Roles of Government and Community Support, Flood Experience, and Flood Education in Livelihood Resilience

Flooding is a perennial problem in the state of Bihar, India with devastating impact on the livelihood of people. In spite of the government\u27s measures of flood mitigation, households continue to live with suffering on account of severe damage to their material and non-material assets. In this background, the objectives of the study are: (1) to explore the differential role of the community and government support in livelihood resilience; (2) to assess the impact of flood experience and flood education in livelihood resilience; and (3) to explore the impact of level of education, reflected in average years of schooling of the male-headed households in livelihood resilience. The primary data were collected from 472 households by using a multi-stage random sampling technique over seven blocks in river basins of Ganga and Kosi in the district of Bhagalpur, Bihar. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were used. The findings of the study show that prompt and spontaneous community action was more effective than government help. Flood experience also plays a crucial role in the revamping of livelihood. Flood education is not found to exist in the area; people learn the skills of survival during and after floods from their elders. Moreover, difference in education among the male-headed households creates difference in the attitudes and awareness surrounding livelihood resilience

Underground Cordon by Microorganisms-Part-III Role of Soil Inhabiting Actinomycetes

Certain strains of soil inhabiting actinomycetes were found to substantially corrode aluminium alloy (54-S) which has bscn found tobe more resistant to bacterial or fungal corrosion in our earlier studies.These strains did not produce any corrosion on the mild steel and galvanised iron panels which were heavily corroded by bacteria and fungi. The corrosive isolates have been partialiy characterised after their isolation and purification. The extent of corrosion caused by eachstrain has been determined

Underground Corrosion by Microorganisms Part-I : Analytical Studies of Some Inclian Soils

Fourteen types of Indian soils were analysed far their mechanical, physical, chemical, electrical properties and potential corrosion causing microorganisms. An effort to correlate these individual soil properties was also made

Correlation between mutans streptococci counts of parents and their children residing in Chandigarh, India

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of Mutans Streptococci (MS) in children and to evaluate the relationship between the salivary levels of MS in children and their parents. Material and Methods: 100 children aged 3-6 years along with their parents (100 mothers and fathers each) were included in the study. The children were segregated depending upon their age and level of caries experience. The children were examined clinically on an ordinary chair in natural daylight using the Møller's index criteria. Assays for Mutans Streptococci (MS) were done for both the children and their parents using the Dentocult SM strip mu - tans test. Collected data was assessed using SPSS software. Results: The overall prevalence of MS in the children was 83%. A statistically significant correlation (p<0.05) was observed between salivary MS counts of children and their mothers. No significant correlation was seen with the fathers. Conclusions: The findings conclude that if primary caregivers harbour high levels of MS in their saliva, it is likely that their children will have the same

Advanced stage of breast cancer hoist alkaline phosphatase activity: risk factor for females in India

Breast cancer is the most common neoplasm affecting women in the western world with an average frequency of 1 in 11, developing the malignancy and it is second most common cancer in India. Variations in serum levels of biochemical parameters especially alkaline phosphatase (ALP) changes may be of great help in diagnosis of breast carcinoma. Serum ALP activity was assayed in 388 histopathologically proven breast cancer patients using spectrophotometric methods and monitored association with cancer stages. Breast cancer is a female-biased disease and our study was conducted in a group of female patients with mean age of 48.67 ± 8.32 years. A significant increase in levels of ALP (809.65 ± 145.97 IU/L) was observed in stage IV of the disease. The logistic regression study gave a significant result (P < 0.001) when we compared the group of ALP level (>500 IU/L) with metastatic presentation. The present study besides being cost effective suggested the usefulness of ALP in differentiating breast cancer stages and metastasis

Renormalized Harmonic-Oscillator Description of Confined Electron Systems with Inverse-Square Interaction

An integrable model for SU($\nu$) electrons with inverse-square interaction is studied for the system with confining harmonic potential. We develop a new description of the spectrum based on the {\it renormalized harmonic-oscillators} which incorporate interaction effects via the repulsion of energy levels. This approach enables a systematic treatment of the excitation spectrum as well as the ground-state quantities.Comment: RevTex, 7 page

Mushy Zone Morphology During Directional Solidification of Pb-5.8 Wt Pct Sb Alloy

The Pb-5.8 wt pet Sb alloy was directionally solidified with a positive thermal gradient of 140 K cm(-1) at a growth speed ranging from 0.8 to 30 mu m s(-1), and then it was quenched to retain the mushy zone morphology. The morphology of the mushy zone along its entire length has been characterized by using a serial sectioning and three-dimensional image reconstruction technique. Variation in the cellular/dendritic shape factor, hydraulic radius of the interdendritic region, and fraction solid along the mushy zone length has been studied. A comparison with predictions from theoretical models indicates that convection remarkably reduces the primary dendrite spacing while its influence on the dendrite tip radius is not as significant

The effects of magnetic field on the d-density wave order in the cuprates

We consider the effects of a perpendicular magnetic field on the d-density wave order and conclude that if the pseudogap phase in the cuprates is due to this order, then it is highly insensitive to the magnetic field in the underdoped regime, while its sensitivity increases as the gap vanishes in the overdoped regime. This appears to be consistent with the available experiments and can be tested further in neutron scattering experiments. We also investigate the nature of the de Haas- van Alphen effect in the ordered state and discuss the possibility of observing it.Comment: 5 pages, 4 eps figures, RevTex4. Corrected a silly but important typo in the abstrac

Transport properties of Layer-Antiferromagnet CuCrS2: A possible thermoelectric material

The electrical, thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the quenched, annealed and slowly cooled phases of the layer compound CuCrS2 have been reported between 15K to 300K. We also confirm the antiferromagnetic transition at 40K in them by our magnetic measurements between 2K and 300K. The crystal flakes show a minimum around 100K in their in-plane resistance behavior. For the polycrystalline pellets the resistivity depends on their flaky texture and it attains at most 10 to 20 times of the room temperature value at the lowest temperature of measurement. The temperature dependence is complex and no definite activation energy of electronic conduction can be discerned. We find that the Seebeck coefficient is between 200-450 microV/K and is unusually large for the observed resistivity values of between 5-100 mOhm-cm at room temperature. The figure of merit ZT for the thermoelectric application is 2.3 for our quenched phases, which is much larger than 1 for useful materials. The thermal conductivity K is mostly due to lattice conduction and is reduced by the disorder in Cu- occupancy in our quenched phase. A dramatic reduction of electrical and thermal conductivity is found as the antiferromagnetic transition is approached from the paramagnetic region, and K subsequently rises in the ordered phase. We discuss the transport properties as being similar to a doped Kondo-insulator

Field Bund & Border as Alternative Land Use for Forage Production: A Case of Marginal Farmer in Bundelkhand Region of India

In India, if marginal farmers are approached for production of forage grasses in their agricultural lands, the response of the farmers would be straight forward „NO‟ to the forage crops on agricultural lands. The reason is that food grains (cereals & pulses), vegetables, oilseeds, fruits, etc. are grown on agricultural land and get the first preference for family members, while the forage grasses are least preferred, as crops residues are being fed to livestock. More than 60% of the farm produce come from the small farms only. The productivity of the marginal and small farmers is the solution for growing population food needs. Most of the marginal and small farmers cultivate the farm land with the support of their family members and local labour which the quality of the work is higher. They grow multiple crops and sow as soon as they harvest. The last four decades has witnessed a sharp decline in the average size of operational land holdings in India. The average size of operational land holdings has reduced by half from 2.28 ha in 1970-71 to 1.6 ha in 2010-11. Land holdings in the marginal category (less than 1 ha) constitute 67% of the operational holdings in India (2010-11). Marginal and small holdings together, constitute 85% in terms of number of operational holdings and 44% of the operated area in the country. Thus, over the period, the marginal category has emerged as a distinct and dominant class by itself with its average size dwindling to a mere 0.38 ha. (NABARD, 2014). This is the case study of an illiterate & marginal farmer, Shri Vijay Singh Kushwaha (37) S/o shri Dhan Singh resides in Kushwaha Dera at village Parasai (under Babina development block) in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand region of central India. He used to cultivate only monsoon crops, was the target of an extension programme initiated by ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi in 2011 under the project “Enhancing groundwater recharge and water use efficiency in Semi-Arid Tropics region through watershed interventions, Parasai-Sindh watershed, Jhansi”. The watershed is being developed in consortia mode with ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi, and International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad. The watershed comprises three villages namely Parasai, Chhatpur and Bachhauni and located between 250 23‟56‟‟ to 250 27‟ 9.34‟‟ N latitude and 780 19‟ 45.71‟‟ to 780 22‟ 42.57‟‟E longitude. The watershed is about 35 km in the West of the district headquarter. Bundelkhand is prone to severe drought leading to huge migration towards cities in search of livelihoods and the scarcity of green fodder posed as one of the major hindrances for dairy and livestock production activity in the region