Worship of Minor Deities in Chulunthee Novel

Novel Chulunthee uncovers the hidden human history of Navidar clan, a traditional craftsman, and their medical contributions based on ethnographic data. Also, it has recorded the characteristics of various castes like Kudumbar, Kallar, Nayak, Asari, Mutharaiyar, Chettiar, Vannar, Gowda and Idiyar. The novel also mentions the period of Vaetuvakula king who ruled over Pantrimalai (Kodaikanal, Palani, Vedasandur area) with Kanniwadi as their headquarters. After a long war, the small kingdoms under the Pandya kingdom came under the Vijayanagara Empire. It is from here that the plot of Chukunthee continues. In the Nayaka administration, the king followed him in the hierarchy of power, the king of Madurai, Chokanatha Nayak, (1662-1682), one of the generals in the reign of Appayanayakar's son Chinnakatiriyappa Nayak, captured Kanniwadi and became the king of the palace. The training ground of Madurai king’s artillery, cavalry and infantry was located in Kanniwadi and so the history of Madurai Nayakkars centres around Kanniwadi

A pneumatic assisted electronically controlled continuous aonla seed removing machine

A continuous flow aonla (Emblica officinalis) seed removing equipment which consists of a fruit platform, a punching plunger, a plunger driving mechanism, a conveying system, and an electronic control unit has been developed for the removal of seed from aonla fruit.  The machine was evaluated with three different plungers viz. sharp edge, hollow cutting edge, and star cutting edge in different orientation of fruit with three varieties of aonla with variable sized fruits.  The study indicated that the effectiveness of the machine and the percentage fruit pulp wastage varied with the size of fruit.  The highest effectiveness of the machine was observed as 93.94±0.42% with the combination of the apex end punching with hollow edge plunger in set A for NA-7a whereas Kanchan, Chakiya and NA-7b recorded higher effectiveness of 94.47±1.22%, 95.15±0.33% and 94.14±0.49% respectively in set B.  The percentage pulp wastage was 4.05±0.96%, 3.22±0.20%, 3.59±0.43% and 3.93±0.12% for Kanchan, Chakiya, NA-7a and NA-7b, respectively.  The percentage juice wastage for Kanchan, Chakiya, NA-7a and NA-7b was 1.48±0.25%, 1.63±0.15%, 2.47±0.32%, and 1.92±0.61%, respectively.  The evaluation study concluded that apex end punching with 12 mm hollow cutting edge plunger with 15 mm bore platform would be suitable for the deseeding of aonla fruits having less than 35 mm size, while for the fruits having more than 35 mm size, plunger of 15 mm diameter with 18 mm bore platform would be suitable.  The capacity of the developed machine was 90 kg/h or 3000 fruits/h.  The cost of operation including the labor cost and depreciation was calculated to be Rs.0.14 per kg of fruits.Keywords: aonla, aonla seed removing machine, deseeding, punching plunger, continuous seed removing, Indian gooseberry deseedin

COMPARATIVE TREND ANALYSIS IN COST OF PADDY CULTIVATION AND PROFITABILITY ACROSS THREE STATES OF INDIA

Agriculture has seen tremendous changes in the past century, with agricultural research investments paving the way for productivity gains leading to reduction in production costs and capacity to carter larger population. The contribution of agriculture to the GDP is on the decline and so does profitability. Farmer suicides were not a common phenomenon in India before 1990, but more than two lakh farmers committed suicides between 1990 and 2010. The underlying causes for failure in agriculture could be many including climate change, reduction in profitability and fragmentation of land. This article explores the trends in the cost of cultivation of paddy and its profitability in three Indian states of Kerala, Odisha and Tamil Nadu during the period 1999-2011. It is observed that the factors like hired machine and human labor, fertilizer, are all growing in varying proportions leading to an increase in the cost of cultivation. In the years showing profits, Profitability seemed to be averaging around ten percent and while in most of the years loss was reported. Over the years, the increase in cost of cultivation seems to be stable in contrast with the increase in value of paddy produced by farmers. The APM project has appropriately addressed issues of increasing cost of manures through introduction of vermicomposting. Other appropriate techniques and technologies have also been demonstrated for increased profitability. Efforts need to be taken to create an enabling environment to ensure a commensurate income to farmers for a dignified life

A neutron diffraction study of the oxygen diffusion in molybdenum doped Ba2InO5

International audienceThe structures of molybdenum doped Ba2In2O5 were refined using X-ray and neutron diffraction data at room and high temperature with the aim to derive preferred oxygen diffusion pathways. At room temperature, refinement of composition Ba2In2-xMoxO5+3x/2 with x=0.1 revealed molybdenum atoms are preferentially located in the tetrahedral layers of the brownmillerite. At 700°C, the structure can be viewed as the stacking of alternating In and In/Mo octahedral layers. The conduction process occurs preferentially in the later which is highly oxygen deficient. Preferred oxygen diffusion pathways were deduced from Joint Probability Density Function (JPDF) and energy barriers were derived. It was in good agreement with the activation energy deduced from impedance spectroscopy for composition x=0.1 at 950°C. However, calculation of energy barrier assumes a dynamic disorder of oxide ions which is unlikely to occur at lower temperature and for sample containing a larger amount of molybdenum. Composition x=0.5 is cubic on the whole range of temperature. At room temperature, JPDF revealed a static disorder of the oxygen atoms, which is likely due to the solution of molybdenum into the barium indium perovskite. When temperature increases the disorder becomes more and more dynamic

ASSESSMENT OF FOOD AND NUTRIENT INTAKE OF COMMUNITIES ACROSS THREE AGRO-BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS IN INDIA

Balanced and adequate nutrition is important in improving the health of the community in general and of vulnerable groups in particular. Assessment of the nutritional status of a community is important for development of implementation strategies and suitable policies. Dietary assessment indicates whether intake of macro and micro nutrient are adequate. Anthropometric measurements and comparisons of nutrient intakes with reference values are easy and non-invasive, economical and sufficiently reliable methods for the determination of nutritional status. The present study uses micro-level data drawn from 24 hours recall diet survey to calculate the mean food and nutrient intake by communities in three agro-biodiversity hotspots. The 24 hours recall diet survey was carried out among households in three study locations during June to November 2013 among the project intervention and non-intervention groups. Information on age, sex, physiological status, physical activity of the household members who took meals during the previous 24 hours was collected for computing consumption unit. The result shows that cereals are the chief source of energy in the study locations contributing 70-80% of the daily energy intake. Mean intake of green leafy vegetable are negligible in the study locations. The intake of sugar and jaggery among the intervention group of Meenangadi is 48% higher than recommended dietary intake, while in the non-intervention group it is 28% higher; and 20% higher among the nonintervention group in the Kolli Hills. The intake of vitamin A is the lowest among other nutrients across the internvention and non-intervention groups in the study locations

Biomechanical comparison of short-segment posterior fixation including the fractured level and circumferential fixation for unstable burst fractures of the lumbar spine in a calf spine model

OBJECTIVE There has been a transition from long- to short-segment instrumentation for unstable burst fractures to preserve motion segments. Circumferential fixation allows a stable short-segment construct, but the associated morbidity and complications are high. Posterior short-segment fixation spanning one level above and below the fractured vertebra has led to clinical failures. Augmentation of this method by including the fractured level in the posterior instrumentation has given promising clinical results. The purpose of this study is to compare the biomechanical stability of short-segment posterior fixation including the fractured level (SSPI) to circumferential fixation in thoracolumbar burst fractures. METHODS An unstable burst fracture was created in 10 fresh-frozen bovine thoracolumbar spine specimens, which were grouped into a Group A and a Group B. Group A specimens were instrumented with SSPI and Group B with circumferential fixation. Biomechanical characteristics including range of motion (ROM) and load-displacement curves were recorded for the intact and instrumented specimens using Universal Testing Device and stereophotogrammetry. RESULTS In Group A, ROM in flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and axial rotation was reduced by 46.9%, 52%, 49.3%, and 45.5%, respectively, compared with 58.1%, 46.5%, 66.6%, and 32.6% in Group B. Stiffness of the construct was increased by 77.8%, 59.8%, 67.8%, and 258.9% in flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and axial rotation, respectively, in Group A compared with 80.6%, 56.1%, 82.6%, and 121.2% in Group B; no statistical difference between the two groups was observed. CONCLUSIONS SSPI has comparable stiffness to that of circumferential fixation

Endothelin-Receptor Antagonists beyond Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Cancer and Fibrosis.

The endothelin axis and in particular the two endothelin receptors, ETA and ETB, are targets for therapeutic intervention in human diseases. Endothelin-receptor antagonists are in clinical use to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension and have been under clinical investigation for the treatment of several other diseases, such as systemic hypertension, cancer, vasospasm, and fibrogenic diseases. In this Perspective, we review the molecules that have been evaluated in human clinical trials for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, as well as other cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and fibrosis. We will also discuss the therapeutic consequences of receptor selectivity with regard to ETA-selective, ETB-selective, or dual ETA/ETB antagonists. We will also consider which chemical characteristics are relevant to clinical use and the properties of molecules necessary for efficacy in treating diseases against which known molecules displayed suboptimal efficacy

Common carotid artery intima-media thickness is as good as carotid intima-media thickness of all carotid artery segments in improving prediction of coronary heart disease risk in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study

Carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT) and plaque information can improve coronary heart disease (CHD) risk prediction when added to traditional risk factors (TRF). However, obtaining adequate images of all carotid artery segments (A-CIMT) may be difficult. Of A-CIMT, the common carotid artery intima–media thickness (CCA-IMT) is relatively more reliable and easier to measure. We evaluated whether CCA-IMT is comparable to A-CIMT when added to TRF and plaque information in improving CHD risk prediction in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study