Effect of long - term integrated nutrient management on crop yield, nutrition and soil fertility under rice-wheat system

Long-term effect of nitrogen substitution (25 to 50%) through different organics, viz., FYM (farm yard ma-nure), GM (green manure) and WS (wheat straw) on crop yield, nutrition and physico-chemical properties of soil was studied under rice-wheat system. The data of long term experiment revealed that maximum grain yield of 46.83 qha-1 in wheat was obtained when 100% RDF applied through mineral fertilizers after 50% N of RDF being substituted with FYM in rice. Grain yield of wheat declined under control and sub-optimal fertilizer inputs (50% or 75% recommended fertilizer NPK), whereas positive yield increment was observed under treatments receiving organic supplements. The analysis of soil samples showed that soil pH reduced from initial value of 7.40 to 7.22, organic carbon build-up from 0.46% to 0.76%, available N from 194.00 to 225.95 kgha-1 available P2O5 from 23.60 to 49.54 kgha-1 and available K2O from 155.00 to 189.95 kgha-1 However, available Sulphur and DTPA-Zn increased from 7.74 to 14.41 kg ha-1 and 0.75 to 1.37 mg kg-1 respectively due to long-term (29 years) integrated nutrient management practices under rice-wheat system in alluvial soil. In conclusion, substitution of 50% and 25% N of RDF to rice through organics either FYM / Green manure / Wheat straw significantly increased the crop yield and nutrient uptake of wheat as well as build up the organic carbon, available N, P2O5, K2O, Sulphur, DTPA extractable Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn of post harvest soil after 29 years of the experiment

Micro-fabrication of Carbon Structures by Pattern Miniaturization in Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Gel

A simple and novel method to fabricate and miniaturize surface and sub-surface micro-structures and micro-patterns in glassy carbon is proposed and demonstrated. An aqueous resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) sol is employed for micro-molding of the master-pattern to be replicated, followed by controlled drying and pyrolysis of the gel to reproduce an isotropically shrunk replica in carbon. The miniaturized version of the master-pattern thus replicated in carbon is about one order of magnitude smaller than original master by repeating three times the above cycle of molding and drying. The micro-fabrication method proposed will greatly enhance the toolbox for a facile fabrication of a variety of Carbon-MEMS and C-microfluidic devices.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Spin dynamics in the diluted ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model

The interplay of disorder and competing interactions is investigated in the carrier-induced ferromagnetic state of the Kondo lattice model within a numerical finite-size study in which disorder is treated exactly. Competition between impurity spin couplings, stability of the ferromagnetic state, and magnetic transition temperature are quantitatively investigated in terms of magnon properties for different models including dilution, disorder, and weakly-coupled spins. A strong optimization is obtained for T_c at hole doping p << x, highlighting the importance of compensation in diluted magnetic semiconductors. The estimated T_c is in good agreement with experimental results for Ga_{1-x}Mn_x As for corresponding impurity concentration, hole bandwidth, and compensation. Finite-temperature spin dynamics is quantitatively studied within a locally self-consistent magnon renormalization scheme, which yields a substantial enhancement in T_c due to spin clustering, and highlights the nearly-paramagnetic spin dynamics of weakly-coupled spins. The large enhancement in density of low-energy magnetic excitations due to disorder and competing interactions results in a strong thermal decay of magnetization, which fits well with the Bloch form M_0(1-BT^{3/2}) at low temperature, with B of same order of magnitude as obtained in recent squid magnetization measurements on Ga_{1-x}Mn_x As samples.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure

Ferromagnetism in laser deposited anatase Ti1−x_{1-x}Cox_{x}O_{2-\delta} films

Pulsed laser deposited films of Co doped anatase TiO2 are examined for Co substitutionality, ferromagnetism, transport, magnetotransport and optical properties. Our results show limited solubility (up to ~ 2 %) of Co in the as-grown films and formation of Co clusters thereafter. For Ti0.93Co0.07O2-d sample, which exhibits a Curie temperature (Tc) over 1180 K, we find the presence of 20-50 nm Co clusters as well as a small concentration of Co incorporated into the remaining matrix. After being subjected to the high temperature anneal during the first magnetization measurement, the very same sample shows a Tc ~ 650 K and almost full matrix incorporation of Co. This Tc is close to that of as-grown Ti0.99Co0.01O2-d sample (~ 700 K). The transport, magnetotransport and optical studies also reveal interesting effects of the matrix incorporation of Co. These results are indicative of an intrinsic Ti1-xCoxO2-d diluted magnetic semiconductor with Tc of about 650-700 K.Comment: 14 pages + 9 figure

Isospin dependence of collective flow in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

Within the framework of an isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) model using initial proton and neutron densities calculated from the nonlinear relativistic mean-field (RMF) theory, we compare the strength of transverse collective flow in reactions $^{48}Ca+^{58}Fe$ and $^{48}Cr+^{58}Ni$, which have the same mass number but different neutron/proton ratios. The neutron-rich system ($^{48}Ca+^{58}Fe$) is found to show significantly stronger negative deflection and consequently has a higher balance energy, especially in peripheral collisions. NOTE ADDED IN PROOF: The new phenomenon predicted in this work has just been confirmed by an experiment done by G.D. Westfall et al. using the NSCL/MSU radioactive beam facility and a spartan soccer. A paper by R. Pak et al. is submitted to PRL to report the experimental result.Comment: Latex file, 9 pages, 4 figures availabe upon request; Phys. Rev. Lett. (June 3, 1996) in pres

A combinatorial approach of comprehensive QTL-based comparative genome mapping and transcript profiling identified a seed weight-regulating candidate gene in chickpea

High experimental validation/genotyping success rate (94–96%) and intra-specific polymorphic potential (82–96%) of 1536 SNP and 472 SSR markers showing in silico polymorphism between desi ICC 4958 and kabuli ICC 12968 chickpea was obtained in a 190 mapping population (ICC 4958 × ICC 12968) and 92 diverse desi and kabuli genotypes. A high-density 2001 marker-based intra-specific genetic linkage map comprising of eight LGs constructed is comparatively much saturated (mean map-density: 0.94 cM) in contrast to existing intra-specific genetic maps in chickpea. Fifteen robust QTLs (PVE: 8.8–25.8% with LOD: 7.0–13.8) associated with pod and seed number/plant (PN and SN) and 100 seed weight (SW) were identified and mapped on 10 major genomic regions of eight LGs. One of 126.8 kb major genomic region harbouring a strong SW-associated robust QTL (Caq'SW1.1: 169.1–171.3 cM) has been delineated by integrating high-resolution QTL mapping with comprehensive marker-based comparative genome mapping and differential expression profiling. This identified one potential regulatory SNP (G/A) in the cis-acting element of candidate ERF (ethylene responsive factor) TF (transcription factor) gene governing seed weight in chickpea. The functionally relevant molecular tags identified have potential to be utilized for marker-assisted genetic improvement of chickpea

Anomalous Self-Energy Effects of the B_1g Phonon in Y_{1-x}(Pr,Ca)_xBa_2Cu_3O_7 Films

In Raman spectra of cuprate superconductors the gap shows up both directly, via a redistribution of the electronic background, the so-called "2Delta peaks", and indirectly, e.g. via the renormalization of phononic excitations. We use a model that allows us to study the redistribution and the related phonon self-energy effects simultaneously. We apply this model to the B_1g phonon of Y_{1-x}(Pr,Ca)_xBa_2Cu_3O_7 films, where Pr or Ca substitution enables us to investigate under- and overdoped samples. While various self-energy effects can be explained by the strength and energy of the 2\Delta peaks, anomalies remain. We discuss possible origins of these anomalies.Comment: 6 pages including 4 figure

Role of cytokines in myocardial ischemia and reperfusion

Mediators of myocardial inflammation, predominantly cytokines, have for many years been implicated in the healing processes after infarction. In recent years, however, more attention has been paid to the possibility that the inflammation may result in deleterious complications for myocardial infarction. The proinflammatory cytokines may mediate myocardial dysfunction associated with myocardial infarction, severe congestive heart failure, and sepsis. A growing body of literature suggests that inflammatory mediators could play a crucial role in ischemia–reperfusion injury. Furthermore, ischemia–reperfusion not only results in the local transcriptional and translational upregulation of cytokines but also leads to tissue infiltration by inflammatory cells. These inflammatory cells are a ready source of a variety of cytokines which could be lethal for the cardiomyocytes. At the cellular level it has been shown that hypoxia causes a series of well documented changes in cardiomyocytes that includes loss of contractility, changes in lipid metabolism and subsequent irreversible cell membrane damage leading to cell death. For instance, hypoxic cardiomyocytes produce interleukin-6 (IL-6) which could contribute to the myocardial dysfunction observed in ischemia reperfusion injury. Ischemia followed by reperfusion induces a number of other multi-potent cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) as well as an angiogenic cytokine/ growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in the heart. Intrestingly, these multipotent cytokines (e.g. TNF-α) may induce an adaptive cytoprotective response in the reperfused myocardium. In this review, we have included a number of cytokines that may contribute to ventricular dysfunction and/or to the cytoprotective and adaptive changes in the reperfused heart

A frequentist framework of inductive reasoning

Reacting against the limitation of statistics to decision procedures, R. A. Fisher proposed for inductive reasoning the use of the fiducial distribution, a parameter-space distribution of epistemological probability transferred directly from limiting relative frequencies rather than computed according to the Bayes update rule. The proposal is developed as follows using the confidence measure of a scalar parameter of interest. (With the restriction to one-dimensional parameter space, a confidence measure is essentially a fiducial probability distribution free of complications involving ancillary statistics.) A betting game establishes a sense in which confidence measures are the only reliable inferential probability distributions. The equality between the probabilities encoded in a confidence measure and the coverage rates of the corresponding confidence intervals ensures that the measure's rule for assigning confidence levels to hypotheses is uniquely minimax in the game. Although a confidence measure can be computed without any prior distribution, previous knowledge can be incorporated into confidence-based reasoning. To adjust a p-value or confidence interval for prior information, the confidence measure from the observed data can be combined with one or more independent confidence measures representing previous agent opinion. (The former confidence measure may correspond to a posterior distribution with frequentist matching of coverage probabilities.) The representation of subjective knowledge in terms of confidence measures rather than prior probability distributions preserves approximate frequentist validity.Comment: major revisio