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The conversion of forest to agricultural land has been a major worldwide concern and a cause of deterioration of soil quality. The study examined the influence of land uses on the soil quality index (SQI) using minimum datasets (MDS) constructed from soil profiles through two methods namely, additive (SQIa) and weighted (SQIw). In this study, 29 geo-referenced soil profiles (116 layers) up to a depth of 150 cm were collected in Northeastern India, representing forest, jhum, jhum fallow, and agricultural land uses. Principal component analysis (PCA) with multiple correlation analysis is found to be a suitable statistical method for selecting the key soil quality indicators. From PCA, organic carbon (OC), sand, clay, available P and available S were selected as soil quality indicators in MDS. Our results showed that these MDS significantly varied within the profiles depending on the land-uses. The estimated values of SQIs showed that SQIa was higher than SQIw across the soil depths and land-uses. For the surface soil, SQIa values were in the order of forest (2.97) > jhum fallow (2.82) > agriculture (2.68) > jhum land (1.97) and for profile soil jhum fallow (2.38) > forest (2.37) > agriculture (2.33) > jhum (1.88). Similarly, SQIw followed the trend of forest > jhum fallow > agriculture > jhum for all the three studied depths. The statistical analysis showed that the surface, subsurface, and profile soil had no significant impact on SQIw for agriculture, fallow jhum, and forest. The overall data indicated that jhum land had a significantly lower SQI than other land-uses for all soil depths. From this study, the information generated can be useful to assess the soil quality in different land-uses for managing soil health in similar areas of the Northeastern region of India. The findings are also useful in the ecosystems in which soils develop in an acid edaphic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amelioration of salt affected soils aims to reduce exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), improve crop growth and yield. A field study was conducted with soybean-mustard cropping system for four consecutive years (2016–2019) to study the effect of soil amendments on crop yield, nutrient use efficiency and soil properties in degraded vertisol of North Western India. Treatments consist of various combinations of gypsum, farm yard manure (FYM) and crop residue (CR) with recommended fertilizer doses (RNPK), were laid in random block design with three replications. Application of gypsum alone and combined with organic amendments, showed pronounced decrease in ESP, slight reduction in pH, increased bioavailability of nutrients, as reflected by higher nutrient uptake and crop yields. Grain yield improvement in soybean (37–41%) and mustard (58–63%) was recorded in plots receiving RNPK + Gypsum + CR + FYM, RNPK + Gypsum + CR or FYM over only chemical fertilizer treatments. Combined application of gypsum with organic amendments increased N, P, K and S uptake by 75, 76, 84 and 114%, respectively over RNPK alone in soybean-mustard system. Highest values of apparent recovery efficiency and agronomic efficiency of N, P, K, S was registered under RNPK + Gypsum and RNPK + Gypsum + CR/FYM. Highest physiological and internal efficiency of nutrients was registered under RNPK and decreased with amendment application. This study revealed the combined use of FYM (10 t ha−1), CR (3 and 1.5 t ha−1), gypsum (2.5 t ha−1) with fertilizers as a sustainable technology for reclaiming soil sodicity, improving nutrient use efficiency and crop productivity under soybean-mustard system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) has underlined the importance of emerging diseases of zoonotic importance. Along with human beings, several species of wild and pet animals have been demonstrated to be infected by SARS‐CoV‐2, both naturally and experimentally. In addition, with constant emergence of new variants, the species susceptibility might further change which warrants intensified screening efforts. India is a vast and second most populated country, with a habitat of a very diverse range of animal species. In this study we place on record of SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in three captive Asiatic lions. Detailed genomic characterization revealed involvement of Delta mutant (Pango lineage B.1.617.2) of SARS‐CoV‐2 at two different locations. Interestingly, no other feline species enclosed in the zoo/park were found infected. The epidemiological and molecular analysis will contribute to the understanding of the emerging mutants of SARS‐CoV‐2 in wild and domestic animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Information on the prevalence of infectious agents in dairy farms forms the basis for formulating a suitable control strategy; especially in endemic situations. Aims: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of six economically important bovine diseases, causing reproductive disorders including bovine abortion in organized dairy herds in India. Methods: A total of 1,075 animals (cattle and buffaloes) from 09 dairy farms were screened by ELISA tests. Results: Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) was the most prevalent (56.5%) disease followed by infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) (45.4%). Prevalence of Q-fever (5.4%) and neosporosis (6.1%) were less on the farms. Although 16.3% of the samples turned positive for brucellosis, the contribution of calf-hood vaccination (B. abortus S19 vaccine) to the prevalence of antibodies cannot be ruled out. The overall prevalence of bovine anaplasmosis, known to cause sporadic abortions in dairy herds, was 34.1% in the 9 farms with a prevalence of less than 20% in 5 farms. Infection of multiple abortifacient (seroprevalence to more than two pathogens) was recorded in 56.8% of animals. A very strong association was observed between BVD and brucellosis (Odds ratio 14.2; P<0.001). Further, a positive association was also seen between seroprevalence of IBR and anaplasmosis, and neosporosis and Q fever (P<0.05). Conclusion: Viral diseases were found to be more common in the dairy herds than bacterial and protozoan diseases. Increased susceptibility of IBR seropositive cows to other bacterial and viral infections was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximate computing is an emerging computing technique for designing energy- and resource-efficient arithmetic circuits for error-resilient applications. Square root (SQR) computation is a fundamental and complex operation in various signal/image processing tasks. It demands high resource and energy consumption, making the square-rooter a crucial design element. This brief proposes a low-complexity logarithmic-based energy-efficient approximate square rooter (LESQ) for computing integer SQR using simple addition and shift operations. A partial error compensation scheme is also suggested for improved accuracy. The proposed approximate square rooter also enables various accuracy configurable modes to tradeoff error with hardware efficiency for targeted application requirements. LESQ achieves energy- and area-delay savings of up to 80% and 60%, respectively, compared to an accurate array-based square-rooter design. The proposed approximate design is tested on error-tolerant applications, such as image processing and amplitude modulation (AM) communication system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mulberry (Morus indica L.) is a foliage crop cultivated extensively in the North-Eastern India under rainfed condition for rearing silkworm (Bombyx mori L.). An attempt was made through field experimentation to develop a soil-cum-nutrient management package for mulberry cultivation in acid soil under rainfed condition. Effects of different treatment combinations comprising of NPK, farmyard manure (FYM), lime and boron (B) on important soil properties, yield and quality of mulberry (Morus indica L. var. S1635) leaf were assessed to identify the best soil-cum-nutrient management package. Results indicated that fertilizer dosage based on ready-reckoner soil test value was not effective for the production of high-quality leaf with specific targeted yield of the crop (4.5 t/ha/crop-cutting). Integrated soil application of NPK @ 150:50:50 kg ha−1, FYM@10 t ha−1, lime as per requirement (3t ha−1 in present case) and foliar application of boric acid solution (0.1% w/v) was the most effective soil-cum-nutrient management package for the production of higher leaf yield which is comparable with the targeted yield. As far as leaf quality is concerned, increased moisture content, total N, P, K and B content of leaf are also attributed to the package. The package resulted in increased pH, organic carbon, dehydrogenase activity, available N, P, K and decreased exchangeable aluminum, exchangeable acidity and total potential acidity of soil. The study indicates the usefulness of soil-cum-nutrient management package for improved soil health of acid soils as well as achieving high yield and quality of mulberry leaf in such acid soils of the North-Eastern India and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of organic carbon fractions in soil provides the basis to ascertain vulnerability of an ecosystem to climate change. In the present study, we assessed SOC fractions in four pedons under contrasting landforms i.e., denudational low hill, upper plateau, lower plateau and valley in the Meghalaya plateau, India. Results indicated that soils of the studied pedons were acidic in nature, low in cation exchange capacity and base saturation. Further, surface (0-30 cm) soils were high in Walkley Black C (WBC) content (0.83-1.13%) in the studied pedons located under different landforms. The density of very labile carbon (VLC) fraction up to a depth of 150 cm was highest (49.22 Mg ha-1) in pedon 2 (P2) located in the upper plateau under shifting cultivation while that of less labile carbon (LLC) was highest (50.25 Mg ha-1) in pedon 4 (P4) in the valley under paddy cultivation. Higher densities of WBC and LLC in the valley (P4) as compared to other landforms in the study area indicate higher carbon sequestration potential of valley soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT--Studies of leaf cuticular features were conducted on three disjunct populations of Trifolium repens L. to determine the degree of constancy of cuticular features in this species. Plastic cuticular imprints [...]