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Rainfed mungbean crops in Queensland Australia frequently experience terminal drought (drought stress in the final stages of reproductive development), highlighting the importance of drought-tolerant varieties for sustainable mungbean production. Given there is limited information on the relative drought tolerance of current mungbean varieties in Australia, the study of genetic variations and mechanisms of drought tolerance in summer mungbean can provide a basis for developing drought-tolerant mungbean varieties. This study evaluated the physiological, biochemical, and phenological traits underpinning yield attributes associated with drought tolerance in selected mungbean varieties. Four new mungbean varieties (AVTMB#1 to 4) and the Australian commercial line (Jade-AU) were grown in tall (75 cm) polyvinyl chloride (PVC) lysimeters where drought stress was imposed at the early flowering stage (R1) and maintained until maturity. Drought stress significantly impacted all the varieties. Averaged across all the varieties, drought stress was associated with a reduction in stomatal conductance (gs) and photosynthetic rate (Asat) by 78% and 86%, respectively, compared to well-watered plants. Internal carbon dioxide concentration (Ci), the effective quantum yield of photosystem II (ΦPSII) and maximum light-use efficiency of light-acclimated photosystem II (PSII) centres (Fv'/Fm') were also decreased, while excitation pressure (1-qP) increased with drought treatment. A positive correlation (r = 0.60) existed between seed yield and ΦPSII assessed at R1, while a weak correlation with Fv'/Fm' (r = 0.24) was observed. Excitation pressure (1-qP) at the R1 stage was negatively correlated with seed yield (r = −0.66). Therefore, leaf fluorescence measures, viz., 1-qP and ΦPSII, were recommended for use in screening mungbean varieties for drought tolerance. The varieties, AVTMB#1 and AVTMB#4, respectively achieved 39 and 38% greater seed yields relative to the commercial variety, Jade-AU, under terminal drought conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & objectives: Studies have shown that in cancer patients one of the most frequently reported and feared symptoms is unpredictable and uncontrollable pain that drives the individual to desperation and distress. Leukemia patients are not immune to pains of variable severity. So, it is crucial and extremely important to develop a tool that can document the pain experience of adolescents with leukemia for better pain management. The current study was aimed to develop a scale -- 'Cancer Pain Assessment Scale' (CPAS) for the assessment of pain experienced by leukemia patients. Methodology: Initially a semi-structured interview was conducted taking the sample of thirty patients out of whom 19 were males and 11 females. The subjects were then interviewed individually and an item pool of different pain statements explained by them was generated. After the exclusion of repeated and dubious items, the final list of 30 items was handed over to 10 experts for empirical validation. Twenty-five items out of thirty were found appropriate by the experts, and after computing the content validity index (CVI), 23 items were finalized in the final CPAS. To find reliability, a pilot study was done by administering the newly developed scale (CPAS) on 125 cancer patients with prior permission. Results: By using Principle Component Factor Analysis through Varimax Rotation the results extracted three factors solution of the scale namely physical symptoms, physiological symptoms, and psychosomatic symptoms. The outcomes of the pilot study suggested that the scale items were easy to understand and user-friendly. Conclusion: The scale has satisfactory internal consistency and concurrent validity. Moreover, the study highlighted the physical and psychosomatic aspects of pain, the finding of which would help the clinicians to design pain management strategies accordingly as per our cultural understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]