A Study on the Empowerment of Women Construction Workers as Masons in Tamil Nadu, India

The construction sector has the largest number of unorganised labourers in India next only to agricultural sector. Women form half the workforce and by choice or by design they are not allowed to acquire specific skills that may enable them to become masons. Women join as unskilled workers and remain unskilled till the end of their working life span. However, men get training and systematically upgrade their construction skills to graduate as masons, supervisors and contractors. A study was conducted on the career progress of 440 men construction workers and 440 women construction workers and 51 building contractors to find out the reasons why women in the construction sector were not able to acquire skills for masonry work and how they could be trained to become masons. The findings of the study show that there is an inherent gender bias against women and also the shared general belief that women construction workers are unfit to be trained informally like men in the construction sector even though they have the necessary skills, capability and desire to become masons. Though the contractors are willing to accept women as masons by giving them training and placement in the construction sector, it has been found, the social forces that have perpetuated the concept of women as inferior workers are inimical to any such move. This study also analyses the methodology of training offered to men in the construction sector in India and proposes a new methodology of training that would qualify women construction workers to become masons and empower them economically

Impact of Rhetoric on the Scientific Concepts in the Tamil Epic Manimegalai

‘Rhetoric’ is the common word given for both theoretical studies and literary criticism. Since the ancient period itself rhetoric is used in literature, but it entwined with literary theory and literary criticism only in 20th century. The controversy between the rhetoric and science dates back to thousand years. Rhetoric should be based on science was the main idea of Aristotle and Cicero who formally defined rhetoric their works. This article shows the relationship between rhetoric and science and how both these are linked in the Tamil literature. It also brings out the impact of rhetoric in science through the Tamil text ‘Manimegalai’

Larviculture and seed production of the silver pompano, Trachinotus blochii (Lacepede, 1801) for the first time in India

Larviculture and seed production protocols for the silver pompano Trachinotus blochii, which is one of the promising finfish species for brackishwater and marine aquaculture was developed based on six trials for the first time in India. The newly hatched larvae were stocked at a density of 20 larvae l-1 in 2 t FRP tanks with 1.5 t of seawater. Green water technique was employed during larviculture upto the weaning period. Enriched S-type rotifers were fed at a density of 10-12 nos. ml-1 until 3 day post hatch (dph) and the enriched L-type rotifers were given at a density of 6-8 nos. ml-1 from 7 dph and thereafter with enriched Artemia at a density of 3-5 nos. ml-1. Weaning started from 15 dph and by 20-25 dph metamorphosis was completed. The survival on completion of metamorphosis ranged from 10-15% and the specific growth rate in terms of length (mm) was 8% per day. The larval morphology and growth pattern are also described

Capture based aquaculture of mud spiny lobster, Panulirus polyphagus (Herbst, 1793) in open sea floating net cages off Veraval, north-west coast of India

Capture based aquaculture (CBA) of the mud spiny lobster, Panulirus polyphagus was conducted in two cylindrical floating net cages of 6 m diameter and 4.5 m depth, made of HDPE sapphire netting of 18 mm mesh size. The cages were installed at a depth of 8 m, about 900 m away from the shore off Prabhas Patan, Veraval, India. Live lobsters were collected from lobster fishing centres of Veraval and Mahua regions of Gujarat and segregated into two groups: animals weighing 80-120 g (Group-1) and animals weighing < 80 g (Group-2). One thousand numbers of sub-adults of Group-1 with initial body weight of 99.75 ± 8.4 g, were stocked in Cage-1 and 1500 juveniles of Group-2 with initial body weight of 46.44 ± 8.8 g were stocked in Cage-2. The lobsters were fed twice daily with trash fish @ 8 % of the body weight by tray feeding. After the culture period of 90 days, no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in the survival rate (overall survival = 93.7 %) whereas, juvenile lobsters in Cage-2 showed weight increase of 1.49 g d-1 and specific growth rates of 1.51 % d-1 which was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the weight increase of 1.17 g d-1 and specific growth rates of 0.80 % d-1 recorded from Cage-1. Results suggest that P. polyphagus has potential for capture based aquaculture in sea cage culture systems along Gujarat coast

Comparative CBCT evaluation of dentinal crack formation, canal centering ability and apical transportation of hyflex-edm, oneshape, wave-one gold and reciproc files: An In Vitro study

AIM OF THE STUDY: Recently single file systems have come to replace conventional rotary instruments. In this in vitro study four single file systems- two rotary and two reciprocating instruments were selected to evaluate and compare the Canal centering ability, Apical transportation, Dentinal crack formation in the mesio-buccal root of maxillary first molar at coronal, middle and apical third using CBCT and SEM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty freshly extracted human maxillary first molars with curvature 10-20 degrees were analyzed by Schneider’s method as per inclusion criteria. Mesio buccal roots of 120 teeth were sectioned and root samples were divided into four experimental groups containing thirty teeth each, Group I – Hyflex EDM, Group II - OneShape, Group III- WaveOne Gold, Group IVReciproc. After cleaning and shaping as per standard irrigation protocol, the teeth were sectioned and scanned at coronal 1/3rd(4mm), middle 1/3rd(8mm), apical 1/3rd(12mm) of the canal in an axial slice thickness of 1mm. The images were recorded in the computer. The values were tabulated by pre and post instrumentation CBCT images. Canal centering ability and apical transportation were calculated using these CBCT values. Five mesio buccal root specimens from each group were taken for dentinal crack analysis; (5×3=15 samples for each group) 2mm from each section of the coronal middle apical 3rd of the samples were observed under SEM for dentinal crack formation. RESULTS: The canal centering ability was found to be better for One Shape at coronal 1/3rd whereas WaveOne Gold was found to be superior to other three groups at the middle & apical 1/3rd. The canal transportation was found to be least for WaveOne Gold followed by Reciproc, whereas the two rotary files Hyflex-EDM and One Shape showed higher value for transportation towards the lateral wall. Using SEM analysis it was observed that OneShape causes more dentinal cracks than other files systems in coronal and middle thirds with cracks evident in all samples at the apical third. Hyflex-EDM and WaveOne Gold showed similar results in the coronal and middle third. But Hyflex-EDM was found to be better in the apical third. CONCLUSION: Canal Centering Ability was not statistically significant for all four experimental groups. Least values for canal transportation was obtained for WaveOne Gold almost equivalent to Reciproc whereas both rotary files showed higher values for canal transportation. OneShape showed most dentinal crack in the coronal, middle and apical third. Hyflex-EDM and WaveOne Gold produced least dentinal cracks at all levels

Determinants of Utility of Short Messaging Services (SMS) by Farmers of Tamil Nadu for Agricultural Technology Transfer

Short Messaging Services (SMS) through mobile phones have redrawn the contours of Agricultural Technology transfer. In order to enable the farmers to make full use of SMS as a tool for technology delivery, the extent of influence of myriad of factors is to be ascertained. Hence, a study was conducted with the aim of analysing the factors influencing the reception and utility of Short Messaging Services among 120 farmers as respondents in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu. The results of the study revealed that among the factors, readability of messages, understandability of messages, size of the messages, font size of the messages and more information in one message were found to have ‘high influence’ to ‘moderate influence’ upon the respondents to receive and utilise SMS. There was moderate to high influence exerted by the factor ‘previous experience of receiving messages’ upon the respondents while the factor ‘successful experience of adopting the technologies given through the messages’ had less influence. The factor analysis resulted in the extraction of three factors which got loaded based on message and season, mobile and technical aspects of message and the influence of personality on the reception of messages

Impact of increase in temperature and light intensity on development and metamorphosis of hatchery reared silver pompano Trachinotus blochii (Lacepede, 1801) larvae

The largehead ribbonfish, Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 forms a major fishery along north-west coast of India comprising the two coastal states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Diet composition was analysed for five years (2010-2014) to understand shifts if any in the prey items. Seasonal changes in the prey items were studied for three years (2012-2014) to explore the temporal dynamics of prey availability in the ecosystem and in largehead ribbonfish guts. Feeding indices viz., Stomach fullness index (SFI), empty stomach ratio (ESR), gastrosomatic index (GaSI) and relative gut length (RLG) explained the feeding behaviour, seasonal dynamics and ontogenetic shifts in prey items. The Vacuity Index (VI) was estimated as 37.56%, indicating that T. lepturus is a carnivore and relatively edacious. Diet of T. lepturus comprised of fishes (47.16%), crustaceans (45.22%), molluscs (4.33%) and miscellaneous items (3.28%). Acetes sp. was the most dominant prey item during the study period. Feeding intensity was found to be high during the post-monsoon months which coincided with the period of gonadal maturation of the fish. Significant variations (p<0.05) were seen in the feeding indices during different months, different sizes and between sexes due to the availability of prey items, physiological changes and ontogenetic shifts. A detailed knowledge on diet composition, temporal dynamics in diet patterns and feeding indices can reveal the trophic interaction of prey-predator, resource abundance and fluctuations which are important inputs in ecology-based fishery management models/tools