ICT Awareness and Skills for women empowerment and entrepreneurship among rural women: a Study on the state of Tamil Nadu

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP- 1965) define Information and Communication Technologies [ICTs] are basically information-handling tools – a varied set of goods, applications and services that are used to create, store up, practice, issue and exchange information. The set include the old ICTs such as radio, television and telephone, and then new ICTs of computers, satellite and wireless technology and the Internet. These different tools are now able to work together, and combine to form our networked world. An enormous infrastructure of inter-connected telephone services standardized computing hardware, the internet, radio and television, which reaches into every corner of the globe”. at the present time, both traditional and modern ICTs are accessed and used for Various information needs of the people. Self employability and employability through ICT for rural women can enable by developing skills in the ICT areas are Use of online Transactions, Use of consumer and professional websites and apps, Use of Office Management software and Desktop Publishing Tools, Use of Storage Devices Tools, Use of Website Creation Tools, Leadership and Motivational Skills and Entrepreneurial and Employability Skills were highlighted to the surveyed rural women, the level of awareness, skills used to employability and personality level have been assesses in this stud

Plants used as Medicine by Paliyar Tribes of Shenbagathope in Virudhunagar District of Tamilnadu, India

The traditional medicinal uses of 58 angiospermic plant species belonging to 54 genera of 31 families for various diseases and ailments like wounds, cuts, stomach pain, diabetes, fever, cold, poisonous bites etc., by the Paliyar tribes of Shenbagathope in Virudhunagar district of Tamilnadu, India, are mentioned. Generally, fresh part of the plant is used for the preparation of medicine. When fresh plant parts are not available, dried parts are also used. Attention should be made on proper exploitation and utilization of these ethnomedicinally important plant species

1-Formyl-r-2,c-6-bis­(4-methoxy­phen­yl)-t-3-methyl­piperidin-4-one

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C21H23NO4, contains two crystallographically independent mol­ecules A and B. In both mol­ecules, the piperidine-4-one rings adopt a distorted twist-boat conformation. The formyl group at position 1, the methoxy­phenyl ring at position 2 and the methyl group at position 3 are attached equatorially. The meth­oxy phenyl ring at position 6 has an axial orientation. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 55.27 (8)° in mol­ecule A, and 55.29 (8)° in mol­ecule B. In the crystal, the mol­ecules are linked by weak C—H⋯O inter­molecular hydrogen-bond inter­actions. In addition, weak C—H⋯π inter­molecular inter­actions involving the benzene rings at positions 6 and 2 of mol­ecule B are also found in the crystal structure

Impact of COVID-19 on Psychological Status of General Population

WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Like the virus affects the entire body, the pandemic affected the entire global trade and economy, leading to the loss of jobs and businesses. Thus, it would be appropriate to quote COVID-19 as a social disease rather than treating only as a medical condition. The COVID-19 pandemic, being a social disease, affects all the individuals of the society in terms of their physical, mental, social health and challenges the economic status of the entire population, irrespective of whether they were physically sick. However, the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been overlooked, given its benign nature. We can anticipate a higher prevalence of psychological distress during any pandemic than typical situations. The COVID-19 instils fear and anxiety among people. Isolation and quarantine to reduce disease transmission have a negative impact on one’s mental health. The lockdowns lead to the closure of educational institutions and workplaces, loss of jobs, economic loss, lack of physical activity, restrictions on travel and gatherings. All these factors cumulatively affected the mental stamina of millions worldwide. Given its importance, we have reviewed the impact of COVID-19 on the psychological status of general population

Modified distributed energy efficient clustering protocol for lifetime maximization in wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network is a combination of tiny sensing nodes with minimal energy capabilities. The sensors are installed across field to monitor parameters such as noise, temperature etc for long time. WSN has wide range of applications such as military, health care industry etc. It has advantages such as easy deploying, lower cost and fault tolerance. Since the energy capabilities are minimal, we can take some measures to improve network capabilities. To overcome the issue, we need to concentrate on the performance of the routing protocol while designing the architecture. The aim of WSN is to transfer data by increasing the lifetime of the network, throughput, and number of Cluster Heads (CH). We take DEEC protocol in comparison with the proposed design of M-DEEC which helps in minimizing the energy consumption of the nodes in network and maximize the network lifetime. In M-DEEC is a modified energy distribution algorithm which uses energy aware adaptive clustering protocol in heterogeneous WSN. Each node will carry over a remaining energy over the network which can be further used as reference to increase the lifetime.&nbsp

Effect of life skills education on socio-emotional functioning of adolescents in urban Puducherry, India: A mixed-methods study

BACKGROUND: We wanted to assess the effect of life skills education (LSE) and regular curriculum on the self-esteem, self-efficacy, adjustment, and psychosocial functioning of students from co-educational government schools, compared to those receiving only the regular curriculum. The secondary objectives were to study the feasibility of such sessions and identify the factors affecting the effectiveness of the sessions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study in government schools of urban Puducherry, India in 2018–2019. The quantitative component was a cluster-randomized trial with activity-based learning methods delivered over 10 sessions in the intervention arm (IA). Differences in outcome variables (self-esteem, self-efficacy, adjustment, psychosocial behavior) between baseline and after intervention in each of the groups were calculated, and the difference-in-differences (DID) technique was applied to account for any natural change in scores over time. Qualitative data were collected through focused group discussions (FGDs) among students and teachers. Analysis was founded on a positivist paradigm with inducto-deductive methodology. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of 258 participants was 13 (1) years in both arms. The mean (SD) difference between baseline and end-line for IA and control arm (CA) was 0.3 (4.4) and − 0.1 (4.0), for self-esteem (P = 0.38), 0.03 (6.0) and − 1.1 (6.1) for self-efficacy (P = 0.12), and − 0.04 (3.5) and − 0.05 (4.3) for adjustment (P = 0.73), respectively. Similarly, the median (interquartile range [IQR]) difference in the conduct problems scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was − 1 (−2, 1) and 0 (−1, 1) (P < 0.01). Five FGDs revealed multiple positive effects on anger management, conduct, self-awareness, and responsible behavior. All 10 teachers viewed life skills education (LSE) positively. CONCLUSIONS: LSE positively affects adolescents' socio-emotional functioning, but more extended periods of exposure are needed to demonstrate discernible change. The feasibility of implementation depends on the syllabus and based on health policies

Comparative evaluation of fish larval preservation methods on microbiome profiles to aid in metagenomics research

Applications of microbiome research through metagenomics promise to generate microbiome manipulation strategies for improved larval survival in aquaculture. However, existing lacunae on the effects of sample preservation methods in metagenome profiles hinder the successful application of this technique. In this context, four preservation methods were scrutinized to identify reliable methods for fish larval microbiome research. The results showed that a total of ten metagenomics metrics, including DNA yield, taxonomic and functional microbiome profiles, and diversity measures, were significantly (P < 0.05) influenced by the preservation method. Activity ranking based on the performance and reproducibility showed that three methods, namely immediate direct freezing, room temperature preservation in absolute ethanol, and preservation at − 20 °C in lysis, storage, and transportation buffer, could be recommended for larval microbiome research. Furthermore, as there was an apparent deviation of the microbiome profiles of ethanol preserved samples at room temperature, the other methods are preferred. Detailed analysis showed that this deviation was due to the bias towards Vibrionales and Rhodobacterales. The microbial taxa responsible for the dissimilarity across different methods were identified. Altogether, the paper sheds light on the preservation protocols of fish larval microbiome research for the first time. The results can help in cross-comparison of future and past larval microbiome studies. Furthermore, this is the first report on the activity ranking of preservation methods based on metagenomics metrics. Apart from methodological perspectives, the paper provides for the first time certain insights into larval microbial profiles of Rachycentron canadum, a potential marine aquaculture species

Metagenomic signatures of transportation stress in the early life stages of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) to aid in mitigation strategies

Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) is a high-value marine aquaculture species. Knowledge of the microbial dynamics in various aquaculture operations is crucial for developing suitable management practices. The present study revealed the critical dysbiotic events in the whole larval and juvenile-gut microbiome of cobia, through an inevitable aquaculture operation, viz. live transportation. The results through both culture-dependent and independent techniques demonstrated the sensitivity of the cobia microbiome during early life, where live transport is inevitable. In detail, there was a significant change in the microbial composition and reduction in the cultivable load of all the life stages. Further, a significant reduction in functional metagenomics along with an increase in taxonomic metagenomics was recorded in the L21 stage. Significant reductions of the putative healthy microbiota, viz., Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were remarkable in the whole larval microbiome. The analysis through linear discriminant analysis effect size revealed that the opportunistic fish pathogens, viz., Vibrio spp., Arcobacter spp., and Acinetobacter spp. were increased whereas, Pseudomonas spp. was decreased in larvae following transportation. The significant reduction in the taxonomic diversity measures was noteworthy in the juvenile-gut microbiome. Transportation promoted Serratia spp., Enterobacter spp., an unidentified genus in Flavobacteriaceae, Pseudoalteromonas spp., Alteromonas spp., and Enterovibrio spp., and inhibited Empedobacter spp. in the juvenile gut. Collectively, the results provide the prospective metagenomic signatures of health and stress in the early life stages of cobia and novel possible explanations for increased disease susceptibility post-transportation. The study warrants future research on the microbes which were found to be decreased following transportation, as potential probiotics to mitigate the stress in the marine aquaculture practices. The metagenomic signatures revealed through the study can be further applied for evaluating different husbandry practices to mitigate stress during live transportation