Combining ability and heterosis analyses for oil and healthy fatty acid composition in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Development of a variety having high oil content and desirable fatty acid compositions is a major objective of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) breeding programmes. To study the gene action (through combining ability) and heterosis for oil and fatty acids, an experiment was conducted using a 4 × 4 full diallel method. Four parents and their 12 F1 hybrids were evaluated following a randomized complete block design. Data were recorded for oil, fatty acids and oleic-linolenic (O/L) acid ratio. Highly significant genotypic variation was found among the parents and their F1 hybrids for the studied traits. The combining ability studies (general, specific and reciprocal) reflected that the oil and fatty acid traits were controlled by both non-additive and additive genes having significant maternal effects. Results also revealed that the parent China Badam was the best general combiner for oil, linolenic acid and O/L ratio whereas the parent Binachinabadam-4 for oleic and linoleic acids. Best SCA performance was found from the cross Dacca-1 × China Badam and Binachinabadam-4 × China Badam for oil, oleic- and linolenic-acid contents. Significant heterosis for oil content was observed in F1 hybrids obtained from the cross Binachinabadam-4 × China Badam and its reciprocal cross. The cross China Badam × GC (24)-1-1-1 showed a higher O/L ratio (>4) along with lower level of saturated fatty acids. Therefore, these crosses could be exploited in future breeding programmes to develop new lines for higher oil and healthy fatty acid compositions

Effects of deforestation on physicochemical properties and microbial population of soils in a South-East Asian tropical forest

The study was conducted in deforested land and adjacent natural forest in Chittagong Forest South Division, Bangladesh, to explore the effects of deforestation on physico-chemical properties of soil and the soil microbial population. Soil samples from surface (0-10 cm depth) or subsurface (10-20 cm depth) of two hill positions (top and bottom) of deforested land and an adjacent natural forest were collected and analysed for their physico-chemical properties and microbial population. The study reveals that there was no significant (p≤0.05) difference in soil texture for soil surfaces or hill positions between the deforested land and natural forest. However, significantly (p≤0.05) low moisture content and high pH was observed in both the surfaces and hill position in deforested land compared to the natural forest. The microbial community i.e., the fungal and bacterial population was also significantly (p≤0.05) lower in both surfaces (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm) of hill positions in the deforested land compared to natural forest. Fungal population ranged from 59 to 76 million g-1 and 78 to 153 million g-1 of dry soil in deforested land and in natural forest, respectively, whereas bacterial population ranged from 70 to 146 million g-1 in deforested land and from 127 to 218 million g-1 in natural forest. A total of seven genera of fungi were primarily identified from the soils of natural forest and six from the deforested land. The six common genera of identified fungi in both the land used were Mucor, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Fusarium, Penicillium and Trichoderma and the different one was Colletotrichum from the natural forest. Three genera of bacteria coccus, Streptococcus and Basillus were noticed in natural forest and two genera (coccus and Streptococcus) were recorded from deforested land

Potential determinants of salinity tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L.) and modulation of tolerance by exogenous ascorbic acid application

Rice is a relatively salt-sensitive crop with the reproductive and seedling stages being the most sensitive. Two separate experiments were conducted to isolate potential determinants of salinity tolerance and to investigate the possibility of modulating salt tolerance by exogenous ascorbic acid (AsA) application. Rice plants were imposed to salinity (EC= 10.0 dS m-1) both at the seedling and reproductive phases of growth. Salinity at the seedling stage resulted a sharp decline in shoot and root growth related traits including leaf chlorophyll content, while hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels increased. Plants experienced with salinity at the reproductive phases of growth showed a significant reduction in yield attributing traits while the tissue levels of H2O2 increased. Exogenous AsA application reversed the negative impact of salt stress, modulating the root and shoots growth and yield related traits and lowering H2O2 and MDA levels. FL-478 was identified as the most tolerant genotype at the seedling stage, with Binadhan-10 being the most tolerant at the reproductive stage. Grain yield panicle-1 significantly and positively corrected with number of filled grains panicle-1, panicle length, plant height, and spikelet fertility, and negatively correlated with H2O2 levels. Stress tolerance indices clearly separated the tolerant and susceptible genotypes. A principal component analysis revealed that the first two components explained 87% of the total variation among the genotypes. Breeding efforts could therefore to undertake for developing salinity tolerance by manipulating endogenous AsA content in rice

Differential Response of Sugar Beet to Long-Term Mild to Severe Salinity in a Soil-Pot Culture

Attempts to cultivate sugar beet (Beta vulgaris spp. vulgaris) in the sub-tropical saline soils are ongoing because of its excellent tolerance to salinity. However, the intrinsic adaptive physiology has not been discovered yet in the sub-tropical climatic conditions. In this study, we investigated morpho-physiological attributes, biochemical responses, and yield of sugar beet under a gradient of salinity in the soil-pot culture system to evaluate its adaptive mechanisms. Results exhibited that low and high salinity displayed a differential impact on growth, photosynthesis, and yield. Low to moderate salt stress (75 and 100 mM NaCl) showed no inhibition on growth and photosynthetic attributes. Accordingly, low salinity displayed simulative effect on chlorophyll and antioxidant enzymes activity which contributed to maintaining a balanced H2O2 accumulation and lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, relative water and proline content showed no alteration in low salinity. These factors contributed to improving the yield (tuber weight). On the contrary, 250 mM salinity showed a mostly inhibitory role on growth, photosynthesis, and yield. Collectively, our findings provide insights into the mild-moderate salt adaptation strategy in the soil culture test attributed to increased water content, elevation of photosynthetic pigment, better photosynthesis, and better management of oxidative stress. Therefore, cultivation of sugar beet in moderately saline-affected soils will ensure efficient utilization of lands

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

A Study on Readiness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Affecting the Adoption of AI in Human Resources Management's Function

Purpose of the study • The purpose of the study is to identify the need of adopting artificial intelligence in human resource management • To identify the relationship between technology readiness, organizational readiness, and environmental readiness affecting the adoption of AI in HR • To investigate the mediating effect of employee readiness in AI with the external factors of technology readiness, organizational readiness, and environmental readiness with the adoption of AI in human resources management

Acetate alleviates As toxicity via improving ROS metabolism and antioxidant defense system in lentil seedlings

Arsenic (As) is a toxic element which entries the food chain from the soil through plants and poses a great threat to human health. Also, an excess of As causes adverse physiological and biochemical changes in plants. In the present study, the mechanism of As tolerance in acetate-treated lentil seedlings was investigated. Six-day-old seedlings pretreated with or without 10 mM Na-acetate were exposed to two levels of sodium arsenate (250 and 320 µM) for four days. The results showed that both levels of As caused severe chlorosis, growth reduction, and water imbalance. Furthermore, As-induced oxidative damage in the plants was manifested by higher malondialdehyde and, hydrogen peroxide content, electrolyte leakage, and disruption of the antioxidant defense pathway. However, acetate pretreatment improved growth and chlorophyll content, and reduced oxidative damage by upregulating some components (catalase and ascorbate) of the antioxidant defense pathway in the seedlings. Under As stress, accumulation of As was found in both roots and shoot of lentil. However, acetate pretreatment reduced As accumulation in the roots and inhibited the transfer of As to the shoots in the seedlings. Taken together, the results suggest that acetate can enhance tolerance against As toxicity in lentil seedlings by reducing As accumulation and increasing ROS detoxification through the antioxidant defense pathway

Convenient Way to Detect Ulcer in Wireless Capsule Endoscopy Through Fuzzy Logic Technique

The ulcer is one of the most common and dangerous among the effect of many deadly diseases in the Gastrointestinal tract. It is complicated to diagnose and detect the tiny intestine ulcers by applying other alternative methods of endoscopy. Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) technique is rapidly using more conveniently to visualize these ulcers. However, it is challenging and time-consuming for the clinicians to check the vast amount of images captured from the WCE. So, it has become the most crucial concern to provide an automated system for detecting the ulcer to help the clinicians. In this research paper, a unique automatic ulcer diagnosis model is introduced to detect ulcers from images that have been converted from the captured WCE video. In the proposed method, Some consecutive approaches, like pre-processing and fuzzy logic framework, have been applied for extracting the ulcer portion on L*a*b colour model. The proposed method has obtained a tremendous result of sensitivity 95%, accuracy 95.5%, specificity 97%, F1 score 96.48%, precision 98%, and negative predicted value 91% by utilizing the statistical feature and KNN classifier. Therefore, from the analysis of the analytical results and comparison studies, it is highly optimistic about having a positive impact on this research arena

Hydrogen peroxide priming alleviates chilling stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.) by enhancing oxidant scavenging capacity

Chilling is a substantial stressor for plants. In fact, some biochemical reactions involved in growth and development of plant are sensitive to temperature. In particular, chilling stress represents a severe issue for plant growth and productivity and strategies to alleviate the stress is an important goal for agriculturists. While, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) acts as a signalling molecule and its role in preventing several abiotic stresses like heat, salinity, drought etc. is well understood. Thus, the present study tested the effects of H2O2 priming in mitigation of chilling stress at germination and seedling stage of rice. The rice seeds were treated with H2O2 (5, 10 and 15 mM H2O2) solution for 24 h and exposed to chilling stress either for 6 h in 24 h or 12 h in 24 h for 7 days. Results revealed that, chilling stress seriously impeded germination indices (germination percentage, germination rate index, coefficient of velocity of germination and mean germination time), morphological parameters (shoot length, root length and fresh weight), total chlorophyll content and antioxidant enzymes (catalase and ascorbate peroxidase) activity. On the other hand, priming with H2O2 (5mM, 10mM and 15mM) displayed protective effects on germination indices and growth parameters and conferred a significant tolerance against chilling stress. Priming with H2O2 also significantly protected chlorophyll from chilling-induced degradation. Our results provide a strong foundation that priming with H2O2 confers a positive physiological effect by enhancing antioxidant enzymes capability (increased catalase and ascorbate peroxidase activity) of chilling stressed rice plant. Among the concentrations, 10 mM H2O2 performed relatively better in chilling stress alleviation. Therefore, this technique can be used for improved rice seedling production in northern part of Bangladesh under low temperature condition. [Fundam Appl Agric 2019; 4(1.000): 713-722