws.Comment: Minor corrections, refs. added, to appear in Class. Quant. Grav. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1111.0973 by other author