Search

Objective: The study explored the impacts of restrictions on the perceived psychological distress and health outcomes in children by their mothers who acted as their full-time caregivers during the pan-India lockdown after the outbreak of COVID-19. Method: A narrative qualitative research design was used and a purposive heterogeneous sample of 20 mothers of children aged 9-11 years were chosen, who were in a full-time caregiving role. Data obtained through a telephonic semi-structured interview were analysed using Narrative Thematic Method. Results: Four themes were generated--aberrant social responsivity and loneliness, decreased interest in regular activities, psychological distress and defiant emotional responses, and negative health outcomes. Anxiety, irritation, quarrelsome behaviours, anger, frustration, feeling low, reduced interest in games, boredom, etc. were reported in children. Decreased appetite, sleep disturbances, complaints of indigestion and multiple complaints of body aches were major negative health outcomes. Conclusions: Mothers described a variety of psychological distress and health outcomes for children due to the extreme restrictions, uncertainty, apprehension, reduced positive engagement and lowered social connection after the outbreak of the pandemic. Family-, media-, school- and community-based real or virtual intervention programmes are recommended to minimize the negative impacts and to guard children against the ill-consequences of restrictions of current and future pandemics.

The study examined perceived transgressions and concomitant forgiveness among Indian older adults living in old-age homes and families. The thematic analysis method was employed to analyze interviews with 22 older adults. Severe loss, serious neglect, and cheating were the perceived transgressions of the older adults from old-age homes whereas day-to-day issues characterized the perceived transgressions of the families' older adults. Pseudo-forgiveness was observed in the older adults residing in old-age homes because of their feelings of helplessness and their fear of losing respect, while affiliation, perceived harm, the realisation of offence, and perceived consequences of punishment were precursors to forgiveness in family-living older adults. Both groups acknowledged the role of offence, intention, relationships, attributions, and commitment to socio-cultural and moral values in forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Albugo candida causing white rust disease is a serious threat in cultivation of oilseed Brassicas particularly Brassica juncea when inflorescence infection (staghead) is high. Stagheads carry oospores which are the perpetuating structures and primary source of inoculum in white rust disease. However, two aspects that still needs to be addressed in A. candida‐B. juncea pathosystem are determination of optimum oospore germination conditions and oospore viability assessment. Thus, here we have described a protocol for optimum oospore germination in samples derived from naturally infected stagheads of B. juncea on β‐glucuronidase aryl sulfatase (a type of snail gut enzyme) treatment. The results indicates that 3% enzyme concentration induces ≥ 50% of oospores to germinate at 7°C, 10°C and 13°C after incubating for 24–48 hours. We also determined viability of staghead‐derived and seed lot derived oospores through plasmolysis (using 4 M sodium chloride) and trypan blue staining. The results indicate the significant superiority of plasmolysis method in detecting viable oospores of A. candida than trypan blue staining. The techniques described here can be utilised for carrying out studies on oospore mating behaviour, sexual recombination and assessment of oosporic inoculum viability in A. candida‐B. juncea pathosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sinapis alba genome has been utilized as a donor for abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, yet there seems to be a gap in exploring its potential contribution to yield-related traits. The greater number of lateral branches in Brassica plants provides new sites for bearing siliquae and emphasizes their profound impact on yield potential. The present investigation involves the morphological characterization of 94 backcross introgression lines (BCILs) over two consecutive crop seasons, coupled with genotyping by 277 S. alba genome-specific monoallelic microsatellite markers to decipher the genetic loci contributing to higher branching number traits. The results revealed significant QTLs governing primary (PB) and secondary branching (SB). In CS-I, two QTLs linked to PB collectively explained 46.50% of the phenotypic variance (PVE), exhibiting positive additive effects, signifying their contribution to increased branch numbers in BCILs. Two QTLs associated with SB were also identified, with LODs of 5.07 and 4.21 contributing 22.55 and 17.90%, respectively, to the PVE. During the CS-II, one QTL was identified for PB, explaining 28.04% of the PVE at a 20.97 LOD value, and one major QTL for SB was identified (27.52% of the PVE). Moreover, we also identified 40 potential genes within the QTL regions, with sixteen genes homologous to the ANT, MAX2, PNH, RAX2, SEU, CRE1, and RAMOSUS1 of Arabidopsis and pea, and a total of nine unknown genes with a role in branching that were introgressed from S. alba to B. juncea. This is the first study to identify introgressed candidate genes involved in Brassica branching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant architecture is a crucial determinant of crop yield. The number of primary (PB) and secondary branches (SB) is particularly significant in shaping the architecture of Indian mustard. In this study, we analyzed a panel of 86 backcross introgression lines (BCILs) derived from the first stable allohexaploid Brassicas with 170 Sinapis alba genome-specific SSR markers to identify associated markers with higher PB and SB through association mapping. The structure analysis revealed three subpopulations, i.e., P1, P2, and P3, in the association panel containing a total of 11, 33, and 42 BCILs, respectively. We identified five novel SSR markers linked to higher PB and SB. Subsequently, we explored the 20 kb up- and downstream regions of these SSR markers to predict candidate genes for improved branching and annotated them through BLASTN. As a result, we predicted 47 complete genes within the 40 kb regions of all traitlinked markers, among which 35 were identified as candidate genes for higher PB and SB numbers in BCILs. These candidate genes were orthologous to ANT, RAMOSUS, RAX, MAX, MP, SEU, REV, etc., branching genes. The remaining 12 genes were annotated for additional roles using BLASTP with protein databases. This study identified five novel S. alba genome-specific SSR markers associated with increased PB and SB, as well as 35 candidate genes contributing to plant architecture through improved branching numbers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of introgressive genes for higher branching numbers in B. juncea from S. alba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unremitting decline in crop productivity and nutrient recovery are resulted due to dearth of need based fertilizer recommendation over blanket application apart from nitrogen pollution in several means. An advance nutrient management tactic, GreenSeeker (GS) has developed and used in many field crops following the principle of four "R" (right source, right amount at right time, and place) nutrients stewardship technologies. But no studies have been conducted for evaluation of GS in mustard for improving productivity, profitability and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) while minimizing environmental risks. With this objective, a study was planned to conduct an experiment in rabi season of 2021–22 and 2022–23 to assess optical sensor based nitrogen management in mustard over blanket recommendation. The experiment was comprised of ten N treatments including control in randomized block design in triplicates. Research findings indicated that application of GreenSeeker based N significantly improved all growth traits and yield parameters in Brassica juncea L. Per cent enhancement in seed yield, net monetary returns and benefit-cost ratio was higher as 19.3 and 64.5%, 125.1 & 36.2% and 58.8 & 24.4%, respectively under GS based multi split N application over RDF and control. Further, real time N management with GS acquired higher crop production efficiency (CPE) (19.9 kg/day) with lesser cost/kg production (Rs 15.7/kg). Split application of N using GS increased oil yield by 79.9 and 26% over control and recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) with maximum oil content (42.3%), and increases soil organic carbon (SOC) content by 16.1% from its initial value. Moreover, GS crop sensor could be the probable solution to minimize the crop nitrogen requirement by 15–20% with a yield enhancement of about 18.7% over RDF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possible adverse effects of engineered iron oxide nanoparticles, especially magnetite (Fe3O4 NP), on human health and the environment, have raised concerns about their transport and behavior in soil and water systems. Accumulating these NPs in the environment can substantially affect soil and water quality and the well-being of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Therefore, it is essential to examine the factors that affect Fe3O4 NP transportation and behavior in soil and water systems to determine their possible environmental fate. In this work, experiments were conducted in aqueous and porous media using an environmentally relevant range of pH (5, 7, 9), ionic strength (IS) (10, 50, 100 mM), and humic acid (HA) (0.1, 1, 10 mg L−1) concentrations. Fe3O4 NPs exhibited severe colloidal instability at pH 7 (⁓ = pHPZC) and showed an improvement in apparent colloidal stability at pH 5 and 9 in aquatic and terrestrial environments. HA in the background solutions promoted the overall transport of Fe3O4 NPs by enhancing the colloidal stability. The increased ionic strength in aqueous media hindered the transport by electron double-layer compression and electrostatic repulsion; however, in porous media, the transport was hindered by ionic compression. Furthermore, the transport behavior of Fe3O4 NPs was investigated in different natural waters such as rivers, lakes, taps, and groundwater. The interaction energy pattern in aquatic systems was estimated using the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. This study showed the effects of various physical–chemical conditions on Fe3O4 NP transport in aqueous and porous (sand) media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]