The experiments were conducted on the lateritic sandy loam soils of Kharagpur, West Bengal, India during middle of September–January for 3 years (1997–2000) to evaluate the economic feasibility of ...growing cabbage crop under drip irrigation with mulches. Actual evapotranspiration for cabbage crop was estimated by using the modified Penman method and net daily irrigation requirement was estimated after subtracting effective rainfall. Estimated irrigation requirement was supplied by a 4
l
h
−1 emitter for four plants with the drip irrigation system being operated from 70 to 101
min per day during the crop season. The average seasonal water requirement of crop was estimated to be 400
mm. The yields of the cabbage under 25
μm thick black plastic mulch (PM) were studied using three levels of drip irrigation which applied 100% (VD), 80% (0.8VD) and 60% (0.6VD) of the estimated irrigation requirement. The yield response under two organic mulches, rice husk with drip (VDH) and paddy straw with drip (VDS) were also studied. For comparison, furrow irrigated (VF) treatments were used and the study revealed 62.44% higher yield in case of drip (VD) as compared to furrow irrigation. Even higher yields were obtained for drip irrigation with PM (VD+PM), 111.72
t
ha
−1 as compared to 106.68
t
ha
−1 for (VD). The treatments VDH and VDS showed, respectively, 2.05 and 1.18% higher yield when compared with drip (VD) alone. The net seasonal income was estimated to be highest as US$ 4333 in case of treatment VD+PM. The highest benefit–cost ratio of 8.17 was obtained for furrow irrigation (VF) followed by 6.99 for drip (VD). The net profit per mm of water used was obtained to be highest (US$ 16.51) in case of drip irrigation (0.6VD) followed by US$ 16.32 under the treatment 0.6VD+PM. The highest yield per unit quantity of water used was 427.04
kg
ha
−1
mm
−1 for the treatment 0.6VD+PM. The study reveals that drip irrigation has a definite role in increasing the productivity of cabbage.
Here, we report detailed studies on magnetic phase transitions and magneto-electric (ME) coupling in
Fe
1
-
x
Ce
x
VO
4
. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopic measurements confirm ...triclinic crystal structure (P-1) with small variation in lattice parameters and Ce incorporation into the
FeVO
4
lattice up to 10% of Ce. The presence of local lattice distortions and electronic inductive effect in
FeVO
4
between
Fe
3
+
and
V
5
+
ions were found in X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) studies due to the presence of
Fe
3
+
–O–
V
5
+
linkages. Two antiferromagnetic (AFM) transitions similar to
FeVO
4
appear at 21.86 K and 16.03 K, and Ce doping has little effect on the magnetic transitions.
57
Fe
Mössbauer spectroscopic results show the invariance of Fe valance. Low temperature high magnetic field Mössbauer data depicts the presence of spiral AFM order in all the samples. A sharp peak at 16.0 K in dielectric permittivity with minimal suppression due to applied magnetic field is observed indicating the presence of ferroelectricity and magneto-dielectric coupling. Magnetic and ME transitions are almost robust against Ce doping.
The present manuscript reports vibrational spectra and optical studies of polycrystalline Fe1−xCrxVO4 solid solutions through FT–IR spectroscopy augmented with a group theory (G.T.) analysis and ...UV–Visible DRS spectroscopy. Full set of IR and Raman modes are determined by G. T. for various crystal symmetries in FeVO4–CrVO4 solid solutions where Triclinic, Monoclinic and Orthorhombic structures evolve with increasing Cr concentration. Experimentally obtained vibrational modes support the structural phase transitions and confirm formation of continuous solid solutions in Fe1−xCrxVO4. The Diffuse Reflectance Spectra (DRS) of Fe1−xCrxVO4 depicts the electronic structure and different optical transitions due to absorption of photon energy. The d–d transitions are manifested for all compounds in terms of crystal field stabilization energy (CFSE) caused by distorted lattice sites. The band gap energy of Fe1−xCrxVO4 is calculated using Tauc formula. It shows a red shift initially within triclinic structure then blue shift with the increase of Cr concentration. Urbach energy (Eu) tails in the spectra show the electronic structural disorder in Fe1−xCrxVO4 due to impurity energy levels of Cr ions within band gap region. It is observed that Eu decreases with the doping concentration due to the increase in crystal symmetry corresponding to the structural phase transitions in Fe1−xCrxVO4.
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•The solid solutions of FeVO4 – CrVO4 were studied through FT – IR, UV VIS DRS spectroscopy and Group theory analysis.•The evolution of optical and vibrational properties through the phase diagram is given in detail.•A detailed vibration mode analysis is given for Triclinic, Monoclinic and Orthorhombic phases in the phase diagram.•The optical band gap for these technologically important catalytic materials is also being evaluated through diffuse reflectance spectra of optical absorption using Tauc plot analysis.•The band gap shows a red shift in triclinic structure then shows blue shift corresponding to monoclinic and orthorhombic structure.•The obtained Urbach tails indicate the disorder energy levels into interband region in the present system.•Disorder energy decreases with the increasing of doping concentration associated with structural phase transition from Triclinic-Monoclinic-Orthorhombic.•Detailed account of d-d transitions in all the compounds is manifested on the basis of distorted crystal sites and CFSE of the systems.
We analysed susceptibility of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) including New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 positive Enterobacteriaceae to chlorhexidine and compared results to their susceptible ...counterparts. Susceptibilities of chlorhexidine digluconate in a standard (CHX-S) preparation and two commercial disinfectants containing different CHX concentrations (2% w/v and 4% w/w) were performed. MDROs had narrower range of higher CHX-S minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) as compared to pan-sensitive organisms. The MIC values for commercial disinfectants products for MDROs were many folds higher (20–600 times), than CHX-S for in vitro use. Increasing antibiotic resistance among bacterial isolates can be an indirect marker of reduced susceptibility to chlorhexidine in hospital setting.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) — mesenchymal cells in the tumor stroma, play one of the leading roles in tumor progression in many different tumors, including colorectal cancer. Scientists have ...described many markers for CAFs, but none of them is specific. We performed immunohistochemistry tests using five antibodies (αSMA, POD, FAP, PDGFRα, PDGFRβ) to investigate CAFs in three zones of 49 colorectal adenocarcinomas: apical, central, and invasive edge. We revealed the reliable correlation between high PDGFRβ and PDGFRα value in the apical zone and deeper invasion (T3–T4) (
p
= 0.0281 and
p
= 0.0137). High αSMA level in apical zone (
p
= 0.0001), αSMA level in central zone (
p
= 0.019), POD level in apical zone (
p
= 0.0222), POD level in central zone (
p
= 0.0206) and PDGFRβ level in apical zone (
p
= 0.014) correlated reliably with the presence of metastasis in lymphatic nodules. For the first time, focused on the inner layer of CAF adjacent to tumor complexes. We observed that cases with inner αSMA expression were significantly more often (
p
= 0.023) characterized by the presence of regional lymph node metastasis compared with cases with mix of CAF markers (
p
= 0.007) and with cases with inner POD expression (
p
= 0.024). The found relationships between the level of markers and the presence of metastases indicate their clinical significance.
To study the effects of gentamicin in combination with ascorbic acid on septic arthritis, mice were infected with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and treated with gentamicin, which was given at ...5 mg/kg after 24 h of infection, followed by ascorbic acid, given at 20 mg/kg body weight after 2 h of gentamicin treatment. Mice were sacrificed at 3, 9, 15 days post‐infection (dpi). Combined treatment of infected mice with gentamicin and ascorbic acid eradicated the bacteria from the blood, spleen and synovial tissue and showed a significant gross reduction in arthritis, reduced serum levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) and interferon gamma (IFN‐γ). S. aureus‐infected mice have demonstrated the disturbed antioxidant status measured in terms of cellular antioxidants like reduced glutathione and antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. The same were ameliorated when the animals were co‐treated with gentamicin along with ascorbic acid.
The primary aim of this monograph is to provide a systematic state-of-the-art summary of the light scattering of bioparticles, including a brief consideration of analytical and numerical methods for ...computing electromagnetic scattering by single particles, a detailed discussion of the instrumental approach used in measurement of light scattering, an analysis of the methods used in solution of the inverse light scattering problem, and an introduction of the results dealing with practical analysis of biosamples. Considering the widespread need for this information in optics, remote sensing, engineering, medicine, and biology, the book is useful to many graduate students, scientists, and engineers working on various aspects of electromagnetic scattering and its applications.
Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have revolutionized programmable/reconfigurable digital logic technology. However, one limitation of current FPGAs is that the user is limited to strictly ...electronic designs. Thus, they are not suitable for applications that are not purely electronic, such as optical communications, photonic information processing systems and other multi-technology applications. While a wide variety of multi-technology devices ranging from microelectromagnetic systems (MEMS) devices, analog devices, photonic information processing devices, telecommunication and digital data processing systems to biological and chemical sensors have been implemented, research in this area has for the most part been limited to systems built with application-specific devices. While these designs are well optimized for a specific application, they do not provide the flexibility associated with reconfigurable/programmable hardware. As with any application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), this approach is very costly, and the turnaround time between design iterations may be several months. The difficulty of using custom designed multi-technology VLSI components is overcome in the present research with the introduction of a multi-technology FPGA (MT-FPGA) with innovative system architecture. The proposed new class of field programmable device will extend the flexibility, rapid prototyping and reusability benefits associated with conventional FPGA technology into photonic and other multi-technology domain and give rise to the development of a wider class of programmable and embedded integrated systems.
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