Insect pests of tea and their management

Globally, 1031 species of arthropods are associated with the intensively managed tea Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze monoculture. All parts of the plant, leaf, stem, root, flower, and seed, are fed upon by at least one pest species, resulting in an 11%–55% loss in yield if left unchecked. There has been heavy use of organosynthetic pesticides since the 1950s to defend the plant against these pests, leading to rapid conversion of innocuous species into pests, development of resistance, and undesirable pesticide residues in made tea. As a result of importer and consumer concerns, pesticide residues have become a major problem for the tea industry. Integrated pest management (IPM) may help to overcome the overuse of pesticides and subsequent residues.We review the advances made in our understanding of the biology and ecology of major insect and mite pests of tea, host plant resistance, cultural practices, biocontrol measures, and need-based application of botanicals and safer pesticides to understand the present status of IPM and to identify future challenges to improvement

Permaculture to monoculture in shifting cultivation landscape of Mizoram, Northeast India: Are agrobiodiversity and happiness waning?

The status of agrobiodiversity and perceived well-being of one indigenous community, namely the Mara tribe, was assessed in a pilot study of 150 households sampled at random from two blocks in Saiha district, which lies at the south-western corner of the state of Mizoram. A subsample of 50 households was chosen, based on a set of predefined criteria, for data collection using mix methods approach. The study documented 30 species of plants being cultivated by the respondents. The species comprised ten vegetables, nine fruit plants, seven field crops and four species of spices and condiments and their cultivation was supplemented with five species of domesticated livestock. The plants other than field crops were identified by the respondents as top three choices for the diversification of farming. The growing transition to monoculture is taking its toll on the respondents’ sense of subjective well-being. Most of them (92%) reported a moderate level of well-being or fluctuating levels of well-being: they are struggling now and expect to struggle even more in the future, to continue their way of life. We urge caution in the drive towards modernization lest the change should threaten the well-being of people and the ecological–economic trade-offs of monoculture

Permaculture to monoculture in shifting cultivation landscape of Mizoram, Northeast India: Are agrobiodiversity and happiness waning?

479-485The status of agrobiodiversity and perceived well-being of one indigenous community, namely the Mara tribe, was assessed in a pilot study of 150 households sampled at random from two blocks in Saiha district, which lies at the south-western corner of the state of Mizoram. A subsample of 50 households was chosen, based on a set of predefined criteria, for data collection using mix methods approach. The study documented 30 species of plants being cultivated by the respondents. The species comprised ten vegetables, nine fruit plants, seven field crops and four species of spices and condiments and their cultivation was supplemented with five species of domesticated livestock. The plants other than field crops were identified by the respondents as top three choices for the diversification of farming. The growing transition to monoculture is taking its toll on the respondents’ sense of subjective well-being. Most of them (92%) reported a moderate level of well-being or fluctuating levels of well-being: they are struggling now and expect to struggle even more in the future, to continue their way of life. We urge caution in the drive towards modernization lest the change should threaten the well-being of people and the ecological–economic trade-offs of monoculture

People and plant: Learning with Adi community on ethnomedicinal practices and conservation in Arunachal Pradesh, India

74-82Local plant species have been in use in variety of ethnomedicinal practices from the time immemorial among the people of various communities for treating various human diseases. This paper reports about the plant species used by Adi community in curing various human diseases and ailments. A study was conducted during 2008-2009 and further refined in succeeding years with the 12 purposively selected traditional knowledge holders (TKHs) of Adi tribe of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Data were collected using combined approaches of personal interview, participant observations and transect walks. It was observed that with Shannon-Weaver diversity index 2.73, there were 39 local plant species belonging to 25 plant families and used as ethnomedicinal practices by the TKHs. Most of the species (17) were used by Adi TKHs with their green leaf parts followed by root and fruits (5 each) to develop ethnomedicinal formulations. Out of these, several species namely Leucas aspera (Willd.) Link.; Plumeria rubra L.; Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don; Solanum torvum Swartz; Solanum khasianum C.B. Clarke; Oroxylum indicum (L.) Benth.ex Kurze; and Tinospora cordifolia (Thunb.) Miers) were found in use by Adis against asthma, bronchitis, cough, sinusitis, diabetes, malaria, typhoid and jaundice. The Adi TKHs maintain a rich cultural ethics, govern by their own world-view in continuing ethnomedicinal practices, and harvesting the species from various land use systems with the aim to sustain biodiversity and associated practices. The key findings indicated that, plant species used as ethnomedicines for some of the diseases and ailments by the Adi TKHs, can be undertaken for the long-term trial to find some natural remedies against few human diseases, including search of immune enhancer against COVID-19, provided TKHs of Adi community are partnered in ethically and culturally appropriate manner.&nbsp

People and plant: Learning with Adi community on ethnomedicinal practices and conservation in Arunachal Pradesh, India

Local plant species have been in use in variety of ethnomedicinal practices from time immemorial among the people of various communities for treating various human diseases. This paper reports about the plant species used by Adi community in curing various human diseases and ailments. A study was conducted during 2008-2009 and further refined in succeeding years with the 12 purposively selected traditional knowledge holders (TKHs) of Adi tribe of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Data were collected using combined approaches of personal interview, participant observations and transect walks. It was observed that with Shannon-Weaver diversity index 2.73, there were 39 local plant species belonging to 25 plant families and used as ethnomedicinal practices by the TKHs. Most of the species (17) were used by Adi TKHs with their green leaf parts followed by root and fruits (5 each) to develop ethnomedicinal formulations for treating a range of diseases and ailments. Out of these, most of the species [(e.g., Leucas   aspera (Willd.) Link.; Plumeria rubra L.; Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don; Solanum  torvum Swartz; Solanum  khasianum C. B. Clarke; Oroxylum  indicum (L.) Benth. ex Kurze; and Tinospora  cordifolia (Thunb.) Miers)] were found in use by Adis against asthma, bronchitis, cough, sinusitis, diabetes, malaria, typhoid and jaundice. The Adi TKHs holders maintain a rich cultural ethics, govern by their own world-view in continuing ethnomedicinal practices, and harvesting the species from various land use systems with the aim to sustain biodiversity and associated practices. The key findings indicated that, plant species used as ethnomedicines for some of the diseases and ailments by the Adi TKHs, can be undertaken for the long-term trial to find some natural remedies against few human diseases, including search of immune enhancer against COVID-19,  provided TKHs of Adi community are partnered in ethically and culturally appropriate manner.

Treatment of hypertension in rural Cambodia: results of a 6-year programme

This study was aimed to describe the outcomes of a hypertension treatment programme in two outpatient clinics in Cambodia. We determined proportions of patients who met the optimal targets for blood pressure (BP) control and assessed the evolution of mean systolic and diastolic BP (SBP/DBP) over time. Multivariate analyses were used to identify predictors of BP decrease and risk factors for LTFU. A total of 2858 patients were enrolled between March 2002 and June 2008 of whom 69.2% were female, 30.5% were aged >/=64years and 32.6% were diabetic. The median follow-up time was 600 days. By the end of 2008, 1642 (57.4%) were alive-in-care, 8 (0.3%) had died and 1208 (42.3%) were lost to follow-up. On admission, mean SBP and DBP were 162 and 94 mm Hg, respectively. Among the patients treated, a significant SBP reduction of 26.8 mm Hg (95% CI: 28.4-25.3) was observed at 6 months. Overall, 36.5% of patients reached the BP targets at 24 months. The number of young adults, non-overweight patients and non-diabetics reaching the BP targets was more. Older age (>64 years), uncontrolled DBP (>/=90 mm Hg) on last consultation and coming late for the last consultation were associated with LTFU, whereas non-diabetic patients were 1.5 times more likely to default than diabetics (95% CI: 1.3-1.7). Although the definite magnitude of the BP decrease due to antihypertension medication over time cannot be assessed definitely without a control group, our results suggest that BP reduction can be obtained with essential hypertension treatment in a large-scale programme in a resource-limited setting

Amorphous 1-propanol interstellar ice beyond its melting point

The recent discovery of 1-propanol (CH3CH2CH2OH) in the interstellar medium (ISM) is of tremendous interest since fatty alcohols have been proposed as constituents of proto-cell membranes. Motivated by this discovery, we present the laboratory midinfrared (MIR) and vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) absorption spectra of 1-propanol ice under astrochemical conditions, mimicking an icy mantle on cold dust in the ISM. Both MIR and VUV spectra were recorded at ultra-high vacuum (UHV) of ∼ 10-9 mbar and at temperatures ranging from 10 K to sublimation. The morphology of the 1-propanol ice deposited at 10 K was amorphous. By warming the ice to temperatures of 140 K and above, with subsequent recording of IR spectra, we observe complete sublimation of 1-propanol molecules from the substrate around 170 K. No amorphous-to-crystalline phase change was observed upon warming to higher temperatures. Additionally, We observe the IR and VUV signatures of 1-propanol ice on the substrate well beyond its melting point (147 K). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported observation of a molecular ice staying well beyond its melting point under such conditions. This result shows that the morphology of icy mantles on ISM cold dust grains is more complex than previously thought. Our atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations capture the experimental trends and shed light on the microscopic origin of this unusual phase behaviour of 1-propanol

Tractable Fragments of Temporal Sequences of Topological Information

In this paper, we focus on qualitative temporal sequences of topological information. We firstly consider the context of topological temporal sequences of length greater than 3 describing the evolution of regions at consecutive time points. We show that there is no Cartesian subclass containing all the basic relations and the universal relation for which the algebraic closure decides satisfiability. However, we identify some tractable subclasses, by giving up the relations containing the non-tangential proper part relation and not containing the tangential proper part relation. We then formalize an alternative semantics for temporal sequences. We place ourselves in the context of the topological temporal sequences describing the evolution of regions on a partition of time (i.e. an alternation of instants and intervals). In this context, we identify large tractable fragments