Evaluation of Surface Water Quality Using Water Quality Index (WQI) and GIS Tool Of Anantapur Location

The objective of this study is to estimate the quality of surface water in a semi-arid area of India, specifically in the pond located in Old Town, BKS Katta Road, Anantapur. The water quality index (WQI) is used to calculate the quality of the water samples taken from the pond, and a map of the water quality was created using geographic information system (GIS). The samples were analyzed for various factors including Electrical Conductivity (EC), Odour, Taste, pH, Temperature, Calcium (Ca2+), Magnesium, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Bicarbonate (HCO-3), Chloride (Cl-), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Nitrate (NO-3) and Iron (Fe-). Based on these analyses, spatial distribution maps were also prepared using GIS. The WQI values swayed from 61.875 to 74, ensuring that the pond water samples were of the highest quality and safe for direct consumption

A ratio ergodic theorem via tiling and uniformly syndetic markers

We prove a purely Borel/measureless version of Dowker's ratio ergodic theorem, from which we derive a strengthening of Dowker's original theorem with a precise identification of the limit of local ergodic ratios. This is done by implementing the pointwise tiling idea of [Tse18] in the more complex setting of continuum-to-one Borel transformations. Along the way, we establish a vanishing markers lemma for these transformations, which generalizes its well-known counterpart for invertible transformations.Comment: Major revision containing new results and strengthenings of previous result

Genetic Determinism vs. Phenotypic Plasticity in Protist Morphology

Untangling the relationships between morphology and phylogeny is key to building a reliable taxonomy, but is especially challenging for protists, where the existence of cryptic or pseudocryptic species makes finding relevant discriminant traits difficult. Here we use Hyalosphenia papilio (a testate amoeba) as a model species to investigate the contribution of phylogeny and phenotypic plasticity in its morphology. We study the response of H. papilio morphology (shape and pores number) to environmental variables in (i) a manipulative experiment with controlled conditions (water level), (ii) an observational study of a within-site natural ecological gradient (water level), and (iii) an observational study across 37 European peatlands (climate). We showed that H. papilio morphology is correlated to environmental conditions (climate and water depth) as well as geography, while no relationship between morphology and phylogeny was brought to light. The relative contribution of genetic inheritance and phenotypic plasticity in shaping morphology varies depending on the taxonomic group and the trait under consideration. Thus, our data call for a reassessment of taxonomy based on morphology alone. This clearly calls for a substantial increase in taxonomic research on these globally still under-studied organisms leading to a reassessment of estimates of global microbial eukaryotic diversity.</p

Architecture and Applications of IoT Devices in Socially Relevant Fields

Number of IoT enabled devices are being tried and introduced every year and there is a healthy competition among researched and businesses to capitalize the space created by IoT, as these devices have a great market potential. Depending on the type of task involved and sensitive nature of data that the device handles, various IoT architectures, communication protocols and components are chosen and their performance is evaluated. This paper reviews such IoT enabled devices based on their architecture, communication protocols and functions in few key socially relevant fields like health care, farming, firefighting, women/individual safety/call for help/harm alert, home surveillance and mapping as these fields involve majority of the general public. It can be seen, to one's amazement, that already significant number of devices are being reported on these fields and their performance is promising. This paper also outlines the challenges involved in each of these fields that require solutions to make these devices reliableComment: 1

A taxonomic monograph of hyalospheniid testate amoebae Amoebozoa: Arcellinida: Hyalospheniformes

Since Georges Deflandre published his monograph on the genus Nebela in 1936 no systematic revision of this beautiful group of testate amoebae had been done. In the meantime, the genus was split, and many new species were described. A taxonomic revision was clearly overdue. In this monograph, we present a taxonomic revision of the sub-order Hyalospheniformes (Amoebozoa, Arcellinida), which includes a single family, the Hyalospheniidae. A total of 14 genera, and 97 species are presented in detail. The monograph includes taxonomic keys; taxon descriptions; ecological, geographical, and taxonomical notes; annotated lists of dubious and incertae sedis species; a list of synonymous names; notes on molecular data; and light and scanning electron microscopic pictures; and/or original line drawings for each species. This book is designed to benefit protistologists in general, and particularly ecologists and palaeoecologists, by assisting with the ease and accuracy of identification of hyalospheniid testate amoeba species, many of which are useful bioindicators. We also hope that this book will serve as a useful basis for future work regarding the taxonomy, biogeography, and ecology of these beautiful organisms. Joseph Leidy famously once wrote “How can life be tiresome sol long as there is still a new rhizopod undescribed?” There is no shortage of new Hyalospheniformes awaiting to being described. We hope this book will make the life of passionate taxonomists easier

Case 3782 – Nebela militaris Penard, 1890 (Arcellinida, Hyalospheniidae): proposed conservation of the specific name by giving it precedence over Nebela bursella Taranek, 1881

The purpose of this application, under Article 23.9.3 of the Code, is to conserve the specific name Nebela militaris Penard, 1890, a junior subjective synonym of Nebela bursella Taranek, 1881 – referred to as Nebela bursella Vejdovský in the literature. Due to the absence of any type or reference specimen and due to the confusing original description, doubts about the taxonomic status of N. bursella persist. A review of the literature revealed that the names N. militaris and N. bursella originally referred to the same species, with the name N. bursella later being applied erroneously to another species. According to the Principle of Priority, N. bursella is the valid name of the species generally known as N. militaris, but there has been no mention of the former taxon since 1964 and its name is unknown to most active testate amoeba researchers. To avoid confusion, we propose to conserve the widely used species name Nebela militaris Penard, 1890 by granting it conditional precedence over Nebela bursella Taranek, 1881, and to designate a neotype

Mental Health Problems Have Considerable Impact on Rural Children and Their Families

The majority of children with mental health problems go untreated, and the gap between need and service use is assumed to be wider in rural than in urban areas, particularly for children with more severe needs.1-2 It is also assumed that rural families of children with mental health problems experience a greater financial and emotional burden than urban families. These assumptions reflect the lower availability of mental health specialty care and support services in rural areas. Lower income and more limited economic opportunities may further hamper the ability of rural families to care for children with mental health problems. The current research literature does not describe how well the needs of children with mental health problems are being met in rural areas. Although there are reasons to believe the burden these needs place on families is higher in rural areas, evidence to support this assumption is limited. Using the 2005-06 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, we examine the prevalence, access to services, problem severity, and family impact of children’s mental health in rural and urban areas. These data are linked to the Rural-Urban Continuum Codes to examine populations living in urban areas, rural areas adjacent to urban areas, and rural areas not adjacent to urban areas

Access to Mental Health Services and Family Impact of Rural Children with Mental Health Problems

Mental health problems have considerable impact on children and their families and some of these impacts are higher in rural than urban areas. Rural children are slightly but significantly more likely to have a mental health problem than urban children, are more likely to have a behavioral difficulty, and are more likely to be usually or always affected by their condition. Compared to urban children, rural children are more likely to go without access to all parent-reported needed mental health services and their families spend more time coordinating their care. This working paper and policy brief provide information on prevalence of children’s mental health needs and associated access to care and family impact across rural and urban areas. Analyses are based on the 2005-06 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs

Physical activity, time spent outdoors, and near work in relation to myopia prevalence, incidence, and progression:An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Myopia has reached epidemic levels in recent years. Stopping the development and progression of myopia is critical, as high myopia is a major cause of blindness worldwide. This overview aims at finding the association of time spent outdoors (TSO), near work (NW), and physical activity (PA) with the incidence, prevalence, and progression of myopia in children. Literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases. Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) on the TSO, NW, and PA in relation to myopia were reviewed. Methodological nature of qualified studies were evaluated utilizing the Risk of Bias in Systematic Review tool. We identified four SRs out of which three had MA, which included 62 unique studies, involving >1,00,000 children. This overview found a protective trend toward TSO with a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 0.982 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.979-0.985, I 2 = 93.5%, P < 0.001) per extra hour of TSO every week. A pooled OR 1.14 (95% CI 1.08-1.20) suggested NW to be related to risk of myopia. However, studies associating myopia with NW activities are not necessarily a causality as the effect of myopia might force children to indoor confinement with more NW and less TSO. PA presented no effect on myopia. Though the strength of evidence is less because of high heterogeneity and lack of clinical trials with clear definition, increased TSO and reduced NW are protective against myopia development among nonmyopes