Performance analysis of cooperative sugar factories in north-eastern Karnataka

The study was attempted to measure the economic performance of cooperative sugar factories in terms of total costs and returns, capacity utilization, physical and financial indicators and ratio analysis of the factories. In this study the three cooperative sugar factories are taken into consideration and the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for all the physical and financial indicators are worked out wherein the results suggested that a significant variation in the total cost and returns, capacity utilization and both physical and financial indicators over years within the three sugar factories was found. Further, the study revealed enough evidence about the financial ratios, which in turn showed the economic potentiality of the respective sugar factories. For the better performance of the factories an efficient planning and automation well before the start of the season is necessary and the government should come forward to help the farmers in making the cane bill payment at an early stage by the factories, by extending the financial assistance

Histopathological changes in the hepatopancreas of Lamellidens marginalis exposed to cadmium in winter

In the present study, the destruction of the basement membrane of the hepatic tubules and cell surface of the digestive cells after cadmium exposure probably caused disfunction of the surface receptors resulting in the disturbance of the lysosomal system functioning

THE PREVALENCE OF PTSD AND DEPRESSION AMONG GAZA CHILDREN

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic distress disorder (PTSD) and depression among children in Gaza, Palestine. Methodology:  This study assessed the psychological effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on children in the Gaza Strip. 286 children aged 9-14 years old, who were exposed to a wide range of war events, were selected from the Gaza Strip to participate in this study. All participants conducted the following scales: the child PTSD Reaction Index(CPTSD-RI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Arabic version for PTSD and depression assessment. Finding: The results show that the mean number of participants witnessing home destroyed and people killed was (88%) and home invasion (76%). Approximately 70% of the participants reported that they witnessed war violence against at least one of their family members. Further, 44 % of the children have a least one death in their family due to the Israeli invasion. Using t-tests, we found that significantly more females have both PTSD and depression than males. Approximately 32.8% of the participants met the criteria for severe depression, and 42.6 % met the criteria for PTSD. Implications: Our results suggest that it is imperative to provide intervention programs to treat PTSD and depression symptoms among children in Gaza. These programs should take into account the cultural and religious background of the participants. Originality: This investigation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to an increase in PTSD and depression symptoms among children in the Gaza Strip

Efficacy of curative applications of submicron chitosan dispersions on anthracnose intensity and vegetative growth of dragon fruit plants

The antifungal potential of submicron chitosan dispersions (SCD) and its effect on the vegetative growth of dragon fruit plants were studied under field conditions. There was a reduction in disease incidence (15.65%) with a severity score of 1.60 in plants treated with SCD of 600 nm droplet size of 1.0% chitosan compared to the control plants. Moreover, a significant increase was also observed among the treatments in terms of number of shoots per cutting, stem diameter and shoot length. However, the highest number of shoots (19), maximum stem diameter (0.23 m) and maximum stem length (2.80 m) were observed in plants treated with SCD of 600 nm droplet size of 1.0% chitosan. Similarly, chlorophyll content were also high in plants receiving SCD of 600 nm droplet size of 1.0% chitosan. Therefore, it can be concluded from the results that, instead of applying chitosan in the conventional form, it can be more effective as an antifungal agent as well as plant growth enhancer when applied in the form of submicron dispersions

Framework for Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) in Cloud of Things Based on Network Traffic Services

The cloud of things (CoT), which combines the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, may offer Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) for IoT devices on a dynamic basis based on service-specific requirements. Although the provisioning of VNFs in CoT is described as an online decision-making problem, most widely used techniques primarily focus on defining the environment using simple models in order to discover the optimum solution. This leads to inefficient and coarse-grained provisioning since the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for different types of CoT services are not considered, and important historical experience on how to provide for the best long-term benefits is disregarded. This paper suggests a methodology for providing VNFs intelligently in order to schedule adaptive CoT resources in line with the detection of traffic from diverse network services. The system makes decisions based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based models that take into account the complexity of network configurations and traffic changes. To obtain stable performance in this model, a special surrogate objective function and a policy gradient DRL method known as Policy Optimisation using Kronecker-Factored Trust Region (POKTR) are utilised. The assertion that our strategy improves CoT QoS through real-time VNF provisioning is supported by experimental results. The POKTR algorithm-based DRL-based model maximises throughput while minimising network congestion compared to earlier DRL algorithms

Postharvest application of gum arabic and essential oils for controlling anthracnose and quality of banana and papaya during cold storage.

Management of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp. is the most important issue for the tropical fruit industry because of resulting financial losses. Antifungal effects of gum arabic (GA) (10%), lemongrass oil (LG) (0.05%), cinnamon oil (CM) (0.4%), and their combinations were investigated in vitro and in vivo for controlling postharvest anthracnose of banana and papaya. LG at 0.05% and 0.4% CM showed fungicidal effects against Colletotrichum musae and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, causal organisms of banana and papaya anthracnose, respectively. GA alone did not show any fungicidal effects while the combination of 0.05% LG and 0.4% CM with Ten percent GA alone showed more fungicidal effects. However, potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium modified with 10% GA combined with 0.4% CM showed the most promising results among all treatments against C. musae and C. gloeosporioides in suppressing the mycelial growth (73.4%) and (70.0%) and spore germination inhibition (88%) and (85%), respectively. In vivo studies also revealed that 10% GA combined with 0.4% CM was the optimal concentration in controlling decay (80%) and (71%), showing a synergistic effect in the reduction of C. musae and C. gloeosporioides, respectively, in artificially inoculated bananas and papayas. The results regarding quality evaluation also confirmed the efficacy of 10% GA combined with 0.4% CM coatings since ripening was significantly delayed, in terms of percentage weight loss, fruit firmness, soluble solids concentration and titratable acidity. The results suggest the possibility of using 10% gum arabic combined with 0.4% cinnamon oil as a biofungicide for controlling postharvest anthracnose in major tropical fruit such as banana and papaya

Acute lower respiratory tract infection due to respiratory syncytial virus in a group of Egyptian children under 5 years of age

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background and aim</p> <p>Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most important causes of acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI) in infants and young children. This study was conducted to describe the epidemiology of ALRTI associated with RSV among children ≤ 5 years old in Egypt.</p> <p>Patients and Methods</p> <p>We enrolled 427 children ≤ 5 years old diagnosed with ALRTI attending the outpatient clinic or Emergency Department (ED) of Children Hospital, Cairo University during a one- year period. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained from the patients, kept on ice and processed within 2 hours of collection. Immunoflourescent assay (IFA) for RSV was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>91 cases (21.3%) had viral etiology with RSV antigens detected in 70 cases (16.4%). The RSV positive cases were significantly younger than other non-RSV cases (mean age 8.2 months versus 14.2 months, p <0.001). RSV cases had significantly higher respiratory rate in the age group between 2-11 months (mean 58.4 versus 52.7/minute, p < 0.001) and no significant difference in the mean respiratory rate in the age group between 12-59 months. More RSV cases required supplemental oxygen (46% versus 23.5%, p < 0.001) with higher rate of hospitalization (37.1% versus 11.2%, p < 0.001) than the non-RSV cases. 97% of RSV cases occurred in winter season (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>RSV is the most common viral etiology of ALRTI in children below 5 years of age, especially in young infants below 6 months of age. It is more prevalent in winter and tends to cause severe infection.</p

Effect of HF Concentration on the PS Structures Prepared by Photoelectrochemical Etching

Porous silicon was fabricated at p-n junction wafer byphotoelectrochemical (PEC) etching. Silicon wafer with various electrolytecontaining different HF concentrations was used to explain PS formation by thereaction at the Si/ electrolyte interface. An investigation of the dependence on HFconcentration to formed PS layer was made. The surface morphology of PS layerwas study as a function of HF concentration. Pillar like structures are formed atlow HF concentration and pores structures are obtained a at higher HFconcentration (40%). The etching rate increases with increasing HF concentrationcausing faster silicon dissolution. Thus the total pillar volume would increase byincreasing the HF concentration