Present status, scope and future needs for mechanization of apple cultivation in mountains of Himachal Pradesh, India

A study was conducted to find out the present status and level of mechanization in different operations as carried out in apple cultivation. It was observed that most of these operations are performed manually by hand using traditional tools. Land preparation with spade (0.002 ha/h), pit digging with spade (3 to 4 pits/day of size 1x1x1 m), basin preparation with spade (2-4 basin/h), pruning by secateurs/pruner (1-2 plants/h) and harvesting by hand (12-15 kg h-1person-1) resulted in very low efficiency thus increase the cost of operation and drudgery and ultimately reduces the net returns to the growers. The bottlenecks in mechanization are due to undulating topography, small and scattered land holdings, lack of approach roads and lack of awareness among the farmers. In spite of these, there is a tremendous scope to mechanize various practices in apple cultivation in hills of Himachal Pradesh through improved and suitable mechanization technology so that the apple growers may be benefited

Spinal cord nocireceptive neurones

These electrophysiological investigations of spinal cord neu¬ rones responding to noxious and non-noxious cutaneous stimulation were conducted to evaluate (1) their ascending projection into the spinothalamic tract, (2) the involvement of endogenous opioids in mediating the tonic descending and segmental inhibition and (3) the role of the nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) in modulating spinal cord nociceptive transmissionA total of 252 neurones were antidromically activated from the ventrolateral quadrant but only 14 of these were found to project into the spinothalamic tract. The spinothalamic tract (STT) neurones responded to noxious and non-noxious, or to noxious stimulation alone. All the units were located in lamina VII and most of them displayed wide receptive fields. None of the 39 specific nociceptor-driven neurones from lamina I was found to project into the spinothalamic tract.Naloxone (0.3-2.0 mgm/kg) did not alter the response of multireceptive neurones to heat, to tonic descending inhibition or to the inhibition generated by stimulation of contralateral plantar nerve or dorsal columns.Stimulation in the nucleus locus coeruleus produced a predominantly inhibitory effect on nociceptive transmission in the spinal cord. The descending inhibition produced from LC was antagonised by the administration of a-noradrenergic receptor antagonists but was not changed by 3-receptor antagonists. Methysergide did not alter the inhibition from LC or NRM whereas the GABA antagonist, bicuculline, abolished the inhibition. Naloxone partially reduced the inhibition from LC. The ipsilateral ventral quadrant lesion (VLF and VF) abolished the actions produced from LC but a bilateral DLF lesion was required for abolishing the NRM actions. Electrolytic lesions made in the midline raphe complex did not block the actions produced from LC. The stimuli in LC and NKM that evoked inhibition of multireceptive neurones also produced DRPs.These data support the conclusion that the spinothalamic tract in the cat plays a role in the transmission of nociceptive and tactile messages to the brain. The endogenous opioids do not appear to be involved in mediating the types of inhibition examined (Section III). The descending actions produced from LC are not mediated through NRM and are most probably mediated through the direct coeruleospinal projection. Catecholaminergic, opioid and Gabaergic transmission is involved in mediating these actions which may involve both the pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms

Performance evaluation of furrow openers for sugarcane planting in sub-tropical India

The research was conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of furrow opener, depth and speed of operation on soil properties, draft force, soil disturbance and germination percentage and to select the best furrow openers for establishment of sugarcane crop. The experiment was conducted on a silt loam textured soil using three furrow openers viz. IISR furrower, IISR deep furrower and conventional type ridger operated at three average speeds of 0.96, 1.46 and 3.7 km h-1 and three depths of furrows 100, 150 and 250 mm. The parameters like draft force, soil penetration resistance, ridge height, volume of soil disturbed and germination percentage were determined. Soil penetration resistance decreased with increasing operational speeds of each furrow openers type and depth of furrow. Soil disturbance characteristics and draft force requirements increased with increase in the speeds and depth of operation. The mean germination percentage was 12.9% to 41.6% at 30 and 45 DAP based on type of furrow opener, speed and depth. The lowest soil penetration resistance, clear furrow and better germination were found with IISR deep furrower.

To study the maternal and perinatal outcome following vaginal birth after caesarean section after one previous lower segment caesarean section

Background: The pronouncement “Once a caesarean, always a caesarean” by Dr. Edward Craigen in 1916, established elective repeat caesarean section as standard of care. Over the years, there have been ample studies which have concluded relative safety of a vaginal birth in most women after a low transverse caesarean section. Hence vaginal birth after caesarean appears to be the most productive approach to lowering the caesarean rate. A prospective study was carried out to evaluate maternal and perinatal outcomes in patients undergoing VBAC with history of previous one LSCS.Methods: The study was undertaken in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Kasturba hospital, Delhi. Total of fifty cases of previous one LSCS who were eligible for vaginal deliveries were recruited and a prospective study was performed.Results: It was found that out of total fifty cases, 39 (78%) patients delivered vaginally and 11 (22%) patients had to be taken up for emergency LSCS for various indications. Significant association of success of VBAC was noted in patients with history of prior VBAC as compared to patients without history of prior VBAC (P value being <0.0001)There was more maternal and neonatal morbidity in case of failed VBAC as compared to successful VBAC. 18.1% neonates had NICU stay in Failed VBAC cases as compared to successful VBAC (2.56%).Conclusions: In carefully selected patients, under proper settings, VBAC can be safely practiced, thereby bringing down the rising caesarean rates.

Large-Scale Emulation of Anonymous Communication Networks

Tor is the most popular low-latency anonymous communication system for the Internet, helping people to protect their privacy online and circumvent Internet censorship. Its low- latency anonymity and distributed design present a variety of open research questions related to — but not limited to — anonymity, performance, and scalability, that have generated considerable interest in the research community. Testing changes to the design of the protocol or studying attacks against it in the live network is undesirable as doing so can invade the privacy of users and even put them in harm’s way. Traditional Tor research has been limited to emulating a few hundred nodes with the ModelNet network emulator, or, simulating thousands of nodes with the Shadow discrete-event simulator, both of which may not accurately represent the real-world Tor network. We present SNEAC (Scalable Network Emulator for Anonymous Communication; pronounced "sneak"), a large-scale network emulator that allows us to emulate a network with thousands of nodes. Our hope is that with such large-scale experimentation, we can more closely emulate the live Tor network with half a million users

AWARENESS AND USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AMONG THE RESEARCH SCHOLARS OF KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, HARYANA, INDIA

The present paper explores the use of Open Educational Resources among the research scholars of Kurukshetra University. For the purpose random sampling method was used to collect data from research scholars. A total of 185 questionnaires were distributed out of which 150 (81.08%) filled questionnaires were received from the users. The responses were analyzed in tabular form to know the objectives of the study. The study reveals that most of the research scholars are familiar with Online Education Resources. Researchers also face difficulties in customizing Online Education Resources according to their needs. The findings and recommendations based on analysis are given at the end

Advances in Magnetofection & − Magnetically Guided Nucleic Acid Delievery:a Review

During the last decade, nanomagnetic methods for delivering and targeting nucleic acids have been developed which are often referred to as magnetofection. Nucleic acids carry the building plans of living systems. As such, they can be exploited to make cells produce a desired protein, or to shut down the expression of endogenous genes or even to repair defective genes. Hence, nucleic acids are unique substances for research and therapy. To exploit their potential, they need to be delivered into cells which can be a challenging task in many respects. Magnetofection provides a novel tool for high throughput gene screening in vitro and can help to overcome fundamental limitations to gene therapy in vivo. Magnetofection is nucleic acid delivery to cells, supported and site-specifically guided by the attractive forces of magnetic fields acting on nucleic acid shuttles (vectors) which are associated with magnetic nanoparticles. In a magnetofection procedure, self-assembling complexes of enhancers like cationic lipids with plasmid DNA or small interfering RNA (siRNA) are associated with magnetic nanoparticles and are then concentrated at the surface of cultured cells by applying a permanent inhomogeneous magnetic field

Molecular Docking Evaluation of Some Natural Phenolic Compounds as Aldose Reductase Inhibitors for Diabetic Complications

The enzyme aldose reductase (AR) is a member of aldoketoreductase super-family which catalyzes the formation of sorbitol from glucose through polyol pathway of glucose catabolism. Reduced sorbitol production via polyol pathway due to AR inhibition is a target of choice for controlling major complications of diabetes. Epalrestat is the only commercially available inhibitor of AR till date,thus, there is a great need to search for more economical, nontoxic and safer inhibitors of AR enzyme. Flavonoids,the polyphenol compounds in plants have been reported for inhibitory effects against AR. The objective of this study is to explore the binding modes of naturalphenolic compounds with AR to design safer natural drugs as alternatives to synthetic drugs. We conducted a molecular docking study on some naturalphenolic compounds with AR enzyme in complex with the synthetic inhibitor. The overlay of the docked pose of the selected natural phenols with the ARreference inhibitor complex showed that the selected natural compounds have the similar binding pattern with the active site residues of the enzyme as that of co-crystallized inhibitor. The results of docking study showed the best binding affinity of AR with that of 2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) ethanoic acid and butein, having the lowest binding free energy of –9.8 kcal/mol and–9.7 kcal/mol, respectively. This information can be utilized to design potent, economical and non-toxic natural AR inhibitors from natural phenols for the therapeutics of diabetic complications