72 research outputs found
Exogenous application of gibberellic acid improves the maize crop productivity under scarce and sufficient soil moisture condition
Drought stress creates
imbalance or deficiency of some growth
regulators in plants, which leads toward
reduced crop yield. Gibberellic acid is one
of the most important growth regulators in
plants, which improve drought tolerance in
plants under optimum concentration. A field
experiment was conducted under exogenous
application of gibberellic acid under normal
or drought condition and with or without
gibberellic acid application. Crop growth
and yield parameters were assesses during
the experimentation. Study revealed that
crop reduced growth in term of leaf area
index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), crop
growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate
(NAR) and total dry matter (TDM) under
drought condition, while these parameters
were improved with gibberellic acid
application. Similary, improved growth rate
resulted in better performance of yield
attributes (cob length, cob diameter, grains
per cob, grain weight and yield). Gibberellic
acid application improved the crop
performance at optimum irrigation, as well
as under reduced irrigation. Although
highest crop yield was recorded with
gibberellic acid application under optimum
irrigation level, while its application under
drought stress improved crop tolerance and
resulted in better crop yield, similar to
optimum irrigation level. Exogenous
application of gibberellic acid not only
improved the drought tolerance in maize,
but also increased the crop yield under
normal condition
The Merging of Two Dynasties—Identification of an African Cotton Leaf Curl Disease-Associated Begomovirus with Cotton in Pakistan
Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is a severe disease of cotton that occurs in Africa and Pakistan/northwestern India. The disease is caused by begomoviruses in association with specific betasatellites that differ between Africa and Asia. During survey of symptomatic cotton in Sindh (southern Pakistan) Cotton leaf curl Gezira virus (CLCuGV), the begomovirus associated with CLCuD in Africa, was identified. However, the cognate African betasatellite (Cotton leaf curl Gezira betasatellite) was not found. Instead, two Asian betasatellites, the CLCuD-associated Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite (CLCuMB) and Chilli leaf curl betasatellite (ChLCB) were identified. Inoculation of the experimental plant species Nicotiana benthamiana showed that CLCuGV was competent to maintain both CLCuMB and ChLCB. Interestingly, the enations typical of CLCuD were only induced by CLCuGV in the presence of CLCuMB. Also in infections involving both CLCuMB and ChLCB the enations typical of CLCuMB were less evident. This is the first time an African begomovirus has been identified on the Indian sub-continent, highlight the growing threat of begomoviruses and particularly the threat of CLCuD causing viruses to cotton cultivation in the rest of the world
Time to endoscopy for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding: results from a prospective multicentre trainee-led audit
Background: Endoscopy within 24 hours of admission (early endoscopy) is a quality standard in acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB). We aimed to audit time to endoscopy outcomes and identify factors affecting delayed endoscopy (>24h of admission).Methods: This prospective multicentre audit enrolled patients admitted with AUGIB who underwent inpatient endoscopy between Nov-Dec 2017. Analyses were performed to identify factorsassociated with delayed endoscopy, and to compare patient outcomes, including length of stay and mortality rates, between early and delayed endoscopy groups.Results: Across 348 patients from 20 centres, the median time to endoscopy was 21.2h (IQR 12.0- 35.7), comprising median admission to referral and referral to endoscopy times of 8.1h (IQR 3.7- 18.1) and 6.7h (IQR 3.0-23.1) respectively. Early endoscopy was achieved in 58.9%, although this varied by centre (range: 31.0% - 87.5%, p=0.002). On multivariable analysis, lower Glasgow-Blatchford score, delayed referral, admissions between 7am-7pm or via the Emergency Department were independent predictors of delayed endoscopy. Early endoscopy was associated with reduced length of stay (median difference 1d; p= 0.004), but not 30-day mortality (p=0.344).Conclusions: The majority of centres did not meet national standards for time to endoscopy. Strategic initiatives involving acute care services may be necessary to improve this outcome
Implementation consideration of M2M4 SINR estimation algorithm
Efficient use of wireless spectrum is needed, due to enormous increase in wireless devices during last few years. In this context lot of effort is being done to make an intelligent and cognitive radio system, which can use the spectrum opportunistically. The ratio of the signal average power to the interference plus noise average power is called signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). SINR is one of the important parameters that can help in developing cognitive radio systems, because on the basis of its calculation the spectrum can be utilized efficiently.
The principle goal of this thesis is to implement a SINR estimation algorithm for a cognitive radio network (CRN) test-bed. The proposed SINR estimation algorithm is second order moment and fourth order moment (M2M4) SINR estimation algorithm, where M2 and M4 are the second order moment and fourth order moments respectively. The M2M4 estimation algorithm is one of the non-data-aided (NDA) estimation algorithms. Hence, the algorithm takes the received signal as input and calculates the second and fourth moments blindly. The average signal power and average interference plus noise power can be calculated from these second and fourth order moments, their ratio yields the SINR. The M2M4 estimation algorithm is first simulated in MATLAB, and then it is designed for system generator model to draw fair comparison between simulations and system generator model. The experimental evaluation revealed that despite of the word length constraint in the system generator model, it performs reasonably well when compared to the ideal (MATLAB) solution.
The M2M4 estimation algorithm is tested and verified by different test cases, to ensure its validity. The algorithm is tested for different signal strengths. The result shows M2M4 is an efficient algorithm for the SINR estimation. However, the proposed architecture could not fit into the aimed hardware because of heavy design since it consume more resources than available
Numerical Analysis of a Sacrificial Cladding Panel Subjected to Localized Near-Field Impulsive Load
Extensive research focus had been given to sacrificial sandwiched panels used
to mitigate the effects of blast loads. This is due to their ability to distribute the load
and absorbing significant portions of the blast energy. This numerical research studies
the behavior of sacrificial sandwiched panels with axially oriented octagonal tapered
core tubes subjected to near-field impulsive blast loading. The deformation behavior
and a number of assessment parameters consisting of the peak force, stroke efficiency,
energy absorption, and core efficiency were analyzed. The developed deformations
modes were mainly influenced by the top plate and tube thickness. Tubes of a 5° taper
performed unfavorably, exhibiting increased peak force and lower energy absorption.
Moreover, panels of top plate thickness of 4 mm exhibited higher stroke efficiency as
compared to panels of lower thickness. Furthermore, the top plate and tube thickness
recorded the highest influence on energy absorption. Finally, a percentage increase of
73.5% in core efficiency was observed for thick-plated panels as compared to thin
plated ones
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Mosquito-borne diseases cause a huge burden on public health worldwide. The viruses that cause these diseases impact the behavioural traits of mosquitoes, including locomotion and feeding. Understanding these traits can help in improving existing epidemiological models and developing effective mosquito traps. However, it is difficult to understand the flight behaviour of mosquitoes due to their small sizes, complicated poses, and seemingly random moving patterns. Currently, no open-source tool is available that can detect and track resting or flying mosquitoes. Our work presented in this paper provides a detection and trajectory estimation method using the Mask RCNN algorithm and spline interpolation, which can efficiently detect mosquitoes and track their trajectories with higher accuracy. The method does not require special equipment and works excellently even with low-resolution videos. Considering the mosquito size, the proposed method’s detection performance is validated using a tracker error and a custom metric that considers the mean distance between positions (estimated and ground truth), pooled standard deviation, and average accuracy. The results showed that the proposed method could successfully detect and track the flying (≈ 96% accuracy) as well as resting (100% accuracy) mosquitoes. The performance can be impacted in the case of occlusions and background clutters. Overall, this research serves as an efficient open-source tool to facilitate further examination of mosquito behavioural traits.</div
Error tracking for scenario 1.
Mosquito-borne diseases cause a huge burden on public health worldwide. The viruses that cause these diseases impact the behavioural traits of mosquitoes, including locomotion and feeding. Understanding these traits can help in improving existing epidemiological models and developing effective mosquito traps. However, it is difficult to understand the flight behaviour of mosquitoes due to their small sizes, complicated poses, and seemingly random moving patterns. Currently, no open-source tool is available that can detect and track resting or flying mosquitoes. Our work presented in this paper provides a detection and trajectory estimation method using the Mask RCNN algorithm and spline interpolation, which can efficiently detect mosquitoes and track their trajectories with higher accuracy. The method does not require special equipment and works excellently even with low-resolution videos. Considering the mosquito size, the proposed method’s detection performance is validated using a tracker error and a custom metric that considers the mean distance between positions (estimated and ground truth), pooled standard deviation, and average accuracy. The results showed that the proposed method could successfully detect and track the flying (≈ 96% accuracy) as well as resting (100% accuracy) mosquitoes. The performance can be impacted in the case of occlusions and background clutters. Overall, this research serves as an efficient open-source tool to facilitate further examination of mosquito behavioural traits.</div
Error tracking for scenario 3.
Mosquito-borne diseases cause a huge burden on public health worldwide. The viruses that cause these diseases impact the behavioural traits of mosquitoes, including locomotion and feeding. Understanding these traits can help in improving existing epidemiological models and developing effective mosquito traps. However, it is difficult to understand the flight behaviour of mosquitoes due to their small sizes, complicated poses, and seemingly random moving patterns. Currently, no open-source tool is available that can detect and track resting or flying mosquitoes. Our work presented in this paper provides a detection and trajectory estimation method using the Mask RCNN algorithm and spline interpolation, which can efficiently detect mosquitoes and track their trajectories with higher accuracy. The method does not require special equipment and works excellently even with low-resolution videos. Considering the mosquito size, the proposed method’s detection performance is validated using a tracker error and a custom metric that considers the mean distance between positions (estimated and ground truth), pooled standard deviation, and average accuracy. The results showed that the proposed method could successfully detect and track the flying (≈ 96% accuracy) as well as resting (100% accuracy) mosquitoes. The performance can be impacted in the case of occlusions and background clutters. Overall, this research serves as an efficient open-source tool to facilitate further examination of mosquito behavioural traits.</div
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