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Vegetables are important constituents of Indian agriculture and nutritional security of the people. India no doubt has diverse agro-climatic conditions with distinct seasons that are supportive for growing a wide range of vegetables and offers a lot of potential to enhance their production by adopting innovative technologies. Despite largest irrigation network in India, irrigation efficiency is merely 40% and water and nutrient use efficiencies are very low. Also bringing more area under irrigation will largely depend upon the efficient use of water and other resources. In this context, micro irrigation with fertigation especially in vegetable crops has proven a win-win technology in enhancing water and nutrient use efficiencies and in turn higher yield potential thereby achieving the prime objective of 'more crop per drop'. The technology provides precise water control, dissolved fertilizers, application facilities and thus more resilient and cost effective. Moreover, mulching along with drip irrigation and fertigation add feather to this technology by controlling weed population and increasing overall efficiency of the system. Mulching insulates the soil, provides a buffer from cold and hot temperature, reduce deterioration and erosion of soil and also checks water evaporation. This review presents the finding of various researchers involving the influence of drip irrigation, fertigation and mulching on different vegetable crops. It is evident from the studies that drip fertigation practice alone or in combination with mulching offer a huge potential in enhancing crop yields, quality, growth, water and nutrient saving in comparison with other conventional tools of irrigation and fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted with the objectives of evaluating the effect of drip irrigation and fertigation levels on soil water retention, water use efficiency, and productivity of broccoli. The treatments comprised of (a) two-drip irrigation levels, namely, I0.4 – Drip at 40% Cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) and I0.8 – Drip at 80% CPE (b) Four fertigation levels, namely, F50 – 50% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), F100 – 100% RDF, F150 – 150% RDF and F200 – 200% RDF (c) Farmer's practice – FYM @ 1 kg m−2 + 10 g m−2 IFFCO + 2 g L−1 of 19:19:19 at 15-day intervals and drip irrigation @ 2 L m−2 daily (d) Recommended Practice (RP)- 100% RDF + drip at 100% CPE replicated thrice. Results indicated that the soil moisture increased with increase in drip irrigation level from I0.4 to I0.8 with very less depletion rate per day resulting in the soil moisture content near the field capacity in all drip irrigated treatments. Among the drip fertigation treatments, higher fertigation doses (200% RDF and 150% RDF in combination with 40 and 80% CPE) produced more yield but also resulted in high cost of cultivation, which leads to low benefit cost ratio. However, fertigation treatment I0.8F50 resulted in high benefit cost ratio with higher water use efficiency and fertilizer expense efficiency, which further saved water and fertilizers to the tune of 20 and 50% as compared to recommended practice to maintain same yield levels in broccoli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Metal ion doped titanium oxide (TiO2) thin films, as bioactive coatings on metal or other implantable materials, can be used as surfaces for studying the cell biological properties of osteogenic and other cell types. Bulk crystallite phase distribution and surface carbon–oxygen constitution of thin films, play an important role in determining the biological responses of cells that come in their contact. Here we present a strategy to control the polarity of atomic interactions between the dopant metal and TiO2 molecules and obtain surfaces with smaller crystallite phases and optimal surface carbon–oxygen composition to support the maximum proliferation and adhesion of osteoblast cells. Our results suggest that surfaces, in which atomic interactions between the dopant metals and TiO2 were less polar, could support better adhesion, spreading and proliferation of cells. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cancer progression is a multistep process during which normal cells exhibit molecular changes that culminate into the highly malignant and metastatic phenotype, observed in cancerous tissues. The initiation of cell transformation is generally associated with genetic alterations in normal cells that lead to the loss of intercellular- and/or extracellular-matrix- (ECM-) mediated cell adhesion. Transformed cells undergo rapid multiplication and generate more modifications in adhesion and motilityrelated molecules which allow them to escape from the original site and acquire invasive characteristics. Integrins, which are multifunctional adhesion receptors, and are present, on normal as well as transformed cells, assist the cells undergoing tumor progression in creating the appropriate environment for their survival, growth, and invasion. In this paper, we have briefly discussed the role of ECM proteins and integrins during cancer progression and described some unique conditions where adhesion-related changes could induce genetic mutations in anchorage-independent tumor model systems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anchorage independent growth is an important hallmark of oncogenic transformation. Previous studies have shown that when adhesion dependent fibroblasts were prevented from adhering to a substrate they underwent anoikis. In the present study we have demonstrated how anoikis resistant cells gain the transformation related properties with sequential selection of genes. We have proposed this process as a model system for selection of transformed cells from normal cells. Results: This report demonstrates that some fibroblasts can survive during late stages of anoikis, at which time they exhibit transformation-associated properties such as in vitro colony formation in soft agar and in vivo subcutaneous tumour formation in nude mice. Cytogenetic characterisation of these cells revealed that they contained a t (2; 2) derivative chromosome and they have a selective survival advantage in non adherent conditions. Gene expression profile indicated that these cells over expressed genes related to hypoxia, glycolysis and tumor suppression/metastasis which could be helpful in their retaining a transformed phenotype. Conclusion: Our results reveal some new links between anoikis and cell transformation and they provide a reproducible model system which can potentially be useful to study multistage cancer and to identify new targets for drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), inorganic phosphorus (P), and irrigation regimes was studied in an okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)–pea (Pisum sativum) cropping system in an acidic Alfisol. Experimentation was carried out at Palampur, India, in a randomized bock design (RBD), replicated three times with fourteen treatments comprising AM fungi (Glomus mosseae), inorganic phosphorus (50, 75, and 100% soil-test-based recommended P dose), irrigation regimes (at 40 and 80% available water capacity), generalized recommended NPK and irrigations (GRD), and farmers’ practice. Effects of AM fungi on plant height, leaf area index (LAI), and dry-matter accumulation (DMA) were nominal at early crop growth stage, i.e., 50 DAS (days after sowing). However, at 100 DAS, AMF imbedded treatments led to higher plant height (4%), LAI (3%), and DMA (6%) in okra, whereas in pea the magnitude of increase in these parameters following AMF inoculation was 6, 5, and 8%, respectively, over non-AMF counterparts. AMF + 75% soil-test-based P dose at either of these irrigation regimes gave statistically similar yields in both okra and pea as that obtained under 100% soil-test-based P dose at either of two irrigation regimes, thus indicating an economy of about 25% in soil-test-based P dose. Regarding nutrient harvest index in okra and pea, statistically similar values were registered with most nutrients under both AMF inoculated and non-AMF counterparts. In the case of okra, P harvest index was registered less by 3% with AMF inoculation; however, its magnitude increased by 3% in pea following AMF inoculation compared to non-AMF counterparts at similar levels of P and irrigation. At completion of two cycles of okra-pea system, AMF imbedded treatments did not alter available soil nutrient status significantly in comparison to non-AMF counterparts. Overall, current study suggests that practice of AMF inoculation has great potential in enhancing growth parameters for better productivity, fertilizer-P economy, and nutrient harvest efficiency in okra-pea production system in Himalayan acidic Alfisol. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: A simple technique of applying porous (2–15μm pore diameter) bi-layered vitreous coatings with phosphate free bioactive glass (PFBG) on surgical grade SS316L substrates by conventional spray coating method is demonstrated. The adhesion strength of the topmost porous layer (55μm thick) of PFBG to the underlying SS316L substrate was improved by providing an impervious 10–15μm thick PFBG glass interface on the clean, sand blasted substrate surface. The thermal expansion coefficient of the PFBG glass composition was tailored to match the thermal properties of the metallic substrate. The adhesion strength was 160N for the impervious layer (layer 1) and 128N for the porous coating (layer 2). The tensile strength for the top layer (layer 1) against the bottom layers was ~31.2Nmm−2. The melting temperature of the glass (PFBG) was found to be ~800°C from the differential thermal analysis study. The thermal expansion coefficient of the glass was matching to that of the metallic substrate (SS 316L). In vitro cytotoxicity (ISO-10993-5, 1999) using the MC3T3 cell line exhibited excellent cellular response and cell viability. Cell adhesion tests indicated acceptable adhesion properties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]