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Doubled haploid technology is a valuable tool in plant breeding as it shortens the breeding cycle, fixes agronomic traits in homozygous state and enhances selection efficiency of useful recessive agronomic traits. However, successful adoption of doubled haploid (DH) technology for generating useful breeding material depends on intra-line uniformity and inter-line variability for agro-morphological traits. Therefore, the major emphasis of this study has been to assess these two aspects in DH population developed from F1anthers of KRH4 rice hybrid. The developed DH lines were evaluated for agro-morphological traits to assess the uniformity of traits within and variability between the DH lines based on Z value and on the analysis of variance test respectively. The results of the experiment indicated that, the agronomic traits were indeed uniform within but different across DH lines. A wide and significant variation was observed among the DH lines for several growth and yield attributing traits. To confirm the uniformity and stability of the traits, selected DH lines were characterized in different seasons and growing conditions. The results showed a strong positive correlation in the agronomic traits within the lines under different seasons and also in contrasting environments. Further, the SSR marker analysis revealed that the DH lines are homozygous and stable across generations. From the study, it can be inferred that the DH technology forms an important tool in generating completely homozygous lines that are stable across seasons, environments and over generations.

Wood is an impact-resistant biological material architectured with fibers and hexagonal cells. Impact and quasi-static compression of natural wood perpendicular to fibers leads to indentation with fiber compaction and splitting (crack propagation along fibers). Conversely, loading parallel to fiber results in indentation and radial cracking before fragmentation. The impulse and energy absorbed manifest as indentation, cracking, and fragmentation depending on the loading rate and fiber orientation. This article highlights indentation and fragmentation in two species of wood: Neem (Melia Dubia) and Jackfruit (Artocarpus Heterophyllus).Guided by ASTM D7136 standard drop weight tests with a 0.025 m diameter, 22 kg steel indenter are conducted for characterizing indentation, cracking, and fragmentation for two fiber orientations of wood. Quasi-static compression tests also conducted with the same punch diameter further characterize specimen stiffness and indentation patterns for modeling the phenomena from a mechanics viewpoint as well as statistics standpoint. Hertzian mechanics provides a simple means for relating impulse and energy requirement with indentation. Interestingly, Gaudin-Schumann’s power law with Schumann index equal to 2.5, widely applied for brittle materials like ceramic, glass, and rock, also applies to the two wooden species investigated here. Extending the investigations presented here can provide useful data for designing sports goods, dwellings, boats, and furniture.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented health care challenges mandating surgical service reconfiguration. Within our hospital, emergency and elective streams were separated and self-contained Protected Elective Surgical Units were developed to mitigate against infection-related morbidity. Aims of this study were to determine the risk of COVID-19 transmission and mortality and whether the development of Protected Elective Surgical Units can result in significant reduction in risk.

Hybrid lightweight structures are widely used in applications requiring better energy absorption capacity. PU foam is a versatile material often used as a core material that finds potential applications in the automotive and aerospace industries. This paper explores reinforced and sandwiched PU foam demanding higher strength and energy absorption within the limited volume. The present work investigates reinforcement effects on the mechanical characteristics and deformation patterns of PU foam-filled structures in uniaxial quasi-static compression. Three different hybrid structural configurations are considered in this study: foam-filled PVC tubes, PVC tube-reinforced foam, and jute composite sandwiched foam. The experimental results show significant enhancement in mean compression strength for sandwiched and reinforced foam composites compared to plain PU foam and foam-filled PVC composites. Specific energy absorption increases by 87% for PVC-reinforced tubes compared to single foam-filled PVC tubes. However, the specific energy absorption of specimens reinforced with multitubes and plates compared to plain PU foam is less or does not change much. The results also demonstrate that selecting a proper natural material like the jute-sandwiched composite can better replace the PVC tube-reinforced foam. Further, the deformation patterns of the hybrid components reveal that the mode of the collapse of axially crushed PVC tubes is regular three-lobed diamond and axisymmetric concertina mode in foam-filled PVC tubes. Also, the energy absorption capability of the PVC tubes is improved by foam compression and over stretching in the peripheral part of the tube because of the change of failure mode from multilobe to axisymmetric type.

We report a case of nocardiosis in an immunosuppressed elderly patient who presented with prolonged pyrexia. Nocardia asteroides was isolated from the thyroid, with CT scan evidence of dissemination to [...]

Doubled haploid technology is a valuable tool in plant breeding as it shortens the breeding cycle, fixes agronomic traits in homozygous state and enhances selection efficiency of useful recessive agronomic traits. However, successful adoption of doubled haploid (DH) technology for generating useful breeding material depends on intra-line uniformity and inter-line variability for agro-morphological traits. Therefore, the major emphasis of this study has been to assess these two aspects in DH population developed from F1anthers of KRH4 rice hybrid. The developed DH lines were evaluated for agro-morphological traits to assess the uniformity of traits within and variability between the DH lines based on Z value and on the analysis of variance test respectively. The results of the experiment indicated that, the agronomic traits were indeed uniform within but different across DH lines. A wide and significant variation was observed among the DH lines for several growth and yield attributing traits. To confirm the uniformity and stability of the traits, selected DH lines were characterized in different seasons and growing conditions. The results showed a strong positive correlation in the agronomic traits within the lines under different seasons and also in contrasting environments. Further, the SSR marker analysis revealed that the DH lines are homozygous and stable across generations. From the study, it can be inferred that the DH technology forms an important tool in generating completely homozygous lines that are stable across seasons, environments and over generations.

Integral transform method plays a significant role to solve different kinds of integral and differential equations of fractional order and integer order that arise in several applications of engineering and physical sciences. Natural transform converges to Laplace and Sumudu transforms. The aim of this present paper is to solve the unified fractional Schrödinger equation that occurs in the field of quantum mechanics. The solution is obtained by Natural transform technique for the Caputo fractional derivatives with time variable and Fourier transform for the Liouville fractional derivative with space variable. The result is provided in the computational form of the H-function. The paper explicitly reveals the efficiency and reliability of joint Natural and Fourier transform technique. Some special cases of the main result are mentioned. Achieved result is general in nature and has the capability of providing a number of known and new results.