Trends, Challenges and Future of Library and Information Science Education in India

The technological revolution paved the challenges for the library and information science (LIS) school, not only in India but also in the west. Responsibilities of LIS departments and teachers are increasing to produce best LIS professionals to lead 'he 21st century librarianship. The major responsibility of the LIS departments in India is to groom LIS students in the philosophy. knowledge.and professional values of librariansnip, as practiced in libraries and in other contexts. and as guided by the vision of the 21st century librarianship. LIS education and training facilities in India are undergoing rapid changes. During the past 10 years. the number of library schools/departments has grown sut stantially, both for regular anddistance education programmes. Reorientation has been common in most LIS departments, and review and revision in curriculum has also been noticed. The quality of LIS educators has also improved and research output is experiencing new dimensions. Increase in the use and access to information and communication technologies (leT) for LIS education is now more evident. This paper discusses the challenges LIS education faces in the 21st century and how to make LIS education more relevant and effective

Chronic liver disease (CLD) research in SAARC countries: A scientometric analysis of research output during 1996-2015

The study focuses on the pattern of literature growth, global publication share and ranking, authorship pattern, collaborative coefficient, productivity and impact of most productive institutions and authors, sources and highly cited articles based on data obtained on chronic liver disease research from Scopus. It is found that SAARC countries together contributed 2312 documents during 1996–2015, which is only about 3.49 % of the global CLD output of 66200 publications. The study further revealed that the amount of literature related to CLD research has considerably increased over the last five years. India is leading among SAARC member countries in terms of publication share, leading institutions and authors. The results of study call for more collaboration among the member countries of SAARC as well as with other leading countries, which will increase both quantity and quality of research in CLD

Taxonomic Studies on the Genus Athesapeuta

Six species of genus Athesapeuta Faust (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Baridinae) from India and the adjacent countries are included, of which three new species, namley meghalayensis sp. nov., richardi sp. nov., and spinulatus sp. nov., are described. An annotated checklist of known species along with their synonymy and distribution is given. Descriptions are supplemented with details of genitalia and elytral vestiture; a key to the species studied is provided

Performance of Anthurium (Anthurium anderanum Lindl) cultivars under hill zone of Karnataka

An investigation was carried out at experimental block, College of Horticulture, Mudigere. Tropical recorded maximum LAI 2.83, and had maximum plant height, number of leaves, leaf area and Leaf area Index. Cultivar Crinkle Red recorded maximum number of flowers per plant per year (13.14), which was on par with Tropical (11.77), Cheers (10.60) and Fire (10.25). Cultivar Midori recorded maximum vase life (35.00 days) followed by Tropical (33.33 days) and it was on par with Fire (32.22 days). Cultivar Midori recorded maximum vase life (35.00 days), followed by Tropical (33.33 days) and it was on par with Fire (32.22 days) and highest B:C ratio is recorded in cultivar Tropical (1.83) and it was least in Fantacia (1.13)

Genetic structure of the rattan Calamus thwaitesii in core, buffer and peripheral regions of three protected areas in central Western Ghats, India: do protected areas serve as refugia for genetic resources of economically important plants?

Given the increasing anthropogenic pressures on forests, the various protected areas-national parks, sanctuaries, and biosphere reserves-serve as the last footholds for conserving biological diversity. However, because protected areas are often targeted for the conservation of selected species, particularly charismatic animals, concerns have been raised about their effectiveness in conserving nontarget taxa and their genetic resources. In this paper, we evaluate whether protected areas can serve as refugia for genetic resources of economically important plants that are threatened due to extraction pressures. We examine the population structure and genetic diversity of an economically important rattan, Calamus thwaitesii, in the core, buffer and peripheral regions of three protected areas in the central Western Ghats, southern India. Our results indicate that in all the three protected areas, the core and buffer regions maintain a better population structure, as well as higher genetic diversity, than the peripheral regions of the protected area. Thus, despite the escalating pressures of extraction, the protected areas are effective in conserving the genetic resources of rattan. These results underscore the importance of protected areas in conservation of nontarget species and emphasize the need to further strengthen the protected-area network to offer refugia for economically important plant species

2-(2-Benzyl­phen­yl)propan-2-ol

There are two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C16H18O, a tertiary alcohol featuring a 2-benzyl­phenyl substituent. Co-operative O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the mol­ecules into tetra­mers

Feature extraction based face recognition, gender and age classification

The face recognition system with large sets of training sets for personal identification normally attains good accuracy. In this paper, we proposed Feature Extraction based Face Recognition, Gender and Age Classification (FEBFRGAC) algorithm with only small training sets and it yields good results even with one image per person. This process involves three stages: Pre-processing, Feature Extraction and Classification. The geometric features of facial images like eyes, nose, mouth etc. are located by using Canny edge operator and face recognition is performed. Based on the texture and shape information gender and age classification is done using Posteriori Class Probability and Artificial Neural Network respectively. It is observed that the face recognition is 100%, the gender and age classification is around 98% and 94% respectively

Antifungal potential of Azotobacter species and its metabolites against Fusarium verticillioides and biodegradation of fumonisin

Abstract Aims In the study, seven Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) Azotobacter species were screened against three strains of Fusarium verticillioides to test its antifungal activity. Azotobacter strains were tested for the degradation of fumonisin produced by F. verticillioides. Secondary metabolites were isolated and characterized from the Azotobacter strains for the first time. Methods and Results Potential seven Azotobacter species antifungal activity was tested following the dual culture assay against three strains of Fusarium verticillioides namely FVM-42, FVM-86 and MTCC156 estimating the substantial zone of inhibition. Azotobacter species AZT-31 and AZT-50 strains significantly inhibited the growth of F. verticillioides recording drastic growth enhancement of maize under in-vitro conditions by calculating the infection incidence, vigour index and germination percentage. As confirmation, dereplication studies were conducted for the reconfirmation of Azotobacter strains by isolating from rhizoplane. Azotobacter strains played a key role in the degradation of fumonisin produced by F. verticillioides reporting 98% degradation at 2Â h of incubation with the pathogen. Furthermore, in the study first time, we have tried to isolate and characterize the secondary metabolites from the Azotobacter strains exhibiting six compounds from the species AZT-31 (2) and AZT-50 (4). Preliminary in-vitro experiments were carried out using the compounds extracted to check the reduction of infection incidence (90%) and increase in germination percentage upto 50 to 70% when compared to the test pathogen. Conclusion Azotobacter strains referred as PGPR on influencing the growth of plant by producing certain substances that act as stimulators on inhibiting the growth of the pathogen. Significance and Impact of the study The future perspective would be the production of an active combination of carboxamide compound and Azotobacter species for preventively controlling the phytopathogenic fungi of plants and crops and also towards the treatment of seeds

Magnetic and electron transport properties of the rare-earth cobaltates, La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 (Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy) : A case of phase separation

Magnetic and electrical properties of four series of rare earth cobaltates of the formula La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 with Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy have been investigated. Compositions close to x = 0.0 contain large ferromagnetic clusters or domains, and show Brillouin-like behaviour of the field-cooled DC magnetization data with fairly high ferromagnetic Tc values, besides low electrical resistivities with near-zero temperature coefficients. The zero-field-cooled data generally show a non-monotonic behaviour with a peak at a temperatures slightly lower than Tc. The near x = 0.0 compositions show a prominent peak corresponding to the Tc in the AC-susceptibility data. The ferromagnetic Tc varies linearly with x or the average radius of the A-site cations, (rA). With increase in x or decrease in (rA), the magnetization value at any given temperature decreases markedly and the AC-susceptibility measurements show a prominent transition arising from small magnetic clusters with some characteristics of a spin-glass. Electrical resistivity increases with increase in x, showed a significant increase around a critical value of x or (rA), at which composition the small clusters also begin to dominate. These properties can be understood in terms of a phase separation scenario wherein large magnetic clusters give way to smaller ones with increase in x, with both types of clusters being present in certain compositions. The changes in magnetic and electrical properties occur parallely since the large ferromagnetic clusters are hole-rich and the small clusters are hole-poor. Variable-range hopping seems to occur at low temperatures in these cobaltates.Comment: 23 pages including figure

A conserved amino acid residue critical for product and substrate specificity in plant triterpene synthases

Triterpenes are structurally complex plant natural products with numerous medicinal applications. They are synthesized through an origami-like process that involves cyclization of the linear 30 carbon precursor 2,3-oxidosqualene into different triterpene scaffolds. Here, through a forward genetic screen in planta, we identify a conserved amino acid residue that determines product specificity in triterpene synthases from diverse plant species. Mutation of this residue results in a major change in triterpene cyclization, with production of tetracyclic rather than pentacyclic products. The mutated enzymes also use the more highly oxygenated substrate dioxidosqualene in preference to 2,3-oxidosqualene when expressed in yeast. Our discoveries provide new insights into triterpene cyclization, revealing hidden functional diversity within triterpene synthases. They further open up opportunities to engineer novel oxygenated triterpene scaffolds by manipulating the precursor supply