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Control of blindness due to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) requires timely screening and treatment within 48–72 h. Anticipating that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would disrupt ROP services, we devised strategies ''on-the''-go"" to ameliorate this possiblity. We describe the successful outcomes of this approach in preventing infant blindness during the pandemic. Data on the number of preemies recruited, screened and treated in the Karnataka Internet-assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity (KIDROP) program were collected in a retrospective (2019, interval 1) – prospective (2020, interval 2) manner. We summarize 10 key strategies that were developed as we faced logistic, operational and implementation challenges. These included pragmatic methods of enhancing enrolment, transporting for screening and ensuring timely treatment in the outreach. The total number of ROP screening sessions was 20,598 (7,197 new) and 14,371 (5,773 new) during interval 1 and 2 respectively. Of these, 166 (2.3%) and 157 (2.7%) infants required treatment during interval 1 and 2 respectively. All infants needing treatment during the COVID period, were treated on time which was possible due to successful implementation of the 'on-the-go' strategies throughout the state of Karnataka. The fiscal equivalent of the blindness prevented during this period is USD 15.6 million. The greater decline in the number of ROP screening episodes in neonatal units in government hospitals was because several were converted to 'COVID only" hospitals. KIDROP's multi-zonal, decentralized strategy, which uses non-physician-based imaging in a telemedicine network, ensured that essential ROP services continued even during the lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioavailability of a drug depends on the absorption of the drug, which is affected by its solubility in gastrointestinal fluid and permeability of the drug across gastrointestinal membrane. The rate of drug dissolution though, is greatly influenced by disintegration of the tablet. The need to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly-water soluble drugs led to the introduction of a group of disintegrants known as super-disintegrants. They achieve disintegration faster than the usual disintegrants. This study utilized scientometric analysis (study that can be applied to any discipline to find out its trends and growth of literature) to highlight the most impactful and influential publication sources, most active researchers and institutions as related to various researches into / using Superdisintegrants. 229 bibliographic documents were analyzed. These were obtained from the SCOPUS data base. Data obtained show that India has carried out the most impactful studies as it concerns superdisintegrants. The peak of such research was between the years 2011 - 2015. Scientometric analysis such as this, leads researchers to reliable sources of information. For this particular area of study, it can be noted that there is indeed a need for more collaboration within authors and various institutions involved in such researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Considering the role of the textile industry in the generation of employment and export in the Indian economy, it is important to comprehend the efficiency level in the operations of the textile units located in different states in India. In this light, the purpose of this paper is to examine the operational efficiency of textile manufacturing units in Haryana, a northern state of India. Design/methodology/approach: The study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach consisting of input-oriented CCR and BCC techniques along with the return to scale technique for the analysis of five years of data from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020. Findings: The results reveal that Haryana's textile units have significantly underperformed operationally, with an average technical efficiency score of just 0.25 for five years, from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020. The yearly ratings of the overall technical efficiency of the selected textile companies include 0.20, 0.18, 0.18, 0.40 and 0.28; PTE scores are 0.43, 0.43, 0.55, 0.60, 0.62 and scale efficiency scores 0.54, 0.44, 0.29, 0.71, 0.38, respectively, from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020. On the other hand, average of 5.8 units are functioning at the constant return to scale, 10.2 units are at increasing return to scale and average of 45 units are functioning at decreasing return to scale (DRS). It is found that most of the companies are functioning at a DRS; to boost efficiency, these companies must reduce their input size since they are running at a DRS. Practical implications: The results of the current paper provide key insight into the inefficiency level of the textile manufacturing industry in the context of northern India. Industry professionals can take corrective measures based on these findings. Moreover, for investors and portfolio managers, knowing which companies are efficient and which are not will help them make better decisions. The study helps policymakers to frame appropriate policy guidelines to make the textile units in the state more efficient and competitive. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has been done so far on the operational performance of the textile industry in Haryana based on the DEA technique. So, it will contribute to the extant literature on the performance of the textile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire can be especially dangerous when it occurs in hospitals because many patients in any typical hospital are not physically fit enough to quickly respond to emergency measures, especially evacuation calls. The present paper reports an in-depth assessment of the factors which have led to major fire accidents in Indian hospitals. The study reveals that several building safety codes, acts and guidelines are available, not only to prevent accidental fires but also to minimize harm when such fires do take place. However, observance of the stipulations is very lax, and seems to be exercised more in breach than in compliance. The study reveals that hospitals have zones like the intensive care units which are not only more prone to accidents than other zones but can also cause greater loss of lives due to the presence of critically ill patients, or persons who are extremely vulnerable (for instance newborn babies). Special codes and practices need to be framed for such zones. The study has also identified and catalogued a series of measures which must be implemented in future to prevent accidental fires in hospitals. The study is with reference to accidents that have occurred in India from 2010 to the present but is representative of the situation prevailing in most developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An industrial warehouse is a structure which provides a proper environment to store goods such as raw materials, manufactured products and heavy machineries. In India, due to the rapid growth of industrialization, need for a well-planned and economical industrial warehouse has been increased. From the critical review of literature, the objective of this study is decided as to plan and analyse a two-storey industrial warehouse with conventional angular and tubular sections and pre-engineered sections. The plan and elevation of an industrial warehouse were drafted using AUTOCAD software. Analysis and design of an industrial warehouse was carried out using STAAD-Pro software according to Indian standards. From the analysis and design, the amount of steel required and maximum axial force, shear force, relative displacement and bending moment were obtained for the proposed warehouse with conventional angular and tubular sections and preengineered sections. From the results, it is concluded that the industrial warehouse with pre-engineered sections is found to be the most economical when compared to an industrial warehouse with conventional angular, tubular sections based on the total steel take-off evolved. From the comparative study, it is also observed that the forces, moments and displacements developed in critical elements of an industrial warehouse are found to be very less with pre-engineered sections compared to conventional angular and tubular sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contralateral lymph node metastasis (CLNM) is a poor prognostic factor in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). There is limited data from India on this topic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of contralateral positive cancer patients undergoing neck dissection in a tertiary hospital in India. We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of 180 patients who had bilateral lymph nodes dissection for OSCC. Demographic, clinico-pathological and follow up data was abstracted directly from patients' electronic medical records. We analyzed the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of these patients using a log-rank test (univariate) and cox proportional hazards model (multivariate). The median age of the cohort was 52 years (21-78 years) and comprised 125 males (69.4%). 83 (46.1%) patients had nodal metastasis on the contralateral side. Median follow up for patients who were alive at the time of analysis was 25.6 months (0.1- 130.1 months). Deeper lesion (depth 2.15 cm vs 1.70 cm, p=0.01), presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (51.9% vs 31.4%, p=0.01), extranodal extension (ENE) (54% vs 34.4%, p=0.01) and nodal metastasis to ipsilateral level IV (83.3% vs 33.1%, p<0.01) predisposed to contralateral nodal metastasis. There were 92 disease failures in this cohort with 2 year DFS of 52%. Depth of invasion (DoI) [Hazard ratio (HR) 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02- 1.44, p=0.03), involved margins (HR 3.49, CI 1.83- 6.64, p<0.01), presence of perineural invasion (PNI) (HR 2.64, CI 1.54- 4.53, p <0.01), masticator space invasion (HR 2.10, CI 1.01- 4.08, p= 0.03) and presence of extranodal extension (ENE) in contralateral node (HR HR 2.29, CI 1.00- 5.29, p= 0.04) predicted poorer DFS on univariate analysis. On multivariate analysis, tongue as primary site(HR 0.49, CI 0.28- 0.85, p=0.01), involved margins (HR 2.66, CI 1.30- 5.43, p<0.01) and PNI (HR 2.62, CI 1.36- 4.99, p<0.01) affected the DFS significantly. There were 54 deaths in this cohort with a 2-year OS of 70.1%. Involved margins (HR 4.89, CI 2.17- 11.05, p<0.01), PNI (HR 3.11, CI 1.47- 6.61, p<0.01) and ENE (HR 1.77, CI 1.01- 3.07, p=0.04) were associated with a poorer OS on univariate analysis. On multivariate analysis, involved margins (HR 2.91, CI 1.22- 6.97, p=0.02) and PNI (HR 2.25, CI 1.02- 4.98, p=0.04) resulted in patients having poorer OS. This study provides valuable insights into the outcomes of patients with contralateral lymph nodal metastasis for patients who underwent curative intent surgery for oral squamous cell carcinoma. Deeper lesions, presence of lymphovascular invasion, extranodal extension and nodal metastasis to ipsilateral level IV predisposed to contralateral nodal metastasis. Primary site, involved margins and perineural invasion predicted the disease free survival, whereas involved margins and perineural invasion predicted overall survival in this cohort of patients. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates radon and thoron concentrations in soil and water at one of the most prominent faults in Mizoram state, India. The obtained isotope pair data were consequently used for estimating the uranium and thorium content of the region. An indigenously developed and calibrated ZnS(Ag) alpha based scintillation counter (Model: SMARTRnDuo, BARC, India) was deployed for assessing radon and thoron data. Thoron concentration was found to be higher than radon concentration in both soil and water. The isotope pair and their parent nuclei concentration in water were found to be higher than in soil. The uranium and thorium content in soil were estimated to be 17.5 and 22.6 Bqkg-1 respectively, but in water, they were estimated to be 41.6 and 124.8 Bqkg-1 respectively. Comparisons with global averages were also presented in detail and no radiological risk has been observed for the region. A continuous radon data was generated at Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram (India) for cross-analysis with data at Mat fault. It was observed that radon data of the two locations behave similarly during geophysical phenomena, indicating that the region was seismically active. No geophysical properties of thoron were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African swine fever (ASF), considered as the most dreadful swine disease due to its very high mortality, emerged in India in 2020. The complete genome analysis of ASF viruses isolated during the first outbreaks in India showed a few unique non‐synonymous mutations in MGF 369‐11L, MGF 505‐4R, K205R and B263R genes. Frame shifts in the protein coding sequences were observed in DP60R, ASFV‐G_ACD 00190, MGF 110‐10‐L‐MGF110‐14L fusion, MGF 360‐14L and I267L genes of Indian ASF viruses as compared to ASFV/Georgia/2007. Complete genome based phylogenetic analysis of p72‐genotype‐II viruses showed the clustering of Indian isolates with ASFV/Wuhan/2019 in a separate clade. Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated sequences of 14 open reading frames (ORF) having single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) showed distinct grouping of Indian ASFVs with other Asian ASFVs. This is the first complete genome characterization of ASF viruses isolated from domestic pigs in India. The results indicate that number of Tandem Repeat Sequence (TRS) in the intergenic region between I73R and I329L genes, and the 14 ORFs with SNP reported in this study could be the genetic determinants to differentiate the closely related p72‐genotype II viruses circulating in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Government and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) are in charge of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) India, a voluntary long-term investment plan for retirement. A government-sponsored pension program is the NPS. Throughout their working lives, participants of the plan are able to make regular contributions to a pension account. A portion of the corpus may be withdrawn in one lump amount by subscribers upon retirement, and the balance may be used to purchase an annuity to ensure a steady income in retirement. The National Pension Scheme is only vaguely known, and few people have shown much interest in it. The performance of the National Pension Scheme funds supplied by different companies is examined in order to determine which funds to invest in in order to increase income. In order to study the performance of the National Pension Scheme in India, this report attempts to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing population and the vehicle strength are alarming that arises the importance of the issue to deal with alternative fuels in existing diesel engine without modification The biodiesel is derived from vegetable oils to replace the conventional diesel fuel. In this research, we have considered the esterified rice bran oil as biodiesel. Even though it is edible oil, the consumption of rice, particularly in south India, is more when compared with the other parts of the world that enables the preparation of the fuel quickly. The rice bran oil prepared by the trans-esterification method and tested in a VCR engine in blends of 10% and 20% with pure diesel. The engine compression ratios were chosen as 16:1, 17:1 and 18:1. This research includes investigation on performance, combustion and emission by varying the compression ratios for the blends and compared with pure diesel and conducted experiments with a turbocharger, fitted with the engine. The results obtained were presented and analysed to optimise the suitable blend and compression ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MSME sector is the most demanded, vibrant and dynamic sector which contributes highly to country's manufacturing output, employment and exports. As this sector contains more than 80% of the total enterprises of the economy, its labor intensity is much higher than that of any other large enterprise. MSME is an important pillar of Indian economy as this sector is continuously contributing greatly to the growth and development of Indian economy by creating around 70 million employment, manufacturing more than 6000 products, contributing about 45% of manufacturing production and 40% from exports. Presently, the MSME sector is mostly dominated by microenterprises. This signifies that this sector is inviting and giving opportunities to new people for earning and being independent through its available schemes. Therefore, this paper is focused on the financial performance analysis of MSME sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prime purpose of this study is to find out the research productivity of three regions Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. The bibliometric quantification was used to analyze the data. The present research identifies the importance of this online journal. The study discloses frequency of publication growth, author's collaborations, papers length, and most cited papers, most productive authors, and total references used. Design/methodology/approach The survey method was used to find out the full-text research articles on the online database of LPP. The Google scholar was used to retrieve the citations. All the collected data has been analyzed using MS excel and other electronic devices. Findings The results of this study indicate that in the year 2008 to 2013. The contribution of Nigerian authors is more than the other two nations that are 226 while Indian comes 2nd with 193 research papers and Pakistan comes 3rd with 67 research articles from the studied period in the wellknown journal of Library and information science field that is LPP. The present study revealed the majority of the research articles were single authors from Nigeria 114, Pakistan 18, and India 80. The study results show that the majority of the paper length in the range of 6-10 Nigerian 116, Pakistan 34, and India 70 respectively. The study showed the total references were calculated 4140 from Nigeria, 1506 Pakistan, and 3243 from Indian. The most cited paper was retrieved by a Nigerian paper that is 197 citations. The analyzed data shows the most productive authors were Rubina Bhatti from Pakistan with 18 research papers. This study contributes to the existing literature of three-nation contributions to the Library Philosophy and practice throughout the year. This is the first study of three-nation research productivity in the well-known online journal library philosophy and practice. Limitations of the study The present study was limited to the well-known LIS Journal and research articles specifically published at online journal library philosophy and practice. This study is purely limited to the research productivity of Nigerian, Pakistani, and Indian authors to the Library Philosophy and Practice from 2008 to 2013. Practical implications Despite its limitations, the findings of the study will help the LIS professionals of three nations and as well as other parts of the LIS professionals to provide more information about their research productivity of a particular journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accident is an unexpected, unplanned occurrence which may involve injury or it may be defined as an unpremeditated event resulting in recognizable damage. Railway related injuries are not those uncommon occurrences in forensic practice. Among the varied presentation of injuries, superficial injuries along with fractures were commonly observed. Over the last 15 years many railway accidents have happened in Andhra Pradesh and in India. Following these train accidents, there has been a large amount of public debate about safety management on the Indian railways. These accidents have raised issues regarding the effectiveness of the safety management of the railway system. This paper presents a summary of the results of a preliminary systemic analysis of several rail accidents in and around Warangal City. The present study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Warangal Medical College, Warangal from January 2013 to June 2014 i.e., 12 months, during which the total postmortem cases were 74 occurred in the jurisdiction of the Govt. Railway Police Station, Warangal. The factors taken to enumerate the study are cause of death, manner of death, relationship between scene of offense and cause of death, relation of intoxication status to the manner of death, age versus manner of death and period of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motive of the article is to understand insurance frauds, how to manage, and reduce these fraudulent activities to achieve a zero-harm goal. The insurance industry is an emerging sector in the Indian economy which deals with risk-taking of the unforeseen losses and builds trust amongst the customers and the stakeholders. The Insurance sector is at a constant threat caused by an alarming increase in the fraudulent activities affecting the trust of consumers, investors, and also the financial sectors. Reducing and controlling fraudulent activities has become a priority for the Indian insurance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study proposes a Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis (FDEA) approach for analyzing the performance of 8 selected paper mills of India. The proposed approach named FDEA considers the use of fuzzy weights in the objective function and makes use of alpha cut to decide the fuzzy interval. The efficiency of paper mills is evaluated based on 3 input parameters (raw material, energy consumption, and water consumption) and 4 output parameters (paper production, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions). Further, this paper also analyzes the effect of negative outputs, like BOD, COD, and GHG on the efficiency of paper mills. The study indicates that FDEA can be used efficiently for evaluating the performance of a particular sector under similar conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study aims to find out the research productivity of Nigerian and Indian authors to the library philosophy and practice from 2008 to 2013. The present study also finds the frequency of productivity, author collaboration, papers length, most cited papers, and most references as well as most productive authors. The present research finds the 226 research articles have been contributed by Nigerian authors and 193 papers have been contributed by Indian authors. The highest number of papers has been written by Nigerian authors was 76 in 2010 and from the Indian 60 papers were contributed in 2013. This present study identifies those 114 single authors from Nigeria and 80 from India. 116 papers from Nigerian authors those range 6-10 pages while 57 from India. The total numbers of references were used by Nigerian authors those were 4140 while Indian was used 3243 references from 2008 to 2013. The most productive authors S.Thanuskodi from India who wrote 09 papers and Dike Agah from Nigeria have contributed only 5 papers. The most cited papers were retrieved from Nigerian author with 197 citations while 82 citations were received from India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Juridical & Political Science is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Traffic congestion is a major problem in many cities of India along with other countries. • Some common and widespread methods used for the predictionsss of traffic parameters include regression analysis, machine learning, image processing, classification, clustering etc. • We also need to explore the more efficient ways to optimize traffic at minimal costs. • We will compare working of sensors and IoT bases techniques. • Image processing methods and come up with better and improves algorithms that can work at both day and night effectively. Traffic congestion is a major problem in many cities of India along with other countries. Some common and widespread methods used for the predictions of traffic parameters include regression analysis, machine learning, image processing, classification, clustering etc. The objective of this research is to explore the usage and compliance and efficiency of various algorithms and find out whether image processing techniques or other clustering techniques can be better for the traffic optimization purposes. We also need to explore the more efficient ways to optimize traffic at minimal costs. We will compare working of sensors and IoT bases techniques along with image processing methods and come up with better and improves algorithms that can work at both day and night effectively, improve pre processing techniques and reduce the complicacy of present systems to increase the response time for better optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accident is an unexpected, unplanned occurrence which may involve injury or it may be defined as an unpremeditated event resulting in recognizable damage. Railway related injuries are not those uncommon occurrences in forensic practice. Among the varied presentation of injuries, superficial injuries along with fractures were commonly observed. Over the last 15 years many railway accidents have happened in Andhra Pradesh and in India. Following these train accidents, there has been a large amount of public debate about safety management on the Indian railways. These accidents have raised issues regarding the effectiveness of the safety management of the railway system. This paper presents a summary of the results of a preliminary systemic analysis of several rail accidents in and around Warangal City. The present study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Warangal Medical College, Warangal, from January 2013 to June 2014 i.e., 18 months, during which the total postmortem cases were 74 occurred in the jurisdiction of the Govt. Railway Police Station, Warangal. The factors taken to enumerate the study are the incidence of deaths month wise, age and sex, marital status, scene of offence and habitat during railway accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tradition of research in Indian distance education is not very strong. Only after the establishment of India Gandhi National Open University in 1985 serious research began. Distance education is a branch of general education and therefore distance education research and practices have been influenced by research on adult learning. Most of the research studies in Indian distance education are descriptive in nature. Some writers like Arun Gupta, Santosh K Panda, Ramesh C Sharma, P Satyanarayna, Lokesh Koul, Sanjay Mishra analysed and reviewed research studies. Broadly three concerns about research are highlighted - comprehensiveness, methodology and coverage of research problems studies. There is a need to develop conceptual framework for research. Integration of research philosophies methods and designs would benefit the developments of theory and practice in distance education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present study was carried out to analyze quantitatively the blood parameters of Transfusion Dependent Thalassemia (TDT) patients. A total number of seventy one (n=71) TDT patients aged 04 to 26 years were selected from Fatimid foundation center, Hyderabad from June 2015 to May 2016 and eighty four (n=84) control subjects (age, gender and locality matched persons with negative personal and family history of thalassemia) were included in this study. Blood sample of 5mL was collected from each participant to analyze white blood cells (WBC); total leukocytes counts (TLC); red blood cells (RBC); mean corpuscular value (MCV); mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH); mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC); hemoglobin (HB) and hematocrit (HCT). All the patients and control subjects were interviewed through a standard questionnaire specially developed to study their life style and dietary habits. The collected data from TDT patients and control subjects was statistically analyzed by using p<0.05 as statistically significant variation between two groups. Results revealed significantly decreased levels of HCT, MCV, MCH and platelets in TDT patients as compared to control subjects. All TDT patients were frequently undergoing blood transfusion within the age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Mucuna pruriens (MP) seeds contain levodopa (up to 2% by weight) and have been used in traditional Indian medicine to treat an illness named 'Kampavata,' now understood to be Parkinson's disease (PD). Studies have shown MP to be beneficial, and even superior, to levodopa alone in treating PD symptoms. Commercial products containing MP are readily available from online and retail sources to patients and physicians. Products often contain extracts of MP seeds, with significantly higher levodopa content than the seeds. However, MP products have limited regulatory controls with respect to quality and content of active ingredient. The aim of this study was to apply a quantitative method to determine levodopa content in readily available MP products that might be used by patients or in research studies. Design: Levodopa present in six commercial MP products was quantified by solvent extraction followed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to fluorescence detection (FD). Certificates of analysis (COA) were obtained, from manufacturers of MP products, to assess the existence and implementation of specifications for levodopa content. Results: HPLC-FD analysis revealed that the levodopa content of the six commercial MP products varied from 6% to 141% of individual label claims. No product contained levodopa within normal pharmacopeial limits of 90%-110% label claim. The maximum daily dose of levodopa delivered by the products varied from 14.4 to 720 mg/day. COAs were inconsistent in specifications for and verification of levodopa content. Conclusions: The commercial products tested varied widely in levodopa content, sometimes deviating widely from the label claim. These deficiencies could impact efficacy and safety of MP products used by PD patients and compromise the results of scientific studies on MP products. The HPLC-FD method described in this study could be utilized by both manufacturers and scientific researchers to verify levodopa content of MP products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Poisoning is a major health problem in developing countries like India. Epidemiology of poisoning can help to take measures for prevention of poisoning. Objective: To assess the magnitude of unnatural death due to poisoning and to determine the various parameters of poisoning such as mode and type of poisoning, relation to age and sex, vulnerable age group, religion, seasonal variation, place of occurrence and to find out the most common type of poison consumed. Materials and method: Present study was conducted retrospectively during January 2011 to December 2011, which included 327 cases of death due to poisoning brought for postmortem examination at Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Victoria hospital, Bangalore medical college and research institute, Bengaluru. Information pertaining to sociodemography, place of occurrence of poisoning and type of poisoning etc was collected and analysis was done. Results: Out of 3544 post mortem examinations done during study period, 9.22 % (n-327) cases were that of poisoning. We observed that majority of victims were male (66.97%, n-219) and from urban area (71.86%, n-235). Peak incidence was observed in the age group of 21-30 years (33.33%, n-109). Majority of deaths were suicidal (78.89%, n-258). Organophosphorous compound poisoning accounted in 53.53 % (n-175) cases. Conclusion: The mortality and morbidity due to poisoning can be reduced by conducting educational programs, providing counselling services and poison information services to the needy people. Strict legal enforcement in selling and handling of agrochemicals is the need of the hour to avoid premature loss of human resource from death due to poisoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that affects the synovial joints, causing swelling and joint damage. RA has become a major public health concern, harming more than 1500 people per lakh of the world's population. This inflammatory disorder is more common in females in comparison to males (3:1). In the present work, a scientometric analysis of published articles on RA during the last five years [1st January 2016 to 2021] on 19/08/2021 in the Scopus database is performed and investigates the contribution of India. In this study, the top most productive countries and the contribution of India in this field were analyzed. The different journals, funding agencies, and productive authors from India who contributed to this field are also recognized. The average citation impact is 10 citations per paper. A total of 61% share was found for the International collaboration in India's publication on rheumatoid arthritis. In India's output on rheumatoid arthritis, medicine produced the largest percentage of paper (60 percent). The top 15 journals publishing the maximum number of Indian papers contribute 1% share of global rheumatoid arthritis research (The highest number of papers (95 papers) published by the Indian Journal of Rheumatology). During the period 2016-2021, the top 10 highly cited papers got a total of 7045 citations, averaging 705 citations per publication. India was found to have a 5% (1974 publications) share of global output (42312 publications). In conclusion, there is a small number of researches on rheumatoid arthritis in a country, which holds the 2nd position in population across the world. There is a need for more research on rheumatoid arthritis in India., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

The present study was conducted with the specific objective i.e. to analyze the economic impact of recourse conservation technology (zero tillage) as compare to conventional tillage practices on wheat cultivation in Ambala district of Haryana. The study revealed that there was significant impact of conservation practices, 22% human labour, 37% machine labour, 25% seed cost and 33% irrigation water was saved under zero tillage compared to conventional tillage (CT) method of wheat production. B: C ratio under zero tillage was 2.86 while under conventional method it was reduced to 2.56. Therefore, zero tillage was economically feasible. It was observed that through the zero tillage farmers can get 3% more yield. The net returns in ZT of wheat production were higher by 4% as compared to CT method. In case of zero tillage, economic efficiency measure was 0.61 as compared to 0.34 in conventional system of wheat cultivation. The research work conducted was holistic in nature combining various elements of technology, resource conservation and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on ascertaining whether and how groups based on demographic variables (age, gender, education level, and family income) differs for dimensions of customer experience quality in the Indian retail store context. Design/methodology/approach A 23 items instrument was distributed to retail store customers. Demographic variables were age, gender, education level, and family income. Finally, the analysis was performed on 346 responses. ANOVA test was performed to find out the significant difference between the groups based on demographic variables with respect to components of customer experience quality in the Indian retail store context. Findings Analysis revealed that some categories of demographic variables differ with respect to dimensions of customer experience quality in the Indian retail store context. Originality/value Authors believe that this is the first study, which applies EXQ model in India retail context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic liberalization has limited the scope of employment in India. Thus, identifying alternative sources of employment generation, is the call of the hour. In the field of tourism, entrepreneurial activities can be worked as a panacea if it is possible to minimize failure in ventures. This is again possible if marketing activities can be executed with perfection as marketing is one of the major reasons for failure and strategically it is the most important function. Thus a simple executable construct has been proposed that indirectly checks the customer (market) orientation, and an empirical examination has been done with the help of customers and entrepreneurs (executives). Finally, implication of this work for the Indian tourism industry has been highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assam is situated in a rich bio diverse region of India. But now, with the growth of human population natural landscape has been changed. There are reports of poaching, encroachment, logging and various developmental projects etc. With this in mind, the Brahmaputra valley of Assam was selected to assess the wild life status annually during the period ranging from 1981-2011. The study reveals significant decrease in Rhinocer ospoaching; this can be attributed to adequate staffing, patrolling, intelligence gathering and control over the use of firearms. It is also observed that natural death for elephants show decreasing trend significantly. The studies also conclude that attacks by wild elephant son human shows significant increasing/decreasing trend at Sonitpurand Goalpara district respectively. The attacks on human can be attributed to the clearance of forests for settlement/agriculture. The data were subjected to correlation analysis which indicates positive relationships exist between Rhino and Swamp deer with that of forest cover unlike elephant. In a nutshell, the increase in Rhino, elephant, Tiger and Swamp deer during the study period can be attributed to the increase in allocation and expenditure to train the staff for protecting the animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. India has one of the highest growths in the ART centers and the number of ART cycles performed every year. Very soon India will be the leader in the world of ART in terms of a number of cycles. With the advances of technology and availability of techniques even in tier II and tier III cities our country, the results still vary dramatically. There is no standardization of protocols and reporting is very inadequate. Furthermore, there are only ART guidelines and no law still exists. Our first and the biggest challenge is to document the tremendous work being done in India and on the basis of analysis of this work, a proper registry can be made and guidance given to all on standardization and improvement. This is the 8th edition of National ART Registry of India being presented and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patent policies have proved to be extremely important for several countries to develop. India has achieved its global status since 2005; a critical analysis of the patents at IPO will help us to identify the potential, available for patents with Indian Dental Fraternity. Aim: The aim of this study is to critically analyze and review Indian Patents in the field of Dentistry from 2005-2009 for evaluation of status of Indian Patents in Dentistry. Materials and Methods: A total of 110 patents were scrutinized from 2005-2009 available by IPO on www.patentoffice.nic.in. Following which a preliminary data were collected from individual patents and recorded in a record sheet. Statistical Analysis: The data collected were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software and were subjected to ANOVA test. Results: All patents scrutinized were applied for dental materials (100%). Company applicants (70%) were the maximum followed by the individual applicants (27.2%). A total of 87.3% of patents had enrolled for International Application. Priority country had maximum favor with USA (39.2%) followed by Europe (36.1%). Single inventors (44.5%) were the maximum followed by two inventors (22.7%). Europe (37.3%) had the maximum first inventor, followed by United States of America (30%) and India (10.9%). Individual inventors were maximum in Europe (38.8%) followed by USA (20.4%) and India (16.3%). Conclusion: Contribution from Indian Nationals as inventors for patents in the field of Dentistry is limited, thus reducing the pace of progress and development. Indian inventors in the field of Dentistry have to go a long way to compete with the fellow mates of developed countries like USA and Europe. Continuing Dental Education programs on Intellectual property rights should be conducted on regular basis especially for Dentist's involved in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link performance functions commonly used for traffic assignment are often based on Volume Delay Functions (VDF) developed for homogeneous traffic. However, VDFs relating stream speed to the volume of traffic based on homogeneous lane-based traffic are not adequate for traffic assignment in developing countries due to the heterogeneous nature of traffic that is characterized by a mix of a wide range of vehicle classes with significant differences in static and dynamic characteristics and an imperfect lane discipline. Unfortunately, the use of VDFs similar to those for homogeneous traffic flow situations imposes strong restrictions considering two respects: 1) travel times at path and link levels can be obtained for an aggregated stream but not for individual vehicle types; 2) the effect of varying composition and asymmetric interactions is captured only to a limited extent by converting all vehicles into equivalent Passenger Car Unit (PCU). Hence, this paper proposes the development of VDFs specific to different classes of heterogeneous traffic, as it is more realistic in traffic assignment than the use of the same VDF for all classes of vehicles in a link. This study is aimed at developing models to determine the speed of each vehicle class as a function of flow and composition for six lane roads with heterogeneous traffic based on data obtained from Chennai city, India. Heterogeneity in this study mainly refers to differences in vehicle types (two-wheeler, car, bus, etc.) participating in mixed traffic. To develop multiple user class VDFs, the speed and flow of each vehicle class for a wide range of traffic flow conditions need to be recorded. As this is not possible using field measurements, an established micro-simulation model (HETEROSIM) is used for determining speeds for each vehicle type by systematically varying the volume and composition levels over a range of values that represent relevant and practical traffic conditions observed in six lane divided roads in Chennai city. The proposed delay functions are different from standard single user class VDFs in three key respects: first, they enable more realistic behaviour by modelling differences in class wise speeds at a given volume and composition level; second, they allow for capturing asymmetric interactions of different vehicle types on an average speed of a given vehicle class. Finally, speed-flow relationships for each class are also allowed to vary across volume levels which enable the representation of differential interactions at different levels of congestion in mixed traffic. The need for homogenizing the volumes in terms of a single class is obviated. The models significantly outperformed single class VDFs in both calibration and validation datasets. Further, the proposed models are used for analyzing heterogeneous traffic characteristics. Empirical evidence of asymmetric interactions and the impact of composition on classwise performance are also found and quantified. Finally, two applications of the proposed models are demonstrated for the level of service analysis of different classes and impact analysis of excluding some classes. The proposed models may have applications such as determining class wise road user costs and performance measures (e.g. emissions) that depend on class-specific speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of proximate analyses, ash fusion temperatures, and energy values of different components of paddy, maize, arhar, and coconut agricultural residues and their impact on decentralized power generation structure. In general, the results indicated the highest energy values in the components of arhar, followed by those of coconut, maize, and paddy agricultural crops. The results also indicated the highest ash contents in the components of paddy and lowest in the coconut residues. The paddy and maize crops exhibited highest ash contents and lowest energy values for their leaves, while the leaf of arhar possessed a higher calorific value (just after stalk). Except for the ash of maize crop residue, the softening temperatures of other studied biomass ashes were observed to be in the range of 1,080–1,105°C, the highest being for the arhar crop ash. This indicates there will be no chance of bed agglomeration problems during the combustion of paddy, arhar, and coconut agricultural residues up to about 900°C. The calculation results have shown that approximately 216/750/4,220 hectares of land are required for plantations with coconut/paddy followed by maize/arhar crop in order to ensure a perpetual supply of electricity for a group of 10–15 villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and rapid method is described whereby the oil from distal end of a kernel excluding embryo was analyzed for the fatty acid composition. Preparation and analysis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) requires 30 and 10 minutes respectively. The method developed was evaluated for the precision using seven genotypes of groundnut. This procedure maintains greater integrity of the seed for planting purposes, requires less time and cost for fatty acids analysis and can improve efficiency of individual seed analysis, thereby assisting in more rapid screening that helps in development of new varieties and pollution free environment due to lesser number of chemicals requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a Karunagappally cohort study which investigated background radiation and cancer incidence in Kerala, India. It notes that the coastal belt of Karunagappally is known for high background radiation (HBR) from thorium-containing monazite sand. It discusses the importance of age-specific radiation dose in order to examine the effect of exposure to high-level natural radiation on cancer risk. It explores the calculation of thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) measurements and scintillometer spot readings for dose conversion.

An attempt has been made in the study to deconstruct love language of the modern day young people by undertaking a content analysis of 318 SMS texts taken from a leading English daily of Calcutta, India on the Valentine Day of 2006. Five Key-words-In-Context, love, life, heart, world, and valentine have been identified as most frequently chosen words for V-Day SMS by using word concordance. A gender bias test (statistical t-Test) has identified male supremacy in conveying love messages. A pair wise Correlation coefficient study of the key words indicate that the word valentine is positively correlated with the words, love and heart, and negatively correlated with the words, life and world. A statistical regression analysis postulates a mathematical formulation for 100 valentine words, the possible numbers of the words, love, life, heart and world: 100Valentine = 237 + 1.love - 29 life + 24 heart -- 24 world. The study finally hints that lesbians and gays are 'quite in', in our society. The same sex SMS messages bear a strong testimony to the beginning of a 'gay-lesbian' era in Indian Society. The researchers may humbly claim this study to be a pioneering study on content analysis of SMS texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian service sector has started implementing total quality management (TQM) programs in their organizations in order to improve quality and overcome competition in the global market. Much research has been conducted in developed economies to analyze the issues faced by the service sector during the implementation of quality improvement programs. But not enough studies have been conducted to address the problems faced by service organizations in developing economies. This study attempts to close this gap. Service providers are interested in learning about issues that will crop up while implementing TQM in their organizations, mainly from the employees' perspective. Hence, this study investigates the employee-oriented issues during total quality service (TQM in service organizations) implementation in the automobile service industry of a developing economy (India). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that measures the level of uranium, and observes the trend in variation of uranium content in drinking water in samples collected from some areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, India. The samples were analyzed using laser induced fluorimetry techniques, and sources of water comprise hand pumps and tube wells. The study shows that uranium concentration in the water samples from Punjab varies from 1.39±0.16 to 98.25±2.06 parts per billion (ppb) with a mean value of 19.84±0.87 ppb, which exceeds the limit recommended by the World Health Organization, while the uranium concentration in water samples from Himachal Pradish is within the recommended levels.

The article examines the relationship between public investment in infrastructure in India and regional incomes and whether the character of this relationship is affected both by the nature of investment and the level of socio-economic development of the different regions. The possibility of using regional distribution of public investment as a policy instrument to reduce regional disparities is evaluated, with the analysis demonstrating that while there were prospects of concentrating on the varying forms of infrastructure in different categories of states at earlier points in time, the current situation calls for each region receiving investment in all of the different forms of infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women play very important role in the field of agriculture. where a project "Madhya Pradesh women in Agriculture""MAPWA". The study was conducted in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. "MAPWA" was started in September 2000. Total 120 trained farm women were selected as respondents for data collection. The level of knowledge of the trained farm women found in all 5 practices viz, seed germination test, seed treatment with fungicides, seed treatment with culture, balanced use of fertilizer and preparation of vermin-compost. In the study socio-personal characteristics (age, education, caste, social participation), socio-economic characteristics (size of land holding, socioeconomic status, economic motivation, risk preference), communicational characteristics (information seeking behavior, exposure to demonstration, mass media exposure, extension participation) and socio-psychological characteristics (innovativeness, attitude towards improved farm practices, cosmopoliteness) were found to have significant association with knowledge of trained farm women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim to discuss the similarities and differences of phytochemicals in Moringa oleifera leaves collected from China (CML) and India (IML) in mind, comparative ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) analysis was performed in this study. A screening analysis based on a UNIFI platform was first carried out to discuss the similarities. Next, untargeted metabolomic analysis based on multivariate statistical analysis was performed to discover the differences. As a result, a total of 122 components, containing 118 shared constituents, were characterized from CML and IML. The structure types included flavonoids, alkaloids, glyosides, organic acids and organic acid esters, iridoids, lignans, and steroids, etc. For CML, 121 compounds were characterized; among these, 18 potential biomarkers with higher contents enabled differentiation from IML. For IML, 119 compounds were characterized; among these, 12 potential biomarkers with higher contents enabled differentiation from CML. It could be concluded that both CML and IML are rich in phytochemicals and that CML is similar to IML in the kinds of the compounds it contains, except for the significant differences in the contents of some compounds. This comprehensive phytochemical profile study provides a basis for explaining the effect of different growth environments on secondary metabolites and exists as a reference for further research into or applications of CML in China.

Carbendazim is widely used on pomegranate for control of a large number of fungal diseases. Its residue levels in/on pomegranate fruits and soil were evaluated under field conditions. The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method in conjunction with liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry was used for analysis of carbendazim. Recovery of carbendazim was within 78.92-96.28 % and relative standard deviation within 3.8-10.9 % (n = 6). Carbendazim residues on pomegranate fruits dissipated at the half lives of 17.3 and 22.8 days from treatments at 500 and 1000 g active ingredient (a.i.) ha(-1), respectively. Its residues in pomegranate aril were highest on the tenth day and reduced thereafter. The residue level of carbendazim on pomegranate whole fruits from standard dose treatment was less than the EU maximum residue limit (MRL) of 0.1 mg kg(-1) at harvest. The carbendazim residues were

The summer monsoon circulation shows various spatial and temporal oscillations and often a combination of systems produces an integrated effect. In this study phases of the southwest (SW) monsoon have been identified in an objective manner with the help of T-mode principal component analysis (PCA) of weekly rainfall anomalies. Mean composite charts have been prepared utilising all available upper air data (1977-1986) for each category of the SW monsoon epochs identified by the PCA. These sets of charts have been constructed for both the strong and weak phases associated with the first four significant principal components (PCs). A well defined east-west oriented trough system, extending from about 28 deg. N Latitude/65 deg. E Longitude to 20 deg. N Latitude/90 deg. E Longitude, in the lower levels, has been themain feature associated with the strong phase of the monsoon corresponding to PC I. The trough in the lower levels is more marked in the eastern half compared to the western half in both the sets of charts associated with strong phases of the monsoon related to the PC II andPC III. With PC II, the position of the troughs in the lower levels is further north of its location in PC III. The east-west trough system associated with the strong phase of PC IV has a large southward tilt with height. The charts corresponding to the weak phases of these PCs have synoptic features, such as the position of the trough close to the foothills of the Himalayas, and the shifting of middle and upper tropospheric anticyclones to the south. The study suggests an objective method of interpretation of principal components by utilising synoptic data. In addition, synoptic models and data sets corresponding to different phases of the monsoon can also be prepared in an objective manner by such PCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]