A QTL study on late leaf spot and rust revealed one major QTL for molecular breeding for rust resistance in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Late leaf spot (LLS) and rust are two major foliar diseases of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) that often occur together leading to 50–70% yield loss in the crop. A total of 268 recombinant inbred lines of a mapping population TAG 24 × GPBD 4 segregating for LLS and rust were used to undertake quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. Phenotyping of the population was carried out under artificial disease epiphytotics. Positive correlations between different stages, high to very high heritability and independent nature of inheritance between both the diseases were observed. Parental genotypes were screened with 1,089 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, of which 67 (6.15%) were found polymorphic. Segregation data obtained for these markers facilitated development of partial linkage map (14 linkage groups) with 56 SSR loci. Composite interval mapping (CIM) undertaken on genotyping and phenotyping data yielded 11 QTLs for LLS (explaining 1.70–6.50% phenotypic variation) in three environments and 12 QTLs for rust (explaining 1.70–55.20% phenotypic variation). Interestingly a major QTL associated with rust (QTLrust01), contributing 6.90–55.20% variation, was identified by both CIM and single marker analysis (SMA). A candidate SSR marker (IPAHM 103) linked with this QTL was validated using a wide range of resistant/susceptible breeding lines as well as progeny lines of another mapping population (TG 26 × GPBD 4). Therefore, this marker should be useful for introgressing the major QTL for rust in desired lines/varieties of groundnut through marker-assisted backcrossing

Effect of Plant Crushing by Machine Traffic on Re-Generation of Multi-Cut Berseem Fodder

There are many soft stemmed multi-cut fodder crops (berseem, lucerne, stylo) grown in fodder production farms. Harvesting large areas of crop requires operation of heavy machinery in the field where crop is standing. A study was conducted to find out the crushing of plants by machinery and reduction in yield of crop in subsequent harvesting operation. Two types of harvesting machines viz. tractor operated cutter bar type fodder harvester and riding type engine operated fodder harvester were used for harvesting berseem during first three cuts of the crop. Plant crushing by the machinery was studied with number of plants falling in unit area of the path way of machinery. The growth pattern of plant crushed under tires was observed. In berseem field, one square meter area consisted of average 124.8 to 139.3 no. of plants during different cuts, out of which 34.03 to 52.0% plants were crushed by tyres in case of tractor operated harvester. Growth behaviour of crushed plants showed that there was tendency to heal the crushing of plant by tractor tyres. The visual demarcation between the crushed and not crushed plants reduced after four days. The trend of healing continued and after 12 days after operation, there was no difference between the plants that came under tyres and the plants that did not come under tyres. The yield of harvested crop was on par with manually harvested crop during 1st, 2nd and 3rd harvesting operation.I. C. A. R

Computationally Efficient Sub-optimal Mid Course Guidance Using Model Predictive Static Programming (MPSP)

For a homing interceptor, suitable initial condition must be achieved by mid course guidance scheme for its maximum effectiveness. To achieve desired end goal of any mid course guidance scheme, two point boundary value problem must be solved online with all realistic constrain. A Newly developed computationally efficient technique named as MPSP (Model Predictive Static Programming) is utilized in this paper for obtaining suboptimal solution of optimal mid course guidance. Time to go uncertainty is avoided in this formulation by making use of desired position where midcourse guidance terminate and terminal guidance takes over. A suitable approach angle towards desired point also can be specified in this guidance law formulation. This feature makes this law particularly attractive because warhead effectiveness issue can be indirectly solved in mid course phase

Quaternion Error Free Estimation of Reentry Ballistic Targets

A common approach followed in state estimation of reentry ballistic targets is to formulate the problem where the process model is written in the Earth fixed inertial frame, where as the measurement model is written in the body frame of the interceptor. In such a formulation, to relate the states with the measurement vector, a transformation matrix is required to transform the position and velocity vectors from inertial frame to body frame and vice-versa. This matrix is constructed using the attitude quaternion information of the interceptor as obtained from its inertial navigation system. In a practical situation, however, when the time of flight is high, the navigation error build up is usually large, which introduces large errors in the transformation matrix. Due to this, the performance of the estimator is found to be not very good, even though the seeker gives good measurement data. To avoid this problem, a new estimation formulation is proposed in this paper, where the process model is written in the body frame of the interceptor. This formulation needs body rate information of the interceptor instead of the attitude quaternion, which does not degrade much with the time of flight. Hence, this new formulation is quite effective in estimating the target states accurately, thereby improving the mission performance substantially, even in presence of large navigation errors in the attitude quaternion. Extensive simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

An EKF Based Generalized Estimation Approach for Evasive Targets

A generalized approach is presented in this paper for accurately estimating the states of the targets, which can either be non-maneuvering or undergoing various maneuvers, including the most evasive ‘barrel roll maneuver'. A nine state Extended Kalman filter (EKF) formulation is presented here with three relative positions, three relative velocities, barrel frequency of aircraft, axial acceleration and maneuvering coefficient. A significant advantage of present model is that it is quite generic in nature and can capture barrel roll as well as other maneuvers (including no maneuver) without any change of estimation formulation or tuning parameters. Extensive simulation studies with a predictive guidance shows that the new estimation formulation can lead to very good engagement performance with noisy RF seeker measurement parameters, namely gimbal angles, gimbal angle rates, range and range rate

Lead Angle Constrained Optimal Midcourse Guidance

A lead angle constrained optimal mid course guidance in this paper, which is quite important for missions with missiles with limited sen sor capability to detect and monitor the target. This guidance law not only achieves the minimum control effort, but also generates the desired optimal terminal angl es (in both pitch and yaw planes) that can lead to proper trajectory shaping to assure the desired lead angle during the midcourse. If both plane terminal lead angles are free, then this guidance will generate the desired terminal lead angles suc h that control effort can be minimized. If total lead angle is specified, then this guid ance law solves the constraint optimal problem to find the lead angles in both plane optimally. In a case where both lead angles are specified, this guidance law will achieves this with minimum control effort. For all the three cases close form solutions for the lateral acceleration command has been obtained. Simulation results for all three cases are quite very promising. Robustness and generalized nature of this guidance law have also been demonstrated through extensive simulations in this pape

L-1 Adaptive Dynamic Inversion Missile Autopilot with PI Structure and Adaptive Sampling

An L-1 adaptive controller with piecewise continuous (PC) adaptation law augmenting a nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) autopilot has been applied to a highly agile, tail-controlled missile. Here proportional integral (PI) structure has been used in inner loop for better tracking and robustness. Adaptive sampling has also been introduced for less computational load. Firstly a two time scale separated NDI autopilot is designed to control the pitch and yaw accelerations in the body-fixed frame while maintaining a desired roll angle. The baseline NDI autopilot is augmented with proposed L-1 Adaptive autopilot using PI structure and adaptive sampling to overcome the potential performance degradation due to modeling uncertainties. The advantages of proposed autopilot are demonstrated via simulations of a high-fidelity six-DOF missile model, in which worst case uncertainties are considered

Ambient mass spectrometry technologies for the detection of falsified drugs

Increased globalization of the pharmaceutical market has facilitated the unobstructed and fast spread of poor-quality medicines. Poor-quality medicines include spurious/falsely-labeled/falsified/counterfeit drugs (those that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to content and/or origin), substandard drugs (legitimate drugs that do not meet their quality specifications), and degraded medicines (good quality pharmaceuticals that suffered from deterioration caused by improper storage or distribution). Consumption of poor-quality pharmaceuticals is likely to increase morbidity and mortality. Moreover, poor-quality drugs can also contribute to the development of resistance to anti-infective medicines and decrease the quality of health care received by patients. To assess the true prevalence of poor quality drugs, tiered technology approaches enabling the testing of drug samples collected at points of sale are required, thus ensuring public health standards. High throughput and high resolution ambient mass spectrometry techniques allow investigation of pharmaceuticals with minimal or no sample preparation, thus possessing capabilities to survey a large number of drug samples for their authenticity. © 2014 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Ambient mass spectrometry technologies for the detection of falsified drugs

Increased globalization of the pharmaceutical market has facilitated the unobstructed and fast spread of poor-quality medicines. Poor-quality medicines include spurious/falsely-labeled/falsified/counterfeit drugs (those that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to content and/or origin), substandard drugs (legitimate drugs that do not meet their quality specifications), and degraded medicines (good quality pharmaceuticals that suffered from deterioration caused by improper storage or distribution). Consumption of poor-quality pharmaceuticals is likely to increase morbidity and mortality. Moreover, poor-quality drugs can also contribute to the development of resistance to anti-infective medicines and decrease the quality of health care received by patients. To assess the true prevalence of poor quality drugs, tiered technology approaches enabling the testing of drug samples collected at points of sale are required, thus ensuring public health standards. High throughput and high resolution ambient mass spectrometry techniques allow investigation of pharmaceuticals with minimal or no sample preparation, thus possessing capabilities to survey a large number of drug samples for their authenticity. © 2014 The Royal Society of Chemistry