An attempt was made to study the efficient use of rice straw and indigenous source of phosphorus and potassium in crop production through composting technology. Various enriched composts were ...prepared using rice straw, rock phosphate (RP), waste mica and bioinoculant (
Aspergillus awamori) and kinetics of release of phosphorus and potassium from enriched composts and their effect on yield and nutrient uptake by wheat (
Triticum aestivum) were carried out. Results showed sharp increases in release in water-soluble P and K from all the composts at 8th to 12th day of leaching, thereafter, it decreased gradually. Maximum release of water-soluble P and K were obtained in ordinary compost than enriched composts during the initial stages of leaching, but their differences narrowed down at latter stages. Data in pot experiments revealed that enriched composts performed poorly than diammonium phosphate during initial stages of crop growth, but they out yielded at the latter stages, particularly at maturity stage, as evident from their higher yield, uptake, nutrient recoveries and fertility status of P and K in soils. Moreover, enriched composts prepared with RP and waste mica along with
A. awamori resulted in significantly higher biomass yield, uptake and recoveries of P and K as well as available P and K in soils than composts prepared without inoculant. Results indicated that enriched compost could be an alternate technology for the efficient management of rice straw, low-grade RP and waste mica in crop production, which could help to reduce the reliance on costly chemical fertilizers.
The main aim of this research was to study the dynamics of K release from waste mica inoculated with potassium solubilizing microorganism (Bacillus mucilaginosus) and to investigate its effectiveness ...as potassic-fertilizer using sudan grass (Sorghum vulgare Pers.) var Sudanensis as test crop grown under two Alfisols. Results revealed that application of mica significantly enhanced biomass yield, uptake and per cent K recoveries by sudan grass than control (no-K). Biomass yield, uptake and per cent K recoveries increased further when mica was inoculated with bacterial strain in both the soils than uninoculated mica. Alfisol from Hazaribag recorded higher yield, uptake and K recoveries than Alfisol from Bhubaneswar. The dynamics of K in soils indicated that K was released from mica to water-soluble and exchangeable pools of K due to inoculation of mica with Bacillus mucilaginosus in both the soils. Significantly greater amounts of water-soluble, exchangeable and non-exchangeable K were maintained in Alfisol from Hazaribag than Bhubaneswar. Release kinetics of K showed significant release of K from mica treated with bacterial strain. Significant correlation between biomass yield, K uptake by sudan grass and different pools of K in soils were observed. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates greater dissolution of mica due to inoculation of Bacillus mucilaginosus strain in both the soils. Thus, bio-intervention of waste mica could be an alternative and viable technology to solubilize insoluble K into plant available pool and used efficiently as a source of K-fertilizer for sustaining crop production and maintaining soil potassium.
•Assessed maturity indices of rock phosphate enriched composts with variable C/N.•Distinct variations in NH4+-N, NO3−-N, Olsen-P and NH4OAc-K were found in composts.•Enriched compost prepared with ...rice straw found well-matured and stabilized compost.•Enriched composts could be used to supplement costly fertilizer for crop production.
This study aimed to asses maturity indices of rock phosphate enriched composts using crop residues having variable C/N ratios. There were distinct differences in concentration of NH4+-N, NO3−-N, Olsen-P and NH4OAc-K for composts generated from different crop residues, the highest being in rice straw. Water soluble P varied from 3.47–4.45% of total P, while citrate soluble P varied from 32.7–54.0% of total P. Rice straw composts showed lower C/N, WSC/Org-N and E4/E6 ratio and higher germination index indicating that they are well-matured and stabilized compost. The relative order of performance of crop residues in aggrading compost quality was chickpea stover>rice straw>mustard stover>wheat straw>tree leaves. The results demonstrated that all the enriched composts had higher contents of available nutrients and quality indices, indicating that enriched composts could be used to substitute costly chemical fertilizers for crop production.
We report here a robust automated active site detection, docking, and scoring (AADS) protocol for proteins with known structures. The active site finder identifies all cavities in a protein and ...scores them based on the physicochemical properties of functional groups lining the cavities in the protein. The accuracy realized on 620 proteins with sizes ranging from 100 to 600 amino acids with known drug active sites is 100% when the top ten cavity points are considered. These top ten cavity points identified are then submitted for an automated docking of an input ligand/candidate molecule. The docking protocol uses an all atom energy based Monte Carlo method. Eight low energy docked structures corresponding to different locations and orientations of the candidate molecule are stored at each cavity point giving 80 docked structures overall which are then ranked using an effective free energy function and top five structures are selected. The predicted structure and energetics of the complexes agree quite well with experiment when tested on a data set of 170 protein–ligand complexes with known structures and binding affinities. The AADS methodology is implemented on an 80 processor cluster and presented as a freely accessible, easy to use tool at http://www.scfbio-iitd.res.in/dock/ActiveSite_new.jsp.
In situ moisture conservation practices can conserve fertile topsoil and enhance available water in soil profile. We hypothesised that reclaiming degraded land ecologically through ...tree + pasture + in situ moisture conservation practices would significantly improve soil organic carbon (SOC) and health. Hence, the objectives were a) to identify changes in nutrient cycling enzymes and SOC status due to different in situ soil moisture conservation options in surface and subsurface soil layers, and b) to test the potentiality of soil enzymes to determine long-term nutrient availability. We conducted a long-term experiment involving aonla (Emblica officinalis) trees + pasture (Cenchrus ciliaris + Stylosanthes seabrana) + in situ soil moisture conservation measures viz. staggered contour trenches (T1), continuous contour trenches (T2), stone mulch (T3), vegetative barriers (T4), control (T5) and fallow land (T6) since 2007. Recommended dose of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) were added to all treatments, except T6. SOC concentration increased by ~51 and 31% in T1 and T2, respectively, over T5 in surface (0–15 cm) soil. Culturable bacterial and fungal populations increased by ~20 and 95% in T1 over T5 in surface soil. Activities of all soil enzymes increased in T1 and T2 (ranging from 42 to 289%) over T5 and T6 in both surface and sub-surface (15–30 cm) layers. However, specific activity of phenol oxidase was ~25% lower for T1 than T6, suggesting more efficient SOC sequestration in T1. Moreover, geometric mean enzyme activity of T1 was ~65 and 33% higher than T5 and T3, respectively, in surface soil. Treated soil quality index (T-SQI) of T1 was ~184% higher than T5. Soil functional diversity was also ~1.24 and 1.22 times higher in T1 and T2 than T5, respectively. Peroxidase was the major C degrading enzyme in this ecosystem. Protease, urease and phosphatase significantly influenced N and P availability along with fruit and pasture yields. Importantly, ~96, 62 and 82% variability of SOC, N and P concentrations, respectively, could be attributed to their corresponding enzyme activities. Principal components analysis (PCA) revealed one-way operational role of soil enzymes. Thus, enzymes are potentially important for recycling nutrients from litters, root biomass of fruit trees and grasses to boost their availability in the long run. Adoption of horti-pasture system combined with moisture conservation practices and staggered contour trenches or continuous contour trenches ensured higher above ground biomass yield, SOC, nutrient availability and soil quality. Thus, long-term use of these practices could be recommended for reclamation and improving soil health and crop productivity of degraded lands of central India.
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•C, N, P and S cycling enzymes in reclaimed land under in situ moisture conservation.•Staggered contour trenching increased treated SQI value ~184% over control.•Staggered contour trenching boosted enzyme activities over control and fallow land.•Specific activity of phenol oxidase was ~25% lower for staggered contour trenching.•Soil functional diversity was enhanced by 1.2 times by staggered contour trenching.
In this study, rock phosphate enriched composts (RP-compost) were prepared by mixing four low-grade Indian rock phosphates with rice straw with and without
Aspergillus awamori. RP-compost had higher ...total P, citrate soluble P (CSP), organic P (Org.P), acid and alkaline phosphatase activities, and lower water soluble P (WSP) and microbial biomass C (MBC) than normal compost. Inoculation with
A. awamori increased total P, WSP, CSP, Org.P, MBC and acid phosphatase activity. RP-compost recorded lower Olsen P at the initial period of incubation study than diammonium phosphate (DAP), but improved significantly with the progress of time. RP-compost prepared at 4% charged rate resulted in higher Olsen P throughout the incubation period compared to 2% charged rate. Similar trend were obtained with those RP-composts prepared with
A. awamori. Data on pot experiment revealed higher yield and P uptake by mungbean (
Vigna radiata) due to addition of RP-composts over control. The effectiveness of RP-compost ranged from 61.4% (MussoorieRP-compost) to 94.1% (PuruliaRP-compost) as that of DAP on dry matter yield and 48.8% (JhabuaRP-compost) to 83.7% (PuruliaRP-compost) on total P uptake. Enriched compost prepared at 4% charged rate recorded 15.8% and 10.6% extra yield and P uptake, respectively by mungbean over 2% charged compost. Also RP-compost inoculated with
A. awamori resulted in 13.0 and 21.5% extra yield and P uptake than without
A. awamori treated group. Thus, RP enriched compost could be an alternative and viable technology to utilize both low-grade RPs and rice straw efficiently.
High grade rock phosphates (HGRP) are only used to prepare phosphorus (P) fertilizers. But the finite reserve of HGRP is pushing the agricultural sectors to use low grade rock phosphates (LGRP) for ...growing crops. In this study an attempt was made to treat LGRP with oxalic acid and use it as a supplement to P fertilizer for growing wheat in Inceptisol. Incubation study revealed that oxalic acid treated rock phosphate (RP) can significantly increase soil available P status as compared to inert untreated RP treatment. Pot study established that oxalic acid treated RP (@60 mg P
2
O
5
kg
−1
) under DAP
30
+ RP
60(OA)
treatment has supplemented 50% P fertilizer without affecting wheat yields and P uptake. DAP
30
+ RP
60(OA)
treatment also had maintained significantly higher Saloid-P, organic-P and statistically at par available P, dehydrogenase, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities as compared to chemical fertilizer treatment (DAP
60
). Thus it can be inferred that, application of oxalic acid treated LGRP (@ 60 mg P
2
O
5
kg
−1
) can supplement 50% of the P fertilizer demand to grow wheat in Inceptisol.
Abstract
As we approach the era of quantum advantage, when quantum computers (QCs) can outperform any classical computer on particular tasks, there remains the difficult challenge of how to validate ...their performance. While algorithmic success can be easily verified in some instances such as number factoring or oracular algorithms, these approaches only provide pass/fail information of executing specific tasks for a single QC. On the other hand, a comparison between different QCs preparing nominally the same arbitrary circuit provides an insight for generic validation: a quantum computation is only as valid as the agreement between the results produced on different QCs. Such an approach is also at the heart of evaluating metrological standards such as disparate atomic clocks. In this paper, we report a cross-platform QC comparison using randomized and correlated measurements that results in a wealth of information on the QC systems. We execute several quantum circuits on widely different physical QC platforms and analyze the cross-platform state fidelities.
A hydroponics study was carried out to evaluate the effect of three plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) namely, Bacillus mucilaginosus, Azotobacter chroococcum, and Rhizobium spp. on their ...ability to mobilize potassium from waste mica using maize and wheat as the test crops under a phytotron growth chamber. Results revealed that PGPR significantly improved the assimilation of potassium by both maize and wheat, where waste mica was the sole source of potassium. This was translated into higher biomass accumulation, potassium content and uptake by plants as well as chlorophyll and crude protein content in plant tissue. Among the rhizobacteria, Bacillus mucilaginosus resulted in significantly higher mobilization of potassium than Azotobacter chroococcum and Rhizobium inoculation. Overall, inoculation of maize and wheat plants with these bacteria could be used to mobilize potassium from waste mica, which in turn could be used as a source of potassium for plant growth.
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