2 research outputs found
Bridging yield gap of winter maize using improved agronomic management practices
Appropriate combinations of inputs determine the productivity of crops. A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of different combinations of inputs on the yield of winter maize at National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, Chitwan. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with four replications comprising of six treatments (T1= Hybrid (H) + recommended doses of NPK (RD) + irrigation (I) + high density (HD) (83333 plant ha-1) + improved weed management practice (IWMP), T2=Open pollinated variety (OPV)+RD+I+HD+IWMP, T3=OPV+ farmer’s doses of NPK (FD)+I+HD+IWMP, T4= OPV+FD+rainfed (R)+HD+IWMP, T5=OPV+ FD+ R+low density (LD) (55555 plant ha-1) + IWMP, T6=OPV+FD+R+LD+ farmer’s weed management practice (FWMP). The research result revealed significant variation on the grain yield among the different treatments. The highest grain yield (5357 kg ha-1) was obtained when hybrid maize was grown with recommended dose of fertilizer, higher density, irrigation and improved weed management practices. This treatment was followed by replacement of OPV in the above treatment (4410.77 kg ha-1). The decline in yield due to replacement of OPV from hybrid was 17.67 percent. The percent yield decline from full Package of practices (T1) were 23.01, 47.81, 36.66 and 35.95 when input combinations OPV+FD+I+ HD+IWMP, OPV + FD+R+HD+IWMP, OPV+FD+R+LD+IWMP and OPV+FD+R+LD+ FWMP respectively were used..The contrast for grain yield between hybrid vs. OPV, RD vs. FD and Irrigated vs. Rainfed were significant. Therefore, present investigation showed hybrid maize, recommended dose of fertilizer and irrigation were the most important inputs for improving maize productivity in winter season in Chitwan like climatic condition
An efficient and low-cost method to create high-density nitrogen-vacancy centers in CVD diamond for sensing applications
The negatively charged Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV-) center in diamond is one of the
most versatile and robust quantum sensors suitable for quantum technologies,
including magnetic field and temperature sensors. For precision sensing
applications, densely packed NV- centers within a small volume are preferable
due to benefiting from 1/N^1/2 sensitivity enhancement (N is the number of
sensing NV centers) and efficient excitation of NV centers. However, methods
for quickly and efficiently forming high concentrations of NV- centers are in
development stage. We report an efficient, low-cost method for creating
high-density NV- centers production from a relatively low nitrogen
concentration based on high-energy photons from Ar+ plasma. This study was done
on type-IIa, single crystal, CVD-grown diamond substrates with an as-grown
nitrogen concentration of 1 ppm. We estimate an NV- density of ~ 0.57 ppm (57%)
distributed homogeneously over 200 um deep from the diamond surface facing the
plasma source based on optically detected magnetic resonance and fluorescence
confocal microscopy measurements. The created NV-s have a spin-lattice
relaxation time (T1) of 5 ms and a spin-spin coherence time (T2) of 4 us. We
measure a DC magnetic field sensitivity of ~ 104 nT Hz^-1/2, an AC magnetic
field sensitivity of ~ 0.12 pT Hz^-1/2, and demonstrate real-time magnetic
field sensing at a rate over 10 mT s-1 using an active sample volume of 0.2
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