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Assam is well-recognized for its rich genetic diversity of rice. The climatic condition and geographical location cause better production of rice in the past of Assam. Winter rice is the leading rice crop, accounting for a major portion of the total rice production in Assam and NBPZ is one of the main regions where most of its livelihood depends on agriculture. The purpose of the study is to analyze the trend of area, production, and productivity of winter rice and identify the change point for winter rice productivity in NBPZ of Assam. Analyzing over thirty years of the data for the NBPZ led to the detection of the change point for the productivity of winter rice. The study also revealed that the NBPZ is not limited to studying climateresilient productivity of winter rice only, but there is a great need for the implementation of effective measures on crop production and productivity. Thus, the outcome of the study has believed to reveal a better implementable plan for the farmers for designing an efficient agricultural policy by the policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every player is expected to contribute to team's batting effort irrespective of their batting position. The expected contribution of each batsman is to score runs as quickly as possible without getting dismissed. It has often seen that based on different situations within a game, a batsman must play either carefully to defend his wicket or strike out aggressively to score runs quickly. Based on the expertise of the batsman, the captain of the fielding team arrange the fielders in such a way that the batsman couldn't maximize his score. However, the arrangement of fielders is also dependent on the type of bowler (spin/fast) as well as team's bowling strategies. Therefore, this study tries to find out the optimal playing strategies of a batsman on the field against different bowling types through the approach of game theory. To substantiate the model with live data a batsman's strategies against different types of bowlers are explained in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the timing of the first goal in the second half of a football match can offer valuable insights and strategic implications, as it can inform tactical adjustments at halftime based on first-half performance. This particular issue has not received much attention in sports analytics despite its significance. This study utilises survival analysis techniques to model the time-to-event of the opening goal after halftime using data from the Indian Super League (ISL), focusing on examining how a team’s first-half performance statistics impact their scoring timing in the second half. The extended Cox model revealed that the number of completed passes in the first half is a statistically significant factor that affects the timing of the initial second-half goal. In an effort to enhance the comprehensiveness of the analysis, the study then transits to the Bayesian proportional hazards model and the Bayesian Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) models. It was found that the number of corners and goal saves by the teams were significant indicators of the timing of the opening second-half goal. The unique aspect of this study lies in its innovative application of Bayesian survival modelling techniques to football-related data. A comparison of the models indicates that the Bayesian viewpoint exhibits superiority in this evaluation. Through the quantification of crucial in-game metrics on scoring trends post-halftime, this framework presents a valuable tool for sports analysts and coaches to assess strategic choices during crucial intervals of a match. Furthermore, the methodologies investigated have the potential for extension to other top-tier leagues and sports, paving the way for improved data-informed decision-making and intra-match analysis in professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cricket, the prime responsibility lies with the batsmen of a team to do the bulk of the scoring. Therefore, the strategy of playing shots is more specific to the batsmen and all-rounders of the team. Based on the match situation, a batsman must play either defensively to defend his wicket or bat aggressively to progress his team's total score. Given the expertise of the batsman, the captain of the fielding team shall decide which bowler to bowl and place the fielders in such a way that a batsman find it difficult to score runs. However, the fielding arrangement depends on the type of bowler (i.e., either fast or spin). Therefore, this study tries to determine the probabilistic estimation of shot selection by a batsman against bowling type after dividing the entire cricket field into six different nonoverlapping areas. Initially, the probabilities of shots played by a batsman are estimated using multinomial distribution. Thereafter, transition probabilities of shots for a batsman along with mean recurrence time are estimated using Markov chain. This study will be helpful for the captain of the fielding team to arrange the fielder and choose his bowlers against a given batsman of the opponent team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A similarity index is developed in this paper to measure the resemblance of information contained in the websites of several management institutes of India. The data matrix pertaining to information contents of the different websites is populated using indicator variables. A Pair Similarity Index (PSI), for non-mutually exclusive cases, is proposed that can measure the similarity between websites through pairs of observations. A comparison of the proposed similarity index with one such existing index is also done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neglected use of micronutrient greatly hampered the productivity of oilseed crop. Thus, to determine the optimal dose of S and B on toria under rice-fallow system, an experiment was carried out with five doses of S i.e. 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 kg/ha and 3 doses of B i.e. 0, 1 and 2 kg/ha for two consecutive years (2018–19 and 2019–20). The plant growth parameters, i.e. plant height, dry matter accumulation, leaf area index and crop growth rate, and yield attributing parameters, i.e. siliqua/plant and seeds/siliqua, were greatly enhanced through application of S @ 30 kg/ha as well as B@ 2 kg/ha. The higher seed yield (10.11q/ha), stover yield (22.00q/ha) and oil yield (3.86 q/ha) were registered with the application of S @ 30 kg/ha + B @ 2 kg/ha, but it was at par with S@ 30 kg/ha + B @ 1 kg/ha. The combined application of S@ 30 kg/ha + B @ 2 kg/ha also noted higher plant nutrient uptake of N, P, K including S and B closely followed by S@ 30 kg/ha + B @ 1 kg/ha. But in terms of economics, conjugate application of S@ 30 kg/ha + B @1 kg/ha showed maximum monetary benefit with highest B:C (2.24). The pearson correlation indicated strong and positive correlation of seed yield with growth and yield parameters as well as nutrient uptake by plants. Regression analysis revealed that each one unit increase in plant dry matter accumulation showed an increase in seed yield by 4.56 unit and each one increase uptake in N, P, K, S and B showed an increase in seed yield by 0.19, 0.63,0.40,0.55 and 0.05, respectively. Henceforth, considering all the factors the combination of S@ 30 kg/ha and B@1 kg/ha may be recommended under the late sown toria in rice-fallow system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study investigates the temporal dynamics of natural enemies in the mulberry plant with populations of sucking pests and metrological parameters. An experiment was conducted from December 2018 to November 2019, in the Jorhat district of Assam. The experiment’s findings indicated that among the five species of sucking pests, Paracoccus marginatus was dominating. There was more fluctuation in the P. marginatus population during both crop seasons due to the interaction of abiotic and biotic variables. The number of wet days during the 2018–2019 study period revealed a substantial inverse association between adult and larval populations of natural enemies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop yield forecasting is the art of predicting yield before harvest and is crucial for sound planning and policy making at various levels. Rapeseed and mustard (R&M) is the predominant oilseed crop in Assam and is very much sensitive to climatic factors compared to other crops grown during rabi season. In the context of recent climate variability observed in the Brahmaputra valley, development of efficient yield forecasting models for R&M based on weather parameters would certainly help the policy makers in formulating appropriate policies and decision-making. The present study was undertaken to develop R&M pre-harvest yield forecast models at F1 (flowering), F2 (siliqua formation) and F3 (siliqua development & maturity) stages for 15 districts of Assam using stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) and artificial neural network (ANN) techniques by analysing the yield and weather data for 27 years and to investigate the impact of weather factors in determining the yield of R&M. The results were enumerated based on coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE) and normalized root mean square error (RMSEn) values. ANN models were found to have greater R2 values over SMLR at all the three stages of forecast except in 2–3 districts. Similarly, profound improvement was observed in RMSE and RMSEn values of the forecast models using ANN technique. Analysing the percent error between observed and forecasted yield, ANN weather-based models were found to give more accurate pre-harvest yield prediction of R&M in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. Temperature and relative humidity were found to be the most significant parameters in affecting R&M yield in most of the districts during all the three stages of forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the genes that govern tea plant ( Camellia sinensis) architecture and response to drought stress is urgently needed to enhance breeding in tea with improved water use efficiency. Field drought is a slow mechanism and the plants go through an adaptive process in contrast to the drastic changes of rapid dehydration in case of controlled experiments. We identified a set of drought responsive genes under controlled condition using SSH, and validated the identified genes and their pattern of expression under field drought condition. The study was at three stages of water deficit stress viz., before wilting, wilting and recovery, which revealed a set of genes with higher expression at before wilting stage including dehydrin, abscissic acid ripening protein, glutathione peroxidase, cinnamoyl CoA reductase, calmodulin binding protein. The higher expression of these genes was related with increase tolerance character of DT/TS-463 before wilting, these five tolerant progenies could withstand drought stress and thus are candidates for breeding. We observed that physiological parameter like water use efficiency formed a close group with genes such as calmodulin related, DRM3, hexose transporter, hydrogen peroxide induced protein, ACC oxidase, lipase, ethylene responsive transcription factor and diaminopimelate decarboxylase, during wilting point. Our data provides valuable information for the gene components and the dynamics of gene expression in second and third leaf against drought stress in tea, which could be regarded as candidate targets potentially associated with drought tolerance. We propose that the identified five tolerant progenies on the basis of their drought tolerance can thus be utilised for future breeding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]