Agronomic biofortification of zinc in rice for diminishing malnutrition in South Asia

Zinc (Zn) is increasingly recognized as an essential trace element in the human diet that mediates a plethora of health conditions, including immune responses to infectious diseases. Interestingly, the geographical distribution of human dietary Zn deficiency overlaps with soil Zn deficiency. In South Asia, Zn malnutrition is high due to excessive consumption of rice with low Zn content. Interventions such as dietary diversification, food fortification, supplementation, and biofortification are followed to address Zn malnutrition. Among these, Zn biofortification of rice is the most encouraging, cost-effective, and sustainable for South Asia. Biofortification through conventional breeding and transgenic approaches has been achieved in cereals; however, if the soil is deficient in Zn, then these approaches are not advantageous. Therefore, in this article, we review strategies for enhancing the Zn concentration of rice through agronomic biofortification such as timing, dose, and method of Zn fertilizer application, and how nitrogen and phosphorus application as well as crop establishment methods influence Zn concentration in rice. We also propose data-driven Zn recommendations to anticipate crop responses to Zn fertilization and targeted policies that support agronomic biofortification in regions where crop responses to Zn fertilizer are high

Identification of novel resistant sources for ascochyta blight (Ascochyta rabiei) in chickpea

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second largest pulse crop grown worldwide and ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. is the most devastating disease of the crop in all chickpea growing areas across the continents. The pathogen A. rabiei is highly variable. The resistant sources available are not sufficient and new sources needs to be identified from time to time as resistance breakdown in existing chickpea varieties is very frequent due to fast evolution of new pathotypes of the pathogen. Therefore, this work was undertaken to evaluate the existing chickpea germplasm diversity conserved in Indian National Genebank against the disease under artificial epiphytotic conditions. An artificial standard inoculation procedure was followed for uniform spread of the pathogen. During the last five winter seasons from 2014–15 to 2018–19, a total of 1,970 accessions have been screened against the disease and promising accessions were identified and validated. Screening has resulted in identification of some promising chickpea accessions such as IC275447, IC117744, EC267301, IC248147 and EC220109 which have shown the disease resistance (disease severity score �3) in multiple seasons and locations. Promising accessions can serve as the potential donors in chickpea improvement programs. The frequency of resistant and moderately resistant type accessions was comparatively higher in accessions originated from Southwest Asian countries particularly Iran and Syria than the accessions originated from Indian sub-continent. Further large scale screening of chickpea germplasm originated from Southwest Asia may result in identifying new resistant sources for the disease

The CMS Outer Hadron Calorimeter

The CMS hadron calorimeter is a sampling calorimeter with brass absorber and plastic scintillator tiles with wavelength shifting fibres for carrying the light to the readout device. The barrel hadron calorimeter is complemented with a outer calorimeter to ensure high energy shower containment in CMS and thus working as a tail catcher. Fabrication, testing and calibrations of the outer hadron calorimeter are carried out keeping in mind its importance in the energy measurement of jets in view of linearity and resolution. It will provide a net improvement in missing \et measurements at LHC energies. The outer hadron calorimeter has a very good signal to background ratio even for a minimum ionising particle and can hence be used in coincidence with the Resistive Plate Chambers of the CMS detector for the muon trigger

Night driving filter for automobiles

611-614<span style="font-size: 15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">The dazzle <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR; mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">(excessive visible <span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt; font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">radiation) produced by the headlights of the oncoming vehicles, <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR;mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">blinds <span style="font-size:15.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">the driver's eyes instantly, during night driving. The frequent dazzling not only makes the driving difficult but, it also impairs the vision. Therefore, it <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR; mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">is essentially <span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt; font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">required to <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR; mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">suppress <span style="font-size: 15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">the dazzle by means or an optical filter (Night driving filter ) The night driving filter absorbs the <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR;mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">excessive <span style="font-size: 15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">radiations  resulting in reducing the glare. The night driving filter consists or a vacuum deposited gradient density, neutral film, having a required thickness gradation prolilc on a glass substrate. Online testing of filter was done, by fitting it in the car and driving on lighted and un-lighted roads. single and dual carriage-ways. The results are encouraging <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR; mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">as shown in Table 1. The results show that the right hand portion of the filter (seen in the direction or view or the driver), blocks the glare and reduces it to about 25- 30 % , at the same time view of the road from the center as well as from left hand portion of the filter, is not reduced, <span style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:6.0pt;font-family:HiddenHorzOCR; mso-hansi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:hiddenhorzocr"="">resulting in stress-free comfortable driving and better overall visualization. </span

Relations of rice seeding rates to crop and weed growth in aerobic rice

Aerobic rice describes a management adaptation to reduced irrigation water supplies but, due to reduced intervals of flooding in this system, this requires revised weed management approaches to reduce costs and provide effective weed control. One approach is to make the crop more competitive and reduce the effects of weeds on the crop by using higher rice seeding rates. A study was conducted in the Philippines and India in 2008 and 2009 to assess the relations of seeding rates (15-125kgha-1) of hybrid and inbred varieties to crop and weed growth in aerobic rice. Plant densities, tillers, and biomass of rice increased linearly with increased in seeding rates under both weedy and weed free environments. Weed biomass decreased linearly with increasing seeding rates from 15 to 125kgha-1. Panicles and grain yields of rice in competition with weeds increased in a quadratic relation with increased seeding rates at both locations; however, the response was flat in the weed free plots. A quadratic model predicted that seeding rates of 48-80kgha-1 for the inbred varieties and 47-67kgha-1 for the hybrid varieties were needed to achieve maximum grain yield when grown in the absence of weeds, while rates of 95-125kgseedha-1 for the inbred varieties and 83-92kg seed ha-1 for the hybrid varieties were needed to achieve maximum yields in competition with weeds. On the basis of these results, seeding rates greater than 80kgha-1 are advisable where there are risks of severe weed competition. Such high seeding rates may be prohibitive when using expensive seed, and maximum yields are not the only consideration for developing recommendations for optimizing economic returns for farmers. Results of the present study do suggest however that increasing seeding rates of aerobic rice does suppress weed growth and reduce grain yield losses from weed competition. This information could be incorporated in integrated crop management packages to manage weeds more effectively

Effect of herbicides on weed management in dry-seeded rice sown under different tillage systems

In India, dry-seeded rice (DSR) production systems are rapidly replacing conventional rice production systems due to various advantages. DSR systems can be managed under zero-till (ZT) conditions or after a preparatory tillage, often referred to as conventional tillage systems (CONT). Although previous reports indicate the contribution of tillage to weed suppression, the effect of one-time preparatory tillage in a DSR system could vary depending on the dominant weeds in the system, vertical seed distribution and the weed seed dynamics. A study was conducted to test the efficacy of ZT and CONT and their interaction with herbicide treatments on the weed population dynamics and rice grain yield in 2010 and 2011. Tillage systems did not affect weed emergence, weed biomass, tiller production and crop yield. However, herbicide treatments varied in their efficacy on individual weeds. Hand-weeding treatments and pendimethalin combined with hand weeding did not effectively control Cyperus rotundus L. and Panicum maximum Jacq. (a perennial grass weed with underground parts). The herbicide combination of metsulfuron and chlorimuron was effective in controlling C. rotundus but not grass weeds. This indicates the need for sequential applications of herbicides for grass weed control or integration of hand weeding to achieve broad-spectrum weed control. Apart from hand weeding (three times), treatment with penoxsulam–cyhalofop and pendimethalin followed by (fb) hand weeding resulted in low weed density, high tiller production and grain yield. The study clearly indicates that tillage does not always lead to weed suppression compared with ZT, and herbicides must be chosen based on the dominant weeds in a system. The results of this study are pertinent as herbicide-resistant weeds are rapidly evolving under continuous herbicide selection pressure, which warrants studies on enhancing productivity through low-input, environmentally friendly and sustainable production technology

Effect of sowing time on the yield and quality parameters of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) hybrids under semiarid irrigated conditions of northern India

To evaluate the changes in seed yield and oil quality of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in response to changing environmental conditions across different planting dates and genotypic variability, a field experiment was carried out during spring 2005-2008 at PAU, Ludhiana. Planting dates affected seed yields more than any of the other characteristics measured with significant yield reduction under delayed planting conditions. An increase in oleic with decrease in linoleic acid (r = –0.993*) was observed with each progressive delay in planting time. Change in the oleic/linoleic acid ratio under different planting dates suggests a possible role of environmental factors especially temperature on the seed development processes during reproductive phase further deciding the oil quality. Total heat units accumulated during the seed maturation period had positive correlation with oleic (r = 0.697*) and negative with linoleic correlation (r = –0.578*) acid. Further investigation is needed to get deeper insight into the effects on seed oil composition of the interaction between changes in temperature regime and/or planting time under field/controlled conditions for yield maximization and better quality sunflower oil

In vivo and in vitro MR spectroscopic profile of central neurocytomas

The metabolic differences between the muscle biopsies of patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) and normal controls were characterized using high-resolution 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. In all, 44 metabolites were unambiguously assigned in the perchloric acid extracts of skeletal muscle tissue, using 2D double quantum filtered (DQF COSY), total correlation (TOCSY), and 1H/13C heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC) spectroscopy. The concentrations of glycolytic substrate, glucose (p=0.03), gluconeogenic amino acids, glutamine (p=0.02) and alanine (p=0.009) together with glycolytic product, lactate (p=0.04), were found to be significantly lowered in LGMD patients as compared with controls. The reduction in the concentration of glucose may be attributed to the decrease in the concentration of gluconeogenic amino acids in the degenerated muscle. Reduction in the rate of anaerobic glycolysis and lowered substrate concentration appear to be the possible reasons for the decrease in the concentration of lactate. A significant reduction in the concentration of choline in LGMD patients was also observed compared with controls. Lower concentration of choline may be the result of decreased rate of membrane turnover in LGMD patients. The data presented here provide an insight into the potentials of in-vitro NMR spectroscopy in the study of muscle metabolism

Analysis of Two Outbreaks of Scrub Typhus in Rajasthan : A Clinico-epidemiological Study

Abstract Aims and Objectives : To describe the diversity of clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and outcome of scrub typhus in hospitalised patients of SMS Hospital, Jaipur during 2012 and 2013. Material and Methods : All the cases of febrile illness with thrombocytopenia diagnosed as scrub typhus were analysed. Diagnosis was made by ELISA based IgM serology. Observations and Results : A total of 125 patients were studied. All of them presented with fever; the other major symptoms were headache, cough, dyspnoea and myalgias. On examination, patients had hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy and eschar. On investigation elevated SGOT, SGPT with normal or elevated bilirubin levels were the most common findings. Other laboratory findings were thrombocytopenia and deranged renal function tests. Most common X-ray finding observed in these patients was bilateral lung infiltrates. Other complications were MODS, ARDS, hypotension and meningoencephalitis. Majority responded to doxycycline. Conclusion : Scrub typhus though prevalent is under-reported in our country. It should be considered as an important differential diagnosis in a febrile patient with thrombocytopenia, deranged liver or renal functions, and B/L chest opacities. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is rewarding and prevents morbidity and mortality