Segmentation of touching characters in upper zone in printed Gurmukhi script

A new technique for segmenting touching characters in upper zone of printed Gurmukhi script has been presented in this paper. The technique is based on the structural properties of the Gurmukhi script characters. Concavity and convexity of the characters has been studied and using top profile projections, the touching characters in upper zone have been segmented. Recognition rate of 91 % has been achieved for segmenting the touching characters in upper zone

Fodder Productivity of Different Genotypes of \u3cem\u3eCenchrus ciliaris\u3c/em\u3e under Hot Arid Climate of Thar Desert

Indian arid zone occupies about 31.7 million ha of land, of which 62% lies in western Rajasthan. The climate of the area is typically arid, characterized by hot dry summers, sub-humid monsoon and cold dry winters. The soils are coarse loamy sand with low level of nutrients. These factors render cropping an undependable proposition, while animal husbandry remains the main stake of the local people. Lasiurus sindicus, Cenchrus ciliaris, C. setigerus, Panicum antidotale, P. turgidum and Cymbopogon spp., are the main perennial grasses grow in this area. These grasses had three folds advantages in the arid agricultural economy, i.e., the cheapest livestock feed, soil builders and aid in soil conservation. Due to frequent droughts and overgrazing the productivity of the natural grasslands in the region has declined to \u3c 300 kg/ha per year. The ever existing gap between demand and supply of the fodder can be bridged by improving the rangelands by adopting improved grassland management techniques including genetically improved genotypes for their productivity and quality. Buffel grass (C. ciliaris L.) is one of the dominant grasses of Dichanthium-Cenchrus-Lasiurus grass cover of India (Dabadghao and Shankarnarayan, 1973). It is well distributed in hotter and drier parts of India, Mediterranean region, tropical and southern Africa. It is adapted to a wide range of soils and climatic conditions and can be cultivated in areas receiving rainfall from 150 to 1250 mm annually. It grows well on sandy to sandy-loam soils in semiarid and arid regions, forming mats or tussocks (Mansoor et al., 2002). The forage of this grass is highly palatable and rich in protein (Sawal et al., 2009). It has 6 to 10% crude protein, 34% crude fibre, 13% ash, 1.5% ether extract and 44% nitrogen free extract of dry matter at flowering. In earlier efforts at CAZRI, Jodhpur, germplasm was collected from different areas of arid zone and some accessions were identified for their fodder productivity and quality. Five genotypes were selected to assess their response for fodder production over the years under hot dry conditions

G × E Interaction and Heterosis in Elite Tomato Hybrids for Growth, Earliness and Fruit Parameters in Diverse Agro-Climatic Zones of Punjab

Six promising tomato hybrids selected from a pool of 60 F1 hybrids were evaluated for seven traits, along with the check hybrid (TH-1) at two locations falling under different agro-climatic zones of Punjab, India. G × E interaction was significant for early yield, fruit weight and total fruit yield, whereas, it was non-significant for fruit number, locule number, pericarp thickness and vine length. Overall higher mean-early-yield, fruit number, fruit weight and total yield at Ludhiana, rather than at Bathinda, may be due to higher organic carbon, available phosphorus and available potash and low electrical conductivity of the experimental soil at Ludhiana. Pooled analysis showed that hybrid TH-21 had the maximum early-yield (3.73 tha-1), fruit weight (72.7 g) and locule number (2.65), whereas, TH-23 had the highest fruit number per vine (53.7) and total fruit yield (51.2 tha-1). The magnitude of pooled standard heterosis was maximum for vine length (140.7%), followed by early yield (114.8%), total yield (88.3%), fruit number (49.7%), fruit weight (27.6%), pericarp thickness (16.4%) and locule number (-21.6%). On the basis of stability and superiority for fruit weight, fruit number, early and total yield, TH-21 was found to be the most promising hybrid, followed by TH-23

A Study of Low Energy Ar+ Ion Bombardment Induced Lattice Damage in (100) n-GaAs by Channeling

It has been found that sputter cleaning of GaAs single crystals results in damage or loss of crystallinity in the first few tens of nanometers of the crystal. The damage is a result of both - energetic Ar ions impinging on and being incorporated in the GaAs surface and the resultant preferential sputtering of As from the GaAs lattice. A study of this damage which was done at room temperature and at -110 °C was made by the use of Selected Area Electron Channeling Patterns. The relationship between the degree of surface disorder, as shown by the pattern degradation, and sputtering parameters (ion beam voltage and ion beam dose) was experimentally obtained. The energy regime investigated was 0.5 to 5 keV with sputtering times from 5 to 20 minutes. The results showed increasing contrast degradation in the selected area channeling patterns (SACPs) with increasing incident ion energies from 0.5 to 4 keV, a maxima in contrast degradation for a sputtering time of 10 minutes and greater contrast degradation at room temperature than at -110 °C

Phylogenetic analysis of Newcastle disease viruses isolated from waterfowl in the Upper Midwest Region of the United States

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was conducted to characterize Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolates obtained from waterfowl from the Upper Midwest region of the United States. A total of 43 NDVs were isolated by inoculation of cloacal samples in embryonated chicken eggs. These isolates were obtained from 24 mallards, seven American green-winged teals, six northern pintails, four blue-winged teals, and two wood ducks. Partial sequences of fusion gene were analyzed to determine the pathotypes and genotypes involved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Deduced amino acid sequence of the cleavage site of fusion (F) protein revealed that all isolates had avirulent motifs. Of the 43 isolates, 23 exhibited sequence motif of ¹¹¹GGKQGRL¹¹⁷at the cleavage site, 19 exhibited ¹¹¹GEKQGRL¹¹⁷while one isolate showed ¹¹¹GERQGRL¹¹⁷. Phylogenetic analysis based on comparison with different classes of NDVs revealed that all 43 isolates clustered with class II NDVs and none with class I NDVs. Within class II, five isolates were phylogenetically close to genotype I NDVs while the remaining 38 were close to genotype II.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that more than one genotype of NDV circulates in waterfowl in the Upper Midwest region of the US. Continuous surveillance may help better understand the epidemiology of NDVs maintained in wild bird populations and their relationship to NDVs in domestic poultry, if any.</p

Assessing genetic diversity of Tecomella undulata (Sm) - an endangered tree species using amplified fragment length polymorphisms-based molecular markers

Tecomella undulata is an important agro-forestry tree in the western parts of India, which has been included in the list of endangered plant species due to over exploitation. There is an urgent need to formulate appropriate conservation and breeding strategies to save this versatile tree. Quantification of genetic diversity in the existing populations of T. undulata prevalent in India, is an essential first step towards this objective. The present work was undertaken to investigate the utility of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers in the assessment of genetic diversity and phenetic relationship among 42 T. undulata plants collected from different regions of India. Eight AFLP primer combinations generated a total of 338 bands across the 42 T. undulata accessions screened. On an average, 42 AFLP fragments were amplified per reaction. Of the total 338 AFLP fragments, 71.7% was polymorphic across all the accessions. From the AFLP data, a similarity matrix based on Jaccard's coefficient was calculated which was used for constructing a phenetic dendrogram using UPGMA analysis. T. undulata accessions represented high levels of genetic variation as indicated by GS values ranging from 0.721 to 0.83, at which 42 T. undulata accessions grouped together. The pattern of grouping in the phenogram was highly consistent as indicated by high values of cophenetic correlation (r = 0.87, P = 1) as also by high bootstrap values at the key nodes. Principal correspondence analysis also Cited By since 1996 This article has been cited 0 times in Scopus. Inform me when this document is cited in Scopus: E-mail Alert Find related documents In Scopus based on On the Web based on title Document Type: Article View references (31) references authors keywords authors keywords Page 1 of 5 Scopus - Current Science: Assessing genetic diversity of Tecomella undulata (Sm.) - An endangered... 02/04/2008 http://www.scopus.com/scopus/record/display.url?view=basic&eid=2-s2.0-3 revealed that T. undulata accessions were scattered on the plot. Based on our study, it may be concluded that there is a high level of genetic diversity in T. undulata accessions analysed, which may be attributed to its out-crossing nature. Our study may be useful in identifying diverse genetic stocks of T. undulata, which may then be conserved on priority basis. Author Keywords AFLP; Conservation; Genetic diversity; Molecular makers; Tecomella undulata References (31) view in table layout Select: Page 1. (1982) The Wealth of India, 10, pp. 134-136. Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi, Anon 2. Jindal, S.K., Kackar, N.L., Solanki, K.R. Evaluation of Tecomella undulata (Sm.) SEEM germplasm from western Rajasthan in situ (1985) Trans. Indian Soc. Desert Technol. Univ. Cent. Desert Stud, 10, pp. 33-37. 3. Jindal, S.K., Solanki, K.R., Kackar, N.L. Phenology and breeding systems of Rohida (Tecomella undulata (Sm.) SEEM) (1985) Indian J. For, 8, pp. 317-320. 4. Jindal, S.K., Kackar, N.L., Solanki, K.R. Germplasm collection and genetic variability in Rohida (Tecomella undulata (Sm.) Seem) in western Rajasthan (1987) Indian J. For, 10, pp. 52-55. 5. Rao, A., Kiran-Bala, V., Lahiri, A.N., Bala, K. Influence of trees on microorganisms of aridisol and its fertility (1989) Indian For, 115, pp. 680-683. 6. Azam, M.M. Anti-HIV agents and other compounds from Tecomella undulata (1999) Orient. J. Chem, 15, pp. 375-377. Cited 2 times. 7. Dushyent, G., Bohra, A. Toxic effects of various plant part extracts on the causal organism of typhoid fever (2000) Curr. Sci, 78, pp. 780-781. Cited 4 times. 8. Ahmad, F., Alam Khan, R., Rasheed, S. Preliminary screening of methanolic extracts of Celastrus paniculatus and Tecomella undulata for analgesic and antiinflammatory activities (1994) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 42 (3), pp. 193-198. Cited 12 times. doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(94)90085-X 9. Jain, S.K., Rao, R.R. An assessment of threatened plants of India (1983) Botanical Survey of India, Howrah, p. 334. Page 2 of 5 Scopus - Cur

Swift Heavy Ion Induced Modification Studies of C60 Thin Films

Modification induced by 110 MeV Ni ion irradiated thin film samples of C60 on Si and quartz substrates were studied at various fluences. The pristine and irradiated samples were investigated using Raman spectroscopy, electrical conductivity and optical absorption spectroscopy. The Raman data and band gap measurements indicate that swift ions at low fluences result in formations that involve multiple molecular units like dimer or polymer. High fluence irradiation resulted in sub-molecular formations and amorphous semiconducting carbon, indicating overall damage of the fullerene molecules. These sub-molecular units have been identified with nanocrystalline diamond and nanocrystalline graphite like formations.Comment: 7 pages, 29 references and 9 figures submitted to J. Appl. Phy

Growth and yield of elite genotypes of chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) in diverse agroclimatic zones of Punjab

Eleven elite genotypes of chilli along with one check (Punjab Surkh) were evaluated at two diverse locations of Punjab, India. The G × E interaction was significant for red ripe fruit yield, fruit width and fruit weight and genotype Acc-33-1 was the most stable across locations. The pooled analysis showed that the genotype, SD 463 had the maximum red ripe fruit yield (0.586 kg plant-1) and fruit weight (4.1 g); Mehma Sarja had the highest plant height (93.5 cm) and fruit width (13.4 mm); Selection 7 exhibited the lowest plant height (37.6 cm) and fruit width (7.0 mm); PC-6-1 had the longest fruits (8.6 cm); DCL 524 possessed maximum number of seeds fruit-1 (43.5); Selection 36-1 produced the maximum seed weight (0.211 g fruit-1). The low broad sense heritability (h2) for number of seeds fruit-1 and dried seed weight fruit-1 revealed that these traits were highly influenced by environment. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance for red ripe fruit yield, fruit weight, plant height, fruit length and fruit width indicated the important role played by additive gene effects. &nbsp