Adoption and Impact of Eco-Friendly Conservation Practices in The Nilgiris District of Western Ghats

The study was under taken to find out the relationship between the profile of the farmers of The Nilgiris district and the impact in their adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices. The study revealed that educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness, self reliance, innovativeness and contact with extension agency were found  to have positively contributed to the adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices. With respect to impact, majority of the farmers opined that the cost of cultivation decreased, followed by increased farmers confidence level, improved fertility status of the soil and improved biodiversity in the farm fields

Constraints in the Adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices

Adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices requires strong attitude and good knowledge level. Further, the adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices has put fourth many constraints. This study was conducted in The Nilgiris district to assess the constraints and suggestions to overcome the constraints in the adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices. Thus, to analyse the constraints Garett ranking method was used (Garett, H.E. et al 1973). The study revealed that the constraints of labour scarcity, Lack of skill about the eco friendly conservation practices, lack of credit facilities, high risk,Insect pest and diseases management, Lack of awareness of agro environmental problems and farmer’s attitude towards the Eco Friendly Conservation Practices are the major constraints in the adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices.The study suggests educational, extension & training strategies for fostering the adopted of ECO friendly Conservation Practices

Plastic Deformation in Laser-Induced Shock Compression of Monocrystalline Copper

Copper monocrystals were subjected to shock compression at pressures of 10–60 GPa by a short (3 ns initial) duration laser pulse. Transmission electron microscopy revealed features consistent with previous observations of shock-compressed copper, albeit at pulse durations in the µs regime. The results suggest that the defect structure is generated at the shock front. A mechanism for dislocation generation is presented, providing a realistic prediction of dislocation density as a function of pressure. The threshold stress for deformation twinning in shock compression is calculated from the constitutive equations for slip, twinning, and the Swegle-Grady relationship

Transient x-ray diffraction used to diagnose shock compressed Si crystals on the Nova laser

Transient x-ray diffraction is used to record time-resolved information about the shock compression of materials. This technique has been applied on Nova shock experiments driven using a hohlraum x-ray drive. Data were recorded from the shock release at the free surface of a Si crystal, as well as from Si at an embedded ablator/Si interface. Modeling has been done to simulate the diffraction data incorporating the strained crystal rocking curves and Bragg diffraction efficiencies. Examples of the data and post-processed simulations are presented

Robotic Laser-Adaptive-Optics Imaging of 715 Kepler Exoplanet Candidates using Robo-AO

The Robo-AO Kepler Planetary Candidate Survey is designed to observe every Kepler planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be physically associated companions and/or responsible for transit false positives. In this paper we present the results from the 2012 observing season, searching for stars close to 715 representative Kepler planet candidate hosts. We find 53 companions, 44 of which are new discoveries. We detail the Robo-AO survey data reduction methods including a method of using the large ensemble of target observations as mutual point-spread-function references, along with a new automated companion-detection algorithm designed for large adaptive optics surveys. Our survey is sensitive to objects from 0.15" to 2.5" separation, with contrast ratios up to delta-m~6. We measure an overall nearby-star-probability for Kepler planet candidates of 7.4% +/- 1.0%, and calculate the effects of each detected nearby star on the Kepler-measured planetary radius. We discuss several KOIs of particular interest, including KOI-191 and KOI-1151, which are both multi-planet systems with detected stellar companions whose unusual planetary system architecture might be best explained if they are "coincident multiple" systems, with several transiting planets shared between the two stars. Finally, we detect 2.6-sigma evidence for <15d-period giant planets being 2-3 times more likely be found in wide stellar binaries than smaller close-in planets and all sizes of further-out planets.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. Minor updates & improved statistical analysis; no changes to results. 15 pages, 13 figure

Identification of distinct cytotoxic granules as the origin of supramolecular attack particles in T lymphocytes

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) kill malignant and infected cells through the directed release of cytotoxic proteins into the immunological synapse (IS). The cytotoxic protein granzyme B (GzmB) is released in its soluble form or in supramolecular attack particles (SMAP). We utilize synaptobrevin2-mRFP knock-in mice to isolate fusogenic cytotoxic granules in an unbiased manner and visualize them alone or in degranulating CTLs. We identified two classes of fusion-competent granules, single core granules (SCG) and multi core granules (MCG), with different diameter, morphology and protein composition. Functional analyses demonstrate that both classes of granules fuse with the plasma membrane at the IS. SCG fusion releases soluble GzmB. MCGs can be labelled with the SMAP marker thrombospondin-1 and their fusion releases intact SMAPs. We propose that CTLs use SCG fusion to fill the synaptic cleft with active cytotoxic proteins instantly and parallel MCG fusion to deliver latent SMAPs for delayed killing of refractory targets

Molecular analysis of promoter region of the SMN2 gene in the patients of spinal musculatr atrophy.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the absence of the full length SMN protein (FL-SMN) as a result of mutation or deletion of SMN1 gene. The isoform to this gene, SMN2 gene, with mutation in 1 base pair, encodes for 10% of FL-SMN protein and is reported to decrease the severity of the disease when there is an increase gene dosage. There are 3 clinical types of SMA; type I, type II and type III. Type I SMA is the most severe type and only a small amount of FL-SMN protein is present in these individuals. We postulated that the difference in the promoter region of SMN2 gene produces the different level of FL-SMN protein. To verify this hypothesis, the DNA samples of 69 SMA patients who were referred to the Human Genome Center, USM were extracted from their blood. The SMN1 deletion analysis was performed, followed by the SMN2 copy no. analysis and NAIP deletion analysis to remove any clinical bias as NAIP gene deletion and SMN2 copy number have been reported to be associated with SMA disease severity. Only 10 SMA patients from different clinical types (type I=2, type II=3, type III=5) with homozygous deletion of the SMN1 and 2 copies of the SMN2 and deletion in NAIP were finally recruited. Primers were designed for the amplification of the SMN2 promoter region. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify the crucial transcription factor binding sites within the reported ~4.6 kb promoter region. As the core promoter region is still unknown (unreported), we analyzed 15 ORFs and 24 nested ORFs with 15 TATA boxes reflecting the diverse functional integrity of this region. The promoter prediction and core promoter prediction was also performed. Based on the bioinformatics analysis and the designed primers, PCR amplification was done for different regions in the promoter and the PCR products were subjected to direct DNA sequencing. The results were analyzed by Vector NTI suite 9, ClustalX and Gene Doc softwares. The molecular analysis confirmed the absence of any mutation in the promoter region of the SMN2 gene between normal healthy individuals (total 2) and SMA patients. In 4 patients and 1 normal healthy individual the CA repeats were found to be increased which we think cause no effect in disease progression and severity. In conclusion, there was no mutation found in the promoter region of the SMN2 gene among the SMA patients of different clinical types and normal controls. Further analysis involving the cloning of the promoter regions with highest probability of involvement in expression of the SMN2 gene using luciferase assay is ongoing. The results will be useful for the subsequent phase of the study involving the transcription initiation of the SMN2 gene

An assessment of the Indian Ocean mean state and seasonal cycle in a suite of interannual CORE-II simulations

We present an analysis of annual and seasonal mean characteristics of the Indian Ocean circulation and water masses from 16 global ocean–sea-ice model simulations that follow the Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiments (CORE) interannual protocol (CORE-II). All simulations show a similar large-scale tropical current system, but with differences in the Equatorial Undercurrent. Most CORE-II models simulate the structure of the Cross Equatorial Cell (CEC) in the Indian Ocean. We uncover a previously unidentified secondary pathway of northward cross-equatorial transport along 75 °E, thus complementing the pathway near the Somali Coast. This secondary pathway is most prominent in the models which represent topography realistically, thus suggesting a need for realistic bathymetry in climate models. When probing the water mass structure in the upper ocean, we find that the salinity profiles are closer to observations in geopotential (level) models than in isopycnal models. More generally, we find that biases are model dependent, thus suggesting a grouping into model lineage, formulation of the surface boundary, vertical coordinate and surface salinity restoring. Refinement in model horizontal resolution (one degree versus degree) does not significantly improve simulations, though there are some marginal improvements in the salinity and barrier layer results. The results in turn suggest that a focus on improving physical parameterizations (e.g. boundary layer processes) may offer more near-term advances in Indian Ocean simulations than refined grid resolution