Agro-morphological Diversity of High Altitude Bean Landraces in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of Nepal

Many varieties of bean are widely grown across diverse agro-ecological zones in Nepal. And opportunities exist for improving the crops and enhancing their resilience to various biotic and abiotic stressors. In this context, an experiment was conducted from June to October 2016 in Khar VDC of Darchula district to study the phenotypic traits of nine landraces of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The bean landraces were planted using randomized complete block design in three sites (Dhamidera, Dallekh and Sundamunda villages), with three replications in each site for their comparative analysis. The study considered the following phenotypic traits: days to emergence, days to 50% flowering, days to 90% pod maturity, number of nodes, pod length, pod width, number of pods, number of seeds per pod and weight and grain yield for 100 seeds. Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences in the landraces both within and among locations. KA-17-08-FB and KA-17-04-FB were late  flowering (63 and 65 days respectively) compared to other landraces whereas KA-17-07-FB flowered earliest (within 42 days). In all three sites, three landraces namely KA-17-07-FB, KA-17-04-FB and KA-17-06-FB were found to be relatively more resistant to pest and diseases than other landraces. Eight out of nine landraces in Dhamidera and Dallekh villages and seven out of nine in Sundamunda village produced seeds greater than 1.0 t/ha. Among the nine varieties KA-17-02-FB was the highest yielding variety, with an average yield of 3.8 t/ha. This study is useful for identifying suitable landraces for future promotion based on their maturity, grain yield, diseases resistance and other qualitative and quantitative characteristics

Sequence Analysis of Rifampicin Resistance Determining Region (RRDR) of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has become the cause for one of the most dreadful disease which the mankind has ever known i.e. Tuberculosis. The organism holds the ability to infect multiple organs at a time resulting in multiple symptomatic presentations in pathogenic condition while in non-pathogenic condition, it can lay dormant and remain asymptomatic. The research work presented here aimed at sequencing of Rifampicin Resistance Determining Region (RRDR) of the rpoB gene present in phenotypically multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis. The findings showed that the major point of mutations to be present within this region was at codon 516, 526, and 531. Early diagnosis of multidrug resistance in any pathogen has become a pre – requisite for proper treatment and efficient elimination of pathogenic organisms from the host with minimal toxicity. Similarly, understanding the mutation dynamics of target genes also help in novel drug design and discovery

Microwave tomography: review of the progress towards clinical applications

Microwave tomography (MWT) is an emerging biomedical imaging modality with great potential for non-invasive assessment of functional and pathological conditions of soft tissues. This paper presents a review of research results obtained by the author and his colleagues and focuses on various potential clinical applications of MWT. Most clinical applications of MWT imaging have complicated, nonlinear, high dielectric contrast inverse problems of three-dimensional diffraction tomography. There is a very high dielectric contrast between bones and fatty areas compared with soft tissues. In most cases, the contrast between soft-tissue abnormalities (the target imaging areas) is less pronounced than between bone (fat) and soft tissue. This additionally complicates the imaging problem. In spite of the difficulties mentioned, it has been demonstrated that MWT is applicable for extremities imaging, breast cancer detection, diagnostics of lung cancer, brain imaging and cardiac imaging

An improved block matching algorithm for motion estimation in video sequences and application in robotics

Block Matching is one of the most efficient techniques for motion estimation for video sequences. Metaheuristic algorithms have been used effectively for motion estimation. In this paper, we propose two hybrid algorithms: Artificial Bee Colony with Differential Evolution and Harmony Search with Differential Evolution based motion estimation algorithms. Extensive experiments are conducted using four standard video sequences. The video sequences utilized for experimentation have all essential features such as different formats, resolutions and number of frames which are generally required in input video sequences. We compare the performance of the proposed algorithms with other algorithms considering various parameters such as Structural Similarity, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Average Number of Search Points etc. The comparative results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms outperformed other algorithms

Genetic Diversity of Genus \u3cem\u3eAvena\u3c/em\u3e in North Western-Himalayas assessed by Morphological Traits

Oat (Avena sativa L.) is a cool season, annual crop grown mainly in moist areas of temperate climates of the world serving as a food for mankind and forage for cattle. Oat is an important rabi fodder crop in India.In India, oat is also cultivated in Himalayan states like Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Oat in these regions have a wider adaptability, because of its excellent growing habitat, quick re-growth and better nutritional value (Misri, 2004). Oat breeding programme in Indian regions has not achieved much impetus due to a narrow genetic base of cultivated gene pool within the regionally adapted germplasm. The competition for utilization of land for food grains and fodder necessitates intensified efforts towards more efficient forage research and production, for which it is imperative to characterize and evaluate Avena species in order to identify donors for different traits and diversify primary oat gene pool. Historically, morphological traits have been important in the diversity analysis of crop species. The characterization of germplasm using morphological traits help the plant breeders to select the accessions to be utilized in hybridization programme. Considering the potential forage value of oats and limited genetic information available at morphological level, present study was aimed to assess the genetic diversity of genus Avena using morphological characterization. The information generated from this study will be helpful in characterizing the genus Avena germplasm and in the selection and utilization of diverse genotypes to enhance variability and productivity of commercial oat for future crop improvement endeavors in the Indian North-Western Himalayan region

Bronchodilator, spasmolytic and calcium antagonist activities of Nigella sativa seeds (Kalonji): a traditional herbal product with multiple medicinal uses

Objective: The seeds of Nigella sativa locally known as Kalonji has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety of diseases including diarrhoea and asthma. The crude extract of N. sativa seeds (Ns.Cr) was studied in vitro for its possible spasmolytic and bronchodilator activities to rationalize the folkloric uses.Methods: Isolated rabbit jejunum and guinea-pig tracheal preparations were set up in Tyrode\u27s and Kreb\u27s solutions respectively and aerated with 5% CO2 in oxygen. Isotonic and isometric responses were measured on Bioscience oscillograph and Grass polygraph respectively.Results: The Ns.Cr caused a dose-dependent (0.1-3.0 mg/ml) relaxation of spontaneous contractions in rabbit jejunum. Ns.Cr also inhibited K(+)-induced contractions in a similar dose range, suggestive of calcium channel blockade (CCB). This effect was confirmed when pretreatment of the tissue with Ns.Cr, produced a dose-dependent shift in the Ca++ dose-response curves to the right similar to that of verapamil, a standard calcium channel blocker. In guinea-pig trachea, it caused relaxation of carbachol-, histamine- or K(+)-induced contractions indicating CCB. Activity-directed fractionation revealed that the CCB activity is concentrated in the petroleum ether fraction, which was found to be approximately 10 times more potent than the crude extract both in jejunum and tracheal preparations.Conclusion: These data indicate that the crude extract of Nigella sativa seeds exhibits spasmolytic and bronchodilator activities mediated possibly through calcium channel blockade and this activity is concentrated in the organic fraction. Its usefulness for diarrhoea and asthma in traditional medicine, appears thus to be based on a sound mechanistic background

Effect of different modes of pollination on quantitative and qualitative parameters of Egyptian Clover, Trifolium alexandrinum L.

The effect of different modes of pollination on quantitative and qualitative parameters of Egyptian clover, Trifolium alexandrinum L. was studied at Forage Section, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during 2012 and 2013. Maximum seed setting (81.5%) was recorded in A. mellifera pollination with an 8 frame colony (BP-8F) followed by 4 frame colony (BP-4F) (75.1%), open pollination (OP) (73.8%) and 2 frame colony (BP-2F) (71.5%). Maximum seed yield (2662.3 seeds) was observed in treatment BP-8F followed by BP-4F (2373.8), OP (2316.3) and BP-2F (2235.5). Still lower yield of 2103.0 seeds was found in hand pollination (HP) treatment that was significantly higher than the without insect pollination (WIP) treatment (1114.2). Minimum 1000-seed weight was observed in WIP (2.64 g). The seed weight of BP-4F (3.30), HP (3.20), BP-2F (3.17) and OP (3.03), the heaviest seeds were recorded in BP-8F (3.62 g/1000 grains) and it was at par with the treatment BP-4F (3.30 g). Highest seed germination per cent was recorded in BP-8F (94.7) followed by OP (90.7%). Lowest germination was found in WIP (84.7%). Though some work has been done on this aspect in India but comprehensive pollination studies has not been worked out

Fabrication of carbon thin films by pulsed laser deposition in different ambient environments

In this work, carbon thin films are grown in different background environments (Air, Helium and Argon) at different pressures (60, 160, 500 and 1000 mbar) by ablating the graphite target with Nd:YAG laser of wavelength of 1064 nm, pulse energy of 740 mJ and pulse rate of 6 ns. 10,000 laser shots are used to ablate graphite target under different ambient conditions. Grown thin films are analyzed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to measure thickness, roughness average, maximum profile peak height, average maximum height of profile and spacing ratio of the surface. The obtained results show that the roughness average, thickness of film, maximum profile peak height, average maximum height of profile and spacing ratio of thin films decreases with increase in ambient pressures and shows highest value at low pressure (160 mbar) in helium environment as compared with air and argon

Geochemistry and geodynamic setting of Paleoproterozoic granites of Lesser Garhwal Himalaya, India

The granite and gneisses rocks are well exposed around Toneta, Tilwara and Chirbatiyakhal region in the Lesser Garhwal Himalaya have less studied which consider as Paleoproterozoic age. The granites from Toneta area are classified as K-rich peraluminous granite with low Na2O varies from 0.85 to 2.4 wt.% and high K2O content varies from 5.0 to 6.9 wt.%. The average Al2O3 (14.16 wt.%) in the granite is greater than the total alkalies (Na2O+K2O = Av. 7.62 wt.%), the Titania (TiO2) content is low ranging from 0.1 to 0.28 wt. %. In the Y + Nb – Rb, Y – Nb, Ta + Yb – Rb, and Yb – Ta discrimination diagram of Pearce et al. (1984) show that the Toneta granites mostly plots within the syn-collision granite fields. This is typical collisional granite

Sunnhemp breeding: Challenges and prospects

Sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) is an important fibre crop of tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world and has multiple uses. With the commercialization of agriculture, major food crops and cash crops gained momentum and fibre crops, particularly sunnhemp lagged behind on account of increased availability of cheap synthetic fibres. In the present context, the cultivation of sunnhemp is limited to marginal lands and with minimum inputs. Subsequently, the production and productivity of the crop has declined. Productivity of sunnhemp can be increased by genetic improvement of the crop. However, very little reports are available detailing genetics of different economic traits. Hence, an attempt is being made to collect all the scattered relevant genetic information in order to make the information useful in expediting the genetic improvement of the crop