26 research outputs found
Reinventing Marginalized Voices: A Study of Volga’s The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara
Get PDFThe corpus of Indian women’s literature has the power to define the borders of community, class, and gender. Challenging the existing patriarchal set-up, writers from all corners of the nation speak not only to subvert the patriarchy but also to claim their authority and bring subdued voices to the fore. In Volga’s gynocentric retellings of the ancient epic “Ramayana,” Volga’s The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara deconstruct the traditional epic by recentering female characters that were marginalized in the original. The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara tell the story of Buddha’s wife after his unexpected departure, and they exemplify an active remaking of the past, a revision, and a reinvention of tradition. Thus, the author creates a female collective by representing ancient tradition from alternative points of view and networking with women across ages and generations. This paper interprets the depiction of the female characters in the select texts not merely as exalted figures but as bold voices. The female characters of the epic are victims of patriarchy, yet they are not depicted as mere sufferers. The author has given them a strong voice and dignity, narrating words of wisdom which are the result of their experiences of struggle with pain. Hence, the study shows Volga’s evolved understanding of feminism as more than a simple conflict between men and women, but a larger issue that cannot simply be reduced to binaries
Food Legumes and Rising Temperatures: Effects, Adaptive Functional Mechanisms Specific to Reproductive Growth Stage and Strategies to Improve Heat Tolerance
No full textAmbient temperatures are predicted to rise in the future owing to several reasons associated with global climate changes. These temperature increases can result in heat stress- a severe threat to crop production in most countries. Legumes are wellknown for their impact on agricultural sustainability as well as their nutritional and health benefits. Heat stress imposes challenges for legume crops and has deleterious effects on the morphology, physiology, and reproductive growth of plants. High-temperature stress at the time of the reproductive stage is becoming a severe limitation for production of grain legumes as their cultivation expands to warmer environments and temperature variability increases due to climate change. The reproductive period is vital in the life cycle of all plants and is susceptible to high-temperature stress as various metabolic processes are adversely impacted during this phase, which reduces crop yield. Food legumes exposed to high-temperature stress during reproduction show flower abortion, pollen and ovule infertility, impaired fertilization, and reduced seed filling, leading to smaller seeds and poor yields. Through various breeding techniques, heat tolerance in major legumes can be enhanced to improve performance in the field. Omics approaches unravel different mechanisms underlying thermotolerance, which is imperative to understand the processes of molecular responses toward high-temperature stress
Selenium supplementation to lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) under combined heat and drought stress improves photosynthetic ability, antioxidant systems, reproductive function and yield traits
No full textPurpose
Increasing temperatures are generating heat and drought stress, especially for the cool-season crops such as lentil,; selenium can mitigate the adverse effects of various abiotic stresses but has never been tested in plants facing combined heat and drought stress.
Methods
In this study, contrasting heat-sensitive and heat-tolerant lentil genotypes were grown in the absence (control) or presence of selenium (1, 2.5, 5.0 mg kg–1 dry soil). At the onset of flowering, plants were subjected to combined heat and drought stress by moving in a controlled environment [32/20 °C day/night (12/12 h), 50% soil field capacity, 500 µmol m–2 s–1 light intensity, 65–70% RH] for 20 days, up to completion of maturity stress.
Results
The results revealed that lentil plants exposed to the combined stress + Se significantly increased endogenous leaf Se concentration, pod number (32–36% in sensitive, 19–24% in tolerant genotypes), and seed yield (21–35% in sensitive, 21–25% in tolerant genotypes), compared to the combined stress treatment alone. Se supplementation significantly improved leaf water status and osmolyte accumulation (such as proline, glycine betaine, and reducing sugars), which stabilized membranes and photosynthesis-related traits, enhanced the expression of various enzymatic (superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase) and non-enzymatic (ascorbate and reduced glutathione) antioxidants and flower function, and improved pollen function, pod set, pod number, and seed number.
Conclusions
Our study showed the potential benefits of using selenium as a supplement in the low-Se soils to protect against combined heat and drought stress in lentil
Influence of drought and heat stress, applied independently or in combination during seed development, on qualitative and quantitative aspects of seeds of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) genotypes, differing in drought sensitivity
No full textTerminal droughts, along with high temperatures, are becoming more frequent to strongly influence the seed development in cool‐season pulses like lentil. In the present study, the lentil plants growing outdoors under natural environment were subjected to following treatments at the time of seed filling till maturity: (a) 28/23 °C day/night temperature as controls; (b) drought stressed, plants maintained at 50% field capacity, under the same growth conditions as in a; (c) heat stressed, 33/28 °C day/night temperature, under the same growth conditions as in a; and (d) drought + heat stressed, plants at 50% field capacity, 33/28 °C day/night temperature, under the same growth conditions as in (a). Both heat and drought resulted in marked reduction in the rate and duration of seed filling to decrease the final seed size; drought resulted in more damage than heat stress; combined stresses accentuated the damage to seed starch, storage proteins and their fractions, minerals, and several amino acids. Comparison of a drought‐tolerant and a drought‐sensitive genotype indicated the former type showed significantly less damage to various components of seeds, under drought as well as heat stress suggesting a cross tolerance, which was linked to its (drought tolerant) better capacity to retain more water in leaves and hence more photo‐assimilation ability, compared with drought‐sensitive genotype
Heat Priming of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) Seeds and Foliar Treatment with γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), Confers Protection to Reproductive Function and Yield Traits under High-Temperature Stress Environments
No full textGradually increasing temperatures at global and local scales are causing heat stress for cool and summer-season food legumes, such as lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), which is highly susceptible to heat stress, especially during its reproductive stages of development. Hence, suitable strategies are needed to develop heat tolerance in this legume. In the present study, we tested the effectiveness of heat priming (HPr; 6 h at 35 °C) the lentil seeds and a foliar treatment of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA; 1 mM; applied twice at different times), singly or in combination (HPr+GABA), under heat stress (32/20 °C) in two heat-tolerant (HT; IG2507, IG3263) and two heat-sensitive (HS; IG2821, IG2849) genotypes to mitigate heat stress. The three treatments significantly reduced heat injury to leaves and flowers, particularly when applied in combination, including leaf damage assessed as membrane injury, cellular oxidizing ability, leaf water status, and stomatal conductance. The combined HPr+GABA treatment significantly improved the photosynthetic function, measured as photosynthetic efficiency, chlorophyll concentration, and sucrose synthesis; and significantly reduced the oxidative damage, which was associated with a marked up-regulation in the activities of enzymatic antioxidants. The combined treatment also facilitated the synthesis of osmolytes, such as proline and glycine betaine, by upregulating the expression of their biosynthesizing enzymes (pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase; betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase) under heat stress. The HPr+GABA treatment caused a considerable enhancement in endogenous levels of GABA in leaves, more so in the two heat-sensitive genotypes. The reproductive function, measured as germination and viability of pollen grains, receptivity of stigma, and viability of ovules, was significantly improved with combined treatment, resulting in enhanced pod number (21–23% in HT and 35–38% in HS genotypes, compared to heat stress alone) and seed yield per plant (22–24% in HT and 37–40% in HS genotypes, in comparison to heat stress alone). The combined treatment (HPr+GABA) was more effective and pronounced in heat-sensitive than heat-tolerant genotypes for all the traits tested. This study offers a potential solution for tackling and protecting heat stress injury in lentil plants. View Full-Tex
Differential heat sensitivity of two cool-season legumes, chickpea and lentil, at the reproductive stage, is associated with responses in pollen function, photosynthetic ability and oxidative damage
No full textIncreasing temperatures are adversely affecting various food crops, including legumes, and this issue requires attention. The growth of two cool‐season food legumes, chickpea and lentil, is inhibited by high temperatures but their relative sensitivity to heat stress and the underlying reasons have not been investigated. Moreover, the high‐temperature thresholds for these two legumes have not been well‐characterised. In the present study, three chickpea (ICCVO7110, ICC5912 and ICCV92944) and two lentil (LL699 and LL931) genotypes, having nearly similar phenology with respect to flowering, were grown at 30/20°C (day/night; control) until the onset of flowering and subsequently exposed to varying high temperatures (35/25, 38/28, 40/30 and 42/32°C; day/night) in a controlled environment (growth chamber; 12 hr/12 hr; light intensity 750 µmol m−2 s−1; RH‐70%) at 108 days after sowing for both the species. Phenology (podding, maturity) was accelerated in both the species; the days to podding declined more in lentil at 35/25 (2.8 days) and 38/28°C (11.3 days) than in chickpea (1.7 and 7.1 days, respectively). Heat stress decreased flowering–podding and podding–maturity intervals considerably in both the species. At higher temperatures, no podding was observed in lentil, while chickpea showed reduction of 14.9 and 16.1 days at 40/30 and 42/32°C, respectively. Maturity was accelerated on 15.3 and 12.5 days at 38/28°C, 33.6 and 34 days at 40/30°C and 45.6 and 47 days at 42/32°C, in chickpea and lentil, respectively. Consequently, biomass decreased considerably at 38/28°C in both the species to limit the yield‐related traits. Lentil was significantly more sensitive to heat stress, with the damage—assessed as reduction in biomass, reproductive function‐related traits (pollen viability, germination, pollen tube growth and stigma receptivity), leaf traits such as membrane injury, leaf water status, photochemical efficiency, chlorophyll concentration, carbon fixation and assimilation, and oxidative stress, appearing even at 35/25°C, compared with 38/28°C, in chickpea. The expression of enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase and non‐enzymatic antioxidants declined remarkably with heat stress, more so in lentil than in chickpea. Carbon fixation (assessed as Rubisco activity) and assimilation (assessed as sucrose concentration, sucrose synthase activity) were also reduced more in lentil than in chickpea, at all the stressful temperatures, resulting in more inhibition of plant biomass (shoot + roots), damage to reproductive function and severe reduction in pods and seeds. At 38/28°C, lentil showed 43% reduction in biomass, while it declined by 17.2% in chickpea at the same time, over the control temperature (30/20°C). At this temperature, lentil showed 53% and 46% reduction in pods and seed yield, compared to 13.4% and 22% decrease in chickpea at the same temperature. At 40/30°C, lentil did not produce any pods, while chickpea was able to produce few pods at this temperature. This study identified that lentil is considerably more sensitive to heat stress than chickpea, as a result of more damage to leaves (photosynthetic ability; oxidative injury) and reproductive components (pollen function, etc.) at 35/25°C and above, at controlled conditions
GENETIC VARIATION AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDY AMONG MORPHOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL TRAITS OF TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicum L.)GENOTYPES
Get PDFThe present investigation was statistically laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications during 2017-2018 to study genetic variability for yield and quality traits among thirteen tomato (Solanum iycopersicum L.) genotypes. Significant differences were noticed for the twelve quantitative characters and promising genotype ST-102 revealed highest fruit yield per plant (681.32 g) along with maximum ascorbic acid (34.68 mg). Magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variation was slightly higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation for all the traits. Highest estimate of GCV and PCV was recorded for total phenol content (56.61 % and 56.93 %) respectively. High heritability along with genetic advance as per cent of mean was noticed for total phenol content (99 % and 115.96 %), average fruit weight (91 % and 64.88 %) and fruit yield per plant (90 % and 67.39 %) respectively. Average fruit weight was found to be significantly and positively correlated (0.90 and 0.88) with fruit yield per plant and also produced highest direct effect (0.83 and 0.85) towards fruit yield at both the genotypic and phenotypic levels considering that these traits may be put under selection pressure due to additive gene action towards crop improvement of tomato under organic growing condition
Morpho-biochemical diversity in tree tomato (Solanum betaceum Cav.) genotypes grown under different altitudinal locations of north eastern Himalayas of India
No full text25-34Seventeen tree tomato (Solanum betaceum Cav.) genotypes were evaluated for their morpho-biochemical diversity in
Randomized Block Design under three replications at Sikkim University, Gangtok in 2017-18. The genotypes were grouped
into five clusters and cluster I possessed highest number of genotypes (6). Highest inter-cluster distance (372237) was
recorded between clusters II & V. Intra-cluster was maximum in cluster III (28651.72) showing diversity within the cluster.
The genotype STT-110 produced maximum value for average fruit weight (81 g) and other fruit yield contributing
characters. Whereas, STT-40 produced maximum values for iron (1.86 mg/100 g), copper (0.47 mg/100 g) and manganese
(1.38 mg/100 g). Genetic parameters (PCV, GCV) along with heritability and genetic advance were highest for anthocyanin
(77.26%, 77.19%, 99% and 158.85%), flavonoid (56.91%, 56.90%, 100% and 117.22%), total phenol (52.76%, 52.72%,
99%, and 108.54%), manganese (50.87%, 49.26%, 93%, and 98.28%) and ascorbic acid (41.73%, 41.71%, 99% and
85.89%). Correlation coefficient analysis showed that polar and equatorial diameter of fruit was significantly correlated with
average fruit weight. Genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than phenotypic correlation coefficients, which indicate
the inherent association among the characters. This study highlights the potential utilization of STT-110 genotype for further
selection in future breeding programme for enhancing yield
Comparative study of Pareto Type II with HLD in assessing the software reliability with order statistics approach using SPC
No full textRADAR CROSS SECTION CHARACTERIZATION OF CORNER REFLECTORS IN DIFFERENT FREQUENCY BANDS AND POLARIZATIONS
Get PDFCorner Reflectors (CR) are standard passive radar targets which offer one of the best solutions for SAR calibration. Radar Cross Section (RCS) of corner reflectors plays a vital role for estimation of calibration parameters and hence back scatter coefficient for airborne and spaceborne SAR images. There is a stringent requirement to characterize RCS of corner reflectors by measuring its scattering properties in a controlled environment. RCS characterization of square trihedral corner reflectors, dihedrals including polarization selective dihedrals is addressed. These measurements were carried out at X, C and S band frequencies with wide scan angles at definite sampling interval. The design details of corner reflectors, specifications of Compact Antenna Test Range Facility, technical modalities involved for RCS measurements, variation of measured RCS from theoretical value for trihedral and dihedral reflectors at different frequency bands and polarizations are presented in this paper
