42 research outputs found
Ischaemum dioecum Landge & R. D. Shinde 2022, sp. nov.
No full textIschaemum dioecum Landge & R. D. Shinde, sp. nov. (Figs. 1, 2 & 3) Type:— INDIA. Maharashtra state: Raigad district, near Patanus village, 8 August 2021, 18°26’51.7”N 73°22’17.1”E, Shahid Nawaz PR-01 A (BLAT) [ holotype ]; isotype: Shahid Nawaz PR-01 B (BLAT) [pistillate plant specimens]. Diagnosis:—Ephemeral habit, up to 20 cm high, with numerous stilt-roots from nodes; dioecious breeding system; leaves long, hispid, acute at the base and petioled; lower glume of the sessile and pedicelled spikelet (if present) 2–4- nerved; lower floret in the sessile spikelet absent or if present then barren, elodiculate and epaleate; upper floret of the staminate plant is lodiculate (lodicules giant, ca. 3.5 mm long) bearing four stamens with anthers 6.0– 10 mm long on an extremely filiform and extraordinarily elongated filaments ca. 15 mm long; upper floret of the pistillate plant is elodiculate with unusually long style ca. 14 mm long with two plumose stigma, purplish, 6.0–10 (–14) m long; peduncle in staminate plant glandular beset with tubercle-based trichomes; palea apex bi-dentate most often with a central arista; pedicelled spikelet (if present) half as long as the sessile spikelet, barren, reduced to a single glume; pedicel 1/2–4/5 of the sessile spikelet, slender, linear glabrous or ciliate on the margin. Description:—Male plant: Ephemeral, ca. 20 cm, geniculately ascending, non-caespitose, extremely delicate, weak and slender with numerous maroonish-red stilt-roots (roots very delicate and may easily break) from the nodes bearing micro papillae near the base. Leaf blade linear, acuminate, very thin membranous, hispid, 2.0–5.0 × 0.3– 0.5 cm, acute at the base with a long pseudopetiole (ca. 1.5 cm long), puberulous. Ligule ca. 3.0–4.0 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, membranous, lacerated at the apex into few segments, hairy on the margin or not. Sheath very slender, terete, striated, glabrous, margin sub-hyaline-membranous strongly overlapping, 1.0– 3.5 cm long, not keeled. Inflorescence a solitary spiciform-raceme fully exserted from the spathaceous sheath. Peduncle broad, somewhat swollen bearing tubercle-based bristles, elongated, with glandular depressions oozing a dense brownish viscous fluid. Spiciform-raceme ca. 28–42 mm long, solitary, comprising three well developed sessile spikelets with bare pedicels (on maturity deciduous together with the adjacent rhachis internode and pedicel) pedicelled spikelets are sometimes present but by a single, reduced glume. Sessile spikelet: linear-oblong, awnless, 9.0–12 (–13) mm long (including a callus); callus, ca. 1.2–2.2 mm long, densely bearded with white hairs (i.e. 6.0–9.0 mm long), reaching up to the middle of the sessile spikelet; lower glume: linear-oblong, 8.0–10 (–13) × 2.0–3.0 (3.5) mm, slightly longer than the upper glume, convex base wards and flattened upwards, initially herbaceous-membranous and later becoming somewhat coriaceous, scabrous, puberulous or glabrous, apex acute, 2–4-nerved (only 2 clearly visible other two obscure), nerves not anastomosing, margin evenly inflexed throughout the length, sharply keeled upwards, glabrous, no trace of nodulations and rugosity; upper glume: linear-lanceolate, 7.0–9.0 (–12) × 2.2–3.3 (–3.8) mm, 1–3-nerved, glabrous, acute, naviculate, keeled, slightly winged near the apex, ciliate, margins inflexed. Floret: lower floret is absent only upper floret is present, staminate: lemma linear-lanceolate, almost equal to upper glume in length but narrower, 3-nerved, glabrous, hyaline-membranous, acute, un-awned; palea linear long obspatulate, sub-equal to its lemma, broadest at the base, hyaline-membranous, 3-nerved, apex bi-dentate (often with a distinct arista from the sinus (excurrent mid-nerve), arista ca. 3.0– 4.5 mm long), glabrous. Pedicelled spikelet: Absent most of the times, if present then by a single 2-nerved reduced glume ca. 5.0 mm long. Pedicel linear, slender, 7.0– 10 mm long, ciliate on both the angles or completely glabrous. Rhachis internode sub-equal to the pedicel and almost identical in shape, ciliate on both the angles or completely glabrous, fragile and articulate. Stamens four, filaments slender, drooping, considerably elongated during anthesis reaching ca. 15 mm long; anthers 6.0– 10 mm long, orangish-yellow, exhibiting both lateral and apical dehiscence. Lodicules fleshy, sub-hyaline, clavate, sharply oblique at the apex, ca. 3.5 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets short almost reduced to a glume, barren or absent altogether. Female plant: An extremely slender, delicate, geniculately ascending, stilt-rooted, non-caespitose ephemeral grass, 10–14 cm high. Culm solitary, weak, un-branched, striated, up to 12-noded, hardly exceeding 0.6 mm diameter; the root system is extremely shallow; internodes as long as the sheath or slightly longer, terete; nodes swollen, glabrous, some lower and few upper ones with stilt roots up to about half the length of the plant. Sheaths 0.8–2.5 cm long, terete, glabrous or setaceous near the margin with bulbousbased trichomes (ca. 3.0 mm long), tightly en-clasping and disintegrating in the lower portion of the culm during anthesis, sheath near the inflorescence is quite broad, somewhat ribbed, slipping-off and slightly laterally compressed. Ligule membranous, ca. 1.0 mm long, slightly brownish, obtuse to somewhat truncate at the apex with appressed white hairs on the adaxial side. Blade: lower linear-lanceolate longer than the upper ones, 0.8–2.0 × 0.2–0.3 cm, the ones about the inflorescence are ovate-elliptic to slightly oblongish in outline, beset with bulbous-based trichomes (1.0– 1.5 mm long) on both the surfaces, margins uniseriately-pectinate. Inflorescence a highly reduced, solitary (with a triad of one sessile spikelet and two bare pedicels, sometimes with a single glume) or binate (each spiciform-raceme is reduced to only single sessile spikelet accompanied by a barren pedicel) spiciform-raceme, 5.0– 5.6 mm long, almost completely subtended by a spathaceous sheath; fragile on maturity and sessile spikelets deciduous together with the adjacent rhachis internode and pedicel. Peduncle very short, slender, clavate, glabrous, rarely more than 10 mm long, apex dilated and broad. Spikelets either sessile or in a combination of one sessile and other pedicelled (often reduced to a single, barren glume) in a raceme. Sessile spikelet: ovate-lanceolate, 5.0– 5.6 mm long (including a callus), strictly pistillate; callus 0.8–1.0 mm long, slightly oblique, broad, bearded with white hairs almost reaching the middle of the sessile spikelet; lower glume: ovate-lanceolate, 5.0–5.6 × 1.5–1.8 mm (un-opened, broadest near the base), slightly shorter than the upper glume, initially herbaceous-membranous and later becoming somewhat coriaceous, convex towards the base with two bosses and flattened upwards (sometimes with two shallow bosses in the middle and below), glabrous or hairy on the back, apex acute to somewhat bi-dentate with a short hyaline portion, 2–4-nerved (only two clearly visible others obscure), nerves not anastomosing, margins glabrous, broadly and evenly inflexed throughout the length, keels acute, no trace of nodulations and rugosity; upper glume: ovate-lanceolate, 5.1–5.7 × 1.5–1.8 mm (broadest at the base), navicular, keel herbaceous, 3-nerved, glabrous, sub-hylaine, apex acute, devoid of a hump in the middle, margin hyaline, glabrous and inflexed; lower floret: entirely absent (if present then barren and is only represented by an epaleate lemma which is ovate-lanceolate, 3.2 mm long (broadest near the base), barren, without lodicules, glabrous, hyaline-membranous, 1–3-nerved, apex obtuse or slightly oblique); upper floret: strictly female/ pistillate, elodiculate: upper lemma linear-lanceolate, 4.0–5.4 × 0.8–1.0 mm, sub-equal to lower glume, paleate, bi-fid (lobes acuminate, 1.8–2.5 mm long), glabrous, awn geniculate issuing from the sinus, 12.5 mm long (column brown 5.0 mm long and bristle pale, scabrid, 7.5 mm long), slightly humped in the middle on the dorsal side; upper palea: very linear, almost obspatulate with a broad base (enclosing an ovary) and linear upper portion, 3.0–4.0 × 0.3–0.4 mm (broadest at the base), very delicate, hyaline-membranous, margin inflexed, broader at the base, glabrous, apex bidentate (often shortly mucronate from the sinus (excurrent mid-nerve), mucro ca. 1.0–2.0 mm long), finely 3-nerved; pistil: ovary ovoid, 1.0 mm long, style ca. 14 mm long (when young, highly coiled inside the spikelet), two stigma plumose, purplish, 6.0–10 (–14) mm long; lodicules absent; caryopsis not seen. Pedicelled spikelet: represented only by a bare pedicel, which is extremely narrow, not swollen, linear, 3.2–4.0 × 0.2–0.3 mm, unusually long, flattened, excavated throughout on the inner angle, confluent into the callus, hairy along the margins or completely glabrous, apex densely bearded or with a calloid outgrowth, mostly devoid of pedicelled spikelet sometimes with a single lower glume (un-identical to the lower glume of sessile spikelet, linear-elliptic 3.2 mm long, 2–4-nerved (only two are clearly visible), sub-hyaline, herbaceous, convex on the back and apex bi-dentate). Distribution:—Hitherto, based on our surveys, the species has been observed only in a couple of localities i.e. near Patanus village and Rawalje village, Raigad District, Maharashtra (Western Ghats), India. Ischaemum dioecum is apparently an extremely rare and narrow endemic species in the genus. Flowering and fruiting:—August to mid September (life cycle of individuals hardly exceeding 20 days). Additional specimen examined:— INDIA. Maharashtra state: Raigad district, near Rawalje village, 24 August 2021, 18°26’36.9”N 73°21’29.0”E, Shahid Nawaz RR-05 (BLAT) [staminate plant specimen, spikelets were removed for the study]. Habitats and ecology:—In complex network of dense roots mingled with seasonally wet thin film of soil at the base of other taller grass species such as: Ischaemum diplopogon Hooker (1896: 129), Heteropogon ritchiei & Dimeria blatteri Bor (1949: 70), on the flank of the river associated with rocky outcrops and on the slope of basalt rocks. The microhabitats are protected from the direct sunlight, wind and precipitation; thus are special with their own specific environmental conditions that include moisture, temperature and light. These factors are regulated by the presence of benefactor species (three mentioned above) from directly influencing I. dioecum therefore contributing positively in survival of this species. In the late October, when monsoon subsides, the resultant heat generated by the basalt rocks, on prolonged exposure to sunlight is immense; eradicating all the annual and transient vegetation cover. In such challenging habitats, plants that are acclimatized rapidly complete their life cycle by bearing seeds. In which I. dioecum has the shortest life cycle, hardly exceeding 20 days! Associated species:— Arundinella pumila Steudel (1854: 114), Heteropogon ritchiei, Ischaemum diplopogon, Dimeria blatteri, Ischaemum barbatum Retzius (1791: 35), I. semisagittatum Roxburgh (1832: 320), Ischaemum sp., Geissaspis sp. Etymology:—The epithet alludes to a dioecious breeding system of the species, where male and female plants are sexually separate individuals. Population and threat:—In the first locality the habitats are encroached and disturbed by tourists visiting Devkund waterfall during monsoon when the individuals are in flowering. The first author has also observed that the shallow shores of the river attract many villagers especially women for washing clothes. However, the second locality is far from the reach, at least for villagers and their livestock. The basalt slopes make the domestic quadrupeds unable to climb and disturb the thin population of Ischaemum dioecum. These basalt habitats, during monsoon, are extremely slippery and difficult to climb upon. At least because of this, there the population of this extremely rare grass is, perhaps, on a small magnitude, protected. However, in this habitats Celosia sp. is very troublesome and exhibits a great possession. It may threat the existence of this species in future. IUCN status:—Based on our field observations, it can be asserted that the population is severely fragmented and confined over the two localities (Figs. 3 & 4) few kilometers apart from each other. The type locality exhibits tourist encroachment and disturbance. The total number of individuals in both the subpopulations is less than 25 in which female plants are relatively higher in numbers as compared to the male counterparts. The observed data suggests 7 male individuals over 18 female individuals. Hitherto, based on the limited surveys, data is not available to discuss declination thus those categories and criteria cannot be assessed. We have not seen Ischaemum dioecum in any other locality except the two given though surveyed the region more or less for almost a month during monsoon. Based on this it is perhaps not too quick to assess the plant as Critically Endangered (CR) under B1 (Extent of occurrence <100 km 2), D (mature individuals <50) of IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (2019). Notes:—Since, the species is extremely delicate, slender, weak and non-tufted, it demands an additional support from the stilt-roots, that are present up to almost half of the plant height assisting it to stand upright without falling. In some specimens stilt-roots are present till the last node i.e. below the inflorescence, and may measure up to 12 cm high. The staminate and pistillate plants differed quite sufficiently in appearance of the inflorescence that one might easily mistake them for members of different species! The most striking contrast between the two is that the formers are essentially awnless, whilst those of the pistillate plants bear conspicuous awns (Figs. 1 & 2). The features that are common in both plants are such as: solitary habit with stilt-roots; leaves thin-membranous, hispid, long, petioled and acute at the base; ligule membranous; few spikelets up to three or less than three in the spiciform-raceme; 2–4-nerved lower glumes of the sessile spikelets; lower floret absent; upper palea bi-dentate at the apex with an arista from the sinus and pedicelled spikelets absent or reduced to a single glume i.e. half the length of the sessile spikelets. Females in comparison to males are, at least somewhat, easier to search in the field and tend to exist in a relatively higher numbers. Whilst, the male plants are very few and extremely rare in occurrence and challenging to trace; so far, we, during our surveys, found only few male plants in which only two were collected for further study. As compared to the female plants, males are slightly taller, more delicate, bearing thinner leaves and higher number of stilt-roots.Published as part of Landge, Shahid Nawaz & Shinde, Rajendra D., 2022, Ischaemum dioecum (Poaceae: Andropogoneae): the most strangest new species from Northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India, pp. 237-255 in Phytotaxa 533 (5) on pages 239-242, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.533.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/614492
Business model design roadmap using CANVAS and C-SOFT framework elements, synchronised with start-up growth phases
No full textThe establishment of a start-up firm consists of a chain of activities; technical research, opportunity identification, resource acquisition to name a few. The business model (BM) for a start-up firm is also being developed (intrinsically or explicitly) along with these activities. This development of BM is gradual and continuous. Eventually when entrepreneurs claim to have defined the BM for their start-up, most of the time they have just identified the BM that is being intrinsically designed since the technology research stage. Entrepreneurs draft a business plan to authenticate the economic value of the technology at hand. This business plan represents a simple value creating and money earning logic. This logic is the first basic design of the start-up’s BM. Even though an initial draft of a BM is in place, actual maturity of each BM element happens in segments. This thesis tries to track the design of a BM in terms of BM elements, which form the start-up’s first efficient BM. To ensure a balanced growth, entrepreneurs should consider the designing of the BM synchronised with start-up development. Scholars have proposed many models for start-up growth, which don’t specifically focus on all BM elements but on overall start-up growth. A roadmap of BM elements using CANVAS and C-SOFT frameworks, in sync with start-up growth is the deliverable of this thesis. This roadmap will assist entrepreneurs to identify which BM elements to develop during specific phases of start-up growth. This guidance is more valuable to an upcoming industry with a great potential for small scale service providing start-ups. Geographical Information System (GIS) service providing industry is embarking on such an opportunity with the rise of open sourced GIS platforms for integrating urban planning services to manage the rising trend of smart cities. Additionally, academia will acquire a new perspective in the upcoming field of BM roadmapping for designing business models from scratch for ICT start-ups in GIS industry.Management of TechnologyTechnology, Policy and ManagementTechnology, Policy and Managemen
Implication of Business Strategy in Indian Automobile Industry: A Case of Tata Motors
No full textPurpose: Strategic Analysis is a process of business organization which involves studying the business environment and its operations. For the effective decision making and smooth functioning of business organization, the strategic planning is an essential tool. An Indian multinational automobile manufacturing firm founded in 1945 by the Tata group under the name TELCO (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company). Indian automaker Tata Motors is the biggest in the world. Since Tata Motors was founded, the company has been engaged in many charitable endeavours, including philanthropy. Strategic planning took a major role in the growth and profitability perspectives of this company. Tata Motors' acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover is a unique example of a corporation making a strategic decision based on its internal strengths and external opportunities in order to succeed in a competitive market. Tata Motors sought to broaden the scope of its offering and the geographic scope of its market. A steady rise in the number of mergers in the Indian business has been observed over the past decade. Recently completed mergers and acquisitions are a good indicator of an industry's level of competitiveness, potentials, and capabilities. This research is undertaken to examine the firm's potential and capabilities by comparing its performance before and after mergers and acquisition.
Design/Methodology/Approach: When a company expanding its operations in the global level, some factors such as Economic, technological, customer-segment and international competitions will take a major role. The author of this paper has studied the growth of TATA Motors, both domestically and globally, in this study. For the purpose of the study secondary data is collected through various sources such as journals, research articles, newspaper articles and websites of Tata Motors and other ventures.
Findings/Result: The study highlights the critics of Tata Motors' acquisition desire factor out that the timing of the deal is affecting the worldwide economy. The call for business and passenger motors declined because of a slowdown with inside the home and international economy. The newly introduced Tata Nexon could be a game changer for the electric car market in the country due to India's large population and rising standard of living. Due to lack of innovation and major competitors in the market Tata Motors needs to be more innovative in its approach.
Originality/Value: This paper studies the effectiveness of mergers and acquisitions in terms of change in company’s potentiality and capabilities.
Paper Type: Research Case study based on Company Strategic Analysis
Synthesis of highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes and their excellent catalytic performance for oxidation of benzyl alcohol
No full textNarrow sized and highly homogeneous dispersed Pd nanoparticles have been synthesized on nitric acid-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) without a capping agent. The TEM images show that the extremely small Pd nanoparticles with an average size of about 1.5 nm were homogeneously dispersed on the surface of the CNTs. The characterization results indicate that the pretreatment with nitric acid not only improved the dispersion of Pd, but also enhanced the strong interaction between the Pd nanoparticles and the CNTs, thereby preventing their agglomeration and leaching in the liquid phase. On pretreatment with HNO3, it is possible to generate more acidic groups on the surface of CNTs without a significant change in textural properties. The catalytic performance of the aforementioned material was investigated for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol. Pd/CNTs exhibits high activity (~98% conversion) and selectivity (~90%) to benzaldehyde with excellent reusability. The high activity of the catalyst was attributed to the small size, high dispersion of Pd nanoparticles and higher accessibility of reactants. A careful analysis of the kinetic data suggests that there are different sites for the disproportionation and oxidation reactions. The excellent reusability of Pd/CNT catalysts makes this material a promising candidate for selective benzyl oxidation. Further, the results of the present study show that it is possible to synthesize uniformly dispersed Pd nanoparticles on various carbon supports without a capping agent.Chemical EngineeringApplied Science
Transplantation of healthcare financing policy from the United Kingdom to India
No full textThe staggering statistics in health conditions of India demand quick actions, and thus it is advised to come up with a solution which takes less time as compared to a complete design of a new system. This paper starts with background study of UK, Netherlands and Indian health care financing models, followed by an analysis ofeasibility of transplantation of financing policies from the UK to India. It is proved from literature survey that UK and Netherlands has one of the best financing models. Though Netherlands' model is also considered; but due toeconomic incompatibility of model in India, and UK's similar legislation background with India, UK's health care system is chosen to be analyzed further as a donor country in this case. A thorough study through Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, 2010),family of nations, and actors pulling-in and goodness of fit perspectives study end with strategies of implementation to provide some recommendations for successful transplantation. The results of transplantation can be interpreted as "great example" (Rose, 1993) if the strategies of implementation are clearly kept in mind.Technology, Policy and Managemen
Volunteers in the Smart City: Comparison of Contribution Strategies on Human-Centered Measures
No full textProvision of smart city services often relies on users contribution, e.g., of data, which can be costly for the users in terms of privacy. Privacy risks, as well as unfair distribution of benefits to the users, should be minimized as they undermine user participation, which is crucial for the success of smart city applications. This paper investigates privacy, fairness, and social welfare in smart city applications by means of computer simulations grounded on real-world data, i.e., smart meter readings and participatory sensing. We generalize the use of public good theory as a model for resource management in smart city applications, by proposing a design principle that is applicable across application scenarios, where provision of a service depends on user contributions. We verify its applicability by showing its implementation in two scenarios: smart grid and traffic congestion information system. Following this design principle, we evaluate different classes of algorithms for resource management, with respect to human-centered measures, i.e., privacy, fairness and social welfare, and identify algorithm-specific trade-offs that are scenario independent. These results could be of interest to smart city application designers to choose a suitable algorithm given a scenario-specific set of requirements, and to users to choose a service based on an algorithm that matches their privacy preferences.Interactive Intelligenc
TRAFFIC CONGESTION DETECTION WITH COMPLEX EVENT PROCESSING IN VANET
No full textMagnitude of urban population and unplanned development of cities have led to road traffic congestion in major cities and added increasing pressure on overall road transport and road related infrastructure. Nowadays, intelligent transportation systems such as Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) are used for distributed road traffic. VANET is a wireless network that gathers complex and randomly generated data related to distributed traffic along with other information such as weather con ditions on real time basis. In this paper, the Author has attempted to implement a system on Event Driven Architecture (EDA) to detect complex but similar levels of traffic congestion which resembles real life traffic situation. The system is designed with the help of a technique called Complex Event Processing (CEP) that treats all messages in the network from corresponding vehicles as an event. The effectiveness of this system can be observed by using different performance metrics
Preparation, characterization and catalytic application of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles in the synthesis of benzimidazoles
No full textTaco Tensor Algebra kernels on distributed systems using Legion
No full textThis electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-91).Tensor algebra is a powerful language for expressing computation on multidimensional data. While many tensor datasets are sparse, most tensor algebra libraries have limited support for handling sparsity. The Tensor Algebra Compiler (Taco) has introduced a taxonomy for sparse tensor formats that has allowed them to compile sparse tensor algebra expressions to performant C code, but they have not taken advantage of distributed systems. This work provides a code generation technique for creating Legion programs that distribute the computation of Taco tensor algebra kernels across distributed systems, and a scheduling language for controlling how this distributed computation is structured. This technique is implemented in the form of a command-line tool called SuperTaco. We perform a strong scaling analysis for the SpMV and TTM kernels under a row blocking distribution schedule, and find speedups of 9-10x when using 20 cores on a single node. For multi-node systems using 20 cores per node, SpMV achieves a 33.3x speedup at 160 cores and TTM achieves a 42.0x speedup at 140 cores.by Sachin Dilip Shinde.M. Eng.M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc
The Effectiveness of Different Revision Approaches in Science on Achievement and Retention of Learners Having Different Learning Styles
No full textNot availabl
