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The contribution of four variables, namely Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Sea Surface Temperature (SST), diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd_490 or Kd), and Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), in predicting the catches of major pelagic fish species (Indian mackerel, horse mackerel, Bombay duck, oil sardine, and other sardines) was evaluated using Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). The outcome of the analysis was compared with those obtained by using the following models and methods: the Generalized Linear Model (GLM), the Generalized Additive Model (GAM), connection weight methods, and the explanatory methods of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Both the sets of results were in agreement. Neither the GAM nor the ANNs method showed any clear advantage over each other, although the GAM performed better than the GLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to work means that people have a human right to work or engage in productive employment and may not be prevented from doing so. The right to work is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and recognized in international human rights law through its inclusion in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, where the right to work emphasizes economic, social and cultural development. The preamble to the constitution secures social, economic and political justice to all citizens of India. The same resolve is more elaborately repeated in DPSP which, among others, specifically require the state to minimize the inequalities in income and to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities as well as to direct its policy towards ensuring that "the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub-serve the common good" and that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment. At one time, FRs were having primacy over DPSP. But in recent times, some DPSP have transformed into and become an integral part of the named FRs under part III. Therefore, the sanction of the state or the judiciary is needed for the enforcement of DPSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Prior watershed prioritization techniques are cumbersome for data scarcity regions. [•] Past efforts for watershed planning treated various morphometric variables equally. [•] Removal of individual biasness of morphometric parameters leads in precise ranking. [•] Novel Weighted Sum Analysis technique was proposed for prioritization of watershed. [•] Geospatial tools were coupled with statistical method to demonstrate the technique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective of this study was to compare two different rice simulation models-standalone (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer [DSSAT]) and web based (SImulation Model for RIce-Weather relations [SIMRIW])-with agrometeorological data and agronomic parameters for estimation of rice crop production in southern semi-arid tropics of India. Studies were carried out on the BPT5204 rice variety to evaluate two crop simulation models. Long-term experiments were conducted in a research farm of Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Hyderabad, India. Initially, the results were obtained using 4 years (1994-1997) of data with weather parameters from a local weather station to evaluate DSSAT simulated results with observed values. Linear regression models used for the purpose showed a close relationship between DSSAT and observed yield. Subsequently, yield comparisons were also carried out with SIMRIW and DSSAT, and validated with actual observed values. Realizing the correlation coefficient values of SIMRIW simulation values in acceptable limits, further rice experiments in monsoon (Kharif) and post-monsoon (Rabi) agricultural seasons (2009, 2010 and 2011) were carried out with a location-specific distributed sensor network system. These proximal systems help to simulate dry weight, leaf area index and potential yield by the Java based SIMRIW on a daily/weekly/monthly/seasonal basis. These dynamic parameters are useful to the farming community for necessary decision making in a ubiquitous manner. However, SIMRIW requires fine tuning for better results/decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian education system has played a key role in developing the skilled workforce required to capitalize on the wave of offshore outsourcing. India has a long history of organized education that goes back thousands of years in history. Prior to the British reign, India had a well-developed regional system. Much of this was uprooted and replaced with western structure and content. While much was lost in the transition, India emerged with a world-class set of universities including the famous Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Though producing a limited number of graduates, IIT is considered one of the top technical universities in the world and, by some metrics, the most difficult to get into. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the context of rural India, planning is mainly prescriptive (through mandated schemes) and top–down (by extension community from the line departments). Realizing the above mode of planning and the increasing demand for Geographical-Information & Communication Technology (Geo-ICT) applications in the rural systems in India, a prototype distributed collaboration tool, called GramyaVikas (rural development), has been developed to assist the rural extension community in their own decision-making processes in a more interactive, integrated and coordinated manner. GramyaVikas, evolved out of the needs assessment of the user community, is a secure and cost-effective system developed for defined users with open source (a) content management system and (b) Geographical Information Systems. This web-based tool will help the users to share and retrieve data/information; communicate for taking mutual decisions; make useful queries on spatial and nonspatial database to identify candidate villages/entities; and generate various views or scenarios for different rural development schemes. Presently, this Geo-ICT tool is being developed in an Intranet environment. The resulting system is intended to assist the remote users in analyzing rural-informatics for rural development planning decisions online, with customized GIS tools to suit the requirements of a few line departments for decision-making. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Disease stress functions to simulate the reduction in root water uptake from unhealthy trees were proposed. • HYDRUS (2D/3D) code was modified to include a disease stress factor and rigorously tested in the presence of the water stress. • Optimal root distribution and disease sensing parameters were derived for citrus crop simulation. Macroscopic modeling approaches based on the solution of the Richards equation with root water uptake (RWU) as a sink term can help in understanding soil-water-plant interactions within the rhizosphere. However, these models currently cannot capture the differences in RWU attributed to variations in plant health. Errors in simulating RWU from unhealthy plants are significant when disease-causing fungus inhibits water uptake rather than other usually considered plant stresses. We developed RWU reduction functions to simulate plant transpiration under combined water and disease stress conditions using linear and non-linear response models. The developed functions were implemented in the numerical model HYDRUS (2D/3D) to simulate water uptake from a root system in a radially symmetrical flow domain. Field experiments were conducted in the Vidarbha region of central India for one crop cycle on four citrus trees with varying disease intensities (healthy to severely diseased). The proposed model was rigorously tested by comparing its results with measured soil water contents and plant transpiration fluxes under various water and disease limiting conditions. Error in simulating RWU fluxes from unhealthy trees by ignoring the disease stress factor was found to be significant (15% for slightly diseased to 26% for the severely diseased tree). Parameters of the spatial root distribution and the disease stress response functions were optimized for each scenario using a genetic algorithm approach. Our results indicate that calibration targets to validate uptake reduction functions should be chosen cautiously based on the dominant stress experienced by the plant root system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]