Thinking about the 'law of unintended consequences'

The United State’s now-not-so-covert drone based program targeting Al Qaeda (AQ) and Taliban commanders based in Pakistan’s inhospitable and hostile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FETA) has been operational since 2004. However, US air strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt have steadily escalated over the past three years. The US has claimed that these attacks have successfully decimated core Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership. This past September alone the US military conducted 26 drone strikes in Pakistan, racking up a figure that the BBC is calling the "highest monthly total for the past six years". Not only do these steadily escalating drone strikes raise some pertinent questions about US/NATO successes claimed under the rubric of the Global War on Terror (or if you prefer, the Overseas Contingency Operations) but they also shed some light on the deteriorating political situation in Pakistan.Publisher PD

Saving Rangelands from Pastoralists? Understanding the Long-Term Socio-Ecological Consequences of the Current Rangeland Conservation Model in the Indian Himalaya

Following the mainstream narrative of biodiversity conservation, state-led policies of pastoralist removal from protected areas have been a common practice across parts of Asia and Africa. In the Himalayan region, restrictive access and removal of pastoralist communities from protected areas have been assumed to be the best remedy for rangeland conservation. But does this practice translate into any benefits for conservation? This paper critiques the current conservation model adopted in the Indian Himalayas. I argue that this model simply recreates a landscape favouring the state’s interests, produces exclusions, and may also negatively affect both society and ecology. I build on a case study of a grazing ban implemented in the state of Sikkim in the year 1998. Livestock herding in protected areas was restricted, and pastoral evictions were carried out across the state between 2000– 2002. Fifteen years after the ban, I conducted a mix methods study to understand the long- term social as well as ecological implications of the prohibition on grazing as well as that of the pastoral evictions in and around Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP). My methods included both semi structured interviews as well as ethnographic survey in addition to the secondary data analysis between the year 2015-2019. My results show that pastoral evictions result in the further impoverishment of weaker sections of the pastoral community while powerful pastoralists appropriate benefits from conservation policies. Additionally, evictions do not necessarily aid in “biodiversity conservation”; instead, they give rise to social conflicts within the local community and lead to the emergence of new conservation challenges. I conclude that instead of pastoral displacement, a successful conservation plan could be co-opting local knowledge and local institutions in identifying ways of cultural and conservation coexistence in the pastoral landscape of South Asia, paying closer attention to questions of equality and sustainability

Performance Improvement in DSR and Comparitive Analysis with DSDV, AODV, DSR

Mobile ad-hoc network is an infrastructure less wireless network which have group of hosts. To communicate, these hosts on behalf of one another they transfer the packets. In an ad-hoc network there are many routing protocol. The most popular one ,out of them is dynamic source routing protocol(DSR).The most of the routing algorithms for MANET are designed for single source and single destination in the network. We have considered multiple source (two and three in our case) and single destination scenario. In our work we present some ideas or enhancements to the existing DSR protocol to make it more capable to tackle the above mentioned situation. We have taken our hypothesis of multiple source acting in network along with a single destination for high mobility area. Under this kind of situation also the performance of our network changes, as the nodes are mobile so the reputed routes (efficient route) keep on changing all the time and almost all the routing protocols are not capable of using the best routes for the optimum time as it would stick to the once captured route despite of the available good routes. So in our protocol ExDSR (Extended DSR) we tried to overcome this problem. To evaluate the performance of our proposed work different simulations have been conducted, considering various possible network parameters. We compared our protocol with the existing ones like AODV, DSDV and DSR and this novel protocol has shown better performance than the existing protocols under the mentioned scenarios

Comparative study of once and twice application of topical 5% permethrin in patients of scabies

Background: Scabies is an itchy skin condition caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei which is treated by various topical and oral drugs. Among the all topical drugs, permethrin has been the drug of choice for the treatment of scabies. Therefore the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of once and twice (repeat after one week) application of topical 5% permethrin in patients of scabies.Methods: This was an observational study in which a total number of 52, clinically diagnosed patients of scabies, receiving the topical 5% permethrin once (group A) and twice (repeat after one week-group B), were observed for treatment outcome. Treatment was evaluated at intervals of 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks by improvement or decrease in number of lesions and severity of pruritus. The efficacy of both the methods was compared statistically within and between the two groups.Results: A significant (p= <0.05) decrease in number of lesions as well as pruritus was observed at each follow up visit separately in both the groups. Between the groups comparison demonstrated a significant (p= <0.05) decrease in number of lesions as well as pruritus in group B, at follow up visit of 2 weeks while at the end of 4 weeks there was no difference in cure rate of both groups.Conclusions: Both the treatment modalities revealed equal efficacy at the end of 4 weeks. However, twice application of topical 5% permethrin showed faster and significant improvement at 2 week follow up in reference to both the number of lesions and severity of pruritus

Qualitative Analysis of Darlington Feedback Amplifier at 45nm Technology

The transistors are the key element of present communication system having high data rate. Some applications need high gain by using very low frequency, and then transistors are used. Amplifier is the key element in many applications of present high data rate communication system such as low noise amplifier (LNA), broadband amplifier, distributed and power amplifier. The Darlington pair amplifier is analyzed for high frequency performance and related effect of bandwidth. Broadband feedback Darlington pair amplifier is designed with enhanced gain, bandwidth and slew rate. This paper presents the comparison of single stage and three stage feedback Darlington feedback amplifier with reference to gain, bandwidth and slew rate. This paper is simulated on cadence analog design environment at GPDK 45nm technology. This paper shows that increase in gain, bandwidth and slew rate of three stage Darlington feedback amplifier can show better stability over the single stage Darlington feedback amplifier.

Prevalence of Multidrug Resistant Bacillus cereus in Foods and Human Stool Samples in and Around Pantnagar, Uttrakhand

.A total number of 63 samples out of 505 samples were found to be positive for Bacillus cereus. The positive samples comprised of 29 samples of human stool, 10 of milk, 23 of meat and meat products origin. These positive isolates were tested against 13 different commonly used antibiotics by the disc diffusion method. Antibiogram pattern of these 63 isolates indicated multidrug resistance. B. cereus isolates showed a high rate of resistance to Carbenicillin, Kanamycin and Ampicillin and intermediate frequency of resistance to Amoxicillin and Cephalothin. All the isolates irrespective of their source were resistant to Bacitracin and Penicillin G and sensitive to Aminoglycosides (Gentamycin, Neomycin and Streptomycin) and Chloramphenicol. However, variable resistance patterns were also recorded in B. cereus isolates obtained from different origin, which is suggestive of source-associated resistance. It can be inferred from the above study that presence of multidrug resistant B. cereus in animal-origin food and environment in such high proportion is of public health significance

Low Noise Amplifier using Darlington Pair At 90nm Technology

The demand of low noise amplifier (LNA) has been rising in today’s communication system. LNA is the basic building circuit of the receiver section satellite. The design concept demonstrates the design trade off with NF, gain, power consumption. This paper reports on with analysis of wideband LNA. This paper shows the schematic of LNA by using Darlington pair amplifier. This LNA has been fabricated on 90nm CMOS process. This paper is focused on to make comparison of three stage and single stage LNA. Here, the phase mismatch between these patameters is quantitavely analyzed to study the effect on gain and noise figure (NF). In this paper, single stage LNA has shown the 23 dB measured gain, while the three stages LNA has demonstrated 29 dB measured gain. Here, LNA designed using darlington pair shows low NF of 3.3-4.8 dB, which comparable to other reported single stage LNA designs and appreciably low compared to the three stages LNA. Hence, findings from this paper suggest the use of single stage LNA designed using Darlington pair in transceiver satellite applications

A study for the Assessment of Nutritional Deficiency Status of the School Going Girls

Nutrient deficiencies are prevalent worldwide. Nutritional status refers to a person's overall health, which is impacted by nutrient intake and use in the body. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 are commonly regarded to be of school age, and this might be a second chance to make up on growth. Children's nutritional condition reflects not only the family's financial position and community's social well-being&nbsp;but also the health-care system's productivity and the effect on&nbsp;the surroundings. The present study reveals that the school going girls are suffering from different nutritional deficiencies like- anaemia, underweight, overweight, obesity, stunting, iodine deficiency etc. These deficiencies are emerging health problems and become the major epidemic cause of serious health problems in India. Children's diets in India, like those in many other wealthy nations, are often imbalanced, with an overabundance of calories and protein and insufficient amounts of numerous minerals and vitamins

Maternal and perinatal outcome in Rh negative mothers

Background: The objective of this study is to find out the incidence and foetomaternal outcome of Rh negative women during pregnancy.Methods: In the study group, the labor was monitored carefully and the mode of delivery and the outcome of labor was studied in detail. Baby was thoroughly examined for any obvious congenital anomaly, weight, sex and condition was also noted particularly for hydrops. If neonate was Rh positive, then the mother was given postpartum immunoprophylaxis within 24 hours of delivery. The new born were followed for 3 days and were watched for the development of Jaundice. Mothers were advised to attend postnatal clinic for check-up after 6 weeks of delivery.Results: Blood group distribution of newborn: 37 were Rh positive and 18 were Rh negative. Raised Rh antibody titre was not found in any of the 55 cases. Maximum cases 47 delivered at 38-40 weeks, 2 cases delivered after 40 weeks and 6 patients delivered between 30-38 weeks. Maximum cases 37 delivered normally, 12 required cesarean section and 2 had forceps delivery. The babies who developed NNHB were managed either by sunrays exposure only or by phototherapy. The babies who had anemia immediately after birth were carefully monitored and considered for exchange transfusion.Conclusions: Tremendous advances in the medical services and technology during the last few decades have revolutionized the treatment of Rh disease. Various studies have been conducted and several are going on the in this field to achieve zero incidence of this disease