Greenhouse cultivation of fruit crops with special reference to India: An overview

India is facing various challenges in fruit cultivation viz., climate change, increasing pressure on natural resources, decreasing land tenure with the ever-increasing population. Besides this, the demand for quality fruit is also on the rise as people are now more aware of a nutritious and healthy diet. The quality with higher production is difficult with the traditional system of cultivation and requires a more scientific approach in cultivation. Greenhouse cultivation technology can enhance quality and quantity both. This technology is required to convert some portion of the present 6.5 million ha of the fruit-growing area to increase national productivity and product quality. The purpose of greenhouse cultivation is to grow crops by altering the micro-environment surrounding the crop so that the plant performs maximum to its genetic potential. It also increases the yield, improves the quality and stability of production and makes commodities available when there is no outdoor production. China is the world leader in greenhouse fruit production with the largest area under this technology. In India, greenhouse fruit cultivation is in its infancy as the only strawberry is commercially being grown under greenhouses. However, in fluctuating environmental conditions and losses in fruit crops due to various biotic and abiotic stresses, protecting the fruit crops for the off-season, quality and higher production will be a necessity in future. Keeping in view the low productivity of fruit crops in India and future needs of round the year quality production, an overview of work and cultivation scenario on this aspect is discussed in this paper

Trees and water: smallholder agroforestry on irrigated lands in Northern India

Trees / Populus deltoids / Agroforestry / Afforestation / Reforestation / Models / Water use / Water balance / Evapotranspiration / Precipitation / Remote sensing / Irrigation requirements / India

Effect of Heating Rate on Electromechanical Properties ofPNN–PZT Solid Solution

Lead nickel niobate–lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)0.5 –Pb(Zr0.15Ti0.35O3), (PNN-PZT))solid solution was synthesised by columbite  process. Samples sintered at various heating ratesfor 4 h holding and their effect on electromechanical properties have been studied. When heatingrate was 8 °C/min from room temperature to 900 °C and holding for 4 h at 1280 °C, highest relativepermittivity and piezoelectric charge constant were observed, whereas heating rate of 3.5° C/min and holding for 4 h at 1280 °C have shown inferior electromechanical properties and graincoarsening. The piezoelectric charge constant (d33) ~612 pC/N and dielectric constant (e)~ 5950observed in fast heating rate specimen as against to d33~ 137 pC/N and e~4294. XRD result showsthe formation of pyrochlore-free perovskite phase. Fine grains were observed  for fast heatingrate specimens

Effective Contribution of Air Pollutants to Physiological and Psychological Human Diseases: A Systematic Review

Increasing globalization, industrialization, population, and burning of fossil fuels have been adversely affecting the environment for a long time. The consequences of the effects can be seen even within a short period of time in the current scenario. The air pollutants such as SO2, NO2, CO, and PM are the main contributors to the adverse health effects. Long-term and short-term exposure to pollutants may cause acute and chronic effects on the human body as they can enter deep into the organ and circulate in the bloodstream. The ultimate purpose of this review is to develop a quantitative perceptive of the existing state of facts about potential health effects concerning the dose-response relationship between exposure level of air pollutants and induced diseases. We have drawn around 376 scientific research papers on high-impact factors related to air pollution and health. These publications were analyzed with consideration of experimental methods, design, observations, and reports on the exposure through inhalation which may emulate the normal direction of exposure inside the human organs. The present study suggests the effects of epidemiological studies on associations between pollutant concentrations and human health. Most of the inferences evidenced the severe adverse effects of particulate matter (PM2.5 & PM10) on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Our present investigation reveals the health risk due to pollutants’ exposure to the vulnerable population anguishing with asthma, COPD, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer (physiological diseases); dementia, depression, and stress (psychological diseases)

Influence of shaking table process parameters on concentration of chromite plant tailings

Conventional chromite beneficiation plants of India discards large tonnage of chromite values as plant tailing. In the present investigation, a typical chromite beneficiation plant tailing of Sukinda region has investigated by using wet shaking table for the effective utilisation of the natural resource. In this context, the effect of different process variables such as wash water flow rate, deck tilt angle and feed flow rate has analysed. The interactional effects between different process variables has analysed in terms of 3D response surface plots. It was found that the Cr2O3 content has improved to 61.37% from a feed assaying 24.26%. It was envisaged that deck tilt angle has influence major on both grade and recovery of concentrate fraction of shaking table and in case of interactional effects, the interaction between deck tilt angle and feed flow rate has major influence compared to the others. Second order quadratic equations have developed for the prediction of grade and recovery of concentrate fraction of shaking table

Universal theory of weak interactions in the paracharge scheme and quark-lepton analogy

A universal theory of weak interaction is constructed by exploiting an analogy inherent between the four leptons and the four quarks of the paracharge scheme proposed recently to deal with the ψ-particles. The leptons (νe,νμ,eL,μL) are assigned to the representation (½, ½) and the quarks (p, nW)L and (χ,λW)L to the representations (½, 0) and (0, ½), respectively, of the group O4 (L stands for the left-handed projections and W for the Cabibbo rotated orthogonal combinations of n and λ). Universality is ensured by embedding the above (weak) O4 into thesimple group O5 and gauging the latter. In the final effective weak interaction, besides the conventional V-A charged-current part, a (V-A) neutral current interaction (consistent with the present data) is naturally present. The neutral current has a ν̅μνμ term but no ν̅eνe term, thus providing a crucial test of the theory

Paracharge phenomenology: systematics of the new hadrons

A systematic semiquantitative account of all aspects of the strong and electromagnetic interactions of all the newly discovered hadronic states (the ψ's, the χ's, etc.) is presented within the framework of the paracharge scheme. Extensions of ideas familiar from the SU3 classification scheme to SU4 are shown to provide an understanding of the new states seen in the decays of ψ (3.1) and ψ' (3.7), including their masses and gross decay characteristics. The decays of ψ (3.1) and ψ' (3.7) themselves are studied in some detail. Since these are of electromagnetic origin in the scheme, their electromagnetic mixing with the resonance at 4.15 GeV (the P-state of the scheme) is important. Once this is taken into account, the resulting picture is in excellent agreement with available data

Prevalence and Genotypes of Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis in Large Ruminants of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, North India

Uttar Pradesh is the fourth largest, most populous and leading milk and meat producing state in India. Despite the huge livestock population, information on the status of paratuberculosis homogeneity and heterogeneity of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) isolates of eastern Uttar Pradesh is non-existent. Present study was aimed to estimate the presence of MAP in large ruminants (Cattle and Buffaloes) of eastern Uttar Pradesh. A total 108 fecal samples were collected from farmer's herds of large ruminants (cattle and buffaloes) from different geographical regions (Chandauli, Mughalsarai, Gazipur, and Naugarh) of eastern Uttar Pradesh and screened for the presence of MAP infection using microscopic examination, direct IS900 PCR and culture on Herrold egg yolk (HEY) medium. The isolates recovered on HEY medium were subjected to molecular identification and genotyping using IS900 PCR and IS1311 PCR-REA method, respectively. Of the 108 fecal samples, 25 (23.14%) and 11 (10.18%) samples were positive for the presence of acid-fast bacilli and growth on HEY medium, respectively. Species-wise, 17.5, 7.5% and 26.5, 11.7% fecal samples from cattle and buffaloes were found positive for the presence of acid-fast bacilli and growth on HEY medium, respectively. Isolates recovered on HEY medium with mycobactin J were positive for IS900 sequence and genotyped as Bison Type using IS1311 PCR-REA method. Present study is the first report on the presence of MAP infection and ‘Bison Type' genotype of MAP in eastern Uttar Pradesh. These findings will be useful for the intervention of effective control measures in order to reduce the prevalence of MAP infection in domestic livestock species and prevent its spread to the human population in the regions

SSR and AFLP based genetic diversity of soybean germplasm differing in photoperiod sensitivity

Forty-four soybean genotypes with different photoperiod response were selected after screening of 1000 soybean accessions under artificial condition and were profiled using 40 SSR and 5 AFLP primer pairs. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) for SSR and AFLP marker systems was 0.507 and 0.120, respectively. Clustering of genotypes was done using UPGMA method for SSR and AFLP and correlation was 0.337 and 0.504, respectively. Mantel's correlation coefficients between Jaccard's similarity coefficient and the cophenetic values were fairly high in both the marker systems (SSR = 0.924; AFLP = 0.958) indicating very good fit for the clustering pattern. UPGMA based cluster analysis classified soybean genotypes into four major groups with fairly moderate bootstrap support. These major clusters corresponded with the photoperiod response and place of origin. The results indicate that the photoperiod insensitive genotypes, 11/2/1939 (EC 325097) and MACS 330 would be better choice for broadening the genetic base of soybean for this trait

In-Depth Molecular Characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from New Delhi – Predominance of Drug Resistant Isolates of the ‘Modern’ (TbD1−) Type

BACKGROUND: India has the highest estimated burden of tuberculosis in the world, accounting for 21% of all tuberculosis cases world-wide. However, due to lack of systematic analysis using multiple markers the available information on the genomic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in India is limited. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Thus, 65 M. tuberculosis isolates from New Delhi, India were analyzed by spoligotyping, MIRU-VNTR, large deletion PCR typing and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis (SNP). The Central Asian (CAS) 1 _DELHI sub-lineage was the most prevalent sub-lineage comprising 46.2% (n = 30) of all isolates, with shared-type (ST) 26 being the most dominant genotype comprising 24.6% (n = 16) of all isolates. Other sub-lineages observed were: East-African Indian (EAI)-5 (9.2%, n = 6), EAI6_BGD1 (6.2%, n = 4), EAI3_IND, CAS and T1 with 6.2% each (n = 4 each), Beijing (4.6%, n = 3), CAS2 (3.1%, n = 2), and X1 and X2 with 1 isolate each. Genotyping results from five isolates (7.7%) did not match any existing spoligopatterns, and one isolate, ST124, belonged to an undefined lineage. Twenty-six percent of the isolates belonged to the TbD1+ PGG1 genogroup. SNP analysis of the pncA gene revealed a CAS-lineage specific silent mutation, S65S, which was observed for all CAS-lineage isolates (except two ST26 isolates) and in 1 orphan. Mutations in the pncA gene, conferring resistance to pyrazinamide, were observed in 15.4% of all isolates. Collectively, mutations in the rpoB gene, the katG gene and in both rpoB and katG genes, conferring resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid, respectively, were more frequent in CAS1_DELHI isolates compared to non-CAS_DELHI isolates (OR: 3.1, CI95% [1.11, 8.70], P = 0.045). The increased frequency of drug-resistance could not be linked to the patients' history of previous anti-tuberculosis treatment (OR: 1.156, CI95% [0.40, 3.36], P = 0.79). Fifty-six percent of all new tuberculosis patients had mutations in either the katG gene or the rpoB gene, or in both katG and rpoB genes. CONCLUSION: CAS1_DELHI isolates circulating in New Delhi, India have a high frequency of mutations in the rpoB and katG genes. A silent mutation (S65S) in the pncA gene can be used as a putative genetic marker for CAS-lineage isolates