Student Achievement Conditioned Upon School Selection: Religious and Secular Secondary School Quality in Bangladesh

In this paper we present new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on secondary student achievement using a rich data set from rural Bangladesh. We deal with a potentially important selectivity issue in the South Asian context: the non-random sorting of children into madrasas (Islamic faith schools). We do so by employing a combination of fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation techniques. Our empirical results do not reveal any difference in test scores between religious and secular schools when selection into secondary school is taken into account. However, we document significant learning deficit by gender and primary school type: girls and graduates of primary madrasas have significantly lower test scores even after controlling for school and classroom-specific unobservable correlates of learning.

Diversity of common bean in Jammu and Kashmir, India: a DIVAgeographic information system and cluster analysis

A total of 80 diverse germplasm accessions of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were collected from 31 different locations known for marginal and risk prone farming systems in remote and hilly areas of North-Western Indian Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. The variability was observed in seed color, shape, size and 100- seed weight. Thirteen colors of bean seeds were represented in these 80 accessions with high predominance of red colored seeds. Cuboid, kidney and oval seed shapes observed were represented respectively in 61.25%, 25% and 13.75% of the accessions. There were significant variations in seed length, width and 100-seed weight being highly significant in the later case. All the three seed size classes (small, medium and large according to CIAT categorization) were represented in the collected accessions. 22.5% accessions have 100-seed weight less than 25g, 53.75% accessions have 100-seed weight between 25-40g while 100-seed weight of more than 40g was recorded in 23.75% of the accessions. Highly positive correlations were found between 100-seed weight and seed length and width and between seed length and seed width. The 80 accessions were grouped in three clusters at a coefficient level of 0.3 with largest cluster of 59 accessions followed by a medium cluster with 20 accessions and the least with a single accession. Grid maps generated through DIVA-GIS software indicated that diverse accessions of common bean in terms of seed size and weight can be sourced from the areas falling in Budgam, Shopian and Kulgam districts of the state. Conservation of this remarkable genetic diversity is recommended for future propagation, breeding and the investigation of the genetic relationships

Prevalence, serodiversity and antibiogram of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) in diarrhoeic calves and lambs of Kashmir valley (J&K), India

Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) is the major cause of diarrhoea in neonatal animals. This study determined the prevalence, serological diversity, virulence gene profile and in-vitro antibiogram of ETEC isolates from diarrhoeic faeces of calves and lambs. The prevalence rate of ETEC in lambs was recorded 18.46 % with O8 as predominant serotype. However, in calves the prevalence rate was recorded 8.57 % with O15 and O26 as predominant serotypes. The antibiogram screening showed differential susceptibility pattern among ETEC isolates with highest resistance to ampicillin and highest sensitivity to enrofloxacin. In the present study, for the first time it was reported that the diarrhoea in calves and lambs occur due to virulent gene est not due to elt gene, which was absent in all the isolates

Validation of a food frequency questionnaire for assessing Macronutrient and calcium intake in adult Pakistani population

Objective: To develop and validate a food frequency table (FFQ) for use in urban Pakistani population. Study Design: A validation study. Place and Duration of Study: The Aga Khan University, Karachi, from June to November 2008. Methodology: Healthy adult females, aged ≥ 18 years who consented to be included in the study were inducted, while males, unhealthy females, aged below 18 years or who did not consent were excluded. The FFQ was administered once while 4, 24 hours recalls spread over a period of one year were administered as the reference method. Daily intakes for energy, protein, fat, and calcium intake were estimated for both the tools. Crude and energy adjusted correlations for nutrient intakes were computed for the FFQ and mean of 4, 24 hours recalls and serum N-telopeptide of type-I collagen (NTx). Results: The correlation coefficients for the FFQ with mean of 4, 24 hours recall ranged from 0.21 for protein to 0.36 for calcium, while the correlation for nutrient estimates from the FFQ with NTx ranged from -0.07 for calcium to 0.01 for energy. Conclusion: Highly significant correlations were found for nutrient intakes estimated from the FFQ vs. those estimated from the mean of 4, 24 hours recalls but no correlations was found between nutrient estimates from the FFQ and serum NTx levels. FFQ was concluded to be a valid tool for assessing dietary intake of adult females in Pakistan

Induction and Synchronization of Estrus

Estrus cycle is a rhythmic change that occur in the reproductive system of females starting from one estrus phase to another. The normal duration of estrus cycle is 21 days in cow, sow, and mare, 17 days in ewe, and 20 days in doe. The species which exhibit a single estrus cycle are known as monstrous and species which come into estrus twice or more are termed polyestrous animals. Among them some species have estrus cycles in a particular season and defined as seasonal polyestrous. It includes goats, sheep, and horses. On the other hand, cattle undergo estrus throughout the year. The estrus inducers can grossly be divided into two parts, that is, non-hormonal and hormonal. Non-hormonal treatments include plant-derived heat inducers, mineral supplementation, uterine and ovarian massage, and use of Lugol’s iodine. The hormones that are used in estrus induction are estrogen, progesterone, GnRH, prostaglandin, insulin, and anti-prolactin-based treatment. Synchronization can shorten the breeding period to less than 5 days, instead of females being bred over a 21-day period, depending on the treatment regimen. The combination of GnRH with the prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α)- and progesterone-based synchronization program has shown a novel direction in the estrus synchronization of cattle with the follicular development manipulation

Chronobiology and Its General Perspectives

As a significance of the earth’s rotation about its axis approximately every 24 hours, most organisms on this planet are subjected to probable variations of light and temperature. A diverse range of species, from cyanobacteria to humans, evolved internal biological clocks that allow for the anticipation of these daily variations. The field of chronobiology, the study of the rhythms in plants and animals, was limited to botanists for centuries. Only recently during the last decades, the research was expanded to include animals and later even human beings. Rhythms have been recognized and associated to the fluctuation of day and night and to the succession of the seasons. Nowadays, chronobiology has developed into a multidisciplinary field in which scientists are involved in basic research as well as in applied topics

Special Affine Stockwell Transform Theory, Uncertainty Principles and Applications

In this paper, we study the convolution structure in the special affine Fourier transform domain to combine the advantages of the well known special affine Fourier and Stockwell transforms into a novel integral transform coined as special affine Stockwell transform and investigate the associated constant Q property in the joint time frequency domain. The preliminary analysis encompasses the derivation of the fundamental properties, Rayleighs energy theorem, inversion formula and range theorem. Besides, we also derive a direct relationship between the recently introduced special affine scaled Wigner distribution and the proposed SAST. Further, we establish Heisenbergs uncertainty principle, logarithmic uncertainty principle and Nazarovs uncertainty principle associated with the proposed SAST. Towards the culmination of this paper, some potential applications with simulation are presented.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.01972 by other author

Synthesis and electrochemical studies of dimethyl glyoxime based heterotrimetallic macrocyclic complex

Synthesis dimethylglyoxime based heterotrimetallic macrocyclic complex was carried by taking the advantage of preferred coordination geometry of copper and chromium and selective use of sodium thiocyanate as axial ligand. The complex was characterized by elemental analysis, IR and MS. Magnetic behaviour of this complex, strong antiferromagnetic interactions were observed between metal ions which can be explained on the basis of spin orbit coupling. Electronic properties of the complex were studied using cyclic voltametry. Four well defined redox states were displayed in cyclic voltagram of which three were assigned to metal centers and one was ligand based redox state. On the other hand, the magnetic anisotropy due to different magnitude and nature of interactions in the complex makes it a possible single molecular magnet

Socio-demographic profile and mode of attempt of suicide among suicide attempters in Kashmir: a hospital-based study

Background: Suicide is an important and serious public health problem. It is one of the major emergencies in psychiatry. This study was carried out to assess the socio-demographic profile and mode of attempt of suicide among suicidal attempters attending emergency.Methods: This study was a cross sectional, observational study conducted at Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences-Kashmir, an associated hospital of Government Medical College Srinagar, among the suicide patients attending the outpatient service and inpatient services fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria over a period of one and a half year. Each patient was informed about the purpose of interview; his/her consent was obtained in a simple and easily understandable unambiguous language.Results: A total of 221 cases who had been admitted following unsuccessful suicide attempts to the emergency and psychiatry department were taken up for the study. Out of which 161 (72.9%) were females and 60 (27.1%) were males, the mean age was 24.61±8.9 years. Lower middle and upper lower classes occupied an equal percentage of 34.4% of the suicide attempters, while 24% belonged to upper middle class and only 5.9% belonged to lower class .The least no. of cases (1.4%) were from the upper classes. The most common mode adopted was poisoning whereas the least common mode was self- immolation. Poisoning and self-mutilation were proportionally high in females as compared to males with a significant p value.Conclusions: There should be a robust system in place which takes care of future management and follow up of this group of population.