Herbicidal effect on the bio-indicators of soil health- A review

Soil microbial population, earth worms in soil, soil enzyme activity and organ carbon content in soil are considered as the bio indicators of soil health. They are used as indicators of soil health because of their active role in soil organic matter production, decomposition of xenobiotics and cycling of nutrients, ease of measurement and rapid response to changes in management practices. The assessment of soil health can be used to develop more sustainable crop production system. A number of herbicides have been introduced as pre and post emergence weed killer. The impact of herbicides on soil health depends on the soil type, type and concentration of herbicide used, sensitivity to non-target organisms and environmental conditions. The review elaborates the impact of herbicidal application on the biological indicators of soil health

ResearchGate Profiles of Naval Architecture Scientists in India: An Altmetric Analysis

This study aims to conduct an altmetrics analysis of researchers on Indian Naval Architecture. The study covered sixty-fourfacultymembersonNaval Architecture discipline from six higher education institutions in India. The profile page of ResearchGate (RG) was visited to collect altmetrics indicators. The study also tried to perform scientometric analysis of publication outputs, citations and H-index of the researchers using the Scopus database. The study further investigated the correlation of altmetrics and scientometric indicators with Pearson correlation test. The study found that the 65 percent of the researchers has an account in RG with their publications being uploaded in RG. Most of them received citations in a range of 1-50 and H-index of 1-5. Their publications have received reads in a range of 1000 to 5000 and obtained RG score of10-15. Naval architecture scientists have relatively low followers, and they are following a limited number of their peers. There is a significant correlation between the range of citations and H-index received by the naval architecture scientists in Scopus and RG. The study also shows the correlation among the range of publications indexed in Scopus and added in RG

A review on integrated approach for the management of weeds in Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is the most important leguminous crop raised as pulse as well as a vegetable crop in India. The slow initial growth and wider spacing necessitate weed control in the early stages of crop growth. The critical period of crop weed competition in cowpea was 20 to 30 DAS. Season-long crop weed competition resulted in a yield reduction of 40 to 90 per cent in cowpea depending on the intensity of weed infestation, weed flora, season, location, and the climatic condition prevailed. Mulching, manual weeding and stale seedbed are the different cultural methods which can be adopted for weed control in cowpea. Chemical method of weed control is the cheapest and economically viable option for weed control in cowpea. Both Pre-emergence herbicides viz., pendimethalin, diclosulam and imazethapyr and post-emergence herbicides viz., imazethapyr, quizalofop-p-ethyl can be used for weed control in cowpea. Studies revealed that pre-emergence application of herbicide (imazethapyr/pendimethalin or diclosulam) followed by manual weeding or post-emergence application of herbicides (quizalofop-p-ethyl or imazethapyr) or mulching followed by post-emergence application of herbicides (quizalofop-p-ethyl or imazethapyr) were found to be more effective for the broad-spectrum weed control in cowpea. The integrated approach of weed control has resulted in a higher yield, net returns and B: C ratio in cowpea

Zinc and boron nutrition in pulses: A review

Zn plays major role in many physiological processes viz., chlorophyll formation, pollen formation, fertilization, protein synthesis, cell elongation, nodule formation etc. Hence, Zn nutrition favourably influences the growth, yield, physiological parameters and nodule formation in pulses. Similar to that of Zn, B also plays a major role in the functioning of reproductive tissues, structural integrity of plasma membrane, sugar transport, nodule development etc. Boron nutrition reduces the flower drop, increases the pod setting in pulses and also increased nodulation in pulses. The review elaborates the effect of Zn and B nutrition on the physiological, growth and yield parameters and yield of pulses and their effect on nodule formation and uptake of nutrients in pulses

Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Evaluation of Novel 1-(3- chloro-2-Oxo-4-Phenylazetidin-1-Yl)-3-(2-Oxo-2-(10h-Phenothiazin-10- Yl)Ethyl)Urea and Thiourea Derivatives.

The present works discus to Phenothiazine and its derivatives reported to possess antipsychotic, antiemetic, antihistamine, antiinflammatory, anthelmintic, antitubercular, antimicrobial, antitumour, antiparkinsonism and anticancer agents. A slight variation in the substitution pattern on the phenothiazine nucleus often resulted in a marked difference in activities and therefore phenothiazines with various substituents are being synthesized and tested for various activities in search of better medicinal agents. Azetidin-2-ones also reported to possess wide therapeutic activity viz. sedative, hypnotics, anticonvulsant, antimicrobial, antitubercular, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic activity, anticancer and antiparkinsonism activities. An attempt was made to synthesize some new congeners by linking azetidinones with phenothiazine pharmacophore to evaluate their possible synergic activity as there were no reports on phenothiazine derivatives containing azetidinone moiety. β-lactam ring connected to ureido linkage possess significant antitubercular activity and tricyclic compounds containing NH and thio group with rigid side chain reported to possess significant antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer activity. With this background, a series novel phenothiazine derivatives flanked with azetidinones were synthesized and evaluated for in vitro antimicrobial, antitubercular, antioxidant and anticancer activity. The objectives of the present work are to: synthesize various substituted phenothiazine derivatives, characterize the synthesized compounds using FT-IR, 1H-NMR and mass spectroscopy, carry out in vitro antimicrobial, antitubercular, antioxidant and anticancer evaluation of the synthesized derivatives and explain the possible SAR of the synthesized derivative

Adaptive Channel Equalization using Radial Basis Function Networks and MLP

One of the major practical problems in digital communication systems is channel distortion which causes errors due to intersymbol interference. Since the source signal is in general broadband, the various frequency components experience different steady state amplitude and phase changes as they pass through the channel, causing distortion in the received message. This distortion translates into errors in the received sequence. Our problem as communication engineers is to restore the transmitted sequence or, equivalently, to identify the inverse of the channel, given the observed sequence at the channel output. This task is accomplished by adaptive equalizers. Typically, adaptive equalizers used in digital communications require an initial training period, during which a known data sequence is transmitted. A replica of this sequence is made available at the receiver in proper synchronism with the transmitter, thereby making it possible for adjustments to be made to the equalizer coefficients in accordance with the adaptive filtering algorithm employed in the equalizer design. When the training is completed, the equalizer is switched to its decision directed mode. Decision feedback equalizers are used extensively in practical communication systems. They are more powerful than linear equalizers especially for severe inter-symbol interference (ISI) channels without as much noise enhancement as the linear equalizers. This thesis addresses the problem of adaptive channel equalization in environments where the interfering noise exhibits Gaussian behavior. In this thesis, radial basis function (RBF) network is used to implement DFE. Advantages and problems of this system are discussed and its results are then compared with DFE using multi layer perceptron net (MLP).Results indicate that the implemented system outperforms both the least-mean square(LMS) algorithm and MLP, given the same signal-to-noise ratio as it offers minimum mean square error. The learning rate of the implemented system is also faster than both LMS and the multilayered case

Compatibility of biocontrol agents and N fixing organisms with post emergence pre-mix herbicide-bispyribac sodium + metamifop 14 % SE

he experiments were conducted in vitro in the Agricultural Microbiology laboratory at College of Agricul-ture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India to evaluate the compatibility of biocontrol agents Pseudomonas fluorescens and Tricoderma viride and N fixing organisms Azospirillum lipoferum and Azotobacter chroococcum to bispyribac sodium + metamifop 14 % SE, a new broad spectrum post emergence pre-mix herbicide mixture used for weed control in rice. The experiments were conducted in completely randomized block design with seven different concentrations of herbicide viz., 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 and 220 ?L L-1 corresponding to field doses of 50, 60, 70, 80 90, 100 and 110 g ha-1 and a control (0 ?L L-1). All the tested concentrations of the herbicide mixture were highly compatible with P. fluorescens, A. lipoferum and A. chroococcum. The radial colony diameter of T. viride was significantly influenced by different concentrations of the herbicide. The field dose of bisspyribac sodium + met-amifop up to 90 g ha-1 (180 ?L L-1) is harmless to T. viride, since it recorded a growth inhibition of only 22.96 per cent but higher doses (100 and 110 g ha-1) which recorded a growth inhibition of 31.48 and 37.04 per cent respectively were slightly harmful to the antagonistic fungus. The compatibility results revealed the possibility of using bispyribac sodium + metamifop for weed control at recommended doses (70, 80 or 90 g ha-1) under bio intensive disease management programme involving P. fluorescens / T. viride and nutrient management programme involving A. liopferum / A chroococcum

Composite right/left handed antennas for wireless lan applications

The term ‘metamaterial’ has become a buzzword in electromagnetics over the past decade. In recent years, advancement in this new scientific area has given birth to numerous discoveries and inventions based on the exotic properties exhibited by these materials. Some of the exotic properties like negative permittivity, negative permeability, and infinite propagation at a particular non-zero resonant frequency are shown by these artificial materials especially called as Composite Right Left Handed structures. Metamaterials gain these properties from their structural configuration rather than from their material constitution. The electromagnetic characteristics of metamaterials can be exploited to meet the ever increasing demand for lighter, compact, size reduced, multiband antennas. One of the most exciting applications of these CRLH transmission lines (TL) is the Zeroth Order Resonant Antennas. CRLH TL metamaterials when open or short ended produce standing waves and thus behave as resonant antennas. Miniaturization of antennas is possible through these structures as the resonant frequency is independent of the parameters of the antenna aperture. Due to their infinite wavelength propagation property; reduced size, quarter wavelength antennas can be designed

Novel bHLH and WD40 transcription factors from turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) as putative regulators of curcumin biosynthesis

Turmeric, the golden spice belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, is enriched with biologically active curcuminoids composed of curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcuminoids are phenylpropanoid derivatives, and the biosynthetic pathway is controlled by several transcription factors (TFs). bHLH, WD40 and MYB TFs are the most important TFs regulating phenylpropanoid biosynthesis in plants. Through comparative transcriptome analysis of high and low curcumin germplasm accessions, 20 TFs belonging to the classes bHLH, WD 40, NAC, WRKY and bZIP, which showed differential expression with respect to curcumin, were identified. Among these, two bHLH and one WD40 TFs showed maximum comparative fold change and negative correlation vis-a-vis curcumin content in quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis. The results of comparative transcriptome and qRT-PCR analyses were in congruence, indicating their putative role as negative regulators

Rodenticide poisoning in children: A study of clinical profile and electrocardiographic changes

Objectives: To study the clinical profile and electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in rodenticide poisoning in children. Methods: Patients admitted with a history of ingestion of rat poison between October 2014 and October 2016 were included in the study. Clinical history was taken in detail, and stomach wash samples were sent for toxicological analysis. Continuous ECG monitoring was done in all cases. Investigations to assess organ functions and coagulation profile were done at admission and repeated as indicated. Results: There were 17 cases of rodenticide poisoning. Zinc phosphide was the rodenticide identified in 50% of cases, bromodiolone in 30%, and yellow phosphorous in 20% cases. Only 23% presented within 1 h of ingestion and only 12% received stomach wash from referring hospital. Out of the 17 cases, 12 cases (70%) were symptomatic, of which 42% hadminor symptoms such as vomiting and abdominal pain and 58% had major symptoms including dysrhythmias, shock, coagulation abnormality, hepatic failure, and seizures. ECG changes were observed in 7 cases (42%), and coagulopathy was seen in 2 (12%) cases of which one had hepatic failure. The mean time of onset of ECG changes was 19.7 h (range 9-36 h). The overall mortality rate was 17.6%. Cardiac arrhythmia was the most common cause of death (66%). Conclusion: Zinc phosphide has been detected as the most common chemical being used as domestic rodenticide. Transient rate abnormalities, metabolic acidosis, fever, and leukocytosis are early markers of toxicity and they should be looked for in all cases. General public, medical, and aramedicalpersonnel should be made aware of the toxic nature of rodenticides