Popularization of improved maize (Zea mays L.) production technology through frontline demonstrations in semi arid zone IVA of Rajasthan

Front line demonstrations (FLD,s) on maize (Zea mays L.) were laid down at 661 farmers’ fields to demonstrate production potential and economic benefits of improved production technologies comprising high yielding varieties namely PM-3, PM-5, PEHM-2, Bio- 9681 and Mahyco 3765 in Rajsamand district of Semi Arid Zone IVa of Rajasthan state during kharif seasons from 2006 to 2012 in rainfed farming situation. The improved production technologies recorded an additional yield ranging from 2.50 to 15.78 qha-1 with a mean of 7.94 qha-1. The per cent increase yield under improved production technologies ranged from 33.17 to 68.16 (PM-3), 14.09 to 59.82 (PM-5), 46.61 to 66.97 (PEHM-2), 55.83 to 92.82 (Bio 9681) and 80.12 (Mahyco 3765) in respective years. The average extension gap, technology gap and technology index were 9.10 qha-1, 5.94 qha-1 and 20.08 per cent, respectively in different varieties of maize. The improved production technologies gave higher benefit cost ratio ranging from 1.28 to 3.00 with a mean of 2.45 compared to local checks (1.10) being grown by farmers under locality. The productivity of maize per unit area could be increased by adopting feasible scientific and sustainable management practices with a suitable variety. Considering the above facts, frontline demonstrations were carried out in a systematic and scientific manner on farmer’s field to show the worth of a new variety and convincing farming community about potentialities of improved production management technologies of maize for further adoption by the farming community

A Few Interventions and Offerings from Five Movement Lawyers to the Access to Justice Movement

We are five lawyers who occupy very different corners of justice work. We are civil rights, human rights, and criminal defense lawyers, and we have worked at and managed legal services programs. We have taught law at law schools and universities and have built our own organizations. We currently work in interdisciplinary spaces with community organizers, funders, and other stakeholders in the justice system. As diverse as our perspectives are, we share a common belief that any mobilization around access to justice fails if it does not center the vision and strategies of larger social justice movements. We share here our collective calls to action to the legal community—and the allies that support and resource legal services—to expand our mission beyond chasing a standard of fairness that is impossible to achieve as long as we have deeply embedded structural and systemic inequity. Instead, let us reimagine what our communities actually need to be safe, free, and to live in our fullest humanity. We believe the role of movement lawyers is to use the law as a tool of social change, at the direction of communities most impacted by injustice. When we focus our lawyering on listening to community organizers, clients, and activists with a broader vision for social change, we can become partners in transforming systems, rather than simply making them more hospitable

Tobacco – A Double Edged Sword

The tobacco plant is the cause for millions of cancer cases worldwide. This plant now offers physicians a way to rapidly make vaccines that are able to fight cancer like Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma by upregulating the patient’s own immune mechanism to fight cancer. The Tobacco plant is a member of Solanaceae family and usually gets infected by a virus known as Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV).Viral replication occurs very rapidly in this plant and hence when the gene extracted from the patient’s malignant cell is infused into the tobacco leaves which are infected by this virus, it generates the production of cell- surface antigen within a very short span. This antigen after purification is then injected into the same patient evoking the production of tailor-made antibodies and thus upregulating the patient’s immune system. The aim of this therapy is to build up one’s own immune system to fight against his/her own cancer. This short article highlights the method by which the tobacco plant could thus act as a double edged sword

Evaluation of different plant powders as seed protectants against rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica Stainton

The present study was aimed to develop the eco-friendly and economic approaches to keep the stored food grains free from insect attack would be using the plant products as grain protectants. In the context of biological control as an alternative to chemical control, under laboratory conditions, different plant powders viz., dharakkernel and leaf (Melia azadirach L.), neem kernel and leaf (Azadirachta indica Adr. Juss), karanj kernel (Pongamia glabra), aak leaf (Calotropis procera Br.), datura leaf (Datura alba Nees.), citrus leaf (Citrus lemon L.), podina leaf (Mentha arvensis) and tulsi leaf (Ocimum sanctum L.) were compared, at three rate of application (1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 g per 100 g seeds), as protectants against infestation of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) seeds by the storage pest Corcyra cephalonica Stainton. The larval period of test insect got progressively increased with the increase in dose level of different plant powders. The maximum (77.83%) and minimum (37.83%) reduction in adult emergence was observed in dharak kernel powder and tulsi leaf powder, respectively. The test insect developed on seeds treated with dharak kernel powder laid significantly (P˃ 0.5) minimum number of eggs (80.33 eggs/ female) followed by neem kernel powder (85.66 eggs/female). The dharak and neem kernel powders were found most effective in reducing the longevity of male (3.96 and 5.13 days) and female adults (4.63 and 4.97 days), respectively. The results suggest that these materials tested have the potential in the development of post-harvest protection technology against, C. cephalonica, the major pest of stored grains

Evaluation of different plant powders as seed protectants against rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica Stainton

The present study was aimed to develop the eco-friendly and economic approaches to keep the stored food grains free from insect attack would be using the plant products as grain protectants. In the context of biological control as an alternative to chemical control, under laboratory conditions, different plant powders viz., dharakkernel and leaf (Melia azadirach L.), neem kernel and leaf (Azadirachta indica Adr. Juss), karanj kernel (Pongamia glabra), aak leaf (Calotropis procera Br.), datura leaf (Datura alba Nees.), citrus leaf (Citrus lemon L.), podina leaf (Mentha arvensis) and tulsi leaf (Ocimum sanctum L.) were compared, at three rate of application (1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 g per 100 g seeds), as protectants against infestation of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) seeds by the storage pest Corcyra cephalonica Stainton. The larval period of test insect got progressively increased with the increase in dose level of different plant powders. The maximum (77.83%) and minimum (37.83%) reduction in adult emergence was observed in dharak kernel powder and tulsi leaf powder, respectively. The test insect developed on seeds treated with dharak kernel powder laid significantly (P? 0.5) minimum number of eggs (80.33 eggs/ female) followed by neem kernel powder (85.66 eggs/female). The dharak and neem kernel powders were found most effective in reducing the longevity of male (3.96 and 5.13 days) and female adults (4.63 and 4.97 days), respectively. The results suggest that these materials tested have the potential in the development of post-harvest protection technology against, C. cephalonica, the major pest of stored grains

Small space analogues of Valiant\u27s classes and the limitations of skew formula

In the uniform circuit model of computation, the width of a boolean circuit exactly characterises the ``space\u27\u27 complexity of the computed function. Looking for a similar relationship in Valiant\u27s algebraic model of computation, we propose width of an arithmetic circuit as a possible measure of space. We introduce the class VL as an algebraic variant of deterministic log-space L. In the uniform setting, we show that our definition coincides with that of VPSPACE at polynomial width. Further, to define algebraic variants of non-deterministic space-bounded classes, we introduce the notion of ``read-once\u27\u27 certificates for arithmetic circuits. We show that polynomial-size algebraic branching programs can be expressed as a read-once exponential sum over polynomials in VL, ie $mbox{VBP}inSigma^R cdotmbox{VL}$. We also show that $Sigma^R cdot mbox{VBP} =mbox{VBP}$, ie VBPs are stable under read-once exponential sums. Further, we show that read-once exponential sums over a restricted class of constant-width arithmetic circuits are within VQP, and this is the largest known such subclass of poly-log-width circuits with this property. We also study the power of skew formulas and show that exponential sums of a skew formula cannot represent the determinant polynomial

On Demand Quality of web services using Ranking by multi criteria

In the Web database scenario, the records to match are highly query-dependent, since they can only be obtained through online queries. Moreover, they are only a partial and biased portion of all the data in the source Web databases. Consequently, hand-coding or offline-learning approaches are not appropriate for two reasons. First, the full data set is not available beforehand, and therefore, good representative data for training are hard to obtain. Second, and most importantly, even if good representative data are found and labeled for learning, the rules learned on the representatives of a full data set may not work well on a partial and biased part of that data set. Keywords: SOA, Web Services, Network