Cost effective pilot scale production of biofertilizer using Rhizobium and Azotobacter

We standardized the protocol for pilot scale production of Rhizobium and Azotobacter biofertilizer technology using region specific and environmental stress compatible strains isolated from various agro climatic regions of Odisha, India. The cost benefit of biofertilizer production through a cottage industry is also presented. With an investment of $5000 as fixed cost, recurring expenses approximately$460 per year, indirect cost towards salary and wages $4800, 24000 packets of biofertilizer can be produced. By selling the biofertilizer$0.5 per pack, the net benefit is $6000 per year. If the production capacity is quadrupled, the profit would be about$30000 per year. This cost benefit calculation showed the possibility of entrepreneurship on microbial biofertilizers through cottage industry in rural areas in India as well as other developing countries.Keywords: Rhizobium, Azotobacter, biofertilizer, agro-climatic region

Performance of cashew types under Bhubaneswar condition

An experiment was conducted at the Cashew Research Station of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India during 1994 to 2011 to identify the cashew types for commercial cultivation under Odisha condition. Evaluation of the 13 cashew types over fourteen years revealed significant variations for nut yield among the types. The result indicated a wide range of variation for different parameters under study. The maximum average number of nuts panicle-1 was recorded in H 303 (4.19). Highest weight (g) of nut as well as apple was observed in H 367 (9.7 and 92.7). All the cashew types under study exhibited shelling percentage more than 28 but maximum kernel recovery was observed in H 255 (31.7). BPP 30/1 and M44/3 were the early flowering types that recorded panicle initiation during 4th week of November, whereas NRCC Sel.-1 and H 255 were late flowering types that flowered during first week of January. The flowering period ended first in M 15/4 (1st week February) while it was during 3rd week of March in H 255 and BPP 3/28. Maximum flowering duration was observed in BPP 30/1 (96 days) and minimum in NRCC Sel.-2 (59 days). The cumulative nut yield (kg plant-1) at 14th harvest was observed in H 303 (106.8) followed by NRCC Sel.-2 (100.0), H 68 (93.1) and lowest in M 15/4 (37.5)

A Barren Landscape?

We consider the generation of a non-perturbative superpotential in F-theory compactifications with flux. We derive a necessary condition for the generation of such a superpotential in F-theory. For models with a single volume modulus, we show that the volume modulus is never stabilized by either abelian instantons or gaugino condensation. We then comment on how our analysis extends to a larger class of compactifications. From our results, it appears that among large volume string compactifications, metastable de Sitter vacua (should any exist) are non-generic.Comment: 14 pages, comments adde

Snowcover Simulation Model : A Review

Numerical simulation of seasonal snowcover has attracted the interest of many scientists in the recent past. The present paper summarises chronologically developments in the understanding of snow properties and discusses various modelling approaches towards simulating the snowpack numerically. The authors describe the evolution of snowcover and the intricate relationship between the evolving snowpack and the atmosphere. The governing equations that describe the evolution of snowcover have been discussed. The merits and limitations of each equation pescribing a single process have been explained. Modelling strategies adopted by various workers have been analysed, and lastly the requirements of a perfect model have been brought out. In the absence of complete answers to many other processes, a strategy for the development of an operational snowcover model has been discussed

DLCQ of Fivebranes, Large N Screening, and L^2 Harmonic Forms on Calabi Manifolds

We find one explicit L^2 harmonic form for every Calabi manifold. Calabi manifolds are known to arise in low energy dynamics of solitons in Yang-Mills theories, and the L^2 harmonic form corresponds to the supersymmetric ground state. As the normalizable ground state of a single U(N) instanton, it is related to the bound state of a single D0 to multiple coincident D4's in the non-commutative setting, or equivalently a unit Kaluza-Klein mode in DLCQ of fivebrane worldvolume theory. As the ground state of nonabelian massless monopoles realized around a monopole-``anti''-monopole pair, it shows how the long range force between the pair is screened in a manner reminiscent of large N behavior of quark-anti-quark potential found in AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: LaTeX, 23 page

Maladaptive striatal plasticity and abnormal reward-learning in cervical dystonia

In monogenetic generalized forms of dystonia, in vitro neurophysiological recordings have demonstrated direct evidence for abnormal plasticity at the level of the cortico‐striatal synapse. It is unclear whether similar abnormalities contribute to the pathophysiology of cervical dystonia, the most common type of focal dystonia. We investigated whether abnormal cortico‐striatal synaptic plasticity contributes to abnormal reward‐learning behavior in patients with focal dystonia. Forty patients and 40 controls performed a reward gain and loss avoidance reversal learning task. Participant's behavior was fitted to a computational model of the basal ganglia incorporating detailed cortico‐striatal synaptic learning rules. Model comparisons were performed to assess the ability of four hypothesized receptor specific abnormalities of cortico‐striatal long‐term potentiation (LTP) and long‐term depression (LTD): increased or decreased D1:LTP/LTD and increased or decreased D2: LTP/LTD to explain abnormal behavior in patients. Patients were selectively impaired in the post‐reversal phase of the reward task. Individual learning rates in the reward reversal task correlated with the severity of the patient's motor symptoms. A model of the striatum with decreased D2:LTP/ LTD best explained the patient's behavior, suggesting excessive D2 cortico‐striatal synaptic depotentiation could underpin biased reward‐learning in patients with cervical dystonia. Reversal learning impairment in cervical dystonia may be a behavioral correlate of D2‐specific abnormalities in cortico‐striatal synaptic plasticity. Reinforcement learning tasks with computational modeling could allow the identification of molecular targets for novel treatments based on their ability to restore normal reward‐learning behavior in these patients

Is there an association between vitamin D and risk of stroke?: a North Indian study

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is present in India in epidemic proportions despite plenty of sunshine. Reduced plasma 25(OH) D concentrations as a diagnostic marker of vitamin D deficiency have been in past decade associated with several well-established risk factors for ischaemic stroke, such as arterial hypertension, thrombosis, atherosclerosis. The aims and objectives of this study was to compare the serum 25(OH) D levels between the first ever acute stroke patients and healthy controls.Methods: A cross-sectional, case control study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi situated in north India. Serum 25‑hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) levels in 85 patients of ischemic stroke, presenting within 7 days of onset of stroke was measured and was compared with 70 age and gender matched controls.Results: The mean age was 61.02±11.58 years and 58.63±11.28 years in cases and controls respectively. Females constituted 37.6% of the total number of cases and 43.4% of the controls. The age and gender-distribution were comparable between the cases and controls. The median value (IQR) of serum 25(OH) vitamin D level was 7.94 ng/mL (4.59-14.00) in the cases and it was 8.82 ng/mL (5.59-14.70) in the controls. The difference between the serum 25(OH) vitamin D levels of the two groups was not found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of biochemical hypo-vitaminosis D in apparently healthy Indians of all age and sex groups despite adequate sunshine. There is no association between low vitamin D levels and stroke

An HST Search for Lyman Continuum Emission From Galaxies at z=1.1--1.4

If enough of their Lyman limit continuum escapes, star-forming galaxies could be significant contributors to the cosmic background of ionizing photons. To investigate this possibility, we obtained the first deep imaging in the far ultraviolet of eleven bright blue galaxies at intermediate redshift (z=1.1--1.4). NO Lyman continuum emission was detected. Sensitive, model-independent, upper limits of typically 2 x 10**-19 erg/sec/cm2/Ang were obtained for the ionizing flux escaping from these normal galaxies. This corresponds to lower limits on the observed ratio of 1500 to 700Ang flux of 150 up to 1000. Based on a wide range of stellar synthesis models, this suggests that less than 6%, down to less than 1%, of the available ionizing flux emitted by hot stars is escaping these galaxies. The magnitude of this spectral break at the Lyman l imit confirms that the basic premise of `Lyman break' searches for galaxies at high redshift can also be applied at intermediate redshifts. This implies that the integrated contribution of galaxies to the UV cosmic background at z around 1.2 is less than 15%, and may be less than 2%.Comment: 20 manuscript pages, which includes two tables and two figures. To be published in 1 December 2003 issue of The Astrophysical Journa

Primordial magnetic fields and the HI signal from the epoch of reionization

The implication of primordial magnetic-field-induced structure formation for the HI signal from the epoch of reionization is studied. Using semi-analytic models, we compute both the density and ionization inhomogeneities in this scenario. We show that: (a) The global HI signal can only be seen in emission, unlike in the standard $\Lambda$CDM models, (b) the density perturbations induced by primordial fields, leave distinctive signatures of the magnetic field Jeans' length on the HI two-point correlation function, (c) the length scale of ionization inhomogeneities is \la 1 \rm Mpc. We find that the peak expected signal (two-point correlation function) is $\simeq 10^{-4} \rm K^2$ in the range of scales $0.5\hbox{-}3 \rm Mpc$ for magnetic field strength in the range $5 \times 10^{-10} \hbox{-}3 \times 10^{-9} \rm G$. We also discuss the detectability of the HI signal. The angular resolution of the on-going and planned radio interferometers allows one to probe only the largest magnetic field strengths that we consider. They have the sensitivity to detect the magnetic field-induced features. We show that thefuture SKA has both the angular resolution and the sensitivity to detect the magnetic field-induced signal in the entire range of magnetic field values we consider, in an integration time of one week.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, to appear in JCA

Small Quadrupole Deformation for the Dipole Bands in 112In

High spin states in $^{112}$In were investigated using $^{100}$Mo($^{16}$O, p3n) reaction at 80 MeV. The excited level have been observed up to 5.6 MeV excitation energy and spin $\sim$ 20$\hbar$ with the level scheme showing three dipole bands. The polarization and lifetime measurements were carried out for the dipole bands. Tilted axis cranking model calculations were performed for different quasi-particle configurations of this doubly odd nucleus. Comparison of the calculations of the model with the B(M1) transition strengths of the positive and negative parity bands firmly established their configurations.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 2 table