Archives-December 

The term “producer” rather than “farmer” because it covers all aspects of agricultural production, including livestock and fisheries, and the processing of agricultural products on-farm or in the rural areas (such as the women’s cottage industries). The producer organizations (POs) considered are formal rural organizations whose members organized themselves with the objective of improving farm income through improved production, marketing, and local processing activities. POs deal with: policies on issues such as pricing and export and import of agricultural products; improvement of agricultural production practices; access to inputs and services, including agricultural credit; marketing of agricultural production; and local processing of agricultural production and its marketing. Collectivization of producers, especially small and marginal farmers, into producer organizations has emerged as one of the most effective pathways to address the many challenges of agriculture but most importantly, improved access to investments, technology and inputs and markets. Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India has identified farmer producer organization registered under the special provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 as the most appropriate institutional form around which to mobilize farmers and build their capacity to collectively leverage their production and marketing strength. It has been argued that rural producer organizations (RPOs) are an effective tool for solving problems in rural areas and promoting agricultural development. The empirical evidence of the effectiveness of POs on serving their members is scarce at best.

We have studied the relationship between suicide in Slovakia and various Solar, Interplanetary and Geomagnetic Activity parameters, such as Sunspot Numbers (SSN), Solar Flare Index (SFI), Sudden Storm Commencements (SSC), and planetary Ap, Kp and Dst Indices observed during the period of 1986 to 2010. The data shows that the number of deaths due to suicide of males and females is well correlated with the yearly mean of Sunspot Numbers (SSN), Solar Flare Index (SFI), Sudden Storm Commencements (SSC), and planetary Ap, Kp and Dst Indices. We have calculated a large positive correlation, with correlation coefficients of 0.72, 0.64, and 0.62, between the yearly total number of male deaths due to suicide and the Planetary Kp, Ap, and Dst (magnitude) Indices. In addition, we have found a large negative correlation, with correlation coefficients -0.77, -0.68, and -0.60, between the yearly total number of female deaths due to suicide and the Planetary Kp, Ap, and Dst (magnitude) Indices. A large positive correlation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.60, and a good medium positive correlation, with correlation coefficient 0.57, has been found between the yearly total number of male deaths due to suicide and the yearly mean of the SSN and SFI. A good medium negative correlation, with correlation coefficients -0.49 and -0.40, has been found between the yearly total number of female deaths due to suicide and the SSN, SFI. From the statistical analysis of sudden storm commencements (SSC), and death due to suicide, we have obtained a positive correlation, with correlation coefficient of 0.51, between the yearly total number of male deaths due to suicide and Sudden Storm Commencements (SSC), as well as a negative correlation, with a correlation coefficient of -0.38, between the yearly total number of female deaths due to suicide and Sudden Storm Commencements (SSC).

The title organic–inorganic hybrid material, (C5N2ClH6)2[CdCl3.57(H2O)0.43].Cl0.43.H2O1.57, crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric setting in the chiral space group P212121. Its simplified structure consists of edge sharing [CdCl4]2- units that are connected with each other to form infinite {[CdCl2Cl4/2]2-}n anionic chains; of 2-amino-5-chloropyridinium cations (two for every cadmium ion); and of one localized water molecule. Areas with additional electron density, adding up to 12 electrons each, are found in the form of narrow tubes that stretch along the direction of the a-axis, but no meaningful model for these regions could be devised and the electron density in there was instead corrected for by back-Fourier transformation methods. In the solid state structure one of the chlorine atoms of the tetrachlorocadmate units is partially replaced by a water molecule in a 0.568 (7) to 0.432 (7) ratio, with charge balance achieved through partial replacement of an interstitial water molecule by a chlorine ion. This leads to an actual formula for the compound of (C5N2ClH6)2[CdCl3.57(H2O)0.43].Cl0.43.H2O1.57 rather than the simplified (C5N2ClH6)2[CdCl4].2H2O. In the more prevalent cadmate units the metal centers have a distorted octahedral CdCl6 coordination sphere. In the remainder of the sites with one of the chlorines replaced by water, the coordination geometry is CdCl5(OH2) instead. The anionic and cationic units and the water molecules are connected through intricate O—H•••Cl, N—H•••Cl and N—H•••O hydrogen bonding interactions, with three of these being three-center interactions. The exocyclic N atom is an electron receiving center, which is consistent with features of imino resonance evidenced by bond lengths and angles. Results from solid state 13C and 15N CP–MAS NMR spectroscopy are in good agreement with the X-ray structure. Density functional theory calculations allowed for the assignment of the carbon peaks to the independent crystallographic sites.

Some N-(substituted)-5,6-dimethylthieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-amine derivatives 3(a-e) and 3-(substitutedphenyl)-1-(4-(5,6-dimethyl thieno [2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-ylamino)phenyl)prop-2-en-1-one derivatives 5(a-e) were synthesized starting from 2-amino thiophene-3-carboxylic acid ester analogue. The structures of all synthesized compounds have been evaluated by physical methods (melting point as well as elemental analyses) and also were confirmed by IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopies. All the newly synthesized compounds were tested for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against gram (+)ve and gram (-)ve bacteria and also on different strains of fungi. Some of the compounds showed better antibacterial as well as antifungal activities in comparison with the standard drugs.

A series containing fourteen substituted styryl 5-methyl-2-furyl ketones [2E- 1(5-methyl-2-furyl)-3-(substituted phenyl)-2-propen-1-ones] were synthesized by Crossed-Aldol condensation between2-acetyl-5-methylfuron and various substituted benzaldehydes. The synthesized ketones were characterized by their physical constants and spectral data. The group frequencies of infrared absorption (cm-1) of ?COs-cis and s-trans, ?CHout of plane and in-plane, ?CH=CH out of plane, ?>C=C

Worldwide national policies on higher education are giving increasing importance to improve the quality of education on offer. Consequently, the evaluation of teachers’ performance is especially relevant for the academic institutions as it helps to define efficient plans to guarantee quality of teachers and the teaching learning process. However, a key challenge is to understand the complex range of features associated with teacher evaluation, the contentiuos issues on accuracy and reliability of classical evaluation methods coupled with both mixed empirical evidence about their effects on students’ learning and conflicts of interest between key actors of education systems. This paper is an overview of evaluation of teachers’ performance in higher institutions, challenges in the progress, the main research areas and its applications to develop an effective and improved teachers’ performance evaluation system.

Sustainable development remains an important global vision and Education for All (EFA) that represents an international commitment to ensure that every individual receives basic education of good quality is based both on a human rights perspective and on the generally held belief that education is central to individual well-being and development. The current textile, apparel and fashion scenario is characterized by complex factors such as reduced time to market and the need to improve the efficiency of business process and offer the client timely, effective and satisfactory services. This necessitates reorganisation by companies, industry oriented research and human resource developmental efforts by the educational institutes to upgrade and adopt suitable measures to meet up the challenges of the changing apparel and fashion industry trends. The Textile and Apparel industry is highly human resource intensive and therefore relies on strong management systems and practices information technology driven operations, branding, marketing and communication, strategic planning of human resources and its effective management. In this article an attempt is made to view the current scenario and the scope of Textile and Apparel education, since Textiles and Apparel is an industry where innovations in education, process as well as product are required to effectively integrate all aspects of design, Technology, Retail and Management. The nature of this study is centered on identifying students’ academic expectations and motivations in seeking an advanced education. With the recent trends in academia, such as the introduction, consolidation, up gradation of programs and increasing tuition rate in Textile, Apparel and Fashion Education, this study is both timely and relevant.

This study focused on the impact of role-play on Promoting Functional Use of L2 in Low-immersion EFL Context of Iranian High school Learners. Role-play was supposed to have a great impact on the understanding and producing linguistic functions and speech acts. Among all the functions introduced by Halliday (1985), three were utilized in this research. Heuristic function which deals with the use of language to ask for information about things, informative function dealing with the use of language to inform about external things, and the Interactional function which has to do with the use of language to interact socially with others. About 100 students, 60 females and 40 males high school students, were asked to participate in this research. Having assigned them into two groups of control and experimental ones, pre-test and posttest were run. In order to evaluate the results, ANCOVA test was administered. The results showed that gender had no significant effect on role-playing the Halliday’s functions. Furthermore, it was statistically proved that role-play would lead to a better production of speech acts, especially the three functions utilized in this study. Besides, Implementing Role-play could affect and enhance the scores of Iranian EFL learners. This study would have been a great help to teachers to run their classes more efficiently and proficiently. Key words: Functions, Role-play, Low immersion contexts, gender

The pollinating of oil palm is cross pollination. The important insect that play an important role is Elaeidobius kamerunicus (EK). The superior DP hybrid with high sex ratio in young plants resulted in a lack of pollen.The Hatch and Carry technique is used to increase EK populations. This research aimed to determine the effectiveness of EK with Hatch and Carry technique on the fruit set level. The EK population increased the fruit set from 69% to 80%; Hatch and Carry techniques are effective on plantations dominated with young plant, and this technique can increase productivity by 5 - 16%

School reforms highlight the need for young people who make up the bulk (over 70 percent) of most African nations’ populations to be empathetic, reflective, creative, innovative and resilient servant leaders. While the formal curriculum plays a key in achieving these educational goals, there exists other factors that shape students’ beliefs, attitudes, intellectual and behavioral structure, which this article refers to as the invisible curriculum. A substantial number of scholars suggest that the hidden curriculum accounts for as much as 90% of all students’ learning outcomes. Its influences are even visible on students’ leadership styles, adaptive response to hardship and the ability to rebound back (resilience), creativity-the act of conceiving something unique, innovation-the implementation of something new, and in general their worldview, even to keeping a job in the future. The stressors associated with 21st century young people training to be innovative, creative, resilient and servant leaders necessitated an investigation on the role played by the hidden curriculum in students’ worldview through a sequential explanatory mixed method design. Four hundred and eighty-six closed-ended questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected undergraduate students. Out of the 486 distributed questionnaires, 417 were filled and returned and the information therein informed the follow-up qualitative phase to explain and enrich the quantitative data. An interview was then developed to guide in gathering explanations from purposively selected 10 students to provide in-depth explanations as why some factors were perceived as more influential than others. The results of the research indicated that hidden curricula are manifested through teachers’ demeanors and conduct not explicitly prescribed in any formal document but creates lasting impressions on young peoples’ worldviews and ultimately their behavior. For this reason, the researchers suggest educators must pay cautious attention to the human climate in formal learning contexts and the society in general if they wish to succeed in nurturing holistic leaders for the accomplishment of Vision 2030.