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In recent years, traditional landraces are gaining importance due to its many health benefits. But the main drawback of the traditional rice variety is low productivity with increased water consumption. Therefore different rice establishment methods are to be evaluated. But weed infestation occurs in every establishment method. Hence the present study aimed to study the weed dynamics by evaluating the water-saving technologies compared with puddled transplanting using various landraces. The first field experiment was conducted during Samba (Aug-Sept) 2021 in the wetlands of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The second field experiment was at the Research Station, Melalathur in Tamil Nadu during Navara (Nov-Jan) season 2021. The experiment was laid out in split plot design comprising four establishment methods as main plots viz. Aerobic rice (M1), Puddled transplanting (M2), Unpuddled transplanting (M3), Direct seeded rice (M4) with traditional landraces viz. Karuppu kavuni (V1), Mapillai samba (V2) and Seeraga samba (V3) in sub plots. In this study, weed dynamics like weed density and weed dry weight were recorded along with plant height, leaf area index and total chlorophyll content. Weed density and weed dry weight was 87.82 % and 74.63 % higher in aerobic rice cultivation than puddled transplanting method during all the observations in both experiments. On comparing the land establishment methods, Direct seeded rice performed well with 40.61% of higher plant height, 89.38 % of higher LAI, 38.48 % of increased total chlorophyll content than Aerobic rice cultivation. The landrace mapillai samba showed a significantly (p<0.05) higher plant height of 64.09±7.14 cm, Leaf area index of 2.05±0.992 and total chlorophyll content of 2.56±0.461 mg/g of fresh leaf. Hence this study provides evidence that in the initial stage of rice cultivation, direct seeded rice and the mapillai samba landrace performed well than the other establishment methods and the other two landraces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To study the prevalence and determinants of compliance with spectacle wear among school-age children in South India who were given spectacles free of charge under a school vision screening program. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was performed. The participants were recruited from the school from Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts of Tamil Nadu, where a school vision screening camp was conducted between January 2012 and October 2012. The school screening was performed under "Lavelle Pediatric Eye Care Project". Of the 129,720 children examined of 249 schools, 4253 of children had refractive error and 3333 were prescribed and dispensed spectacles. A total of 683 children were interviewed, who were not wearing glasses on follow-up. Results: About 20% of the participants (683/3333) were not wearing their spectacles at examination. The most common reasons given for non-wear were lost (44.9%) or broken (35.3%) spectacles. There was no gender preference on compliance to spectacles. Conclusion: Compliance with spectacle wear is less even when spectacles are provided free of cost, particularly in children among the age group of 5–15 years. Because factors such as type of school, area (urban or rural), parent's income, occupation, and their education were not significantly affecting the compliance of spectacle wear, proper encouragement and counseling of the parents and the child become extremely important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Western Ghats of India is the one of the world’s 10 “Hottest biodiversity hotspots” that runs along the western part of India through four states including Tamil Nadu. The only biodiversity reserve in the Western Ghats is the Nilgiri biosphere located in the Tamil Nadu state. In the present study, 525 soil samples were collected from all the 14 different divisions of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu state, India. A total of 316 new isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that produce parasporal crystalline inclusions were isolated from 525 soil samples. Seven different types of crystalline inclusions were observed in the 316 new isolates of Bt. Cuboidal inclusion was predominantly present in 26.9% of the Bt isolates when compared to other shapes. Further characterization of 70 of the 316 Bt isolates for crystal protein profile through SDS-PAGE revealed six different types of crystal protein profile viz., 135 and 65, 135, 95, 65, 43, and 30 kDa crystal proteins. Variation in the mass of crystal protein(s) purified from the isolates of Bt revealed molecular diversity of this bacterium prevalent in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]