Rapid generation advance (RGA) in chickpea to produce up to seven generations per year and enable speed breeding

This study was aimed at developing a protocol for increasing the number of generation cycles per year in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Six accessions, two each from early (JG 11 and JG 14), medium (ICCV 10 and JG 16), and late (CDC-Frontier and C 235) maturity groups, were used. The experiment was conducted for two years under glasshouse conditions. The photoperiod was extended to induce early flowering and immature seeds were germinated to further reduce generation cycle time. Compared to control, artificial light caused a reduction in flowering time by respectively 8–19, 7–16, and 11–27 days in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. The earliest stage of immature seed able to germinate was 20–23 days after anthesis in accessions of different maturity groups. The time period between germination and the earliest stage of immature seed suitable for germination was considered one generation cycle and spanned respectively 43–60, 44–64, and 52–79 days in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. However, the late-maturing accession CDCFrontier could not be advanced further after three generation cycles owing to the strong influence of photoperiod and temperature. The mean total number of generations produced per year were respectively 7, 6.2, and 6 in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. These results have encouraging implications for breeding programs: rapid progression toward homozygosity, development of mapping populations, and reduction in time, space and resources in cultivar development (speed breeding)

Strict Positive Realness of Descriptor Systems in State Space

In this paper we give necessary and sufficient spectral conditions for various notions of strict positive realness for single input single output, impulse free Descriptor Systems. These conditions only require calculation of eigenvalues of a single matrix. A characterization of a KYP-like lemma for descriptor systems is also derived, and its implications for the stability of a class of switched descriptor systems are briefly discussed

Cross-aisle Stiffness Tests on Rack Upright Frames

The US Rack Manufacturers Institution (RMI) code uses a theoretical formula derived by Timoshenko and the new Eurocode EN15512 requires testing. There is a considerable difference in the stiffn ess values determined by two approaches. This paper describes the experiments conducted on 80 full sized upright frames at Oxford Brookes University varying upright size, number of panels in the frame, aspect ratio of the panel (panel length/depth), restraints at the intermediate nodes of the frame, loading pattern, lacing pattern (channels back to back or front to front) and bolt tightness. The experimental data reported can be used in proposing revised design procedures

Knowledge Acquisition by Networks of Interacting Agents in the Presence of Observation Errors

In this work we investigate knowledge acquisition as performed by multiple agents interacting as they infer, under the presence of observation errors, respective models of a complex system. We focus the specific case in which, at each time step, each agent takes into account its current observation as well as the average of the models of its neighbors. The agents are connected by a network of interaction of Erd\H{o}s-Renyi or Barabasi-Albert type. First we investigate situations in which one of the agents has a different probability of observation error (higher or lower). It is shown that the influence of this special agent over the quality of the models inferred by the rest of the network can be substantial, varying linearly with the respective degree of the agent with different estimation error. In case the degree of this agent is taken as a respective fitness parameter, the effect of the different estimation error is even more pronounced, becoming superlinear. To complement our analysis, we provide the analytical solution of the overall behavior of the system. We also investigate the knowledge acquisition dynamic when the agents are grouped into communities. We verify that the inclusion of edges between agents (within a community) having higher probability of observation error promotes the loss of quality in the estimation of the agents in the other communities.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. A working manuscrip

Botany of Chickpea

Chickpea is one of the important food legumes cultivated in several countries. It originated in the Middle East (area between south-eastern Turkey and adjoining Syria) and spread to European countries in the west to Myanmar in the east. It has several vernacular names in respective countries where it is cultivated or consumed. Taxonomically, chickpea belongs to the monogeneric tribe Cicereae of the family Fabaceae. There are nine annuals and 34 perennial species in the genus Cicer. The cultivated chickpea, Cicer arietinum, is a short annual herb with several growth habits ranging from prostrate to erect. Except the petals of the flower, all the plant parts are covered with glandular and non-glandular hairs. These hairs secrete a characteristic acid mixture which defends the plant against sucking pests. The stem bears primary, secondary and tertiary branches. The latter two branch types have leaves and flowers on them. Though single leaf also exists, compound leaf with 5–7 pairs of leaflets is a regular feature. The typical papilionaceous flower, with one big standard, two wings and two keel petals (boat shaped), has 9 + 1 diadelphous stamens and a stigma with 1–4 ovules. Anthers dehisce a day before the flower opens leading to self-pollination. In four weeks after pollination, pod matures with one to three seeds per pod. There is no dormancy in chickpea seed. Based on the colour of chickpea seed, it is desi type (dark-coloured seed) or kabuli type (beige-coloured seed). Upon sowing, germination takes a week time depending on the soil and moisture conditions

Modified blalock-taussig shunt in palliative cardiac surgery

Background: Cyanotic congenital heart diseases present early in life with poor general condition of the patient. Majority of deaths occurs within one year of life before surgical intervention due to severe cyanosis and metabolic acidosis. Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt (MBTS) is one of the palliative cardiac surgeries done for cyanotic congenital heart diseases. It improves the general condition of the patient before definitive surgery is done. The aim of this study was to determine the commonest indications, post-operative anticoagulation and early complications following MBTS at CARE Hospital, India.Methods: This was a retrospective study from January 2004 to December 2006 including all patients who underwent Posterolateral Thoracotomy for MBTS. All patients had deep cyanosis, oxygen saturation of 65% or less and small pulmonary vasculature due to congenital heart defects. Acyanotic patients and those with oxygen saturation more than 65% were excluded from the study. All patients received a single dose of heparin intra-operatively and oral aspirin as anticoagulant regimen post-operatively. No heparin given postoperatively.Results: A total of 20 children with a mean age of 27.4 months were studied. Two patients had pre-operative ICU admission due to severe cyanosis (both had oxygen saturation of 35%), hypotension and severe body weakness. The commonest indications for MBTS included Tetralogy of Fallot (70%), pulmonary atresia (10%) with or without Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), tricuspid atresia (10%) with pulmonary atresia or stenosis and Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DOVR) with pulmonary atresia or stenosis (10%). Mean duration of ICU stay was 2 days, mean duration of mechanical ventilation was four and half hours, mean duration of hospital stay was 7 days and mean systemic oxygen saturation improved significantly from 46% to 84% ( x2 = 7.03, p = 0.0080). No post-operative bleeding, seroma, shunt thrombosis or death occurred in this study.Conclusion: The commonest indication for MBTS is TOF. Intra-operative single dose of heparin followed by post-operative oral aspirin as anticoagulant regimen was not associated with a major complication in terms of bleeding, seroma, shunt thrombosis, or death

Clinico-Surgical Outcome of Repair of Isolated Atrial Septal Defect At Care Hospital, Banjara Hills-Hyderabad India, 2004-2006

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Achievements and challenges in improving nutritional quality of chickpea

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) grains are an excellent source of protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre, folate, β-carotene and health promoting fatty acids. Their consumption provides consumers with a variety of nutritional and health benefits. Limited breeding efforts have been made on nutritional quality traits of chickpea. Potential exists for further enhancing contents of protein, minerals (iron and zinc), folate and β-carotene and reducing the contents of flatulence causing raffinose family of oligosaccharides (RFOs). The desi types account for about 80% to 85% of the global chickpea area and largely grown in South Asia, Eastern Africa, and Australia and mainly consumed in South Asia. Though the total chickpea area under kabuli type is less (15 to 20%), the production and consumption of kabuli type is globally more wide spread than the desi types. Chickpeas are mainly used for human consumption and a very small proportion as animal feed. The dry chickpea grains are used whole (after soaking and/or cooking, roasting or parching) or dehulled to make splits (dal) or ground to produce flour (besan). The soaked/cooked chickpea grains are used in salads, making vegetable curries (Chhole) and several other preparations, such as falafel (deep fried balls or patties) and hummus (chickpea dip or spread). The chickpea flour is used in making a wide variety of snack foods, soups, sweets, and condiments besides being mixed with wheat flour to make Indian bread (roti or chapati). Invariably, splits (dal) and flour are made from desi type, while hummus is made from kabuli type. Chickpea leaves are used as leafy vegetable and immature green grains are eaten raw or after roasting and also used as vegetable

Clinical Characteristics of Patients Classified as Very High Risk and Not Very High Risk Based on the 2018 AHA/ACC Multi-Society Cholesterol Guideline

Background The 2018 AHA/ACC Cholesterol Guideline recommendation to classify ASCVD patients as very high-risk (VHR) vs not-VHR (NVHR) has important implications for ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitor eligibility. We aimed to define the clinical characteristics of these two groups within a large multi-state healthcare system in the Western U.S. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of patients defined as having ASCVD in 2018 using EHR ICD-10 codes. VHR was defined by ≥2 major ASCVD events (ACS ≤12 months, history of MI \u3e12 months, ischemic stroke, or symptomatic PAD) or 1 major ASCVD event and ≥2 high-risk conditions (age ≥65, DM, HTN, smoking, HeFH, CKD, CHF, persistently elevated LDL-C, or prior CABG/PCI). Patients not meeting these criteria were classified as NVHR. Results A total of 180,669 ASCVD patients were identified: 104,123 (58%) were VHR and 76,546 (42%) were NVHR. Mean age and gender was 70.1±13.4 years, 54% male and 73.1±11.9 years, 55% male for the NVHR and VHR groups, respectively. Among patients with a history of MI or recent ACS, 99% and 96% were classified as VHR, respectively (Table). Age ≥65, HTN and DM were the most prevalent high-risk conditions. Conclusion Criteria used to predict future CV risk largely divide ASCVD patients into groups of similar prevalence. Nearly all ACS/MI patients were VHR. With growing emphasis on individualized risk assessment and intense LDL-C reduction, opportunity exists to further refine risk prediction within these two at-risk groups

Impact of Genomics on Chickpea Breeding

Chickpea is an economical source of vegetable protein for the poor living in the semi-arid regions globally. As a consequence of climate change and increasing climate variability, the incidences of drought and heat stresses and severity of some diseases, such as dry root rot and collar rot, have increased in chickpea crop, resulting in poor and unstable yields. By improving the efficiency of crop breeding programs, climate resilient varieties with traits desired by the farmers, industries and consumers can be developed more rapidly. Excellent progress has been made in the development of genomic resources for chickpea in the recent past. Several national and international chickpea breeding programs have started utilizing these genomic resources and tools for genetic improvement of complex traits. One of such examples includes the introgression of “QTL-hotspot” containing quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for several drought tolerance-related traits, including root traits, through marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) for enhancing drought tolerance in popular cultivars. Several drought-tolerant introgression lines with higher yield as compared to the popular cultivars have been identified. Multi-parent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) populations developed from using 8 parents created large genetic diversity consequently several promising lines. Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) has also been explored for yield improvement in chickpea. Development of diagnostic markers or the identification of candidate genes for several traits is essential for greater use of genomic resources in chickpea improvement