INFLUENCE OF ORGANIC MANURES AND GIBBERELLIC ACID ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF STRAWBERRY (Fragaria X ananassa DUCH.)

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of organic manures and growth regulators on the growth and yield of two varieties of strawberry namely ‘Sweet Charlie’ and ‘Winter Dawn’. Six treatments were taken combining three organic manures viz. Vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha, Mustard oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and Neem cake @ 1.0 t/ha and two concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) viz. 75 ppm and 100 ppm along with a control. Foliar application of GA3 was carried out at 40 and 60 days after planting whereas organic manures were applied as basal dose. Results of the study suggested that higher doses i.e. 100 ppm of GA3 along with vermicompost exhibited more vegetative growth whereas 75 ppm GA3 resulted in higher fruit set and yield in both the varieties. It was found that vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha combined with 100 ppm GA3 recorded the highest plant height (24.7 cm and 21.4 cm) and numbers of leaves per plant (46.0 and 68.7) in both Sweet Charlie and Winter Dawn varieties, respectively. Whereas, highest fruit diameter (3.3cm and 3.4cm), fruit length (4.6cm and 4.8cm), fruit weight (18.2 g and 17.9 g), number of fruits per plant (24.6 and 32.0), yield per plant (447.8 g and 572.1 g) and yield per hectare (18.80 t and 24.03 t) were recorded under vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha in combination with 75 ppm GA3 in both Sweet Charlie and Winter Dawn varieties, respectively. It was observed that Winter Dawn variety produced a 28.0% higher yield as compared to Sweet Charlie under the best treatment i.e. vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha in combination with 75 ppm GA3

The Use of Advanced Spectral Imaging to Reveal Nanoparticle Identity in Biological Samples

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been used in drug delivery therapies, medical diagnostic strategies, and as current Covid-19 vaccine carriers. Many microscope-based imaging systems have been introduced to facilitate detection and visualization of NPs. Unfortunately, none can differentiate the core and the shell of NPs. Spectral imaging has been used to distinguish a drug molecule and its metabolite. We have recently integrated this technology to a resolution of 9 nm by using artificial intelligence-driven analyses. Such a resolution allowed us to collect many robust datapoints for each pixel of an image. Our analyses could recognize 45 spectral points within a pixel to detect unlabeled Ag-NPs and Au-NPs in single live cells and tissues (liver, heart, spleen and kidneys). The improved resolution and software provided a more specific fingerprinting for each single molecule, allowing simultaneous analyses of 990 complex interactions from the 45 points for each molecule within a pixel of an image. This in turn allowed us to detect surface-functionalization of Ag-NPs to distinguish the core from the shell of Ag-NPs for the first time. Our studies were validated using various laborious and time-consuming conventional techniques. We propose that spectral imaging has tremendous potential to study NP localization and identification in biological samples at a high temporal and spatial resolution, based primarily on spectral identity information

Characteristic feature studies of integrated field intensity of sferics at North-East India

397-403Some studies on the variations of integrated field intensity of sferics (IFIS) at 9 kHz are carried out at Mirik (lat 26.9°N, long 88.2°E), a hilly place of North-East India, under different seasonal conditions during January - December 2011. The recorded data are analyzed and interpreted. During locally clear days and nights, IFIS provides a regular behaviour, i.e. field strength remains constant but decreases gradually after the onset of rain. During short period showers, IFIS exhibits a sudden rise and gradual fall. An irregular variation in IFIS is observed with the coverage of roof height cloud mass