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Not AvailableNatural enemies or biocontrol agents include those organisms that are capable and helpful in managing and suppressing the insect pests infecting field crops and causing economic damage. The natural enemies have a major key role to play in controlling insect pests attacking hill crops. The hill agriculture is the cultivation of field crops in distributed patches of land in the vast matrix of forest. The crops are grown in small patches and there is vast diversity in the type of field crops cultivated. The insect pests are the major biotic stress causing agents in the present scenario of climate change in hill farming and many insect pests have gained the status of major insect pest recently. The first and foremost step taken by farmers to manage these insect pests in hill agriculture is to allow for natural control or take up insecticide spray with locally available, low grade insecticides. But, natural control along with human intervention to artificially release natural enemies would be the best strategy to manage pests at lower cost with higher effectivity. In this article we will be emphasising on major predators and parasitoids that can be easily identified by the farmers and encourage their population growth in order to exploit their services in pest management.Not Availabl

Synthesis and pharmacological screening of some 1,4-dihydropyridine and their derivatives for anticonvulsant activity

626-629A new series of 1,4-dihydropyridine and their derivatives have been synthesized and the structures of the compounds have been confirmed by IR and NMR. The title compounds are evaluated for anticonvulsant activity by maximal electroshock method. Some of these compounds have been found to exhibit excellent anticonvulsant activity

Assessing Impact of Projected Climate Change on Sali Rice in a Representative District of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam

Three years of field trial along with DSSAT v4.6 CERES-Rice model-based simulation experiment was carried out to study the impact of climate change on Sali rice yield under various Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) in the agro-climatic conditions of Jorhat, Assam. Field experiments were conducted during kharif, 2017, 2018 and 2019 at the Instructional-Cum-Research (ICR) farm of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat with three varieties viz., Mahsuri (150 days), Swarna Sub-1 (140-145 days) and TTB-404 (140-145 days); transplanted under three different micro-climatic regimes created by manipulating date of transplanting i.e., 26th June (early), 11th July (mid) and 26th July (late) under split plot experimental design with four replications. The validated model showed a good agreement for estimation of days required to attain different phenological stages with RMSE value 3.5, 2.9 and 2.9 days for Swarna sub-1; 2.4, 3.3 and 4.1 days for Mahsuri and 3.7, 2.6 and 2.4 days for TTB-404, respectively for panicle initiation, anthesis and physiological maturity. The overall d-stat value varied within 0.53 to 0.85 for phenology and 0.68 to 0.79 for grain yield. The ensemble weather data under four RCPs revealed an increase in mean maximum (0.3 to 3.0°C) and minimum (0.8 to 3.5°C) temperatures along with rainfall (11.8 to 43.4%) during the crop growing period compared to experimentation period (i.e. 2017-19) in three projected years. The grain yield of Sali rice showed positive deviation in all four RCPs and projected years under successive transplanting dates. The overall results reveal an increase in mean temperature up to 3°C during the crop growing period has no substantial adverse impact on grain yield of Sali rice under the agro-climatic condition of Jorhat, Assam

Underutilized legumes: nutrient status and advanced breeding approaches for qualitative and quantitative enhancement

Underutilized/orphan legumes provide food and nutritional security to resource-poor rural populations during periods of drought and extreme hunger, thus, saving millions of lives. The Leguminaceae, which is the third largest flowering plant family, has approximately 650 genera and 20,000 species and are distributed globally. There are various protein-rich accessible and edible legumes, such as soybean, cowpea, and others; nevertheless, their consumption rate is far higher than production, owing to ever-increasing demand. The growing global urge to switch from an animal-based protein diet to a vegetarian-based protein diet has also accelerated their demand. In this context, underutilized legumes offer significant potential for food security, nutritional requirements, and agricultural development. Many of the known legumes like Mucuna spp., Canavalia spp., Sesbania spp., Phaseolus spp., and others are reported to contain comparable amounts of protein, essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), dietary fiber, essential minerals and vitamins along with other bioactive compounds. Keeping this in mind, the current review focuses on the potential of discovering underutilized legumes as a source of food, feed and pharmaceutically valuable chemicals, in order to provide baseline data for addressing malnutrition-related problems and sustaining pulse needs across the globe. There is a scarcity of information about underutilized legumes and is restricted to specific geographical zones with local or traditional significance. Around 700 genera and 20,000 species remain for domestication, improvement, and mainstreaming. Significant efforts in research, breeding, and development are required to transform existing local landraces of carefully selected, promising crops into types with broad adaptability and economic viability. Different breeding efforts and the use of biotechnological methods such as micro-propagation, molecular markers research and genetic transformation for the development of underutilized crops are offered to popularize lesser-known legume crops and help farmers diversify their agricultural systems and boost their profitability

BMS-986163, a Negative Allosteric Modulator of GluN2B with Potential Utility in Major Depressive Disorder

There is a significant unmet medical need for more efficacious and rapidly acting antidepressants. Toward this end, negative allosteric modulators of the <i>N</i>-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subtype GluN2B have demonstrated encouraging therapeutic potential. We report herein the discovery and preclinical profile of a water-soluble intravenous prodrug BMS-986163 (<b>6</b>) and its active parent molecule BMS-986169 (<b>5</b>), which demonstrated high binding affinity for the GluN2B allosteric site (<i>K</i>_i = 4.0 nM) and selective inhibition of GluN2B receptor function (IC₅₀ = 24 nM) in cells. The conversion of prodrug <b>6</b> to parent <b>5</b> was rapid in vitro and in vivo across preclinical species. After intravenous administration, compounds <b>5</b> and <b>6</b> have exhibited robust levels of ex vivo GluN2B target engagement in rodents and antidepressant-like activity in mice. No significant off-target activity was observed for <b>5</b>, <b>6</b>, or the major circulating metabolites <b>met-1</b> and <b>met-2</b>. The prodrug BMS-986163 (<b>6</b>) has demonstrated an acceptable safety and toxicology profile and was selected as a preclinical candidate for further evaluation in major depressive disorder