Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages
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Crutacean Community of Wular Lake, Kashmir
No full textWhile on a volumetric basis most of the water in the biosphere is found as salt water in the ocean or in solid form in polar ice caps, the small percentage available as freshwater, the only form available in abundance to terrestrial ecosystems, is contained in the inland water bodies like lakes and streams. Though the majority of accessible freshwater on the planet is contained in lakes, yet they play a vital role in nutrient and energy cycling and as biological habitat for inland ecosystems, with additional importance to humans as potable water reservoirs, inland fisheries, transportation corridors, and areas for recreational activity. The lake waters are also essential for hydropower, irrigation, cooling water, waste disposal, leisure, commercial and recreational fishing and domestic and industrial consumption. Consequently, lakes have been especially important to the economic vitality and quality of life in those countries fortunate to have them. Despite the fact that human society relies heavily on lakes, population growth, development and environmental change continue to put an ever-increasing demand on these finite freshwater resources. Therefore, sound management and conservation of lakes becomes critical as freshwater lakes are faced with multiple stressors due to human impacts on the environment (Jeziorski et al., 2008)
The Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect as a Probe of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe
Get PDFThe Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (S-Z effect) is a distortion in the cosmic microwave back-
ground radiation (CMBR) [1, 2, 3, 4] due to the inverse Compton scattering of CMBR
photons by the electrons in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The effect is
an interaction between Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation photons and the free
electrons in the dense cores of galaxy clusters. These cores of clusters of galaxies are
thought to contain hot ionized gas at 107K [10]. This hot ionized gas is visible as X-ray
emission. The free electrons in the gas contain a significant amount of kinetic energy,
making them good sources for S-Z effect
Role of Tourism in economic development of Jammu and Kashmir – A case study of J&K Tourism Department
No full textTourism is a major global economic force. Hardly a day goes by without a new pronouncement about the wider significance of Tourism industry. Tourism at International level is one of the fastest growing industries, accounting for more than 10% of total international trade and almost half of total trade in services, and can be considered as one of the world‟s largest export earners (WTO, 2010). In many countries, foreign currency receipts from tourism exceeded currency receipts from all other sectors together. Thus, tourism, which is an alternative form of exports, contributes to the balance of payments through foreign exchange earnings and proceeds generated from tourism expansion. Over the past decades, the importance of the tourism sector for the economy has been steadily increasing. Tourism at International level is recognized to have a positive effect on the increase of long-run economic growth through different channels.Tourism is a significant foreign exchange earner, allowing to pay for imported capital goods or basic inputs used in the production process.Tourism plays an important role in spurring investments in new infrastructure and competition between local firms and firms in other tourist countries.Tourism stimulates other economic industries by direct, indirect and induced effects. Fourth, tourism contributes to generate employment and to increase income.Tourism causes positive exploitation of economies of scale in national firms. And more so, tourism is an important factor of diffusion of technical knowledge, stimulation of research and development, and accumulation of human capital. The ability to generate ripple effects by tourism makes it a performer of vital medium of foreign currency injection which has been drawing a significant attention for the economic development of developing countries. Developing economies are progressively relying on income streams from tourism while the traditional economic sectors have become less potential in contributing to GDP. The economic repercussions of tourism are occurring in extensive latitude, within the evolution of the globalization process (Sugiyarto et al., 2003) that is, in turn, helping the acceleration of this industry‟s expansion around the globe. In fact, direct, indirect, and induced multiplier effects are the causes that assist in expanding the contribution of tourism to an economy
Environmental concerns in the knowledge industry: literature review
Get PDFThe paper aims to explore and identify the recent contributions to the literature available
about various environmental issues associated with the Knowledge Industry, from conception until
dissemination of knowledge to end-users from the sources available.
Design/methodology/approach – An extensive literature survey was performed in an attempt to
identify substantial works published to date concerning environmental issues coupled with the
Knowledge Industry. A range of online scholarly databases, search engines and websites of recognized
international as well as national organizations and publishers was searched, to spot out the substantial
works carried out in the area. Varied search terms such as “environmental issues of paper industry”,
“paper consumption for books”, “books and carbon footprint” “environmental issues in pulp and paper
industry”, “computers and carbon footprint”, “publishing industry and environment”, “internet and
environmental issues” and “green computing”, etc. were used for retrieving the literature.
Findings – The literature review connotes that hardly any systematic study or scholarly output
which can facilitate the precise and accurate facts about environmental issues coupled with the
Knowledge Industry is available, although the size of the industry and its effect on the environment is quite large.
Practical implications – It is evident from the scrutiny of literature existing that there are still areas
for advanced exploration on the topic of environmental concerns of the Knowledge industry; and study
paves the way for the concerned organizations and institutions (such as Libraries and Publishers),
at global level, to take substantial measures to overcome hazardous effects from the industry.
Originality/value – The paper is the first ordered and thorough attempt to review the literature and
provide a summary of adverse effects of the Knowledge Industry on the environment
Dynamics of Land use Change in Rural-Urban Fringe - A Case Study of Srinagar City
Get PDFIn the beginning of twentieth century, great scientific inventions like that of
the steam engine had accelerated the process of industrialization. According to urban
geographers, this has provided scope for the expansion of urban centers. Aguilar
(2008), states that, urbanization is one of the most striking human induced land
transformation of the current era. Cities are expanding in size and relative importance
in many parts of the world due to rapid expansion of urban population. Many reasons
have been given for the rapid growth of urban population in the developing countries.
One of the chief causes has been unbridled influx of rural population in to urban
areas. With improved agriculture and increasing pressure of population on land,
surplus rural population is released and pushed out. In the meantime, a pull force on
account of industrialization in urban areas has attracted the potential rural emigrants
to the cities. With rapid pace of industrial development in the towns, progressive
mechanization of the farm, disintegration of the joint family system, and an increasing
demand for men and material in commercial enterprises and public utility services,
the migration of rural population in to urban areas, in search of food and shelter, is
expected to continue unabated. Besides above reasons the attraction furnished by job
opportunities, greater economic insecurity of the adjoining villages, the lure of
improved social facilities for recreation, medical care and education and higher
recreation comfort have also caused the influx of people from rural districts to the
towns. All these factors became responsible for fast growth of urban centers, making
in depth study of urban areas an increasingly important branch of geography
Purification and Characterization of Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis Somatic Antigens
Get PDFFish fauna is ecologically very important and plays a vital role in food chain. There is a great scope for the development of fishery resources in the valley of Kashmir so as to overcome the prevailing animal protein defiency in the diet of the local people. In country like India, intake of meat & milk is low, so fish has special importance as a supplement to ill- balanced cereal diet. Fish flesh is also a highly perishable commodity constituted by 60-80 %water & 13-20 % protein & being low in cholesterol & free from fats. Fish protein hydrosylates also have antioxidant properties. The flesh also contains phosphorus & vitamins. Freshwater fishes form one the important food sources in both the developed as well as underdeveloped countries.
A lot of research work has been done on various aspects of these vertebrates but a meagre work is available on the molecular aspects particularly immunogenicity of parasites of the fish host. Therefore, study on the characteristics of the protein profile of the fish parasite Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis was undertaken. The fishes were collected from Dal Lake and River Jhelum and it forms the first study of its type in this part of the country.
In order to have a glimpse of the related work done in the past, an attempt was made to review the available literature on the subject. Parkhouse, et al., (1987) characterized and studied the protective effect of nematode antigens. Bunyatova and Elchiev (1989) constructed electrophoretic spectrum of proteins of an acanthocephalan Leptorhynchoides plagicephalus. Coscia and Oreste (2000) investigated the presence of antibodies against protein antigens of the nematode parasite Pseudoterranova decipiens in the plasma and bile of the Antartic Teleost, Trematomus bernachii. Knopf, et al., (2000) studied the humoral response of the European eel Anguilla Anguilla elicited by an experimental infection with a swim bladder nematode Anguillicola crassus. Noga, et al., (2000) purified antimicrobial proteins from rainbow trouts and sunshine bass by RP-HPLC and SDS-PAGE. Saifullah, et al., (2000) worked on the excretory /secretory (ES) metabolic products released by Gastrothylax crumonifer (trematode:Digenea) during in vitro incubations and the somatic extract of the adult parasites were analyzed using PAGE. As obvious, it was not possible to review all the available literature on the said topic, the important ones were penned down in the dissertation.
Studies on the fishes has showed that Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis is usually found in the intestine by boring its proboscis into it and thereby produces lesions and makes it prone to further secondary infections. Besides, it is also present
in the body cavity, liver and spleen of its fish host. It causes tremendous damage to the intestinal walls at the site of its attachment. The lamina propia gets thickened and goblet cells in this region become more prominent and their number also gets increased (Yildiz, et al, 2004; Ahanger, et al., 2008).This parasite is considered to be one of the most dangerous parasite responsible for fish mortality and morbidity (Ahanger, et al., 2008). Hence the need was felt to study this parasite at molecular level so that our fish fauna are spared from them.
A total of 363 fish specimens of Schizothorax species were collected and out of which, 203 fishes were collected and examined from Dal Lake and 160 fishes were collected and examined from River Jhelum during the present study. The host was collected with the help of local fishermen in live condition. Fishes were dissected & body cavity was thoroughly examined for any parasite. Intestines were placed in Petri dish containing normal saline (0.75%Nacl, Cable 1958) to allow adhering parasites to be released from the lumen. Pomphorhynchus was carefully removed from the intestines with the help of brush and needle. A regular record of this parasites was recorded and then subjected to various immunological and biochemical techniques in order to understand the nature of somatic antigens.
Out of 203 specimens examined from the Dal Lake only 42 specimens were found infected with the Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis which constitutes the prevalence of 20.68%. Similarly out of 160 specimens examined from the River Jhelum only 52 specimens were infected with the Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis which constitutes 32.5% prevalence. Also, Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis showed a wide host range and was successfully establishing in various species of Schizothorax. The highest prevalence were found in S. niger (30 %) (26.19% in Dal and 34.85% in Jhelum) followed by S. curvifrons (27.11 %) (19.11% in Dal and 38% in Jhelum) and least prevalence were found in S. esocinus (17.89%) (13.72% in Dal and 22.73% in Jhelum).
Pomphorhynchus infection also revealed definite seasonal prevalence of infection in all the three species of Schizothorax, with highest infection in summer and lowest in winter. There was a gradual increase in the prevalence rate from spring to summer and falls down with onset of autumn and least observed prevalence during winter season. In summer the prevalence was 34.54% (S. niger 46.34%, S. curvifrons 31.11% and S. esocinus 30%) and the least prevalence was found during the winter season 8.16% (S. niger 14.28 %, S. curvifrons 6.89 % and S. esocinus 9.52%).
Gender wise observations were also made which revealed that the sex wise differences were not much prominent but in most cases males 30.30% (S. niger 32.50%, S. curvifrons 27.65% and S. esocinus 28.94%) were found to be more infected than females 27.27% (S. niger 27.14%, S. curvifrons 36.61% and S. esocinus 15.78%). To characterize the somatic antigens from Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis, the sera of the fish was used as a source of antibodies. For this purpose affinity chromatography is the most appropriate technique to be utilized. From this technique the eluted bound protein was dialyzed extensively against 20 mM Tris-saline buffer, pH 7.4, concentrated with PEG 20,000 and was designated as affinity purified P. kashmirensis somatic antigen (Aff-PSAg). The protein content of the antigen was determined spectrophotometrically.
SDS-PAGE confirmation of purified antigen Aff-PSAg was done by SDS-PAGE followed by staining with Coomassie Brilliant blue. Electrophoretic separation of Aff-PSAg resolved into 5 prominent polypeptides of molecular weight ranging from 29 to 66 kDa which is inferred to the presence of 5 or more number of active somatic antigens of P. kashmirensis. To measure the antigenicity of the purified antigens the commonly used serotest viz., Ouchterlony double diffusion (ODD) was used. Crude somatic and partially purified pooled fractions of Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis were subjected to double immunodiffusion against rabbit hyper immune sera. Ouchterlony gel diffusion test of somatic antigens showed one precipitation arch against heterogeneous hyper immune sera and many precipitation arches against homogenous hyper immune sera.
In nutshell, it is observed that the somatic antigens derived from the Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis can be used as good immunogens and hence can be exploited for mounting the protective immune response in fish. The results of the present study suggest that low molecular weight antigens of Pomphorhynchus kashmirensis deserve further investigation
Women Islam and Afghanistan (1991-2001)
No full textThe traditional role of women in Afghanistan has varied according
to locality and micro-societal context, however the nurturing of the
family and children remain their predominant social task.In order to ensure subjectivity and to have a meaningful discourse on the subject an attempt has been made to evaluate some measure works that are mostly related to the history of Afghanistan. Most of the material has been through travelogues and travel accounts of the scholars who visited the area and have made an objective analysis of the socio-cultural ethos of region
Evaluating Effectiveness of Software Testing Techniques with Emphasis on Enhancing Software Reliability
Get PDFSoftware testing is one of the most widely known and essential field in software engineering. The purpose of software testing is not only to reveal defects and eliminate them but also to serve as a tool for verification, validation and certification. Defection detection and increasing reliability are the two main goals of software testing. For decades, researchers have been inventing new techniques to test software. However, no testing technique will ever be a solution for all types of software defects. At present, we have very limited information of software testing techniques effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore, while researchers should continue to develop new testing techniques, they also need to deeply understand the abilities and limitations of existing techniques. We need to know what types of defects a particular technique can be expected to find and at what cost. We have to check whether testing technique effectiveness and efficiency depends on program to which it is applied, subject who applies it, the number of faults in the program or the type of faults in the program. However it is not sufficient if testing techniques are only compared on fault detecting ability. They should also be evaluated to check which among them enhances reliability.
The research in this thesis aims at evaluating software testing techniques in terms of effectiveness in detecting software defects, and the ability to increase the reliability of the software. The research in this thesis falls within empirical method research on the verification and validation process with a focus on software testing techniques evaluation. The work in this thesis links both research and practice and aims to continue building empirical knowledge in the field of software engineering.
The first part of this thesis surveys and analyzes empirical studies on evaluation of testing techniques. Issues with the current evaluation of software testing techniques are identified. Building upon this, we present an evaluation framework (a set of guidelines) for experiments which evaluate the software testing techniques. In addition, we also proposed a uniform classification of software testing techniques and identified a set of factors which helps us in selecting an appropriate testing technique.
The second part of the thesis presents an experiment which evaluates and com- pares three defect detection techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of the software testing techniques in terms of defect detection. Moreover, we also evaluated the efficiency of these techniques. The dependence of the effectiveness and efficiency on the various parameters like programs, subjects and defects is also investigated in the experiment.
The third and final part of this thesis presents an experiment which evaluates and compares three defect detection techniques for reliability using a novel method. The efficiency of these techniques is also evaluated.
Our effort is to provide evidence that will help testing and research community to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of software testing techniques in terms of defect detection and reliability and their dependence on various factors. The ultimate goal of our work is to move software engineering from a craft towards an engineering discipline