Effect of rain simulation on Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae population density in guttation fluid and on the spread of bacterial blight in rice

Bacterial blight of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is most serious biotic constraint of rice production in Punjab, influenced mainly by environmental factors and nutritional factors applied to the rice crop. Present study aimed at observing the relationship between rain simulation and disease spread. More number of bacterial colonies was recovered from the susceptible rice cultivar (Pusa 1121) plants where no-rain was simulated as compared to those where rain was simulated. Mean bacterial log cfu in rain simulated plant was 4.88 as compared to 5.67 in non rain simulated plots after 1day of inoculation. The population densities of bacteria increased gradually in both the treatments. The log cfu of bacteria was 5.84 in rain simulated plots as compared to 6.28 in non rain simulated plots after 7 days of inoculation. However after 14 days of inoculation, the bacterial population in guttation fluid was foundto be non-significant at 5% level of significance in rain and non rain simulated plots but the bacterial population was found to be less as compared to that after 7 days of inoculation. Rain washed off the guttation fluid which resulted in decrease of bacterial load in the infected leaf. The significant difference at 5 % level of significance was observed between the per cent disease severity and disease spread was also observed in rain simulated plots and no rain simulated plots in cultivar Pusa 1121 which is a bacterial blight resistant cultivar

Retinol Deficiency and Urinary Stone Disease: Clinical Evidence is Missing

Serum retinal levels were studied in : (a) 95, 56 and 43 normal subjects belonging to lower, middle and upper socio-economic groups respectively, (b) 35 adult males suffering from night blindness, (c) 27 subjects with low retinal levels, (d) 8 retinal deficient subjects (e) 17 male infants suffering from overt retinal deficiency, (f) 43 radiologically confirmed stone patients and (g) age and sex matched controls (infants 20; adults 120). The subjects included in groups b to f were clinically and radiologically examined for stone disease. Some inhibitors and promoters of stone disease were estimated in urine in groups b to g. It was found that 68% of subjects in lower socio-economic group had serum retinal levels between 10 and 19 ug%, and 4% below 10 ug%, but none of them showed any symptoms of retinal deficiency. The subjects included in groups b to e did not show any significant difference in their urine chemistry although oxalate excretion was slightly but not significantly higher in comparison to controls. None of them showed radiological evidence of urinary stones. Thus, our results do not support an association between retinal deficiency and urolithiasis in the population studied

Quantum optomechanics beyond the quantum coherent oscillation regime

Interaction with a thermal environment decoheres the quantum state of a mechanical oscillator. When the interaction is sufficiently strong, such that more than one thermal phonon is introduced within a period of oscillation, quantum coherent oscillations are prevented. This is generally thought to preclude a wide range of quantum protocols. Here, we introduce a pulsed optomechanical protocol that allows ground state cooling, general linear quantum non-demolition measurements, optomechanical state swaps, and quantum state preparation and tomography without requiring quantum coherent oscillations. Finally we show how the protocol can break the usual thermal limit for sensing of impulse forces.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Structural, optical and nanomechanical properties of (1 1 1) oriented nanocrystalline ZnTe thin films

Structural, optical and nanomechanical properties of nanocrystalline Zinc Telluride (ZnTe) films of thickness upto 10 microns deposited at room temperature on borosilicate glass substrates are reported. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that the films were preferentially oriented along the (1 1 1) direction. The maximum refractive index of the films was 2.74 at a wavelength of 2000 nm. The optical band gap showed strong thickness dependence. The average film hardness and Young’s modulus obtained from loaddisplacement curves and analyzed by Oliver-Pharr method were 4 and 70 GPa respectively. Hardness of (1 1 1) oriented ZnTe thin films exhibited almost 5 times higher value than bulk. The studies show clearly that the hardness increases with decreasing indentation size, for indents between 30 and 300 nm in depth indicating the existence of indentation size effect. The coefficient of friction for these films as obtained from the nanoscratch test was ∼0.4.Financial support in the form of fellowships to MSRNK and SK from the ACRHEM project of DRDO is acknowledged

Tool handle design for power GRIP

The use of tools is still widely appreciated in industries at various levels. The range of their application varies from a simple task like hammering to a complicated, complex and precision-demanding tasks such as that of surgical scalpels. Hence, it becomes highly essential to design the tool for ‘comfort’ from the perspective of user. The aim of this study is to design a tool handle for a task involving a simple power grip such as hammer. The focus of this study is mainly confined to identify the right cross-section and profile of the tool handle, based on subjective experimentation of a group of subjects and find the approximate dimension and shape(of both cross-section and profile) which outstands in subject’s perception of comfort. In this study, a new criteria for decision making has been employed during a brief subjective analysis to find out the better cross- section shape among the various possible shapes for the handle. The shape of the profile has been reverse engineered from an existing tool handle using a CAD software which was been rated high in market. At various turns during this study, new simplified approaches were used to accomplish certain tasks which can be considered as reasonable approximation to standard methods. The final step is to evaluate the design which has been perceived most comfortable by the subjects, using a subjective analysis through hand-mapping of discomfort

Reliability and delay analysis of slotted anycast multi-hop wireless networks targeting dense traffic iot applications

Studies on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in the current literature for anycast multi-hop networks do not capture a node's behaviour accurately. Due to the inaccurate modeling of state-wise behaviour of a node, the optimization of network parameters has not been efficient so far. In this work, we include the state-wise behaviour of a relay node into a 3D Markov model to more accurately investigate the protocol performance. Performance analysis of the proposed analytical model is evaluated for different variants of active state length, packet length and wake up rates considering reliability and delay as key performance metrics. Performance analysis shows that the model captures the behaviour of relay nodes most accurately

Influence of nitrogen on guttation fluid and development of bacterial blight of rice

Bacterial blight disease of rice is major constraint in rice cultivation. This disease is influenced by prevailing weather conditions, rice physiology and nutrition. The experiment was carried out to assess the role of nitrogenous fertilizer on development of bacterial blight disease of rice and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae density in guttation fluid. Disease development increased with increase in nitrogen fertilizer, among four doses of nitrogen tested (control, 36, 54,72 kg urea/acre), disease severity was maximum in the plot supplied with highest dose of nitrogen i.e. 72 kg urea/acre at both seedling (19.3%) and tillering stage (32.4%) at 30 days after inoculation. The highest population density of X. oryzae pv. oryzae (6.02 log cfu/ml) was also recovered in guttation fluid collected from X.oryzaepv. oryzae inoculated plants at tillering stage, from the plots supplied with highest dose (72 kg urea/acre) of nitrogen.Scanning electron microscopic studies also revealed intense colonization by X. oryzae pv. oryzae in rice leaves supplied with high nitrogen dose

IoT enabled communication device with mixer less low complex QPSK based transmitter architecture for low frequency applications

echnological development in the area of wireless communications lead to the requirement of tight integration of both the digital and analog functional units. Integrating mixers is a challenging task, especially in mixed signal design. IoT communication devices require low design complexity as we expect millions of devices connected. In this paper we propose a mixer less low complex QPSK based transmitter architecture targeting low frequency applications which reduced the complexity in transmitter design. A prototype has been developed using Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs) and FPGA as the base band controller. The design can easily be adapted to MOSFET technology and modulation is achieved without the need of generating the carrier externally. The prototype developed was tested successfully by generating frequencies of range varying from 1 KHz to 120 MHz. The proposed architecture can also be used for any other digital modulation scheme such as BPSK, FSK etc

A comparative study of the Milch method and the Spaso method in the reduction of anterior dislocation of the shoulder

Background: The Milch and Spaso methods are used for reduction of anterior shoulder dislocation of the shoulder. This study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of these two methods.Methods: Sixty patients with anterior glenohumeral dislocation were included in this study. 30 patients were reduced by each of the 2 methods and the efficacy and the pain experienced by the patient was studied.Results: Both methods were found to be equally efficacious. The pain felt by the patient was lower in the Milch method but this was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Both the Milch and the Spaso methods are equally effective methods for reduction of anterior dislocation of the shoulder