Search

Lean manufacturing is a strategic tool, which is used to cut down waste and to improve the efficiency of an organization and helps the organization to sustain in the competitive environment. Implementation of lean systems in organization results in reduce energy consumption, waste generation, and hazardous materials used while also building the companies’ images as socially responsible organizations. Several research efforts discussed in the literature indicate that lean companies show significant environmental improvements by being more resource and energy efficient. Lean systems are associated with waste reduction techniques. In foreign, many industries have started implementing these concepts and they are getting good results. In India, companies are facing problems in implementing lean concept. Critical success factors for lean system implementation in Indian medium scale manufacturing industries has been identified to overcome it. The factors are grouped into different levels by Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). A lean implementation model has been developed for medium scale industry and named as 'LIMS'. This paper investigates the implementation and validation of the LIMS through the real time implementation in a medium scale industry.

The quality of the electrical power delivered to consumers is heavily affected by the power electronics based controllers, introduced in both domestic and industrial sectors, which in turn results in malfunctioning of equipment or eventual damage. Series compensators, Shunt compensators and series-shunt compensators are some of the strategies applied to address the power quality issues effectively. In this work a series compensating device, viz. 27 level-cascaded multilevel inverter based Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) with multicarrier SPWM technique is proposed to mitigate voltage swells and voltage sags. The PWM technique used in this work is Alternate Phase Opposition PWM (APODPWM), which is one of the vertical arrangement multicarrier sinusoidal pulse width modulation techniques, to control the cascaded H-bridge inverter. The single-phase version of the proposed system is simulated to verify the effectiveness in addressing voltage issues and it is found that the obtained simulation results are satisfactory. The THD is found to be 3.40%, which is well below IEEE standards apart from considerable improvement in response time. The prototype of the proposed model is developed and the pic-microcontroller PIC16F887 is employed to implement the APODPWM. The experimental results obtained from the prototype are compared with the respective simulation results and they match with reasonable accuracy.

Agricultural productivity is affected worldwide due to anthropogenic and climate change-induced abiotic stresses, posing a threat to food security. Use of microorganisms for abiotic stress management in agriculture is emerging as economically viable and environmental-friendly option. Actinomycetes, the Gram-positive bacteria with filamentous structure that are common associates of plants (as rhizosphere inhabitants and as plant endophytes), are receiving attention for their potential application in stressed ecosystems. Many actinomycetes exhibit plant growth-promoting (PGP) properties including indole acetic acid (IAA) production, phosphate solubilization, siderophore production, biocontrol of phytopathogens, and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity. Besides, they can grow under diverse stress conditions such as moisture stress, high temperature, salinity, alkalinity, and wide pH range. Recently, many reports have documented the role of actinomycetes in alleviating salinity and drought stress in crop plants. However, there is a need to further strengthen the research to explore their potential to improve plant productivity under diverse environmental stress conditions by conducting extensive pot and field trials and to understand the underlying mechanisms.

This paper proposes the design and control of single phase Power Electronic Transformer (PET). This PET has two stages; the input stage consists of a matrix converter and the output stage has another matrix converter which are connected by a high frequency transformer. It has bidirectional power flow controllability. It can convert high/low voltage into low/high voltage at any frequency. Power factor correction can also be achieved in this transformer. The proposed system uses only two stages, so that the number of switches used is considerably decreased. The converter is simulated using Multisim 13.0 package. Average current controller is used to improve the input power factor and to reduce the source current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) below 5%. Closed loop control is simulated with the help of LabVIEW 14.0 and found that the Total Harmonic Distortion is well below the acceptable limits. The power factor near to unity is also achieved.

By using the mobile sink, we can reduce the energy consumption of nodes and to prevent the formation of energy holes in wireless sensor networks(WSNs)and this was mainly used for delay-sensitive applications within a given time constraint. My approach is that mobile sink node only visits rendezvous point(RPs) and this may be opposed to all the nodes. In this sensor nodes not having rendezvous point(RPs) means multihopping can be done to the nearest RPs. To computing a tour, that visits all these RPs. Calculating the optimal tour is an NP-hard problem. To address the problem called as weighted rendezvous planning(WRP)is proposed, there by each sensor node is assigned a weight to its hop distance. WRP is to be validated through computer simulation and our WRP as a mobile sink to retrieve all sensed data within a given time constraint. WRP reduces energy consumption by 22% and increases network lifetime by 44%.

Uptake and Assimilation of Nitrate By Crop Plants

K+, Osmoregulation and Drought Tolerance - An Overview

Senescence and Nitrogen Remobilization

An efficient and rapid regeneration protocol was developed using shoot apices from germinating seedlings of two cultivars of sorghum, SPV-462 and M35-1, as explants. A vertical slit given from the base of each dissected apex enhanced the efficiency of callusing response by two fold. MS medium containing 0.5 mg dm−3 each of 2,4-D and kinetin was most effective in producing friable and embryogenic calli. Scanning electron microscopy of these calli detected somatic embryogenesis. Calli thus induced gave rise to approximately 42 green shoots per callus in both the genotypes when transferred to regeneration medium containing 1.5 mg dm−3 kinetin.

The bacterial betA gene for biosynthesis of glycinebetaine was transferred to cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) cultivar 'Golden Acre' through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of hypocotyl explants. Transgenic status was established through Southern hybridization and mRNA expression in the shoots. The transformants exhibited higher tolerance to NaCl stress compared to untransformed parent plants. In physiological assessment of salinity tolerance, transgenics showed better growth response and greater stability in maintaining plant water relations at increasing levels of salinity. These results demonstrate that engineering glycinebetaine biosynthetic pathway into cabbage can lead to enhanced salt tolerance.

The effects of equilibration under different air relative humidities (RH, 1 - 90 %) and temperatures (35 and 45 °C) on soybean (Glycine max) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) seeds were studied using different techniques. Seed moisture content, electrical conductivity (EC) of seed leachate and per cent seed germination were measured following standard procedures, and compared with nuclear magnetic resonance spin-spin relaxation time (T2) measurements. Moisture contents of soybean and wheat seeds, following the reverse sigmoidal trend, were greater at 35 than at 45 °C at any particular RH. Changes in T2 were related to the changes in germination percentage and leachate EC of both soybean and wheat seeds. Equilibrating soybean seeds at RH ≤ 11 % decreased germination percentage with corresponding decrease in T2. On the contrary, EC of seed leachate increased. In wheat seeds equilibrated at 45 °C, T2 was maximal at RH 5.5 %. T2 declined in seeds equilibrated at high RH (> 80 %) together with low germination percentage.

The enthusiasm and commitment can be the driving force for the engaged employees in the organization. The employee engagement creates the positive relationship between the employee and its organization. The researcher studied the employee engagement in cement industries at Coimbatore. Career Development, Flexible Timings, Fair Pay, Learning Culture, Transparency, Autonomy, Motivation, Recognition and Interpersonal Relationship are the factors considered for employee engagement study. The data collection was done with support of structured questionnaire. 85 sample sizes are determined from the cement industries at Coimbatore. The frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation, Analysis of Variance is the analysis used as the techniques. The result showed that there was a significant difference in transparency among the respondents of different gender groups and no significant difference in research variables among the respondents of different age groups.

With the invasion of power electronic based devices in all sectors in the recent past, not only in industry but also in domestic, the quality of power is degraded considerably and need to be addressed as the power quality has direct economic impact. Out of several power quality issues, voltage sag and swells in the medium and low voltage distribution grids are considered in this paper, as their occurrence is more frequent in the grids and it is necessary to protect sensitive loads against such disturbances. Among a variety of solutions proposed to handle this issue, Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) is considered to be the most efficient and effective solution and hence, a twenty seven levels cascaded multilevel inverter based DVR is proposed in this paper to compensate the voltage under balanced voltage sags in a distribution system. Simulations are carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK to estimate the performance of the proposed method and the results show considerable improvement in the power quality terms of harmonics.

Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication Principles "A Framework for Medical Image Classification Using Soft Set" by N.K. Anitha, G. Keerthika, M.Maheswari, J. Praveena in the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICCTET), July 2014, pp. 268-272 After careful and considered review of the content and authorship of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE's Publication Principles. This paper is a duplication of the original text from the paper cited below. The original text was copied without attribution (including appropriate references to the original author(s) and/or paper title) and without permission. Due to the nature of this violation, reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper, and future references should be made to the following article: "A Framework for Medical Images Classification Using Soft Set" by Saima Anwar Lashari, Rosziati Ibraham in Procedia Technology 11, 2013, pp. 548-556 Medical image classification is a significant research area that receives growing attention from both the research community and medicine industry. It addresses the problem of diagnosis, analysis and teaching purposes in medicine. For these several medical imaging modalities and applications based on data mining techniques have been proposed and developed. Thus, the primary objective of medical image classification is not only to achieve good accuracy but to understand which parts of anatomy are affected by the disease to help clinicians in early diagnosis of the pathology and in learning the progression of a disease. This furnishes motivation from the advancement in data mining techniques and particularly in soft set, to propose a classification algorithm based on the notions of soft set theory. As a result, a new framework for medical imaging classification consisting of six phases namely: data acquisition, data pre-processing, data partition, soft set classifier, data analysis and performance evolution is presented.

The relationship between high temperature stress injury and temperature dependence of the transverse relaxation time (T2) of leaf water was examined using NMR in four cultivars of wheat differing in their sensitivity to high temperature stress. The T2declined with increasing temperature between 25 and 35 °C. A comparison of relative injury based on electrolyte leakage and T2, between 40 and 50 °C, indicated that while membrane permeability increased with increasing temperature there was an increase in T2until 44 and 48 °C in susceptible and tolerant cultivars respectively, followed by a sharp decline. This pattern of change in T2with increasing temperature was consistent whether the same or different samples were used for each treatment temperature. Loss of temperature dependence of T2after heat killing indicated irreversible changes in T2, probably due to the loss of membrane integrity. Heat tolerant varieties, which suffered less membrane injury, had a higher T2compared to susceptible varieties. Tolerant varieties also maintained the T2of leaf water protons to higher temperatures than did sensitive varieties. This NMR-based, non-invasive, rapid technique could be used to efficiently detect heat injury in leaf tissues.

The effect of leaf removal on sink expression was studied in a heterotic hybrid (CM119×CM120) of maize and its parents CM119 and CM120 to understand the physiological basis of yield heterosis. Leaf removal treatments were imposed by excising 0, 33, 66 and 100% leaves above the cob at silking. The hybrid had a significantly higher biomass and kernel yield, kernel number per square metre and 100 kernel weight compared to its parents with all leaf removal treatments. The kernel yield showed a highly significant linear relationship with the leaf area index at silking in all the genotypes. The final kernel number at harvest appeared to be tightly controlled by the leaf area available. Leaf senescence pattern after anthesis differed for the treatments and was lowest in the hybrid as compared with the female and particularly with the male parent. An analysis of cob characters revealed that the female parent had a higher number of florets per row compared to the male parent at silking, whereas the male parent was better than the female parent in the ratio of filled kernels to the florets. The hybrid followed the better parent in both characters.

The present investigation was undertaken with an objective of formulating mouth dissolving films (MDFs) of Amlodipine Besylate (AMLO) to enhance convenience and compliance of the elderly and pediatric patients for better therapeutic efficacy. Film formers like hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and methyl cellulose (MC) along with film modifiers like poly vinyl pyrrolidone K30 (PVP K30), and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) as solubilizing agents were evaluated. The prepared MDFs were evaluated for in vitro dissolution characteristics, in vitro disintegration time, and their physicomechanical properties. All the prepared MDFs showed good mechanical properties like tensile strength, folding endurance, and % elongation. MDFs were evaluated by means of FTIR, SEM, and X-RD studies. MDFs with 7.5% (w/w) of HPMC E3 gave better dissolution properties when compared to HPMC E5, HPMC E15, and MC. MDFs with PVP K30 and SLS gave superior dissolution properties when compared to MDFs without PVP K30 and SLS. The dissolution properties of MDFs with PVP K30 were superior when compared to MDFs with SLS. In the case of F3 containing 7.5% of HPMC E3 and 0.04% of PVP K30, complete and faster release was observed within 60 sec when compared to other formulations. Release kinetics data reveals diffusion is the release mechanism.

Image Acquisition is the method of capturing the image. Entire image is not needed for Enhancement Restoration and Object Recoginition. Image segemention is to get the information which is needed for Authentication System. Processing the segemented image will be cost effective and time effective. Each person can be differentiated based on the physiological and behavioural characteristics. Example for physiological characteristics are palm, fingerprint, iris etc. Palmprint recognition system consists of capturing image, segmentation, feature extraction, matching and result. For any image the noise should be removed and only the region which is needed should be extracted. In Palm Acquisition, the whole palm is captured but it is not required for recognition or authentication. Only certain features such as palmline and texture are extracted from whole palm, which contains the necessary information. In this paper we proposed a methodology for extracting Region of Interest which consists of Otsu thresholding scheme[18], Morphological operations, Canny edge detection, marking reference point and palm image alignment. Experimental results show that the approach is efficient both in computational cost and segmentation quality of Multispectral palm Images. The performance of Region of Interest (ROI) segementation is tested with CASIA MultiSpectral Palmprint Image Database V1.0. ROI extraction for peg free palm image depends on the hand position, there is no constant time. In our methodology ROI is extracted in 2.45 seconds.

Multispectral palm print is one of the most reliable and unique Biometric. MSI have faster acquisition time and better quality images than normal images. The advantages of the proposed method include better hygiene and higher verification performance. In this we proposed Local binary Pattern (LBP) based histogram for multispectral palm print representation and to choose the best spectrum for authentication. Here the central part of the palm print image is resized to the size of 180 × 180 and divided into non overlapping sub-images. The size of the sub-image various from 2×2 pixels to 90×90 pixels. The histogram is obtained for each block and the values are used for comparison. Totally 36 images per person are taken from standard database available. Training set is prepared with the help of 2 images from each spectrum. Results are checked against remaining images in authentication mode. Results are represented in terms of Genuine acceptance rate(%). Most of the palm print recognition systems use white light to acquire Images. This study analyzes the palm print recognition performance under six different illuminations, including the white light. The experimental results with a large database show that white light is not the optimal illumination, while 700nm light could achieve higher palm print recognition accuracy than the white light. In authentication mode 98% recognition rate is obtained for the spectrum 700nm. The experiment was conducted for six spectrums like 460,630,700,850,940nm, White Light. We use the CASIA-MS-Palmprint V1 database of size 7200 images collected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Automation (CASIA).

In this paper we proposed a detection of invalid packets in VANETs (DIP) scheme to classify and detect the invalid packets at the time of group communication in VANETs. The invalid packets are classified and detected using enhanced detection algorithm. This algorithm is based on the Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) key agreement scheme, which reduces the processing time of invalid packets and reduce the rebatch verification time. The DIP scheme evaluated through the performance of the transmission overhead and message delay using the simulation tools. The transmission overhead and message delay are reduced and compared with the existing system. The simulation results shows that the DIP scheme is less than an existing scheme for value added services in VANETs (ABAKA).

The present investigation includes the preparation of liquid filling formulations for soft gels using an antihypertensive drug, valsartan (VAL), in order to improve its dissolution properties and thereby its bioavailability. Formulations were prepared using excipients like polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), propylene glycol (PG), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP K-30), antioxidants, ethanol, and purified water. Prepared formulations were evaluated for appearance, pH, drug content percentage, viscosity, stability, and in vitro dissolution studies. The compatibility between the drug and excipients in formulations was confirmed by FTIR spectra. The drug contents were in the range of 99.62-99.63 and the viscosity was in the range of 60.9–591.7 cps with all the formulations developed. Formulations containing 10 mg PVP K 30 gave better dissolution properties when compared to formulations without PVP K 30, and a complete drug dissolution was observed within 10 min and followed the first-order release kinetics. Stability studies were conducted for selected formulations (F4–F9) for a period of 6 months at room temperature (~30°C/65% RH). From the studies, it can be concluded that VAL liquid filling formulations for soft gels were successfully prepared with in vitro dissolution properties superior when compared to VAL itself.

Assessing vulnerability to climate change and variability is an important first step in evolving appropriate adaptation strategies to changing climate. Such an analysis also helps in targeting adaptation investments, specific to more vulnerable regions. Adopting the definition of vulnerability given by IPCC, vulnerability was assessed for 572 rural districts of India. Thirty eight indicators reflecting sensitivity, adaptive capacity and exposure were chosen to construct the composite vulnerability index. Climate projections of the PRECIS model for A1B scenario for the period 2021-2050 were considered to capture the future climate. The data on these indicators were normalized based on the nature of relationship. They were then combined into three indices for sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity, which were then averaged with weights given by experts, to obtain the relative vulnerability index. Based on the index, all the districts were divided into five categories with equal number of districts. One more district was added to 'very high' and 'high' categories. The analysis showed that districts with higher levels of vulnerability are located in the western and peninsular India. It is also observed that the highly fertile Indo-Gangetic Plains are relatively more sensitive, but less vulnerable because of higher adaptive capacity and lower exposure.

In Networks-On-Chip (NOC) architecture, routers are the main sources of power consumption. Hence to reduce the power consumption, the application should be mapped on a custom topology rather than on regular topologies, as custom topology uses fewer routers than regular topologies. This reduces the power consumption. In this paper, we propose a novel topology generation algorithm using genetic algorithm optimization technique to generate a custom topology for Application Specific Networks-On-Chip (ASNOC) architectures. We applied the novel algorithm to benchmark video applications MPEG 4 decoder and PIP. The implementation of the proposed algorithm on Altera cyclone II FPGA device EP2C35F672C6 shows good results in terms of area, power consumption, hop count and number of global links compared to standard topologies like Mesh, Ring, Star and Binary Tree.

Water stress effects on accumulation of dry matter, carbon and nitrogen in grains were analysed in varieties and species of wheat differing in yield stability. Variable water environments were generated using a line source sprinkler system. Although large fluctuations occurred in the water potentials of the flag leaf and ear, grain growth remained relatively buffered under moisture stress. Developing grains were at a lower moisture level throughout grain growth in plants subjected to moisture stress relative to the unstressed plants. Carbon content decreased more than the nitrogen content in the stressed grains of the species and varieties. Reduction in the duration of grain growth and the rate of dry weight accumulation induced by water stress was more prominent in T. aestivum var. C306 and T. sphaerococcum . Grain yield was reduced significantly under water stress, the maximum being in the high yielding cultivar HD2329. Both grain number and grain weight were reduced in response to stress, the extent of reduction being different in different genotypes.

Besides assimilation, plant water relations are important aspects of physiological basis of productivity of crops in water limited environment. The relationships of photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, leaf water potential and stomatal conductance with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) during pre-flowering (panicle initiation to ear emergence) and grain filling (from anthesis to maturity) stages of a sorghum hybrid (cv. CSH-6) grown under rainfed conditions were studied. Photosynthesis rate declined when PAR was above 1300 μmol m−2 s−1. during both the growth stages. Higher transpiration rate during grain filling stage at higher PAR caused the transpiration efficiency to be lower than during pre-flowering stage when PAR was above 1200 μmol m−2s−1.Leaf water potential and stomatal conductance decreased with increase in PAR. Leaf water potential was higher during pre-flowering than during grain filling stage but maximum photosynthesis rate was similar during both the growth stages. Changes in VPD did not qualitatively alter the relationships of the physiological variables with PAR. Decreasing photosynthesis rate and LWP at high PAR suggest that photosynthesis rate was limited by low leaf water potential when PAR was optimal, and by low PAR even when leaf water potential was high in rainfed sorghum during rainy season.

An analytical study was conducted on Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes by veterinary university, Chennai for veterinary practitioners in Erode, Salem and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Field veterinarians working in the public dispensaries / hospitals formed the sample for the study. The data was collected by mailing questionnaires to the respondents. The study revealed that the ODL courses effectively enhanced the job performance of the veterinarians in the areas of diagnosis (57.14 per cent) followed by medical treatment (49.86 per cent) at a frequency ranging from often to most often. Threefourths (75.00 per cent) of the participants and non-participants (87.50 per cent) had medium to high level of job performance. The „Z‟ test was statistically nonsignificant for job performance between the participants and the non-participants. Among the 14 independent variables, access to computer and training exposure was found to have a highly significant relationship with job performance in case of participants while all other variables were non-significant. The results would help the ODL developers to improve the contents and facilitate better delivery of distance education courses, so as to enhance the job performance of the veterinarians.

The pattern of free NH 4 + accumulation and its metabolism was studied during the growth and development of field-grown wheat cv. HD 2204 at two applied N levels viz. 30 and 120 kg ha -1 . The study was confined to the 3rd, 5th and flag leaf blades and the developing ears, borne on the main shoot, during their ontogeny. The NH 4 + levels were considerably lower in young leaves and increased sharply as the leaves senesced when the activity of glutamine synthetase (GS) declined. In contrast to GS, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) remained active even during senescence. Concentrations of protein, free amino acid and total reduced N declined with age in the leaves. An assessment of free NH 4 + pool, free amino acid content and the activity of GS and GDH in the floral parts revealed that glumes, awns and grains also were active sites of NH 4 + turnover. Higher applied N level not only increased leaf and grain N concentration but also led to higher free NH 4 + levels in leaves and in developing ears. Presence of NH 4 + in the entrapped transpirate revealed that NH 4 + is released from both leaves and ears during senescence.

Unpredictable drought affects growth and yield of dryland cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) during rainy season. With the objective of identifying compensatory growth responses after relief of water stress, pot-grown plants (cv. C-752) were water-stressed at flowering, and physiological responses, short term dry matter partitioning upon relief of water stress, and productivity at maturity were studied. Water stress decreased, to varying degrees, leaf water potential, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis rate and transpiration rate. Recovery in assimilation lagged behind that in water relations. Assimilate supply seemed to be limiting early pod growth upon relief of water stress due to low photosynthesis rate, reduced leaf area per pod, and increased partitioning to leaf expansion. However, later pod growth was not limited by assimilate supply and final dry matter per pod was similar in both non-stressed and stress-affected plant. Cowpea exhibited the following growth responses during pod-fill stage upon relief of water stress: 1. increase in leaf area, 2. shift in dry matter partitioning in favour of leaf expansion, 3. extended green leaf duration, and 4. increase in pod number. These partially compensating physiological responses probably ensure reasonable productivity of dryland cowpea during rainy season.

This study shows the lifestyle of bus drivers on their service. Nowadays we are facing problems while moving one place to another place. For this we need to plan where we want to move, through which mode to use to travel, like this we need to consider so many factors. So the transportation plays a major role for the smooth journey. In this regard the bus drivers play an important role to take the people from one place to another safely. We travelled a lot but we don't know the problems faced by the drivers and expectations of the drivers in their services. In this situation they need the support from various sources like passengers, bus owners, government, and general public etc. The factors determine the job satisfaction, working time, travelling time (task), bus maintenance, incentives, owners support, stress and relationship with passengers are dealt. The research design used for the study was descriptive research design. In this study simple random sampling techniques was employed in selecting the samples. The drivers (samples) were selected randomly and interviewed. The sample size is 75 and data collected from the respondents were converted into readable form to the process of classification and arrangements. The data was tabulated and analyzed for logical statement using statistical method like simple percentage analysis and Chi – square. The analysis says that the drivers’ satisfaction level and their expectations for better performance.

Nodulation and N2 (C2H2) fixation processes were studied in cowpea and groundnut during water stress and recovery. In plants relieved from water stress, leaf water-potential recovered much faster than nitrogenase activity in both species. The recovery ability depended on the intensity of water stress. Nitrogenase activity recovered much faster in groundnut than cowpea, even from a relatively higher level of stress. This was partly due to the lack of nodule shedding in groundnut, while severe shedding of nodules in cowpea did not permit the recovery of activity, particularly at higher stress levels. Leghemoglobin was found to be more stable in the nodules of groundnut than cowpea. Water stress led to an accumulation of total soluble sugars in groundnut nodules, while there was no change in cowpea. The recovery pattern of nitrogenase activity in these two crop species is discussed in relation to the nodule morphology, biochemical response and the differences in stress response at the whole plant level.

In this paper, the notions of pairwise \(\delta_{\mathcal{I}}\)-semi-continuous functions and pairwise \(\delta_{\mathcal{I}}\)-semi-irresolute functions are introduced and investigated in ideal bitopological spaces.

B.Ed. is a course where the teachers of the core papers such as philosophy and psychology would find the student-teachers with a myriad of individual difference ranging from various academic backgrounds to differ- ent age groups. The stale traditional method would not meet the needs of this diverse group of learners. A participatory, novel and interesting method of teaching is the need of the hour. The present study has attempted to rejuvenate teaching- learning process by following memory model of teaching and applying mnemonics technique in its phases to reinforce the same. The present study used the memory model with mnemonics technique in the teaching of psychology paper at B.Ed. level. The objectives were i) To try out and find the applicability and the acceptability of the memory model among the student-teachers ii) To acquaint the students with mnemonics techniques and figure out the popularly used techniques for learning psychology iii) To measure the attitude of the student-teachers towards memory model of teaching and mne- monics techniques. Convenience sampling and experimental method with one-shot case study design were used. The study was conducted on 40 B.Ed. student-teachers who had selected English as their medium of instruction for a period of 1 month. The student-teachers responded and eagerly accepted the new method and came up with name mnemonics, word mnemonics, note organisation mnemonics etc. Everyone strongly agreed that the new method was participatory. 38 student-teachers strongly agreed that the method was interesting and useful. 36 student-teachers were willing to follow the same method when they become full-fledged teachers.

Performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket and upflow anaerobic hybrid reactor in treatment of distillery spentwash was investigated under similar operating conditions. The reactors were initially fed with distillery spentwash having an average COD concentration of 1,22,000 mg L–1 with a HRT of 10 days and their performance was evaluated by operating at various HRTs viz., 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 days. Among the various HRTs, six days HRT was found to be ideal for the maximum reductions of COD, BOD and TS by 63.26, 70.80 and 57.20% respectively at OLR of 19.75 kg COD m–3 day–1 with UASB and 70.60, 78.50 and 62.45% at OLR of 19.25 kg COD m–3 day–1 with UAHR. The biogas yield of 0.30 and 0.31 m3 kg–1 COD removed was recorded in UASB and UAHR. Population of total anaerobic bacteria and methanogenic bacteria are also high in UAHR than in UASB. The study concludes that upflow anaerobic hybrid reactor is superior in reducing the pollution load of distillery spentwash as compared to UASB.

The effect of water deficit on nodulation, N2 fixation, photosynthesis, and total soluble sugars and leghemoglobin in nodules was investigated in cowpea and groundnut. Nitrogenase activity completely ceased in cowpea with a decrease in leaf water potential (ψ leaf) from −0.4 MPa to −0.9 MPa, while in groundnut it continued down to −1.7 MPa. With increasing water stress, the acetylene reduction activity (ARA) declined very sharply in cowpea, but ARA gradually decreased in groundnut. Even with mild water stress (Δψ leaf of 0.2 MPa), nodule fresh weight declined 50% in cowpea partly due to a severe nodule shedding whereas nodule fresh weight declined in groundnut only whenψ leaf decreased by 1.0 MPa. No nodule shedding was noticed even at a higher stress level in groundnut. Photosynthesis and stomatal conductance were also more stable in groundnut than in cowpea under water stress. There was a sharp increase in total soluble sugars and leghemoglobin in the nodules of groundut with water stress, but no definite trend could be found in cowpea.

Physiological responses of pearl millet and sorghum to water stress were compared for better understanding of crop adaptation in drylands. Pearl millet (MBH-110) and sorghum (CSH-6) were raised in pots and were subjected to short term water stress at anthesis stage. Water stress decreased leaf water potential, rates of stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and transpirations and transpiration efficiency in flag leaves relatively more in sorghum than in pearl millet. Stomatal conductance and transpiration rates recovered quicker in pearl millet than in sorghum in 24 h after rewatering. Dry season accentuated the water stress effects. Transpiration efficiency of pearl millet was more responsive to increase in atmospheric moisture. The physiological responses explain the better adaptation of pearl millet to drier regions than of sorghum.

Glutamine synthetase activity was found to be several fold higher in the leaves of a few C3 as compared to C4 plants. Differences in NH4+ levels were marginal. Methionine sulphoximine inhibition of glutamine synthetase resulted in increased in NH4+ levels more in wheat than in sorghum. The decrease in methionine sulphoximine induced accumulation of free NH4+ by photorespiratory inhibitors, isonicotinic acid hydrazide and α-hydroxy methane pyridine sulphate was also several fold higher in wheat than in sorghum. Feeding of glycine and glycolate, intermediates of photorespiration, showed the presence of active glycine decarboxylation system in sorghum but the metabolism of glycolate was more efficient in wheat. Higher glutamine synthetase activity in C3 plants may be a necessary adaptation to a higher photorespiratory NH4+ production and explain the similar or higher N losses in C4 as compared to C3 plants. These results also support the hypothesis that glutamine synthetase is important in the assimilation of photorespiratory ammonia.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a form of public-key cryptography. This implies that there is the involvement of a private key and a public key for the purpose of cryptography. ECC can be used for a wide range of applications. The keys used are much smaller than the non-ECC cryptographic algorithms. 256 bit and 384 bit ECC are used by NSA for storage of classified intel as ECC is considered to be a part of suit B cryptography by the NSA. When it comes to normal usage, other versions of ECC are used. So, many of the applications protected by ECC are vulnerable to side channel attacks. So, the objective is to modify the existing method of implementation of ECC is some regular domains like media, smart grid, etc., such that the side-channel attacks [7], [3] vulnerabilities are fixed.

Rainfed agriculture with nearly 58% of the cultivated area is home to about 40% of human and 60% of livestock population in India and contributes 40% of the country's food production. Even after full realizing the full irrigation potential of the country, half of the cultivated area will continue to be under rainfed farming which highly dependent on monsoon rainfall. It is widely believed that increasing rainfall variability is likely to affect the livelihoods of millions of small and marginal farmers in the years to come. The National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was initiated in 2011 to primarily strengthen research to address climate change and to demonstrate proven resilient practices in most climate vulnerable parts of the country. Farmer participatory technology demonstrations are being carried out since 2011-12 in 100 vulnerable districts prone to recurrent drought, floods, and extreme weather events like cyclone, heat and cold wave. Interventions broadly fall into four modules related to natural resource management (NRM), crop, livestock and fisheries production systems and capacity building. During these three years, rainfall variability such as delayed onset and prolonged breaks in monsoon was experienced in several parts of the country. A total of 1259 NRM interventions to impact resilience through in situ soil moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting and efficient recycling were demonstrated, which resulted in a significant increase in crop yields by about 20-40% even under variable rainfall situations. Short duration, drought and flood tolerant varieties in paddy, pulses and oilseeds crops were demonstrated in about 2700 ha covering 7831 farmers with adaptation gains ranging from 10 to 31% [1,2]. Some of the climate resilient practices and technologies which have been found promising are being mainstreamed into the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), a flagship government initiative for enhancing productivity and resilience of Indian agriculture in accordance with the stated aim of the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC).