Water Consumption, Yield, and Total Dry Matter of Drip-Irrigated Cabbage Grown at Various Water Application Levels

In Ghana's coastal savannah climate, the lack of sufficient water during the dry season limits cabbage production. Using a small-scale drip irrigation system, two cabbage varieties—K-K Cross and Oxylus—were grown in a coastal Savannah environment. The irrigation levels were set at40,55,70,85, and 100% of the needed water. The two types of cabbage were assigned to the sub-plots, and the main plot consisted of the applied water levels. The experiment was conducted in three replicates using the split-plot design.  The study aims to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (AET) for consumptive use for two cabbage cultivars grown using the family drip irrigation technology at varying applied water levels, as well as to calculate the total fresh matter yield, marketable fresh matter yield, and total dry matter yield of the two drip-irrigated cultivars at varying applied water levels. The overall trend showed that the productivity and water consumption of Oxylus and K-K Cross decreased as applied water levels decreased. The highest values of total dry matter and fresh yield were obtained at 100% of applied water, and these differences were significantly (P≤0.01) different from corresponding values obtained at 40%, 55%, 70%, and 85% of applied water. Thus, the study's findings highlighted the necessity of preserving sufficient soil moisture to improve productivity and the efficient use of water

Immnunomodulatory and cytotoxic effects of aqueous leaf extracts of certain plants on common carp, Cyprinus carpio

Effect of aqueous leaf extracts of Catheranthus roseus, Calotropis gigantium and Datura stromoneum on common carp, Cyprinus carpio were investigated. C. carpio were separately fed with 1 and 2% aqueous extracts of these three plant leaves for a period of seven days. In 1% Catheranthus roseus of leaf extract fed group no significant tissue level changes were recorded. One and 2% of other two species fed treated group showed mild to severe necrotic and cellular changes in liver, kidney and spleen. Immunologically, significant rise in antibody titre and respiratory burst activity was recorded for 1% Catheranthus roseusfed group

A Hybrid Filter with Impulse Detection for Removal of Random Valued Impulse Noise from Colour Videos

This paper presents a three dimensional hybrid filter to remove random valued impulse noise from colour video sequences. The switching median technique is utilized to protect noise free isolated pixels from filtering so as to avoid blurring of frames. The restoration of noisy pixels is done by brightness information obtained from median filtering and chromaticity information is obtained from vector directional filtering. This hybrid filter is applied in three dimensional sliding window where spatial as well as temporal information about neighbourhood is available for restoration of frame under consideration. Only noise free pixels of three dimensional sliding window are used for restoration of frame under consideration. Simulation results show that the proposed three dimensional hybrid filter yields superior performance in comparison to other filtering method

Ethno-Medicinal, Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Studies of Euphorbia tirucalli L.

SUMMARYPresent study exposed various claims about the medicinal properties of Euphorbia tirucalli L., used by the indigenous people of Rajasthan to cure rheumatism, Skin disorders, Cough and other ailments. This plant was assessed for ethnopharmacological screenings, phytochemical analysis and antimicrobial screenings which also include anti-HIV activity, so as to validate the efficacy of indigenous herbal medicine. In the present study antimicrobial activity of the crude alcoholic extracts of leaf and stem of E. tirucalli against the known enteric pathogens was carried out. Anti-HIV screening activity was carried out using HIV Protease colorimetric Assay.  Low MIC exhibited by the extract against S. aureus is of great significance in the healthcare delivery system, since it could be used as an alternative to orthodox antibiotics in the treatment of infections caused by these microbes, especially as they frequently developing resistance to known antibiotics. Key words: Alkaloids, Triterpenes, Antimicrobial activity, anti-Carcinogenic, Anti-HIV Bhuvaneshwar Upadhyay et al. Ethno-Medicinal, Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Studies of Euphorbia tirucalli L.  J. Phytol 2/4 (2010) 65-77

Awareness and Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among Farmers in Kerala: A Study

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be used as a potential tool to develop rural India, but the awareness and positive attitude towards the facilities offered by it is a necessity to use it to the full potential. The study tries to analyze the awareness of farmers about the various ICT tools in agriculture. Survey using questionnaire was resorted to collect data from user group. The user group under consideration consists of farmers registered to four KrishiBhavans in Nedumangad block, Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala. Farmers with more than 1 acre of land registered in KrishiBhavans in the four selected blocks were 1040. From them, a sample size of fifteen percentages (156) of farmers is selected. Data obtained through questionnaire was tabulated, analyzed and interpreted using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and SPSS 20. Chi-square test was applied for finding significant association between the categorical variable

Pharmacognostical and Antibacterial Studies of Different Extracts of Euphorbia hirta L.

SUMMARYLeaves of Euphorbia hirta, traditionally practiced in the treatments of boils, dysentery, enteritis and various skin conditions, were extracted by soxhlet extraction in various extraction mediums. The disc diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity against many Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria (Standard strains and clinical isolates). Antibacterial sensitivity test indicated that the methanolic extract inhibited the growth of S. aureus, E. coli, and B. subtilis to varying extents while K. pneumonia was the most resistive strain to these extracts. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), of the extract against E. coli, S aureus, and S. entertidis were in the range of 0.1mg/ml. Phytochemical analysis indicates presence of terpenes, tannins, alkaloids and flavonoids which might be accountable for its antimicrobial properties, and these results validate the traditional uses of the plant in the treatment of various diseases.Bhuvaneshwar Upadhyay et al. Pharmacognostical and Antibacterial Studies of Leaf Extracts of Euphorbia hirta L. J Phytol 2/6 (2010) 55-6

Insights on metal-microbe interactions in Bacillus sp. and Chromohalobacter sp. from a solar saltern

Metal tolerant bacterial strains viz Bacillus cereus (RS-1), Bacillus sp. (RS-2) and Chromohalobacter beijerinckii (RS-3) were isolated from the surface sediments of a solar saltern in Ribandar Goa, situated in the vicinity of the Mandovi estuary influenced by mining activities. RS-1 that showed optimal growth at 20 psu salinity was tolerant to 10 mM Co2+ while hypersaline isolates RS-2 (100 psu) and RS-3 (200 psu) were tolerant to Ni2+ and Mn2+ at 1 mM and 10 mM respectively. Experimental studies revealed that growth was stimulated at low concentrations of metal amendments for all the isolates. Growth of RS-1 was stimulated by ~450% on addition of 100 µM Co2+ whereas for RS-2 and RS-3 it was at 100 µM Ni2+ (70%) and 5 mM Mn2+ (450%). The stimulation in growth was coupled to a dip in respiration rates for the isolates RS-1 and RS-3 when compared to metal unamended controls. The respiration rates for RS-1 and RS-3 during peak growth in the presence of metal were 17.0 and 27.5 compared to the controls which were 24.7 and 473.4 pg formazan cell-1 day-1 respectively. Presence of Ni2+ stimulated the respiration rate (26%) in RS-2 when compared to the control (417.4 pg formazan cell-1 day-1). Co2+ and Mn2+ had a significant negative impact on the utilization of carbohydrates and carboxylic acids in RS-1 and RS-3 respectively. Ni2+ had a stimulatory effect on the utilization of BIOLOG GP2 substrates by RS-2. The phenotypic expressions observed above were correlated with the changes in whole cell protein profiles in the presence and absence of added metal. Addition of Co2+ to RS-1 resulted in a significant up-regulation of 57 kDa fraction while there was a conspicuous down-regulation of 29 kDa protein. The major protein fraction up-regulated in RS-2 in the presence of Ni2+ was a 59 kDa protein while most of the fractions were down-regulated. In RS-3, the addition of Mn2+ at 10, 100 and 1000 µM up-regulated a 50 kDa protein while the 53 kDa fraction was down-regulated. This study relates the metal induced regulation of proteins to phenotypic variations encountered in growth and substrate utilization. &nbsp

Feasibility Study of Microgrid Installation in an Educational Institution with Grid Uncertainty

AbstractThis paper analyzes the feasibility study of wind and solar PV based microgrid installation in an educational institution, with grid uncertainty. The idea of bringing out “Green Campus” in our Academic Institution, situated very close to east coast of India (Chennai City) is achieved by implementing a microgrid with available renewable sources such as solar and wind which is designed optimally using HOMER software with the objective to bring down diesel cost, carbon emission and to increase the usage of renewable energy to about fifty percent. Sensitivity analysis with wind speed data, solar radiation level and diesel price is done. Validity of such project and economics against conventional power sources were identified. Sizing, performance and various cost indices were also analyzed in this paper