Rainfall Climatology over Middle East Region and its Variability

A better understanding of the rainfall climatology of the Middle East region identifying the mechanisms responsible for the rain producing systems is essential for effective utilization of the water resources over the arid region. A comprehensive analysis on the rainfall climatology of the Middle East region is carried out to bring out the spatial and temporal variation of rainfall and mechanisms responsible for the rain events. The study was carried out utilizing rainfall, OLR, wind and humidity data sets procured from TRMM, NOAA and NCEP-NCAR. Climatology of annual rainfall brings out two areas of alarmingly low rainfall in the Middle East region: one in Egypt, Jordan and adjoining areas and the other in the southern part of Saudi Arabia. Daily rainfall analysis indicates that northern region gets rainfall mainly during winter and spring associated with the passage of Mediterranean low pressure systems whereas rain over the southern region is caused mainly by the monsoon organized convection, cross equatorial flow and remnants of low pressure systems associated with the monsoon during the summer season. Thermodynamic structure of the atmosphere reveals that the region does not have frequent local convection due to insufficient moisture content. The sinking motion associated with the sub tropic high pressure system and subsidence associated with the Walker circulation are responsible for maintaining warm and dry air over the region.

Nutritional studies in juvenile penaeus indicus with fererence to protein and vitamin requirements

Man in his quest to explore food has turned towards the oceans and during the last five decades there has been phenomenal increase in the exploitation of the marine fisheries resources. The present study is carried out to determine the requirement of protein and water-soluble vitamins in the diet of juveniles of the Indian white prawn p.indicus using purified diets and to evaluate the nutritive value of a few plant and animal protein sources for the same species. A total of ten statistically designed experiments are conducted in the laboratory undermost identical conditions and following similar methodologies. The study also tries to suggest the essential and optimal requirements for protein as well as water-soluble vitamins in the diet of juvenile p.indicus

Biology, population characteristics and fishery of the speckled shrimp Metapenaeus monoceros (Fabricius, 1798) along the Kerala coast

Crustaceans comprising numerous edible species of prawns, lobsters and crabs inhabiting different ecosystem form significant portion of the aquatic food resources of the world. Among the crustaceans, prawns are the most commercially exploited group and hold premier rank by virtue of their importance as an esteemed food of gourmet and on account of their high export value. Met-ape-naeus manoceras (Fabricius, 1798) which is known IS,Speckled shrimp’ (FAD name) and ‘Brown shrimp’ ( common nameused in the industry) is one of the commercially important marine penaeid prawns of India. During 1995, M. monaceros catch constituted 7.5 Z of the all India marine penaeid prawn landings. M. monoceros attains a maximum length of about 200 mm and has high export potential.Thus realising the growing importance of M. monoceros in the capture fisheries, it was felt, that it would be ideal to carry out detailed study on this species for rational exploitation and management of its fishery. Hence, the present work entitled, “Biology, population characteristics and fishery of the speckled shrimp Hetapenaeus monoceros (Fabricius, 1798) along Kerala coast“ was undertaken by the author. The thesis is laid out in seven chapters comprising TAXONOMY, FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS, AGE AND GROWTH, REPRODUCTION,LENGTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP, FISHERY and POPULATION DYNAMICS

A simple device for the separation of weak larvae of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man)

Larvae of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man) are photopositive (Ling 1969a.b) and negatively rheotactic. While investigating larval diseases of M, rosenbergii it was observed that weak larvae failed to show both these responses. It was felt that this lack of response could be used to develop a device for separating the weak larvae from the apparently healthy ones. Such a device would be a valuable tool for assessing the health of a batch in terms of the percentage of 'healthy' and 'weak' larvae. What follows is a description and mode of operation of the 'photo-flow' device developed by the authors

Managerial Performance – An Analysis of Selected Antecedents and Mediators

The primary focus of this study was to asses the impact of selected antecedent variables namely Psychological Empowerment at Work (PEW), Psychological Contract Violation (PCV), Work Life Balance (WLB), Job Satisfaction (JS) and Affective Organisational Commitment (AOC) on Managerial Performance (MP) of middle level managers of private sector manufacturing and service sector organisations in Kerala.The study brings out the significance of Job Attitudes namely Job Satisfaction and Affective Organisational Commitment in meaningfully explaining the linkage between the rest of the antecedent variables in the study and Managerial Performance. The study interestingly revealed that Job Attitudes play a mediating role in explaining performance of managers unlike visualised in the initial conceptual framework. The study points to the importance of taking care of job attitudes in the work place to ensure performance of managers. The result of the study also brings out the significance of maintaining work-life balance especially in service sector organisations because it will have a direct impact on the level of performance of managers than most of the other contextual factors. Hence, it is the responsibility of HR department to initiate activities which are customised to the collective aspirations of the members of respective organisations to ensure positive job attitudes. HR departments should advice and convince the top management to provide resource support and endorsement to such initiatives.