Institutional Repositories in India: A Case Study of National Aerospace Laboratories

This paper traces the history and developments in Open Archives Initiatives including open access journals, e-print archives and Institutional repositories. The setting up of NAL’s Institutional Repository using OSS GNU Eprints, document types with statistical analysis, country wise statistics of full text download, levels of accessibility and technologies used in building the Institutional Repository have been discussed at lengt

Evaluation of the Effect of Water on Three Different Light Cured Composite Restorative Materials Stored in Water: An In Vitro Study

Objectives. The objective of this in vitro study was to investigate whether weight gain or loss in the three different composites occurs due to water absorption when they are stored in water. Methods. The composite restorative materials selected for this study included a microfine hybrid (Synergy) and two nanofilled composite restorative materials (Ceram X and Filtek Supreme Ultra). Twenty specimens of each material were fabricated of each composite material. Group A: Filtek Supreme Ultra, Group B: Synergy, Group C: Ceram X. Then all the specimens were stored in 10 ml Distilled water containing test tubes and placed in incubator at 37°C for six weeks. The weight changes of these specimens were measured daily for the first week and later once a week for next five weeks by using an electrical analytical balance. Results. The data was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance and Student's t test. All groups showed maximum amount of water absorption in the first week than gradual decrease in the water absorption from the second to the sixth week, as compared to the first week and there is no statistically significant difference between the groups tested. Conclusion. All the composite restorative material absorbs some amount of water. The water absorption of the composite may decrease the physical and mechanical properties of the composites; hence it is necessary to consider the type of the material before starting the treatment

Stock assessment of the demersal offshore fishery resources off the Karnataka coast

The total biomass of the demersal stocks in the depth range of 30-200m between 12°401 and 15°N latitudes in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone is estimated to be a:round 1,23,000 metric tons (t). There is scope for doubling the present catch of about 40,000 t from demersal resources by extending exploitation to 50-200m depth zone. About 78% of this increase is expected to come from four species, namely, Nemipterus japonicus, Priacanthus macracanthus, Saurida tumbil and Arius spp

Genetics of Ayurveda in Infertility

Introduction: Infertility is the clinical entity where couple fail to conceive even after one year of regular unprotected sexual activity. Many factors are responsible for infertility like ovulation defects, spermatogenic failure, parental age, obesity, anatomical defects, infections, also with specific karyotype and genotype. Materials and Methods: Data was collected from Classical references and modern textual references to show how Ayurveda explains beautifully about the infertility, genetic cause for it. Results: Effort are made to explain genetic theory according to Ayurveda in the context of Infertility Discussion: To have a healthy individual constitution impact of certain factors are very essential, which includes healthy reproductive organs of both male and female, healthy sperm and ovum, dietic regimen, Prakruti of couple, seasonal effect, Panchamahabhoota and Shadbhavas. Impact of Doshas on these will have vital role in formation of genetic code and reproductive capacity of individual. Hence all the above factors may be said as factors responsible for genetic modification influencing the fertility in Ayurveda. This knowledge is highly essential and need of the day for welfare of better society with good progeny through means of Ayurveda

Analysis and Prediction of Community Structure Using Unsupervised Learning

In this thesis, we perform analysis and prediction for community structures in graphs using unsupervised learning. The methods we use require the data matrices to be of low rank, and such matrices appear quite often in real world problems across a broad range of domains. Such a modelling assumption is widely considered by classical algorithms such as principal component analysis (PCA), and the same assumption is often used to achieve dimensionality reduction. Dimension reduction, which is a classic method in unsupervised learning, can be leveraged in a wide array of problems, including prediction of strength of connection between communities from unlabeled or partially labeled data. Accordingly, a low rank assumption addresses many real world problems, and a low rank assumption has been used in this thesis to predict the strength of connection between communities in Amazon product data. In particular, we have analyzed real world data across retail and cyber domains, with the focus being on the retail domain. Herein, our focus is on analyzing the strength of connection between the communities in Amazon product data, where each community represents a group of products, and we are given the strength of connection between the individual products but not between the product communities. We call the strength of connection between individual products first order data and the strength of connection between communities second order data. This usage is inspired by [1] where first order time series are used to compute second order covariance matrices where such covariance matrices encode the strength of connection between the time series. In order to find the strength of connection between the communities, we define various metrics to measure this strength, and one of the goals of this thesis is to choose a good metric, which supports effective predictions. However, the main objective is to predict the strength of connection between most of the communities, given measurements of the strength of connection between only a few communities. To address this challenge, we use modern extensions of PCA such as eRPCA that can provide better predictions and can be computationally efficient for large problems. However, the current theory of eRPCA algorithms is not designed to treat problems where the initial data (such as the second order matrix of communities strength) is both low rank and sparse. Therefore, we analyze the performance of eRPCA algorithm on such data and modify our approaches for the particular structure of Amazon product communities to perform the necessary predictions

Overexpression of a Plasma Membrane Protein Gene, SaPMP3, from Spartina alterniflora L. Enhances Salinity Tolerance in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Salinity continues to be a major abiotic stress limiting crop productivity. As rice is staple food for nearly half of the world population, improvement in its salt tolerance will have a major impact on global food security. Compared to rice and other field crops, halophytes have evolved special physiological mechanisms to withstand high salinity. The overall goal of this study was to characterize plasma membrane protein 3 genes, SaPMP3-2 and SaPMP3-1, from a halophyte, Spartina alterniflora L., and evaluate their potential in single gene as well as pyramided transgenic plants in combination with the vacuolar ATPase subunit c1 (SaVHAc1) gene in improving salt tolerance in cv. Cocodrie background. Both genes, SaPMP3-2 and SaPMP3-1, enhanced the ability of E. coli to survive at 600 mM NaCl. Genetic complementation of the mutant yeast strain and enhanced salt tolerance in wild type yeast strain by SaPMP3-2 indicated its conserved functional role in salt tolerance. Subsequently, enhanced salt tolerance in transgenic rice plants was demonstrated through overexpression of SaPMP3-2 and SaPMP3-1 independently as well as the combination of SaPMP3-1 and SaVHAc1. Chlorophyll retention and relative water content were higher in transgenic plants compared to Cocodrie under salt stress during the vegetative stage. The transgenic plants survived wilting and drying symptoms with enhanced growth and higher K+/Na+ ratio at 100 mM NaCl stress during early seedling stage in hydroponic conditions. Salt stress screening during reproductive stage revealed that the single gene and the pyramided transgenic plants had better grain filling whereas only the pyramided plants showed significantly higher grain yield per plant and higher test weight compared to Cocodrie. The improvement in salt tolerance in transgenic rice plants could be due to the role played by SaPMP3-2 and SaPMP3-1 through maintenance of ion homoestasis by restricting uptake of salts. The impact of SaPMP3 gene was further amplified when combined with SaVHAc1 in pyramided transgenic plants, which showed better growth, vigor, and enhanced salt tolerance at all stages of crop growth compared with Cocodrie. Our study provided evidence that S. alterniflora could be a potential source for mining genes to enhance salt tolerance in rice and other cereal crops

Maternal mortality at Gulbarga district hospital, a tertiary care centre

Background: Pregnancy, although being considered a normal physiological state, carries serious risk of morbidity and at times maternal death. Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is a very sensitive index that reflects the quality of health care provided by the country to the women population. It also reflects the educational and socioeconomic state of a country as well as public health consciousness. This study was carried out to determine the causes of maternal deaths at Gulbarga district hospital, a tertiary care hospital.Methods: This is a cohert of prospective and retrospective hospital based study of 2 years. IPD case records of maternal deaths were studied. A total of 25 maternal deaths were analyzed using percentage.Results: In the maternal deaths studied, the leading direct causes of death were haemorrhage (32%), followed by eclampsia (15%). Anaemia (8%) and cerebrovascular accidents (9%) were the common indirect causes of maternal death in our study. Most women (72%) died within 12 hours of admission suggesting majority patients reach the tertiary care hospital late.Conclusions: Most of the maternal deaths were preventable by optimal antenatal, intranatal and perinatal care. Most effective intervention to reduce pregnancy related mortality is education of family planning methods and safe abortion methods, increasing the number of skilled birth attendants, reducing home births and improving emergency obstetric care (EOC)

Male factor in infertility: study from a tertiary care hospital

Background: Infertility is a condition with important psychological, economic, demographic and medical implications. Male infertility refers to a male’s inability to result pregnancy in a fertile female.Methods: The present hospital based study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Point Hospital, Bangalore. Duration of the study was for 6 months from October 2015 to March 2016. A total of 250 infertile couples couple coming for evaluation to the outpatient department (OPD) were selected in the study by convenient sampling technique. All infertile couples in the study were preliminarily investigated to rule out male factor in infertility. Semen analysis was done as a primary investigation procedure.Results: The overall prevalence of abnormal sperm count in the present study was found to be 34.4%; of which one fourth had oligospermia, 8.4% had Azoospermia and 1.2% had asthenozoospermia. Study found a significant association between type of occupation, obesity and alcohol addiction with abnormal sperm count.Conclusions: High prevalence of male factor in infertility was noted in the present study. Refraining from addictions, certain life style changes including exercise and timely medical attention can address the issue

Electrically modulated photoluminescence in ferroelectric liquid crystal

Electrical modulation and switching of photoluminescence (PL) have been demonstrated in pure deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (DHFLC) material. The PL intensity increases and peak position shifts towards lower wavelength above a threshold voltage which continues up to a saturation voltage. This is attributed to the helix unwinding phenomenon in the DHFLC on the application of an electric field. Moreover, the PL intensity could be switched between high intensity (field-on) and low intensity (field-off) positions. These studies would add a new dimension to ferroelectric liquid crystal's application in the area of optical devices.Comment: 4 figure

A study on health profile of geriatric population in an urban slum of bijapur

Background: Advances in medical field have increased the longevity of people by reducing morbidity and mortality to a great extent. With the increase in longevity, problems related to old age have also increased. These problems are more confounded by social factors. Objective: To assess the various health problems faced by elderly people and suggest the remedial measures so that effective preventive and promotive measures can be implemented. Methodology: Community based cross-sectional study of the elderly persons residing in an urban slum of Bijapur. Results: Among acute health problems most common were arthritis (39%) and bronchitis (20.8%). Most common chronic illness observed was respiratory illness 19% (COPD and asthma) fallowed by visual impairment (11.5%), arthritis (11.1%), and hypertension (9.1%) Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) showed that majority of respondents 297 (60%) were having the normal score. Conclusion: The pattern of geriatric health problems have different characteristics and hence require a specific type of screening programme based on the finding of various geriatric health studies