31 research outputs found
RNAsee
No full text<p><strong>RNA</strong> <strong>s</strong>ite <strong>e</strong>diting <strong>e</strong>valuation (<strong>RNAsee</strong>) is a bioinformatic python script that predicts APOBEC3A/G mediated C>U edit sites for any gene.</p>
Sustaining the supply of White Gold: The case of SysCom innovation platforms in India
No full textIncreasing concerns about global food security, depleting fossil reserves and diminishing natural resources question the continuation of energy-intensive conventional agriculture and emphasize the importance of sustainable alternatives such as organic agriculture. Even though organic farming is more ecologically sustainable and often economically advantageous, widespread adoption is limited as farmers making adoption-decisions are faced with challenging trade-offs (e.g. lower yields in the short term, limited options for crop nutrition and pest control and non-existence of markets for organic produce). This highlights the importance of innovation platforms involving relevant stakeholders (farmers, researchers, extensionists, etc.) in decision-making processes to overcome system trade-offs.
Studies conducted in temperate zones have provided experimental evidence on the benefits of organic agriculture, but scientific data on this issue from (sub)tropical zones are scarce. In order to fill this knowledge gap and to provide appropriate innovation platforms, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) has set up a programme (SysCom) in Kenya, India and Bolivia. Started in 2006-07, SysCom includes a network of long-term farming systems comparison experiments (LTE) and participatory on-farm research (POR) trials. The combination of LTEs and PORs facilitates decision-making processes by involving local stakeholders in the process of innovation development, thereby overcoming system trade-offs. In the following, the project in India is presented as it provides an exemplar showcasing these processes.
Established in 2006 in the Nimar Region, the LTE has served as a meeting point around sustainable agriculture with hundreds of visitors annually. Involved stakeholders included a contract farming cooperation, an NGO, researchers, an organic cotton trading and processing company (providing assured market access to organic farmers), as well as donors representing NGOs, retailers and governmental development agencies.
Cotton farming is the main livelihood activity in the project area. Most local farmers grow transgenic Bt cotton (90% of cotton area) on farms sized between 0.25 and 5 ha. However, there are tens of thousands organic cotton farmers cultivating on the predominant regional soil type: alkaline Vertisols (“black cotton soils”). The precipitation reactions of phosphorous (P) ions under alkaline conditions result in low P availability for plant growth. This poses a particular problem to organic farmers because their choices of P fertilizers are limited. Consequently, the insufficient P supply negatively affects cotton fiber quality. To improve the plant availability of P contained in local rock phosphate (RP), we assessed local practices and constraints through focus group discussions in 2009. Subsequently, the combination of LTE and PORs was capitalized to address the issue from 2010-11 through 2014-15.
We found that solubilizing RP with butter milk (BM) for one week in a ratio BM:RP = 10:1 may be optimal for increasing P availability, and that local farmers favored a shaded, shallow pit system for conserving their farm yard manure (FYM). Combining these insights led to the formulation of the “RP-enriched-FYM (RP-FYM)” technology. Thereafter, five local lead farmers started producing RP-FYM. Each lead farmer was associated with several farmers for training and distribution of the first RP-FYM load for trials with cotton, soybean and wheat on some 40 farms. Results showed mean yield increases in the RP-FYM treatment (compared to farmers’ practices) of 41%, 40% and 14% for seed cotton, soybean and wheat grains, respectively. Results were consistent across different types of soils and farms.
To enhance knowledge transfer and adoption, a competition was launched. In a ceremony with some 100 farmers, the farmer who produced the best RP-FYM was awarded with a cow and calf, while the other participants were rewarded with consolation prizes. The award ceremony was capitalized for dissemination and encouragement to spread the information by word to mouth; illustrated leaflets were distributed in English and Hindi. Posters were distributed to the extension centers with an outreach to 5’000-9’000 organic cotton farmers. It became apparent that farmer to farmer extension is a powerful tool which increases the acceptance of novel technologies.
Through facilitating stakeholder exchange/mutual learning, the project has overcome a technological challenge through development of the RP-FYM technology. Consequently, organic cotton farmers increased their crop yields, thereby tackling food security with limited resources. This contributed to their livelihoods and gave them more flexibility for decision-making. The RP-FYM technology contributes to climate change mitigation because the energy-intensive production of synthetic P fertilizers from RP is not necessary. Potential improvements of the technology are currently being explored in further trials, and the socioeconomic sustainability is being addressed to elucidate potential constraints for widespread adoption. Local availability of FYM and its market characteristics/dynamics are being investigated, as the availability of biomass for organic cultivation and the respective land and labor needed to produce, collect and transform the biomass is a major research need for organic farming systems. In the same way, we are currently capitalizing our innovation platform to develop locally adapted technologies for organic pest control, another major constraint for organic cotton production in smallholder contexts
Engine Performance Characteristics Under Controlled Engine Temperature With Variable Operating Parameters
No full textIn the present scenario, the designs of S I engine being used in automotives by various manufacturers are not properly suitable to Indian climate condition. India is among those tropical countries where the variation in the temperature is having very vast range i.e. from 0°C to 50°C in various regions of the country. Looking in to this vast varying temperature range, it is very difficult to say that which temperature is most suited for operating condition of engines and will give the best performance levels as far as SFC & BP is concerned. In this work, it has been tried to investigate the best option to run the SI engine and simultaneously to maintain the emission norms. Today research and development in the field of gasoline engines have to face double challenge; on one hand, fuel consumption has to be reduced, while on the other hand, even more stringent emission standard have to be fulfilled. The development of engines with its complexity of in-cylinder process requires modern developed tools to exploit the full potential in order to reduce fuel consumption. There are many strategies for improving fuel economy and reducing exhaust emission HC & CO. The experimental study is carried out on a three cylinders, four stroke, petrol, carbureted, water cooled engine test rig connected to eddy current type dynamometer. The objective of this work was to examine engine performance parameter i.e. specific fuel consumption (SFC), brake power (BP) and also exhaust emission on Varying Engine Temperature at 50, 60, 70, 80° C and at an engine speed of 1500, 2000, 2500 rpm with respect to engine load 6, 9, 12 kg. The results are shown by various graphs with effect of engine temperature on specific fuel consumption, brake power, engine speed, engine load and emission levels of Nox, HC, CO for gasoline and LPG to improve fuel consumption.</jats:p
Evaluation of thermal performance of heat exchanger unit for parabolic solar cooker for off-place cooking
No full text745-748Different types of solar cookers developed for cooking are box type and concentrator type solar cookers. A parabolic concentrator type solar cooker has a wide range of applications like baking, roasting and distillation due to its unique property of producing a practically higher temperature of nearly 250°C and hence, it provides inconvenience to the user due to high amount of glare. The main objective of the present study is to incline cylindrical heat transfer fluid column as a heat transfer medium. The thermal performance of a parabolic solar cooker depends on inclined heat exchanger system of mild steel tube of length 157.5 cm and an internal radius 2.07 cm with heat transfer fluid (oil) of density 1075 kg/m³. Experiments are conducted for cooking of food at a normal day. The results show that inclined convective heat exchanger system can be used for off-place cooking. The optimization of the system design parameters is under investigation
Tuning superconductivity and spin-vortex instabilities in CaKFe<sub>4</sub>As<sub>4</sub> through in-plane antisymmetric strains
No full textLattice strains of appropriate symmetry have served as an excellent tool to explore the interaction of superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors with orthorhombic-nematic and stripe spin-density-wave (SSDW) order. In this Letter, we contribute to a broader understanding of the coupling of strain to superconductivity and competing normal-state orders by studying CaKFe4As4 under large, in-plane strains of B1g and B2g symmetry. In contrast to the majority of iron-based superconductors, pure CaKFe4As4 exhibits superconductivity with a relatively high transition temperature of Tc∼35K in proximity of a noncollinear, tetragonal, hedgehog spin-vortex crystal (SVC) order. Through experiments and calculations, we demonstrate an anisotropic in-plane strain response of Tc and the favored SVC configuration in CaKFe4As4. This supports a scenario, in which the change in spin fluctuations dominates the strain response of superconducting Tc. Overall, by suggesting moderate B2g strains as an effective parameter to change the stability of SVC and SSDW, we outline a pathway to a unified phase diagram of iron-based superconductivity. © 2024 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society
Organic Wheat Farming Improves Grain Zinc Concentration
No full textZinc (Zn) nutrition is of key relevance in India, as a large fraction of the population suffers from Zn malnutrition and many soils contain little plant available Zn. In this study we compared organic and conventional wheat cropping systems with respect to DTPA (diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid)-extractable Zn as a proxy for plant available Zn, yield, and grain Zn concentration. We analyzed soil and wheat grain samples from 30 organic and 30 conventional farms in Madhya Pradesh (central India), and conducted farmer interviews to elucidate sociological and management variables. Total and DTPA-extractable soil Zn concentrations and grain yield (3400 kg ha-1) did not differ between the two farming systems, but with 32 and 28 mg kg-1 respectively, grain Zn concentrations were higher on organic than conventional farms (t = -2.2, p = 0.03). Furthermore, multiple linear regression analyses revealed that (a) total soil zinc and sulfur concentrations were the best predictors of DTPA-extractable soil Zn, (b) Olsen phosphate taken as a proxy for available soil phosphorus, exchangeable soil potassium, harvest date, training of farmers in nutrient management, and soil silt content were the best predictors of yield, and (c) yield, Olsen phosphate, grain nitrogen, farmyard manure availability, and the type of cropping system were the best predictors of grain Zn concentration. Results suggested that organic wheat contained more Zn despite same yield level due to higher nutrient efficiency. Higher nutrient efficiency was also seen in organic wheat for P, N and S. The study thus suggests that appropriate farm management can lead to competitive yield and improved Zn concentration in wheat grains on organic farms
Enrichment of significant S-M interconnections by successive filtering during the development of the signaling-metabolic pathway network.
No full textThe successive reduction of non-significant nodes and paths was followed for the inter-connection of the NOTCH pathway to all metabolic pathways. (A) Starting signaling-metabolic interaction network (SMIN) with the NOTCH pathway proteins in purple; (C) to GBM-specific network, and (E) the final GBM-specific significant (Z≥1) network. (B) Connections formed through twelve TOP Perturbation Impact (PI) nodes (red color) for NOTCH to all metabolic in SMIN; (D) connections formed through 11 nodes (in red color; out of 12 genes/proteins found with significant perturbation impact [PI]) in GBM-specific network and (F) connections formed through 9 nodes (in red color; out of 12) in the GBM-specific significant (Z≥1) network.</p
Spatial Variability of Soil Macronutrients and Chemical Properties in Ujjain Tehsil of Ujjain District of Madhya Pradesh, India
No full textUnderstanding the characteristics of soil and how it may be utilised sustainably makes soil property mapping a crucial process. To improve crop yield and preserve healthy soil, it is essential to understand the heterogeneity of the soil in each location in order to establish site-specific nutrient management strategies for that area. The current research was carried out in the Ujjain tehsil (Ujjain) district of Madhya Pradesh state, India, with the aim of measuring the spatial variability of several soil macronutrients and soil chemical characteristics. Throughout the research region, 150 geo-coded surface soil samples with a depth of 0 to 15 cm were collected. The soil characteristics, namely pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic carbon (SOC), available nitrogen (Av-N), available phosphorous (Av-P), available potassium (Av-K), and available sulphur (Av-S), were assessed in these samples using standard methods. The research region\u27s ranges for soil pH, EC, SOC, Av-N, Av-P, and Av-K were 7.01 to 8.15, 0.10 to 0.79 dSm-1, 0.30-0.60%, 139.00 – 235.00 kg ha-1, 8.00 – 25.60 kg ha-1, and 301.00 – 463.00 kg ha-1, in that order. The data were analysed using classic statistics and geo--statistics by constructing semi-variograms and mapping by ordinary kriging techniques. Semi-variograms were calculated for soil characteristics and their spatial distributions were mapped. Best-fit models for measured soil properties were Exponential, Circular, Gaussian and Hole effect with Nugget/Sill (Co/Co+C) ratio for modelled variables indicated strong and moderate spatial dependences. The distribution maps of soil attributes could be utilized as a guide for site-specific crop management in similar soils. Further, this study demonstrates the usefulness of GIS- application in soil variability studies
Soybean Bacterial Endophytes against Anthracnose Disease Collected from Karnataka State: An in-vitro Study
No full textEndophytes trigger various defence mechanisms within their host plants, engaging primary and secondary protective pathways. This investigation primarily aimed to isolate bacterial endophytes from diverse agroecological regions in Karnataka. Subsequently, these endophytes were assessed for their inhibition against Colletotrichum truncatum using the in-vitro streak plate technique. A total of 43 bacteria isolated from soybean plants and key endophytes showing the inhibition against C. truncatum were in different zones namely, DHW-9(87%), BID-2(85%), BID-13(85%), BID-14(82.50%), DHW-15(80%), BID-15(75%),and BID-16(75%) exhibited notable efficacy against C. truncatum in decreasing order. Among these, the DHW-9 (Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain P4-32) bacterial endophytes isolated from the North Transition Zone (Dharwad) were highly effective against the pathogen, possibly due to employing many direct and indirect mechanisms. Furthermore, the inhibition potential of the bacterial endophytes varies with and within the place of agroecological zones. In conclusion, it has been observed that the bacterial endophyte DHW-9 inhibited the progression of anthracnose disease caused by C. truncatum in controlled in vitro. Hence, it is imperative to conduct additional experiments, including pot and field studies, to explore its potential to enhance the growth and yield of soybean plants
