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In this study, an attempt has been made to improve the strength and impermeability of jute bonded nonwoven from 95 to 285 g/m2 areal density by single side or both side lamination with polyethylene sheet of around 15 − 20% by weight using Ethylene Vinyle Acetate adhesive film. Preheating of nonwoven with 100 °C for 20 min and three subsequent runs show a higher peeling force. Adding poly sheets on nonwoven increases tenacity, total energy, bending modulus, seam strength, and tear strength but reduces thermal insulation and makes air and water permeability zero. The effect of one-side lamination, both-side lamination, and areal density of nonwoven has been studied. Higher g/m2 of a nonwoven shows better properties than lower gsm for single-side lamination. The performance of the bag made out of optimised lightweight fabric has been evaluated and compared with the commercial synthetic counterpart, and observed that the developed fabric is better. A process has been suggested without needling. For that light-weight fabric, calendaring temperature, pressure, and speed have been optimised as 150/120 °C, 20KPa, and 0.75 m/min, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to develop a methodology to estimate jute (Corchorus sp.) cultivated areas in the Indian subcontinent using sentinel-1A Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) C band dual polarization data. We developed a hierarchical decision tree (DT) model to estimate jute area and compared it with other supervised and unsupervised methods. The proposed DT model showed improved overall accuracy of 82–83% (Kappa coefficient, k = 0.78–0.79) over supervised or unsupervised methods and validated against Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) data, Government of India during 2016–2019. The VV backscatter record improved accuracy over VH backscatter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Application of MIR spectroscopy for Predection of soil organic carbon. • Predicting the OC contents in soils of the middle Indo-Gangetic plains of India. • We tested a combo of 5 spectral preprocessing and four multivariate prediction models. • Organic carbon was predicted using 280 soil samples from surface to 15 cm depth. • PLSR, RF, SVR and MARS were compared as calibration methods using soil MIR spectra. Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration provides an opportunity to mitigate climate change impacts, since soils are the largest store of terrestrial carbon. Accurate estimates of SOC content across landscapes are therefore important to monitor and manage efficiently these SOC stocks. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy has been increasingly applied as a rapid, cost-effective, and accurate method for predictive soil analysis. This study assessed the performance of MIR spectroscopy for SOC prediction at a regional scale in the Indo-Gangetic plains, 280 soil samples were collected covering Inceptisols, Entisols and Alfisols and their spectra recorded. Five preprocessing techniques ((absorbance, multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), standard normal variate (SNV), Savitzky–Golay smoothing first derivative (SG-FD) and Savitzky–Golay smoothing second derivative (SG-SD)) and four multivariate methods (partial least-squares regression (PLSR), random forest (RF), support vector regression (SVR) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS)) were evaluated to predict SOC from MIR spectra. The considerable prediction accuracy and robustness were achieved using the PLSR model (R V 2 = 0.78, RMSE V = 0.04, and RPD V = 2.07), RF model (R V 2 = 0.65, RMSE V = 0.09, and RPD V = 1.01), SVR model (R V 2 = 0.65, RMSE V = 0.09, and RPD V = 1.12), and MARS model (R V 2 = 0.67, RMSE V = 0.09, and RPD V = 1.20). Findings from this study identified the reliability of SOC determinations by examining how preprocessing techniques and multivariate methods affect spectral analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture stress during pod filling is a major constraint in production of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), a fundamentally dry land crop. We investigated effect of pre-sowing seed priming with static magnetic field (SMF) on alleviation of stress through improvement in radiation and water use efficiencies. Experiments were conducted under greenhouse and open field conditions with desi and kabuli genotypes. Seeds exposed to SMF (strength: 100 mT, exposure: 1 h) led to increase in root volume and surface area by 70% and 65%, respectively. This enabled the crop to utilize 60% higher moisture during the active growth period (78-118 days after sowing), when soil moisture became limiting. Both genotypes from treated seeds had better water utilization, biomass, and radiation use efficiencies (17%, 40%, and 26% over control). Seed pre-treatment with SMF could, therefore, be a viable option for chickpea to alleviate soil moisture stress in arid and semi-arid regions, helping in augmenting its production. It could be a viable option to improve growth and yield of chickpea under deficit soil moisture condition, as the selection and breeding program takes a decade before a tolerant variety is released. Bioelectromagnetics. 37:400-408, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)