A spatio-temporal analysis of land use pattern and land use changes in Rajasthan

Land use planning is a strategic planning exercise to enhance the future potential of the agricultural sector andachieve augmented growth through judicious management of land. The presentpaper expresses the Spatio-temporal pattern of land-use in Rajasthan during 1960-61 to 2017-18 periods. The objective of the present paper is to find out the land use in different categories and the trend of variations so that the characteristics of land utilization may be analyzed for future planning. The study examines trends of variations in land use patterns in districts of Rajasthan and provides policy implications for future planning. The proportion of net sown area in the state has increased significantly from 38.7 percent in 1960-61 to 52.21 percent in 2017-18. Forest acreage has increased considerably from 2.4 percent in 1960-61 to 8.03 percent of the reporting area in 2017-18 while barren and un-cultivable land declined from 15.2 percent to 6.95 percent over the period of time. Current Fallows and Fallow Land other than Current Fallow have significantly decreased in the same time period.Keywords: Land use, Net Sown Area, Spatio-temporal, Waste land

Traditional rain water harvesting systems in Rajasthan: water resources conservation and its sustainable management – a review

Communities all over the world have been endowed with the wisdom of indigenous technologies to collect the rain where it falls, so one can find such structures all around the world. The region of western Rajasthan in India faces frequent droughts and an acute shortages of water. This has compelled the local people to incorporate mechanisms to conserve water in their everyday life. These traditional methods have been developed over centuries and reflect the accumulated wisdom of many generations. An attempt has been made in this paper to undertake a detailed investigation of the various traditional water harvesting systems weaved in the social fabric of Rajasthan, that have been constructed using the indigenous knowledge and locally available material and are also significant for the state in present context to cope with drought. Keywords: Traditional water harvesting, Johad, Rajasthan,  Thar Desert

Correlation between female literacy and sex ratio in Rajasthan: a geographical analysis.

ABSTRACT Education changes the awareness of the society, so literacy responsible for the changing pattern of sex composition of any region. The study triumphs that Literacy has vital effects on the sex ratio. Therefore, the present paper is aimed to analyze the Correlation between female Literacy and Sex Ratio in Rajasthan using data collected by the 2011 census. Spearman’s Rank Difference method is used to analyze the correlation between literacy and sex ratio. The study reveals that the correlation between female literacy and sex ratio is r= -295. It is a moderate negative correlation. The female literacy and sex ratio have moved the opposite direction in Rajasthan. The sex ratio has been found higher in districts, which have low female literacy. Kota district has registered the highest female literacy of (65.9%) but it has a very low sex ratio of 911. Key Words: Sex-ratio, female Literacy, Correlation

Scourge of high fluoride in groundwater; its implication on human health and mitigation strategies: a case study of Sikar district, Rajasthan, India.

Water is a crucial natural resource for sustaining life and the environment but over the last few decades, the water quality is deteriorating due to its overexploitation. Fluoride is one of the critical chemical parameters, which impacts the quality of groundwater. Excess ingestion of fluoride (F) through drinking water causes ‘Fluorosis’ on human beings in many states of India, including Rajasthan. Sikar district in Rajasthan is also such a region where a high concentration of fluoride is present in groundwater. Due to the unavailability of surface water in Sikar district, groundwater plays an important role for all uses particularly as a drinking water source. The study was carried out to assess the fluoride contamination status and to understand its spatial variation. The fluoride concentration in groundwater of this region ranged from 0.1 to 9.94 mg/l. Physicochemical settings like decomposition, dissociation and subsequent dissolution with long residence time are responsible for leaching of fluoride into the groundwater. Artificial recharge structures are proposed to minimize the stress on groundwater extraction from deeper aquifers that are discharging fluoride in the area. There is an instant need to take urgent steps in this region to prevent the population from fluorosis. Keywords: Groundwater, Fluoride, Fluorosis, Sikar District

PAPR Reduction for Improved Efficiency of OFDM Modulation for Next Generation Communication Systems

Highly linear power amplifiers are required for transferring   large amount of data for future communication. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) provides high data rate transmission capability with robustness to radio channel impairments. It has been widely accepted for future communication for different services. But, it suffers from high value of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). High value of PAPR drives high power amplifier into its saturation region and causes it to operate in the nonlinear region.  In this paper, comparative study of four different PAPR reduction techniques: clipping and filtering (CF), selective mapping  method (SLM), partial transmit sequence (PTS) and DFT- spread technique  have been done. Mathematical modeling and Matlab simulations have been performed to arrive at the results with 4 QAM modulation format and 1024 number of sub carriers. At 0.01 % of complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) significant reduction of 11.3, 3.5, 3.4 and 1.0 dB have been obtained with DFT- spread, SLM, PTS and CF techniques respectively

Pancytopenia in Indian Children: A Clinicohematological Analysis

Objective: To determine the etiological profile of pancytopenia in pediatric patients in India. Material and methods: Medical records review of a 5-year period between 1st September 1997 and 31st August 2002. Clinical and hematological data of all patients with pancytopenia (hemoglobin [Hb] ≤10 g/dL, TLC ≤4 × 109/L, platelet count ≤150 × 109/L) at presentation were analyzed. Patients on cytotoxic chemotherapy, those developing pancytopenia during hospital stay, patients referred from other centers with hematological malignancies and neonates were excluded. Results: Forty-two children (mean age 8.26 years, range 8.5 months to 13 years, M:F : 1:0.8) were included. Megaloblastic anemia, aplastic anemia and infections were commonest causes, being responsible for 25%, 19.6% and 32.1% of the cases, respectively. Bone-marrow aspiration (BMA) was helpful in reaching a definitive diagnosis in 92.8% of those in whom sufficient marrow tissue was retrieved for analysis. Aplastic anemia was the commonest reason for failure of BMA in providing a diagnosis. Conclusions: Majority (almost 60%) of the causes of pancytopenia among pediatric patients in this region are easily treatable. There is a need to be aware of such conditions and appropriate investigative modalities should be undertaken for the same

Cellular oxido-reductive proteins of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii control the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Elucidation of molecular mechanism of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) biosynthesis is important to control its size, shape and monodispersity. The evaluation of molecular mechanism of biosynthesis of SNPs is of prime importance for the commercialization and methodology development for controlling the shape and size (uniform distribution) of SNPs. The unicellular algae <it>Chlamydomonas reinhardtii </it>was exploited as a model system to elucidate the role of cellular proteins in SNPs biosynthesis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The <it>C. reinhardtii </it>cell free extract (<it>in vitro</it>) and <it>in vivo </it>cells mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles reveals SNPs of size range 5 ± 1 to 15 ± 2 nm and 5 ± 1 to 35 ± 5 nm respectively. <it>In vivo </it>biosynthesized SNPs were localized in the peripheral cytoplasm and at one side of flagella root, the site of pathway of ATP transport and its synthesis related enzymes. This provides an evidence for the involvement of oxidoreductive proteins in biosynthesis and stabilization of SNPs. Alteration in size distribution and decrease of synthesis rate of SNPs in protein-depleted fractions confirmed the involvement of cellular proteins in SNPs biosynthesis. Spectroscopic and SDS-PAGE analysis indicate the association of various proteins on <it>C. reinhardtii </it>mediated <it>in vivo </it>and <it>in vitro </it>biosynthesized SNPs. We have identified various cellular proteins associated with biosynthesized (<it>in vivo </it>and <it>in vitro) </it>SNPs by using MALDI-MS-MS, like ATP synthase, superoxide dismutase, carbonic anhydrase, ferredoxin-NADP⁺reductase, histone etc. However, these proteins were not associated on the incubation of pre-synthesized silver nanoparticles <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Present study provides the indication of involvement of molecular machinery and various cellular proteins in the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles. In this report, the study is mainly focused towards understanding the role of diverse cellular protein in the synthesis and capping of silver nanoparticles using <it>C. reinhardtii </it>as a model system.</p

Ras hyperactivation versus overexpression : Lessons from Ras dynamics in Candida albicans

We thank Prof. Neta Dean for the CIp10ADH1-Cherry plasmid and Prof. Aaron Mitchell for the BWP17 strain. We gratefully acknowledge Prof. Sudipta Maiti, TIFR, Mumbai, India for providing the data acquisition software. We also appreciate the feedback and discussions with Dr. Rohini Muthuswami, SLS, JNU as well as from the Protein Society group, New Delhi while this study was taking shape. We thank Prof. Alok Bhattacharya for Cytochalasin D. The GC-MS and fluorescence lifetime measurements were carried out at the Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF), JNU. Confocal images were recorded either at the central instrumentation facility (CIF), SLS, JNU or at AIRF, JNU. This work was supported by project grants from Department of Biotechnology (DBT, Project grant no. BT/PR20410/BRB/10/1542/2016) and Department of Science and Technology (DST, Project grant no. SB/SO/BB-011/2014), India to S.S.K; and project grants from Department of Information Technology, (DIT, Project grant no. 12(4)/2007-PDD), India to S.S. for FCS setup. In addition, both S.S. and S.S.K. thank DBT-BUILDER for funding support (Project grant no. BT/PR5006/INF/153/2012). S.S.K. also acknowledges funding support from UGC Resource Networking grant to the School of Life Sciences. We thank DST-PURSE and JNU for assistance with funding for publication. G.S.V. and S.C.S. received a fellowship from UGC; V.A.P., B.Y., P.J., N.P., M.F.K. acknowledge CSIR for fellowships. S.L.S. received a fellowship from ICMR. D.T.H. and M.F.K. thank DBT-BUILDER for funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Electron Cooling in a Young Radio Supernova: SN 2012aw

We present the radio observations and modeling of an optically bright Type II-P supernova (SN), SN 2012aw which exploded in the nearby galaxy Messier 95 (M95) at a distance of $10\ \rm Mpc$. The spectral index values calculated using $C$, $X$ & $K$ bands are smaller than the expected values for optically thin regime. During this time the optical bolometric light curve stays in the plateau phase. We interpret the low spectral index values to be a result of electron cooling. On the basis of comparison between Compton cooling timescale and Synchrotron cooling timescale we find that inverse Compton cooling process dominates over synchrotron cooling process. We therefore model the radio emission as synchrotron emission from a relativistic electron population with a high energy cutoff. The cutoff is determined by comparing the electron cooling time scale $t_{cool}$ and the acceleration time scale $\tilde t_{acc}$. We constrain the mass loss rate in the wind ($\dot M\sim 1.9\times10^{-6}\ \rm M_{\odot}yr^{-1}$) and the equipartition factor between relativistic electrons and the magnetic field ($\tilde \alpha=\epsilon_e/\epsilon_B\sim 1.12\times10^2$) through our modeling of radio emission. Although the time of explosion is fairly well constrained by optical observations within about $2\ \rm days$, we explore the effect of varying the time of explosion to best fit the radio light curves. The best fit is obtained for the explosion date as 2012 March 15.3 UT.Comment: 10 Figures, 2 Tables, Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journa

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The present study reflects grim groundwater scenario and its mitigation strategies in Sikar district. Low rainfall–arid climate, frequent droughts and famine conditions, less availability of surface water and lack of water education are the causative factors for water crisis in Sikar district. In Sikar, owing to meager surface water resources, groundwater is only source of dependence and survival. Irrigation, industrial and drinking water supply are based on groundwater resources. In fact this has created the problem of depletion and deterioration of groundwater level and its quality. Therefore, for mitigating the challenges of groundwater depletion many efforts must be made for maximum utilization of rain water, revival of traditional water wisdom, afforestation, augmentation of groundwater, dry farming, promotion of sprinkler and drip irrigation and defluoridation plant