Chemical Constituents during the Main and Off-Season in Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Cv. Royal Special

Evaluation and quantification of fruit quality parameters like carbohydrates, phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, titrable acidity, Total Soluble Solids (TSS), carotenoids and lycopene content was done in fruits of mango cv. Royal Special, at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, India, during the off-season (October, 2012) and main-season (June, 2013), respectively. 'Royal Special' is a typical off-season bearing cultivar, often characterized by multiple flushing and flowering under South Indian conditions. Major phytonutrients such as total sugars, reducing sugars, starch, total carotenoids, lycopene, total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, TSS, titrable acidity and average fruit yield per plant, were recorded during the off- and main- seasons. Results indicated that fruits from off-season were higher in the major chemical constituents studied compared to the main-season crop, except for fruit yield per plant. This may be attributed to poor competition for nutrients among the developing fruits which act as a sink, besides fluctuating environmental conditions during the off-season, compared to the main-season

Evaluation of Heliconia for growth, flowering and flower yield

Heliconia is utilized as ornamental plants, usually being grown both as landscaping plants and as cut flowers, owing to colour and the longer durability of its floral bracts. Forty-one genotypes of Heliconia were evaluated for growth, flowering and flower yield. Significant variation was observed among genotypes for vegetative and floral characteristics. The results revealed that the maximum number of leaves per sucker was recorded in H. hirsuta followed by H. ‘Golden Torch Adrian’ and H. ‘GT Sunshine’, while, maximum plant height was recorded in varieties viz., H. caribea (459.33 cm) followed by H. ‘She’ (337.67 cm) and H. rauliniana upright (305.00 cm). However, maximum leaf length was observed in H. caribea (314.33 cm) followed by H. ‘She’ (203.67 cm) and Heliconia metallica (175.00 cm). Maximum sucker production was recorded in H. ‘Tropics’ followed by H. psittacorum ‘Petra’ and H. ‘Guyana’. Among the flowering traits, early flower initiation was recorded in Golden Torch (136.00 days) followed by Lady Di (152.00 days). The rachis length ranged from 72.67 cm (H. ‘Golden Torch’) to 10.00 cm (H. ‘Hirsuta’), however, longest spike was recorded in H. ‘rauliniana upright’ (131.33 cm) followed by H. rostrata ‘Parrots Beak’ (115.67 cm) and H. rostrata Ten Days (97.00 cm), whereas, shortest spike was recorded in H. bihai (9.33 cm)

Monopole Vacuum in Non-Abelian Theories

It is shown that, in the theory of interacting Yang -Mills fields and a Higgs field, there is a topological degeneracy of Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) monopoles and that there arises, in this case, a chromoelectric monopole characterized by a new topological variable that describes transitions between topological states of the monopole in the Minkowski space (in just the same way as an instanton describes such transitions in the Euclidean space). The limit of an infinitely large mass of the Higgs field at a finite density of the BPS monopole is considered as a model of the stable vacuum in the pure Yang-Mills theory. It is shown that, in QCD, such a monopole vacuum may lead to a rising potential, a topological confinement and an additional mass of the $\eta_0$ meson. The relationship between the result obtained here for the generating functional of perturbation theory and Faddeev-Popov integral is discussed

Oxidation mechanism in metal nanoclusters: Zn nanoclusters to ZnO hollow nanoclusters

Zn nanoclusters (NCs) are deposited by Low-energy cluster beam deposition technique. The mechanism of oxidation is studied by analysing their compositional and morphological evolution over a long span of time (three years) due to exposure to ambient atmosphere. It is concluded that the mechanism proceeds in two steps. In the first step, the shell of ZnO forms over Zn NCs rapidly up to certain limiting thickness: with in few days -- depending upon the size -- Zn NCs are converted to Zn-ZnO (core-shell), Zn-void-ZnO, or hollow ZnO type NCs. Bigger than ~15 nm become Zn-ZnO (core-shell) type: among them, NCs above ~25 nm could able to retain their initial geometrical shapes (namely triangular, hexagonal, rectangular and rhombohedral), but ~25 to 15 nm size NCs become irregular or distorted geometrical shapes. NCs between ~15 to 5 nm become Zn-void-ZnO type, and smaller than ~5 nm become ZnO hollow sphere type i.e. ZnO hollow NCs. In the second step, all Zn-void-ZnO and Zn-ZnO (core-shell) structures are converted to hollow ZnO NCs in a slow and gradual process, and the mechanism of conversion proceeds through expansion in size by incorporating ZnO monomers inside the shell. The observed oxidation behaviour of NCs is compared with theory of Cabrera - Mott on low-temperature oxidation of metal.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Variability in stratification and flushing times of the Gautami–Godavari estuary, India

In order to examine the influence of forcing (river flow and tides) and anthropogenic activities (dredging and dam regulation) on stratification, a study was conducted over a period of 19 months (June 2008–December 2009) in the Gautami–Godavari estuary (G–GE) during spring and neap tide periods covering entire spectrum of discharge over a distance of 36 km from the mouth. The bathymetry of the estuary was recently changed due to dredging of ∼20 km of the estuary from the mouth for transportation of barges. This significantly changed the mean depth and salinity of the estuary from its earlier state. The variations in the distribution of salinity in the Godavari estuary are driven by river discharge during wet period (June–November) and tides during dry period (December–May). The weak stratification was observed during high discharge (July–August) and no discharge (January–June) periods associated with dominant fresh water and marine water respectively. The strong stratification was developed associated with decrease in discharge during moderate discharge period (October–December). Relatively stronger stratification was noticed during neap than spring tides. The 15 psu isohaline was observed to have migrated ∼2–3 km more towards upper estuary during spring than neap tide suggesting more salt enters during former than latter period. Total salt content was inversely correlated with river discharge and higher salt of about 400×106 m3 psu was observed during spring than neap tide. Flushing times varied between less than a day and more than a month during peak and no discharge periods respectively with lower times during spring than neap tide. The flushing times are controlled by river discharge during high discharge period, tides during dry period and both (river discharge and tides) under moderate discharge period. This study suggests that modification of discharge, either natural due to weak monsoon or artificial such as dam constructions and re-routing the river flow, may have significant impact on the stratification and biogeochemistry of the Godavari estuary

Forced Topological Nontrivial Field Configurations

The motion of a one-dimensional kink and its energy losses are considered as a model of interaction of nontrivial topological field configurations with external fields. The approach is based on the calculation of the zero modes excitation probability in the external field. We study in the same way the interaction of the t'Hooft-Polyakov monopole with weak external fields. The basic idea is to treat the excitation of a monopole zero mode as the monopole displacement. The excitation is found perturbatively. As an example we consider the interaction of the t'Hooft-Polyakov monopole with an external uniform magnetic field.Comment: 18 pages, 3 Postscript figures, RevTe

PRODUCTIVITY, NUTRIENT UPTAKE AND ECONOMICS OF RABI SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUUS. L) AS INFLUENCED BY TILLAGE PRACTICES AND NITROGEN MANAGEMENT

ABSTRACT: A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2011 at Research farm, RARS, Bijapur on a deep black soil under rainfed condition with an objective to study the effect of different tillage practices imposed during kharif and nitrogen management on productivity, nutrient uptake and economics of rabi sunflower. Tillage practices had no significant effect on seed yield and stalk yield of sunflower crop. Seed yield (1187.5 kg ha -1 ) and stalk yield (2483.8 kg ha -1 ) of sunflower were significantly higher with 100% Recommended dose through fertilizer (N 3 ) over N 4 -Farmers' practice (24:30:0 N:P 2 O 5: K 2 O kg ha -1 ) but was on par with rest of the treatments. Significantly higher N uptake was seen with conventional tillage over minimum tillage but was on par with reduced tillage. Neither P nor K uptake was significantly influenced due to tillage practices in sunflower during rabi season. Sunflower fertilized with 100% recommended dose of fertilizer (N 3 ) recorded significantly higher N, P and K uptake at harvest. Maximum gross returns (38061Rs ha -1 ) and net returns (28729 Rs ha -1 ) was realized for the treatment combination T 3 N 3 (Minimum tillage with 100% recommended dose of fertilizer). Reducing the tillage intensity does not significantly influence economics and substituting 50% nitrogen through organic sources produces comparable yields that of inorganic source of nitrogen application