A compendium of Technologies, Practices, Services and Policies for Scaling Climate Smart Agriculture in Odisha (India)

Stakeholders engaged in agricultural research for development (AR4D) are increasingly tackling risks associated with climate change in smallholder systems. Accordingly, development and scaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) are one of the priorities for all the organizations, departments and ministries associated with the farm sector. Having a ‘one-stop-shop’ compiled in the format of a compendium for CSA technologies, practices and services would therefore serve a guide for all the stakeholders for scaling CSA in smallholder systems. Bringing out a Compendium on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) for Odisha, India was therefore thought of during the workshop on ‘Scaling Climate-Smart Agriculture in Odisha’ organized at Bhubaneswar on 18-19 July 2018 by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in collaboration with Department of Agriculture (DoA) & Farmers’ Empowerment, Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Rice Research Institute (ICAR-NRRI), Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) & International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) under the aegis of CGIAR Research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The main objectives to bring forth this compendium are: to argue the case for agriculture policies and practices that are climate-smart; to raise awareness of what can be done to make agriculture policies and practices climatesmart; and to provide practical guidance and recommendations that are well referenced and, wherever possible, based on lessons learned from practical action. CSA programmes are unlikely to be effective unless their implementation is supported by sound policies and institutions. It is therefore important to enhance institutional capacities in order to implement and replicate CSA strategies. Institutions are vital to agricultural development as well as the realisation of resilient livelihoods.They are not only a tool for farmers and decision-makers, but are also the main conduit through which CSA practices can be scaled up and sustained. The focus in this compendium is on CSA and it’s relevant aspects, i.e., (i) technologies and practices, (ii) services, (iii) technology targeting, (iv) business models, (v) capacity building, and (vi) policies. The approaches and tools available in the compendium span from face-to-face technicianfarmer dialogues to more structured exchanges of online and offline e-learning. In every scenario it is clear that tailoring to local expectations and needs is key. In particular, the voice of farmers is essential to be captured as they are the key actors to promote sustainable agriculture, and their issues need to be prioritized. CSA practices are expected to sustainably increase productivity and resilience (adaptation), reduce Greenhouse Gases (mitigation), and enhance achievement of national food security along with sustainable development goals. CSA is widely expected to contribute towards achieving these objectives and enhance climate change adaptation. CSA practices have to be included in State’s Climate Policy as a priority intervention as the state steps up efforts to tackle climate change. Furthermore, emphasis shoud be laid on CSA training for a sustainable mode to enhance CSA adoption in the state hence the relevance of developing this document. The adaption of climate related knowledge, technologies and practices to local conditions, promoting joint learning by farmers, researchers, rural advisor and widely disseminating CSA practices, is critical. This compendium brings together a collection of experiences from different stakeholders with background of agricultural extension and rural advisory services in supporting CSA. The contributions are not intended to be state-of-the art academic articles but thought and discussion pieces of work in progress. The compendium itself is a ‘living‘ document which is intended to be revised periodically

A study of prevalence and seasonal trends of different malarial species in district hospital

Background: Malaria imposes great socio-economic burden on humanity. In India, the epidemiology of malaria is complex because of wide distribution of anopheline vectors which transmitting mainly two Plasmodial species named P. falciparum and P. vivax. Though India is one of the known endemic countries, incidence of malaria is commonly influenced by environmental factors like climate, season, temperature and socioeconomic status. Objectives of the study were to know the prevalence of different malarial species and to know the seasonal trend of malaria.Methods: This study done microbiology department of district hospital over period of June 2015 to December 2015. We had collected total 6763 samples. We used Microscopic examination for the diagnosis of malaria by preparing thick and thin smears and stained using field stain.Results: We had collected total 6763 samples out of which 108 samples are found microscopically positive (1.5%). In our hospital we observed only Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum spp. Prevalence of P. vivax (64%) found more compare to P. falciparum (34%) and peak positivity rate found in July to October.Conclusions: In our study the most frequently implicated species was P. vivax. This indicates that P. vivax is the most widespread infection in India which results in a pronounced morbidity and the seasonal prevalence observed high in July to October. In order to implement effective preventive measures, proper surveillance on the incidence and prevalence of malaria is required

Interference mitigation techniques for SAW-less CDMA receivers

This research work aims at eliminating the off-chip RF SAW filters from frequency division duplexed (FDD) receivers. In the first approach, a monolithic passive RF filter was constructed using on-chip capacitors and bondwire inductors. The bondwire characteristics were studied in details and the effect of mutual inductive coupling between the bondwires on the filter performance was analyzed. Based on that, a bondwire configuration was proposed to improve the frequency response of the filter. The filter was implemented in 0.18 um CMOS process for WCDMA applications. In the second approach, the downconverting mixer linearity performance was improved. It was observed that BSIM3 CMOS model fails to predict the transistor linearity behavior perfectly at zero drain- source bias voltage. It was analytically shown using Volterra series analysis that the incorrect simulation of passive mixer linearity is a consequence of this anomaly. Using Volterra series analysis, the second-order, third- order and cross-modulation linearity of a passive mixer was studied and analytical expressions were obtained to reflect their dependence upon the mixer source and load impedances. Based on this, it was formulated that the mixer linearity can be improved by selectively filtering the downconverted transmitted signal at the mixer output. A novel filtering mechanism was proposed that comprised of another downconverting mixer in cascade with a trans- impedance amplifier. This approach was used to implement a CDMA-2000 receiver for PCS band (1.96 GHz) in 0.18 um CMOS process. The proposed technique improved the triple beat and IIP2 by 6.5 dB

Bacteriological profile of bloodstream infections at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi

Invasion of the blood stream by microorganisms constitutes one of the most serious situations in infectious disease. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the bacteria that caused blood stream infections. Methods: This six months prospective and observational study was performed in the department of microbiology at All India institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi, India, on 280 blood samples of patients admitted in wards and various ICUs. Microbial detection and identification were done by fully automated BacT/Alert 3D and VITEK 2 systems, respectively. Results: Of the 280 suspected cases, blood culture was positive in 186 (66.4%) cases. Of the 186 isolates, 123 (66.12%) were Gram negative bacterial isolates of which the predominant were Klebsiella pneumoniae (27.64%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (16.26%), and Escherchia coli (15.44%). Of the positive isolates, 63 (33.87%) were Gram positive bacteria of which MRSA (36.50%) was the predominant organism followed by MSSA (31.74%) and MRCoNS (17.46%). Conclusion: In this study, blood culture was positive in a relatively high proportion of suspected cases of blood stream infections. Automation has higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional methods and can help in significantly reducing mortality and morbidity of blood stream infections

Clinical and microbiological profile of urinary tract infection in children less than twelve years of the age and their antibiotics resistant pattern at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kanpur, India

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection which is seen in childhood population, which starts from the calyces of the kidney to the urethra. It is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children mostly in the first 2 years of life. The Gram negative enteric bacilli, especially Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. the dominant pathogens. The objective of the study was to analyze the causative microorganism and their Antibiotic Resistance Pattern in UTI in childhood population between 0-12years of the age. Methods: This one year prospective and observational study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology; Rama Medical College Hospital & Research Centre Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, on 100 pediatric patients (aged 0-12 years). All the pediatric age group (0-12 years) with suspected UTI and, whose urine culture showed one or two pathogen with colony counts greater than or equal to 105 colony forming units (CFU)/ml was included for the study. Clinical data was obtained from OPD and IPD Patients. Antimicrobial susceptibility was done for positive urine culture by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. The data was expressed in terms of frequency and percentage

IMPLEMENTATION OF FACE RECOGNITION SYSTEM BASED ON ELASTIC BUNCH GRAPH MATCHING

The face is regarded as the primary means of identifying the person of a written document based on the implicit assumption that a person’s face changes slowly and is very difficult to erase, alter or forge without detection. As face is now a days the primary mechanism both for authentication and authorization in legal transactions, the need for efficient automated solutions for face reorganization has increased. This Project offers algorithm for the offline image reorganization system in which artificial neural network is used to confirm the genuineness of faces. We approach the problem in two steps. Initially a set of face images are obtained from the subject and fed to the system. These face images are preprocessed Then the preprocessed images are used to extract relevant geometric parameters that can identify faces of different persons. These are used to train the system. The mean value of these features is obtained. In the next step the face image to be verified is fed to the system. It is preprocessed to be suitable for extracting features. It is fed to the system and various features are extracted from them. These values are then compared with the mean features that were used to train the system. The distance is calculated and a suitable threshold per user is chosen. Depending on whether the input face image satisfies the threshold condition the system either accepts or rejects the face image. Perform pattern matching with the test data set present in the hidden layer of neural network. Using outcome produced by the output layer of the neural network announces that image is match or not

Clinical and Microbiological Profile of Urinary Tract Infection in Children Less Than Twelve Years of the Age and Their Antibiotics Resistant Pattern at A Tertiary Care Hospital in Kanpur, India

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection which is seen in childhood population, which starts from the calyces of the kidney to the urethra. It is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children mostly in the first 2 years of life. The Gram negative enteric bacilli, especially Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. the dominant pathogens. The objective of the study was to analyze the causative microorganism and their Antibiotic Resistance Pattern in UTI in childhood population between 0-12years of the age. Methods: This one year prospective and observational study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology; Rama Medical College Hospital & Research Centre Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, on 100 pediatric patients (aged 0-12 years). All the pediatric age group (0-12 years) with suspected UTI and, whose urine culture showed one or two pathogen with colony counts greater than or equal to 105 colony forming units (CFU)/ml was included for the study. Clinical data was obtained from OPD and IPD Patients. Antimicrobial susceptibility was done for positive urine culture by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. The data was expressed in terms of frequency and percentage

Clinical Characterization and Genomic Analysis of Samples from COVID-19 Breakthrough Infections during the Second Wave among the Various States of India

From March to June 2021, India experienced a deadly second wave of COVID-19, with an increased number of post-vaccination breakthrough infections reported across the country. To understand the possible reason for these breakthroughs, we collected 677 clinical samples (throat swab/nasal swabs) of individuals from 17 states/Union Territories of the country who had received two doses (n = 592) and one dose (n = 85) of vaccines and tested positive for COVID-19. These cases were telephonically interviewed and clinical data were analyzed. A total of 511 SARS-CoV-2 genomes were recovered with genome coverage of higher than 98% from both groups. Analysis of both groups determined that 86.69% (n = 443) of them belonged to the Delta variant, along with Alpha, Kappa, Delta AY.1, and Delta AY.2. The Delta variant clustered into four distinct sub-lineages. Sub-lineage I had mutations in ORF1ab A1306S, P2046L, P2287S, V2930L, T3255I, T3446A, G5063S, P5401L, and A6319V, and in N G215C; Sub-lineage II had mutations in ORF1ab P309L, A3209V, V3718A, G5063S, P5401L, and ORF7a L116F; Sub-lineage III had mutations in ORF1ab A3209V, V3718A, T3750I, G5063S, and P5401L and in spike A222V; Sub-lineage IV had mutations in ORF1ab P309L, D2980N, and F3138S and spike K77T. This study indicates that majority of the breakthrough COVID-19 clinical cases were infected with the Delta variant, and only 9.8% cases required hospitalization, while fatality was observed in only 0.4% cases. This clearly suggests that the vaccination does provide reduction in hospital admission and mortality