Estimation of genetic diversity in rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes using SSR markers and morphological characters

Thirty rice genotypes comprising land races, pure lines, somaclones, breeding lines and varieties specifically adapted to costal saline environments were characterized by SSR markers and morphological characters in this study. Out of 35 primers of SSR markers, 28 were found to be polymorphic. The PIC value ranged from 0.064 (RM 274) to 0.72 (RM 580) with an average of 0.46. The Jaccard’s similarity coefficient ranged from 0.42 to 0.90. At the genetic similarity of 56% the genotypes were grouped into five clusters. PCA components explained 41.6% of variation. There was overlapping of tolerant genotypes and susceptible genotypes within the cluster. Morphological traits of each genotype were measured on five randomly chosen plants. The matrix of average taxonomic distance was estimated using Euclidian distance. The average taxonomic distance ranged from 1.5 to 7.78. At a Euclidean distance of 3.49, the 30 genotypes were grouped into IV clusters. The clustering pattern clearly grouped the genotypes based on their response to salinity and clustering was not based ontheir geographical origin. PCA components explained 38.4% of variation

On determining number and metric dimension of zero-divisor graphs

In this article, explicit formulas for finding the determining number and the metric dimension of the zero-divisor graph of Z_n and non-Boolean semisimple rings are given. In the case of Boolean rings, an upper bound of the determining number and the metric dimension of zero-divisor graph is determined. Further, the determining number and the metric dimension of some important graphs other than zero-divisor graphs, are proved and the open problem by Boutin, regarding the determining number of graphs is settled.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Poetical discourse analysis of a Tamil song Ovvoru Puukkalumee

This study is an attempt to analyze the Tamil movie song ‘Ovvoru PuukkaLumee ’ meaning ‘every flower’ from the Tamil movie 'Autograph'. This song is one of the popular songs of P. Vijay, a Tamil lyricist. The texture discourse of this song will be analyzed in terms of grammatical and lexical usages found by making use of discourse analysis

Screening of Sunflower Genotypes for Reaction to Alternaria Leaf Blight Disease across Multi-environments using Pooled Analysis

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an oilseed crop with potential health benefits as a source of oil and dietary fiber. The productivity of sunflower is hampered by both biotic and abiotic stresses caused due to climate changes. So far, the available gene pool is having moderately resistant lines. In the present study, we evaluated two screening methods by artificially challenging the plants with the causative agent A. helianthi. Significant changes in disease severity have been observed across 160 pre-breeding lines of sunflower, including the susceptible check, Morden in three different seasons. Among the160 pre-breeding lines derived from a mutant population of sunflower cv. Morden, 6.25 and 5.63 % of lines showed less leaf blight disease incidence under in vivo and in vitro environments respectively. Moreover, 44.38 % of the sunflower pre breeding lines demonstrated field tolerance with disease severity in the scale of 5. The promising accessions evaluated in our studies by whole plant assay method and detached leaf technique includes KSFI 19, KSFI 24, KSFI 147, KSFI 56, KSFI 120, KSFI 88, KSFI 152, KSFI 51 and KSFI 115. Therefore, these sunflower lines, could be employed for introgression of resistance genes against leaf blight disease in sunflower cultivars through marker assisted breeding strategies

WPO-Net: Windowed Pose Optimization Network for Monocular Visual Odometry Estimation.

Visual odometry is the process of estimating incremental localization of the camera in 3-dimensional space for autonomous driving. There have been new learning-based methods which do not require camera calibration and are robust to external noise. In this work, a new method that do not require camera calibration called the "windowed pose optimization network" is proposed to estimate the 6 degrees of freedom pose of a monocular camera. The architecture of the proposed network is based on supervised learning-based methods with feature encoder and pose regressor that takes multiple consecutive two grayscale image stacks at each step for training and enforces the composite pose constraints. The KITTI dataset is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The proposed method yielded rotational error of 3.12 deg/100 m, and the training time is 41.32 ms, while inference time is 7.87 ms. Experiments demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed method to other state-of-the-art related works which shows the novelty of the proposed technique

Yield and fibre quality components analysis in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) under salinity

Cotton being an important cash crop of India plays a distinguished role in energizing the economy of the country by fetching appreciable amount of foreign exchange annually. The cotton production of country is improving significantly but the yield per unit area is still lower than that of the other countries due to some biotic and abiotic factors. Amongst the abiotic stresses, salinity is a serious threat next to drought. Keeping in view, the present study was conducted to assess the salt tolerance of 32 popular upland varieties released for general cultivation between 1980 and 2001 in India. The study was carried out in normal as well as saline-alkaline condition; in which salinity were created using bore well water irrigation and the average electrical conductivity level of bore well water is 3.10 ds/m. The 32 upland cotton genotypes under both salinity and normal conditions revealed high GCV and genetic gain for number of bolls per plant, boll weight, lint yield per plant, 2.5 per cent span length, leaf area index, Na-K ratio and seed cotton yield and these traits could be improved by simple selection. Correlation and path analysis studies revealed that the seed cotton yield was highly influenced by lint yield per plant in both normal and salinealkaline condition. Significant positive correlations exists between Bartlett's rate index with uniformity ratio, 2.5 per cent span length with bundle strength, uniformity ratio with micronaire and elongation percent, specific leaf area with leaf area index. These results clearly indicated that selection for any one of these traits might lead to concurrent improvement of other traits as well as seed cotton yield. The characters boll weight (-0.347), ginning out turn (-0.528), 2.5% span length (-0.312) and uniformity ratio (-0.440) registered high order negative direct effect on seed cotton yield. This result further confirms the negative association between the quality and yield

A Novel Disulfide-Rich Protein Motif from Avian Eggshell Membranes

Under the shell of a chicken egg are two opposed proteinaceous disulfide-rich membranes. They are fabricated in the avian oviduct using fibers formed from proteins that are extensively coupled by irreversible lysine-derived crosslinks. The intractability of these eggshell membranes (ESM) has slowed their characterization and their protein composition remains uncertain. In this work, reductive alkylation of ESM followed by proteolytic digestion led to the identification of a cysteine rich ESM protein (abbreviated CREMP) that was similar to spore coat protein SP75 from cellular slime molds. Analysis of the cysteine repeats in partial sequences of CREMP reveals runs of remarkably repetitive patterns. Module a contains a C-X4-C-X5-C-X8-C-X6 pattern (where X represents intervening non-cysteine residues). These inter-cysteine amino acid residues are also strikingly conserved. The evolutionarily-related module b has the same cysteine spacing as a, but has 11 amino acid residues at its C-terminus. Different stretches of CREMP sequences in chicken genomic DNA fragments show diverse repeat patterns: e.g. all a modules; an alternation of a-b modules; or an a-b-b arrangement. Comparable CREMP proteins are found in contigs of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) and in the oviparous green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis). In all these cases the long runs of highly conserved modular repeats have evidently led to difficulties in the assembly of full length DNA sequences. Hence the number, and the amino acid lengths, of CREMP proteins are currently unknown. A 118 amino acid fragment (representing an a-b-a-b pattern) from a chicken oviduct EST library expressed in Escherichia coli is a well folded, highly anisotropic, protein with a large chemical shift dispersion in 2D solution NMR spectra. Structure is completely lost on reduction of the 8 disulfide bonds of this protein fragment. Finally, solid state NMR spectra suggest a surprising degree of order in intact ESM fibers

Reproduction in the deep-sea penaeoid shrimp Aristeus alcocki Ramadan, 1938 (Decapoda: Penaeoidea: Aristeidae) from southwestern India

The Arabian red shrimp, Aristeus alcocki Ramadan, 1938, is one of the targets of commercial trawlers operating since 2000 along the Indian coasts at depths of 200–850 m. We report for the first time on the reproductive biology, insemination frequency, ovarian maturation, gonadosomatic index (GSI), size at maturity, and fecundity of A. alcocki investigated macroscopically and validated histologically using monthly trawl samples from the southwestern coast of India. Females have an open thelycum with five gonad developmental stages (I to V) and two stages (I and II) in males. A total of 4,170 specimens were examined and 68.6% of the females had been inseminated (carapace length (CL) 22.0–53.0 mm), predominantly during January to May. Females in stage I (immature) measured on average CL 25.5 ± 0.87 mm, those in stages IV and V (mature) CL 41.5 ± 0.62 mm. Immature males were smaller, mean CL 20.5 ± 0.5 mm. Size at first sexual maturity for females was estimated as CL 35.07 mm (total length (TL) 120–170 mm) and the inseminated specimens (CL50is) were mature at CL 31.45 mm using a non-linear method. The smallest mature female was CL 35 mm, whereas the size at maturity (CL50ms) of males was estimated as CL 19.6 mm (TL 75–96 mm). We also report synchronous oocyte development and continuous spawning activity with a peak during January to April. Information on the reproduction of this deep-water shrimp will help fishery managers estimate the stock sustainability and develop resource management measures

Homozygous R627W mutations in POLG cause mitochondrial DNA depletion leading to encephalopathy, seizures and stroke-like episodes

Mutations in the mitochondrial DNA maintenance gene POLG (DNA Polymerase Gamma, Catalytic Subunit), encoding mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (pol γ), are associated with an extremely broad phenotypic spectrum. We identified homozygous POLG c.1879C>T; p.R627W mutations in two siblings from a consanguineous South Asian family following targeted resequencing of 75 nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes. Both patients presented with encephalopathy, seizures and stroke-like episodes, and mitochondrial DNA depletion was confirmed in the proband's muscle tissue. Subsequent Sanger sequencing of POLG in a further 275 unrelated probands with genetically unconfirmed mitochondrial disease revealed a third unrelated proband with a similar phenotype harboring homozygous c.1879C>T; p.R627W mutations and a fourth patient, with a milder clinical disorder, harboring compound heterozygous POLG c.1879C>T; p.R627W and c.2341G>A; p.A781T mutations. Given endogamous practices in the Indian subcontinent, homozygous POLG c.1879C>T; p.R627W mutations should be excluded in South Asian patients presenting with encephalopathy, seizures and stroke-like episodes

OPTIMAL ALLOCATION OF TCSC DEVICES FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF ATC IN DEREGULATED POWER SYSTEM USING FLOWER POLLINATION ALGORITHM

This paper proposes a best possible distribution of Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC) to progress the Available Transfer Capability (ATC) of power transactions between sources and sink areas in the deregulated power system. The principle of TCSC device is to balance the inductive voltage drop in the line by an introduced capacitive voltage or in other words to alleviate the effective reactance of the transmission line to improve ATC in the network. The objective of the optimization is to find the preeminent location and parameters of TCSC devices by means of Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) for maximizing ATC and minimizing power losses and installation cost of TCSC device. The estimate of ATC using AC Power Transfer Distribution Factors (ACPTDF) based on the Newton Raphson power flow technique. The ACPTDFs are the consequent using sensitivity based approach for the system intact case and utilized to check the line flow limits during ATC fortitude. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated using an IEEE-30 bus test system for the evaluation of ATC in normal and line outage contingencies conditions for the preferred bilateral, multilateral and area wise transactions. The simulation outcome illustrates that the introduction of TCSC devices in an accurate location could increase ATC, fall in total losses and advance the line congestion as compared to the system without TCSC devices