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The concept of sustainable development can be best interpreted as an approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social, and economic limitations we face as a society. Most of the present development activities are being conceived and implemented without fully considering the wider or future impacts. A manifestation of such kind of development approach is quite evident in the form of large-scale financial crises caused by irresponsible banking, changes in the global climate resulting from our dependence on fossil fuel-based energy sources. The longer we pursue unsustainable development, the more frequent and severe its consequences are likely to become, which is why we need to take action now. This chapter explores sustainable development and climate change.

Soil is known as one of the most capable microorganism survival habitats. Diverse heterotrophic microbial species in the earth and their complex network of connexions allow the cycling of micro and macronutrients in their soil environment. Demands are addressed by the maintenance of soil fertility for sustainable plant productivity. The diverse interrelationship of various agroecosystem elements, living or not, influence the resources of crops and plants. Soil organic matter is, however, affected by the inputs of plants and also its chemistry uniqueness in each ecosystem’s microbium. Although it is generally recognised that the Soil Microbiome is essential, its complexity remains small. This would improve our ability to increase agricultural productivity by recognising the microbial diversity. Each environment becomes something by the inputs from plants and their chemistry special with the culture of microbials. The function of the microbiome of the soil is very important. We realise that we have still a small grasp of its complexity. Intelligence thus the microbial diversity would increase our agricultural potential performance. The soil is generally recognised as one of the world’s most hostile biological ecosystems. The Antartica’s ice-free regions covering about 0.44% of the overall continental land area, shelter significant and complex macro-organism populations and in particular the microorganisms of the more “hospitable” maritime regions. Nutrient cycling and habitat maintenance in soils is primarily guided by the microbial populations, as is the case with the McMurdo Dry Valleys of South Victoria Land, in the most extreme non-maritime areas. Nitrogen transactions are an important part of the environment maintenance. Bacteria diazotrophic and archaeal taxa add up to the genetic capacity of the elements from the whole n cycle, and nitrification processes like the anammox reaction are included. In the ensuing growth season, N cycling may have a major effect on the soil microbial population in bioavailable nitrogen cycling as well as microbial dynamics during plant dormitory season. The biogeochemical effects on bioavailable N cycles were not well defined, despite frequent observations of seasonal changes in microbial community composition in forestry. Here we investigate the relationship between microbial dynamics in communities and bioavailable N dynamics in a cool temperate Low Forest one-year environment, with an eye to sleeping season. Subsequent peaks in winter and early spring were also correlated with NH4+, NO−3, and dissolved bio-N concentrations. These results suggest that successive growth of litter degraders, ammonifier, nitrifiers, and denitrifies in the dormant season drives the subsequent bioavailable N transformation. After summarizing the recent findings, the novel process N-cycle microbes were characterized. Also, we explored the environmental importance of population dynamics in N cycling microbes, which is critical to our understanding of ecosystem feature stabilisation.

Low and variable yields of wheat in the rice--wheat cropping systems of lower Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of South Asia, covering Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh (EUP) in India and the Terai region of Nepal, are a matter of significant concern for this densely populated region (Chatrath et al., 2007). Increasing the productivity and profitability of wheat is important for Bihar and E U P both for the income security of farmers and the food security of households (Keil et al., 2015). It is the second-largest crop in the region after rice in terms of area, production, and output value. Farmers in Bihar cultivate wheat on more than 2 million ha of land and produce 5--6 million tonnes of it every year. Wheat occupies 28% of the gross cropped area of Bihar and 70% of the sown area in the Rabi season. Despite its importance to the state’s agrarian economy and food security, wheat yields and the gross value of output per hectare are the lowest in Bihar among all major wheat-producing states of India while the cost of production (INR/tonne) is high (INR 10,630/tonne vs. INR 9,600/tonne for India); the net profit (INR per hectare) from wheat cultivation is also the lowest (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), 2020). In this brief, we analyze the four major factors that contribute to low wheat yields in Bihar.

India has one of the largest agricultural input support programs in the world, delivered in the form of subsidies to farmers, raising concerns about its sustainability. This paper evaluates the performance of one such support, the micronutrient subsidy program in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and presents a case for providing this support in the form of direct cash transfers. Under the program, key soil micronutrients- zinc, boron, and gypsum were distributed free of cost to farmers living in micronutrient-deficient areas, with identification and targeting managed entirely by the state. We survey 1621 farmers, 61 agriculture extension officers, and 78 agriculture input dealers to assess the efficacy of the program and to identify bottlenecks preventing effective targeting, with a focus on zinc. We find that use of non-subsidized zinc is high in AP, and awareness of benefits of zinc and physical access to input dealer shops are significant predictors of zinc use. We argue that the free provision of micronutrients may have created demand among farmers, but there is little justification to continue subsidizing such a program at such high rates or resorting to public distribution. We find that micronutrient procurement and distribution has become a burden on extension staff and crowds out the private sector. Our analysis shows that the subsidy can benefit more farmers if it is channeled through the network of private fertilizer dealers. We use administrative data on budgetary outlays and digital soil maps to suggest fiscal redistribution in the form of direct cash transfers that may ensure more effective targeting at a lower cost to the state.

Determining farmers’ real demand for crop insurance is difficult, especially in developing countries, where there is a lack of formal financial sector integration and a high reliance on informal risk mitigation options. We provide some new estimates of farmers’ willingness‐to‐pay for insurance in the context of a large‐scale subsidised programme in India. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with agricultural households across four states in India, enabling us to estimate preferences for specific insurance policy attributes such as coverage period, method of loss assessment, timing of indemnity payments and the cost of insurance. Our results suggest that farmers do value crop insurance under certain conditions and some are willing to pay a premium for such coverage in excess of the subsidised rates they are currently required to pay under this programme. In particular, farmers value the assurances that they will receive timely payouts when they incur losses, and may not have a strong preference for the method with which losses are assessed. On the other hand, farmers are quite sensitive to coverage periods. Our baseline assessment shows that when optimised to farmer requirements, there can be a sizeable demand for crop insurance by developing country farmers.

Characterization of the Panandhro lignite deposits from western Indian state of Gujarat, based on the geochemical and palynological evidences, has been performed to assess the floral composition, maturity and hydrocarbon potential of the sequence. Elementally, the lignites consist of moderate carbon, low hydrogen and moderate sulfur contents. The samples are characterized by high TOC contents (lignite: av. 46.43 wt.%, resin: 62.47 wt.%). The average HI values for the lignite is 136 mg HC/g TOC, and that of the associated resin is 671 mg HC/g TOC. The highest Tmax is recoded in lignite (422°C) and lowest in the resin (39°C) samples. The FTIR spectrum of lignite is characterized by highly intense OH stretching peak ~3350 cm-1, aliphatic CHx stretching peaks between 3000-2800 cm-1, aromatic C=O stretching and an aromatic C=C stretching. The spectrum of resin shows strongest absorption due to aliphatic CHx stretching between 2940-2915 cm-1 and 2870-2850 cm-1, and deformation by the medium peak between 1450 and 1650 cm-1. The recovered palynofloral assemblage indicates the dominance of angiosperm pollen grains with maximum abundance of Arecaceae family, and subdominant pteridophytic spores. Marine influence is indicated by the presence of abundant dinoflagellate cysts. The occurrence of flora from a variety of ecological niches suggests a luxuriant diverse vegetation pattern existed in the vicinity of depositional site under humid tropical conditions. The overall characteristics of the lignite deposits point towards their ability to generate (upon maturation) hydrocarbons as they have types III–II admixed kerogen (organic matters).

Petrography and geochemistry including analysis of major, trace and rare earth elements have been carried out in the late Permian and early Triassic sediments of Guryul Ravine, Jammu and Kashmir, India to examine the palaeoenvironmental conditions at the Permo-Triassic boundary. A visible change in the lithostratigraphy from argillaceous∼carbonaceous mudstone in C Member (late Permian, Zewan Formation), to fine grained argillaceous siltstone with quartz in D Member-4 m below the Late Permian Event Horizon was observed. The XRD analysis divulges more terrigenous input below the PTB which is also reinforced by the dominance of quartz whereas is the dominant clay mineral is illite followed by chlorite. The K 2 O+Na 2 O vs SiO 2 plot indicates that the sediments at PTB were derived from andesite type of rocks (SiO 2 52–63%) of intermediate composition. Major oxides SiO 2 , CaO, Na 2 O and MnO are most abundant in the D Member, whereas E Member is enriched in the Co, Ni, Cu, V and Zn indicating reducing conditions. Dominance of incompatible elements such as Ti, K, Rb, and Sr in finer shale fraction shows increased reworking of sediments. Moderate weathering is observed at PTB, whereas, below the LPEH, physical weathering is more. Y/HO ratio varies from 24–51 indicating that REEs are derived from shale source. The C org :P is 10:1 in the early Triassic Period suggesting that the conditions transformed from oxidizing to reducing (maximum values noticed in sample no.5 (80:1)) indicating suboxic-anoxic conditions, which may be one of the causes of oceanic redox at PTB.

The surface sediment samples of Kongsfjorden were analyzed for the Spheroidal Carbonaceous Particles (SCP) in an attempt to document the SCP in the environment other than previously studied inland lakes and snow and also to understand the probable source of industrial atmospheric pollution. The SCP are derived from the combustion of fossil fuels at high temperatures and are not produced naturally. They are chemically inert in both sediment and water and thus provide the indestructible record of atmospherically deposited pollutants in remote areas and anthropogenic impact on pristine environments. The SCP were recovered from different locations of the fjord and were classified according to their size range (small particles, 5-10 µm – large particles, 20-50 µm). The characterization of the spherical carbonaceous particles (shape, size, morphology, color etc.) was done under the light microscope. The detailed morphological features and chemical composition of SCP were studied using Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX). The result shows that in term of a source of pollution in the area, long-range transportation is the major source of pollution but local sources cannot be ignored. This is a first attempt to study the SCP from the Kongsfjorden.

Preliminary findings of a joint ICAR-IFPRI survey covering more than 2,000 farmers from 40 districts of Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Odisha show that the adoption of improved varieties of rice and wheat seeds is slow in the region. The average age of wheat varieties grown in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh is 25-30 years. A 2016 study of varietal adoption of wheat by CIMMYT and the Michigan State University (MSU) in Bihar also reports similar findings (Ray and Maredia, 2016). The average age of non-hybrid rice varieties grown in the region is around the same. The situation is even worse for pulses where landraces of unknown origins dominate the cropped area. More than 90% of pulse growers in our sample in Bihar and Odisha could not recall the names of the seed varieties they had sown. The two state governments are implementing programs with subsidies, extension and participatory seed production programs to popularize rice and wheat varieties that are less than 10 years old and pulse varieties that are less than 15 years old. The IFPRI-ICAR survey shows that these programs have had limited impact. Rice and wheat together cover more than two-thirds of the gross cropped area (GCA) in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh and rice alone accounts for 46% of GCA in Odisha. Why is the adoption of improved seeds so slow for the main crops in these states?

Hyptis suaveolens is considered one of the most potent invaders in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, India. Climate change especially precipitation variability along with invasion has enormous consequences. To understand how an invasive plant (H. suaveolens) performs and interacts with precipitation variability, particularly in tropical monsoon climate, is vital. To assess the above, three rainout shelters with simulated rainfall of 1600 mm (60% more rainfall than ambient), 1100 mm (average rainfall) and 800 mm (20% less rainfall than ambient) along with one unsheltered plot (open C) were established. Three invaded grassland (IG) and three uninvaded grasslands (NIG) patches of 1 × 1 m2 size were established randomly in each sheltered and unsheltered plot. Among the studied physiological properties and growth measurements, photosynthetic rate, height, diameter and biomass varied significantly with precipitation, in general, the maximum value of these in plots receiving maximum precipitation. Also, the aboveground biomass of H. suaveolens was found to be more sensitive towards precipitation treatment than belowground biomass. H. suaveolens biomass was linearly related to soil moisture (R2 = 0.73), and a linear combination of SM and soil pH increased the R2 value by 19%. The results indicate that H. suaveolens mediates certain soil properties especially related to N-mineralisation, to maintain a constant supply of nutrient, for faster growth under the favourable condition of enhanced precipitation. These findings suggest that the population of H. suaveolens has not evolved drought tolerance, so it is likely that H. suaveolens will not spread in the part of the world which is drier either naturally or due to climate change.

To increase the time spent by children on play activities and reduce screen time on daily basis from baseline to 25% over the period of 10 wks in hospital setting of a tertiary care centre, North India. The quality improvement design was chosen and the study was conducted in the pediatric surgery and medicine wards of a tertiary care centre in North India. The participants of the study were children admitted in the medical and surgical wards, their caregivers and health care personnel (both nurses and physicians) working in the respective wards. The study was conducted in three phases: planning, development and implementation phase. In planning phase, the baseline assessment of outcome and process measures was performed and the root cause analysis was done which revealed that there was problem with the procedure and policy. This is why day-to-day play implementation procedure protocol development and implementation was chosen as a change based on Eisenhower’s matrix. In development phase, day-to-day play implementation procedure protocol was developed and was implemented in the units by using PDSA (Plan, Do, Study and Act) model. Three PDSA cycles were conducted. The outcome measures were ‘the time spent by the child on play activities on daily basis’ (calculated by the time spent by child in play/total time the child was awake in a day) and ‘the reduction in screen time’ (calculated by the average time spend by the child on android based phone in a day). The process measures were day-to-day play implementation score, time spent by child on play activities and screen time on daily basis during hospitalization. The data was collected by the team members and the investigator. At the end of all PDSAs, the day-to-day play implementation score and time spent on play activities increased by 50% and 20% respectively and the screen time reduced to 73%. Though the outcome measures were nearly achieved, the continuous efforts are still required to ensure sustainability and future incorporation of play in day-to-day routine of hospital care. This QI initiative helped in increasing the play opportunities and reducing the screen time in wards. Hence, both the process and outcome measure were nearly achieved, whereas sustainability remained an issue.

Lateral aberrant ectopic thyroid is very rare, comprising only 1%–3% of all the ectopic thyroid tissue. Clinically, these lesions are mistaken for lymph node swelling or metastatic tumour. Primary carcinoma in lateral aberrant ectopic thyroid with normal active native thyroid is very uncommon. We report a case of papillary carcinoma in lateral aberrant ectopic thyroid tissue, with a completely normal native thyroid gland in a 53-year-old man, who presented with a massive swelling in the lateral aspect of the neck clinically and radiologically diagnosed as a malignant soft tissue tumour with differential diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. Fine needle aspiration cytology revealed metastatic papillary carcinoma. In toto excision of the soft tissue mass along with subtotal thyroidectomy was performed. Histology of the mass revealed papillary carcinoma of lateral aberrant ectopic thyroid, while the thyroid gland did not show evidence of malignancy. The postsurgical period was uneventful, and the patient underwent radioiodine ablation.

IntroductionThis prospective randomized study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the intubating laryngeal maskairway(ILMA) with the King Vision Video laryngoscope in aiding endotracheal intubation in Asian patients with normal airway. King Vision Video laryngoscope is a two-piece design. It has a reusable monitor that attaches to disposable blades. The ILMA is a device specifically designed to be an effective ventilatory device and blind intubating guide in patients with normal and abnormal airways.Materials and methodsAfter ethics committee approval and obtaining patient's written informed consent, 60 American Society of Anesthesiologists grade I and II adult patients undergoing elective surgery requiring intubation were randomly allocated into either the ILMA group (Group L) or the King Vision Video laryngoscope group (Group V).• Thorough preanesthetic checkup was done. Patient was premedicated. Induction was done with propofol 2.5 mg/kg and succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg. In Group L, ILMA was inserted using a single-handed rotational technique. In the King Vision Video laryngoscope group, intubation was done with videolaryngoscope. Placement was confirmed with auscultation and capnography.• An independent observer recorded the following:– Time taken for successful intubation– Success or failure of the tracheal intubation– Number of attempts needed for successful tracheal intubation– Complication associated with tracheal intubation: bleeding or postoperative sore throat– Hemodynamic response to intubationResults and conclusionKing Vision Video laryngoscope is the more effective technique in aiding endotracheal intubation in patients with normal airways.How to cite this articleHanjura S, Agrawal AP, Agrawal M, Singh V, Vinay V, Ahmed R. Comparative Evaluation of Performance of VideolaryngoscopevsFastrach Intubating Laryngeal Mask Airway. Int J Adv Integ Med Sci 2017;2(1):1-7.

The oxidation behavior of ZrB2–SiC composites in air was studied at 1650 °C. Diffusion-controlled oxidation kinetics were found for the composites studied. A parabolic rate constant of 1.2 × 10−8 g2 cm−4 s−1 was measured for ZrB2–10 % SiC composite. A transition in the oxidation kinetics was observed for ZrB2–30 % SiC composite with the initial parabolic rate constant being 1.3 × 10−8 g2 cm−4 s−1. After exposure for 60 min, the parabolic rate constant was found to be 0.3 × 10−8 g2 cm−4 s−1. A single ZrO2-rich oxide layer was found in the oxide scale structure of ZrB2–10 % SiC composite. On the other hand, three-layer oxide structures, namely SiO2-rich top layer, followed by ZrO2-rich oxide scale and SiC-depleted layer, were found for ZrB2–30 % SiC composite. The outer layer in the oxide scale structure of ZrB2–SiC composite was tapered with enhanced oxidation at the corners of the sample. Vortex formation during the viscous flow of B2O3–SiO2–ZrO2 liquid near the corners on the surface was proposed as the root cause for enhanced oxidation at the corners of the sample.

Endometriosis is a disease seen in 10-15% of reproductive age women, which involves the pelvic cavity. The urinary tract is affected in 1% cases of pelvic endometriosis, while 0.1-0.4% of ureteric endometriosis which is extremely rare. Ureteric endometriosis poses a diagnostic challenge, as it can be asymptomatic or can present as renal colic. It can lead to a severe burden on kidneys like hydroureteronephrosis, renal atrophy, and irreversible renal failure. Authors report an extremely rare case of ureteric endometriosis in a postmenopausal female, who presented with complaints of lower backache. Radiologically diagnosed as neoplastic ureteric stricture.

Financial instruments such as savings, loans, and insurance are critical tools in managing risk for smallholder farmers across the developing world. Although smallholder farmers are disproportionately affected by adverse events, they are the least likely to have access to formal loans, insurance, or bank accounts, leaving them less prepared to manage weather and disaster risk. As the effects of climate change intensify, building resilience—the ability to mitigate, cope, and recover from shocks and stresses without compromising future welfare—is essential for reducing rural poverty and improving food and nutrition security.

The chapter illuminates the effect of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It also explains the present scenario of biological resources with biological diversity. The author describes the known biological resources and their uses with the help of flow chart and also shows the linkage among them. The author clearly explicates the inter-relationship between human activity, climate change, and biological diversity with charts. In the last section, the author talk about the effect on the paleo climate and impact of climate change on different parts of ecosystem services.

The objective of this research was to compare selected ecophysiological parameters for a wheat crop found in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India and its five dominant weeds. The dominant and regionally ubiquitous weeds in the wheat field that was selected for the study were Anagallis arvensis, Chenopodium album, Melilotus albus, Phalaris minor and Rumex dentatus. Taller weeds, such as C. album and P. minor, constituted one group along with the crop, with a low photosynthetic rate, specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen mass basis, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency and leaf area ratio, in comparison to shorter weeds, such as A. arvensis, M. albus and R. dentatus, which formed another group with a high photosynthetic rate, specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen mass basis, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency and leaf area ratio. Interspecific variations in the photosynthetic rate were driven mainly by variability in the specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen content. The taller weeds and the crop had a low specific leaf area later in the season, whereas the smaller weeds had a relatively high specific leaf area, which might be an adaptation to the shaded environment below the canopy. The result indicates that any weed management in the wheat fields of the Indo-Gangetic Plains will need two different approaches because of the different strategies followed by the two weed groups that were identified in the present study.

We conduct a series of experiments in rural India in order to measure preferences related to risk, loss, and ambiguity. By combining these results with a discrete choice experiment over new and familiar rice seeds, we demonstrate how these behavioural parameters affect decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies, especially when the new technologies are risk reducing. We find that risk averse and loss averse individuals are more likely to switch to new seeds demonstrating risk reducing characteristics, while, contrary to expectations, ambiguity averse individuals are no more willing to retain their status quo than switch to cultivating the new variety.

We use Becker-DeGroot-Marshak value elicitation methods to derive the intrinsic value that farmers in Nepal place on fertilizers. Eliciting values under three distinct procurement scenarios, we are able to decompose the total intrinsic value of fertilizer into a willingness-to-pay (WTP) to travel to procure fertilizer, a WTP for assured fertilizer supplies, and a WTP for the productivity benefits of fertilizer. Disaggregating our sample according to location (hills versus terai), we are able to estimate differences in total intrinsic value as well as value components along these geographical dimensions. While farmers in the hills are generally willing to pay more for urea than their counterparts in the terai, the total amount they are willing to pay is, on average, less than the market price for urea. We explore heterogeneity in valuations and discuss the implications of our findings on fertilizer procurement and distribution policies, as well as direct support policies that the Nepal government may consider. While support policies such as subsidies may encourage increased utilization of fertilizers, policies that lower barriers to private sector entry and increase the density of fertilizer retailers could also increase fertilizer utilization.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The present study aims to evaluate the clinical efficacy of clonidine as an adjuvant to General anaesthesia in elective faciomaxillary surgery. Faciomaxillary surgery is generally long duration surgery. Bleeding is expected to be more. As an anesthetist our main aim is to reduce the bleeding and make the patient more hemodynamically stable, so there is always a need to decrease heart rate(H.R.), blood pressure (B.P.) and prevent hemodynamic stress response to intubation, extubation and intraoperatively. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled study was conducted on 60 male adults of ASA Grade I & II scheduled for elective faciomaxillary surgery under General anaesthesia. After taking consent from the institutional ethical committee patients were divided into 2 groups comprising 30 patients in each group. Group I received 2μg/kg of clonidine in 100ml normal saline 30 min before surgery and Group II received 100ml normal saline. H.R., non-invasive B.P (N.I.B.P.), oxygen saturation in arterial blood (SpO2) were recorded as base line, after induction, after intubation, then at 15 min internal intraoperatively and finally after extubation. H. R. and B. P. were assessed after 30 min, 2hr and 6hr postoperatively. Any complication, side effect and adverse effect upto 24 hrs postoperatively were noted. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In Group I, compared to Group II, there was significant decrease in B.P. and H.R. during intubation, intraoperatively, extubation and post operatively and the concentration of isoflurane used was also reduced. Blood loss and incidence of shivering was less and also tube tolerance ability was better when tube was left in situ after surgery Clonidine, 2μg/kg IV in 100ml normal saline, 30min before is safe and effective in preventing the hemodynamic surgical stress response as well as intubation, extubation stress response.

Summary Efforts to develop rice cultivars with drought tolerance (DT) traits have resulted in several varieties that demonstrate significant resilience to drought stresses. We employ discrete choice experiments to examine farmers’ preferences for DT traits and explore heterogeneity in these preferences using primary data from Bihar, India. Results suggest that farmers value reductions in yield variability offered by DT paddy, but are willing to pay even more for seeds that offer yield advantages under normal conditions. We demonstrate that risk aversion and loss aversion not only significantly influence choice probabilities but also affect the way farmers value different seed attributes.

The growth of the cellular technology and wireless networks all over the world has increased the demand for digital information by manifold. This massive demand poses difficulties for handling huge amounts of data that need to be stored and transferred. To overcome this problem we can compress the information by removing the redundancies present in it. Redundancies are the major source of generating errors and noisy signals. Coding in MATLAB helps in analyzing compression of speech signals with varying bit rate and remove errors and noisy signals from the speech signals. Speech signal’s bit rate can also be reduced to remove error and noisy signals which is suitable for remote broadcast lines, studio links, satellite transmission of high quality audio and voice over internet This paper focuses on speech compression process and its analysis through MATLAB by which processed speech signal can be heard with clarity and in noiseless mode at the receiver end .

A replacement series study was conducted to evaluate the interference interactions between the weeds Phalaris minor or Rumex dentatus and wheat at two nutrient levels to test for changes in the competitive relationships of the weeds with varying nutrient availability. Plants were established in a mixture with proportions of 4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3 and 0:4 (wheat: weed) plants per pot. The weeds exhibited clear differences in growth attributes and competition indices from wheat. Rumex dentatus showed significantly higher values for all growth attributes, relative yield, aggressivity and biomass. Both weeds performed better than wheat at high nutrient levels. Nutrient stress changed the intensity of competition between weeds and wheat, but did not change the weeds’ positions in the hierarchy. Therefore, although the competitiveness of P. minor and R. dentatus appears to be lower under poor nutrient conditions, they outcompete wheat irrespective of nutrient availability. Overall, the findings of the study suggest...

To understand the reason for the success of weeds, we investigated the energetic cost of leaf construction, and certain ecophysiological traits of rice and its dominant weeds. On physiological basis among all weeds, Caesulia axillaris Roxburgh was found to be the most serious, followed by Echinochloa cruss-galli L. Beauv and Echinochloa colonum L. Link, while Fimbristylis miliaceae L. Vahl and Cyperus iria L. were moderate weeds of the rice fields. C. axillaris had the lowest leaf construction cost (LCC) both on a mass basis (1.15 g/g) and on a unit area basis (22.93 g/m2). Comparatively higher specific leaf area, photosynthetic rate, photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, leaf area ratio and leaf area index provided C. axillaris with further competitive advantage. Low LCC suggests that weeds utilize carbon resource more efficiently than the crop and potentially spend the saved energy on other competitive strategies viz. seed production, biomass production and high relative growth rate, which results in low crop yield and increase in weed seed bank.

The environmental implications of rainfall pattern in replenishment of ground water system of Saharanpur region, located in western Uttar Pradesh, have been discussed. The mathematical analysis of rainfall dissimilarity of Saharanpur region for a period of 50 year (1959 to 2008) display a quite good range from 497.70 to 4357.5 mm with an annual average rainfall value of 1209.8 mm. The positive trend of departure from the computer value of average annual rainfall exhibits appropriate periods for recharge of ground water reservoir. The recorded data of annual rainfall during the last 3 year reveal values below the calculated annual average rainfall, pointing out negative trend. The statistical analysis of rainfall data involves computations of various statistical parameters, which also support the negative trend of rainfall. The prediction of expected future rainfall trend for a period up to 2018 has been made, which indicates a negative trend. The proposal have been incorporated to implement a plan for augmentation of ground water resource and also to develop possibilities of rainwater harvesting.

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Subsurface sediments of a 120 cm deep trench from Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, were analysed for pollenspores and other organic matter contents. This study is supported by two AMS 14 C dates (27, 200 yrs BP and 8,762 yrs BP) at the bottom and topmost litho-unit of the trench, respectively. The pollen record provides an evidence of a warm interval at about 27,200 yr BP (Late Weichselian and MIS 3) and cooling episode around 8,762 yr BP. This is also supported by the amount and type of organic matter as well as sediment type and depositional history of the trench sediments.

Morphological (easily measureable) and physiological (hard to measure) traits of two closely related invasive alien congeners-Ageratum conyzoides L. and Ageratum houstonianum Mill. were studied with a perspective that which species will be potentially be more successful as an invader in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. Leaf construction cost (LCC) is considered as a quantifiable measure of energy demand for biomass production and is related to energy use efficiency as it include component of both morphological and physiological traits. We hypothesised that a low LCC would give the invaders growth advantage by utilizing energy efficiently. Low LCC of A. houstonianum on mass basis (0.54 g glucose g( -1)) and area basis (20.48 g m( -2)) gives insight into the success of this invasive weed over A. conyzoides. The present study gives evidence that how the morphological traits are linked to physiological traits that could directly affect invasive attributes of the invader, which in turn would be crucial to prioritize species for ecosystem management.

The influence of organic and conventional farming practices on the phenolic content in eggplant samples belonging to two cultivars, Blackbell (American eggplant) and Millionaire (Japanese eggplant) grown under similar environmental conditions was evaluated. Phytochemical investigation of the eggplant extracts showed that N -caffeoylputrescine, 5-caffeoylquinic acid, and 3-acetyl-5-caffeoylquinic acid made up the bulk of total eggplant phenolics. In addition, this is the first report on identification of trace quantities of three additional flavonols, namely, quercetin-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-rhamnoside, and myricetin-3-galactoside in freeze-dried eggplant pulp. The phenolic content of the conventionally grown Blackbell variety was marginally higher or equal to those grown organically. However, the phenolic content of the Millionaire organic variety was much greater than the conventionally grown samples. Eggplant extract inhibition of cupric-ion mediated oxidation of low-density lipoproteins was highly correlated with the content of 5-caffeolquinic acid ( R 2 = 0.9124), the most abundant phenolic acid identified.

This first palynological study of the Permian–Triassic succession in the Guryul Ravine, Kashmir, India, reveals impoverished latest Permian spore-pollen assemblages in the uppermost Zewan Formation, a rich palynoassemblage from the basal Khunamuh Formation characteristic of the Permian–Triassic transition zone and depleted Triassic assemblages from higher in the Khunamuh Formation. The collective assemblages can be broadly correlated to the Densipollenites magnicorpus and Klausipollenites decipiens palynozones of peninsular India and to palynofloras spanning the Permian–Triassic boundary elsewhere in Gondwana. Generally, low spore-pollen yields and poor preservational quality of the studied assemblages hinder more precise correlations and are inferred to be a function of an offshore marine depositional setting on the margin of the Neotethys Ocean, and thermal alteration associated with Cenozoic collisional tectonism between India and Asia. Reconstructing the lost forests of Antarctica: the palaeoecology, anatomy and phylogeny of the iconic Glossopteris flora Exceptional permineralized biotas - windows into the evolution and functional diversity of terrestrial ecosystems through time

The green revolution beginning during the late 1960s resulted in a quantum jump in agriculture production the world-over. Indiscriminate and inappropriate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to boost the agriculture production has done more harm to the environment and especially to the human health than could have been envisaged when they were first introduced. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) concentrate on different forms this is one of the characteristics which has earned them the sobriquet of pollutants. In this article, we review the present nature of our knowledge on the POPs in India as well as internationally including the response of our country towards POPs convention. The article also highlights the need for a holistic research on the source-to-sink aspects of these compounds.

We propose a novel hierarchical classification method for documents categorization in this paper. The approach consists of multiple levels of classification for different hierarchies. Regularized Least Square (RLS)binary classifiers are applied in the middle levels of the hierarchy to classify documents into smaller set of categories and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) multi-class classifiers are used at the bottom to classify documents into final classes. Experiments on large-scale real world tax documents show that the proposed hierarchical approach outperforms traditional flat classification method.

Being the most broadly used tool for deceit measurement, the polygraph is a limited method as it suffers from human operator subjectivity and the fact that target subjects are aware of the measurement, which invites the opportunity to alter their behavior or plan counter-measures in advance. The approach presented in this paper attempts to circumvent these problems by unobtrusively and automatically measuring several prior identified deceit indicators (DIs) based upon involuntary, so-called reliable facial expressions through computer vision analysis of image sequences in real time. Reliable expressions are expressions said by the psychology community to be impossible for a significant percentage of the population to convincingly simulate, without feeling a true inner felt emotion. The strategy is to detect the difference between those expressions which arise from internal emotion, implying verity, and those expressions which are simulated, implying deceit. First, a group of facial action units (AUs) related to the reliable expressions are detected based on distance and texture based features. The DIs then can be measured and finally a decision of deceit or verity will be made accordingly. The performance of this proposed approach is evaluated by its real time implementation for deceit detection.

Two different benzimidazole analogues act as multimodal agent, first one as novel non-peptidic CCK-B receptor antagonist and similarly as potent anti-fungal agent, designated as [Bz-Im]. These compounds were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as FT-IR, NMR, EI-MS and also evaluated for specific radiopharmaceuticals. Preliminary radiolabeling results with (99m)Tc and biological evaluation studies showed promising results for further evaluation in vivo. The efficiency of labeling was more than 97% and complex was stable for about 12h at 30 degrees C in the presence of serum. Both ligands showed binding to most of the organs, known to express CCK receptors in biodistribution studies. Cholecystokinin (CCK(1) andCCK(2)) receptor binding affinities of these analogues are, IC(50), 0.942+/-0.107 for compound C and 0.665+/-0.211 for compound D in rat pancreatic acini. The anti-fungal activity has shown inhibitory activity against Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. These studies have provided a new template for further development of non-peptidic ligands for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes of diseases related with CCK receptors as well as anti-microbes.