Evaluation of performance and stability of new sources for tolerance to post-emergence herbicides in lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medik.)

Yield losses in lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medik.) caused by weeds are estimated at 20–80%. In the absence of effective broad-spectrum herbicides, the menace of weed has emerged as a serious yield constraint in lentil. Aims. Identification of tolerance to two broad-spectrum post emergence herbicides, imazethapyr and metribuzin. Methods. 221 lentil accessions were screened at the experimentalresearch station of the International Centerfor Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Terbol (Lebanon) over four crop seasons (2014/15–2018/19). During the 2014/15 season, a preliminary screening experiment was conducted with 221 lentil accessions in an alpha lattice design with two replications, where accessions were treated at the pre-flowering stage at 150% of the recommended dose of imazethapyr (112.5 g active ingredient/ha) or metribuzin (315 g active ingredient/ha). Based on the preliminary results, 38 accessions were selected for further evaluation. In subsequent testing, the selected accessions were screened at 100% and 150% of the recommended doses of imazethapyr or metribuzin. Key results. Herbicide treatments delayed the flowering time and maturation of tested lentil accessions. The plant height of selected tolerant accessions was reduced by 15% and 8% in the plots treated by imazethapyr and metribuzin, respectively. Reduction index (RIsy) was an effective tool to select for herbicide tolerance. Stability analysis indicated that two accessions (IG4400 and IG5722) performed under high rainfall environments while two other accessions (IG323 and IG4605) were adapted to low rainfall environments. Conclusions. Four accessions (IG323, IG5722, IG4400, IG4605) were identified as independently tolerant to metribuzin and imazethapyr. Implications. The identified herbicide-tolerant accessions can be used to develop herbicide-tolerant cultivars

High-Temperature and Drought Stress Effects on Growth, Yield and Nutritional Quality with Transpiration Response to Vapor Pressure Deficit in Lentil

High temperature and water deficit are among the major limitations reducing lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) yield in many growing regions. In addition, increasing atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) due to global warming causes a severe challenge by influencing the water balance of the plants, thus also affecting growth and yield. In the present study, we evaluated 20 lentil genotypes under field conditions and controlled environments with the following objectives: (i) to investigate the impact of temperature stress and combined temperature-drought stress on traits related to phenology, grain yield, nutritional quality, and canopy temperature under field conditions, and (ii) to examine the genotypic variability for limited transpiration (TRlim) trait in response to increased VPD under controlled conditions. The field experiment results revealed that high-temperature stress significantly affected all parameters compared to normal conditions. The protein content ranged from 23.4 to 31.9%, while the range of grain zinc and iron content varied from 33.1 to 64.4 and 62.3 to 99.3 mg kg−1 , respectively, under normal conditions. The grain protein content, zinc and iron decreased significantly by 15, 14 and 15% under high-temperature stress, respectively. However, the impact was more severe under combined temperature-drought stress with a reduction of 53% in protein content, 18% in zinc and 20% in iron. Grain yield declined significantly by 43% in temperature stress and by 49% in the combined temperature-drought stress. The results from the controlled conditions showed a wide variation in TR among studied lentil genotypes. Nine genotypes displayed TRlim at 2.76 to 3.51 kPa, with the genotypes ILL 7833 and ILL 7835 exhibiting the lowest breakpoint. Genotypes with low breakpoints had the ability to conserve water, allowing it to be used at later stages for increased yield. Our results identified promising genotypes including ILL 7835, ILL 7814 and ILL 4605 (Bakria) that could be of great interest in breeding for high yields, protein and micronutrient contents under high-temperature and drought stress. In addition, it was found that the TRlim trait has the potential to select for increased lentil yields under field water-deficit environment

Effect of NaCl on physiological, biochemical, and ionic parameters of naked oat (Avena nuda L.) line Bayou1

Oat (Avena nuda L.) is a globally important cereal crop grown for its nutritious grains and is considered as moderately salt-tolerant. Studying salinity tolerant mechanisms of oats could assist breeders in increasing oat production and their economic income in salt-affected areas, as the total amount of saline land in the world is still increasing. The present study was carried out to better understand the salt tolerance mechanism of the naked oat line Bayou1. A soil experiment was conducted on 17 days-old Bayou1 seedlings treated with varying concentrations of NaCl for a period of 12 days. Bayou1 plants grew optimally when treated with 50 mM NaCl, demonstrating their salinity tolerance. Reduced water uptake, decreased Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and guaiacol peroxidase activity, as well as increased Na+ concentration in leaves, all contributed to a reduction in shoot growth. However, the damage to ionic homeostasis caused by increased Na+ concentrations and decreased K+ concentrations in the roots of Bayou1 did not inhibit its root growth, indicating that the main salt-tolerant mechanism in Bayou1 existed in its roots. Further, a hydroponic experiment found that increasing Na+ concentration in root cell sap enhanced root growth, while maintaining the integrity of root cell membranes. The accumulated Na+ may have facilitated the root growth of Bayou1 exposed to NaCl by effectively adjusting cellular osmotic potential, thereby ensuring root cell turgor and expansion

Phytohormones as Growth Regulators During Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Phytohormones (PHs) play crucial role in regulation of various physiological and biochemical processes that govern plant growth and yield under optimal and stress conditions. The interaction of these PHs is crucial for plant survival under stressful environments as they trigger signaling pathways. Hormonal cross regulation initiate a cascade of reactions which finely tune the physiological processes in plant architecture that help plant to grow under suboptimal growth conditions. Recently, various studies have highlighted the role of PHs such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, ethylene, and jasmonates in the plant responses toward environmental stresses. The involvement of cytokinins, gibberellins, auxin, and relatively novel PHs such as strigolactones and brassinosteroids in plant growth and development has been documented under normal and stress conditions. The recent identification of the first plant melatonin receptor opened the door to this regulatory molecule being considered a new plant hormone. However, polyamines, which are not considered PHs, have been included in this chapter. Various microbes produce and secrete hormones which helped the plants in nutrient uptake such as N, P, and Fe. Exogenous use of such microbes help plants in correcting nutrient deficiency under abiotic stresses. This chapter focused on the recent developments in the knowledge related to PHs and their involvement in abiotic stresses of anticipation, signaling, cross-talk, and activation of response mechanisms. In view of role of hormones and capability of microbes in producing hormones, we propose the use of hormones and microbes as potential strategy for crop stress management.Fil: EL Sabagh, Ayman. Scientific And Technological Research Council Of Turkey; TurquíaFil: Islam, Mohammad Sohidul. Kafrelsheikh University; EgiptoFil: Hossain, Akbar. Hajee Mohammad Danesh And Technology University; BangladeshFil: Iqbal, Muhammad Aamir. University Of Poonch; PakistánFil: Mubeen, Mohammad. Comsats University Islamabad; PakistánFil: Waleed, Mirza. Comsats University Islamabad; PakistánFil: Reginato, Mariana Andrea. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicoquímicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Agrobiotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Agrobiotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Battaglia, Martin. Cornell University; Estados UnidosFil: Ahmed, Sharif. International Rice Research Institute; FilipinasFil: Rehman, Abdul. The Islamia University Of Bahawalpur; PakistánFil: Arif, Muhammad. The University Of Agriculture; PakistánFil: Athar, Habib-Ur-Rehman. Bahauddin Zakariya University; PakistánFil: Ratnasekera, Disna. University Of Ruhuna; Sri LankaFil: Danish, Subhan. Bahauddin Zakariya University; PakistánFil: Raza, Ali. Sichuan Agricultural University; ChinaFil: Rajendran, Karthika. Vellore Institute Of Technology; IndiaFil: Mushtaq, Muntazir. Icar-national Bureau Of Plant Genetic Resources; IndiaFil: Skalicky, Milan. Czech University Of Life Sciences Prague; República ChecaFil: Brestic, Marian. Czech University Of Life Sciences Prague; República ChecaFil: Soufan, Walid. King Saud University; Arabia SauditaFil: Fahad, Shah. University Of Haripur; PakistánFil: Pandey, Saurabh. Guru Nanak Dev University; IndiaFil: Abdelhamid, Magdi T.. National Research Centre Dokki; Egipt

Movement analysis and posture recognition using kinect v2 recordings

The prime objective of this dissertation work is to identify the postures of the psychiatrist participants based on the movement features while interacting with the schizophrenic patient. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder where individuals expound reality abnormally and influence their everyday routine. Consulting a psychiatrist is the primary treatment for diagnosing schizophrenia. Behind several stages, the psychiatrist manually diagnoses the patients, which sometimes gives an insufficient result. To resolve this issue, the psychiatrist must be properly trained. As these patients are delicate, the psychiatrist who interacts with the schizophrenic patients should be cautious with their conduct, body motions, speech mode, and method of discourse. Thus, the interaction of the psychiatrist participant is recorded using Kinect V2, and the gestures of the psychiatrist participants are recognized and analyzed using data mining classification methods. The gestures of the psychiatrist participants are initially tested by interacting with the avatar, which is modeled like a schizophrenic patient. The interaction between the participants and the avatar is recorded in video format. To analyze human gestures, the gestures of the participants are recorded with the help of Kinect V2, and the features are extracted and converted into a JSON file using body frame extraction. The coordinate points are extracted from the JSON file using python code and converted to CSV files. Then the movement features are obtained by calculating joint angles, joint displacement, and necessary movement actions using MATLAB. The movement features are then labeled and implemented using data mining classification methods. By applying different classifiers, accuracy is obtained. Based on efficiency and performance, the classifier with the highest accuracy is chosen as the best classifier.Master of Science (Computer Control and Automation

Media access control protocols for cognitive radio networks

87 p.Most of the spectrum deficiency occurring today is because of fixed spectrum assignment policy in which the spectrum is allocated to certain users who use the spectrum sporadically. These licensed users are called primary users. This inefficient utilization of the available spectrum is the main cause of spectrum deficiency. This problem can be solved by the use of cognitive radio technology. A cognitive radio technology is one in which the available spectrum resources which are not used by the primary users are identified and informed to the nodes in the cognitive radio network. These members which use the spectrum in the absence of the primary users are called the secondary users. By using this technology the spectrum deficiency problem existing today can be solved. But the cognitive radio technology has its own disadvantages like highly fluctuating available spectrum and diverse Quality-Of-Service requirements.​Master of Science (Communications Engineering

Components of salinity tolerance in wheat.

Soil salinity causes osmotic and ion specific stresses and significantly affects growth, yield and productivity of wheat. The visual symptoms of salinity stressed wheat include stunted shoot growth, dark green leaves with thicker laminar surfaces, wilting and premature leaf senescence. There are three major components of salinity tolerance that contribute to plant adaptation to saline soils: osmotic tolerance, Na⁺ exclusion and tissue tolerance. However, to date, research into improving the salinity tolerance of wheat cultivars has focused primarily on Na⁺ exclusion and little work has been carried out on osmotic or tissue tolerance. This was partly due to the subjective nature of scoring for plant health using the human eye. In this project, commercially available imaging equipment has been used to monitor and record the growth and health of salt stressed plants in a quantitative, non-biased and non-destructive way in order to dissect out the components of salinity tolerance. Using imaging technology, a high throughput salt screening protocol was developed to screen osmotic tolerance, Na⁺ exclusion and tissue tolerance of 12 different accessions of einkorn wheat (T. monococcum), including parents of the existing mapping populations. Three indices were used to measure the tolerance level of each of the three major components of salinity tolerance. It was identified that different lines used different combinations of the three major salinity tolerance components as a means of increasing their overall salinity tolerance. A positive correlation was observed between a plant’s overall salinity tolerance and its proficiency in Na⁺ exclusion, osmotic tolerance and tissue tolerance. It was also revealed that MDR 043 as the best osmotic and tissue tolerant parent and MDR 002 as a salt sensitive parent for further mapping work. Accordingly, the F₂ population of MDR 002 × MDR 043 was screened to understand the genetic basis of osmotic tolerance and tissue tolerance in T. monococcum. Wide variation in osmotic tolerance and tissue tolerance was observed amongst the progenies. The broad sense heritability for osmotic tolerance was identified as 0.82. Similar, salinity tolerance screening assays were used to quantify and identify QTL for major components of salinity tolerance in Berkut × Krichauff DH mapping population of bread wheat (T. aestivum). Phenotyping and QTL mapping for Na⁺ exclusion and osmotic tolerance has been successfully done in this mapping population. There existed a potential genetic variability for osmotic tolerance and Na⁺ exclusion in this mapping population. The broad sense heritability of osmotic tolerance was 0.70; whereas, it was 0.67 for Na⁺ exclusion. The composite interval mapping (CIM) identified a total of four QTL for osmotic tolerance on 1D, 2D and 5B chromosomes. For Na⁺ exclusion, CIM identified a total of eight QTL with additive effects for Na+ exclusion on chromosomes 1B, 2A, 2D, 5A, 5B, 6B and 7A. However, there were QTL inconsistencies observed for both osmotic tolerance and Na⁺ exclusion across the three different experimental time of the year. It necessitates re-estimating the QTL effect and validating the QTL positions either in the same or different mapping population.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture Food and Wine, 201

Electrochemical analysis on poly(ethyl methacrylate)-based electrolyte membranes

Polymer blend composed of poly(vinyl chloride) and poly(ethyl methacrylate) with lithium perchlorate (LiClO4) and the plasticizer ethylene carbonate (EC) mixture with propylene carbonate, γ-butyrolactone (GBL), dibutyl phthalate and diethyl carbonate have been synthesized using the solution casting technique. Structural changes and thermal stability of the films were resolved using X-ray diffraction analysis and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis, respectively. The membrane that contains EC+ GBL exhibits maximum ionic conductivity of the order of 1.208 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 303 K. The temperature-dependent ionic conductivity of the polymer membranes has been estimated using AC impedance analysis.Published versio

Cytomorphological Variations in Pap Smears amongst Postmenopausal Women Reporting at a Tertiary Care Centre, Tamil Nadu, India

Introduction: In developing countries, cervical cancer is the leading cause of death amongst women. Since women spend one third of their lives in the postmenopausal period, which is most neglected phase, needs a technically simple, non invasive and, cost-effective screening tool for cervical cancer detection and the exact answer is the Pap smear screening test. This simple screening test when performed at regular intervals in post menopausal population, can detect precursor lesions there by reducing cervical cancer morbidity and mortality. Aim: This study was undertaken to evaluate the cytomorphological variations in Pap smears amongst postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, a total of 138 satisfactory smears were considered for study amongst 146 postmenopausal women from August 2020 to July 2022 at Bhaarath Medical College and Hospital and then evaluated and categorised based on Bethesda system for reporting cervical cytology 2014.{Reporting elements include specimen type, specimen adequacy, general categorisation, interpretation/result includes general categories of negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy (NILM), epithelial cell abnormalities and other malignancies. Results: Out of 138 satisfactory cases, 78.26% (108 cases) 14.5% (20 cases) and 7.24% (10 cases) were diagnosed as of inflammatory/benign conditions, epithelial abnormalities and normal cytology respectively. The mean age for inflammatory/benign lesions was 57.5 years and majority presenting with postmenopausal bleeding and white discharge. Amongst epithelial abnormalities Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS) and Low-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions (LSIL) were commonest. The incidence of ASCUS 7.27% (10 cases), and incidence of LSIL 2.89% (4 cases). The mean age was 57.5 years and majority of patients presented with postmenopausal bleeding and mass per vaginum. Incidence of High grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (HSIL) was 2.17% (3cases), the mean age was 65.5 years and presented with white discharge and postmenopausal bleeding. Incidence of SCC was 2.17% (3 cases) and the mean age was 70.5 years, presented with, postmenopausal bleeding and white discharge. Conclusion: Pap smear is a simple, cheap, safe and gold standard diagnostic tool for screening postmenopausal women for all cervical abnormalities in particular pre-invasive and invasive lesions