Effect of paclobutrazol and sucrose on in vitro cormel formation in gladiolus

Studies with excised shoots of six gladiolus cultivars viz., Bellariana, Blue Moon, Cream White, Friendship, Her Majesty and Top Brass indicated that paclobutrazol enhanced early cormel initiation and development. The interaction between paclobutrazol and sucrose was significant for cormel size. Supplementation of 10 mg L–1 paclobutrazol and 120 g L–1 sucrose to Murashige and Skoog’s medium favored formation of bigger cormels. Among the cultivars response to exogenous sucrose supplementation varied significantly and absence of paclobutrazol produced longer leaves, roots and smaller cormels

Isolation of Machine Foundations by Barriers

Experimental investigation has been carried out to study the effects due to isolation of foundations subjected to vertical vibration on the displacement amplitude. Tests were conducted on an embedded footing of contact area 45 x 45cm. with different embedments and some on the surface of natural ground. Three isolation barriers viz. air gap, saw dust and sand of various depths were used. From the results of the investigation it was found that an open trench (air gap) around the foundation reduces the displacement amplitude around the footing considerably to an extent of about 75%. Saw dust as a barrier, although not as good as air gap, performs better when compared to sand. The coefficient of attenuation is not a constant for a soil medium but varies with static and dynamic loads. The resonant frequency decreases and resonant amplitude increases by providing isolating barriers

Comparative effectiveness of inter-simple sequence repeat and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers to study genetic diversity of Indian Garcinia

A study to compare the effectiveness of inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiling was carried out with a total of 65 DNA samples using 12 species of Indian Garcinia. ISSR and RAPD profiling were performed with 19 and 12 primers, respectively. ISSR markers generated a total number of 156 bands with 92 polymorphic bands, while RAPD markers produced a total of 134 bands with 80 polymorphic bands. Percentage of polymorphic loci in RAPD profiling was 60.4% while in ISSR profiling, it was 59.3%. Heterogeneity index was similar for the markers, 0.86 for ISSR and 0.89 for RAPD, indicating that both the marker systems are effective in determining polymorphism in Garcinia. ISSR markers showed clear distinction among the species whereas RAPD markers showed segregation based on geographical location as well as species based.Key words: Garcinia, genetic diversity, inter-simple sequence repeats, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA, principal component analysis

Biotechnology of Coconut

Biotechnology of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) is a relatively recent area compared to similar work in other crops. It started as tissue culture in the eighties, which led to the development of molecular markers in late nineties with the use of RAPDs. Since then, considerable research has been carried out and protocols for tissue culture regeneration almost perfected. Embryo culture is being very successfully applied to germplasm transfer. Molecular markers such as AFLP, SSR, etc., were used to develop QTL maps. The entire gamut of coconut biotechnology is under review in this paper

Body composition analysis with bioelectric impedance in adult Indians with ESRD: Comparison with healthy population

Evaluation of body composition provides clinically useful information in several diseases including chronic kidney disease. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) is a simple, cheap, and noninvasive tool for monitoring body composition. We performed BIA in 451 healthy adults and 162 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Resistance (R) and reactance (Xc) values were obtained at 50-kHz frequency using a tetrapolar impedance meter. Body compartments were derived using population-specific regression equations. Phase angles (arctan Xc/R) were calculated and impedance vector distribution was determined using the RXc graph method. Compared to healthy population, ESRD patients had similar post-dialysis resistance with lower reactance and phase angle, indicating decreased soft tissue mass and inadequate ultrafiltration. BIA equations estimated decreased fat mass index and intracellular water, whereas the total body and extracellular water percentages were increased. Sex-specific reference RXc plots with 95, 75, and 50% tolerance ellipses were drawn for the healthy population. A significant difference was noted in the vector positions and 95% confidence ellipses of the two sexes and body mass indices of ≤25 and >25. In conclusion, we present the reference BIA parameters for Indian population. ESRD patients show significant body compartment alterations. The RXc score graph can differentiate ESRD patient from normal controls and can be used to monitor nutrition and hydration status

Identification of suitable areas and effect of climate change on ginger - a GIS study.

Secondary data of area, production and productivity of ginger have consistently shown aincreasing trend during the last 3 decades. Increase in area is not always in proportion withe increase in production. Thirty years area and production curves of the important ginggrowing states are compared with the Eco-crop suitability model which indicated thsuitability has direct impact on production. Orissa, West Bengal, Mizoram and Kerala avery highly suitable while North western states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, UttarpradesMadhya Pradesh are marginally suitable or unsuitable. North eastern and south westestates are ideally highly suitable for ginger cultivation. Future prediction of Eco-crop  modshows, if the temperature increase by 1.5 to 2ºC, the suitability of Orissa and West Bengwill reduce drastically from high suitability to marginally suitable, indicating the effect climate change. &nbsp

Capacity of Asynchronous Random-Access Scheduling in Wireless Networks

Abstract—We study the throughput capacity of wireless networks which employ (asynchronous) random-access scheduling as opposed to deterministic scheduling. The central question we answer is: how should we set the channel-access probability for each link in the network so that the network operates close to its optimal throughput capacity? We design simple and distributed channel-access strategies for random-access networks which are provably competitive with respect to the optimal scheduling strategy, which is deterministic, centralized, and computationally infeasible. We show that the competitiveness of our strategies are nearly the best achievable via random-access scheduling, thus establishing fundamental limits on the performance of randomaccess. A notable outcome of our work is that random access compares well with deterministic scheduling when link transmission durations differ by small factors, and much worse otherwise. The distinguishing aspects of our work include modeling and rigorous analysis of asynchronous communication, asymmetry in link transmission durations, and hidden terminals under arbitrary link-conflict based wireless interference models. I

Scattering of polarized laser light by an atomic gas in free space: a QSDE approach

We propose a model, based on a quantum stochastic differential equation (QSDE), to describe the scattering of polarized laser light by an atomic gas. The gauge terms in the QSDE account for the direct scattering of the laser light into different field channels. Once the model has been set, we can rigorously derive quantum filtering equations for balanced polarimetry and homodyne detection experiments, study the statistics of output processes and investigate a strong driving, weak coupling limit.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Stability of Hill Slopes and Foundation Condition at Radio Astronomy Centre Ootacamand

Stability aspects of hill slopes and foundation considerations of Radio Astronomy Centre at Ootacamand are described. The analysis of slopes indicated that if joints are not covered, the material in joints may lose strength and the slopes may enter a state of instability. Footings with inclined legs were found to resist the horizontal forces, pull and overturning movements. Lime piles adopted for strengthening soft material at one of the tower locations were found to be effective