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Background: Aspergillus niger and A. flavus cause rotting, damping-off, loss in germination and toxification of oil seeds. Aspergillus is a common mold in tropical and Sub-tropical countries and causes aflatoxin contamination. A. flavus and A. niger were responsible for storage rot of groundnut. In addition to storage rot, aflatoxin contamination also leads to adverse effects on consumer health. Therefore, present study was conducted to estimate the impact of both A. niger and A. flavus on seed quality parameters of groundnut. Methods: Effect of major seed borne fungi A. niger and A. flavus on seed quality characters of thirteen different genotypes of groundnut was observed in the present study. All the seedling quality characters were measured as per ISTA guidelines. Result: On an average A. niger caused 25.14, 25.18, 43.99, 26.20 and 44.75 per cent reduction in seed germination, seedling length, seedling vigour index I, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index II, respectively, over the control whereas A. flavus caused average per cent reduction of 22.38, 24.23, 41.18, 23.92 and 40.95 in seed germination, seedling length, seedling vigour index I, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index II, respectively, over the control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strips of micro-alloyed steel grade 27MnSiVS6 was subjected to austenitization, followed by forced air cooling and austempering conditions. The forced air cooled condition resulted in a tensile strength of 1345 MPa and 13.5% elongation with an yield ratio of 0.41, with a microstructure consisting of ferrite, bainite with blocky martensite/austenite (M/A) constituent. The same steel was subjected to austenitization at 950 °C for 10 min followed by austempering in a salt bath at 450 °C for 5 min, showed a fully bainitic ferrite microstructure with very fine M/A constituents, where a tensile strength of 969 MPa and an elongation of 16.8% and an yield ratio of 0.82 were noticed. During austempering, the holding time at the austenitization temperature and isothermal temperature were varied which resulted in a moderate influence on the strength and the ductility. The work hardening behavior of the steel was examined using the Hollomon equation and modified C–J (Cussard–Jeoul) analysis. The work hardening initially takes place in the softer ferrite phase, which is beyond a critical strain, changes over to harder tempered martensite phases followed by void nucleation and failure. The study establishes a new range of mechanical properties in the micro-alloyed steel that can be used in flat products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivation of rice under dry direct sown condition is a viable alternative to reduce the pressure on natural resources, more importantly on available fresh water sources. Moisture stress and intense weed competition are the major limitations under this system for which early seedling vigour is a desirable trait to counter this problem. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted during 2015-16 at S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India, with 36 aerobic rice genotypes to understand the physiological and biochemical basis for early vigour. High and low vigour genotypes were categorized based on seedling vigour index under polyethylene glycol (PEG) induced moisture stress at -5 and -10 bars. The biochemical basis for high seedling vigour index (SVI) was studied to explore the role of α-amylase in rapid conversion of starch into reducing sugars in high vigour genotypes. Laboratory findings were confirmed in the field experiment where in early vigour genotypes (NLR-33671, NLR-3042, NLR-4002, NLR-40024, MTU-7029, MTU-1010, JGL- 20171 and JGL-11727) showed high crop growth rate in pre-anthesis period of crop growth. The influence of early vegetative biomass was also reflected on number of tillers and number of productive tillers in high vigorous genotypes compared to low vigorous genotypes (MTU- 1075 and MTU-1112). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process scheduling means allocating a certain amount of CPU time to each of the user processes. One of the popular scheduling algorithms is the "Round Robin" algorithm, which allows each and every process to utilize the CPU for short time duration. This paper presents an improvisation to the traditional round robin scheduling algorithm, by the proposed a new method. The new method represents the time slice as a function of the burst time of the waiting process in the ready queue. Fixing the time slice for a process is a crucial factor, because it subsequently influences many performance parameters like turnaround time, waiting time, response time and the frequency of context switches. Though the time slot is fixed for each process, this paper explores the fine-tuning of the time slice for processes which do not complete in the stipulated time allotted to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in age at marriage, fertility and contraceptive use are related to religious background, individual educational level and community level education. In general, the effects of community education are weak compared to individual level of education, but differences exist between Hindus and Roman Catholics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]