Comparison of Growth and yield of dry seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.) in natural and conventional farming systems

The application of chemical fertilizers is costly and gradually lead to the environmental problems. Natural farming is becoming an increasingly important aspect of environmentally sound sustainable agriculture. In this regard, an experiment was conducted during Maha season in 2014 from November to February at Vaharai DS Division, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The experiment consisted of two farming systems; natural farming and conventional farming and was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with twelve replications. All the crop management practices from land preparation to harvesting were done for each farming systems separately. Bg 352 rice variety was used for the experiment. Growth parameters and yield parameters were taken at fourteen weeks after sowing by destructive random sampling method. The results revealed that natural farming system significantly (p<0.05) increased the tested parameters such as plant height, total number of tillers, total number of productive tillers, total leaf area per plant, root length, dry weight of root, Panicle length, total number of spikelets per panicle, number of filled spikelets per panicle, hundred grain weight along with yield over conventional farming system. Further, economic analysis of the data presented in this study showed that natural farming method for rice cultivation is the most economical and attractive option for farming community. The high yield grain and less cost of production per hectare were noted in natural farms (B/C= 4.82) as compared with conventional farms (B/C=2.39). Therefore, it could be concluded that the adoption of natural farming technology improves rice farmer’s profit along with livelihood and this eventually reduces poverty through environmental friendly way. KEYWORDS: Conventional farming, economic analysis, natural Farming, rice, yiel

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Surface photosensitization of ZnO by ZnS to enhance the photodegradation efficiency for organic pollutants

Abstract It is challenging to develop a material which has low cost, high activity, good stability and recyclability under light exposure. Apart from these properties, the photocatalyst should also have good visible region absorbance and low electron-hole pair recombination rate. Keeping all this in view, we have designed a simple scalable synthesis of ZnO–ZnS heterostructures for the photocatalytic treatment of industrial waste (p-nitrophenol and methyl orange). The ZnO–ZnS heterostructures are synthesized via a solvent-free route by thermal annealing of solid-state mixture of ZnO and thiourea (a sulphur source) which results in ZnO–ZnS core shell kind of heterostructure formation. The interface formation between the ZnO–ZnS heterostructure favored the band-gap reduction in comparison to the bare ZnO and ZnS nanoparticles. Further, these ZnO–ZnS heterostructures were utilized as a photocatalyst for the degradation of toxic phenolic molecules (p-nitrophenol) and harmful organic dyes (methyl orange) present in the water under the light exposure (> 390 nm)

Unveiling the Electrochemical Mechanism of High-Capacity Negative Electrode Model-System BiFeO 3 in Sodium-Ion Batteries: An In Operando XAS Investigation

Careful development and optimization of negative electrode (anode) materials for Na-ion batteries (SIBs) are essential, for their widespread applications requiring a long-term cycling stability. BiFeO$_3$ (BFO) with a LiNbO$_3$-type structure (space group R3c) is an ideal negative electrode model system as it delivers a high specific capacity (770 mAh g$^{–1}$), which is proposed through a conversion and alloying mechanism. In this work, BFO is synthesized via a sol–gel method and investigated as a conversion-type anode model-system for sodium-ion half-cells. As there is a difference in the first and second cycle profiles in the cyclic voltammogram, the operating mechanism of charge–discharge is elucidated using in operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy. In the first discharge, Bi is found to contribute toward the electrochemical activity through a conversion mechanism (Bi$^{3+}$ → Bi$^0$), followed by the formation of Na–Bi intermetallic compounds. Evidence for involvement of Fe in the charge storage mechanism through conversion of the oxide (Fe$^{3+}$) form to metallic Fe and back during discharging/charging is also obtained, which is absent in previous literature reports. Reversible dealloying and subsequent oxidation of Bi and oxidation of Fe are observed in the following charge cycle. In the second discharge cycle, a reduction of Bi and Fe oxides is observed. Changes in the oxidation states of Bi and Fe, and the local coordination changes during electrochemical cycling are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the optimization of cycling stability of BFO is carried out by varying binders and electrolyte compositions. Based on that, electrodes prepared with the Na-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) binder are chosen for optimization of the electrolyte composition. BFO–CMC electrodes exhibit the best electrochemical performance in electrolytes containing fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) as the additive. BFO–CMC electrodes deliver initial capacity values of 635 and 453 mAh g$^{–1}$ in the Na-insertion (discharge) and deinsertion (charge) processes, respectively, in the electrolyte composition of 1 M NaPF$_6$ in EC/DEC (1:1, v/v) with a 2% FEC additive. The capacity values stabilize around 10th cycle and capacity retention of 73% is observed after 60 cycles with respect to the 10th cycle charge capacity