Small scale rural aquaculture in Assam, India: a case study

The state of Assam in northeastern India has an excellent sub-tropical climate for the development of fresh water fish culture in a variety of aquatic bodies. Aquaculture not only plays an important role in nutrition but also in the rural economy of the State. A pilot project conducted with a group of resource poor tribal farmers revealed that a production of about 1 800 kg/ha/yr could be achieved from small seasonal homestead ponds through integrated use of locally available biological resources. This implies an excellent opportunity for improving the rural economy through the development of small-scale fish culture enterprises. In this project, a greater emphasis was placed on improving the knowledge and skills of the farmers and their farming practices so that in the future they would be in a position to expand their activities with financial assistance made available locally. Aquaculture being a new activity in the area, this pilot project was only a start in acquainting the farmers with the practice and potential of aquaculture

Dynamics of a two-dimensional vapor bubble confined between superheated or subcooled parallel plates

The dynamics of a long, two-dimensional vapor bubble confined in the gap between two superheated or subcooled parallel plates is analyzed theoretically. The unsteady expansion and/or contraction of the bubble is driven by mass transfer between the liquid and the vapor. The analysis uses the approach developed by Wilson et al. J. Fluid Mech. 391, 1 1999 for a situation with 'large' gaps and 'small' superheating or subcooling to consider a situation with small gaps and large superheating or subcooling in which the mass transfer from or to the semicircular nose of the bubble is comparable to that from or to the thin liquid films on the plates. In order to permit a semi- analytical treatment the analysis is restricted to low Prandtl number liquids. When both plates are superheated the bubble always expands. In this case there are two possible constant-velocity continuous-film solutions for the expansion of the bubble, namely, an unstable fast mode and a stable slow mode. The evolution of the bubble is calculated numerically for a range of values of the parameters. In particular, these calculations show that eventually the bubble expands either with the constant velocity of the slow mode or exponentially. When both plates are subcooled the bubble always collapses to zero length in a finite time. When one plate is subcooled and the other plate is superheated the situation is rather more complicated. If the magnitude of the subcooling is less than that of the superheating then if the magnitude of the subcooling is greater than a critical value then a variety of complicated behaviors including the possibility of an unexpected 'waiting time' behavior in which the bubble remains almost stationary for a finite period oftime can occur before the bubble eventually collapses to a finite length in an infinite time, whereas if it is less than this critical value then the bubble always expands and eventually does so exponentially. If the magnitude of the subcooling is greater than that of the superheating then the bubble always collapses to zero length in a finite time

Study on the factors affecting carcass traits of broiler rabbits in Eastern Himalayan region of India

[EN] Two hundred and ten adult rabbits of both sexes and belonging to four breeds: New Zealand White (NZW), Soviet Chinchilla (SC), Local (LC) and crossbred (CB) were used for this experiment. Rabbits were kept individually in cages under hutch housing conditions. Concentrate mash feed was fed at 100 g/head/d and green roughage ad libitum as per availability in different seasons. Rabbit slaughtering data were grouped in 4 categories: 3-5; 6-8; 9-11 and > above 11 m of age. All the data were classified by preslaughter weight, age at slaughter, breed and sex prior to statistical analysis. Slaughter weight, slaughter age, breed and sex had highly significant (P<0.01) effects on carcass weight of rabbits. The overall carcass weight was 854 g and SC was significantly (P<0.05) higher to NZW and CB. Also females' carcass weight was significantly higher than males (875 and 723 g, respectively). Dressed meat weight (including the edible organs) was significantly (P<0.01) affected by slaughter age, breed and sex. Dressing yield amounted on average 54.8% and sex, breed or slaughter age did not have a significant effect. Only preslaughter weight had a significant (P<0.05) effect on dressing %, with the highest value for the heaviest rabbits. Inedible offal weight amounted on average 679 g and all the 4 studied factors had a significant (P<0.01) effect on this part.Das, S.; Bardoloi, R. (2010). Study on the factors affecting carcass traits of broiler rabbits in Eastern Himalayan region of India. World Rabbit Science. 16(2). doi:10.4995/wrs.2008.63316

Performance Modelling of Electro-optical Devicesfor Military Target Acquisition

Accurate predictions of electro-optical imager performance are important for defence decision-making. The predictions serve as a guide for system development and are used in war game,simulations that directly influence engagement tactics. In the present study, mathematical modelshave been developed which involves detection of different military targets using their opto-electronics properties in different environmental conditions. The method first calculates thesignal-to-noise ratio received by the observing sensors reflected from the target by quantifyingthe light energy in terms of photons, which is used for evaluating the detection probability

Differences in Vitrification Behaviour of Flint and Opaque Scrap Glass Containing Porcelainized Stoneware Body

In a normal stoneware ceramic composition, feldspar was partially substituted by two types soda lime silica scrap glass powder (flint-chromium free and opaque-chromium doped). Samples were fired in the temperature range of 1100–1250 °C and their physico-mechanical properties were studied and compared with the normal composition.Samples containing flint glass powder achieved early vitrifi cation at 1200 °C compared to 1250 °C for opaque glass containing sample as well as normal stoneware body. Both bodies achieved more than 40 MPa flexural strength at their vitrifi cation temperature. Formation of needle shaped mullite crystals was observed in all samples. Presence of large number of smaller size mullite crystals was responsible for strength development

Optimal taxation policy maximum-entropy approach

The object of this paper is firstly to present entropic measure of income inequality and secondly to develop maximum entropy approaches for the optimal reduction of income inequality through taxation.

Toxigenic molds on fish feeds-1: impact of climatic change

The present communication is a survey report carried out to assess the incidence of toxic mycoflora on seven types of agriculture products/by products incorporated during fish culture as supplementary dietary items. Samples were obtained from various sources at Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samashtipur districts during summer, winter and monsoon months. Out of the total 1774 samples, only 894 appeared to be fresh visually reflecting average incidence of contamination around 46.6%. However, the apparently fresh samples, when subjected to culture, 26.9% of them were found to be contaminated. Thus, degree of fungal spoilage in feed ingredients in parts of north Bihar appears to be significantly high (73.5%). The present study illustrates the facts with special reference to Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus (elaborating aflatoxins) A. ochraceous, Penicilium viradicatuin (elaborating ochratoxins) and A. versicolor (elaborating sterigmatocystin). The other strains already known for their toxigenic potentials that appeared on the present substrates included A. niger, A. fumigatus, A. candidus, P. islandicum, Rhizopus spp. and Mucur spp. Studies indicate that the prevalent climatic factors like temperature and relative humidity facilitate a congenial condition almost all through the year and in particular during summer and monsoon months. But water content of the substrates is a vital factor that further accelerates the pace of mycobial spoilage. A thorough sun-drying of the agricultural commodities before prolonged storage to bring water content below the "low risk limit" may significantly reduce the incidence of molds

Teaching about Madrid: A Collaborative Agents-Based Distributed Learning Course

Interactive art courses require a huge amount of computational resources to be running on real time. These computational resources are even bigger if the course has been designed as a Virtual Environment with which students can interact. In this paper, we present an initiative that has been develop in a close collaboration between two Spanish Universities: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos with the aim of join two previous research project: a Collaborative Awareness Model for Task-Balancing-Delivery (CAMT) in clusters and the “Teaching about Madrid” course, which provides a cultural interactive background of the capital of Spain