Analysis on knowledge level of recommended plant protection technologies in areca nut (Areca catechu) cultivation in Salem district of Tamil Nadu

Areca nut (Areca catechu) is one of the important cash crops in India. India ranks first in terms of area and production of areca nut and accounts of 54.07 per cent of its world production. The harvesting of nuts commence on the Tamil month of ‘Thai’ (Mid-January to Mid-February) and spread over six months in carrying out the post-harvest practices and marketing of nuts. This study was purposively conducted in Salem district 2018-2019 and occupies first position in area (2,421 hectares) of areca nut in Tamil Nadu. The Peddanackenpalyam, Valapddy, Gengavalli and Attur blocks were selected based on the 87.28 per cent of the area under areca nut in this district with a sample size of 120 areca nut farmers selected by using a proportionate random sampling technique. Most of the respondents (80.00 per cent) had knowledge level of medium to high level of knowledge on the recommended plant protection technologies in areca nut cultivation. It was mainly due to the medium to the high level of information seeking behaviour and social participation. The study revealed that the areca nut growers differed widely in their social characteristics. Most of the respondents had a medium to a high level of knowledge on recommended technologies in areca nut cultivation. This finding stressed the importance of formulating different extension strategies for different audiences by the change agency system.

Conformational properties of the prion octa-repeat and hydrophobic sequences

AbstractWe have used circular dichroism to study synthetic peptides from two important regions of the prion protein: the N-terminal octa-repeat domain and a highly conserved hydrophobic section. Our results show that the octa-repeat sequence in free solution can adopt a non-random, extended conformation with properties similar to the poly-l-proline type II left-handed helix. We also show that the conformation can be changed by temperature, organic solvents (e.g. acetonitrile) and on binding to phospholipid vesicles. We compared CD data from two peptides corresponding to the hydrophobic region between residues 106 and 136 which contained either methionine or valine at position 129. This variation represents a common polymorphism in humans which has been shown to influence predisposition towards iatrogenic and sporadic CJD. There was no detectable difference between the CD spectra of these peptides irrespective of the solvent conditions we used

Enhanced health facility surveys to support malaria control and elimination across different transmission settings in the Philippines

Following substantial progress in malaria control in the Philippines, new surveillance approaches are needed to identify and target residual malaria transmission. This study evaluated an enhanced surveillance approach using rolling cross-sectional surveys of all health facility attendees augmented with molecular diagnostics and geolocation. Facility surveys were carried out in three sites representing different transmission intensities: Morong, Bataan (pre-elimination), Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro (stable medium risk), and Rizal, Palawan (high risk, control). Only one rapid diagnostic test (RDT)–positive infection and no PCR confirmed infections were found in Bataan and Occidental Mindoro, suggesting the absence of transmission. In Palawan, the inclusion of all health facility attendees, regardless of symptoms, and use of molecular diagnostics identified 313 infected individuals in addition to 300 cases identified by routine screening of febrile patients with the RDT or microscopy. Of these, the majority (313/613) were subpatent infections and only detected using molecular methods. Simultaneous collection of GPS coordinates on tablet-based applications allowed real-time mapping of malaria infections. Risk factor analysis showed higher risks in children and indigenous groups, with bed net use having a protective effect. Subpatent infections were more common in men and older age-groups. Overall, malaria risks were not associated with participants’ classification, and some of the non-patient clinic attendees reported febrile illnesses (1.9%, 26/1,369), despite not seeking treatment, highlighting the widespread distribution of infection in communities. Together, these data illustrate the utility of health facility–based surveys to augment surveillance data to increase the probability of detecting infections in the wider community

Armadillo 1.1: An Original Workflow Platform for Designing and Conducting Phylogenetic Analysis and Simulations

In this paper we introduce Armadillo v1.1, a novel workflow platform dedicated to designing and conducting phylogenetic studies, including comprehensive simulations. A number of important phylogenetic and general bioinformatics tools have been included in the first software release. As Armadillo is an open-source project, it allows scientists to develop their own modules as well as to integrate existing computer applications. Using our workflow platform, different complex phylogenetic tasks can be modeled and presented in a single workflow without any prior knowledge of programming techniques. The first version of Armadillo was successfully used by professors of bioinformatics at Université du Quebec à Montreal during graduate computational biology courses taught in 2010–11. The program and its source code are freely available at: <http://www.bioinfo.uqam.ca/armadillo>

Enhanced health facility surveys to support malaria control and elimination across different transmission settings in The Philippines

Abstract Following substantial progress in malaria control in the Philippines, new surveillance approaches are needed to identify and target residual malaria transmission. This study evaluated an enhanced surveillance approach using rolling cross-sectional surveys of all health facility attendees augmented with molecular diagnostics and geolocation. Facility surveys were carried out in 3 sites representing different transmission intensities: Morong, Bataan (pre-elimination), Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro (stable-medium risk) and Rizal, Palawan (high risk, control). Only 1 RDT positive infection and no PCR confirmed infections were found in Bataan and Occidental Mindoro suggesting the absence of transmission. In Rizal, inclusion of all health facility attendees, regardless of symptoms, and use of molecular diagnostics identified an additional 313 infected individuals in addition to 300 cases identified by routine screening of febrile patients with RDT or microscopy. Of these, the majority (313/613) were subpatent infections and only detected using molecular methods. Simultaneous collection of GPS coordinates on tablet-based applications allowed real-time mapping of malaria infections. Risk factor analysis showed higher risks in children and indigenous groups, with bednet use having a protective effect. Subpatent infections were more common in men and older age groups. Overall, malaria risks were not associated with patient status and some of non-patient clinic attendees reported febrile illnesses (1.9%, 26/1369) despite not seeking treatment highlighting the widespread distribution of infection in communities. Together, these data illustrate the utility of health-facility based surveys to augment surveillance data to increase the probability of detecting infections in the wider community

Effect Effect of fruit size on physiological seed quality parameters of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

An experiment was carried out at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during 2018 to find out the effect of fruit size on physiological seed quality of cucumber. Variation in fruit size of cucumber results in poor quality seeds. In order to overcome this obstacle fruit grading was done based on weight of fruit to obtain good quality seeds. Harvested fruits of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) were categorized based on the weight into three different groups viz., Big (2.41kg), medium (1.66kg) and small (1.28kg). Observations on fruit and seed quality parameters were recorded. The results revealed that medium sized fruits recorded higher values compared to big and small sized fruits. The number of seeds/fruit recorded higher in medium sized fruit (935 numbers) followed by small (896 numbers) and big (876 numbers) sized fruits. The big, medium and small fruits were recovered to 1.52 %, 1.06% and 0.58% seeds respectively. The physiological quality characters measured in terms of seed germination revealed that seeds of medium sized fruits were recorded higher (80%) followed by seeds of big (82%) and small (65%). The seedling vigour measured through root (17.08cm) and shoot length (14.45cm), dry matter production (0.85g 10 seedlings-1) and vigour index (2522) also proved the superiority in medium sized fruits

Standardization of Length of Cuttings and Auxin Levels on Root and Shoot Growth of Dragon Fruit (Hylocereus undatus L.)

Dragon fruit as the "Wondrous Fruit" of the twenty-first century is a cactus-like vine with great economic and nutritional potential as exotic fruit crops in domestic and foreign markets. One of the biggest issues with commercial fruit production is the development of high-quality planting materials. Considering that it is a cross-pollinated crop, true-to-type plants could not be obtained through seed propagation. Hence, standardization of vegetative propagation protocol is necessary for commercial production. Therefore the experiment was conducted at Department of Fruit Science, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Periyakulam, to assess different length of stem cuttings (viz., C1 -10cm, C2 – 15cm, C3 – 20cm and C4 - 25 cm) with various concentration of auxin level (viz., G1 – IBA 2000 ppm, G2 – IBA 4000 ppm, G3 - IBA 6000 ppm, G4 – NAA 50 ppm, G5 - NAA 100 ppm, G6 – NAA 150 ppm) for achieving growth and rooting of dragon fruit. According to the experimental findings, among the different treatments 25cm cuttings treated with IBA 6000ppm showed noticeably superior results in early root initiation (12.11 DAP) and sprout initiation (8.26 DAP), highest shoot length (75.52cm) and root length (17.64cm), Average number of roots per cutting (20.17), Average number of shoots per cutting (3.7), maximum survival percentage (93.42%) than other treatments

Study on effect of different salinity on growth and morphological traits of nerium cultivars (Nerium oleander L.)

Six cultivars of Nerium (Single Pink, Single White, Single Red, Double Pink, Double White and Double Red) were evaluated to identify the salt tolerant cultivars on basis of growth and morphological parameters. This study was carried out in Department of Horticulture, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai. These cultivars were transplanted polybags with soils of four different salt levels includes control (S1 - 0.87 dS m-1), low saline (S2 - 3.94 dS m-1), medium saline (S3 - 5.78 dS m-1) and high saline (S4 - 7.85 dS m-1) along with 2 dS m-1 saline water (by dissolving NaCl, CaCl2 and MgCl2) was irrigated based on moisture availability. The parameter viz., plant height (84.53 cm), number of leaves per plant (1.09), leaf area (1773.32 cm2), stem thickness (3.12 cm), number of branches (1.09), root length (28.87 cm), root dry weight (25.59 g), internodal length (4.01 cm) and survival percentage (94.33%) was recorded. All parameters show significant decrease with increasing salinity. In cultivar Single Red plant height was high and low height was observed in Double Pink at high salinity. Double Red cultivar shows more tolerance to all salinity levels, but Double pink have more salinity symptoms and shows less tolerance

Hindlimb Skeletal Structure of the Green-winged Macaw: An Anatomical Study

In birds, the forelimb bones undergo modification to facilitate muscle attachment for flight, enabling the movement of wings up and down. Conversely, hindlimb bones primarily support walking and perching functions, necessitating evolutionary adaptations in their structure. Therefore, this study aims to document the gross anatomical features of hind limb bones in Green-winged Macaws, including the femur, tibio-tarsus, tarsometatarsus, and digits. The bones were sourced from six Green-winged Macaw carcasses undergoing post-mortem examination at the Department of Veterinary Pathology, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai. Preparation was conducted using the wet maceration technique. In the femur, the proximal end displayed a large, well-defined spherical head medially, accompanied by a small depression called the fovea capitis, and a distinct neck. The tibio-tarsus exhibited a small roughened area on its lateral border for fibula attachment, with a larger medial and smaller lateral condyle at the proximal extremity, along with a linear cinemal crest along the medial border. The fibula's distal extremity tapered into a free point, articulating at the caudolateral aspect of the tarsometatarsus. The tarsometatarsus displayed fused distal tarsals with metatarsals II, III, and IV, while Metatarsus I remained a separate bone, forming the base of the first toe. The proximal extremity of the tarsometatarsus featured two large concave articular facets for condyles from the distal extremity of the tibio-tarsus, and a facet for the distal end of the fibula caudolaterally. The Macaw's hind limb consisted of four digits, forming a zygodactyl foot arrangement

Load Balancing with Availability Checker and Load Reporters (LB-ACLRs) for improved Performance in Distributed Systems

Distributed system has quite a lot of servers to attain increased availability of service and for fault tolerance. Balancing the load among these servers is an important task to achieve better performance. There are various hardware and software based load balancing solutions available. However there is always an overhead on Servers and the Load Balancer while communicating with each other and sharing their availability and the current load status information. Load balancer is always busy in listening to clients' request and redirecting them. It also needs to collect the servers' availability status frequently, to keep itself up-to-date. Servers are busy in not only providing service to clients but also sharing their current load information with load balancing algorithms. In this paper we have proposed and discussed the concept and system model for software based load balancer along with Availability-Checker and Load Reporters (LB-ACLRs) which reduces the overhead on server and the load balancer. We have also described the architectural components with their roles and responsibilities. We have presented a detailed analysis to show how our proposed Availability Checker significantly increases the performance of the system