Evaluation of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in rice (Oryza sativa) - groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) system under Island ecosystem

Field experiment was conducted during wet and dry seasons of 2007-09 at Field Crops Research Farm of Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands to evaluate System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in rice and its residual effect on groundnut in rice (Oryza sativa L.) – groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) systems. Time of planting, spacing and nitrogen practices evaluated significantly influenced the yield attributes and yield of rice, while the residual effect of N management practices had a positive influence on the yield attributes and yield of succeeding groundnut. Early planting in second fortnight of June with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing recorded higher panicles/m2 (9.1 %), higher number of filled grains/ panicle (108), higher grain yield (4 678 kg/ha), about 3% higher REY, productivity (26.8 kg/ha/day), and total profitability (` 62 882/ha) compared to the same time of planting with wider spacing (25 cm × 25 cm). Though application of 100% Recommended Dose of Nitrogen (RDN) through urea recorded highest grain yield (4 465 kg/ha) of rice, it was comparable with 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN through urea and 75% RDN through Gliricidia + 25% RDN through urea. Application of 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN recorded nearly 6% higher REY and ` 6 565/ha more profitability higher output energy in rice-groundnut sequence compared to application of 100% RDN through urea. N management practices of rice, in the crop sequence of rice- groundnut were found to improve the soil nitrogen status. Early planting of rice in second fortnight of June at 20 cm × 20 cm with the application of 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN through urea can be recommended for achieving higher productivity, profitability and energy use efficiency of rice - groundnut system in Island ecosystem

UK research priority setting for childhood neurological conditions

\ua9 2024 The Author(s). Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Mac Keith Press. Aim: To identify research priorities regarding the effectiveness of interventions for children and young people (CYP) with childhood neurological conditions (CNCs). These include common conditions such as epilepsies and cerebral palsy, as well as many rare conditions. Method: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the James Lind Alliance (JLA) champion and facilitate priority setting partnerships (PSPs) between patients, caregivers, and clinicians (stakeholders) to identify the most important unanswered questions for research (uncertainties). A NIHR–JLA and British Paediatric Neurology Association collaboration used the JLA PSP methodology. This consisted of two surveys to stakeholders: survey 1 (to identify uncertainties) and survey 2 (a prioritization survey). The final top 10 priorities were agreed by consensus in a stakeholder workshop. Results: One hundred and thirty-two charities and partner organizations were invited to participate. In survey 1, 701 participants (70% non-clinicians, including CYP and parent and caregivers) submitted 1800 uncertainties from which 44 uncertainties were identified for prioritization in survey 2; from these, 1451 participants (83% non-clinicians) selected their top 10 priorities. An unweighted amalgamated score across participant roles was used to select 26. In the final workshop, 14 health care professionals, 11 parent and caregivers, and two CYP ranked the 26 questions to finalize the top 10 priorities. Ten top priority questions were identified regarding interventions to treat CYP with CNCs and their associated comorbidities, for example, sleep, emotional well-being, and distressing symptoms. Interpretation: The results of this study will inform research into the effectiveness of interventions for children with neurological conditions

Phase coexistence and electric-field control of toroidal order in oxide superlattices

Systems that exhibit phase competition, order parameter coexistence, and emergent order parameter topologies constitute a major part of modern condensed-matter physics. Here, by applying a range of characterization techniques, and simulations, we observe that in PbTiO>3/SrTiO>3 superlattices all of these effects can be found. By exploring superlattice period-, temperature- and field-dependent evolution of these structures, we observe several new features. First, it is possible to engineer phase coexistence mediated by a first-order phase transition between an emergent, low-temperature vortex phase with electric toroidal order and a high-temperature ferroelectric a>1/a>2 phase. At room temperature, the coexisting vortex and ferroelectric phases form a mesoscale, fibre-textured hierarchical superstructure. The vortex phase possesses an axial polarization, set by the net polarization of the surrounding ferroelectric domains, such that it possesses a multi-order-parameter state and belongs to a class of gyrotropic electrotoroidal compounds. Finally, application of electric fields to this mixed-phase system permits interconversion between the vortex and the ferroelectric phases concomitant with order-of-magnitude changes in piezoelectric and nonlinear optical responses. Our findings suggest new cross-coupled functionalities.A.R.D. acknowledges support from the Army Research Office under grant W911NF-14-1-0104 and the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under grant no. DE-SC0012375 for synthesis and structural study of the materials. Z.H. acknowledges support from NSF-MRSEC grant number DMR-1420620 and NSF-MWN grant number DMR-1210588. A.K.Y. acknowledges support from the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy DE-AC02-05CH11231. C.T.N. acknowledge support from the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy DE-AC02-05CH11231. S.L.H. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under the MRSEC programme (DMR-1420620). M.R.M. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant number DGE-1106400. K.-D.P., V.K. and M.B.R. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Sciences, Division of Material Sciences and Engineering, under Award No. DE-SC0008807. A.F. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation. P.G.-F. and J.J. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grant number FIS2015-64886-C5-2-P. J.I. is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (Grant FNR/C15/MS/10458889 NEWALLS). L.-Q.C. is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award FG02-07ER46417. R.R. and L.W.M. acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative, under grant GBMF5307. The Advanced Light Source is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-C02-05CH11231. Nanodiffraction measurements were supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Electron microscopy of superlattice structures was performed at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy (DE-AC02-05CH11231).Peer Reviewe

Mitochondrial ATP synthase inhibition and nitric oxide are involved in muscle weakness that occurs in acute exposure of rats to monocrotophos

Organophosphate poisoning in the context of self-harm is a common medical emergency in Asia. Prolonged muscle weakness is an important but poorly understood cause of morbidity and mortality of the poisoning. This study examined mitochondrial function and its modulation by nitric oxide in muscle weakness of rats exposed to an acute, oral (0.8LD50) dose of monocrotophos. Muscle mitochondrial ATP synthase activity was inhibited in the rat in acute exposure to monocrotophos while respiration per se was not affected. This was accompanied by decreased mitochondrial uptake of calcium and increased levels of nitric oxide. Reactive cysteine groups of ATP synthase subunits were reduced in number, which may contribute to decreased enzyme activity. The decrease in ATP synthase activity and reactive cysteine groups of ATP synthase subunits was prevented by treatment of animals with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, L-NG Nitroarginine methyl ester, at 12 mg/kg body weight for 9 days in drinking water, prior to monocrotophos exposure. This indicated a role for nitric oxide in the process. The alterations in mitochondrial calcium uptake may influence cytosolic calcium levels and contribute to muscle weakness of acute organophosphate exposure

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization NMR Spectroscopy Allows High-Throughput Characterization of Microporous Organic Polymers

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) solid-state NMR was used to obtain natural abundance 13C and 15N CP MAS NMR spectra of microporous organic polymers with excellent signal-to-noise ratio, allowing for unprecedented details in the molecular structure to be determined for these complex polymer networks. Sensitivity enhancements larger than 10 were obtained with bis-nitroxide radical at 14.1 T and low temperature (∼105 K). This DNP MAS NMR approach allows efficient, high-throughput characterization of libraries of porous polymers prepared by combinatorial chemistry methods

Colorants in Cheese Manufacture: Production, Chemistry, Interactions, and Regulation

Colored Cheddar cheeses are prepared by adding an aqueous annatto extract (norbixin) to cheese milk; however, a considerable proportion (∼20%) of such colorant is transferred to whey, which can limit the end use applications of whey products. Different geographical regions have adopted various strategies for handling whey derived from colored cheeses production. For example, in the United States, whey products are treated with oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide and benzoyl peroxide to obtain white and colorless spray‐dried products; however, chemical bleaching of whey is prohibited in Europe and China. Fundamental studies have focused on understanding the interactions between colorants molecules and various components of cheese. In addition, the selective delivery of colorants to the cheese curd through approaches such as encapsulated norbixin and microcapsules of bixin or use of alternative colorants, including fat‐soluble/emulsified versions of annatto or beta‐carotene, has been studied. This review provides a critical analysis of pertinent scientific and patent literature pertaining to colorant delivery in cheese and various types of colorant products on the market for cheese manufacture, and also considers interactions between colorant molecules and cheese components; various strategies for elimination of color transfer to whey during cheese manufacture are also discussed

Treatment- and Population-Dependent Activity Patterns of Behavioral and Expression QTLs

Genetic control of gene expression and higher-order phenotypes is almost invariably dependent on environment and experimental conditions. We use two families of recombinant inbred strains of mice (LXS and BXD) to study treatment- and genotype-dependent control of hippocampal gene expression and behavioral phenotypes. We analyzed responses to all combinations of two experimental perturbations, ethanol and restraint stress, in both families, allowing for comparisons across 8 combinations of treatment and population. We introduce the concept of QTL activity patterns to characterize how associations between genomic loci and traits vary across treatments. We identified several significant behavioral QTLs and many expression QTLs (eQTLs). The behavioral QTLs are highly dependent on treatment and population. We classified eQTLs into three groups: cis-eQTLs (expression variation that maps to within 5 Mb of the cognate gene), syntenic trans-eQTLs (the gene and the QTL are on the same chromosome but not within 5 Mb), and non-syntenic trans-eQTLs (the gene and the QTL are on different chromosomes). We found that most non-syntenic trans-eQTLs were treatment-specific whereas both classes of syntenic eQTLs were more conserved across treatments. We also found there was a correlation between regions along the genome enriched for eQTLs and SNPs that were conserved across the LXS and BXD families. Genes with eQTLs that co-localized with the behavioral QTLs and displayed similar QTL activity patterns were identified as potential candidate genes associated with the phenotypes, yielding identification of novel genes as well as genes that have been previously associated with responses to ethanol

Making subaltern shikaris: histories of the hunted in colonial central India

Academic histories of hunting or shikar in India have almost entirely focused on the sports hunting of British colonists and Indian royalty. This article attempts to balance this elite bias by focusing on the meaning of shikar in the construction of the Gond ‘tribal’ identity in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century colonial central India. Coining the term ‘subaltern shikaris’ to refer to the class of poor, rural hunters, typically ignored in this historiography, the article explores how the British managed to use hunting as a means of state penetration into central India’s forest interior, where they came to regard their Gond forest-dwelling subjects as essentially and eternally primitive hunting tribes. Subaltern shikaris were employed by elite sportsmen and were also paid to hunt in the colonial regime’s vermin eradication programme, which targeted tigers, wolves, bears and other species identified by the state as ‘dangerous beasts’. When offered economic incentives, forest dwellers usually willingly participated in new modes of hunting, even as impact on wildlife rapidly accelerated and became unsustainable. Yet as non-indigenous approaches to nature became normative, there was sometimes also resistance from Gond communities. As overkill accelerated, this led to exclusion of local peoples from natural resources, to their increasing incorporation into dominant political and economic systems, and to the eventual collapse of hunting as a livelihood. All of this raises the question: To what extent were subaltern subjects, like wildlife, ‘the hunted’ in colonial India