A 3-year study was conducted to assess the impact of tillage and weed control practices on weed flora and wheat productivity. Experiments were conducted during Rabi season of 2012–13 to 2014–15 at GBPUA&T, Pantnagar, with clayloam soil. There were five crop establishment methods, viz. Transplanted rice (conventional tillage) (TPR)- wheat (conventional tillage) (CTW) (TPR-CTW), Transplanted rice (conventional tillage)- wheat (zero tillage)-Sesbania green manuring (S) (TPR-ZTW-S), Direct-seeded rice (conventional tillage)-wheat (conventional tillage)-Sesbania incorporation (S) (DSR-CTW-S), Directseeded rice (zero tillage)-wheat (zero tillage)-Sesbania brown manuring (S) (ZTR-ZTW-S) and Direct-seeded rice (zero tillage) + residue retention-wheat (zero tillage) + residue retention-Sesbania brown manuring (S) (ZTR + R-ZTW+R-ZTS) and three weed control methods [(weedy check, recommended herbicide (Recommended ready-mix herbicide clodinafop 15% + MSM 1% (60 + 4 g/ha) and integrated weed management i.e., clodinafop 15% + MSM 1% 60 + 4 g/ha fb manual weeding at 45 days after seeding (DAS)]. Continuous zero-till cropping system along with residue retention and brown manuring of Sesbania has resulted in the lowest total weed biomass at 60 DAS and greatly reduced the density of Phalaris minor, Medicago denticulata, Polygonum plebeium and Coronopusdidymus. However, density of C. didymus, Rumex acetosella and Vicia sativa was reduced under conventionally tilled wheat. Ready mix application of clodinafop 15% + MSM 1% supplemented with one hand weeding at 45 DAS greatly reduced the density and biomass of weeds. The maximum wheat grain (4.5 t/ha) and straw (6.3 t/ha) yields was achieved under zero-tilled wheat with rice residue retention and Sesbania as brown manure. The integration of clodinafop 15% + MSM 1% with 1 HW at 45 DAS resulted in an increase in grain and straw yields by 45.5% and 30.8%, respectively, over weedy check. It may inferred that in wheat cultivation conventional tillage could be replaced with zero-tillage along with residue retention by growing of Sesbania and the application of 2,4-D at 30 days stage to attain sustainability of ricewheat cropping system.

The isometric pyrochlore structure type A(2)B(2)O(7) possesses a wide range of technological applications such as electrolytes in solid oxide fuel cell, thermal barrier coating, and nuclear waste form for actinides incorporation. Pyrochlore series Gd2Ti2-yZryO7 with y = 0.0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 was prepared using standard solid-state method. X-ray diffraction along with SEM studies was carried out to investigate the effect of Zr content on microstructure and the swift heavy ion irradiation-induced effects on the structural integrity of Gd2Ti2-yZryO7 pyrochlore family. Rietveld refinement showed a systematic increase in the lattice parameter on increasing the value of y in Gd2Ti2-yZryO7 and an abrupt enhancement in the value of the O-48f positional parameter at y > 1.6. The intensity of superstructure peaks gradually decreases in the X-ray diffraction pattern on increasing the Zr content, which indicates the transformation from the ordered pyrochlore structure to disordered anion-deficient fluorite structure. On irradiation with swift heavy ion (120 MeV Au+9), the compositions with y = 0.0 and 0.4 were completely amorphized and the composition with y = 0.8 and 1.2 partially amorphized whereas no sign of amorphization was observed in the Zr rich (y = 1.6 and 2.0) compositions. The composition with y >= 1.6 retains its crystallinity even at higher ion fluence of 1 x 10(14) ions/cm(2). These results are explained on the basis of the ratio of cationic radii r(A)/r(B) and in turn the 'x' parameter of 48f oxygen. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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Introduction: Identification is establishment of identity of a person with the help of different physical characteristics. The different physical characteristics of human skeleton between both the genders is the reason of Sexual dimorphism. Many researchers have studied and observed the different parameters for sexual dimorphismin different bones. Femur is an important bone which shows sexual dimorphism in different parameters. In modern era of advancement, pathological autopsy is shifting towards the virtual autopsy in which CT scan, MRI and X-rays are replacing the conventional autopsy instruments. From the femur bone, we took femur neck shaft angle for study.

Neonatal sepsis forms the most common cause of mortality in the first month of life. Klebsiella species are the most commonly implicated pathogen in neonatal sepsis and the emergence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPKP) has resulted in high morbidity and mortality. The study was undertaken in the department of Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Control of Almana General Hospital, Saudi Arabia when in the month of January 2018, a sudden rise in positive blood cultures due to phenotypically identical K. pneumoniae from patient samples received from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) raised an alarm. Out of 19 blood culture samples obtained from neonates, 5 were positive for K. pneumoniae and they were positive for carbapenamase production when tested by modified Hodge test. Environmental sampling revealed similar growth from door handle of clean linen cabinet within the NICU. Infection prevention and control breach by healthcare providers was identified as the most critical cause for this outbreak in NICU. The study focuses on the prevention of hospital outbreak by stringent infection control measures and judicious use of antibiotics in healthcare settings.

Translation of genes is regulated by many factors including microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNA profiling of lesional and non-lesional epidermal RNA from 18 vitiligo patients revealed significant upregulation of 29 miRNAs in the lesional epidermis, of which 6 miRNAs were transfected in normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) to study their downstream effects using quantitative proteomics. Many proteins involved in oxidative stress, Vesicle trafficking, Cellular apoptosis, Mitochondrial proteins and Keratins were regulated after miRNA transfections in the keratinocytes. However, tyrosinase related protein-1 (TRP1/TYRP1), a melanogenesis protein, was consistently downregulated in NHEKs by all the six miRNAs tested, which was quite intriguing. TRP1 was also downregulated in lesional epidermis compared with non-lesional epidermis. Since melanocytes synthesize and transfer melanosomes to the surrounding keratinocytes, we hypothesized that downregulation of TRP1 in NHEKs may have a role in melanosome transfer, which was confirmed by our co-culture experiments. Downregulation of TRP1 in keratinocytes negatively affected the melanosome transfer from melanocytes to keratinocytes resulting in melanin accumulation which may be leading to melanin induced cytotoxicity in melanocytes. Regulation of key processes involved in aetiopathogenesis of vitiligo along with TRP1 suggests that miRNAs act in an integrated manner which may be detrimental for the loss of melanocytes in vitiligo.

Crop yields are limited by water, temperature and nutrient availability. Soil mulching (with plastic or straw) reduces evaporation, modifies soil temperature and thereby affects crop yields. Reported effects of mulching are sometimes contradictory, likely due to differences in climatic conditions, soil characteristics, crop species, and also water and nutrient input. Two years field experiment was established at Himachal Pradesh, India under twelve treatment combinations of mulch and nutrient level were practised in a randomized block design. Four types of mulches (i.e., black plastic mulch-BP, grass mulch-GM, pine needle mulch-PN, and unmulched control-UM) and three levels of nutrients (i.e., 125% of recommended dose of NPK- N-1, 100% recommended dose of NPK -N-2 and 75% of recommended dose of NPK- N-3) were replicated thrice. Results of two years data revealed that all mulches maintained comparatively higher in situ soil moisture and black plastic mulch conserved the highest moisture content which was 21.3% as compared to unmulched in 0-15 cm soil depth. Mulches favorably moderated the soil temperature where black plastic mulch recorded the highest temperature at 7:30 hrs and 14:30 hrs during both the years at 15 cm depth. Grass and pine needles mulches reduced the soil bulk density and improved the soil organic carbon over unmulched control. Availability of SO42- -S and Ca were improved under mulch, nutrient levels alone and their combinations when compared to unmulched control and 75% NPK nutrient levels. Mulching along with different levels of NPK nutrients improved the growth attributes, increased the productivity and uptake of secondary nutrients of cauliflower. Black plastic mulch in combination with 125% of recommended dose of NPK obtained the highest curd yield (26.7 t/ha) which well reflected to more favourable economics as compared to other treatment combinations.

Background and Aims: We determined what proportion of the mortality decline from 2014 to 2017 in coronary heart disease (CHD) in the west Delhi could be attributed to advances in medical treatment and to improvements in population-wide cardiovascular risk factors.

Automated feedback on pronunciation system on a smart phone is useful for a student trying to learn a new language at his or her own pace. The objective of our research is to implement a pronunciation training system with minimal language specific data. Our proposed system consists of an Android application as a front-end, and a pronunciation evaluation and mispronunciation detection framework as the back -end hosted on a cloud. We conduct our experiments on spoken isolated words in Kannada. Our pronunciation evaluation (for spoken word) implementation on the cloud involves training a classifier with features from Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) with Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Line Spectral Frequencies (LSF) and, without directly on LSF (without DTW). We study the performance of different machine learning algorithms for pronunciation rating. We propose a novel semi supervised approach for detecting mispronounced segments of a word using Self Organizing Maps (SOM) that are also deployed on the cloud. Our implementation of SOM learns the features of an automatically segmented reference speech. The trained SOM is then used to determine the deviations in the learner's pronunciation. We evaluate our system on 1169 Kannada audio samples from students around 18 to 25 years of age. The Kannada words considered are taken from textbooks of first and second grade (considering learners as beginners who do not know Kannada) and include 2 to 5 syllable words. We report accuracy on binary classification and multi -class classification for different classifiers. The mispronounced segments detected using SOM correlate with the human ratings. Our approach of pronunciation evaluation and mispronunciation detection is based on minimal data and does not require a speech recognition system.

Air quality monitoring was conducted in 12 working, 29 closed and 18 proposed ion ore mines to assess the existing baseline air quality status in Saranda region of West Singhbhum district in the Jharkhand state of India. Air quality modelling was carried out to predict the dust concentrations that likely to arise as a result of the several mine operations. This modelling analysis enabled the effective mitigating measures to control mining related air pollution. It was observed that the main cause of particulate matter generation in the region is due to the road transportation of ore. Transportation of iron ore by conveyor belts from the pit head to the bunkers at the nearest railway siding, and thereafter from the bunkers to the user site by covered railway wagons demonstrated the best possible alternative mechanism for reducing particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations in the region. It was predicted that concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 would be below or slightly higher than the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in most of the surroundings and higher within mine leasehold areas. Air pollution levels can be minimized by implementing effective control measures. Consequently, it was suggested that all the existing working mines as well as proposed operative mines in the region should use the transportation from mine to the nearest railway siding by covered conveyor belts and bunker loading systems with the use of scientific dust suppression systems at transfer points.

Computer Aided Pronunciation Training (CAPT) systems can assist people learning to speak new languages by detecting and correcting mispronunciations. "Kannada Kali" is a prototype Android application that leverages learners' increasing access to smartphones to evaluate the pronunciation of Kannada words and provide feedback using a cloud -based framework. A CAPT system typically uses an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) sub-system. For sufficient accuracy, ASR systems need to be trained using speech data from both native (L1) and nonnative (L2) speakers. Since the latter type of data is particularly difficult to gather, we follow recent research efforts that seek to minimize the dependency on large speech corpora. We recorded 21 Kannada words (two to five syllables long) pronounced correctly by a Kannada teacher as templates, and 1169 samples of these words spoken by 19 native and non-native Kannada speakers aged 18 to 25 years. These samples were manually rated on a 5-point Likert scale by the Kannada teacher and used to train a neural network classifier for our application. "Kannada Kali" provides learners feedback that matches the teacher ratings with an accuracy of 86% on binary classification and 68% on multi-class classification. We also propose a novel approach for detecting mispronunciations using Self Organizing Maps (SOM) and report promising initial results.

In vitiligo, chronic loss of melanocytes and consequent absence of melanin from the epidermis presents a challenge for long-term tissue maintenance. The stable vitiligo patches are known to attain an irreversible depigmented state. However, the molecular and cellular processes resulting in this remodeled tissue homeostasis is unclear. To investigate the complex interplay of inductive signals and cell intrinsic factors that support the new acquired state, we compared the matched lesional and non-lesional epidermis obtained from stable non-segmental vitiligo subjects. Hierarchical clustering of genome-wide expression of transcripts surprisingly segregated lesional and non-lesional samples in two distinct clades, despite the apparent heterogeneity in the lesions of different vitiligo subjects. Pathway enrichment showed the expected downregulation of melanogenic pathway and a significant downregulation of cornification and keratinocyte differentiation processes. These perturbations could indeed be recapitulated in the lesional epidermal tissue, including blunting of rete-ridges, thickening of stratum corneum and increase in the size of corneocytes. In addition, we identify marked increase in the putrescine levels due to the elevated expression of spermine/spermidine acetyl transferase. Our study provides insights into the intrinsic self-renewing ability of damaged lesional tissue to restore epidermal functionality in vitiligo.

This paper reports the distribution of natural uranium in different underground water sources and health risk evaluation around Narora Atomic Power Station, Narora, India. The uranium concentration at studied locations ranged from BDL (< 0.2 mu g/L) to 32.37 mu g/L with geometric mean (GM) of 6.4 mu g/L and geometric standard deviation of 7.85. The life time average daily dose of uranium in drinking water was 0.64 mu g kg(-1) day(-1). The cancer morbidity and mortality risk were also calculated for U-238, U-235 and U-234. The average cancer mortality was 8.03x10-7, 3.1x10(-8) and 7.21x10(-7) and cancer morbidity was 1.28x10(-6), 4.89x10(-8) and 1.12 x10(-6) for U-238, U-235 and U-234. It is concluded that health risk is minimal due to low levels of uranium in drinking water in Narora environment. However the concentration of uranium in drinking water must be monitored regularly.

This field study was undertaken to quantify the transfer factor of 137Cs from agricultural soil to wheat grains and ingestion dose evaluation around Narora Atomic Power Station, Narora, India from 2010 to 2012. 137Cs activity was measured using NaI (Tl) well type gamma-spectrometry system. Transfer factor of 137Cs from soil to wheat grain samples was in the range of 0.12–0.46. Annual ingestion dose to man from 137Cs activity was significantly lower than permissible limit (1.0 mSv year−1). The risk measured due to 137Cs is also insignificant to members of public residing around Narora Atomic Power Station, Narora, India.

137Cs and 90Sr concentration in rice grain and corresponding agricultural soils were measured (2009–2011) within 15 km radius of Narora Atomic Power Station (NAPS), Narora, India. 137Cs activity was in the range of BDL (<0.2)—0.65 ± 0.18 Bq kg−1 in rice grains and from BDL (<0.56)—2.06 ± 0.36 Bq kg−1 in soil samples. 90Sr content was BDL (<0.095 Bq kg−1) in all rice grain samples. Transfer factor of 137Cs from soil to rice grain was in the range of 0.10–0.40. Ingestion dose from rice consumption was significantly lesser than the permissible limits of 1.0 mSv year−1, thus posing no radiological health risk.

Precision farming aims to manage production inputs over many small management zones rather than on large zones. It is difficult to manage inputs at extremely fine scales, especially in the case of the rice irrigation system. However, site-specific irrigation management can potentially improve the overall water management in comparison to irrigated areas of hundreds of hectares. A critical element of the irrigation scheduling and management is the accurate estimation of irrigation supplies and its proper allocation for the irrigation offtake structures based on the actual planted areas. All irrigation scheduling procedures consist of monitoring indicators that determine the need for irrigation. The final decision depends on the irrigation criterion, strategy and goal. Irrigation scheduling is the decision of when and how much water to apply to a field. The amount of water applied is determined by using a criterion to determine irrigation need and a strategy to prescribe how much water to apply in any situation. The right amount of daily irrigation supply and monitoring at the right time within the discrete irrigation unit is essential to improve the irrigation water management of a scheme. This paper presents the GIS capability to achieve the goal in the view of irrigation strategy and goal with special reference to precision farming of rice. The GIS-based water management model was developed for the scheduling daily irrigation water deliveries and regular monitoring of irrigation delivery performance. The “Scheduling” program computes the right amount of irrigation deliveries based on crop water requirements. The “Monitoring” program gives information on the uniformity of water distribution and the shortfall or excess. The displayed results allow the manager to view maps, tables and graphs in a comprehensible form to ease decision making that where the irrigation amount will be delivered as the season progresses. GIS was used as a useful tool to assist the irrigation water management program in the context of precision farming. Keywords: i rrigation, monitoring, precision , farming, rice , GIS DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.20 1 0.0 1 .0 27 -0 35 Citation: Rowshon M K , Amin M S M . GIS-based i rrigation w ater m anagement for p recision f arming of r ice. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 20 1 0; 3 ( 3 ): 27

This study was conducted to investigate the uptake of heavy metals by rice grains and related health risk analysis to the people living around Narora Atomic Power Station, Narora, India. The mean heavy metal concentration for Cu, Pb, Mn, Cr, Co, Cd and Fe in soil was 27.95, 21.84, 21.71, 8.12, 5.18, 2.42 and 2300.9 mg kg(-1) respectively. The concentration of heavy metals in rice grain was 1.12, 0.237, 0.236, 0.086, 0.143, 0.034 and 63.24 mg kg(-1) for Cu, Pb, Mn, Co, Cd, Cr and Fe respectively. The rice grain accumulated all the heavy metals lesser than their concentration in the field soil. Soil to grain transfer factors for Cu, Mn, Pb, Co, Cd, Cr and Fe were 0.071, 0.015, 0.02, 0.032, 0.07, 0.005 and 0.04 respectively. The results showed that heavy metal uptake was different for different metals. The maximum transfer factor was for copper and minimum was for chromium. Total Hazard Quotient (THQ) was also calculated for all samples in accord with all metals which were lesser than significant value of 1.0.

Background Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are one of the major causes of acute illness, infertility, long term disability and death for millions of men, women and infants globally. Trichomonas vaginalis, Neisseria gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis are well established agents of STIs leading to vaginal discharge in women. However, the prevalence and co infection patterns among symptomatic women is lacking in India. The present study aims to determine the prevalence and co infection of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Trichomonas vaginalis, in women with vaginal discharge attending OPD, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.

Background Trichomonas vaginalis is one of the most prevalent non viral sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in developing countries. Although several PCR based diagnostic tests are available, the performance, accuracy and sensitivity of these assays vary. Therefore, we decided to compare the performance of various diagnostic gene targets (18S rRNA, b tublin, pROS21) of T. vaginalis under similar conditions and also compared an in-house developed PCR assay targeting pfoB gene with these methods.