Knowledge management and open access e-theses: Indian initiatives

This paper aims to describe recent developments in the services provided by Indian electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) repositories. It seeks to explore the prospect of knowledge formation and diffusion in India and to discuss the potential of open access e-theses repositories for knowledge management.This study is based on literature review and content analysis of IndianETDrepository websites. Institutional repositories and electronic thesis and dissertation projects in India were identified through a literature survey as well as internet searching and browsing. The study examines the tools, type of contents, coverage and aims of Indian ETD repositories.The paper acknowledges the need for knowledge management for national development. It highlights the significance of an integrated platform for preserving, searching and retrieving Indian theses. It describes the features and functions of Indian ETD repositories.The paper provides insights into the characteristics of the national repository of ETDs of India, which encourage and support open access to publicly-funded research

Catalogue Interfaces of Integrated Library Management Systems (ILMS): Experiences in a Proprietary and Open Source Software

The Central Library of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) has been automated by proprietary software (Adlib Library) since 2000. After 11 years, in 2011, the university authorities decided to shift to an open source software (OSS), for integrated library management system (ILMS), Koha for automating the library housekeeping operations. In this context, this study attempts to share the experiences in cataloging with both type of software. The features of the cataloging modules of both the software are analysed on the badis of certain check points. It is found that the cataloging module of Koha is almost in par with that of proven proprietary software that has been in market for the past 25 years. Some suggestions made by this study may be incorporated for the further development and perfection of Koha.

Studies on isolation and molecular characterization of plasmids from Vibrios

While the seriousness of the problem of antibiotic resistance is now recognized, the complex web of resistance linking humans, animals, and the environment is getting realized. More often, antibiotics are used as a preventive measure against diseases. Antibiotic use for agriculture leads to the increased resistance in the environment since antibiotics are inevitable element during agriculture/aquaculture and antibiotic residues are excreted as waste that is frequently spread onto farmland as organic fertilizer. Fecal bacteria survive long periods in the environment and spread through runoff into groundwater, rivers, and marine ecosystems.However, horizontal gene transfer occurs in the animals and guts of humans and in a variety of ecosystems, creating a pool of resistance in the rice fields and open waters. Even if people are not in direct contact with resistant disease through food animals, there are chances of contact with resistant fecal pathogens from the environment. Additionally, pathogens that are autochthonous to the environment can acquire resistance genes from the environment. Our study revealed that autochthonous , bacteria Vibrio spp gained antibiotic resistance in the environment. Further, it was evident that horizontal gene transfer occurs in Vibrio by means of plasmids, which further augments the gravity of the problem. Non-pathogenic bacteria may also acquire resistance genes and serve as a continuing source of resistance for other bacteria, both in the environment, and in the human gut. As the effectiveness of antibiotics for medical applications decline, the indiscriminate use of in aquaculture and in humans can have disastrous conditions in future due to horizontal gene transfer and the spread of resistant organisms: We must recognize and deal with the threat posed by overuse of antibiotics.

Impact of the Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Agreement on the Exports of Marine Products from India with Special Reference to Kerala

The present study examines the type of NTMs, especially the quality regulations and safety standards encountered by the marine product exports of Kerala in its major import markets of the EU, the US and Japan. An analysis of whether the safety and quality standards prescribed by these developed countries on the imported fish and fishery products are purely based on risk assessment and scientific evidence or are they erected as disguised barriers to trade is attempted

Studies on a syntax based approach for translation between structurally different languages and the development of a prototype for Malayalam to English translation

This thesis summarizes the results on the studies on a syntax based approach for translation between Malayalam, one of Dravidian languages and English and also on the development of the major modules in building a prototype machine translation system from Malayalam to English. The development of the system is a pioneering effort in Malayalam language unattempted by previous researchers. The computational models chosen for the system is first of its kind for Malayalam language. An in depth study has been carried out in the design of the computational models and data structures needed for different modules: morphological analyzer , a parser, a syntactic structure transfer module and target language sentence generator required for the prototype system. The generation of list of part of speech tags, chunk tags and the hierarchical dependencies among the chunks required for the translation process also has been done. In the development process, the major goals are: (a) accuracy of translation (b) speed and (c) space. Accuracy-wise, smart tools for handling transfer grammar and translation standards including equivalent words, expressions, phrases and styles in the target language are to be developed. The grammar should be optimized with a view to obtaining a single correct parse and hence a single translated output. Speed-wise, innovative use of corpus analysis, efficient parsing algorithm, design of efficient Data Structure and run-time frequency-based rearrangement of the grammar which substantially reduces the parsing and generation time are required. The space requirement also has to be minimised

IR: Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Management and Knowledge Dissemination

Open access iiiovemerit and open source software movement plays an important role in creation of knowledge, knowledge management and knowledge dissemination. Scholarly communication and publishing are increasingly taking place in the electronic environment. With a growing proportion of the scholarly record now existing only in digital format, serious issues regarding access and preservation are being raised that are central to future scholarship. Institutional Repositories provide access to past. present and future scholarly literature and research documentation; ensures its preservation; assists users in discovery and use; and offers educational programs to enable users to develop lifelong literacy. This paper explores these aspects on how IR of Cochin University of Science & Technology supports scientific community for knowledge creation. knowledge Management, and knowledge dissemination.

Coastal regulation zone rules in coastal panchayats (villages) of Kerala, India vis-a` -vis socio-economic impacts from the recently introduced peoples’ participatory program for local self-governance and sustainable development

Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest of Government of India in February 1991 as a part of the Environmental Protection Act of 1986 to protect the coast from eroding and to preserve its natural resources. The initial notification did not distinguish the variability and diversity of various coastal states before enforcing it on the various states and Union Territories. Impact assessments were not carried out to assess its impact on socio-economic life of the coastal population. For the very same reason, it was unnoticed or rather ignored till 1994 when the Supreme Court of India made a land mark judgment on the fate of the coastal aquaculture which by then had established as an economically successful industry in many South Indian States. Coastal aquaculture in its modern form was a prohibited activity within CRZ. Lately, only various stakeholders of the coast realized the real impact of the CRZ rules on their property rights andbusiness. To overcome the initial drawbacks several amendments were made in the regulation to suit regional needs. In 1995, another great transformation took place in the State of Kerala as a part of the reorganization of the local self government institutions into a decentralized three tier system called ‘‘Panchayathi Raj System’’. In 1997, the state government also decided to transfer the power with the required budget outlay to the grass root level panchayats (villages) and municipalities to plan and implement the various projects in their localities with the full participation of the local people by constituting Grama Sabhas (Peoples’ Forum). It is called the ‘‘Peoples’ Planning Campaign’’(Peoples’ Participatory Programme—PPP for Local Level Self-Governance). The management of all the resources including the local natural resources was largely decentralized to the level of local communities and villages. Integrated, sustainable coastal zone management has become the concern of the local population. The paper assesses the socio-economic impact of the centrally enforced CRZ and the state sponsored PPP on the coastal community in Kerala and suggests measures to improve the system and living standards of the coastal people within the framework of CRZ.

Fishery Commodity Chain Trap vis-à-vis Global Quality Standards: An Analysis of the Kerala Marine Fishery

The article examines the commodity chain trap of marine fishery in Kerala, at both material and value terms, and its ramifications in the globalised fishery chains. The marketing chains both material and value, are very complex in nature since they involve many types of markets and large number of intermediaries and participants. The article also scrutinizes the sensitivity of consumers’ and country’s responses in terms of dietary and hygienic standards relating to seafood trade. In addition, it discusses the devastating effect about the recent stipulations like the US Bio- Terrorism Act and Shrimp anti-dumping duty on the Kerala fishery products

From Market Concentration to Market Diversification: WTO and the Marine Products Exports from Kerala- Using ARIMA

Marine product export does something pivotal in the fish export economy of Kerala. The post WTO period has witnessed a strengthening of food safety and quality standards applied on food products in the developed countries. In the case of the primary importers, like the EU, the US and Japan, market actions will have far reaching reverberations and implications for the marine product exports from developing nations. The article focuses on Kerala’s marine product exports that had been targeting the markets of the EU, the US and Japan, and the concomitant shift in markets owing to the stringent stipulations under the WTO regime. Despite the overwhelming importance of the EU in the marine product exports of the state, the pronounced influence of irregular components on the quantity and value of marine product exports to the EU in the post WTO period raises concern. However, the tendencies of market diversification validated by the forecast generated for the emerging markets of the SEA, the MEA and others, to an extent, allay the pressures on the marine product export sector of the state which had hitherto relied heavily on the markets of the EU, the US and Japan

Reliability Estimation of Open Source Software based Computational Systems

Software systems are progressively being deployed in many facets of human life. The implication of the failure of such systems, has an assorted impact on its customers. The fundamental aspect that supports a software system, is focus on quality. Reliability describes the ability of the system to function under specified environment for a specified period of time and is used to objectively measure the quality. Evaluation of reliability of a computing system involves computation of hardware and software reliability. Most of the earlier works were given focus on software reliability with no consideration for hardware parts or vice versa. However, a complete estimation of reliability of a computing system requires these two elements to be considered together, and thus demands a combined approach. The present work focuses on this and presents a model for evaluating the reliability of a computing system. The method involves identifying the failure data for hardware components, software components and building a model based on it, to predict the reliability. To develop such a model, focus is given to the systems based on Open Source Software, since there is an increasing trend towards its use and only a few studies were reported on the modeling and measurement of the reliability of such products. The present work includes a thorough study on the role of Free and Open Source Software, evaluation of reliability growth models, and is trying to present an integrated model for the prediction of reliability of a computational system. The developed model has been compared with existing models and its usefulness of is being discussed.

A study on the Effect of Psychological Empowerment on Job Satisfaction and Job Related Stress Among the Bank Employees

This study focuses on psychological empowerment of employees in banking sector because of the reasons stated below: Firstly, very little research has been conducted in understanding empowerment as a psychological construct. Majority of the studies have been conducted on the various empowerment practices in the organizations. Secondly, there is no empirical evidence that the empowerment practice will create a subjective feeling of empowerment within the individual. Employee empowerment will be effective only if the employees actually experience the empowerment. Even if the organizations have the empowerment practices like providing power and open communication it is not necessary that the employee is empowered. Empowerment describes only the condition of work environment. It does not describe employees’ response to these conditions. These responses form the basis for psychological empowerment