Vegetative propagation of physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) through stem cuttings

The selected healthy branches of Jatropha curcas were cut into 15 cm and 25 cm length having 4 to 5 nodes in each category of apical portion (thickness < 1cm), middle portion (1.0 to 1.5 cm) and basal portion (1.5 to 2 cm). The base positions of apical, middle, basal portions of cuttings were dipped in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000 ppm of IAA (Indole-3-acetic acid) and IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) respectively for four hours. After which the cuttings were planted in the polypots filled with rooting media consists of sand, soil and farm yard manure (FYM) in the ratio of 1:2:1. Maximum sprouting (100%) was observed in 25 cm as well as 15 cm length cuttings of different portions. In case of 25 cm length different sections like apical cuttings when treated with 200 ppm, 800 ppm IAA and 400 ppm IBA, basal cutting with 800 ppm IAA and 200, 400 ppm IBA and middle cuttings with 200 ppm IAA, similarly 15cm length basal portion cutting treated with 400 ppm IAA produce 100 per cent sprouting. Other characters like rooting percentage (93.33%), root length (37.66cm), fresh biomass (73.21g) and dry biomass (34.06g) were observed maximum in apical portion cutting of 25 cm length treated with 100 ppm IBA, 800 ppm IBA, 100 ppm IAA and 100 ppm IAA respectively where as root number (17.0) found maximum in middle portion cutting of 15cm length treated with 1000 ppm IAA. It showed that the apical portion of 25 cm length cuttings treated with IAA and IBA resulted in maximum sprouting, rooting percentage, root length, fresh biomass and dry biomass production

Leaching of nickel laterite using fungus mediated organic acid and synthetic organic acid: a comparative study

A huge amount of overburden (nearly 8 to 10 times of the ore) containing trace amount of nickel and cobalt is generated during Chromite mining at Sukinda valley, Orissa, Chromite overburden contains around 0.4 to 0.9% Ni and 0.02–0.05% Co respectively. The setting up of nickel and cobalt processing plant based on these deposits through conventional methods such as pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy is not economical. The microbes and metals interaction have been studied for the exploitation in metals extraction. So an attempt has been made to extract these metals using multi metal resistant indigenous microorganisms, isolated from the Chromite overburden of Sukinda mines. A native strain of Aspergillus species was used for bioleaching. Aspergillus species are well known for their potential to produce a variety of organic acids (oxalic, citric acids etc.). The mineralogical studies indicated that there is no separate nickel bearing mineral phase in the Sukinda Chromite overburden. The mineralogy of the raw lateritic ore reveals the presence of goethite, ferrihydrites as major minerals. In the thermally activated overburden the minerals present were hematite, surimarite, quartz and traces of magnetite. Experiments were carried out with synthetic organic acids at 2.5% pulp density, 350C and 150rpm. Synthetic oxalic acid (0.1 M) leached 5% Ni and 71% Co from raw ore, whereas it leached 43% Ni and 95% Co from thermally activated ore. Citric acid (0.1 M) was not that much efficient. It leached 9% Ni and 14% Co from raw ore and 32% Ni and 45% Co from thermally activated ore. The fungal culture filtrate leached 3% Ni and 12% Co from raw ore. In case of roasted ore it leached 18% Ni and 28% Co at 2.5% pulp density, 35°C and 150rpm. Mineralogical analysis was carried out through X-ray diffraction, FTIR and transmission electron microscopy

Effects of gamma rays on germination and growth in Jatropha curcas L.

The present investigation was carried out at the Forestry Research Farm, Navsari Agricultural University; Navsari to evaluate the gamma rays at 10 kR, 20 kR and 30 kR induced variability in Jatropha curcas L. on germination, growth and yield for seven Jatropha genotypes (Phule J-1, Urlikanchan, Hansraj, SKN Big, Chhatrapati, Hansot and MPJ-55). The significantly maximum germination percentage (66.96%), seedling survival (74.18%), seedling collar diameter (0.958cm), shoot length (49.442cm), number of leaves per seedling (7.757) and leaf area (37. 58)was observed in Chhatrapati genotype during nursery stage. While low rate of gamma rays treatment (10 kR) had stimulatory effect for germination percentage, seedling survival, seedling collar diameter, shoot length, number of leaves per seedling and leaf area. However, higher gamma rays doses (30 kR) drastically reduced all studied characters. The interaction effect of genotype and gamma rays were significant for number of leaves per seedling. Further, it was not significant in other traits like germination percentage, seedling survival, seedling collar diameter, shoot length and leaf area

Growth and yield of Vigna radiata L.) under Terminalia arjuna and Mitragyna parvifolia based agrisilvicultural system

The present investigation was carried out in an agrisilvicultural system with treatments involving silvicultural component of 20 years old Terminalia arjuna Bedd. (Arjun) and Mitragyna parvifolia Korth (Kalam) intercropped with agricultural component of four varieties of green gram (Vigna radiata L.) viz. Pusa Vishal, GM-3, GM-4 and K-851. All the varieties of green gram were compared for growth and yield parameters like plant height (cm), number of leaves, number of branches per plant, total grain yield per plant as well as per plot at harvestablestage under Arjuna and Kalam trees. All the varieties of green gram performed superior in terms of number of leaves, numbers of branches, grain yield (per plant and per plot basis) under open condition as compared to crops under Arjuna and Kalam. However, only the plant height was found to be highest under Arjun, followed by Kalam trees. Among all the varieties tested, K-851 variety showed superiority for number of leaves (12.31) and number of branches per plant (3.96) and grain yield (2.66 gm per plant and 0.80 kg per plot) as compared to other varieties (at P=0.05). Therefore, this variety is suggested to grow in south Gujarat condition. Further, comparatively lower yield of crop under tree cover could be due to shade effect, which can be managed by regular pruning of tree branches

Economics and yield performance of some short duration fruit and medicinal crops under agrisilvicultural system in rainfed uplands of Odisha

A field experiment was conducted during 2011-12 in an agrisilvicultural system consisting of two silvicultural species viz. Acacia mangium (mangium) and Gmelina arborea (gamhar) planted in 2000 at a spacing of 8m x 2m and four agricultural crops viz. Ananas comosus (pineapple), Aloe vera (aloevera), Andrographis paniculata(kalmegh) and Curcuma amada (mangoginger) were raised in the 1st week of July, 2011.The maximum volume increment were achieved by mangium with pineapple (16.53 m3/ha). Pineapple also registered the maximum fruit yield of 9981Kgha-1 under mangium and minimum under gamhar (9106 Kgha-1). The fresh leave yield of aloevera (8635Kg ha-1) was maximum under mangium which is statistically at par with gamhar. However, kalmegh recorded maximum dry plant yield of 1239 Kgha-1 under open condition followed by 1072 Kgha-1 under gamhar and 823 Kgha-1 under mangium. Similarly, mangoginger exhibited maximum rhizome yield of 3300 Kgha-1 under open condition followed by 1979 Kgha-1 under gamhar and 1597 Kgha-1 under mangium. The trend of crop yield under both the trees and open condition was: Pineapple >Aloevera>Mangoginger>Kalmegh. A. mangium with pineapple based agrisilvicultural system recorded the highest gross return, net return and BCR as compared to other agrisilvicultural systems and sole crops

Neutron-proton effective mass splitting and thermal evolution in neutron rich matter

The thermal evolution of properties of neutron rich asymmetric nuclear matter such as entropy density, internal energy density, free energy density and pressure are studied in the non-relativistic mean field theory using finite range effective interactions. In this framework the thermal evolution of nuclear matter properties is directly connected to the neutron and proton effective mass properties. Depending on the magnitude of neutron-proton effective mass splittings, two distinct behaviours in the thermal evolution of nuclear matter properties are noticed.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to J.Phys.G:Nucl.Part.Phy

Clonal evaluation for early growth performance of Eucalyptus in South Gujarat, India

This study was carried out in College of Forestry, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat. Total 20 clones having age of 5 ½ years were selected for early growth evaluation at field condition. There was a significant variation (P < 0.05) among 20 clones of Eucalyptus for growth parameters viz., tree height, DBH, mid-diameter, form quotient and volume of standing tree. Tree height varied from 18.5 to 23.6 m with DBH range of 11.47 to 16.07 cm. Mid-diameter indirectly helps to assess the tapering of tree and it ranged from 6.99 to 10.57 cm among 20 clones. The form quotient was used while calculation of volume of Eucalyptus clones. The form quotient varied between 0.58 and 0.71 with overall mean of 0.63 at studied site. Volume of standing tree ranged from 0.12 to 0.28 m3. The overall results showed that clones such as C12 (P2045), C17 (B2253), C4 (P413), C8 (P526), C7 (P498), C16 (SRO16) and C11 (P3020) performed superior for early growth attribute and stem form and these clones suggested for large scale plantation in South Gujarat region

Efficacy of different oils used for the extraction of annatto colour from the seeds of Bixa orellana L.

Annatto, a naturally obtained colour is a potential and valuable Non Wood Forest Product (NWFP). It is obtained from the seeds of plant species Bixa orellana L. The present experiment was carried out to find the efficacy of different oils used for annatto colour extraction. Experiment was started with the pretreatment of seeds of B. orellana with soaking in water at 0%, 50%, 100% and 150% (v/w) for 24 hrs at room temperature and colour extraction with castor oil at 100°C showed that maximum bixin (%) was found from the pretreated seeds with 50% (v/w) water soaking i.e., 0.46% bixin. Similarly for oil soluble annatto extraction method, the maximum extraction of bixin (0.99 %) was found with castor oil at 120°C for 1 hr and least bixin (0.03 %) was recorded with mustard oil at 60oC temperature for 1 hr. Sesame oil and ground nut oil were also showed better extractability. Out of different treatments, castor oil at 120°C for 1 hr gave better result with respect to bixin extraction as compared to others

Background measurements and detector response studies for ISMRAN experiment

We report the measurement of the non-reactor environmental backgrounds and the detector response with the Indian Scintillator Matrix for Reactor Anti-Neutrinos (ISMRAN), which is $\sim$1 ton detector setup by volume, consisting of 10$\times$9 (10 rows and 9 columns) Plastic Scintillator Bars (PSBs) array at BARC, Mumbai, India. ISMRAN is an above-ground anti-neutrino ($\mathrm{\overline\nu_{e}}$) experiment at very short baseline located at Dhruva research reactor facility. It is enclosed by a shielding made of 10 cm thick lead and 10 cm thick borated polyethylene to minimize the backgrounds and is mounted on a movable base structure, situated at $\sim$ 13 m away from the reactor core. These measurements are useful in the context of the ISMRAN detector setup that will be used to detect the reactor $\mathrm{\overline\nu_{e}}$ and measure its energy spectrum through the inverse beta decay (IBD) process. In this paper, we present the energy resolution model and energy non-linearity model of PSB and the cosmogenic muon-induced background, based on the sum of their energy depositions and number of hit bars. Reconstructed sum energy spectrum and number of hit bars distribution for $\mathrm{{}^{22}Na}$ radioactive source has been compared with Geant4 based Monte Carlo simulations. These experimentally measured results will be useful for discriminating the correlated and uncorrelated background events from the true IBD events in reactor ON and OFF conditions inside the reactor hall.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2208.0349