Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria as a biological tool for augmenting productivity and controlling disease in agriculturally important crop- A review

The ecological role of plant growth promoting bacteria associated with plant root environment is currently gaining increased attention. The tremendous use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which are environmentally harmful can be replaced with these microbes generally called as Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). These microbes can be developed as biofertilizers because they are eco-friendly, cost effective and are natural living organisms. The advantages of these microorganism rely on their production of novel bioactive metabolites that inhibit various pathogens in soil as well as their vast mechanisms in improving growth, productivity and yield in agriculturally important crops. Apart from this, their role in nutrient acquisition, soil fertility improvement and stress tolerance are also inevitable. This review represents the present scenario of beneficial bacteria as plant growth agents and disease control tools. They have been extensively studied for plant disease suppression, plant growth modulation, and interaction with plants. Here, some mechanisms employed by plant growth promoting bacteria from different environments are discussed

Mid Day Meal Scheme: Understanding Critical Issues with Reference to Ahmedabad City

Problems of illiteracy, malnutrition, anaemia, vitamin-A and iodine deficiency are very common among children in India. In 2001 Supreme Court of India ruled that state governments must provide mid-day meal (MDM) to children of government assisted primary schools. The 2007-2008 budget of the central government has allocated about Rs. 73 billion for the MDM scheme. Therefore, it becomes imperative that a comprehensive evaluation of the programme be undertaken to judge its efficacy. We studied the implementation of the scheme, made field visits to schools to document food preparation and delivery, and collected meal samples to test them in laboratory for nutritional contents and food safety. Study seems to indicate that the implementation of the scheme may be wanting on the grounds of nutrition and food safety. For example, protein and iodine content is not sufficiently provided by the meals. Raw food samples contained uric acid levels higher than stipulated by food laws. Traces of aflatoxins were also found. Food safety may be improved by employing food safety systems such as HACCP, contracting out meal preparation and distribution to reputed private parties, and offering packaged foods which also provide variety. Offering nutrition bars and fruits such as banana not only will ensure delivery of hygienic food but it will enhance the nutrition delivery of the MDM scheme.

Theory of noise suppression in {\Lambda}-type quantum memories by means of a cavity

Quantum memories, capable of storing single photons or other quantum states of light, to be retrieved on-demand, offer a route to large-scale quantum information processing with light. A promising class of memories is based on far-off-resonant Raman absorption in ensembles of $\Lambda$-type atoms. However at room temperature these systems exhibit unwanted four-wave mixing, which is prohibitive for applications at the single-photon level. Here we show how this noise can be suppressed by placing the storage medium inside a moderate-finesse optical cavity, thereby removing the main roadblock hindering this approach to quantum memory.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. This paper provides the theoretical background to our recent experimental demonstration of noise suppression in a cavity-enhanced Raman-type memory ( arXiv:1510.04625 ). See also the related paper arXiv:1511.05448, which describes numerical modelling of an atom-filled cavity. Comments welcom

Handwritten digit recognition by bio-inspired hierarchical networks

The human brain processes information showing learning and prediction abilities but the underlying neuronal mechanisms still remain unknown. Recently, many studies prove that neuronal networks are able of both generalizations and associations of sensory inputs. In this paper, following a set of neurophysiological evidences, we propose a learning framework with a strong biological plausibility that mimics prominent functions of cortical circuitries. We developed the Inductive Conceptual Network (ICN), that is a hierarchical bio-inspired network, able to learn invariant patterns by Variable-order Markov Models implemented in its nodes. The outputs of the top-most node of ICN hierarchy, representing the highest input generalization, allow for automatic classification of inputs. We found that the ICN clusterized MNIST images with an error of 5.73% and USPS images with an error of 12.56%

Stochastic quantization and holographic Wilsonian renormalization group

We study relation between stochastic quantization and holographic Wilsonian renormalization group flow. Considering stochastic quantization of the boundary on-shell actions with the Dirichlet boundary condition for certain $AdS$ bulk gravity theories, we find that the radial flows of double trace deformations in the boundary effective actions are completely captured by stochastic time evolution with identification of the $AdS$ radial coordinate `$r$' with the stochastic time '$t$' as $r=t$. More precisely, we investigate Langevin dynamics and find an exact relation between radial flow of the double trace couplings and 2-point correlation functions in stochastic quantization. We also show that the radial evolution of double trace deformations in the boundary effective action and the stochastic time evolution of the Fokker-Planck action are the same. We demonstrate this relation with a couple of examples: (minimally coupled)massless scalar fields in $AdS_2$ and U(1) vector fields in $AdS_4$.Comment: 1+30 pages, a new subsection is added, references are adde

Matrix dynamics of fuzzy spheres

We study the dynamics of fuzzy two-spheres in a matrix model which represents string theory in the presence of RR flux. We analyze the stability of known static solutions of such a theory which contain commuting matrices and SU(2) representations. We find that irreducible as well as reducible representations are stable. Since the latter are of higher energy, this stability poses a puzzle. We resolve this puzzle by noting that reducible representations have marginal directions corresponding to non-spherical deformations. We obtain new static solutions by turning on these marginal deformations. These solutions now have instability or tachyonic directions. We discuss condensation of these tachyons which correspond to classical trajectories interpolating from multiple, small fuzzy spheres to a single, large sphere. We briefly discuss spatially independent configurations of a D3/D5 system described by the same matrix model which now possesses a supergravity dual.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, uses JHEP.cls; (v2) references adde

Non-relativistic metrics from back-reacting fermions

It has recently been pointed out that under certain circumstances the back-reaction of charged, massive Dirac fermions causes important modifications to AdS_2 spacetimes arising as the near horizon geometry of extremal black holes. In a WKB approximation, the modified geometry becomes a non-relativistic Lifshitz spacetime. In three dimensions, it is known that integrating out charged, massive fermions gives rise to gravitational and Maxwell Chern-Simons terms. We show that Schrodinger (warped AdS_3) spacetimes exist as solutions to a gravitational and Maxwell Chern-Simons theory with a cosmological constant. Motivated by this, we look for warped AdS_3 or Schrodinger metrics as exact solutions to a fully back-reacted theory containing Dirac fermions in three and four dimensions. We work out the dynamical exponent in terms of the fermion mass and generalize this result to arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 26 pages, v2: typos corrected, references added, minor change

The effect of surveillance and appreciative inquiry on puerperal infections : a longitudinal cohort study in India

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The effects of elective abdominal surgery on protein turnover: A meta-analysis of stable isotope techniques to investigate postoperative catabolism

Background & aimsElective surgery induces skeletal muscle wasting driven by an imbalance between muscle protein synthesis and breakdown. From examination of diverse stable isotope tracer techniques, the dynamic processes driving this imbalance are unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to elucidate the mechanistic driver(s) of postoperative protein catabolism through stable isotope assessment of protein turnover before and after abdominal surgery.MethodsMeta-analysis was performed of randomized controlled trials and cohort studies in patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery that contained measurements of whole-body or skeletal muscle protein turnover using stable isotope tracer methodologies pre- and postoperatively. Postoperative changes in protein synthesis and breakdown were assessed through subgroup analysis of tracer methodology and perioperative care.ResultsSurgery elicited no overall change in protein synthesis [standardized mean difference (SMD) ?0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI): ?1.32, 0.39, p = 0.25]. However, subgroup analysis revealed significant suppressions via direct-incorporation methodology [SMD -1.53, 95%CI: ?2.89, ?0.17, p = 0.03] within skeletal muscle. Changes of this nature were not present among arterio-venous [SMD 0.61, 95%CI: ?1.48, 2.70, p = 0.58] or end-product [SMD -0.09, 95%CI: ?0.81, 0.64, p = 0.82] whole-body measures. Surgery resulted in no overall change in protein breakdown [SMD 0.63, 95%CI: ?0.06, 1.32, p = 0.07]. Yet, separation by tracer methodology illustrated significant increases in urinary end-products (urea/ammonia) [SMD 0.70, 95%CI: 0.38, 1.02, p < 0.001] that were not present among arterio-venous measures [SMD 0.67, 95%CI: ?1.05, 2.38, p = 0.45].ConclusionsElective abdominal surgery elicits suppressions in skeletal muscle protein synthesis that are not reflected on a whole-body level. Lack of uniform changes across whole-body tracer techniques are likely due to contribution from tissues other than skeletal muscle