Effect of seasonal and environmental variation on yield and yield components of hybrid Maize

The experiment was conducted during kharif II in 2006 & 07, rabi in 2006-07 & 07-08 and kharif I in 2007 and 2008 at ARS, Burirhat, Rangpur in RCB design to understand the influence of season and location specific environment effect on growth and yield of hybrid maize and selected suitable variety(s). Four hybrid maize varieties V1=BARI hybrid Maize (BHM)-2, V2=BHM-3, V3= BHM-5 and V4= Pacific-984 (as check) were tested during kharif II in 2006 while seven varieties V1= BHM-2, V2= BHM-3, V3= BHM-5 and V4= Pacific-984, V5= Pacific-60, V6= Pacific-11 and V7= Prolin were during the other seasons except rabi, 07- 08, where variety Pacific-555 was used in V7 instead of Prolin. Seeds were sown on August 30 and August 11 for kharif II of 2006 and 2007, respectively, November 28 and 17 for rabi 2006-2007 and 2007-08 and March 08 and 12 for for kharif I 2007 and 2008. The crops were harvested on January 25, 2007 and January 12, 2008 in the two consecutive kharif II seasons; May 10 and April 29 in rabi 2006-07 and 2007-08, and July 01 and 05 in kharif I 2007 and 2008, respectively. Yield parameters were mostly varied significantly. The highest yield was obtained from BHM-5 (9.03 t ha-1), which was followed by Pacific-984 (8.89 t ha-1), BHM-3 (8.81 t ha-1) and BHM-2 (8.58 t ha-1) in kharif II, 2006 while in kharif II, 2007 the highest significant yield was noted in Pacific-984 (9.22 t ha-1). In rabi, 2006-07, significant highest grain yield was obtained from Pacific-60 (11.03 t ha-1), which was statistically identical with Prolin (10.20 t ha-1). The yield of Prolin was also statistically identical with Pacific-11 (10.01 t ha-1), BHM-5 (10.00 t ha-1), BHM-3 (9.92 t ha-1) and BHM-2 (9.51 t ha-1). Comparatively lower temperature during ear initiation (mean 29.6°C in rabi and 31°C in kharif II) and silking (mean 18.2°C in rabi and 20.2°C in kharif II) contributed much for higher trend of yield in rabi over kharif. In kharif I, 2007, the highest yield (9.55 t ha-1) was recorded from Pacific-60, which was identical to Pacific-984 (9.25 t ha-1), BHM-5 (9.11 t ha-1) and BHM-3 (8.89 t ha-1). All the BARI hybrid maize varieties were suitable to grown in kharif I, kharif II and rabi season although BHM-3, BHM-5, Pacific-60 and Pacific-984 were better in Kharif I and Pacific-60, BHM-5, Prolin and Pacific-555 were found better in Rabi season. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v4i2.22635 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 4 (2): 1-5, December, 201

Conservation tillage and residue management improve soil health and crop productivity—Evidence from a rice-maize cropping system in Bangladesh.

The rice-maize (R-M) system is rapidly expanding in Bangladesh due to its greater suitability for diverse soil types and environments. The present conventional method of cultivating puddled transplanted rice and maize is input-intensive, decreases soil health through intense ploughing, and ultimately reduces farm profitability. There is a need to investigate alternatives. Accordingly, we conducted a replicated 2-year (2020–2021) field study to investigate the effects of conservation agriculture (CA) based tillage and crop establishment (TCE) techniques and residue management practices on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil along with crop productivity and the profitability of rice-maize systems in the sandy loam soil of Northwest Bangladesh. Two TCE techniques Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) followed by Conventional tillage maize (CTM) and strip tillage direct-seeded rice (STDSR) followed by strip-tilled maize (STM) were assigned to the main plots and different percentages of crop residue retention (0, 25, and 50% by height) were allocated to the subplots. Results showed that a reduction in bulk density (BD), soil penetration resistance (SPR), and increased soil porosity were associated with STDSR/STM-based scenarios (strip tillage coupled with 25 and 50% residue retention). The soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions, such as dissolved organic C (DOC), light and heavy particulate organic matter C (POM-C), MAOM, and microbial biomass C (MBC) levels in the 0–10 cm layer under ST based treatments were 95, 8, 6, 2 and 45% greater, respectively, compared to CT with no residue treatment. When compared to the CT treatment, the DOC, light POM-C, heavy POM-C, and MAOM in the 10–20 cm layer with ST treatment were 8, 34, 25, 4 and 37% higher, respectively. Residue retention in ST increased average rice, maize, and system yields by 9.2, 14.0, and 14.12%, respectively, when compared to CT. The system gross margin and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) were $1,515 ha−1 and 1.90 under conventional tillage to$1,696 ha−1 and 2.15 under strip-tillage practices. Thus, our study suggests that CA could be an appropriate practice for sustaining soil fertility and crop yield under R-M systems in light-textured soils or other similar soils in Bangladesh

Highly Oxygenated Flavonoids from the Leaves of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia (Solanaceae)

Nicotiana plumbaginifolia Viv. is an annual herb of the family Solanaceae, which grows abundantly in the weedy lands of Bangladesh. This plant possesses analgesic, antibacterial, anti-anxiety and hepatoprotective properties, and produces various phenolic compounds including flavonoids. The present study afforded determination of total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and for the first time, the isolation and characterization of highly oxygenated flavonoids, e.g., 3,3',5,6,7,8-hexamethoxy-4',5'-methylenedioxyflavone (1), 3,3',4',5',5,6,7,8-octamethoxyflavone (2, exoticin), 6,7,4',5'-dimethylenedioxy-3,5,3'-trimethoxyflavone (3) and (3,3',4',5,5',8-hexamethoxy-6,7-methylenedioxyflavone (4) from the leaves of N. plumbaginifolia. All these flavonoids are rather rare natural products, and only found in a few genera, e.g., Polygonum and Murraya. The structures of the isolated flavonoids were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, e.g., UV, 1H, 13C NMR, DEPT, HSQC, HMBC and MS

Stability of Piceatannol in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium by In Situ UPLC-MS/MS Analysis

Piceatannol is a stilbenoid, which has shown bioactivities in various cell culture models. However, its stability in cell culture medium is not clear. Here, UPLC-MS/MS was applied in situ to analyze the degradation products of piceatannol in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) and cell culture to investigate the compound's stability in DMEM. During the incubation with cell culture medium (at 4 and 37 °C), several piceatannol derivatives, such as an oxidation product ( m/z 243.06), a reduction product ( m/z 247.09), dimers ( m/z 485.12 and 487.14) and trimers ( m/z 727.18) were detected, which demonstrated the instability of piceatannol in cell culture conditions. To confirm if the new products during the incubation were generated due to the instability of piceatannol, ascorbic acid was added. The presence of ascorbic acid could significantly slow the degradation rate of piceatannol and the generation of piceatannol derivatives, which proved that the new products were generated by the degradation of piceatannol and indicated that the instability of piceatannol might be related to its antioxidant activity

Psychometric validation of the Bangla fear of COVID-19 Scale: confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis

The recently developed Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) is a seven-item uni-dimensional scale that assesses the severity of fears of COVID-19. Given the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh, we aimed to translate and validate the FCV-19S in Bangla. The forward-backward translation method was used to translate the English version of the questionnaire into Bangla. The reliability and validity properties of the Bangla FCV-19S were rigorously psychometrically evaluated (utilizing both confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis) in relation to socio-demographic variables, national lockdown variables, and response to the Bangla Health Patient Questionnaire. The sample comprised 8550 Bangladeshi participants. The Cronbach α value for the Bangla FCV-19S was 0.871 indicating very good internal reliability. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the uni-dimensional factor structure of the FCV-19S fitted well with the data. The FCV-19S was significantly correlated with the nine-item Bangla Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-90) (r = 0.406,

Isolation and Characterization of Antibacterial Compounds from <i>Aspergillus fumigatus:</i> An Endophytic Fungus from a Mangrove Plant of the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site, is one of the largest mangrove forests in one stretch. Mangrove plants from this forest are little studied for their endophytic fungi. In this study, we isolated fourteen endophytic fungi from the plants Ceriops decandra and Avicennia officinalis collected from the Sundarbans. Five of them were identified as Aspergillus sp. and one as Penicillium sp. by macroscopic and microscopic observation. Antibacterial activity of the crude extracts obtained from these endophytes was determined against Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using resazurin-based microtiter assay. The isolated endophytes showed varying degrees of antibacterial activity with MICs ranging between 5 and 0.078 mg/mL. Molecular identification of the most active endophyte revealed its identity as Aspergillus fumigatus obtained from the leaves of C. decandra. Acute toxicity study of the ethyl acetate extract of A. fumigatus in mice revealed no mortality even at the highest dose of 2000 mg/kg bodyweight, though some opposing results are found in the subacute toxicity study. The extract was subjected to silica gel and Sephadex column chromatography resulting in the isolation of three pure compounds. LC-MS analysis of these pure compounds revealed their identity as fumigaclavine C, azaspirofuran B, and fraxetin. This is the first report of fraxetin from A. fumigatus. All three identified compounds were previously reported for their antibacterial activity against different strains of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, the observed antibacterial activity of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of A. fumigatus could be due to the presence of these compounds. These results support the notion of investigating fungal endophytes from the Sundarbans for new antimicrobial compounds

GC–MS analysis and pharmacological evaluations of Phoenix sylvestris (Roxb.) seeds provide new insights into the management of oxidative stress and hyperglycemia

Phoenix sylvestris Roxb. (Arecaceae) seeds are used in the treatment of diabetes in the traditional system of medicine. The present study evaluated antihyperglycemic and antioxidant activities as well as the total phenolic and flavonoid content of the methanol extract of P. sylvestris seeds (MEPS). The constituents of the extract were identified by GC–MS analysis. MEPS demonstrated strong antioxidant activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (IC50 = 162.70 ± 14.99 μg) and nitric oxide (NO) (IC50 = 101.56 ± 9.46 μg/ml) free radicals. It also possesses a substantial amount of phenolics and flavonoids. It significantly (p < .05) reduced blood glucose levels in glucose-loaded and alloxan-induced diabetic mice at the doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg b.w., respectively. A total of 46 compounds were detected and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) analysis, among which 8-methylisoquinoline N-oxide (32.82%) was predominant. The phytochemical study by GC–MS revealed that the MEPS possesses compounds which could be related to its antidiabetic and antioxidant activities. To recapitulate, P. sylvestris seeds can be a very good option for antidiabetic and antioxidant activity though further studies are still recommended to figure out the responsible phytochemicals and establish their exact mechanism of action

Partnership and Capacity Building of Local Governance

Partnership is about sharing of power, responsibility and achievements. According to the World Bank Public Private Partnership (PPP) promoting group, ―partnership refer to informal and shortterm engagements of non-governmental organizations, the private sector and/or government agencies that join forces for a shared objective; to more formal, but still short-term private sector engagements for the provision of specific services, for example, annual outsourcing arrangements for janitorial services for a school or operations of the school cafeteria; to more complex contractual arrangements, such as build, operate, transfer regimes, where the private sector takes on considerable risk and remains engaged long term; or to full privatizations‖ (World Bank Group 2014, 29).© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Partnerships for the Goals. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71067-9_21-1.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Are we failing to protect threatened mangroves in the Sundarbans world heritage ecosystem?

The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world, is under threat from historical and future human exploitation and sea level rise. Limited scientific knowledge on the spatial ecology of the mangroves in this world heritage ecosystem has been a major impediment to conservation efforts. Here, for the first time, we report on habitat suitability analyses and spatial density maps for the four most prominent mangrove species - Heritiera fomes, Excoecaria agallocha, Ceriops decandra and Xylocarpus mekongensis. Globally endangered H. fomes abundances declined as salinity increased. Responses to nutrients, elevation, and stem density varied between species. H. fomes and X. mekongensis preferred upstream habitats. E. agallocha and C. decandra preferred down-stream and mid-stream habitats. Historical harvesting had negative influences on H. fomes, C. decandra and X. mekongensis abundances. The established protected area network does not support the most suitable habitats of these threatened species. We therefore recommend a reconfiguration of the network to include these suitable habitats and ensure their immediate protection. These novel habitat insights and spatial predictions can form the basis for future forest studies and spatial conservation planning, and have implications for more effective conservation of the Sundarbans mangroves and the many other species that rely on them