Intra-District Disparities in Primary Education: A Case Study of Bankura District, West Bengal

The level of education and its response to different educational opportunities vary from one spatial unit to another depending on various factors like social, economic, cultural, and institutional. It is understood that certain regions acquire relative advancements over others in terms of human resource development and human capital formation. The key purpose of this research is to examine the intra-district disparities in primary education in Bankura District one of the districts of West Bengal. It ranks 11thamong the 19 districts of West Bengal (Human Development Report, 2007).  Overall literacy rate of the district stands at 70.26% but the district scores low in terms of female literacy rates, which is 60.05%,whereas the male literacy rate is 80.05%, which is a huge gender literacy gap of 20%. There are also regional inequalities existing at block level. Kotulpur ranks first with a literacy rate of 78.01% while Saltora occupies the bottom position with literacy rate of just 61.45% (Census of India, 2011). The level of educational development is dependent on several factors—enrolment ratio, dropout and repetition rates, pupil-teacher ratio, habitations covered by educational institutions, space-student ratio, drinking water and sanitation facilities in school, etc. In this context, the present study aims at examining the issues of intra-district disparities in educational attainment with regard to various educational amenities of Bankura district, West Bengal. Ten attributes have been selected to examine the level of development in primary education. It is clear from the study that the level of development in eastern part of the district is relatively better in comparison to other regions. Economic backwardness and physical bottlenecks continue to be major issues in western blocks

Comparative Analysis of Educational Attainment among Different Social Groups in Some Selected Mouzas of Saltora C.D. Block of Bankura District, West Bengal, India: An Empirical Study

Education plays multifarious instrumental roles in the realisation of certain ends both at individual and societal level. A large number of research works carried out in and outside India have identified and established a whole range of externalities produced by education such as raising human capital beyond individual level. Despite debates on economic returns to education, most scholars agreed about the positive impact of education upon economic return. The present study has mainly focused on a comparative analysis in attainment of education among three different social groups that is, scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other non-scheduled castes at school level. This is a micro-level empirical study focusing on one of the least developed Community Development Block (CDB) of Bankura district in West Bengal. The analysis of the study reveals that disadvantaged social groups—SCs and STs are the marginalised depressed classes experiencing high level of educational deprivation compared to that of other communities. One has to note that affiliation to a particular caste can no longer be tagged as a sole determinant of relative backwardness. So what is called for is a careful stratification of the community on the basis of socio-economic attributes so as to diagnose the problem of the community at hand properly. The study uses logistic regression as an analytical tool to probe net effects of the predictor variables including castes on enrolment and discontinuation rates for the study area as a whole as well as for boys and girls separately. It is important to note that when other variables are controlled, the net effect of caste factor becomes statistically inconsequential either on enrolment or on discontinuation or dropouts. Rather, it is the combination of several socio-economic factors that are taken together which pulls down the enrolment of ST and SC children vis-a-vis those belonging to others non-scheduled castes

HIGH-FAT DIET-INDUCED OXIDATIVE STRESS AND ITS IMPACT ON METABOLIC SYNDROME: A REVIEW

ABSTRACTEnvironmental factors such as high saturated fat content in a diet affect pro- and antioxidative balances in metabolic tissues. High-dietary fat intakepromotes the development of obesity and metabolic disorders in humans and rodents as a result of disproportion between energy intake and energyexpenditure. The dreaded events of high-fat diet (HFD) are obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular anarchy, Type II diabetes,infertility, and even cancer. HFD - induced systemic oxidative stress insults an imbalance between oxidants derivatives production and antioxidantsdefenses. Reactive oxygen species are mostly reasoned to be detrimental for health. Many evidences regarding HFD - elicited oxidative stress gatheredover the past few years based on established correlations of biomarkers or end-products of free-radical-mediated oxidative stress. The hypothesisthat oxidative stress plays a prodigious role in the development of metabolic disorders, especially insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, cardiovasculardisease or hepatic steatosis, and steatohepatitis. In this review, we elucidated the mechanistic links between HFD - induced oxidative stress and itsimpact on metabolic complications development.Keywords: Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase, Complications, High-fat diet, Metabolic syndrome, Oxidative stress

System of wheat intensification (SWI) – A new approach for increasing wheat yield in small holder farming system

Given the confluence of water scarcity, declining area under wheat and continuing increase in population, raising wheat productivity has become a serious concern to the wheat scientists. Yield contribution from irrigation is more significant in wheat. Increase in the irrigation management levels for wheat is probably more relevant and easier to improve water productivity. But transplanted wheat seems high water requiring and economically less feasible. Seedlings have usually poor survival rate, and are often more fragile than rice seedlings at the two leaves stage. Besides plants do not grow quickly and vigorously, and show a delay in development compared to the direct seeding treatment. All yield parameters are often lower compared to the direct seeding treatment due to transplanting of aged seedlings, greater shock of transplantation, high plant density, improper amount and timing of water deliveries. Therefore, applying SRI (system of rice intensification) practices is expected to have a positive impact on the wheat plants, similar to the impact on rice. SWI is a new concept and goes with the SRI principle. It can reduce weeding time to one-third and to one-half of the time needed for current weeding practice. Herbicide use is effective with SWI, but farmers are inventing or modifying tools that reduce the labour time required for weeding. Thus, SWI is a methodology aimed at increasing the yield of wheat, where all agronomic principles are put into practices to provide high wheat yield per drop of water and per kg of agricultural inputs like fertilizer, seed etc

Comparative study of pre-operative high-resolution computed tomography in middle ear cholesteatoma with per-operative findings

Background: Imaging plays an important role in the management of middle ear pathology. Temporal bone imaging is challenging and involves deep understanding of the anatomy, especially in relation to high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) imaging. An HRCT scan can precisely determine the site and extension of cholesteatoma and its sac, assessing the erosion of ossicles, evaluating the facial nerve in its entire course, tegmen and sinus plate, and determining Dural, sigmoid sinus, and jugular bulb positions. Methods: This prospective descriptive study was performed from January 2018 to May 2019 in 60 patients with cholesteatoma who were referred to the Otolaryngology department of the Command Hospital Kolkata. Preoperative high-resolution temporal bone CT scans were carried out and compared with intraoperative findings. Results: Evaluation of 60 patients and their CT scans revealed excellent correlation for presence of soft tissue mass and its extent into the middle ear and mastoid, erosion of scutum, erosion of ossicular chain and tegmen plate, good correlation for facial canal dehiscence, labyrinthine fistula and sinus plate erosions. Conclusions: HRCT temporal bone is essential for anatomical determination of cholesteatoma and its complication. Careful and thorough evaluation is needed for the early diagnosis and treatment of the disease, to prevent complications and preserve hearing. The extent of disease and associated complications like facial nerve paralysis, labyrinthine fistula, and intracranial complications often will determine the aggressiveness of the surgical approach.

Computational based Structural, Functional and Phylogenetic Analyses Of 3-Deoxy-D-Arabino-Heptulosonate 7-Phosphate (DAHP) Synthase of Corynebacterium Spp

The pathway of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis was initiated by the enzyme DAHP synthase. In this branched biosynthetic pathway phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan are produced. This enzyme was repressed and inhibited by three said end product of aromatic amino acids. The importance of this enzyme is microbial fermentation of aromatic amino acid production. The present study envisaged the in silico analysis of this protein (DAHP synthase). The structural, functional and phylogenetic studies of this protein of Corynebacteriumglutamicum have been determined and it was observed that the protein of interest is a thermostable, acidic protein having molecular weight ranging in between 38.67 to 52.32 kDa

Free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory activities of the extracts of Astraeus hygrometricus (Pers.) Morg.

The present study was aimed to evaluate free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory potential of extracts of Astraeus hygrometricus - a tropical wild edible mushroom. Free radical scavenging potential of crude, boiled and ethanolic extracts was studied using different in vitro antioxidant models. The anti-inflammatory activity of the potential extract was evaluated in carrageenan and dextran induced acute and formalin induced chronic inflammatory model in mice. Among all the extracts, ethanolic extract possesses significant in vitro superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical scavenging and lipid peroxidation inhibition activities. The IC50 values of ethanolic extracts of A. hygrometricus represented 357.95, 81.2 and 87.96 μg/ml respectively. Furthermore, the ethanolic extract showed remarkable anti-inflammatory activity in all models comparable to the standard reference drug diclofenac. The results suggest that anti-inflammatory activity of the ethanolic extract of A. hygrometricus is possibly attributed to its free radical scavenging properties.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Supplier selection by F-compromise method: a case study of cement industry of NE India

In this paper, we initially conducted a brief review of supplier selection methods to find most cited multi-criteria decision making method, present trend of supplier selection and most cited criteria for supplier selection. Our study reveals that irrespective of several limitations of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), AHP and its integrated model is most preferred supplier selection method. Present research trend of supplier selection gives more emphasises on multiple sourcing instead of single sourcing. Based on our initial study, a suitable integrated model is proposed. In this integrated model, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje; in Serbian) is used to select suppliers from a predefined supplier base. Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is used further to allocate order among suppliers. Finally, a case study is discussed to use proposed method

Supplier selection by F-compromise method: a case study of cement industry of NE India

In this paper, we initially conducted a brief review of supplier selection methods to find most cited multi-criteria decision making method, present trend of supplier selection and most cited criteria for supplier selection. Our study reveals that irrespective of several limitations of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), AHP and its integrated model is most preferred supplier selection method. Present research trend of supplier selection gives more emphasises on multiple sourcing instead of single sourcing. Based on our initial study, a suitable integrated model is proposed. In this integrated model, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje; in Serbian) is used to select suppliers from a predefined supplier base. Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is used further to allocate order among suppliers. Finally, a case study is discussed to use proposed method