•Higher system productivity and efficiency possible through conservation agriculture.•Zero-till cereal system had superior performance than the conventional-till.•Maize is a potential substitute of ...rice in areas with shortages of labor and water.•Avoiding puddling and residue retention in rice saves 30% water with no yield loss.•Conservation agriculture had cumulative and likely long-term benefits.
Increasing scarcity of resources (labour, water, and energy) and cost of production, along with climate variability, are major challenges for the sustainability of rice–wheat system in the northwesten Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). We hypothesized that adopting the principles of conservation agriculture together with best crop management practices would improve system productivity and overall efficiency, resulting in a higher profitability. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the performance of four cropping system scenarios (treatments), which were designed to be adapted to current and future drivers of agricultural changes. The treatments including farmers practices varied in tillage and crop establishment methods, residue management, crop sequence, and crop management. Zero-tillage direct-seeded rice (ZT-DSR) with residue retention and best management practices provided equivalent or higher yield and 30–50% lower irrigation water use than those of farmer-managed puddled transplanted rice (CT-TPR). Overall, net economic returns increased up to 79% with a net reduction in production cost of up to US$ 55ha−1 in ZT-DSR than CT-TPR. Substituting rice with ZT maize was equally profitable but with 88–95% less irrigation water use. Avoiding puddling in rice and dry tillage in maize with residue retention increased yield (by 0.5–1.2tha−1) and net economic returns of the succeeding wheat crop. Inclusion of mungbean in the rotation further increased system productivity and economic returns. In summary, our initial results of 2-year field study showed positive effects of CA-based improved management practices on yield and system efficiencies with greater benefits in the second year. There is a need of longer term monitoring to quantify cumulative effects of various interventions and to eventually make recommendations for wider dissemination.
•Higher cereal productivity can be achieved with lower environmental footprint through conservation agriculture.•Wheat productivity and profitability can be increased by zero-tillage and early ...sowing.•Kharif maize appears to be a suitable and profitable alternative to rice in northwest India.•Productivity and resource efficiency of transplanted rice can be improved by BMPs.•Directly sown rice has potential to save water, energy and global warming potential compared to transplanted rice.
In the most productive area of the Indo-Gangetic Plains in Northwest India where high yields of rice and wheat are commonplace, a medium-term cropping system trial was conducted in Haryana State. The goal of the study was to identify integrated management options for further improving productivity and profitability while rationalizing resource use and reducing environmental externalities (i.e., “sustainable intensification”, SI) by drawing on the principles of diversification, precision management, and conservation agriculture. Four scenarios were evaluated: Scenario 1 – “business-as-usual” conventional puddled transplanted rice (PTR) followed by (fb) conventional-till wheat; Scenario 2 – reduced tillage with opportunistic diversification and precision resource management PTR fb zero-till (ZT) wheat fb ZT mungbean; Scenario 3 – ZT for all crops with opportunistic diversification and precision resource management ZT direct-seeded rice (ZT-DSR) fb ZT wheat fb ZT mungbean; and Scenario 4 – ZT for all crops with strategic diversification and precision resource management ZT maize fb ZT wheat fb ZT mungbean. Results of this five-year study strongly suggest that, compared with business-as-usual practices, SI strategies that incorporate multi-objective yield, economic, and environmental criteria can be more productive when used in these production environments. For Scenarios 2, 3, and 4, system-level increases in productivity (10–17%) and profitability (24–50%) were observed while using less irrigation water (15–71% reduction) and energy (17–47% reduction), leading to 15–30% lower global warming potential (GWP), with the ranges reflecting the implications of specific innovations. Scenario 3, where early wheat sowing was combined with ZT along with no puddling during the rice phase, resulted in a 13% gain in wheat yield compared with Scenario 2. A similar gain in wheat yield was observed in Scenario 4 vis-à-vis Scenario 2. Compared to Scenario 1, wheat yields in Scenarios 3 and 4 were 15–17% higher, whereas, in Scenario 2, yield was either similar in normal years or higher in warmer years. During the rainy (kharif) season, ZT-DSR provided yields similar to or higher than those of PTR in the first three years and lower (11–30%) in Years 4 and 5, a result that provides a note of caution for interpreting technology performance through short-term trials or simply averaging results over several years. The resource use and economic and environmental advantages of DSR were more stable through time, including reductions in irrigation water (22–40%), production cost (11–17%), energy inputs (13–34%), and total GWP (14–32%). The integration of “best practices” in PTR in Scenario 2 resulted in reductions of 24% in irrigation water and 21% in GWP, with a positive impact on yield (0.9t/ha) and profitability compared to conventional PTR, demonstrating the power of simple management changes to generate improved SI outcomes. When ZT maize was used as a diversification option instead of rice in Scenario 4, reductions in resource use jumped to 82–89% for irrigation water and 49–66% for energy inputs, with 13–40% lower GWP, similar or higher rice equivalent yield, and higher profitability (27–73%) in comparison to the rice-based scenarios. Despite these advantages, maize value chains are not robust in this part of India and public procurement is absent. Results do demonstrate that transformative opportunities exist to break the cycle of stagnating yields and inefficient resource use in the most productive cereal-based cropping systems of South Asia. However, these SI entry points need to be placed in the context of the major drivers of change in the region, including market conditions, risks, and declining labor availability, and matching with the needs and interests of different types of farmers.
Abstract The use of novel active ingredients for the functional modification of chitosan nanoformulations has attracted global attention. In this study, chitosan has been functionalized via histidine ...to craft novel chitosan–histidine nanoformulation (C–H NF) using ionic gelation method. C–H NF exhibited elite physico-biochemical properties, influencing physiological and biochemical dynamics in Tomato. These elite properties include homogenous-sized nanoparticles (314.4 nm), lower PDI (0.218), viscosity (1.43 Cps), higher zeta potential (11.2 mV), nanoparticle concentration/ml (3.53 × 10 8 ), conductivity (0.046 mS/cm), encapsulation efficiency (53%), loading capacity (24%) and yield (32.17%). FTIR spectroscopy revealed histidine interaction with C–H NF, while SEM and TEM exposed its porous structure. Application of C–H NF to Tomato seedling and potted plants through seed treatment and foliar spray positively impacts growth parameters, antioxidant-defense enzyme activities, reactive oxygen species (ROS) content, and chlorophyll and nitrogen content. We claim that the histidine-functionalized chitosan nanoformulation enhances physico-biochemical properties, highlighting its potential to elevate biochemical and physiological processes of Tomato plant.
Highlights • Quercetin decreases ROS production and increases MnSOD activity. • It also prevents aluminum-induced neuronal apoptosis and reduces DNA fragmentation. • It also attenuates ...aluminum-induced mitochondrial swelling, loss of cristae and chromatin condensation. • Finally, it acts as an effective antioxidant in vivo against aluminum-induced neurotoxicity.
In the present study, a total of 53 promising salt-tolerant genotypes were tested across 18 salt-affected diverse locations for three years. An attempt was made to identify ideal test locations and ...mega-environments using GGE biplot analysis. The CSSRI sodic environment was the most discriminating location in individual years as well as over the years and could be used to screen out unstable and salt-sensitive genotypes. Genotypes CSR36, CSR-2K-219, and CSR-2K-262 were found ideal across years. Overall, Genotypes CSR-2K-219, CSR-2K-262, and CSR-2K-242 were found superior and stable among all genotypes with higher mean yields. Different sets of genotypes emerged as winners in saline soils but not in sodic soils; however, Genotype CSR-2K-262 was the only genotype that was best under both saline and alkaline environments over the years. The lack of repeatable associations among locations and repeatable mega-environment groupings indicated the complexity of soil salinity. Hence, a multi-location and multi-year evaluation is indispensable for evaluating the test sites as well as identifying genotypes with consistently specific and wider adaptation to particular agro-climatic zones. The genotypes identified in the present study could be used for commercial cultivation across edaphically challenged areas for sustainable production.
Heavy metal pollution is one of the major environmental concerns worldwide. Toxic heavy metals when untreated get accumulated in environment and can pose severe threats to living organisms. It is ...well known that metals play a major role either directly or indirectly in different metabolic processes of bacteria. This allows bacterial cells to grow even in the presence of some toxic heavy metals. Microbial biotechnology has thus emerged as an effective and eco friendly solution in recent years for bioremediation of heavy metals. Therefore, this review is focused on summarising bacterial adaptation mechanisms for various heavy metals. It also shares some applications of have metal tolerant bacteria in bioremediation. Bacteria have evolved a number of processes for heavy metal tolerance viz., transportation across cell membrane, accumulation on cell wall, intra as well as extracellular entrapment, formation of complexes and redox reactions which form the basis of different bioremediation strategies. The genetic determinants for most of these resistances are located on plasmids however some may be chromosomal as well. Bacterial cells can uptake heavy by both ATP dependent and ATP independent processes. Bacterial cell wall also plays a very important role in accumulating heavy metals by bacterial cells. Gram-positive bacteria accumulate much higher concentrations of heavy metals on their cell walls than that of metals gram -ve bacteria. The role of bacterial metallothioneins (MTs) in heavy metal has also been reported. Thus, heavy metal tolerant bacteria are important for bioremediation of heavy metal pollutants from areas containing high concentrations of particular heavy metals.
Recently, it has been found that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene could prove to be the most promising carbonaceous fillers in polymers nanocomposites field because of their better structural and ...functional properties. Their uniform dispersion in polymer matrix leads to significant improvements in their several properties. This paper reviews the effect of nanofillers, ie, CNTs, derivatized CNTs, and graphene on the polycarbonate nanocomposite and its application in aerospace, automobile, sports, electronic sectors, and various industries. The comparative analysis of carbon‐based fillers on the different properties of polycarbonate nanocomposites is also included.
The aim of this study was to identify stable rice genotypes tolerant to a salt stress environment and to identify ideal mega-environments using AMMI (additive main effects and multiplicative ...interaction) stability model analysis. A total of 13 rice genotypes and three salt tolerance checks were evaluated across 13 salt stress locations (alkaline and saline) for the two kharif seasons of 2014 and 2015. Genotype CSR 36 (CHK3) was found to be the most ideal of those tested. Genotypes CHK2 (CST 27) and IR 87952-1-1-1-2-3-B (G05) were found to be the most stable, with above average yields. The check CSR 36 (CHK3) genotype was the best performer in the majority of the environments studied, followed by CSR 27 (CHK2) and IR 87952-1-1-1-2-3-B (G05) which were the best genotypes in the mega-environment consisting of 21 environments evaluated across stress locations and year combinations. Overall, the most promising genotype (IR 87952-1-1-1-2-3-B) had high mean yield and stability and could be used for commercial cultivation or used as donor for breeding programs across salt-affected soils. The genotypes GN13 (IR 87938-1-1-2-1-3-B) and GN11 (IR 87938-1-2-2-1-3-B) showed 60–80% yield advantage at specific salt stress locations, showing that these genotypes could be used for specific environments of salt-affected soils in India.
Aim: This article aimed to present the salient features of the in-house developed Java program for the determination of inflection point and dosimetric parameters of flattening filter-free (FFF) ...photon beam. Reference levels for the dosimetric parameters of the FFF photon beams were also presented. Materials and Methods: Beam profiles of 6 MV FFF and 10 MV FFF photon beams for a collimator setting of 20 cm × 20 cm measured at 10 cm depth in an isocentric setup acquired from various institutions were analyzed using an in-house developed Java program and manual method. The values of reference dose value (RDV), field size, penumbra, and degree of un-flatness (defined as the lateral separation between 90% X 90% , 75% X 75% , and 60% X 60% dose points on the profile) were calculated and compared. The reference values of field size, penumbra, and degree of un-flatness were also determined for Varian and Elekta medical electron linear accelerators (LINACs). Results: The maximum differences for RDV determined using the Java method and manual method are 2.4% and 2.7% for 6 and 10 MV FFF photon beams, respectively. The maximum difference between the values of field size, penumbra, and degree of un-flatness determined using Java and manual methods is within 1.3 mm. The reference values of field size and penumbra for Varian LINACs are 19.94 ± 0.10 cm and 0.83 ± 0.08 cm (6 MV FFF) and 19.95 ± 0.10 cm and 0.83 ± 0.08 cm (10 MV FFF). Similarly, the reference values of field size and penumbra for Elekta LINACs are 20.02 ± 0.09 cm and 0.94 ± 0.12 cm (6 MV FFF) and 20.03 ± 0.11 cm and 0.97 ± 0.16 cm (10 MV FFF). Conclusions: A software program was developed in Java for analyzing the beam profiles of FFF photon beams. The results of Java-derived values of dosimetric parameters of FFF photon beams were found in good agreement with the values determined using the manual method. The reference values of these parameters were also derived and quoted using a large cohort of the data.
The AIM-II Trial included patients with nondysplastic Barrett's esophagus (NDBE) treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Complete eradication of NDBE (complete response-intestinal metaplasia ...CR-IM) was achieved in 98.4 % of patients at 2.5 years. We report the proportion of patients demonstrating CR-IM at 5-year follow-up.
Prospective, multicenter US trial (NCT00489268). After endoscopic RFA of NDBE up to 6 cm, patients with CR-IM at 2.5 years were eligible for longer-term follow-up. At 5 years, we obtained four-quadrant biopsies from every 1 cm of the original extent of Barrett's esophagus. All specimens were reviewed by one expert gastrointestinal pathologist, followed by focal RFA and repeat biopsy if NDBE was identified. Primary outcomes were (i) proportion of patients demonstrating CR-IM at 5-year biopsy, and (ii) proportion of patients demonstrating CR-IM at 5-year biopsy or after the single-session focal RFA.
Of 60 eligible patients, 50 consented to participate. Of 1473 esophageal specimens obtained at 5 years 85 % contained lamina propria or deeper tissue (per patient, mean 30 , standard deviation SD 13). CR-IM was demonstrated in 92 % (46 / 50) of patients, while 8 % (4 / 50) had focal NDBE; focal RFA converted all these to CR-IM. There were no buried glands, dysplasia, strictures, or serious adverse events. Kaplan-Meier CR-IM survival analysis showed probability of maintaining CR-IM for at least 4 years after first durable CR-IM was 0.91 (95 % confidence interval CI 0.77 - 0.97) and mean duration of CR-IM was 4.22 years (standard error SE 0.12).
In patients with NDBE treated with RFA, CR-IM was demonstrated in the majority of patients (92 %) at 5-year follow-up, biopsy depth was adequate to detect recurrence, and all failures (4 / 4, 100 %) were converted to CR-IM with single-session focal RFA.
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