Bioactivity of Locally Available Plants on Cotton Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci and the fungus isolated from cotton

Aqueous, diethyl ether, chloroform, petroleum ether, N-hexane and benzene extracts of locally available plant species were tested for phytochemical and insecticidal bioactivity against cotton whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, under controlled conditions. This study is within bioprospection context, for utilizing local plant species as alternative in sustainable agriculture development. The leaf and stem extract was used. The whole plant extract of T.procumbens followed by N.oleander and V.rosea showed repellent and toxic effect against adult and second nymphal instars. Leaf extract of all three plants showed high inhibition activity against nymphal instars. In case of flower extract less inhibition activity was shown respectively. Fungi which grow on the cotton plant was screened, characterized and checked for antifungal activity against the extracts of the plant material. Phytochemical analysis was also carried out by standard protocols

On the influence of spatial information for hyper-spectral satellite imaging characterization

Land-use classification for hyper-spectral satellite images requires a previous step of pixel characterization. In the easiest case, each pixel is characterized by its spectral curve. The improvementof the spectral and spatial resolution in hyper-spectral sensors has led to very large data sets. Some researches have focused on better classifiers that can handle big amounts of data. Others have faced the problem of band selection to reduce the dimensionality of the feature space. However, thanks to the improvement in the spatial resolution of the sensors, spatial information may also provide new featuresfor hyper-spectral satellite data. Here, an study on the influence of spectral-spatial features combined with an unsupervised band selection method is presented. The results show that it is possible to reduce very significantly the number of spectral bands required while having an adequate description of the spectral-spatial characteristics of the image for pixel classification tasksThis work has been partly supported by grant FPI PREDOC/2007/20 from Fundació Caixa Castelló-Bancaixa and projects CSD2007-00018 (Consolider Ingenio 2010) and AYA2008-05965-C04-04 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovatio

tmvtnorm: A Package for the Truncated Multivariate Normal Distribution

In this article we present tmvtnorm, an R package implementation for the truncated multivariate normal distribution. We consider random number generation with rejection and Gibbs sampling, computation of marginal densities as well as computation of the mean and co variance of the truncated variables. This contribution brings together latest research in this field and provides useful methods for both scholars and practitioners when working with truncated normal variables

Phenology-Based Irrigation Management in Guava Orchards

In a three-year study on guava cultivation (variety Arka Mridula) utilizing a Randomized Block Design with five replications, irrigation scheduled to meet 60% evaporation during both vegetative and reproductive phases demonstrated superior outcomes. This approach resulted in higher mean fruit weight (104.5g), increased productivity (29.84 t/ha), and consistent water use efficiency (11.86 kg/m3), saving 24% of irrigation water. Despite observing a higher fruit number (524/plant/year) when irrigation met 80% of the evaporation rate, the treatment with 60% evaporation replenishment showcased equally commendable returns—Rs.8,31,788/ha and Rs.5,55,731/ha for gross and net returns, respectively. Furthermore, this strategy recorded a higher benefit-cost ratio of 3.01, emphasizing its economic efficiency in guava cultivation compared to the marginally superior returns associated with the 80% evaporation scheduling

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH RESOURCE RECYCLING, SOIL FERTILITY AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION FROM INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS IN WEST COAST INDIA

A lowland integrated farming system model was studied for the productivity, profitability, inter-dependency and sustainability in West coast of India for four years. The model included rice based cropping systems (0.4 ha) viz., rice-cowpea, rice-groundnut, rice-brinjal and rice-sweet corn integrated with dairy and forage crops grown on the bunds of the field. The results indicated that rice-sweet corn + dairy was productive (32.6 t ha-1) and profitable system while rice-brinjal + dairy generated higher employment (256 man-days year-1) throughout the year. Dairy was found economical due to on-farm generated green fodder (6.7 tonne) throughout the year and efficient use of crop by-products, about 30-35% of the gross return contributed from the dairy except during 2014-15. The lowland farming system facilitated maximum recycling of nutrients through composting, on an average 101.2 kg of N integrated, 18.2 kg of P and 61.9 kg of K were recycled every year. Significantly higher carbon sequestration was noticed in rice-groundnut system (28.6 Mg C ha-1). The study concluded that integrated farming system including cereals, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables integration with dairy were productive, sustainable and economically viable for west coast region of India. &nbsp

Stationary Proportional Hazard Processes via Complementary Power Function Distribution Processes

In the following, we introduce new proportional hazard (PH) processes, which are derived by a marginal transformation applied to complementary power function distribution (CPFD) processes. Also, we introduce two new Pareto processes, which are derived from the proportional hazard family. We discuss distributional features of such processes, explore inferential aspects and include an example of applications of the new processes to real-life data.Comment: 33 Pages, 14 Figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2305.1302

A comparative study of the learning styles among 1st, 2nd and final year MBBS students

Background: Learning style is the way students begin to focus, internalize and remember new and difficult information. Identifying the learning styles of medical students will enable the faculty to use appropriate T/L method to increase the grasping ability of their subject/ learning. Purpose of the study was to assess and compare the learning styles of 1st, 2nd and final MBBS students by using VARK questionnaire.Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional study based on the questionnaire, conducted by the department of Pharmacology at Basaveshwara Medical College and Hospital, Chitradurga. The VARK learning styles assessment questionnaire was administered to 1st (96 students), 2nd (60 students) and Final year (49 students). The students were categorized as auditory, kinaesthetic, visual learner or read/write depending on the predominant option they chose. Independent sample 't' test was used to compare the mean scores between the two groups using the software SPSS v22.Results: 40% of students had unimodal and 60% had multimodal learning style. Final year MBBS students had higher percentage of multimodal learning style (73%). The most preferred style of learning among all the medical students was kinesthetic (6.6), followed by aural (5.5), visual (4.0) and read/write (3.5). There was significant difference between the learning styles of 1st and Final year MBBS students in Visual (p=0.01) and Read /Write (p= 0.008).Conclusions: Knowing that students have different learning styles and kinesthetic being the most preferred mode of learning will help medical faculty to develop teaching/learning strategies for better outcomes