Global food security is being severely affected by the rapid increase in population and drastic climate change. Drought stress is the most important limiting factor for the sustainable production of ...several important crops, including wheat. The gradual temperature rise and reduced precipitations are likely to cause the frequent onset of droughts around the world. Therefore, alleviation of drought stress in crop plants has become an essential requirement to meet the increasing food demand. The present study explored the role of foliar application of
Moringa
leaf extract (MLE) in conferring drought tolerance in wheat during the anthesis stage. A wheat genotype of Indo-Gangetic Plains (HI1544) was exposed to drought stress during the anthesis of the spikes and simultaneously foliar sprayed with MLE for 10 days. The results showed the MLE treatment to improve the concentrations of macro- (K, Ca) and micronutrients (B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Si) in flag-leaves of wheat under non-stressed conditions. Application of MLE also maintained the flag-leaf nutritional contents under drought stress. The micro-nutrients, including Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn being the co-factors of the enzymes also stimulated the antioxidant enzyme activities; eventually leading to a significant reduction in the reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde accumulations under drought stress. Furthermore, micronutrients played a crucial role in osmotic adjustment and sustainable plant growth under drought stress. Overall, the study provided insights into the functional role of micronutrients in improving drought tolerance and also indicated the potential to commercialize MLE as an effective bio-stimulant for sustainable agriculture in drought-prone regions.
In this paper, we report the existence of defect induced intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in Cu doped ZnO synthesized
via
a facile sol-gel route. The wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO ...remained intact up to certain Cu doping concentrations under the present synthesis environment as confirmed by the Rietveld refined X-ray diffraction pattern with the average crystallite size between 35 and 50 nm. Field emission scanning electron microscopy reveals the formation of bullet-like morphologies for pure and Cu doped ZnO. Diffuse reflectance UV-vis shows a decrease in the energy band gap of ZnO on Cu doping. Further, these ZnO samples exhibit strong visible photoluminescence in the region of 500-700 nm associated with defects/vacancies. Near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure measurements at Zn, Cu L
3,2
- and O K-edges ruled out the existence of metallic Cu clusters in the synthesized samples (up to 2% doping concentration) supporting the XRD results and providing the evidence of oxygen vacancy mediated ferromagnetism in Cu : ZnO systems. The observed RTFM in Cu doped ZnO nanostructures can be explained by polaronic percolation of bound magnetic polarons formed by oxygen vacancies. Further, extended X-ray absorption fine-structure data at Zn and Cu K-edges provide the local electronic structure information around the absorbing (Zn) atom. The above findings for ZnO nanostructures unwind the cause of magnetism and constitute a significant lift towards realizing spin-related devices and optoelectronic applications.
Cu doping in ZnO modifies the electronic structure and the hybridization between Cu and O orbitals results in RTFM due to formation of BMPs.
Abstract Diarrhoea is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality globally. While the childhood diarrhoea and its association with child feeding, and hygiene, hand washing and water treatment ...are studied elsewhere, the association of water handling and child feeding with childhood diarrhoea is an understudied area in Nepal. This study aimed to investigate the association of water handling and child feeding practice with childhood diarrhoea among children of one to five years of age in Southern, Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Dhanusha district of Southern Nepal in 2013. A total of 284 mother–child pairs were selected using systemic random sampling. A four-week prevalence of childhood diarrhoea was reported using frequency distribution. The association of childhood diarrhoea with water handling and child feeding practices was ascertained using multiple logistic regressions after adjusting for potential confounders. The result of the study demonstrated that the four-week prevalence of childhood diarrhoea was 36.6%. Our finding showed that unsafe water handling practices were associated independently with childhood diarrhoea: untreated water (aOR 3.55; 95% CI: 1.13–11.10), uncovered water (aOR 2.14; 95% CI: 1.09–4.19). Similarly, partial breast feeding (aOR 4.35; 95% CI: 1.87–10.12) was also associated with higher odds of childhood diarrhoea. One third of children in Southern Nepal still had diarrhoea within the four weeks preceding the survey. As poor water handling and sub optimal infant feeding practice were major risk factors contributing to such a high burden of the disease, health promotion strategies such as promotion of safe water handling, improved hygiene and child feeding practices are recommended for the prevention of childhood diarrhoea in Southern Terai of Nepal.
•Zn doped Fe2O3 nanoparticles.•Study of magnetic and electrical properties.•Correlation of magnetic and electrical properties with local electronic structure.
Present work aims at investigating the ...structural, magnetic and dielectric properties of zinc doped Fe2O3 nanoparticles (pure, 10%, 20% & 30%) and correlated with their local electronic structures using X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements infer that doping of Zn cations lead to the formation of secondary phases corresponding to ZnFe2O4 along with the hematite phase of Fe2O3. Magnetic measurements show that magnetization vs magnetic field curve for 10% Zn doping exhibit maximum saturation magnetization (~2.93 × 10−3 emu/g) as well as the coercivity (~956 Oe). The values of these parameters decrease for higher content of Zn. The temperature dependence of dielectric behaviour follows the same trend as that of the lattice parameter and magnetic measurements. The XANES spectra at Fe L- and Fe K-edges indicate partial reduction of Fe3+ ions into Fe2+ upon Zn doping in the Fe2O3 lattice. However, divalent state is favourable for Zn (i.e. Zn2+) within the doping range reported in this study.
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•Structural phase transition in VO2 thin films is modulated by annealing temperature.•Increasing annealing temperature led to increase in spectral weight of V 3d|| ...states.•Intermediate M2 phase is emerged in VO2 films annealed at higher temperature (T > 510 °C).•Infrared (IR) switching temperature and IR switching performance is tailored by varying the annealing temperature.
Monoclinic M1 to rutile structural phase transition (SPT) in thermochromic VO2 is accompanied by the insulator to metal transition and transition from an infrared (IR) transparent to IR opaque phase. Fine control over the phase stabilization and the functional properties without additional doping can offer the ability to tailor VO2 thin films for their respective applications. In this work, post deposition thermal annealing was used to control the phase stabilization and the modulation in thermochromic performance of polycrystalline VO2 thin films. Monoclinic M1 to rutile SPT in VO2 thin films was tracked by in-situ temperature dependent synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements and an increase in the SPT temperature was observed with increasing annealing temperature. Intermediate monoclinic M2 phase emerges near the SPT temperature at higher annealing temperature. Temperature dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements revealed the higher electron correlation effect among the V 3d|| states across the phase transition in VO2 thin film having the intermediate phase. Spectral weight of V 3d|| states was found to increase with the annealing temperature. Lower annealing temperature drives the IR switching temperature towards room temperature while the higher annealing temperature improves the IR switching performance of VO2 thin films.
The India Way: Lessons for the U.S Cappelli, Peter; Singh, Harbir; Singh, Jitendra ...
Academy of Management perspectives,
05/2010, Volume:
24, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We describe a distinctive approach to business associated with the major corporations in India and contrast it with practices in the United States. Specifically, the Indian approach eschews the ...explicit pursuit of shareholder value in favor of goals associated with a social mission. These companies make extraordinary investments in their employees and empower them in decision making. These practices combine with a distinctively Indian approach to problem solving to create a competitive advantage that has led to spectacular business growth, not just within India but in international markets as well. A particularly important lesson for the United States is that the major Indian companies are not succeeding despite the fact that they are pursuing a social mission and investing in their employees. They are succeeding precisely because they do so.
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•Design MTJ (Magnetic tunnel junction) with improved interfaces and impurity phases dissolved via irradiation.•Effect of oxygen and silver ion-beam on the bilayer/multilayer thin ...films.•Dissolution of impurity phase i.e. Mg(OH)2 via O- and Ag ion irradiation.•O-ion beam irradiation is preferred as it dissolves only unwanted impurity phases.•SRIM (Stopping and range of ions in matter) simulation indicates energy transfer to compare O- and Ag- ion beam irradiation.
In-situ system for metallic multilayer thin films used for magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) required a multi-target system to avoid the formation of impurities which make these devices very costly. In this work, the study was performed to resolve this issue by using a single target system for multilayer formation and impurity phases were dissolved by swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation. A pristine MgO/Si(100) and CoFe2O4/MgO/ZnFe2O4/Si(100) (CFMZF) multilayer thin film were prepared via radio frequency (RF) sputtering technique. These structures were irradiated by 75 MeV oxygen-ion (O-ion) fluence (5x1011, 1x1012, and 5x1012 ions/cm2) and 200 MeV silver-ion (Ag-ion) fluence (1x1012 ions/cm2) for the investigation of structural changes. The high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) reveals that MgO and CFMZF thin films have impurity peaks, dissolved via O-ion and Ag-ion irradiation. Further HRXRD analysis confirmed that Ag-ion irradiation dissolves more peaks leaving one small intensity peak of (400) corresponding to MgO. The multilayer stack of CFMZF irradiated via Ag-ion shows that Mg(OH)2 phase were completely dissolved and appears only (311) less intense peak corresponding to the ferrite structure. The findings are also corroborated by cross-sectional field emission scanning electron microscopy of CFMZF multilayer thin film showing damaged layers with Ag-ion irradiation. Therefore, the SHI irradiation technique can be used to dissolve the impurity peaks and improve the interface of the multilayer stacks.
With continued fossil-fuel dependence, anthropogenic aerosols over South Asia are projected to increase until the mid-21st century along with greenhouse gases (GHGs). Using the Community Earth System ...Model (CESM1) Large Ensemble, we quantify the influence of aerosols and GHGs on South Asian seasonal precipitation patterns over the 21st century under a very high-emissions (RCP 8.5) trajectory. We find that increasing local aerosol concentrations could continue to suppress precipitation over South Asia in the near-term, delaying the emergence of precipitation increases in response to GHGs by several decades in the monsoon season and a decade in the post-monsoon season. Emergence of this wetting signal is expected in both seasons by the mid-21st century. Our results demonstrate that the trajectory of local aerosols together with GHGs will shape near-future precipitation patterns over South Asia. Therefore, constraining precipitation response to different trajectories of both forcers is critical for informing near-term adaptation efforts.
Global and local environmental changes are likely to introduce nonstationarity in the characteristics of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) extremes. Here we perform a nonstationary frequency ...analysis on ISMR extremes in a Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape framework with a cluster of 74 models, considering nonstationarity in different possible combinations. Interestingly, we observe significant nonstationarity in ISMR extremes in urbanizing/developing‐urban areas (transitioning from rural to urban), compared to completely urbanized or rural areas. This presents a postulation that the extent of urbanization plays a significant role in introducing nonstationarity in ISMR extremes. We emphasize the effect of urbanization in changing the character of ISMR extremes, which further needs a scientific re‐evaluation by implementing physics‐based modeling. The impact of these observational studies will be critical in correcting the bias of model projections of ISMR.
Key Points
Signature of nonstationarity in rainfall extremes is more significant in the developing‐urban areas than in the urbanized and rural areas
Extent of urbanization plays a significant role in introducing nonstationarity in Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall extremes
A framework with a cluster of 74 nonstationary models is proposed to capture both linear and nonlinear changing characteristics of rainfall
Ectopic breast tissue (EBT) predominantly seen along the primitive embryonic milk lines that extend from axilla to groin. Axillary breast tissue is one of the common variant of EBT seen in 2% to 6% ...of women. Phyllodes tumour in EBT is uncommon. The various cystic, inflammatory and neoplastic lesions may occur in EBT similar to breast counterpart. Therefore, EBT should be carefully investigated as it may affect the management of the patient. We report two cases (axillary phyllodes tumour and axillary fibroadenoma) of axillary EBT diagnosed on cytology.
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