Heterosis analysis in relation to drought tolerance in rice land races and their genotypes

An experiment was conducted in rice to study the heterosis for drought tolerance and grain yield in 24 hybrids developed from six landraces viz., Kallurundaikar, Kuliadichan, Kuruvaikalangiam, Mattaikar, Nootripathu and Vellaichithiraikar used as lines and four high yielding varieties viz., PMK 3, MDU 5, ASD 16 and ADT 36 used as testers for physio-morphological traits by Line x tester analysis. The experimental results revealed that the hybrids viz., Nootripathu / MDU 5, which had significant standard heterosis for eight characters namely days to 50% flowering, plant height, productive tillers, root length, root dry weight, root : shoot ratio, harvest index and grain yield per plant, Nootripathu / PMK 3 exhibited significant standard heterosis for seven characters namely plant height, root length, root dry weight, root : shoot ratio, 100 grain weight, harvest index, and grain yield per plant were found to be superior hybrids over the standard check variety PMK 3. High proline content which is an index for drought tolerance was recorded in hybrid Kuruvaikalangiam / ADT 36 (11.94%) exhibited significant standard heterosis which is found to be drought tolerant among the hybrids

Multifaceted approach to evaluate the relationship among closely related forms of Drosophila

Drosophila is a suitable system to study different facets of population differentiation. Drosophila sulfurigaster, Drosophila bilimbata, Drosophila albostrigata, Drosophila neonasuta and Drosophila pulaua are morphologically indistinguishable members of the orbital sheen complex of the nasuta subgroup of Drosophila. They are distributed in different parts of south east Asia. The evolutionary inter-relationship between these closely related forms will be discussed with reference to karyotypes, heterochromatin, satellite DNA, population fitness, ecogenetic divergence and isozyme variations

Marine yeast isolation and industrial application

Over the last century, terrestrial yeasts have been widely used in various industries, such as baking, brewing, wine, bioethanol and pharmaceutical protein production. However, only little attention has been given to marine yeasts. Recent research showed that marine yeasts have several unique and promising features over the terrestrial yeasts, for example higher osmosis tolerance, higher special chemical productivity and production of industrial enzymes. These indicate that marine yeasts have great potential to be applied in various industries. This review gathers the most recent techniques used for marine yeast isolation as well as the latest applications of marine yeast in bioethanol, pharmaceutical and enzyme production fields. Keyword

Mounier-Kuhn Syndrome: Anesthetic Experience

Mounier Kuhn syndrome, or congenital tracheobronchomegaly, is an under diagnosed clinical entity with peculiar anatomical and physiological features making anesthetic care challenging. A 58-year-old chronic smoker with history of recurrent pneumonia and bronchiectasis presented for septoplasty. Thoracic imaging revealed a dilated trachea and main bronchi, tracheal and bronchial diverticuli, and chronic bronchiectasis with mediastinal lymphadenopathy. An 8.5 cuffed endotracheal tube (ETT) proved too big for his glottic aperture. An 8.0 cuffed ETT with wet gauze packing yielding an adequate seal. Postoperative continuous positive airway pressure to prevent airway collapse followed awake extubation. Anesthetic concerns include grossly enlarged and weakened airways, inefficient cough mechanisms, presence of tracheal diverticuli, and post operative tracheal collapse. Anesthetic planning includes management of endotracheal cuff size. Small size yields air leak and ineffective ventilation. Large size may lead to mucosal damage. Tube dislodgement, copious secretions, chance of expiratory collapse due to the abnormally dilated and thin airways, and post operative monitoring all must be considered

A Review on Expert System Applications in Power Plants

The control and monitoring of power generation plants is being complicated day by day, with the increase size and capacity of equipments involved in power generation process. This calls for the presence of experienced and well trained operators for decision making and management of various plant related activities. Scarcity of well trained and experienced plant operators is one of the major problems faced by modern power industry. Application of artificial intelligence techniques, especially expert systems whose main characteristics is to simulate expert plant operator’s actions is one of the actively researched areas in the field of plant automation. This paper presents an overview of various expert system applications in power generation plants. It points out technological advancement of expert system technology and its integration with various types of modern techniques such as fuzzy, neural network, machine vision and data acquisition systems. Expert system can significantly reduce the work load on plant operators and experts, and act as an expert for plant fault diagnosis and maintenance. Various other applications include data processing, alarm reduction, schedule optimisation, operator training and evaluation. The review point out that integration of modern techniques such as neural network, fuzzy, machine vision, data base, simulators etc. with conventional rule based methodologies have added greater dimensions to problem solving capabilities of an expert system.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v4i1.502

A k-out-of-n reliability system with an unreliable server and phase type repairs and services: the (N, T) policy

In this paper we study a k-out-of-n reliability system in which a single unreliable server maintains n identical components. The reliability system is studied under the (N,T) policy. An idle server takes a vacation for a random amount of time T and then attends to any failed component waiting in line upon completion of the vacation. The vacationing server is recalled instantaneously upon the failure of the Nth component. The failure times of the components are assumed to follow an exponential distribution. The server is subject to failure with failure times exponentially distributed. Repair times of the component, fixing times of the server, and vacationing times of the server are assumed to be of phase type. Using matrix-analytic methods we perform steady state analysis of this model. Time spent by a failed component in service, total time in the repair facility, vacation time of the server, non-vacation time of the server, and time until failure of the system are all shown to be of phase type. Several performance measures are evaluated. Illustrative numerical examples are presented

Parametric tool for initial estimation of thermal and mechanical stress in high speed rotors

Bearingless drives magnetically integrate magnetic bearing and motor function. They offer non-contaminating working environment, are maintenance free and generally have long lifetime. Bearingless drives is a good choice in high speed applications due to the absence of friction losses. Permanent magnets employed at the rotor of bearingless drives suffer from mechanical stresses due to high centrifugal forces. Hence, the yield strength of the rotor materials is the only limiting factor of speed in permanent magnet rotors. The stress analysis in permanent magnet rotors are generally carried out using finite element software such as ansys, abaqus etc. This approach is time consuming which limits them in applications where rapid testing of varying geometries is a requirement. Therefore, an analytical tool to predict the initial mechanical stress in high speed permanent magnet rotors is proposed in this thesis. A parametric tool to predict the peak stress for four basic permanent magnet configurations like cylindrical permanent magnet, surface permanent manet, interior permanent magnet and V-Shaped permanent magnet is developed in matlab 17. The results from matlab code is verified with the help of finite element based software ansys 18. The material properties and geometrical definitions used in the matlab code input is repeated in the ansys model to make a fair comparison of results. Two different test cases like geometry test and speed test were framed to do the testing. The test cases are repeated for all four permanent magnet configurations studied in this paper. Moreover, a correction factor is also introduced in the code from the speed test results to improve the accuracy. The reliability of this factor is ensured by using the same factor for different geometries in geometry test. The analytical tool developed gave faster and moderately accurate results on testing

Risk factors for still birth: a hospital based case control study

Background: The study of the risk factors contributing to still birth is imperative in our attempts to bring about a decline in the still birth rate.  By identifying the risk factors, we can understand the areas where specific interventions may be applied to bring about a reduction in the still birth rate. The aim of the present study was to identify the risk factors for stillbirth among the mothers attending Sri Avittom Thirunal Hospital, TrivandrumMethods: This was a prospective hospital based case control study conducted from March 2014- September 2015. Sample size was calculated as 100 cases and 200 controls. Odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were calculated using multi variate logistic regression.Results: The major risk factors associated with still births were maternal age, socio economic status, and obesity, sleep position during pregnancy, primi parity, hypertension and febrile illness during pregnancy. The risk of still birth was 3 times higher among mothers with hypertension compared to the control group.  Although the prevalence of diabetes slightly more in the case group it was not statistically significant. By analyzing all the risk factors in preparing a model 42% of the risk for still birth was contributed by these factors.Conclusions: The modifiable risk factors seen in this study to prevent still births are maternal sleep position during pregnancy, diabetes, hypertension and febrile illness especially urinary tract infection. By better antenatal care we can detect complications like diabetes, hypertension and manage appropriately thereby preventing complications. By screening for urinary tract infections in every trimester morbidity can be reduced

SOCIETY, LITERATURE AND WOMEN

समाज, साहित्य और नारी</jats:p