Effect of biofertilizers on soil microbial count, nutrient availability and uptake under november sown onion

Biofertilizers improves the soil microbial content, Soil nutrient status and nutrient uptake by plant. In an experiment, fifteen treatments comprised of various combinations of biofertilizers, organic manures and chemical fertilizers were compared to access the impact of different sources of nutrient on performance of onion. The highest soil organic carbon (0.40%) was observed in the treatments T12 (Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 20 t/ha) and T11 (FYM myctes count (29.9 X 104) was recorded in T11 (FYM @ 20 t/ha + Azotobacter + VAM) treatment while highest fungal @ 20 t/ha + Azotobacter + Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (VAM)). Highest bacterial (24.5 X 106) and actino-count (17.5 X 103) was observed in T3 (Azospirillium+ Recommended dose of NPK) treatment. At the time of harvesting, available nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P) and available potassium (K) were higher in treatment T3 (Azospirillium + Recommended dose of NPK), T9 (Azotobacter+ VAM + Recommended dose of NPK) and T13 (Poultry treatment (162.6 Kg ha-1) as compared to all other treatments except T1 and T9 treatments while P uptake (13.6 Kg ha-Manure @ 5t/ha) treatments respectively than that in other treatments. Azospirillum and Azotobacter application along with recommended dose of N, P and K improved the fertility status of soil. The N uptake was significantly higher in T3 treatments. The present study highlights the need of use of biofertilizers along with organic and inorganic 1) was significantly higher in T9 treatment than that in other treatments except T1, T3, T5 and T7 treatments. The K uptake was significantly higher in T3 treatment (126.9 Kg ha-1) as compare to all other treatments except T1 and T9 manures/fertilizer to enhance the nutrient availability and improve soil health

Challenges And Strategies For The Improvement Of Water Management In Bhopal

Bhopal is gradually being transformed into a metropolitan city due to its high developmental trajectory and its vast population size. Although she has earned the reputation of ‘City of Lake’ owing to her large number of ponds and lakes, she is insufficient in catering for the ever growing needs of her entire populace. Many natural and anthropogenic activities and occurrences such as unplanned infrastructural development, short- lived rainfall coupled with inefficient management of solid waste as well as inadequacy in skilled-manpower, are all responsible for this. In the current scenario, strategies such as the employing of technical-know-how and the engaging of Community Based Organizations are being utilized for the managing of this problem. Other invaluable efforts for the building of the social capital would be needed for the enlargement of the government’s reach in order to install the effective sustainable water management

Maize (Zea mays L.) response to subsoil compaction and nitrogen fertilization under semi-arid irrigated conditions

The present investigation was carried out to access the optimal N dose and its impact on growth, yield and yield attributes of hybrid maize (Zea mays. L) under subsoil compaction condition. The experiment was conducted at Research Farm, Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during the summer seasons of the year 2012 and 2013. The experiment comprised three subsoil compaction treatments in main plots and three nitrogen levels in sub plots following split-plot design with three replications. Plant height, leaf area index and dry matter accumulation were negatively affected by subsoil compaction. However nitrogen fertilization mitigates the negative effect of subsoil compaction on growth of maize. Cob length was recorded lower with higher cob barrenness under higher degree of subsoil compaction. The grain yield was reduced by 13-16 per cent and biomass yield by 10-17 per cent due to subsoil compaction. The total N uptake was 14.6 and 18.2 per cent higher under C0 treatment than that in highly compacted subsoil (C2), while N2 treatment had improved the total N uptake by 18.6 and 14.9 per cent as compared to N0 treatment during the year 2012 and 2013, respectively. The results revealed that N1 fertilization level can be recommended under subsurface compacted soils as compared to N0 and N2 rates. This study further suggests the management option should be explored in addition to deep tillage to maximize yield of maize

Phenology and thermal indices of maize (Zea mays L.) influenced by subsoil compaction and nitrogen fertilization under semi-arid irrigated conditions

The magnitude of yield reduction due to soil compaction is variable and depends on the soil type, fertility status and other soil and environmental factors. The present investigation was carried out at the research farm, Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of subsoil compaction and nitrogen fertilization on maize phenology, yield and heat use efficiency. The C2 (subsoil bulk density (Db)= >1.8 Mg m-3) treatment reduced yield by 15.5 and 24.3 % and heat use efficiency (HUE) by 15.2 and 20.9 % than that in C0 (subsoil Db=1.55-1.65 Mg m-3) treatment during the year 2012 and 2013, respectively. The tasseling and silking stage was delayed, while physiological maturity was advanced under C2 subsoil compaction treatment than that in C0 treatment. The N2 treatment improved the yield by 14.9 and 13.9 % and HUE by 15.2 and 14.3 % than that in N0 treatment during the year 2012 and 2013, respectively. Maize took more days to reach physiological maturity under N2 treatment as compared to N0 treatment. Phenothermal index (PTI) showed that crop reached different stages earlier under C1 and C2 than that of C0. The data emphasized the need to take care of soil strength and soil temperature related parameters along with weather conditions for better yield prediction using thermal time

Estimation of Missing Values in the Data Mining and Comparison of Imputation Methods

Many existing, industrial, and research data sets contain missing values (MVs). There are various reasons for their existence, such as manual data entry procedures, equipment errors, and incorrect measurements. The presence of such imperfections usually requires a preprocessing stage in which the data are prepared and cleaned,in order to be useful and sufficiently clear for the knowledge extraction process. MVs make the performance of data analysis difficult. The presence of MVs can also pose serious problems for researchers. In fact, in the appropriate handling of the MVs in the analysis may introduce bias and can result in misleading conclusions being drawn from a research study and can also limit the generalize ability of the research findings. The various types of problem are usually associated with MVs in data mining are (1) loss of efficiency;(2) complications in handling and analyzing the data; and(3)  bias resulting from differences between missing and complete data. We will focus our attention on the use of imputation methods. A fundamental advantage of this approach is that the MV treatment is independent of the learning algorithm used. For this reason, the user can select the most appropriate method for each situation he faces. In this paper, different methods of estimation of missing values are discussed. The comparison of different imputation methods is given by using non-parametric methods.&nbsp

Smart Urbanization – Key to Sustainable Cities

Urbanisation is a major change taking place globally. It is estimated that 500 million people will be urbanised by 2030 which is around 60% of the world’s population will be living in cities. Cities fuel economic development through mobilizing capital, work force, knowledge/information and technology and offer better chances of wealth generation, better health facilities, education and a good quality of life with better services and facilities. This has led to the increase in “megacities” (urban areas with a population of 10 million or more) and primate cities (leading cities in the region disproportionately larger than others in the urban hierarchy) across the globe. Urbanization propelled by economic reforms are putting cities under perpetual pressure of population concentration and energy intensive growth model. The cities are often confronted with a multitude of key problems like high urban densities, traffic congestion, energy inadequacy, unplanned development and lack of basic services. Due to high land values, migrants often have no choice but to settle in shantytowns and slums, where they lack access to decent housing and sanitation, health care and education thus adding to urban poverty. Urbanisation is also contributing significantly to climate change as 20 largest cities consume 80% of the world’s energy and urban areas generate 80% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The challenges of rapid urbanisation are to deal with the social, economic and environment development through more effective and comprehensive land administration functions, supported by efficient per capita infrastructure supply , resolving issues such as climate change, disaster management, insecurity, energy scarcity, environmental pollution, and extreme poverty. Urbanization must be able to support urban planning to achieve sustainable development in order to meet the growing energy and housing demands, reliable public transportation systems and be able to meet essential urban services without putting pressure on resources. Therefore it needs to support innovative urban planning policies and strategies beyond traditional urban planning paradigms. Urbanisation on the positive side provides an unparalleled urban planning opportunity to pre-address social and environmental problems, including reduction of greenhouse gas emissions combined with the retrofitting and upgrading of facilities and networks in existing urban centres, as well as smart urban planning of cities can provide better education, healthcare and high-quality energy services more efficiently and with less emissions because of their advantages of scale, proximity and lower geographic footprints. Thus “Smart Urbanisation” is the key to safer cities of tomorrow. Building cities sustainably using smart growth principles, compact development planning form, using eco-city concepts, concept of low carbon electricity ecosystem etc, provides an opportunity to avoid future sources of greenhouse emissions, while developing more liveable and efficient urban centres. It could also alleviate population pressure on natural habitats and biodiversity thus reducing the risks to natural disasters. High-level integration of existing technologies to deliver a smart energy network, enhanced electricity transmission, energy efficient transportation, and low carbon building footprints, will make it easier to manage the unfolding urbanisation, and could have much positive impact on energy use and consumption. Policy interventions and government investments are important determining tools to its success. This paper attempts to discuss the principles of “smart urbanisation” in light of sustainable cities of tomorrow

Performance Evaluation of RBF, Cascade, Elman, Feed Forward and Pattern Recognition Network for Marathi Character Recognition with CLAHE Feature Extraction Method

The purpose of this paper is to study, analyze and improve the performance of RBF, Cascade, Elman, Feed Forward and Pattern Recognition Networks using �Contrast-limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization method� of featureextraction. This work is divided in to two sections. In the earlier work, we have performed the performance analysis of RBF neural network, Cascade Neural network, Elman Neural network and Feed forward neural network for the character recognition of handwritten Marathi curve scripts using �Edge detection and Dilation method� of feature extraction. In this paper, we have applied the feature extraction methodknown as Contrast-limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). This feature extraction method enhances the contrast of images by transforming the values in the intensity image. For this experiment, we have considered the six samples each of 48 Marathi characters. For every sampled character, the CLAHE feature extraction method is applied. Then we have studied and analyzed the performance of these five Neural Networks for character recognition. It is found that except Elman Network, the performance of rest of all the networks is increased

Performance Analysis of Handwritten Marathi Character Recognition with RBF, Cascade, Elman and Feed Forward Neural Networks

Character recognition of handwritten Marathi curve scripts is one of the most challenging areas of research in neural networks due to high variability in writing styles. Marathi characters have shirolekhas and spines. This seriously affects many of the performance recognition parameters and much more.In this paper, we are performing the performance analysis of RBF neural network, Cascade Neural network, Elman Neural network and Feed forward neural network for the character recognition of handwritten Marathi curve scripts. For the experiment, we have taken in to account the six samples each of 48 Marathi characters. For every sampled character, the �Edge detection and dilation method of Feature extraction�with a set of image pre-processing operations have been performed. Here to study and analyze the performance of these four neural networks, firstly we have created the network, trained the network, simulated the network and plotted the regression plots. It has been analyzed that RBF neural networks has a high regression value as compared to the rest of the methods for the training set

Vitamin B9 in Dark Green Vegetables: Deficiency Disorders, Bio-Availability, and Fortification Issues

Folic acid is a B complex water-soluble vitamin that is essential to humans, and its deficiency can cause problems including neural tube defects as well as heart-related diseases. An important feature of such vitamins is that they are generally not synthesized by mammalian cells and therefore must be supplied in sufficient amounts in the diet. Folate is a generic term for compounds, possessing vitamin activity similar to that of pteroylglutamic acid, and is the form of the vitamin, which is naturally present in foods. The main dietary sources of folic acid are dark green and leafy vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, romaine lettuce, broccoli, bok choy, turnip green, beet, dried or fresh beans, and peas. The amount of folate that is absorbed and utilized physiologically varies among different food sources and different chemical forms of the vitamin. About 85% of folic acid is estimated to be bioavailable; however, the bioavailability of food folate is estimated at about 50% of folic acid. Several national health authorities have introduced mandatory food fortification with synthetic folic acid, which is considered a convenient fortificant, being cost efficient in production, more stable than natural food folate, and superior in terms of bioavailability and bio-efficacy. Presently, many countries affected by diseases associated with a lack of folic acid have made it mandatory to supplement foods with the vitamin. Considering the need, several analytical procedures were standardized to determine the presence of folic acid in different food matrices. The reported methods are simple, selective, robust, and reproducible and can be used in routine analyses