Land characterization and soil-site suitability- evaluation of banana growing areas of South Gujarat, India

An investigation was carried out to evaluate the soil-site suitability and land characterization in some banana growing soils of South Gujarat. The soil belongs to Vertisols, Inceptisols and Enitisols soil order. Banana growing soil (Pedon-1) of Narmada district have ochric epipedon whereas, pedon 2, 3, 4,5, 6 and 9 are placed in order Inceptisols owing to ochric epipedon followed by cambic horizon (changes in colour, structure and texture). The presence of smectite mineralogy class, hyperthermic soil moisture regime and more than 30 per cent clay (but less than 60 per cent), pedon 7 and 8 classified as Inceptisols. In respect of land characteristics, The cumulative rating index of Jhagadia (PN2), Bardoli (PN5) and Palsana (P6) coming under highly sustainable (S2). Whereas, rest of the pedon i.e., Narmada (P1), Bharuch (PN3), Kamrej (PN4) Navsari (PN7), Jalalpore (PN8) and Valsad (PN9) are sustainable under high input (S3). Considering the soil-site suitability criteria, Bharuch (PN3), Palsana (PN6) and Jalalpore (PN8) are identified as highly suitable talukas for banana cultivation. While the Narmada (PN1), Jhagadia (PN2), Kamrej (PN4), Bardoli (PN5), Navsari (PN7) and Valsad (PN9) were categorized in moderately suitable class (S2). The suitability class can be improved if the correctable limitations (soil fertility characteristics) are altered through soil amelioration measures

Land characterization and soil-site suitability- evaluation of banana growing areas of South Gujarat, India

An investigation was carried out to evaluate the soil-site suitability and land characterization in some banana growing soils of South Gujarat. The soil belongs to Vertisols, Inceptisols and Enitisols soil order. Banana growing soil (Pedon-1) of Narmada district have ochric epipedon whereas, pedon 2, 3, 4,5, 6 and 9 are placed in order Inceptisols owing to ochric epipedon followed by cambic horizon (changes in colour, structure and texture). The presence of smectite mineralogy class, hyperthermic soil moisture regime and more than 30 per cent clay (but less than 60 per cent), pedon 7 and 8 classified as Inceptisols. In respect of land characteristics, The cumulative rating index of Jhagadia (PN2), Bardoli (PN5) and Palsana (P6) coming under highly sustainable (S2). Whereas, rest of the pedon i.e., Narmada (P1), Bharuch (PN3), Kamrej (PN4) Navsari (PN7), Jalalpore (PN8) and Valsad (PN9) are sustainable under high input (S3). Considering the soil-site suitability criteria, Bharuch (PN3), Palsana (PN6) and Jalalpore (PN8) are identified as highly suitable talukas for banana cultivation. While the Narmada (PN1), Jhagadia (PN2), Kamrej (PN4), Bardoli (PN5), Navsari (PN7) and Valsad (PN9) were categorized in moderately suitable class (S2). The suitability class can be improved if the correctable limitations (soil fertility characteristics) are altered through soil amelioration measures

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

Kinetics of reductive alkylation of p-phenylenediamine with methyl ethyl ketone using 3% Pt/Al<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> catalyst in a slurry reactor

Intrinsic kinetics of reductive alkylation of p-phenylenediamine (PPDA) with methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) using 3% Pt/Al2O3 catalyst was studied in a slurry reactor. The overall reaction involves a combination of parallel and consecutive reactions involving equilibrium noncatalytic (homogeneous) and catalytic (heterogeneous) steps. For the purpose of kinetic modeling, the effects of PPDA concentration, catalyst loading, agitation speed, and partial pressure of hydrogen were studied in a temperature range of 373-413 K. Quantitative criteria were used to ensure that the reaction occurred in the kinetic regime. Different rate equations have been considered based on the elementary steps involving catalytic and noncatalytic reactions, which lay stress on the different types of interactions occurring between the reactants and the active catalyst sites. The best-fit rate model has been proposed by rigorous optimization and model discrimination procedures, by simulating the experimental concentration-time data. For the best-fit model, the agreement between the predicted and experimental data was found to be very good over a wide range of operating conditions

A Kinetic Study on the Cu(0)-Catalyzed Ullmann-Type Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution C–O Coupling of Potassium Phenolate and 4‑Chloropyridine

A parametric study of the factors that influence C–O bond formation reactions has been carried out to elucidate the mechanism by which copper mediates the Ullmann-type nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) of 4-chloropyridine with potassium phenolate. Process conditions such as temperature, reactant concentrations, catalyst concentration, and amounts of solubilizing additive were varied to obtain the kinetic data. Both reactant and product concentration were found to have a significant effect on the reaction rate. An increased concentration of 18-crown-6 ether, used as an alkali metal solubilizing agent for potassium phenolate, proved to be effective only for low conversions, whereas an inhibited phenolate complexation at high product concentrations was observed. An apparent activation energy of 55 kJ·mol^–1 was observed for a Cu⁰ catalyst in the liquid-phase coupling reaction in a temperature range of 100–150 °C. It was demonstrated that a Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model is mechanistically most likely to be obeyed for this type of surface reaction. A maximum adsorption enthalpy on Cu was found for the product, 4-phenoxypyridine, followed by the reactants phenolate and 4-chloropyridine, respectively

Commercial Manufacturing of Propofol: Simplifying the Isolation Process and Control on Related Substances

A commercially viable manufacturing process for propofol (<b>1</b>) is described. The process avoids acid–base neutralization events during isolation of intermediate, 2,6-di-isopropylbenzoic acid (<b>3</b>) and crude propofol, and thus simplifies the synthesis on industrial scale to a considerable extent. Syntheses of five impurities/related substances (USP and EP) are also described