An Analysis of the Traumatic Anxieties of the Protagonists in the Select Novels of Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison received the Pulitzer Prize for her books Beloved (1987) and The Bluest Eye (1993). Human existence includes the experience of psychological distress. Both books are heartbreaking in their examinations of the suffering black people experienced during slavery when whites treated them as property and compared them to animals. In this work, Morrison examined how psychological damage brought on by tragedy may lead to isolation and social immobility. Her writing mostly focuses on the experiences of women victims of sexual and racial persecution. Beloved by Toni Morrison shows many aspects of trauma, such as disintegration, continuity between the past and the present, and restoration. Individuals, families, and even communities may all show signs of trauma. Morrison’s account contains other painful elements, but the overpowering intensity of these occurrences is the most prominent. This dissertation delves into the struggles, fears, and mental pain the black characters in Toni Morrison’s works face

Transportation of fingerlings and juveniles of marine finfish

There are two basic transport systems for live fish - the closed system and the open system. The closed system is a sealed container in which all the requirements for survival are selfcontained. The simplest of these is a sealed plastic bag partly filled with water and oxygen. The open system consists of waterfilled containers in which the requirements for survival are supplied continuously from outside sources. The simplest of these is a small tank with an aerator stone

Development of a Scale to Measure the Marketing Behaviour of Vegetable Farmers

Marketing behaviour is the attitude and/or conduct of a person towards marketing activities. Marketing decisions made by the farmer are based on factors such as commodity, quantity and quality of produce, distance from market, transportation facilities, risk bearing ability, innovativeness, etc. The study of marketing behaviour of the farmer could help in promoting inclusive markets with the direct participation of farmers leading to better profit margins. In the present study a scale was developed to measure the marketing behaviour of vegetable farmers. The items generated rated for relevance by expert judges and after item selection; it was administered to respondents for scoring. This was followed by factor analysis using principal component analysis. The scale was standardized after reliability testing using Cronbach's alpha and scale validation using content analysis. The final scale covered seven dimensions, viz., production oriented decisions, planning orientation, farm enterprise management, enterprise planning, technology oriented marketing, market based production preferences and quality oriented production with 27 statements

Awareness of cord blood banking among pregnant women in semi urban area

Background: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are multipotent stem cells, derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord. These HSC are accepted method of treatment for various disorders. Cord blood can be stored either in private or public bank. Awareness about cord blood banking among semi urban and rural population is less compared to urban population. The aim of our study is to evaluate the awareness of cord blood banking among pregnant women in semi urban area and to evaluate their willingness for donating to public blood bank.Methods: This is a cross sectional study done among 365 pregnant women attending antenatal OPD in Obstetrics and Gynecology department of SMVMCH, Puducherry.Results: Forty five percent of pregnant women had knowledge about uses of umbilical cord blood usage during pregnancy. Only 5 % of pregnant women knew about cost of stem cell storage. Less than 1% knew about availability of public cord blood banking. After informing about availability of public cord blood storage 72% of pregnant women were willing to donate to public bank.Conclusions: Knowledge about cord blood banking is lacking among pregnant women. Especially majority of them are unaware of public cord blood banking. Private banking will be useful for those with family members affected with diseases amenable to HSC transplantation. More support from government and private organizations are required, which will help in better functioning of public cord blood bank services

Seismic Response of Reinforced Soil Retaining Walls with Block Facings

Reinforced soil walls have become very popular in seismic areas owing to their flexible nature and cost effectiveness when compared to the conventional retaining structures. Although the use of reinforced soil walls with modular block facings and gabion facings is growing world wide at a rapid rate, the seismic response of these walls is yet to be analyzed. This paper discusses the response of these walls in terms of lateral facing deflection, reinforcement tensile force and crest surface settlement when subjected to seismic loading simulated by means of a variable amplitude harmonic vibration using the finite element analysis package, PLAXIS V8. From the study, it was found that there is significant effect of seismic loading on the response of reinforced soil walls and the analyses and design of these walls are to be done only after considering the dynamic earthquake loading in seismic prone areas. The gabion faced reinforced soil walls were found to be more effective than the segmental walls in resisting the dynamic excitations due to earthquake loading. The study also confirmed that various reinforcement design parameters and backfill parameters play an important role in minimizing the facing deflection and the settlement of the wall subjected to dynamic earthquake excitation

High frequency Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation in rubber tree via. vacuum infiltration

In a tree species like Hevea brasiliensis, genetic transformation offers a viable approach for crop improvement within a short period. Hevea being highly recalcitrant to in vitro culture, an efficient transformation protocol is necessary for generating large number of transgenic plants with stable foreign gene expression. After several modifications in the initial transformation protocol, the transformation frequency was increased to 14 per cent using proliferated anther callus. Therefore, vacuum infiltration was attempted for enhancing the transformation frequency. In the present work the conditions for vacuum infiltration viz. vacuum pressure and period of infiltration were standardized. Vacuum infiltration at 30 psi pressure for 10 minutes was found to be ideal for getting high frequency transformation in H. brasiliensis. Irrespective of the gene constructs experimented, transformation frequency was significantly improved by adopting vacuum infiltration. Employing this technique, the transformation efficiency of MnSOD gene construct with FMV34S promoter could be enhanced from 14 to 50 percent

Health problems in geriatric population of age group ≥70 years in rural Kerala, India: a cross sectional study

Background: The proportion of elderly population is increasing considerably world over. The health and socio-economic issues of this section is to be considered separately and in depth insights about them is needed for formulating elderly friendly health policy. This study intends toidentify the important health concerns of elderly population above the age group of 70 years in a rural area in North Kerala, India.Methods: It is a community based cross-sectional descriptive study involving all individuals above the age group of 70 years in a randomly selected panchayath ward from rural North Kerala. The data regarding demography, socioeconomic aspects, medical history, access to health care and treatment of chronic illnesses were collected through interview of study participants by a trained health care volunteer using a pre-validated questionnaire.Results: A total of 93 individuals above the age group of 70 years were included in the study out of which 63% were females and 37% males. In the study population 55.9% of the elderly were widowed and 87.1 % were staying along with their children. Almost 75% of the elderly received social welfare pension from government agencies and 14.3% received service pensions. 67.74% of the study population were hypertensive and 35.56% were diabetic. Other health issues included arthritis, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, genito urinary symptoms and cerebrovascular accident.Conclusion:  The study provide valuable insights into the health and social issues of elderly in Kerala and points to the importance of formulating an elderly friendly health policy in the state

Site and species selection criteria for cage culture

Site selection is the most important factor which determines the commercial viability of mariculture systems. Cage culture can be made possible only when the site for cage culture operation is located, designed and operated to provide optimum water quality and to avoid stress conditions. In addition to water and sediment quality of the site some biological and natural distribution information for the species should also be known before a site is selected for cage culture. The selection of fish for cage culture should be based on biological criteria, such as physiological, behavioural characteristics and level of domestication; marketing criteria and environmental criteria, distribution and habitat of sit

Open sea cage culture for marine finfish and shellfishes

Open sea cage culture for marine finfish and shellfishe