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Cosmic Ray Laboratory – TIFR, Ooty, India is operating the largest tracking muon telescope as a component of the GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS at phase – 3) experiment. The basic building blocks of the telescope are proportional counters (PRCs), a large number of which are fabricated in-house for the planned expansion of the existing muon telescope to double its area and enhance the solid angle coverage from 2.3 sr to 3.7 sr as well as achieving higher sensitivity for studying space weather and atmospheric phenomena, cosmic ray composition, etc. The existing muon telescope consists of 3712 PRCs, and after the planned expansion which requires an additional 3776 PRCs, the area of the telescope will increase from the present 560 m 2 to 1130 m 2 . Each of the PRCs will need to be individually equipped with front-end electronics for processing the output signals. The output pulses from PRCs are extremely feeble, and their charges are in the order of ∼ 100 pC. The tiny signal has to be isolated from potential sources of noise before its processing. High-performance, ultra-low noise, and cost-effective electronics are designed, developed, and mass-produced in-house for about 8000 channels of PRCs. The quality of data is improved significantly by interfacing the new electronics with PRCs of the existing muon telescope due to improved signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, and the data acquisition is made effective as a result of multifold improvement achieved by avoiding undesired interruptions in the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the frequency response-curvature methodology is commonly used to detect irregularities in mechanical and civil structures, the artificial neural network-based frequency response-curvature damage index method may have good efficacy in the detection and localization of structural damages. By utilizing experimental data sets, a novel method is proposed to pinpoint a sawcut damage location and the degree of damage in beam models. Using a dynamic data logger, the frequency response function of a beam model is obtained for altering damage levels at different positions. As frequency response data contains environmental and operational noise, the accuracy of obtained results may get reduced. To improve the accuracy by reducing the noise effect, the experimentally obtained frequency response data is trained through an artificial neural network. Using central difference approximation, the sets of trained modal data are utilized to determine the improved mode shape curvature. The curvature damage index is then obtained by using the improved mode shape curvature for different damaged scenarios to ultimately identify structural damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean is an excellent source of high quality protein and vegetable oil for human and animals. The diverse and increasing demands for soybean have created enough opportunities for breeders to improve the soybean seed composition traits influencing nutritional parameters. Protein and oil content, protein subunit composition, fatty acid composition, anti-nutritional factors etc. are some of the important seed traits that need to be improved to enhance the nutritional value of soybean as food and feed. Many studies have been carried out to modify the seed composition traits to enhance the nutritional quality of soybean. The extensive screening of worldwide soybean germplasm collections has led to the identification of many genotypes with significant variation for seed composition traits. In addition, induced mutagenesis has contributed immensely in improving the quality of soybean seeds by creating novel mutant genotypes for various seed quality traits. Gene/QTL mapping and molecular characterization of these mutants had led to elucidation of gene function and significantly increased the knowledge on molecular basis of seed composition traits. The emergence of modern biotechnological tools like siRNA and targeted mutagenesis techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 has further opened new opportunities in modifying the nutritional value of soybean. This review article provides comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge about the genetic improvement of important seed composition traits in soybean by conventional and biotechnological approaches. The article also discusses the major challenges and limitations in genetic enhancement and utilization of quality related traits in soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in water treatment industries can simultaneously offer disinfection and eradicate organic contaminants. The present work examined the direct exposure impact of various oxidative (UV, O3, and H2O2) and their eclectic combinations (UV/O3, H2O2/O3, and UV/H2O2) for the abolition of Trihalomethane (THMs) precursors. The application of the Fenton process proved to be the most effective technique for reducing TOC (85.23%) and UV254 (91.11%) than other used AOPs. Higher removal of THMs precursors found in the Fenton process may be attributed to the higher degradation potential of hydroxyl radical generated from this process than other AOPs. The deformed ferrous iron salts (Fe2+) in the Fenton reagent catalyzed the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and produced highly reactive radicals. Seasonal probabilistic lifetime cancer and non-cancer risks of THMs in males and females were also investigated in the drinking water supplies of five major cities in India. Comparative risk analysis through different pathways revealed significant risk from oral ingestion (99%), followed by inhalation exposure (0.77%) and dermal absorption (0.002%), where females were found at higher risk of cancer. Sensitivity analysis using a radar plot was also performed to identify the most influential parameter affecting the total risk of cancer. The Risk value of chloroform (CF) was highest among the THMs compound in all the WTPs for both seasons. Seasonal risk assessment revealed a higher risk of cancer in the pre-monsoon season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work focuses on a non-smooth conic semi-infinite programming problem having vanishing constraints. Using the limiting constraint qualification, we establish a necessary optimality condition for the optimization model. Subsequently, the concept of generalized convexity over cones is introduced, followed by the development of sufficient optimality conditions. Wolfe’s and Mond-Weir type dual models are also formulated for the considered semi-infinite optimization problem, and weak, strong and converse duality results are established under generalized Q-convexity/ pseudoconvexity/Q-quasiconvexity assumptions. The article incorporates numerical illustrations at appropriate places to validate the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many real-world problems, one may encounter uncertainty in the input data. The fuzzy set theory fits well to handle such situations. However, it is not always possible to determine with full satisfaction the membership and non-membership degrees associated with an element of the fuzzy set. The intuitionistic fuzzy sets play a key role in dealing with the hesitation factor along-with the uncertainty involved in the problem and hence, provides more flexibility in the decision-making process. In this article, we introduce a new ordering on the set of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and propose a simple approach for solving the fully intuitionistic fuzzy linear programming problems with mixed constraints and unrestricted variables where the parameters and decision variables of the problem are represented by intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The proposed method converts the problem into a crisp non-linear programming problem and further finds the intuitionistic fuzzy optimal solution to the problem. Some of the key significance of the proposed study are also pointed out along-with the limitations of the existing studies. The approach is illustrated step-by-step with the help of a numerical example and further, a production planning problem is also demonstrated to show the applicability of the study in practical situations. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is analyzed with the existing studies based on various computational parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuzzy support vector machine and their variants are prominent classification techniques that reduce the adverse effects of noises and outliers as compare to classical support vector machine. However, in these methods, only the distance between the training pattern and the class center is considered, and hence, the edge support vectors cannot be distinguished from noises and outliers properly. These limitations are overcome by intuitionistic fuzzy-based support vector machine which allocate two parameters (membership and non-membership degrees) to each pattern of a dataset and hence define score number based on the importance of a pattern. In this paper, an intuitionistic fuzzy proximal support vector machine for multi-category classification problems is proposed. The method significantly reduces the impacts of noises and outliers present in the dataset by assigning the intuitionistic fuzzy score function to each training point based on its location and surroundings. Moreover, the method is computationally efficient as the robust classifiers are obtained by solving the system of linear equations instead of large size quadratic programming problems. In the proposed method, using polynomial and Gaussian kernels, the hyperplanes are also developed in the feature space. The geometrical advantages of the suggested method over the existing techniques are ascertained using the simulated two-dimensional artificial dataset having three target classes. Further, extensive experimental studies on ten UCI benchmark datasets have been performed which demonstrate that the proposed algorithm predicts more precisely about future data as comparison to some well-established algorithms. Figures are also illustrated by varying different parameters involved in the model which confirms the performance of the method over the existing algorithms. Moreover, the analysis of the predictive behavior of the proposed approach is done using the Friedman test, a nonparametric alternative to the analysis of variance test at 5 % significance level. Further, the proposed method has also been applied to image classification and gesture-phase segmentation problems which confirms the efficiency and handling capabilities of the proposed algorithm in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was undertaken to examine the result of microwave pre-treatment on chickpea dehulling. The experiments were conducted at three microwave power levels (PL), 50, 70, and 90, at different five exposers from 1 to 3 minutes at the time interval of 30 seconds to evaluate chickpea dehulling with the pre-milling treatment of microwave exposure for achieving maximum dehulling yield, dhal yield, good dehulled grains in terms of quality with minimum dehulling loss. It was noted that dehulling yield improved with microwave power and exposure period. The highest dehulling yield, 71.02%, was achieved 90 PL with 2.5 minutes exposure and found maximum dhal yields, i.e., 66.40%, and minimum dehulling loss, 10.25%. So, this requirement was correct and better to get a higher dhal yield. These findings are also valuable for the pulse processing industry and fabricators for designing a continuous type pulse pre-milling treater unit. Hence, it could be highlighted that the microwave pre-milling treatment is more suitable for pulse processing like chickpea. This also presents an improvised method for pre-milling treatments for commercial adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, inter-ionic reactions involving two cations and four anions were used to model the formation of neutral ion pairs. Moreover, density functional theory technique has been used to describe the physical, chemical, and vibrational properties of the ionic liquids, containing imidazolium-based cations and different anions at functional B3LYP with a def2-SVP basis set. The chemical parameters have been investigated for different ionic liquids along with frontier orbitals "highest occupied molecular orbital" and "lowest unoccupied molecular orbital" studies. All the optimized structures of the ionic liquids did not produce imaginary frequency (i.e., imaginary frequency is zero), which validates that the structures are energetically stable. The density functional theory method provides the stability sequence for ionic liquids: [BMIM][PF6] > [EMIM][PF6] > [BMIM][TFSI] > [EMIM][TFSI] > [EMIM][Cl] > [BMIM][Cl] > [EMIM][Br] > [BMIM][Br]. Herein, [BMIM][PF6] ionic liquid has highest energy gap (4.833 eV) that means that [BMIM][PF6] is the most stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defect engineering to tune the light emission properties has been fetching lot of interest among scientific community for designing efficient optoelectronics and light-emitting diodes. Defect evolution in the trivalent ion-doped CeO2 and their dependence on the ionic radii of the trivalent dopant were probed using Rietveld refined powder X-ray diffraction, positron annihilation lifetime and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photoluminescence of Eu3+, a known structural probe, is monitored with codoping of two other trivalent ions Y3+ and La3+ whose ionic radii are on either side of Eu3+. The studies showed that smaller dopants like Y3+ create oxygen vacancies that are closely associated with Y3+ and codoping does not cause significant enhancement in asymmetry in the emission from Eu3+. At the same time, vacancies created by La3+ are not strongly associated with La3+, and due to their stronger association with Eu3+, the asymmetry in the emission is enhanced. The study shows the usefulness of emission from Eu3+ as probe in understanding the effect of different trivalent dopants using them as codopants to Eu3+. The studies are expected to help in tuning the oxygen vacancy concentration as well as their migration in CeO2 for technological applications such as catalysis, magnetism and conductors. This work highlighted role of defect engineering in tailoring the optical properties of red emitting CeO2:Eu3+ phosphor via aliovalent and contrasting Y3+ and La3+ co-dopant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The indigenous phytoseiid predatory mite Neoseiulus indicus (Narayanan and Kaur) was recorded by several Indian researchers as a predator of different species of phytophagous mites including Oligonychus indicus, Tetranychus urticae, T. neocaledonicus, T. ludeni, T. macfarleni, Polyphagotarsonemus latus and the astigmatid mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae. For the first time in the country, a simple protocol has been developed for mass rearing of N. indicus in closed units on the astigmatid mite T. putrescentiae, which in turn could be maintained on a wheat bran medium. Neoseiulus indicus has been successfully and continuously mass reared for more than four years at the ICARNBAIR, Bengaluru, India. A simple release methodology has also been developed for the mass reared predatory mites. This rearing protocol can be adopted by commercial units and also by farmers/polyhouse growers as an on-farm production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadratic programming is potentially capable of strategic decision making in real world problems. However, practical problems rarely conform to crisp parameters, and hence the prospects of these problems with inexact parameters are inevitably higher. The existing studies regarding public welfare schemes/ organizations reveal that their objectives end up as minimization of cost functions and are governed by linear or concave quadratic programming problems. The present study proposes a method that can be applied to concave type quadratic objective function subject to linear constraints with inexact parameters. A comparison is also drawn with existing methods to establish its simplicity and efficiency. Further, a numerical example is illustrated, and finally, a waste management problem is formulated and solved using the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This erratum is published because vendor overlooked corrections related to Theorems 3 to 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intuitionistic fuzzy set theory is a generalized version of classical fuzzy set theory, where membership degree of acceptance and membership degree of rejection are both measured. In the present study, we formulate a balanced transportation problem with multiple objectives having all parameters and variables as intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The problem is first reduced to a crisp multiobjective transportation problem using accuracy function on each objective function and then an algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. In the solution procedure, linear, exponential and hyperbolic membership functions are used to tackle intuitionistic fuzzy constraints related with each objective. To show the relations among the intuitionistic fuzzy transportation problem, its equivalent crisp formulation and the problems obtained by applying different membership functions, various theorems are established. Finally, two numerical examples are illustrated to clarify the steps involved in the proposed algorithm and to draw the comparison among linear, exponential and hyperbolic membership functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of cadmium selenide quantum dots (CdSe QDs) on the dielectric relaxation and material constants of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) has been investigated. Along with the characteristic Goldstone mode, a new relaxation mode has been induced in the FLC material due to the presence of CdSe QDs. This new relaxation mode is strongly dependent on the concentration of CdSe QDs but is found to be independent of the external bias voltage and temperature. The material constants have also been modified remarkably due to the presence of CdSe QDs. The appearance of this new relaxation phenomenon has been attributed to the concentration dependent interaction between CdSe QDs and FLC molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In transportation problems, the cost depends on various irresistible factors like climatic conditions, fuel expenses, etc. Consequently, the transportation problems with crisp parameters fail to handle such situations. However, the construction of the problems under an imprecise environment can significantly tackle these circumstances. The intuitionistic fuzzy number associated with a point is framed by two parameters, namely membership and non-membership degrees. The membership degree determines its acceptance level, while the non-membership measures its non-belongingness (rejection level). However, a person, because of some hesitation, instead of giving a fixed real number to the acceptance and rejection levels, may assign them intervals. This new construction not only generalizes the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy theory but also gives wider scope with more flexibility. In the present article, a balanced transportation problem having all the parameters and variables as interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers is formulated. Then, a solution methodology based on goal programming approach is proposed. This algorithm not only cares to maximize the acceptance level of the objective functions but simultaneously minimizes the deviational variables attached with each goal. To tackle the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy constraints corresponding to each objective function, three membership and non-membership functions, linear, exponential and hyperbolic, are used. Further, a numerical example is solved to demonstrate the computational steps of the algorithm, and a comparison is drawn amidst linear, exponential and hyperbolic membership functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French bean rust incited by Uromyces appendiculatus is particularly prominent in pencil type beans in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh. Effect of different systemic, non-systemic and combi fungicides were studied for the management of bean rust. Under in vitro conditions azoxystrobin, difenoconazole + azoxystrobin, pyraclostrobin + metiram, kresoxim - methyl, fluopyram + tebuconazole, trifloxystrobin + tebuconazole, propiconazole + difenoconazole resulted in cent per cent inhibition of urediniospore germination at 200 ppm concentration. Difenoconazole + azoxystrobin provided up to 96 h post-infection activity while non-systemic fungicides i.e. mancozeb and chalorothalonil were found least effective with <24 h post -infection activity under glasshouse conditions. For the management under field conditions four foliar sprays of azoxystrobin (0.1%) at 10 days interval was found most effective in reducing bean rust severity to 3.81% and increased green pod yield by >100%. For effective management of this devastating disease activities of various fungicides (strobilurins and EBI's) having different modes of action can be utilized in formulating a spray schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Pearl millet breeding programs can use this heterotic group information on seed and restorer parents to generate new series of pearl millet hybrids having higher yields than the existing hybrids. Five hundred and eighty hybrid parents, 320 R- and 260 B-lines, derived from 6 pearl millet breeding programs in India, genotyped following RAD-GBS (about 0.9 million SNPs) clustered into 12 R- and 7 B-line groups. With few exceptions, hybrid parents of all the breeding programs were found distributed across all the marker-based groups suggesting good diversity in these programs. Three hundred and twenty hybrids generated using 37 (22 R and 15 B) representative parents, evaluated for grain yield at four locations in India, showed significant differences in yield, heterosis, and combining ability. Across all the hybrids, mean mid- and better-parent heterosis for grain yield was 84.0% and 60.5%, respectively. Groups G12 B × G12 R and G10 B × G12 R had highest heterosis of about 10% over best check hybrid Pioneer 86M86. The parents involved in heterotic hybrids were mainly from the groups G4R, G10B, G12B, G12R, and G13B. Based on the heterotic performance and combining ability of groups, 2 B-line (HGB-1 and HGB-2) and 2 R-line (HGR-1 and HGR-2) heterotic groups were identified. Hybrids from HGB-1 × HGR-1 and HGB-2 × HGR-1 showed grain yield heterosis of 10.6 and 9.3%, respectively, over best hybrid check. Results indicated that parental groups can be formed first by molecular markers, which may not predict the best hybrid combination, but it can reveal a practical value of assigning existing and new hybrid pearl millet parental lines into heterotic groups to develop high-yielding hybrids from the different heterotic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing popularity of open-source platforms, software data is easily available from various open-source tools like GitHub, CVS, SVN, etc. More than 80 percent of the data present in them is unstructured. Mining data from these repositories helps project managers, developers and businesses, in getting interesting insights. Most of the software artefacts present in these repositories are in the natural language form, which makes natural language processing (NLP) an important part of mining to get the useful results. The paper reviews the application of NLP techniques in the field of Mining Software Repositories (MSR). The paper mainly focuses on sentiment analysis, summarization, traceability, norms mining and mobile analytics. The paper presents the major NLP works performed in this area by surveying the research papers from 2000 to 2018. The paper firstly describes the major artefacts present in the software repositories where the NLP techniques have been applied. Next, the paper presents some popular open-source NLP tools that have been used to perform NLP tasks. Later the paper discusses, in brief, the research state of NLP in MSR field. The paper also lists down the various challenges along with the pointers for future work in this field of research and finally the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study a nondifferentiable multiobjective fractional programming problem (MFP) in which each component of objective functions contains the support function of a compact convex set. For a differentiable function, we introduce the class of second-order (C, α, ρ, d)-V-type-I convex functions. Further, Mond–Weir- and Wolfe-type duals are formulated for this problem and appropriate duality results are proved under the aforesaid assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we have introduced a new class of higher-order (K × Q) -F-type I functions. Further, we have formulated two higher-order dual models, Wolfe and Schaible type, for a multiobjective fractional programming problem over arbitrary cones and proved appropriate duality relations under the higher-order (K × Q) -F-type I assumption. Nontrivial examples are also discussed to validate the weak duality results obtained in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • AMR Graphs are based upon PropBanks which limits them. • Deep Learning Models capture both the syntactic and semantic structure. • Requirement of large data set limits the use of Deep Learning Models. • Need of generalized framework for abstractive summaries is the need of time. Abstract Summarization, is to reduce the size of the document while preserving the meaning, is one of the most researched areas among the Natural Language Processing (NLP) community. Summarization techniques, on the basis of whether the exact sentences are considered as they appear in the original text or new sentences are generated using natural language processing techniques, are categorized into extractive and abstractive techniques. Extractive summarization has been a very extensively researched topic and has reached to its maturity stage. Now the research has shifted towards the abstractive summarization. The complexities underlying with the natural language text makes abstractive summarization a difficult and a challenging task. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the various works performed in abstractive summarization field. For this purpose, we have selected the recent papers on this topic from Elsevier, ACM, IEEE, Springer, ACL Anthology, Cornell University Library and Google Scholar. The papers are categorized according to the type of abstractive technique used. The paper lists down the various challenges and discusses the future direction for research in this field. Along with these, we have identified the advantages and disadvantages of various methods used for abstractive summarization. We have also listed down the various tools which have been used or developed by researchers for abstractive summarization. The paper also discusses the evaluation techniques being used for assessing the abstractive summaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuzziness is ever presented in real life decision making problems. In this paper, we adapt the pessimistic approach to study a pair of linear primal-dual problem under intuitionistic fuzzy (I-fuzzy) environment and prove certain duality results. We generate the duality results using exponential membership and non-membership functions to represent the decision maker's satisfaction and dissatisfaction level. Further, two numerical examples have been given. In each of these illustrations, varying the values of the shape variables in the exponential membership functions, various nonlinear optimization problems have been constructed, analyzed and solved. The duality gaps for all these optimization problems have been computed and compared with the duality gap under the linear membership function. We found that these gaps for the I-fuzzy linear primal-dual pair under the exponential membership functions are smaller as compared with the linear membership functions. The main advantage of using the exponential membership function is that it has the flexibility of altering the values of the shape parameters (as per the decision-maker's satisfaction). Finally, with the help of a suitable ranking defuzzification function, we have extended our approach to the I-fuzzy linear problem with fuzzy parameters and fuzzy constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we propose a formulation of a Mond-Weir type dual program for a multiobjective nonlinear optimization problem under fuzzy environment. To deal with the multiobjectivity in the formulation, we consider the concept of weak Pareto optimal solution in the fuzzy sense. We use the Hukuhara metric/ difference to define the distance/difference between two fuzzy numbers. Further, we establish weak and strong duality theorems under fuzzy pseudo/quasi-convexity assumptions. Moreover, we also validate these duality relations using various numerical illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histomorphological and histochemical studies were conducted on the caecal tonsils of Kadaknath fowl at different age groups from day old to more than 32 weeks of age. The proximal dilated part of the caecum considered for caecal tonsil was composed of all four histological layers. The epithelium of mucosal villi was composed of simple columnar with goblet cells. The lymphatic tissue was present in the mucosa and submucosa of the caeca in the form of diffused and encapsulated lymphatic nodules. The number and size of encapsulated lymphatic nodule was increasing with the advancement of the age. The height of the mucosal villi was decreasing with the advancement of age whereas the lumen of the caeca was increasing with the advancement of age. PAS and AMPS activity was more in younger age groups than the older groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was performed to assess genetic divergence and heterosis prediction in hybrid parents of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R Br.] using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Using 56 SSR loci, 412 alleles were detected in 147 lines with an average of 7.36 alleles per locus, and 75,007 SNP loci were detected in 117 lines. Both SSR- and SNP-based clustering and structure analysis partitioned all maintainer (B) and restorer (R) lines into two clearcut separate groups, indicating the existence of two diverse gene pools, each representing the seed and restorer parents in pearl millet. Results of analysis of molecular variance and principal coordinate analysis also showed significant diversity between B and R lines. The correlation between parental genetic distances estimated based on SSRs and SNPs was high and significant (r = 0.58, p < .01). Similar clustering pattern of hybrid parents was observed with both marker systems, although the cost of genotyping was 41% less with SNPs than with SSRs, and the ratio of loci detected with SNPs was much higher (1:364 SSR/SNP), hence the use of SNPs is indicated over SSRs for germplasm characterization. A set of 136 hybrids (including all B X B, R X R, and B X R crosses) generated crossing 17 hybrid parents (nine B lines and eight R lines) in half diallel (without reciprocal) fashion, and evaluation at two locations revealed that the correlation between genetic distance and better parent heterosis for grain yield was moderate, positive, and significant (with SSR, 0.33, p < .01; with SNP, 0.35, p < .01), hence both SSRs and SNPs were found comparable in results for heterosis prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred and sixteen forage-type hybrid parents of pearl millet were investigated in summer season for two years, the results revealed that the traits like number of tillers and leaf to stem ratio (L/S) at first cut (50 days after planting); and dry forage yield (DFY) at second cut (30 days after first cut) had high phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) values than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), hence selection will not be effective for these traits. Many of the desirable and undesirable forage quantity and quality linked traits under investigation had GCV almost equivalent to PCV, thus selection to improve those traits might be effective. High to moderate heritability coupled with high genetic advance per cent of mean (GA) was observed for plant height in both the cuts, indicating, this trait to be controlled by additive gene action and thus can be improved through selection, while, moderate heritability and high GA was observed for DFY at first cut; for green forage yield (GFY) at second cut and for total green forage yield (TGFY) from both the cuts, hence improvement in these traits will be possible through selection at later generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decision-maker often encounters a state of uncertainty as well as hesitancy due to various unpredictable factors while solving real-world optimization problems. Due to ambiguity in the decision-making process, the parameters and decision variables of an optimization model generally fail to have the exact values. To deal with such realistic uncertain conditions, the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers has been employed widely. In this article, a model of the linear fractional programming problem having multiple objectives with all the parameters and decision variables expressed as intuitionistic fuzzy numbers has been presented. To solve the problem, we first linearize the fractional model using appropriate transformations, and thereafter utilizing the accuracy function and intuitionistic fuzzy programming, the equivalent optimization model is obtained. The conflicting nature of the multiple objectives in the linearized model has been handled using the linear and exponential membership/non-membership functions applying normal, optimistic, pessimistic, and mixed approaches. Moreover, to validate the various equivalent constructions of the original problem, the underlying theorems are also proved at the relevant places. In last, a practical application related to production process in the textile industry has been constructed and solved using the proposed algorithm, and further, a comparison is drawn among various approaches to establish the efficacy of the proposed modelling and developed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published studies of silks focus on processed fibres or the optimum condition for their production. Consequently the meteorological effect on the biochemical properties of cocoon are either poorly understood or kept as closely guarded industrial secrets. Present investigation meteorological variation has influenced on the total DNA content in the fat body of different developmental stages of Bombyx mori. The maximum of 4.72 mg/mg DNA content was noticed in the fat body obtained from the adult stage at spring (25°C), while that was minimum in the fat body of adult at winter (10°C). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic diversity in the breeding materials is an essential component to improve the efficiency of any crop improvement programme. In present study, 150 seed and restorer parents were evaluated for grain yield and its component traits at two diverse agro-ecologies CCSHAU-Hisar and ICRISAT-Patancheru. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among hybrid parents for all traits. Clustering of hybrid parents clearly partitioned almost all the B- and R-lines into separate groups indicating B- and R-lines to be genetically distant from each other. Further, seed (B-lines) and restorer (Rlines) parents were found distributed in four clusters each, and hybrid parents having same plant type (having similar set of specific traits) were found in same cluster. Significant numbers of hybrid parents having common parent in their pedigrees were found in same cluster. Cluster B-IV of B-lines and cluster R-III of R-lines had higher grain yield and above average performance for other grain linked traits. Grain yield was found to have highly positive significant correlation with all the traits under study for both B- and R-lines, except for effective tillers plant-1. Stover yield followed by panicle girth and panicle length had highest positive direct effect on grain yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanization of fruit and nut harvesting is becoming increasingly important because of a significant rise in the cost of manual harvesting. This work proposes a progressive analytical approach for the design and optimization of a citrus canopy shaker harvesting machine. The approach was formulated using finite element (FE) methods to find the optimum design parameters of the machine. The design parameters were defined in terms of a configuration (or stiffness) of shaking rods and two operating parameters: shaking frequency and shaking amplitude. The formulated methodology consists of determining the properties of wood, statistical modeling of the tree limbs, developing mechanistic models, and performing optimization using FE simulations. The proposed methodology employs the response surface methodology or surrogate models to quantify the objective functions, and Pareto-optimal search techniques to find the optimum designs. Three sets of machine parameters were proposed in this study to minimize tree damage and maximize fruit removal. These optimal parameters were proposed based on the configuration and distribution of limbs and fruits in a medium-size citrus tree. The optimized tine configuration of the middle and bottom section of the canopy shaker consists of a solid rod made of polyamide reinforced with 50% long glass fibers and a hollow tube made of hardened steel in a 3:1 ratio by length. These tines, when vibrating at a high frequency of 7.8 Hz and low amplitude of 3.81 to 5.08 cm (1.5 to 2 in.) and a low frequency of 3 to 3.5 Hz and high amplitude of 13.9 to 15.2 cm (5.5 to 6 in.), provide a 25% to 30% reduction in damage to the tree limbs in the bottom and middle zones of the tree. Similarly, changes to the top sections of the canopy shaker with another set of optimized tine configurations resulted in a 40% to 45% reduction in the damage to the limbs of the top section of the tree canopy. The optimized tine configuration, thus proposed for the top section of the canopy shaker, is made of a solid rod of polyamide reinforced with 60% long glass fibers and vibrates at a frequency of 6.5 to 7.5 Hz with an amplitude of 7.6 to 8.9 cm (3 to 3.5 in.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the approaches for transmission cost allocation and centralized pool-based electricity price calculation. It is required to identify the contribution of individual generators and loads to the line flows. A study on IEEE 26 bus system has been presented in this research work for calculating transmission prices for bilateral contracts between GENCOs and DISCOs at different buses. Intelligent techniques have been applied to minimize pool prices and optimize pool generation by minimizing transmission losses. The intelligent techniques used are Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and compared with conventional ELD method. MW-mile method is used to calculate the transmission pricing. The results of these techniques are compared, which show better performance of ELD + GA technique over ELD + PSO and ELD techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) disease is one of the major diseases of soybean globally that hampers soybean productivity. In India, SMV disease is gaining importance and there is a need to breed the soybean cultivars resistant to SMV. In India, soybean cultivars resistant to SMV have been identified but source of resistance has not been characterized. Therefore, the current study was carried out to study the genetic variation at three SMV resistance loci in a set of SMV resistant and susceptible Indian soybean genotypes using the mapped SSR markers. A total of 13 SSR markers reported to be linked to three SMV resistance loci were screened on 23 soybean genotypes showing differential response to SMV disease. A total of 54 alleles were generated at 12 polymorphic SSR loci with an average of 4.5 alleles/locus. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 7 and gene diversity for the polymorphic SSR markers ranged from 0.38 to 0.77 with an average of 0.60, indicating the presence of high genetic variation in the Indian soybean genotypes at SMV resistance loci. Cluster analysis grouped the 23 soybean genotypes into three major clusters and results of the Principal Coordinate Analysis also congruent well with the cluster analysis. In the clustering, most of the genotypes were grouped as per their pedigree suggesting that they may be carrying the same SMV resistance gene. This study showed that Indian soybean genotypes have sufficient genetic variability at the three SMV resistance loci and it would be helpful in the selection of suitable parents in breeding for SMV resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azo dyes are synthetic colorants widely used in textile industry and are considered to be major contaminants in dye wastewater. Coagulation-flocculation is most preferred techniques to treat dye wastewater. A N,N-diisopropylamine-based new polymer was synthesized by polycondensation of epichlorohydrin, N,N-diisopropylamine, and ethylinediamine. The chemical and thermal properties of the polymer were investigated by FTIR, XRD, TGA, and viscosity measurements. The flocculation efficiency of the polymer was evaluated at different coagulant dose, organic load, and pH. The flocculation efficiency of this polymer was found to be higher over a pH range of 2-10 at its optimal dose of 80 mg/L. Morphological changes in the floc were studied by light and scanning electron microscopy. The zeta potential results clearly indicated that flocculation at the optimum doses is the result of charge neutralization and adsorption bridging. This study demonstrates the successful synthesis of the polymer, its excellent color removal efficiency (>98%) at lower doses, and effectiveness in dye wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents various aspects related to the durability characteristics of handmade carpets. Various kinds of materials and knots used in handmade carpet have been explained at the beginning. Then the mechanism of carpet durability has been explained with respect to mechanical and appearance aspects. The various techniques for measuring the mechanical and appearance related durability characteristics have also been presented in this article. Finally, the influence of wool fibre, yarn, and carpet structural parameters on the durability has been explained. The shortcomings in terms of durability, characterization of carpets, and scope of further research have been presented at the end of the review. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Yellow mosaic virus (YMV) disease is a serious disease which affects the black gram productivity. In this study, 10 molecular markers reported to be linked to YMV resistance in black gram and mungbean were validated on 19 diverse black gram genotypes for their utility in marker assisted selection. Three molecular markers (ISSR8111357, YMV1-FR and CEDG180) differentiated the YMV resistant and susceptible black gram genotypes. Other seven molecular markers were either monomorphic or failed to amplify the marker fragment in black gram genotypes. Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) marker ISSR8111357 and its derived Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) marker YMV1-FR amplified the respective marker fragments in all YMV resistant genotypes except DPU 88-31, IPU 02-43, IPU 94-1 and IPU 07-3. A 136-bp allele of Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) marker CEDG180 linked to YMV resistance was amplified in the aforementioned four genotypes in addition to PU 31. ISSR8111357 and CEDG180 are located on different linkage groups in the black gram genetic linkage map, suggesting that two independent resistance genes may be governing resistance to YMV in Indian black gram cultivars with marker ISSR8111357 linked to one resistance gene and marker CEDG180 linked to other resistance gene. Therefore, both markers can be used for marker assisted selection of YMV resistance. Among the resistant genotypes, PU 31 was the only genotype where both markers were amplified suggesting that PU 31 might be carrying both YMV resistance genes. Therefore, genotype PU 31 would be a valuable donor of YMV resistance and should be actively used in black gram breeding programs for incorporating YMV resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a part of the research work for the design and optimization of a fruit tree harvesting system using numerical methods. The analytical framework for the optimization is formulated based on a continuous canopy shaker that harvests citrus crops, primarily Valencia oranges (Citrus sinensis). Tree limbs are modeled analytically in the numerical based design optimization of a shaker that requires information regarding the limb configuration and properties. The objective of this study is to formulate a mathematical model to predict the configuration of primary limbs and to determine the properties of citrus wood. The tree limbs, thus proposed, are statistical prototypes or representations that account for the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentiles of actual tree limbs from random individual citrus trees. Polynomial response surface models were developed to predict sectional properties of the statistical model of the tree limbs. The distributions of the secondary branches and fruits were also predicted to model their effect on the dynamic response of the tree limbs. A three-point bending test, specific gravity test, moisture content test, and damping test were conducted on freshly cut samples of citrus wood. An elastic modulus of 8.5 GPa and modulus of rupture of 67.3 MPa were calculated from a load-deflection curve, and a density of 1450.8 kg m-3, moisture content of 42%, and damping ratio of 10.78 were measured. Although the proposed methodology was developed for a canopy shaker, it could be easily implemented for other vibratory harvesters, such as limb shakers, foliage shakers, and over-the-row harvesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shrinking fresh water resources have motivated many researchers to investigate and evaluate the use of poor quality saline water using improved irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation.Saline water application through a point drip source in the root zone adversely impact the crop due to accumulated salts. The shape of wetted soil volume has remained of great interest since the advent of drip irrigation. The accumulation of the salts is mostly found towards the outer wetted zone, the knowledge of the actual shape and size in case of a point source of drip irrigation has remained a matter of concern to researchers for the purpose of design and operation of this irrigation system could be further refined. An attempt has been made in this paper to review the works conducted and reported worldwide and specially in India to monitor and evaluate the wetting front and salt movement within it under a point source of drip irrigation. This review can guide a definite methodology to evaluate salt accumulation and its impact on crop growth as well as its mathematical modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the variability for key agronomic traits and downy mildew (DM) resistance of pear millet breeding in an illustrative context. It outlines the usefulness of the diversity in the breeding lines as a source for the non-target traits where no deliberate selections were made during the breeding process. The extensive use of germplasm from Western Africa, the primary center of diversity, in the research is also tackled.

The poor bioavailability and therapeutic response exhibited by conventional ophthalmic solutions due to rapid precorneal elimination of the drug may be overcome by the use of in situ gel forming systems that are instilled as drops into the eye and then undergo a sol-gel transition in the cul-de-sac. Hence, the purpose of the present work was to formulate and evaluate an ophthalmic delivery system for a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Ketorolac tromethamine, based on the concept of ion activated in situ gelation. The sodium alginate was used in different concentrations (0.2-2.0 % w/v) as the gelling agent in combination with tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP) (0.2-1.5 % w/v) which acted as a viscosity enhancing agent. Compatibility studies of the drug excipients were carried out using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The prepared formulations were characterized for clarity, pH, antimicrobial efficacy, drug content, in vitro drug release and stability. In vitro release studies indicated that the sodium alginate / tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP) solution retained the drug better than the sodium alginate or tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP) solutions alone. The clarity, pH and drug content of the developed formulation were found to be satisfactory. The developed formulation was therapeutically efficacious, stable, non-irritant, and provided sustained drug release over an 8-h period. The formulation with benzalkonium chloride and edetate disodium improved the rate of corneal absorption but not the extent. The developed system is an alternative to conventional ophthalmic drops, patient compliance, industrially oriented and economical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research findings of the past few decades on the cultivation of microalgae for biodiesel production from laboratory to pilot scale microalgal cultivation have translated into empirical hope of developing an eco-friendly biofuel from algae. As far as economic sustainability is concerned, harvesting of microalgae is one of the most energy extensive processes and thus a major challenge, being faced by this industry. In our study, we designed and developed a quaternary ammonium salt based cationic polymer and evaluated its effectiveness for freshwater microalgae harvesting. An epichlorohydrin-n,n-diisopropylamine-dimethylamine polymer with high viscosity (1040cps) was synthesized. The flocculation performance of this polyamine polymer was evaluated in terms of biomass recovery efficiency of microalgae (Scenedesmus sp.), its effect on lipid yield and composition. The results revealed that due to high molecular weight, the biomass recovery efficiency of the polymer was achieved >90% at a very small dose of 8mg/L whereas similar biomass recovery efficiency of chitosan and alum were achieved at 80 and 250mg/L respectively. The presence of functional quaternary amine and hydroxyl groups played an important role in electric charge neutralization of microalgal cells, hence the improved microalgal flocculation performance in comparison to the natural flocculants but not affecting the lipid yield and its composition. The approximate cost of harvesting 1kg of Scenedesmus biomass is approximately 0.5USD for the polyamine polymer whereas 50USD for chitosan. Therefore, polymer based harvesting of microalgae for low valued products such as biodiesel, polyamine based polymers would be preferred over the natural polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted at experimental farm and laboratory of Dept. of Plant Pathology of Dr. YSPUHF, Nauni, Solan Himachal Pradesh in May 2017–November 2018. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of thermal water bathas well as soil solarization on soil temperature and viability of soil borne pathogens of tomato. The disease occurs in two phases i.e. pre-emergence and post emergence that leads to severe infection and crop loss. These pathogens are more likely to influence the development of damping-off disease and their eradication remains a difficult task. Among various ecofriendly methods of disease management, soil solarization is a recourse technique and has been attempted in the present study in mulched and un-mulched beds at three depths i.e., 5, 10 and 20 cm to check the effect of soil solarization on soil temperature. Nursery beds covered with polythene mulch noticed rise in soil temperature and data was recorded for two consecutive crop seasons i.e., 2018 and 2019, where average/ mean weekly temperature was recorded in range of 35.99º to 43.87ºC and 29.25º to 41.68ºC, respectively. The highest temperature was recorded for the nursery beds with 5 cm depth and vice-versa. Overall, conclusive evidence of the survival and killing of pathogens F. oxysporum and R. solani was observed for the corresponding 10 to 20 days and 30 to 40 days schedule of the soil solarization that represents the existence of pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twin support vector machine (TSVM) is an effective machine learning tool for classification problems. However, TSVM classifier works on empirical risk principle only and also while training, each sample contributes equally, even if it is a noise or an outlier. It does not incorporate the uncertainties associated with data into modeling and hence its generalization ability declines. To address these issues, intuitionistic fuzzy regularized least square twin support vector machine having intuitionistic fuzzy network has been proposed in this paper. The non-parallel classifiers are obtained by solving two systems of linear equations only rather than the solution of two quadratic programming problems as in TSVM, which leads to speed up the training process. Moreover, the method follows both structural risk and empirical risk minimization principles. In order to de-escalate the effect of pollutant patterns, their contribution of the patterns into learning the decision function has been made according to their importance in the classification. The significance of the training patterns is measured in terms of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers based on their geometrical locations and surroundings. The method is further extended to find non-parallel decision planes in the feature space using nonlinear kernel function, which also gives rise to the solution of two systems of linear equations. To show the efficacy of the proposed method, computer simulations on fourteen standard and six big UCI datasets using linear and Gaussian kernels are performed and their results have been compared with well-established methods in the literature. The experimental results are represented in terms of accuracy, computational time, F-measure, sensitivity and specificity rates. The outcomes demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods and is also feasible for big datasets. The comparison and statistical inferences using two non-parametric: Friedman and Nemenyi tests, conclude that the proposed approach is fast and yields better generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a new scheme for damping torsional modes in a series compensated power system. The optimal control theory is applied for damping of sub-synchronous oscillations with Static Var System (SVS). The study was carried out on IEEE first benchmark model. With the application of optimal controller, Sub-Synchronous Resonance (SSR) is mitigated to the great extent. Eigenvalue analysis using a linearized system model was conducted on the test system for the prediction of system stability as well as sub-synchronous frequencies. The effectiveness of the proposed damping scheme is demonstrated by using time-domain approach based on the dynamic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Background: Tumor necrosis is visualized on CT scan as non enhancing hypodense area. Necrotic areas contain less oxygen and results in poor response of chemo-radiotherapy. Literature review (1) has shown that for hypodense lesions in head and neck cancer the complete response rate is lower than the isodense lesions. Locally advanced head and neck cancer require the addition of surgery but after a radical dose of radiation that is, 7000 cGy, surgery become difficult but there is no tool initially that can be used for selection of patients after delivery of 4500 cGy, that is the dose after which surgery can be performed without much difficulty. The hypothesis is that, hypodense lymph nodes even when they are small will show less response to various schedules of chemoradiotherapy so hypodensity of lymph nodes can be used as a tool to select patient, who will go for surgery after initial 4500 cGy of radiotherapy. Surgery is usually performed 2 to 3 weeks after radiotherapy, so primary can be treated to full dose while the skin in region of lymph nodes radiation field will recover from acute radiation reaction. Correlation of C T density patterns of lymph nodes in head and neck cancer patients with treatment results when two different chemoradiotherapy schedules are used is studied. Materials and Methods: Eighty three patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer were treated with two schedules of concurrent chemoradiotherapy prospectively from August 2010 to July 2011. CT Scans of the entire neck region including primary were performed. An iodine based contrast material (150 ml) was injected intravenously starting with a bolus of 50ml (3ml/s), followed by a slow (1ml/s) infusion of the remaining dose. The total tumor volume of the primary and involved neck nodes was calculated as a cuboid volume using maximum dimension in each plane: Vc= (a x b x c). Nodal density was graded. Results and Conclusion: No statistically significant association between recovery and CT density was found (X2 = 0.306; P > 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double perovskite type compounds of the formula BaA'LaTeO6 (A' = Na, K, Rb) were synthesized by solid state route and their crystal structures were determined by Rietveld analysis using powder X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction data. Na compound crystallizes in the monoclinic system with P21/n space group whereas, K and Rb compounds crystallize in Fm3m space group. All the three compounds show rock salt type ordering at B site. Crystal structure analysis shows that La ion occupies A site in Na compound whereas, it occupies B site in K and Rb compounds according to the general formula of AA'BB'O6 for a double perovskite type compound. Effect of this crystallographic site swapping of the La ion was also observed in the photoluminescence study by doping Eu3+ in La3+ site. The large decrease in the intensity of the electric dipole (5D0-7F2) transition in the Rb compound compared to the Na compound indicates that Eu3+ ion resides in the centrosymmetric octahedral environment in the Rb compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]