Evaluation of seeding rates of rice nursery on seedling vigour and its effect on crop productivity under system of rice intensification

Four seeding rates (25, 30, 35 and 40 g/m2) of rice in nursery were tested for seedling vigour recorded at 10, 17 and 24 DAS at Malan during 2013 and 2014. The seedling vigour so obtained in nursery was subsequently evaluated in field during kharif 2013. Thus twenty four treatments comprised of combinations of three seedling ages (10, 17 and 24 days) and two spacings (20 × 20 cm and 20 × 15 cm) in main plots and four seedling vigour from four seeding rates (25, 30, 35 and 40 g/m2) in sub plots were evaluated in split plot design. Seedling shoot length under all seeding rates (25-35 g/m2) was significantly higher compared to check (40 g/m2) during 2013. In the next year, shoot and root length (30-35 g/m2), tiller per seedling and leaves per seedling (25-30 g/m2) of 24 days nursery was significantly higher over check (40 g/m2). Plant height, tillers, leaves and dry matter accumulation were significantly higher when younger seedlings aged 10 and 17 days were used. The crop raised using 10 days old seedlings matured 3-5 days earlier than 24 days old seedlings. Wider spacing resulted in more plant height, tillers, leaves and dry matter accumulation. Seedlings from 25, 30 and 35 g seed/m2 resulted in significantly taller plants than 40 g/m2. The seeding rate, seedling age and plant spacing did not significantly influence rice productivity thereby permitting flexibility to the rice farmers in the adoption of these factors

Assessment of physiological indices and energetics under different system of rice intensification in north western Himalayas

Field experiment was conducted at the research farm of CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Rice and Wheat Research Centre, Malan during kharif 2013 with the objective to select the best seedling age and spacing of rice under system of rice intensification in terms of energetic and employment generation for mid hill con-dition of Himachal Pradesh. The experiment was laid out in 3 times replicated split plot design, assigning of three seedling ages (10, 17 and 24 days) and two spacings (20 cm x 20 cm and 20 cm x 15 cm) in main plots and four seedling vigours corresponding to four seeding rates (25, 30, 35 and 40 g/m2) in sub plots. The leaf area per plant was significantly greater in 10 days seedling age and decreased with increase in age (P=0.05). Seedling rate did not affect leaf area index in all stages except 40 DAS when 35 g/m2 seeding rate had maximum LAI. Seedling age did not significantly influence crop growth rate at any interval but it did relative growth rate and net assimilation rate between 40-70 and 70-100 DAS (P=0.05). 24 days old seedling resulted in significantly higher relative growth rate and net assimilation rate between 40-70 DAS followed by 17 days old seedlings. Maximum value of energy input (13.23) was recorded in 24 days seedling. The energy use efficiency (Energy output: input) varied from 10.6 to 11.1 under different treatments. Wider spacing supporting less plant population consumed 10 man days less than closer spac-ing of 20 cm x 15 cm

Dynamics and Optimal Feet Force Distributions of a Realistic Four-legged Robot

This paper presents a detailed dynamic modeling of realistic four-legged robot. The direct and inverse kinematic analysis for each leg has been considered in order to develop an overall kinematic model of the robot, when it follows a straight path. This study also aims to estimate optimal feet force distributions of the said robot, which is necessary for its real-time control. Three different approaches namely, minimization of norm of feet forces (approach 1), minimization of norm of joint torques (approach 2) and minimization of norm of joint power (approach 3) have been developed. Simulation result shows that approach 3 is more energy efficient foot force formulation than other two approaches. Lagrange-Euler formulation has been utilized to determine the joint torques. The developed dynamic models have been examined through computer simulation of continuous gait of the four-legged robot.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijra.v1i4.76

Minimal Intubating Dose of Succinylcholine: A Comparative Study of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 mg/kg Dose

Muscle relaxants are integral part of modern balanced anesthesia and succinylcholine, a depolarizing drug, is in use despite its adverse effects. The excellent intubating condition, fastest onset and shortest duration of action make it an excellent choice for anesthesiologists. The conventional dose of 1.5-2 mg/kg is commonly used for obtaining relaxation for intubation. This study was conducted with much smaller dose of succinylcholine as 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 mg/kg to evaluate the acceptable intubating dose at 60 seconds, which was unlikely to have any untoward/side effects

Breast Cancer Detection: Shallow Convolutional Neural Network Against Deep Convolutional Neural Networks Based Approach

Introduction: Of all the cancers that afflict women, breast cancer (BC) has the second-highest mortality rate, and it is also believed to be the primary cause of the high death rate. Breast cancer is the most common cancer that affects women globally. There are two types of breast tumors: benign (less harmful and unlikely to become breast cancer) and malignant (which are very dangerous and might result in aberrant cells that could result in cancer). Methods: To find breast abnormalities like masses and micro-calcifications, competent and educated radiologists often examine mammographic images. This study focuses on computer-aided diagnosis to help radiologists make more precise diagnoses of breast cancer. This study aims to compare and examine the performance of the proposed shallow convolutional neural network architecture having different specifications against pre-trained deep convolutional neural network architectures trained on mammography images. Mammogram images are pre-processed in this study\u27s initial attempt to carry out the automatic identification of BC. Thereafter, three different types of shallow convolutional neural networks with representational differences are then fed with the resulting data. In the second method, transfer learning via fine-tuning is used to feed the same collection of images into pre-trained convolutional neural networks VGG19, ResNet50, MobileNet-v2, Inception-v3, Xception, and Inception-ResNet-v2. Results: In our experiment with two datasets, the accuracy for the CBIS-DDSM and INbreast datasets are 80.4%, 89.2%, and 87.8%, 95.1% respectively. Discussion: It can be concluded from the experimental findings that the deep network-based approach with precise tuning outperforms all other state-of-the-art techniques in experiments on both datasets

Comprehensive Review and Comparative Analysis of Hardware Architectures for Sobel Edge Detector

This paper presents a comprehensive review and a comparative study of various hardware/FPGA implementations of Sobel edge detector and explored different architectures for Sobel gradient computation unit in order to show the various trade-offs involved in choosing one over another. The different architectures using pipelining and/or parallelism (key methodologies for improving the performance/frame rates) are explored for gradient computation unit in Sobel edge detector. How the different architectures affected performance (in terms of video frame rate and image size) and area (in terms of FPGA resources usages) has been demonstrated. By exploiting the trade-offs between video frame rate, image size, and FPGA resources a designer should be able to find an optimal architecture for a given application.</jats:p

Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases and risk factors, 1990–2019: an update from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Updated data on chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are vital in their prevention, control, and treatment in the path to achieving the third UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a one-third reduction in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2030. We provided global, regional, and national estimates of the burden of CRDs and their attributable risks from 1990 to 2019. Methods: Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, we estimated mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), prevalence, and incidence of CRDs, i.e. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pneumoconiosis, interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis, and other CRDs, from 1990 to 2019 by sex, age, region, and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) in 204 countries and territories. Deaths and DALYs from CRDs attributable to each risk factor were estimated according to relative risks, risk exposure, and the theoretical minimum risk exposure level input. Findings: In 2019, CRDs were the third leading cause of death responsible for 4.0 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval 3.6–4.3) with a prevalence of 454.6 million cases (417.4–499.1) globally. While the total deaths and prevalence of CRDs have increased by 28.5% and 39.8%, the age-standardised rates have dropped by 41.7% and 16.9% from 1990 to 2019, respectively. COPD, with 212.3 million (200.4–225.1) prevalent cases, was the primary cause of deaths from CRDs, accounting for 3.3 million (2.9–3.6) deaths. With 262.4 million (224.1–309.5) prevalent cases, asthma had the highest prevalence among CRDs. The age-standardised rates of all burden measures of COPD, asthma, and pneumoconiosis have reduced globally from 1990 to 2019. Nevertheless, the age-standardised rates of incidence and prevalence of interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis have increased throughout this period. Low- and low-middle SDI countries had the highest age-standardised death and DALYs rates while the high SDI quintile had the highest prevalence rate of CRDs. The highest deaths and DALYs from CRDs were attributed to smoking globally, followed by air pollution and occupational risks. Non-optimal temperature and high body-mass index were additional risk factors for COPD and asthma, respectively. Interpretation: Albeit the age-standardised prevalence, death, and DALYs rates of CRDs have decreased, they still cause a substantial burden and deaths worldwide. The high death and DALYs rates in low and low-middle SDI countries highlights the urgent need for improved preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic measures. Global strategies for tobacco control, enhancing air quality, reducing occupational hazards, and fostering clean cooking fuels are crucial steps in reducing the burden of CRDs, especially in low- and lower-middle income countries

Forecasting the effects of smoking prevalence scenarios on years of life lost and life expectancy from 2022 to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundSmoking is the leading behavioural risk factor for mortality globally, accounting for more than 175 million deaths and nearly 4·30 billion years of life lost (YLLs) from 1990 to 2021. The pace of decline in smoking prevalence has slowed in recent years for many countries, and although strategies have recently been proposed to achieve tobacco-free generations, none have been implemented to date. Assessing what could happen if current trends in smoking prevalence persist, and what could happen if additional smoking prevalence reductions occur, is important for communicating the effect of potential smoking policies. MethodsIn this analysis, we use the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Future Health Scenarios platform to forecast the effects of three smoking prevalence scenarios on all-cause and cause-specific YLLs and life expectancy at birth until 2050. YLLs were computed for each scenario using the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 reference life table and forecasts of cause-specific mortality under each scenario. The reference scenario forecasts what could occur if past smoking prevalence and other risk factor trends continue, the Tobacco Smoking Elimination as of 2023 (Elimination-2023) scenario quantifies the maximum potential future health benefits from assuming zero percent smoking prevalence from 2023 onwards, whereas the Tobacco Smoking Elimination by 2050 (Elimination-2050) scenario provides estimates for countries considering policies to steadily reduce smoking prevalence to 5%. Together, these scenarios underscore the magnitude of health benefits that could be reached by 2050 if countries take decisive action to eliminate smoking. The 95% uncertainty interval (UI) of estimates is based on the 2·5th and 97·5th percentile of draws that were carried through the multistage computational framework. FindingsGlobal age-standardised smoking prevalence was estimated to be 28·5% (95% UI 27·9–29·1) among males and 5·96% (5·76–6·21) among females in 2022. In the reference scenario, smoking prevalence declined by 25·9% (25·2–26·6) among males, and 30·0% (26·1–32·1) among females from 2022 to 2050. Under this scenario, we forecast a cumulative 29·3 billion (95% UI 26·8–32·4) overall YLLs among males and 22·2 billion (20·1–24·6) YLLs among females over this period. Life expectancy at birth under this scenario would increase from 73·6 years (95% UI 72·8–74·4) in 2022 to 78·3 years (75·9–80·3) in 2050. Under our Elimination-2023 scenario, we forecast 2·04 billion (95% UI 1·90–2·21) fewer cumulative YLLs by 2050 compared with the reference scenario, and life expectancy at birth would increase to 77·6 years (95% UI 75·1–79·6) among males and 81·0 years (78·5–83·1) among females. Under our Elimination-2050 scenario, we forecast 735 million (675–808) and 141 million (131–154) cumulative YLLs would be avoided among males and females, respectively. Life expectancy in 2050 would increase to 77·1 years (95% UI 74·6–79·0) among males and 80·8 years (78·3–82·9) among females. InterpretationExisting tobacco policies must be maintained if smoking prevalence is to continue to decline as forecast by the reference scenario. In addition, substantial smoking-attributable burden can be avoided by accelerating the pace of smoking elimination. Implementation of new tobacco control policies are crucial in avoiding additional smoking-attributable burden in the coming decades and to ensure that the gains won over the past three decades are not lost. FundingBloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Comparative Study on Reliability Analysis of Cohesive Soil Slope using Subset Simulation and Other Methods

In geotechnical engineering, uncertainties arise due to variation in loads, soil characteristics, ground stratification and so on. Reliability analysis based on probabilistic approaches is particularly suitable to deal with such uncertainties. In this paper, a newly developed reliability analysis method, namely Subset simulation (SS) method has been implemented to study the stability of a cohesive slope. The results of reliability analysis obtained from SS method are also compared with three other methods, namely First order second moment method (FOSM), First order reliability method (FORM) and Direct Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) method. The various reliability models have been used in a spreadsheet environment using MS-Excel. The developed spreadsheet-based platform implementing all four methods contains two common models i.e. deterministic model and the uncertainty model. The SS method uses another model called uncertainty propagation using subset simulation (UPSS) in addition to the two above-mentioned models. The factor of safety  of the slope is determined using ordinary method of slices under undrained condition. The probability of failure (  and its corresponding reliability index  of the proposed slope has been determined using all four methods. A software called Geo-Studio (SLOPE/W) has been used to tally the results of reliability analysis of the slope considered herein. The results obtained from the different methods show that the SS method gives better performance in terms of efficiency and resolution especially at low failure probability i.e., . Also, the SS method helps in identifying the significant depth where the most probable critical slip surface is located.</jats:p