CNN-Enhanced Multi-Indices Patch-Based Classification: A Case Study of Guwahati City

Land use and land cover (LULC) provides a way to classify objects on the surface of Earth. This paper aims to identify the varying land cover classes by stacking of 6 spectral bands and 10 different generated indices from those bands together. We have considered the multispectral images of Landsat 7 for our research. It is seen that instead of using only basic spectral bands (blue, green, red, nir, swir1 and swir2) for classification, stacking relevant indices of multiple target classes like ndvi, evi, nbr, BU, etc. with basic bands generates more precise results. In this study, we have used automated clustering techniques for generating 5 different class labels for training the model. These labels are further used to develop a predictive model to classify LULC classes. The proposed classifier is compared with the SVM and KNN classifiers. The results show that this proposed strategy gives preferable outcomes over other techniques. After training the model over 50 epochs, an accuracy of 93.29% is achieved. Keywords: Land use, land cover, CNN, ISODATA, indices

Urbanization, Electromagnetic Radiation and Sparrows: A Case Study from Guwahati, India

The persisting growth of wireless telecommunication technology causes increased electrosmog. Exposure to wide-ranging radiofrequency electromagnetic fields is thought to be a concern for all the living species across the globe. Studies have shown possible effects of electromagnetic radiation on various organisms including electromagnetic radiation risk on birds, but the outcomes were inconsistent. Here, we investigated if there is any impact of electromagnetic radiation on the abundance and habitat use of sympatric House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow in Guwahati City, India. In addition, we did a comparative analysis of previous work that had been conducted on possible effects of EMR on wild birds in field condition. We collected sparrow abundance in selected urbanization gradients temporally over a period of two years in 45 locations and spatially covering 168 locations in the eastern part of Guwahati City. Point counts were carried out, and successively we measured the electromagnetic radiation along with other ecological covariates. It was observed that ecological variables contributed significant variation to explain the habitat use of sparrows in Guwahati City compared to electromagnetic radiation. We observed that House Sparrow had quadratic relationship and Tree sparrow had negative association with increasing urbanization. Studies carried out in the past on the impacts of electromagnetic radiation on birds outside the lab condition had not considered other ecological covariates, which could also influence the life history needs of the bird species. Our study emphasized that the ecological covariates should be taken into consideration while studying the effect of electromagnetic radiation on wild organisms.

Frequency Of Low Back Pain and Other Associated Musculoskeletal Disorders In City Bus Conductors of Guwahati city, Assam, India

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal discomfort, especially low back pain (LBP) leads to substantial economic loss to individuals as well as to the community. Musculoskeletal disorders not only lead to loss of health but also loss of wealth. Bus conductors who are an important population in the community are at an increased risk of developing musculoskeletal symptoms. Their jobs involve prolonged standing and walking inside the bus for whole day which have been identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal discomfort. Materials and methods: A survey of 100 bus conductors from different bus routes between the age group of 20 to 50 years, having at least 1-year working history and standing for 5 h/day, was conducted in Guwahati city of Assam state. Those with a history of trauma, preexisting medical conditions, or musculoskeletal deformities were excluded. Prevalence of LBP was assessed using Oswestry disability low back Pain Questionnaire, musculoskeletal discomfort was assessed by using Cornell musculoskeletal discomfort questionnaire. Mean, standard deviation and percentage was calculated for analysis. Result: The mean for Oswestry disability low back pain score is 23.26 and SD is ±9.8786. According to Oswestry disability LBP interpretation score it falls under 21- 40 percent- moderate disability. CMDQ scoring shows the mean SD is higher in lower back, neck and both the knees. The result of the study shows that bus conductors have a higher susceptibility to the back, neck and knees. Conclusion: The bus conductors work continuously for long periods and their severe workload results in the development of disability in lower back. The conductors suffer from MSD in different parts of their body, particularly the lower back, neck and both knees, regions which hinders their normal work activities. Thus, it can be concluded that the bus conductors are highly stressed in their occupation due to the hazardous working condition and work behaviour, which also affects their health and overall work performance. KEY WORDS: Low back pain, Musculoskeletal disorder, Work related musculoskeletal disorder, Bus conductors, Oswestry disability low back pain questionnaire, Cornell musculoskeletal discomfort questionnaire.

Eco-Cultural Tourism and Socio-Economic Development: A Case Study of Chandubi Festival of Chandubi Area in South Kamrup, Assam

Eco-Cultural Tourism is a new area which emphasizes on the promotion and development of culturally rich and ecologically important sites and locations or places. Through the promotion of this kind of tourism, the inhabitants living in the surrounding and peripheral areas may be socio-economically benefited. The community participation process would have also continued in this eco-cultural tourism. In eco-cultural tourism, the emphasis should be given on conservation of ecological diversity and cultural heritage of the respective community. In eco-cultural tourism, tourists are attracted towards the local culture and flora and fauna constituting the ecology. Chandubi is a well-known natural lake located 64 km away from the Guwahati city and included in the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council area of south kamrup region, Assam. Chandubi Festival has been organized at the bank of the Chandubi Lake for the last 4-5 years. It is a promotional festival for attraction of visitors and tourists to Chandubi. But most prominent objective of Chandubi Festival is to create awareness among the mass for conservation of ecological diversity of the lake as well as to promote folk culture and ethnic tradition of the different communities especially of the Pati Rabha community for domestic and foreign tourists at this place. Through organizing this festival, the organizer tries to draw the attention of the concerned Departments of Government and Non-Government organizations for infrastructural development of the place and the attainment of socio-economic development of the entire community who have been participated in the different process in the promotion of eco-cultural tourism.

Bacteriological quality of raw milk marketed in and around Guwahati city, Assam, India

Background and Aim: Milk is a highly perishable commodity, which is subjected to various types of contamination right from the farm level to the consumers' table. This study aimed to assess the quality of raw milk sold in and around Guwahati city based on the microbial load. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 raw pooled milk samples collected from 25 different locations in and around Guwahati city were subjected to quality evaluation based on the methylene blue reduction test (MBRT), standard plate count, and coliform count as per the standard procedure. Results: Out of the 200 samples evaluated, more than 50% of them were graded as poor to very poor quality based on the MBRT results. None of the samples could be graded as excellent quality and only 14.5% were graded as good quality. The standard plate count and coliform count of all the raw milk samples were found to be significantly higher than the legal standard. A highly significant (p<0.01) difference was observed for standard plate count and coliform count among the different locations in and around Guwahati city. Conclusion: From the present study, it could be inferred that raw milk sold in most parts of Guwahati city do not confer to the legal microbiological standard and may pose a high risk of milk-borne illness among consumers of the city, which needs a systematic series of actions to be implemented properly.

A Study on the Problems and Prospects of Women Entrepreneurs with Special Reference to Guwahati City

Women entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. Entrepreneurship is an economic activity that involves designing, launching and running a new business enterprise in order to earn the profit by fully and efficiently utilizing the resources.The present paper tries to highlight the problems and prospects of women entrepreneurs with special reference to Guwahati city and makes analysis on the basis of the following criteria viz,age of the respondents, marital status of the respondents, educational qualification,years of experience,type of family,caste of the respondents,reason to start the business,motivation to start the business, marketing and financial problems faced by the women entrepreneurs, family-work conflict,production constraint faced by the women entrepreneurs, steps to be undertaken for development of women entrepreneurs etc and for analysis the researcher has conducted its study on the basis of primary data where the information were collected through well framed questionnaire meant for women entrepreneurs and secondary sources like journals,books,articles,websites etc.The paper also present certain findings of the study and also provide certain suggestions for improving the status of women entrepreneurs in the city.