Environmental orientation and ecotourism awareness among pilgrims, adventure tourists, and leisure tourists

For the sustainable development of tourism in destination areas, it is important to have responsible visitors with high pro-environmental orientation and a critical minimum knowledge of ecotourism. Most of the pilgrimage, adventurous, and leisure destinations of India are in ecologically sensitive locations with bountiful environmental resources. Thus, understanding tourists’ environmental orientation is critical for destination management. In this context, the present study investigates the environmental orientation and ecotourism awareness of tourists visiting some of the key environmental hotspots of northern India. A comparative analysis of the environmental orientations of pilgrims, adventurists, and leisure tourists is also carried out. The findings generally reveal that there exist significant differences among these categories in terms of environmental orientation and awareness about ecotourism. Pilgrims and adventurists exhibit superior environmental orientation compared to leisure tourists. Yet, when it comes to the awareness of ecotourism, none of the groups under study show great awareness, except that adventurists stand better compared to the other two groups

Diagnostic Utility of GeneXpert (CB-NAAT) and BACTEC (960) and Socio-clinical Profile of Children with Tuberculous Meningitis

Introduction: Tuberculosis has always remained puzzling to diagnose. Many children with tuberculous meningitis are diagnosed late due to non-availability of rapid and sensitive diagnostic tests. This study examines the diagnostic utility of GeneXpert test and BACTEC (960) and compares of the sensitivity and specificity of these newer tests. Material and methods: This hospital-based prospective study was conducted in the Dept. of Pediatrics, Sir Padampat Mother and Child Health Institute, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Rajasthan. Seventy children of >6 month and <18 years age, presenting with fever of >2 weeks duration, headache, signs of meningeal irritation, altered consciousness level and focal neurological deficits were included in the study. Results: Out of 14 patients detected positive by GeneXpert, BACTEC (960) was detected positive in only 4 patients. Out of 56 negative patients detected by GeneXpert, 2 patients were detected positive by BACTEC (960). The sensitivity was 66.67%, specificity was 84.38%, positive predictive value was 28.57%, negative predictive value was 96.63% and accuracy was 82.86%. Conclusions: The GeneXpert has higher sensitivity compared to other currently available diagnostic modalities including liquid culture BACTEC

Room temperature reversible colossal volto-magnetic effect in all-oxide metallicmagnet/topotactic-phase-transition material heterostructures

Multiferroic materials have undergone extensive research in the past two decades in an effort to produce a sizable room-temperature magneto-electric (ME) effect in either exclusive or composite materials for use in a variety of electronic or spintronic devices. These studies have looked into the ME effect by switching the electric polarization by the magnetic field or switching the magnetism by the electric field. Here, an innovative way is developed to knot the functional properties based on the tremendous modulation of electronics and magnetization by the electric field of the topotactic phase transitions (TPT) in heterostructures composed of metallic-magnet/TPT-material. It is divulged that application of a nominal potential difference of 2-3 Volts induces gigantic changes in magnetization by 100-250% leading to colossal Voltomagnetic effect, which would be tremendously beneficial for low-power consumption applications in spintronics. Switching electronics and magnetism by inducing TPT through applying an electric field requires much less energy, making such TPT-based systems promising for energy-efficient memory and logic applications as well as opening a plethora of tremendous opportunities for applications in different domains

Tourists‘ Satisfaction at Trijuginarayan, India: An Importance-Performance Analysis

Satisfaction is an excellent predictor of tourist behaviour as it influences the choice of destination, consumption of products and services, the decision to return and maintain lasting relationships. This paper analyzes the level of tourist satisfaction with destination attributes using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), based on the information obtained from 200 domestic tourists visiting Trijuginarayan, an emerging spiritual and adventure tourist destination located in Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand state of India. The results obtained show that attributes related to tourism product of spiritual and cultural nature, atmosphere and climate, a variety of tourist activities, hospitality and safety are significant factors in determining tourist satisfaction, whereas basic facilities such as accommodation, transportation, tourism infrastructure and hygiene and sanitation at destination are of significant importance in satisfaction evaluation. Findings also reveal that tourists were satisfied with the core products, but were dissatisfied with basic tourist facilities offered at the destination. Based on the results, the paper concludes that tourism stakeholders must outline effective strategies for holistic development and improving performance of attributes in the given destination

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Not AvailableRICE IFC provides vast scope of judicious pesticide selection for management of rice insect pests and diseases to assist researchers, extension personnel and farmers for selection and use of pesticides with label claims.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableWeather based pest forecasts form an essential component of integrated pest management (IPM). PESTPREDICT is a mobile application developed using Java and Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) in Eclipse Juno framework for weather based predictions of insect pests and diseases of Rice, Pigeonpea, Groundnut and Tomato developed based on field data on pests and weather accrued through ICT based pest surveillance under National Innovation in Climate Resilient Agriculture. Models of pest forecasts developed using approaches ranging from simple thumb rules to sophisticated statistical models for 25 locations across India have been built in the mobile application. In Pest Prediction Empirical Model Based System [PESTPREDICT - EMS (kharif)] user can get predictions of 29 insects, 24 diseases and two generalist predators (coccinellids and spiders) across crops (locations) of rice (6), pigeonpea (6), groundnut(5) and tomato across 11 States by providing inputs of weather associated with model equations of kharif. PESTPREDICT-EMS (rabi) offers prediction of insect pests and diseases of rabi groundnut for locations of Anantapur (AP), Junagadh (GJ), Dharwad (KA) and Cuddalore (TN). Rule based system predicting largely rice insect pests, Spodoptera litura of groundnut and early blight of tomato (PESTPREDICT-RBS) are built in the mobileapp. PESTPREDICT assists researchers, extension personnel of agriculture and farmers to get location specific forecasts of desired insect pest(s) or disease(s) for their effective management on target crops. PESTPREDICT reduces calculation efforts and provides an instant and extempore framework for use of developed prediction models. The open source application also facilitates easy prediction of insect pest dynamics for the current and future climate scenarios when the relevant values of temperature relating to the emission scenarios are available. Currently this application is aimed for field use to predict the incidence of pests of four target crops of the real time pest dynamic study locations under National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) for the purposes of issuing ‘pest alerts’ at times of high severity or above economic threshold levels.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableFurnishes information on Pestpredict app developed for android phones. Covers profile of insect pests and disease for prediction, how to install it, How to use it and way forward besides supplementary informationNot Availabl

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