IMPACT : International Journal of Research in Applied, Natural and Social Sciences

11-18

Authors: K. V. Shivakumar, R. Devendra, M. V. Muniswamappa, G. K. Halesh & M. Mahadevamurthy

Bidens pilosa L. is an annual weed in many cropping systems where it reduces crop yield up to 9 to 48 percent because of its fast growth and competitive ability. This weed is commonly found in gardens, cultivated areas, waste lands and along road sides. The reproductive biology of weed has an implication on controlling practices that minimize the populations on agricultural fields. With this background the study was conducted to know the biology of weed seed production under the canopy of plantation crops. Heavy growth is observed during July to September in South India. A wide variation in plant height, Number of branches, biomass, seed production potential were observed. There was no definite pattern in seed production between seed rain episodes and branches of weed but significant differences were observed in the growth parameters Viz. number of seeds produced from different branches. The time interval between seed rain episodes significantly varies from 4 to15 days and 37 to 73 days taken to complete entire seed rain episode varies among population. Test weight of seeds collected during seed rain episodes had significantly high (1.64g) between early and (1.08g) at later stage of seed rain episode. There is a positive significant correlation between the growth parameters and the seed yield was observed.

25-28

Authors: Ananthnag K & Bharathi B

The study was conducted in the Eastern Dry Zone (EDZ) of Karnataka state during the year 2013 to know the achievement motivation of farmers practicing organic farming and to document their difficulties. The findings show that 43.12 percent of the respondents had high level of achievement motivation and 34.38 percent of respondents had medium level of achievement motivation. The major difficulties expressed by the farmers relating to organic farming were, recommended Bio-control practices are of high cost and not effective in controlling pests, scarcity of FYM and other organic manures, lack of market information and market access, non availability of recommended package of practice and laborious process involved in application of organic practices, difficulties in getting the organic manures compared to the chemical fertilizers, which can be bought easily, insufficient training, non-availability of skilled labours, lack of minimum support price for the organic products, non availability of required quantity of Neem seed kernel, farmers were not sure whether all the nutrients with the required quantities can be made available by the organic materials.

33-38

Authors: Bharathi B, Ananthnag K & G. N. Nagaraja

Consumer behaviour refers to the actions of consumers in the market place and the underlying motives for those actions. There has been a growing awareness of the fragility of the environment. Marketers saw increasing consumer interest in the environment as a marketing opportunity to target organically grown produce concerned consumers. Hence, this study conducted on the behavioral aspect of the consumer. Organic foods are made according to certain production standards. The Government of India has set up a NIOF. The formulate rules, regulations, and certification of organic farm products in conformity with international standards. All this arguments leads the marketers to find answer, to whether their socio economic studies helps the residents to buy organic food products and whether the attitude about organic food product is positive and influences to buy organic food products and in order to know the above queries, the present study has been carried out during 2012 in Bangalore Karnataka. An empirical study entitled “Buying Behaviour of Urban Residents towards Organic Food Products” has been carried out. The study was carried out in Bangalore City with the sample size of 200 household respondents who are familiar with Organic Food Products by adopting multistage sampling technique. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics.

49-56

Authors: Sangeeta Nagaich & Preeti Sharma

It was well documented that the educational condition of women has improved in the past few decades but their work participation rate is still low. Here, the paper tried to see reasons behind this difference. There are many determinants of work participation rate but we limit this paper to education. The paper is based on the hypothesis of increasing women work participation rate with increase in Literacy rate. The correlation matrix between Work participation and literacy rate improvement does not show significant relation. In addition, it was found that women with primary education are actively engaged in agricultural sector. Finally, the paper Concludes with some general observations and suggestions.

63-70

Authors: Stela Ruci, Denada Kasemi & Sajmir Beqiraj

The present study aims to assess and analyze the species composition, abundance and environmental state of the macro zoobenthic community of the rocky areas along the Adriatic coast of Albania. Benthic samples have been taken during July – August 2011 in four rocky coastal areas, where 140 taxa of macro zoobenthos have been recorded in total. The groups with the highest presence and abundance were mollusks of the families Patellidae, Trochidae, Cerithiidae, Muricidae, Risoiidae and Vermetidae, crustaceans of the families Balanidae, Gamaridae, Grapsidae and Mayidae, as well as the polychaetes Serpulidae. Five species have been reported for the first time for Albania: the gastropods Trimusculus mammillaris and Vexillum savignyi, the bivalves Acesta excavata and Musculista senhousia, and the sponge Hexadella racovitzai. Two alien mollusk species for the Mediterranean have been recorded: Rapana venosa and Musculista senhousia. From a preliminary assessment, the benthic community in the studied area seems to have a relatively low stability and unfavorable environmental state. The species composition and abundance of benthic macro invertebrates in this area are under the influence of the exposal of the coast, algal cover and environmental impact.

77-80

Authors: Shikha Jaggi & Abhay Singh Yadav

In the present study, the distribution of ABO and Rh (D) blood groups has been investigated in four endogamous groups of Haryana (Mallah, Banjara, Kumhar and Saini). In ABO blood group system, the frequency of A allele ranged from 0.040-0.286, that of B allele ranged from 0.322-0.368 and of O allele ranged from 0.354-0.604 whereas the frequency of D allele varied from 0.421-0.900. The frequency of different alleles falls well within the range of other castes of Haryana.

89-92

Authors: Deependra Yadav, S. P. Singh & Sarvesh Singh

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of foliar application of potassium compounds viz., KNO3, K2SO4, KH2PO4 and KCl on fruit retention, yield and physico-chemical attributes of Banarasi Karaka ber. The concentrations of potassium compounds were 1% and 2%. The highest fruit retention, fruit yield/tree, fruit size, weight, pulp/stone ratio, TSS and ascorbic acid were noted at 2% K2SO4 with the lowest acid content.

101-110

Authors: Miniar Ben Ammar Sghari & Sami Hammami

In this paper we examine the role of medical technology in growth of health care expenditure. In recent years, many industrialized countries have been confronted with rising healthcare expenditures. We take a panel cointegration approach in order to explore the possibility of estimating impacts of medical technology. Our empirical analysis is based on 14 developed countries_ France, Allemagne, Italie, Japon, Mexique, Noverge, Espagne, Suisse, Royaume-Uni, Etat-Unis, Turquie, Austria, Germany and Prologne for the period 1980–2012. We find that medical technology exert a statistically significant positive effect on health care expenditure.

117-124

Authors: Muhammad Kamran Taj, Wei Yunlin, Zohra Samreen, Imran Taj, Taj Muhammad Hassani & Ji Xiu Ling

The chemical signal molecules called autoinducers are produced and released by the quorum sensing bacteria to levels dominating the increasing cell-population density. The attainment of minimal threshold stimulatory concentration of an autoinducer leads to an alteration in gene expression. Both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria are capable of using quorum sensing communication circuits for regulating a diverse array of physiological activities. These activities include symbiosis, competence, virulence, conjugation, antibiotic production, sporulation, motility and biofilm formation. The Gram-negative bacteria use acylated homoserine lactones as autoinducers, while Gram-positive bacteria use processed oligo-peptides to communicate. In the field of quorum sensing revealed, cell to cell communication via autoinducers both within and between bacterial species. The establishment of enormous data in this field suggests autoinducers acquiring specific responses from host organisms. Despite the difference in chemical signals, signal relay mechanisms and the target genes controlled by the bacterial quorum sensing systems, the ability to communicate with one another allows bacteria to coordinate the gene expression as well as the behaviour of the entire community. This process presumably confers upon the bacteria some of the qualities of higher organisms. The evolution of quorum sensing systems in bacteria thus could have been one of the early steps in the development of multicellularity.

135-142

Authors: M. Ravi Babu & Asghar Eimani

Human Resource Management used to be considered as other conventional administrative jobs. But over a period of time, it has evolved as a strategic function to improve working environment, plan out human resources needs and strike a balance between the organization and employers in order to increase organizational productivity and meet organizational goals. Not to exaggerate but in today’s highly competitive world it has gradually become one of the most important functions of an organization. HR is a product of the human relations movement of the early 20th century, when researchers began documenting ways of creating business value through the strategic management of the workforce. The function was initially dominated by transactional work, such as payroll and benefits administration, but due to globalization, company consolidation, technological advancement, and further research, HR now focuses on strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions, talent management, succession planning, industrial and labor relations, and diversity and inclusion. This paper considers some of the key issues and challenges in human resource management in the Indian Context.

151-156

Authors: C. Gobalakrishnan & K. Shunmuga Priya

Dual carrier is always posing many problems to the concern individuals. The amount and nature of problem depends upon how the individual tackle the situation in a successful manner. The same type also arises in the life of the married girls students too. In their life they are facing many problems but basically two problems are major. The first one is they have to look after their family and the second one is they have to concentrate on their studies. The present paper deals about the problems face by married girl students in their daily life. The data were collected from 80 respondents by using snow-ball sampling method and the educational institutions were located in and around Salem city in Tamil Nadu.

163-168

Authors: Mumtaz Ansari, Vivek Srivastava, Nitish Ranjan Acharya & M. Rajgopal Acharya

Background: Traditionally, repair of an inguinal hernia has been by an open method, but laparoscopic techniques have recently been introduced and are increasing in popularity. This study aimed to compare early and late outcomes following laparoscopic and open repair of inguinal hernia. Methods: After institutional review board approval, a retrospective review was performed with the charts of 97 patients who had undergone surgical repair of inguinal hernias from January 2007 through August 2010, and the data for 73 patients who met the inclusion criteria were analyzed. Surgical variables and clinical outcomes were compared using Student’s t test, the Mann–Whitney U test, chi-square, and Fisher’s exact test as appropriate. Early-outcome criteria studied include in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, complications (infection, bleeding, injury to an organ, and urinary retention), and readmission. Late outcome was assessed by the need for a further inguinal hernia repair. Results: Out of 73 patients 45 patients had undergone open mesh repair and 28 patients had undergone laparoscopic mesh repair for inguinal hernias. Postoperative complications were experienced by 20 patients in the open group and 6 patients in laparoscopic group. In the laparoscopic group, 18 patients underwent total extra peritoneal (TEP) repair, and 10 patients had trans abdominal pre peritoneal (TAPP) repair. Postoperative complications were experienced by 4 patients in the TEP group and 2 patients in the TAPP group (p = 0.44). Reoperation rates were higher following laparoscopic repair for primary inguinal hernias as compared to recurrent inguinal hernias. Conclusions: This retrospective review showed that following laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair, reoperation rates are higher than with open surgery following repair of primary unilateral or bilateral hernia but not recurrent inguinal hernia. Both procedures were comparable in terms of intra- and postoperative complications.

177-186

Authors: Denada Kasemi, Stela Ruci & Sajmir Beqiraj

This paper represents a comparative study on species composition, quantitative characteristics, seasonal variations and stability of macrozoobenthic populations between Jonufra and Radhima coasts in Vlora Bay. Sampling has been carried out during 2007 - 2009, focusing on the supralittoral, mediolittoral and upper part of infralittoral. A total of 103 species has been found in both investigated sites. It is worthy to note the presence of 33 endangered species in national scale and 2 endangered species in regional scale (Lithophaga lithophaga and Paracentrotus lividus). The macrozoobenthic community in the studied area has showed a low stability. Characteristics of macrozoobenthic populations in both sites are mainly related to the macroalgal cover and substrate typology.