Yield and Quality Evaluation of Direct Seeded Basmati Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Different Irrigation and Nitrogen Regimes

Management practices need to be developed for successful cultivation of good quality aerobic basmati rice. Field experiments were conducted at Ludhiana, India during the summer seasons of 2011 and 2012 to ascertain the optimum irrigation schedule and dose and timings of nitrogen application to direct seeded basmati rice cultivar Pusa Basmati 1121. Three irrigation schedules (irrigations at 30, 50 and 70 mm CPE), three nitrogen levels (40, 60 and 80 kg N ha–1) and two modules of nitrogen splits (3 splits, i.e. application at 3, 6 and 9 weeks after sowing and 4 splits, i.e. application at 0, 3, 6 and 9 weeks after sowing) were tested in randomized block design with four replications on a loamy sand soil. The maximum grain yield, protein content, brown, milled and head rice recovery were obtained with irrigations at 30 mm CPE and these were significantly better than 50 and 70 mm CPE irrigation schedules. Among nitrogen levels, the significant increase in grain yield as well as quality parameters, viz. protein content, brown, milled and head rice recovery was recorded only up to a nitrogen dose of 60 kg ha–1. In Indian Punjab, good quality direct seeded basmati rice can be produced by following the irrigation schedule of 30 mm CPE and with the application of 60 kg N ha–1 applied in 3 splits (3, 6 and 9 weeks after sowing)

Corn starch nanoparticles: Preparation, characterization, and utilization as a fat replacer in salad dressing

Corn starch nanoparticles (SNPs) were prepared by ultrasonication of starch for 40 min at an amplitude of 40%, which modified some properties of starch so that it could be used as a functional ingredient in food products. The cereal SNPs were characterized on the basis of their morphology, particle size, crystallinity, pasting and functional properties. The SNPs were globular in shape as revealed by TEM. There was a decrease in the crystallanity of SNPs, whereas the functional properties were enhanced in SNPs as compared to raw starch. SNPs had a less paste viscosity as compared to raw starch. Salad dressing was prepared by using SNPs as a fat replacer. The prepared salad dressing was examined for colour, viscosity, and sensory attributes. Overall 60% of fat was replaced using corn SNPs without compromising its quality characteristics

Influence of governance bundles and directors' social capital on cash holding in foreign cross-listed firms

This paper provides new evidence on how both governance bundles and directors’ social capital together can help to determine cash holdings for foreign cross-listed firms. Using a large cross-country sample of 1,677 publicly listed firms from 32 countries during the period of 2004 – 2015, we find a positive relationship between governance bundles and cash holdings for foreign cross-listed firms with higher directors’ social capital. We address potential issue of endogeneity. So, our findings are robust to alternative model specifications and instrumentations and alternative measure of social capital. The findings of our study contribute to the inconclusive decision in the academic literature related to cash holdings, governance bundles, and directors’ social capital, especially related to the foreign cross listed firms. In addition, the findings can assist the stakeholders of foreign cross-listed firms to understand the intention of the firms’ cash holdings and allow policy makers to identify the need of modification for governance structure by controlling the opportunistic behaviour of the firm manager

Nonstandard electroconvection in a bent-core oxadiazole material

Electroconvection (EC) phenomena have been investigated in the nematic phase of a bent-core oxadiazole material with negative dielectric anisotropy and a frequency dependent conductivity anisotropy. The formation of longitudinal roll (LR) patterns is one of the predominant features observed in the complete frequency and voltage range studied. At voltages much above the LR threshold, various complex patterns such as the "crisscrossed" pattern, bimodal varicose, and turbulence are observed. Unusually, the nonstandard EC (ns-EC) instability in this material, is observed in a regime in which we measure the dielectric and conductivity anisotropies to be negative and positive respectively. A further significant observation is that the EC displays distinct features in the high and low temperature regimes of the nematic phase, supporting an earlier report that EC patterns could distinguish between regions that have been reported as uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases

Does lobbying of firms complement executive networks in determining executive compensation?

In this paper we predict and find that lobbying activities of firms can complement executive networks in determining executive compensation. Firm of all size, after considering market competition as a governance mechanism prefer to consider lobbying as a mean of networking along with the executive level networking to determine the executive compensation. The empirical implication of the study provides guidance to researchers who must consider lobbying along with executive networks in determining the executive compensation. The composite theoretical underpinning and the importance of information flow through lobbying activities of firms will be an important insight for the policy makers involved in determining executive compensation

Impact of directors’ networks on corporate social responsibility: a cross country study

We investigate the impact of directors’ networks on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by using an unbalanced panel data of 2,023 publicly listed firms from 17 countries during 2003 – 2018. Drawing on network theory, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory, we find that directors’ networks is positively related to their decision of CSR activities. Additionally, we find a positive relation between directors’ networks and CSR during financial crises. Our results still hold after a set of sensitivity tests. The findings in our study expand the academic literature related to directors’ networks and CSR activities, and assist policymakers and investors in understanding the importance of directors’ networks as determining factor of CSR policies

Optimized Speaker Diarization System using Discrete Wavelet Transform and Pyknogram

The aim of this paper is to present an optimized speaker diarization system that efficiently detects speaker change points in multispeaker speech data. Speaker diarization is the process to detect speaker turns and group together segments uttered by the same speaker. It can be used in speaker recognition, audio information retrieval, audio transcription, audio clustering, indexing and captioning of TV shows and movies. In this proposed technique, the daubechies 40-wavelet transform is used to compress the audio stream in the ratio of 1:4; their features are extracted by enhanced spectrogram called pyknogram based on Teaser Kaiser Energy Operator (TKEO). This method relies on resonances (formants) and harmonic structure of speech which are enhanced by decomposing the spectral sub-bands into amplitude and frequency components. The weighted average of the instantaneous frequency components are used to derive a short-time estimate value for the dominant frequency in each subband over a fixed period of time 0.12msec. Sudden changes in the dominant frequency correspond to the speaker change point and are detected by using traditional delta Bayesian Information Criteria (?BIC). This technique do not uses voice activity detection process (VAD). For re-segmentation, Information Change Rate (ICR) is used. Finally, hierarchical clustering algorithm make groups of homogeneous segments and are plotted by Dendrogram function in Matlab. The results are evaluated by F-measure and diarization error rate. It shows that the proposed method gives fast and better results as compared to traditional method with Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) and Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) algorithms

Antibacterial and phytochemical screening of Anethum graveolens, Foeniculum vulgare and Trachyspermum ammi

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Anethum graveolens </it>Linn., <it>Foeniculum vulgare </it>Mill. and <it>Trachyspermum ammi </it>L. are widely used traditional medicinal plants to treat various ailments. To provide a scientific basis to traditional uses of these plants, their aqueous and organic seed extracts, as well as isolated phytoconstituents were evaluated for their antibacterial potential.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Antibacterial activity of aqueous and organic seed extracts was assessed using agar diffusion assay, minimum inhibitory concentration and viable cell count studies; and their antibacterial effect was compared with some standard antibiotics. The presence of major phytoconstituents was detected qualitatively and quantitatively. The isolated phytoconstituents were subjected to disc diffusion assay to ascertain their antibacterial effect.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Hot water and acetone seed extracts showed considerably good antibacterial activity against all the bacteria except <it>Klebsiella pneumoniae </it>and one strain of <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</it>. Minimum inhibitory concentration for aqueous and acetone seed extracts ranged from 20–80 mg/ml and 5–15 mg/ml respectively. Viable cell count studies revealed the bactericidal nature of the seed extracts. Statistical analysis proved the better/equal efficacy of some of these seed extracts as compared to standard antibiotics. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of 2.80 – 4.23% alkaloids, 8.58 – 15.06% flavonoids, 19.71 – 27.77% tannins, 0.55–0.70% saponins and cardiac glycosides.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Antibacterial efficacy shown by these plants provides a scientific basis and thus, validates their traditional uses as homemade remedies. Isolation and purification of different phytochemicals may further yield significant antibacterial agents.</p

Phonon transport at the nanoscale with applications to batteries and advanced thermal insulation

It has been almost three decades since Nanoscale Thermal Science and Engineering became a well-established research field. Various major breakthroughs in fundamental understanding of thermal transport (phonons, photons, and electrons) at the nanoscale have been achieved in these three decades; however, the impact of these fundamental insights has been primarily targeted toward microelectronics and thermoelectrics applications. In this paper we provide examples of other applications such as Lithium ion battery thermal management and building thermal insulation, where nanoscale thermal science has a significant role to play. We have used time domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) to measure thermal conductivity of Lithium ion battery cathode material. To understand the fundamentals of thermal transport in the cathode material we created a model cathode system as compared engineered samples using pulsed laser deposition technique. We also used 3-omega technique for the engineered system. We have also made highly insulating material using functionalized nanoparticles for building applications. Results show that surface functionalization has a huge impact on thermal conductivity of an assembly of nanoparticle