The recent emergence of pink bollworm (PBW), Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) has posed serious ecological and economic implications for cotton production in India since 2017. The project ...“Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM): Dissemination of pink bollworm management strategies in Bt-cotton” was implemented consecutively for four years from 2018 -19, 2019–20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 in 21 districts across three cotton growing zones of the country. In each year, field demonstrations were conducted on 1050 acres of cotton area and mass awareness was created through outreach activities. With concerted and focused efforts, the PBW infestations could be brought down by 42.75% in 2018–19, 43.49% in 2019–20, 35.55% in 2020-21 and 33.77% in 2021-22 in the demonstration plots over the farmer practices. An increased benefit: cost ratios of 2.16:1, 2:1, 1.89:1 and 2.24:1 were realized during 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020-21 and 2021–22, respectively. Similarly, the average number of sprays for the control of cotton pests during the season was reduced to 5.02, 4.94, 5.19 and 5.18 in integrated pest management (IPM) fields as compared to 6.98, 7.66, 8.07 and 8.20 in non-integrated pest management (NIPM) fields in the corresponding years. Reduction in pesticide usage in IPM vs NIPM fields was 46.39% in terms of cost, and 38.96% in terms of volume during 2019-20 while concurrent percent reduction in pesticide usage was 41.03 & 39.33 during 2020-21 and 40.70 & 39.38 in 2021–22. Comparatively more seed cotton was harvested from IPM than NIPM fields i.e. 2190 vs 1820 kg/ha in 2018–19, 2049 vs 1715 kg/ha in 2019–20, 1881 vs 1585 kg/ha in 2020-21 and 1901 vs 1607 kg/ha in 2021–22. Significant success in reducing PBW infestation, pesticide usage and corresponding improvement in yield, economic benefits and environmental quality in terms of reduced EIQFUR has been achieved through IPM demonstrations. This area-wide success was achieved through collective efforts and active involvement of all concerned stakeholders.
Display omitted
•Pink bollworm has emerged as serious threat to Indian cotton production.•Areawide IPM strategies disseminated & mass awareness created through outreach.•Significant reduction in pest infestation and pesticide usage was achieved.•Realization of economic benefits to cotton growers was demonstrated.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The modern power system advances to an inverter dominant system from the synchronous machine-based system due to the penetration of Renewable energy sources. When these inverter dominant systems are ...integrated with the grid, they can lead to frequency instability. Hence the inverter with the virtual inertia control algorithms has been implemented so that it appears like the synchronous generator to the grid. Also the islanding mode for the stand-alone operation or when the main grid fails due to disturbance is an important case that should be considered in a micro-grid. This paper presents one such virtual synchronous machine (VSM) the scheme in both grid-connected mode and intentional islanding mode of operation and are verified. The mathematical modeling is done to verify theoretical performance of the techniques and simulations are carried out in MATLAB Simulink environment.
The nationwide lockdown was imposed over India from 25 March to 31 May 2020 with varied relaxations from phase I to phase IV to contain the spread
of COVID-19. Thus, emissions from industrial and ...transport sectors were halted during lockdown (LD), which has resulted in a significant reduction of
anthropogenic pollutants. The first two lockdown phases were strictly implemented (phase I and phase II) and hence were considered to be total lockdown
(TLD) in this study. Satellite-based tropospheric columnar nitrogen dioxide (TCN) from the years 2015 to 2020, tropospheric columnar carbon monoxide
(TCC) during 2019/20, and aerosol optical depth (AOD550) from the years 2014 to 2020 during phase I and phase II LD and pre-LD periods
were investigated with observations from Aura OMI, Sentinel-5P TROPOMI, and Aqua and Terra MODIS. To quantify lockdown-induced changes in TCN, TCC, and
AOD550, detailed statistical analysis was performed on de-trended data using the Student paired statistical t test. Results indicate
that mean TCN levels over India showed a dip of 18 % compared to the previous year and also against the 5-year mean TCN levels during the
phase I lockdown, which was found to be statistically significant (p value < 0.05) against the respective period. Furthermore, drastic changes in
TCN levels were observed over hotspots, namely eastern region and urban cities. For example, there was a sharp decrease of 62 % and 54 % in
TCN levels compared to 2019 and against 5-year mean TCN levels over New Delhi with a p value of 0.0002 (which is statistically significant)
during total LD. The TCC levels were high in the northeast (NE) region during the phase I LD period, which is mainly attributed to the active fire
counts in this region. However, lower TCC levels are observed in the same region due to the diminished fire counts during phase II. Further,
AOD550 is reduced over the country by ∼ 16 % (Aqua and Terra) from the 6-year (2014–2019) mean AOD550 levels, with
a significant reduction (Aqua MODIS 28 %) observed over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region with a p value of ≪ 0.05. However, an
increase in AOD550 levels (25 % for Terra MODIS, 15 % for Aqua MODIS) was also observed over central India during LD compared to
the preceding year and found significant with a p value of 0.03. This study also reports the rate of change of TCN levels and AOD550
along with statistical metrics during the LD period.
One hundred and eighteen primary and secondary metabolites from C. wightii were identified. The results of the present study suggest that specific plant parts can be used to obtain substantial ...amounts of bioactive ingredients for use as potential pharmacological, nutraceuticals, insecticidal and allelochemical properties. Display omitted
•1H NMR and GC–MS based untargeted metabolic profiling of Commiphora wightii.•Quinic acid was found as the major metabolite for the first time in C. wightii.•C. wightii produced higher amount of myo-inositol has thus far not been reported.•Endophytic fungus Nigrospora sp. isolated from C. wightii stem.•C. wightii is a new source of bostrycin and deoxybostrycin.
Guggul gum resin from Commiphora wightii (syn. Commiphoramukul) has been used for centuries in Ayurveda to treat a variety of ailments. The NMR and GC–MS based non-targeted metabolite profiling identified 118 chemically diverse metabolites including amino acids, fatty acids, organic acids, phenolic acids, pregnane-derivatives, steroids, sterols, sugars, sugar alcohol, terpenoids, and tocopherol from aqueous and non-aqueous extracts of leaves, stem, roots, latex and fruits of C. wightii. Out of 118, 51 structurally diverse aqueous metabolites were characterized by NMR spectroscopy. For the first time quinic acid and myo-inositol were identified as the major metabolites in C. wightii. Very high concentration of quinic acid was found in fruits (553.5±39.38mgg−1 dry wt.) and leaves (212.9±10.37mgg−1 dry wt.). Similarly, high concentration of myo-inositol (168.8±13.84mgg−1 dry wt.) was observed from fruits. The other metabolites of cosmeceutical, medicinal, nutraceutical and industrial significance such as α-tocopherol, n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), trans-farnesol, prostaglandin F2, protocatechuic, gallic and cinnamic acids were identified from non-aqueous extracts using GC–MS. These important metabolites have thus far not been reported from this plant. Isolation of a fungal endophyte, (Nigrospora sps.) from this plant is the first report. The fungal endophyte produced a substantial quantity of bostrycin and deoxybostrycin known for their antitumor properties. Very high concentrations of quinic acid and myo-inositol in leaves and fruits; a substantial quantity of α-tocopherol and NMP in leaves, trans-farnesol in fruits, bostrycin and deoxybostrycin from its endophyte makes the taxa distinct, since these metabolites with medicinal properties find immense applications as dietary supplements and nutraceuticals.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPUK
► GD-QMS studies of high temperature oxide film formed on Alloy 690. ► Defect density reduced with increase in temperature. ► Electrochemical behaviour of oxide film correlated to the Cr-content in ...oxide.
High temperature passivation studies on Alloy 690 were carried out in lithiated water at 250
°C, 275
°C and 300
°C for 72
h. The passive films were characterized by glow discharge-quadrupole mass spectroscopy (GD-QMS) for compositional variation across the depth and micro laser Raman spectroscopy for oxide composition on the surface. The defect density in the oxide films was established from the Mott–Schottky analysis using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Electrochemical experiments at room temperature in chloride medium revealed best passivity behaviour by the oxide film formed at 300
°C for 72
h. The electrochemical studies were correlated to the chromium (and oxygen) content of the oxide films. Autoclaving at 300
°C resulted in the best passive film formation on Alloy 690 in lithiated water.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPUK
Background & objectives: India has been reporting the cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since January 30, 2020. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) formulated and established ...laboratory surveillance for COVID-19. In this study, an analysis of the surveillance data was done to describe the testing performance and descriptive epidemiology of COVID-19 cases by time, place and person.
Methods: The data were extracted from January 22 to April 30, 2020. The frequencies of testing performance were described over time and by place. We described cases by time (epidemic curve by date of specimen collection; seven-day moving average), place (area map) and person (attack rate by age, sex and contact status), and trends were represented along with public health measures and events.
Results: Between January 22 and April 30, 2020, a total of 1,021,518 individuals were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Testing increased from about 250 individuals per day in the beginning of March to 50,000 specimens per day by the end of April 2020. Overall, 40,184 (3.9%) tests were reported positive. The proportion of positive cases was highest among symptomatic and asymptomatic contacts, 2-3-fold higher than among those with severe acute respiratory infection, or those with an international travel history or healthcare workers. The attack rate (per million) by age was highest among those aged 50-69 yr (63.3) and was lowest among those under 10 yr (6.1). The attack rate was higher among males (41.6) than females (24.3). The secondary attack rate was 6.0 per cent. Overall, 99.0 per cent of 736 districts reported testing and 71.1 per cent reported COVID-19 cases.
Interpretation & conclusions: The coverage and frequency of ICMR's laboratory surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 improved over time. COVID-19 was reported from most parts of India, and the attack rate was more among men and the elderly and common among close contacts. Analysis of the data indicates that for further insight, additional surveillance tools and strategies at the national and sub-national levels are needed.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Drought is a frequently occurring disaster affecting lives of millions of people across the world every year. Several parameters, indices and models are being used globally to forecast / early ...warning of drought and monitoring drought for its prevalence, persistence and severity. Since drought is a complex phenomenon, large number of parameter/index need to be evaluated to sufficiently address the problem. It is a challenge to generate input parameters from different sources like space based data, ground data and collateral data in short intervals of time, where there may be limitation in terms of processing power, availability of domain expertise, specialized models & tools. In this study, effort has been made to automate the derivation of one of the important parameter in the drought studies viz Soil Moisture. Soil water balance bucket model is in vogue to arrive at soil moisture products, which is widely popular for its sensitivity to soil conditions and rainfall parameters. This model has been encoded into "Fish-Bone" architecture using COM technologies and Open Source libraries for best possible automation to fulfill the needs for a standard procedure of preparing input parameters and processing routines. The main aim of the system is to provide operational environment for generation of soil moisture products by facilitating users to concentrate on further enhancements and implementation of these parameters in related areas of research, without re-discovering the established models. Emphasis of the architecture is mainly based on available open source libraries for GIS and Raster IO operations for different file formats to ensure that the products can be widely distributed without the burden of any commercial dependencies. Further the system is automated to the extent of user free operations if required with inbuilt chain processing for every day generation of products at specified intervals. Operational software has inbuilt capabilities to automatically download requisite input parameters like rainfall, Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) from respective servers. It can import file formats like .grd, .hdf, .img, generic binary etc, perform geometric correction and re-project the files to native projection system. The software takes into account the weather, crop and soil parameters to run the designed soil water balance model. The software also has additional features like time compositing of outputs to generate weekly, fortnightly profiles for further analysis. Other tools to generate "Area Favorable for Crop Sowing" using the daily soil moisture with highly customizable parameters interface has been provided. A whole India analysis would now take a mere 20 seconds for generation of soil moisture products which would normally take one hour per day using commercial software.
The evolution of viral variants and their impact on viral transmission have been an area of considerable importance in this pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ...We analyzed the viral variants in different phases of the pandemic in West Bengal, a state in India that is important geographically, and compared the variants with other states like Delhi, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, located in other regions of the country. We have identified 57 pango-lineages in 3,198 SARS-CoV-2 genomes, alteration in their distribution, as well as contrasting profiles of amino acid mutational dynamics across different waves in different states. The evolving characteristics of Delta (B.1.617.2) sublineages and alterations in hydrophobicity profiles of the viral proteins caused by these mutations were also studied. Additionally, implications of predictive host miRNA binding/unbinding to emerging spike or nucleocapsid mutations were highlighted. Our results throw considerable light on interesting aspects of the viral genomic variation and provide valuable information for improved understanding of wave-defining mutations in unfolding the pandemic. IMPORTANCE Multiple waves of infection were observed in many states in India during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic. Fine-scale evolution of major SARS-CoV-2 lineages and sublineages during four wave-window categories: Pre-Wave 1, Wave 1, Pre-Wave 2, and Wave 2 in four major states of India: Delhi (North), Maharashtra (West), Karnataka (South), and West Bengal (East) was studied using large-scale virus genome sequencing data. Our comprehensive analysis reveals contrasting molecular profiles of the wave-defining mutations and their implications in host miRNA binding/unbinding of the lineages in the major states of India.
•Mucormycosis is a rare but a life threatening fungal infection.•India has been facing a public health challenge from COVID-19 related mucormycosis.•Artificial intelligence based models show ...potential to predict high risk patients.•Early detection can aid better management of COVID-19 related mucormycosis.
India reported a severe public health challenge not only due to the COVID-19 outbreak but also the increasing number of associated mucormycosis cases since 2021.This study aimed at developing artificial intelligence based models to predict the risk of mucormycosis among the patients at the time of discharge from hospital.
The dataset included of 1229 COVID-19 positive patients, and additional 214 inpatients, COVID-19 positive as well as infected with mucormycosis. We used logistic regression, decision tree and random forest and the extreme gradient boosting algorithm. All our models were evaluated with 5-fold validation to derive a reliable estimate of the model error.
The logistic regression, XGBoost and random forest performed equally well with AUROC 95.0, 94.0, and 94.0 respectively. The best accuracy and precision (PPV) were 0.91 ± 0.026 and 0.67 ± 0.0526, respectively achieved by XGBoost, followed by logistic regression. This study also determined top five variables namely obesity, anosmia, de novo diabetes, myalgia, and nasal discharge, which showed positive impact towards the risk of mucormycosis.
The developed model has the potential to predict the patients at high risk and thus, consequently initiating preventive care or aiding in early detection of mucormycosis infection. Thus, this study, holds potential for early treatment and better management of patients suffering from COVID-19 associated mucormycosis.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
