A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NUTRIENT CONTENT OF SOILS SAMPLED FROM MID OF FOUR PLANTS AND DRIP CIRCLE OF COFFEE PLANTATIONS IN INDIA

Coffee growers often apply fertilizers very close to the plants, which results in accumulation of nutrients in one place leading to poor nutrient use efficiency, whereas soil sampling is done in the middle of four plants. Hence the objectives of this study was to compare nutrient status of soils sampled from drip circle and mid of four plants and recommend cost-effective fertilizer management

Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Barmah Forest Virus Disease in Queensland, Australia

Background Barmah Forest virus (BFV) disease is a common and wide-spread mosquito-borne disease in Australia. This study investigated the spatio-temporal patterns of BFV disease in Queensland, Australia using geographical information system (GIS) tools and geostatistical analysis. Methods/Principal Findings We calculated the incidence rates and standardised incidence rates of BFV disease. Moran's I statistic was used to assess the spatial autocorrelation of BFV incidences. Spatial dynamics of BFV disease was examined using semi-variogram analysis. Interpolation techniques were applied to visualise and display the spatial distribution of BFV disease in statistical local areas (SLAs) throughout Queensland. Mapping of BFV disease by SLAs reveals the presence of substantial spatio-temporal variation over time. Statistically significant differences in BFV incidence rates were identified among age groups (χ2 = 7587, df = 7327,p<0.01). There was a significant positive spatial autocorrelation of BFV incidence for all four periods, with the Moran's I statistic ranging from 0.1506 to 0.2901 (p<0.01). Semi-variogram analysis and smoothed maps created from interpolation techniques indicate that the pattern of spatial autocorrelation was not homogeneous across the state. Conclusions/Significance This is the first study to examine spatial and temporal variation in the incidence rates of BFV disease across Queensland using GIS and geostatistics. The BFV transmission varied with age and gender, which may be due to exposure rates or behavioural risk factors. There are differences in the spatio-temporal patterns of BFV disease which may be related to local socio-ecological and environmental factors. These research findings may have implications in the BFV disease control and prevention programs in Queensland

Snake Bite in South Asia: A Review

Snake bite is one of the most neglected public health issues in poor rural communities living in the tropics. Because of serious misreporting, the true worldwide burden of snake bite is not known. South Asia is the world's most heavily affected region, due to its high population density, widespread agricultural activities, numerous venomous snake species and lack of functional snake bite control programs. Despite increasing knowledge of snake venoms' composition and mode of action, good understanding of clinical features of envenoming and sufficient production of antivenom by Indian manufacturers, snake bite management remains unsatisfactory in this region. Field diagnostic tests for snake species identification do not exist and treatment mainly relies on the administration of antivenoms that do not cover all of the important venomous snakes of the region. Care-givers need better training and supervision, and national guidelines should be fed by evidence-based data generated by well-designed research studies. Poorly informed rural populations often apply inappropriate first-aid measures and vital time is lost before the victim is transported to a treatment centre, where cost of treatment can constitute an additional hurdle. The deficiency of snake bite management in South Asia is multi-causal and requires joint collaborative efforts from researchers, antivenom manufacturers, policy makers, public health authorities and international funders

DOI: 03.LSCS.2013.2. 556

Abstract- As virtualization is proving to be dominant in enterprise and organizational networks there is a need for operators and administrators to pay more attention to live migration of virtual machines (VMs) with the main objective of workload balancing, monitoring, fault management, lowlevel system maintenance and good performance with minimal service downtimes. It is also a crucial aspect of cloud computing that offers strategies to implement the dynamic allocation of resources. Virtualization also enables virtual machine migration to eliminate hotspots in data centers.However the security associated with VMs live migration has not received thorough analysis. Further, the negative impact on service levels of running applications is likely to occur during the live VM migration hence a better understanding of its implications on the system performance is highly required. In this survey we explore the security issues involved in live migration of VMs and demonstrate the importance of security during the migration process. A model which demonstrates the cost incurred in reconfiguring a cloud-based environment in response to the workload variations is studied. It is also proved that migration cost is acceptable but should not be neglected, particularly in systems where service availability and response times are imposed by stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs). A system that provides automation of monitoring and detection of hotspots and determination of the new mapping of physical to virtual resources and finally initiates the required migrations based on its observations is also studied. These are experimented using Xen Virtual Machine Manager. Migration based resource Managers for virtualized environments are presented by comparing and discussing several types of underlying algorithms from algorithmistic issues point of view

Authentication and Identity Validation Blockchain Application

Abstract The biggest obstacle to electronic migrations of many systems is the need to protect the details and to check the identity of users. Currently, the use of dual-factor authentication is based occasionally on a password. The problem with these approaches is that passwords are extremely insecure and authentication by two factors usually involves the sending of code via SMS or a third-party provider. The blockchain might be a solution to this problem. A 50 billion dollar currency is managed by blockchain. But authentication could be subject to the same cryptographic principles. Thus, blockchain authentication eliminates someone from maliciously modifying the ledger when they distribute a ledger to all network members. A majority of the network shall check its validity any time a block of data is attached to a chain. That guarantees the completeness of the ledger. You can then make sure to send passwords safely using public-key encryption, such as highly protected RSA encryption. The receiver could then search for an entry in the unchanged blockchain, which would result in a remarkably safe and reliable way of handling identity verification. These rules apply for the transformation into a stable, fast, reliable, and readily available service from the election process, state identifiers to dual-factor authentication.</jats:p

Dynamic spatiotemporal trends of dengue transmission in the Asia-Pacific region, 1955-2004

BACKGROUND: Dengue fever (DF) is one of the most important emerging arboviral human diseases. Globally, DF incidence has increased by 30-fold over the last fifty years, and the geographic range of the virus and its vectors has expanded. The disease is now endemic in more than 120 countries in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. This study examines the spatiotemporal trends of DF transmission in the Asia-Pacific region over a 50-year period, and identified the disease's cluster areas. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: The World Health Organization's DengueNet provided the annual number of DF cases in 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region for the period 1955 to 2004. This fifty-year dataset was divided into five ten-year periods as the basis for the investigation of DF transmission trends. Space-time cluster analyses were conducted using scan statistics to detect the disease clusters. This study shows an increasing trend in the spatiotemporal distribution of DF in the Asia-Pacific region over the study period. Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and Malaysia are identified as the most likely clusters (relative risk = 13.02) of DF transmission in this region in the period studied (1995 to 2004). The study also indicates that, for the most part, DF transmission has expanded southwards in the region. CONCLUSIONS: This information will lead to the improvement of DF prevention and control strategies in the Asia-Pacific region by prioritizing control efforts and directing them where they are most needed

Knowledge and attitude of people above 18 years regarding COVID-19 vaccination in a rural area of Kerala

Background: The COVID vaccination programme in conjunction with other control measures, are needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The mass vaccination with COVID vaccines, will help to increase the herd immunity. This study is an attempt to assess the knowledge and attitude of the adult population of a panchayat area of Thrissur district of Kerala towards COVID-19 vaccination and socio-demographic determinants associated with it.Methods: We have done a cross-sectional study among 350 study participants selected by cluster sampling technique from a panchayat area of Thrissur district of Kerala and the data was collected, using a pretested semi structured questionnaire. The knowledge and attitude were assessed by proportion and association of socio-demographic determinants was found out using ‘t’ test and ‘ANOVA’ test.Results: The result obtained, showed 94.3% of persons responded that there is a vaccine for preventing COVID and 85.2% were aware that Covishield and Covaxin were the vaccine freely available. The 78.3% respondents knew that there should be 84 days between the doses of Covishield and 77.1% knew that 28 days for Covaxin. The 100% respondents had attitude to take the vaccine and 99.1% were ready to continue COVID prevention measures even after vaccination. As per this study, younger age (p=0.04) and religion (0.000) had an association with knowledge.Conclusions: The high level of knowledge and a100% attitude towards COVID vaccination may be due to high political will and accountability of the governments towards it. The places with low acceptance rate can be able to model on it.</jats:p