Evaluation of wheat chromosome translocation lines for high temperature stress tolerance at grain filling stage

Citation: Pradhan GP, Prasad PVV (2015) Evaluation of Wheat Chromosome Translocation Lines for High Temperature Stress Tolerance at Grain Filling Stage. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0116620. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116620High temperature (HT, heat) stress is detrimental to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. Wild relatives of bread wheat may offer sources of HT stress tolerance genes because they grow in stressed habitats. Wheat chromosome translocation lines, produced by introgressing small segments of chromosome from wild relatives to bread wheat, were evaluated for tolerance to HT stress during the grain filling stage. Sixteen translocation lines and four wheat cultivars were grown at optimum temperature (OT) of 22/14°C (day/night). Ten days after anthesis, half of the plants were exposed to HT stress of 34/26°C for 16 d, and other half remained at OT. Results showed that HT stress decreased grain yield by 43% compared with OT. Decrease in individual grain weight (by 44%) was the main reason for yield decline at HT. High temperature stress had adverse effects on leaf chlorophyll content and Fv/Fm; and a significant decrease in Fv/Fm was associated with a decline in individual grain weight. Based on the heat response (heat susceptibility indices, HSIs) of physiological and yield traits to each other and to yield HSI, TA5594, TA5617, and TA5088 were highly tolerant and TA5637 and TA5640 were highly susceptible to HT stress. Our results suggest that change in Fv/Fm is a highly useful trait in screening genotypes for HT stress tolerance. This study showed that there is genetic variability among wheat chromosome translocation lines for HT stress tolerance at the grain filling stage and we suggest further screening of a larger set of translocation lines

A Development of Travel Time Equation for Overland Flow as Affected by Vegetation

In overland flow water research, travel time is a significant parameter used in estimating peak discharge in channels or rivers. Overland flow is assumed to be in turbulent condition to estimate travel time using Manning’s Velocity Equation (MVE). When the flow is in a laminar condition, Grismer’s Laminar Mean Velocity Equation (GLMVE) is applied but fails to consider the roughness parameter. A review of the literature shows numerous equations for overland travel time, but there is no known equation that determines the mean velocity of overland flow under laminar condition with a roughness coefficient or other coefficient related to the effect vegetation has on the flow. In this study, a new overland flow travel time equation was developed by assuming laminar flow and incorporating Chezy’s vegetation roughness coefficient (��). In this paper, relationships were established between GLMVE and �� and that relationship is used to develop a new travel time equation. The new equation was employed on theoretical models for bare soil, corn growing on the soil, and Bermuda grass growing on the soil. Standard design tables for Darcy’s vegetation roughness coefficient (��) and Chezy’s vegetation roughness coefficient (��) were developed for selected crops at different slopes and crop residues. Validation of the equation was performed by comparing the calculated results for travel time with published data

Voltage control in micro-grids

It is estimated that around 400 million people have no electricity and will not have access to electrical power resources in the near future. This precludes improvements in living standards and business opportunities as without a stable and reliable electrical power source, connectivity to the global information network is not possible. Similarly without electrical power, mechanization for water supply and other agricultural business opportunities, medical resources other modern resources such as refrigeration are not possible. In such small communities, if access to the available energy is not equitable, then this can create ill-will that breaks down the traditional co-operative nature that is needed for success in rural India. The main aim of the project is to investigate the modelling system and strategy for an Indian stand-alone village based micro-grid and its voltage stability. This is to provide the local people’s electricity needs in the rural areas of that particular state. Micro-grid networks are equipped for producing sufficient energy to better the life ambitions of a small number of connected clients. The project also aims at approaching the challenge of rural electrification through the use of micro-grids within the local generation source. The proposed DC micro-grid has been modelled and simulated using the Homer Energy Software. This Homer energy software performs the various tasks in an accurate manner by choosing the best possible alternatives and sorting out them optimally. The results showed that the renewable energy sources would be feasible option when compared with conventional energy sources for distributing the power in rural parts of India. Finally the various capital costs have been presented for achieving the best economic viability of the proposed DC micro-grid system

Historical Synthesis-Analysis of Changes in Grain Nitrogen Dynamics in Sorghum

Citation: Ciampitti IA and Prasad PVV (2016) Historical Synthesis-Analysis of Changes in Grain Nitrogen Dynamics in Sorghum. Front. Plant Sci. 7:275. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00275Unraveling the complexity underpinning nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) can be physiologically approached via examining grain N sources and N internal efficiency (NIE) (yield to plant N content ratio). The main objective of this original research paper is to document and understand sorghum NUE and physiological mechanisms related to grain N dynamics. The study of different grain N sources, herein defined as the reproductive-stage shoot N remobilization (Remobilized N), reproductive-stage whole-plant N content (Reproductive N), and vegetative-stage whole-plant N content (Vegetative N), was pursued with the goal of synthesizing scientific literature for sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] crop. A detailed literature review was performed and summarized on sorghum NUE (13 studies; >250 means) with three Eras, defined by the year of the study, named as Old Era (1965–1980); Transient Era (1981–2000); and New Era (2001–2014). The most remarkable outcomes from this synthesis were: (1) overall historical (1965–2014) cumulative yield gain was >0.5 Mg ha-1 (yields >7 Mg ha-1); (2) NIE did not change across the same time period; (3) grain N concentration (grain %N) accounted for a large proportion (63%) of the variation in NIE; (4) NIE increased as grain %N diminished, regardless of the Eras; (5) Remobilized N was strongly (>R2 0.6) and positively associated with Vegetative N, presenting a unique slope across Eras; and (6) a trade-off was documented for the Remobilized N and Reproductive N (with large variation, <R2) relationship, suggesting complex regulation processes governing N forces. Improvements in NUE are subjected to the interplay between N supply (N from non-reproductive organs) and grain N demand, sink- (driven by grain number) and source-modulated (via restriction of grain N demand)

Context aware building energy management system with heterogeneous wireless network architecture

Energy wastage in buildings is to be minimized to reduce the carbon footprint of electricity. Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSAN) have been providing solutions for effective energy management within buildings. In this paper, we present a decisive server based context aware energy management system for smart buildings through Cyber Physical System (CPS) models. A layered architecture for building energy management is proposed to enhance scalability of the system. Heterogeneous wireless network based multiple radio gateway is proposed and implemented to make the system more adaptive to different applications catering to variable data rates. A smart room test bed is deployed in the IIT Hyderabad campus, where the decisive server collects various physical parameters through sensors, and based on the context generates wireless control messages to power electronics based actuators. Integrating context awareness into the system increases the efficiency in terms of energy savings and was observed to be significant, around 30%. The paper also presents a detailed analysis on the turnaround time required to realise the real saving after recovering investments. Applications are developed to integrate smart phones and tabloids providing web enablement to the end user. In this paper, each of the sensors and actuators in the smart room are associated with a state machine, which enables modelling of the system using Hybrid automata for future scope of applications

Experimental Investigation of a Trickle Bed Bioreactor: Hydrodynamics To Biodegradation

Experimental investigations have been carried out to study the performance of trickle bed bioreactor in degrading, the most common pollutant; phenol in synthetic water. The effect of key parameters that play predominate role such as hydrodynamic, mass transfer and microbial degradation were characterized under different conditions such as at various superficial liquid velocity, superficial gas velocity and phenol concentrations. The experiments were conducted in a laboratory scale trickle bed bioreactor with cylindrical plexiglas column of height 1.28 m and internal diameter of 0.091 m. Air, Phenol solutions and water and glass beads are used as gas, liquid and solid phases. In hydrodynamic studies, the effect of superficial liquid and gas velocities and concentration of phenol solutions on pressure drop and dynamic liquid saturation were studied. It was observed that both pressure drop and dynamic liquid saturation increases with superficial liquid velocity. With increasing superficial gas velocity pressure drop increases but dynamic liquid saturation decreases. In mass transfer studies, the effect of superficial liquid and gas velocities were studied. The results shows that both solid-liquid, gas-liquid mass transfer coefficients increase with increase in superficial liquid and gas velocities. Microbial degradation study on phenol was investigated by using a microbe, Pseudomonas putida in trickle bed bio reactor. The effect of initial phenol concentration (100 to 1500 ppm) and liquid flow rate (2-4 LPM) were studied. The analysis shows that the microbe, Pseudomonas putida is capable of degrading 1000 ppm phenol solution within 54 hours completely. The impact on rate of biodegradation was successfully determined between external mass transfer and biochemical reaction by correlating Colburn factor (JD) and Reynolds number (NRe) as (1 ) Re * n D J K N , in which n and K values for present investigation are 0.97, 5.7 respectivel

Improved handoff mechanism for infiltrating user equipments in composite networks

The wireless technology and communication plays a vital role in our daily life. The end users are expecting more Quality of Experience (QOE) rather than the Quality of Service (QOS). In order to provide full signal coverage the entire cellular network coverage is divided in to small cells called as femtocells, those femtocells are covered with femtocell antennas which are very small in size compared with regular antennas. With these femtocell coverage problem is solved but when a user moves from one location to another location the user has to switch from one base station to so many base station which cannot be maintained with present handoff methods. The present hand off methods working on distance calculation approach, the proposed method is based on the velocity and device direction calculated based on GPS location toward the Base Station (BS) of the device which may ping pong handoff effect

EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONING IN IMPROVING HIGH DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL (HDL-C) LEVEL AMONG TRAINED AND UNTRAINED WOMEN

The intention of this investigation was to assess the effects of physical conditioning in improving High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) level among trained and untrained women. The study was delimited to twenty trained and twenty untrained women from the inhabitants of Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India. They were further sub-divided into experimental and control group of 10 subjects in each category. The subjects were of the age group of 22 to 25 years. The duration of the training period was restricted to twelve weeks and the number of sessions per week was confined to six. High density lipoprotein cholesterol level was selected as dependent variable and assessed during pre and posttest by standard test and procedure. Three-way analysis of variance was used to find out the influence of each factor independently. Due to the effect of physical conditioning the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of trained and untrained groups subjects were significantly increased. The result of the study also indicates that, significant differences exist among trained and untrained women irrespective of groups and tests, significant differences exist between experimental and control groups irrespective of category and tests, significant differences exist between pre and posttests irrespective of category and groups on high density lipoprotein cholesterol level.  Article visualizations