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Gel assemblies of functional nanoparticles, reversibly associated into percolating networks using bifunctional linking molecules, offer promise as versatile materials platforms. Molecular linkers can be customized to template interparticle spacing and modify colloidal network attributes, enabling design for structure-dependent properties. Mechanical properties of gels are commonly studied by molecular simulation, but simulating the optical response of large-scale, disordered assemblies has been computationally intractable, limiting our understanding of light-matter interactions in structurally complex plasmonic networks. Here, we use a recently developed mutual polarization method, capable of predicting optical properties for large disordered configurations of spherical particles, together with an experimentally-informed coarse-grained model to study the behavior of plasmonic linker gels. The simulation results demonstrate how blends of short and long linkers with the same average molecular weight can be chosen to deliberately modulate structure-dependent near- and far-field spectral features of the colloidal gel, while preserving gel mechanical properties. Linker selection can also be used to prepare gel networks with qualitatively different mechano-optical responses. The structural changes occurring under strain shed light on possible origins of experimentally observed red- and blue-shifting of optical extinction of plasmonic nanocomposites under uniaxial extension.

Applying very small purely radial strains on amorphous solids in radial geometry one observes elastic responses that break the radial symmetry. Without any plasticity involved, the responses indicate mode coupling contributions even for minute strains. We show that these symmetry-breaking responses are due to disorder, typical to amorphous configurations. The symmetry-breaking responses are quantitatively explained using the classical Michell solutions which are excited by mode coupling.

To develop low-ODAP grass pea genotypes with high protein content, in vitro tissue culture techniques were used for inducing somaclonal variation through internode explants that was cultured on B5 medium containing 2 mg L− l α-naphthaleneacetic acid and 1 mg L− l 6-benzylaminopurine of 19 grass pea genotypes. The selected somaclones (R3 and R4 generations) were evaluated for variation in ODAP, protein, and quantitative agronomic traits. The results showed statistically significant (P

Amorphous solids under mechanical strains are prone to plastic responses. Recent work showed that in amorphous granular system these plastic events, that are typically quadrupolar in nature, can screen the elastic response. When the density of the quadrupoles is high, the gradients of the quadrupole field act as emergent dipole sources, leading to qualitative changes in the mechanical response, as seen for example in the displacement field. In this paper we examine the effect of screening in classical glass formers. These are made of point particles that interact via binary forces. Both inverse power law forces and Lennard-Jones interactions are examined, and it is shown that in both cases the elastic response can be strongly screened, in agreement with the novel theory. The degree of deviation from classical elasticity theory is parameterized by a proposed new measure that is shown to have a functional dependence of on the amount of energy lost to plastic responses., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2111.11198

Salinity is a major limiting factor for early crop establishment and yield. In this study, 131 Brassica napus genotypes were evaluated for germination and early seedling growth in Murashige & Skoog medium supplemented with NaCl. Selected genotypes were then evaluated for tolerance to salinity at the vegetative and reproductive stages in greenhouse and semi-hydroponic systems using 1.4, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 28 dS m−1 salt stress. Relative salt tolerance (RST) was calculated and compared with genotype performance under no salt stress (control). The area under the germination progress curve (AUGPC) varied from 53 to 90 in the control and from 6 to 89 under 200 mmol L−1 NaCl stress. The seedling vigor index (SVI) ranged from 200 to 1606 and 10 to 736 in the control and 200 mmol L−1 salt stress treatments, respectively. The RST for germination, root length, shoot length, and SVI ranged from 8% to 97.7%, 2% to 98.3%, 6.5% to 70.8%, and 1.9% to 83%, respectively. Root length was most severely affected by saline conditions, followed by shoot length and AUGPC, when RST percentages of these traits were compared among responses of the 131 genotypes. Genotypes showed varying levels of proline and glucosinolate accumulation under different levels of saline stress. Greater accumulation of proline and glucosinolates was recorded with increased salinity level. This study indicates that variation exists in seedling and adult plant responses to saline stress in B. napus genotypes and that improvement for salinity tolerance requires selection at the seedling, vegetative, and reproductive plant stages.

The crop productivity in calcareous soils is low due to their low organic matter content, high pH levels and improper nutrient management without considering the indigenous nutrient supplying capacity and crop yield potential; therefore, this study was conducted for a quantitative assessment of the nutrient supplying capacity of a calcareous soil on the productivity of hybrid and conventional rice and maize crops using an omission plot technique. The treatments included the ample application of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Sulphur (S) and Zinc (Zn), and an unfertilized check and omissions of N, P, K, S and Zn in rice and maize for six cropping seasons. The impact of the nutrient omission towards crop productivity was highest for nitrogen followed by phosphorous, potassium, zinc and sulphur. The total grain yield (3 yr average) in the hybrid rice–maize system was highest (16.32 t ha−1) for the optimum fertilized plot and lowest (6.34 t ha−1) for the unfertilized check. The sustainable yield index indicated that hybrid and conventional rice-maize cropping systems were more sustainable in the amply fertilized plot than in the nutrient-limited and unfertilized treatment plots. The average percent contributions of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium from the soil towards total nutrient removal were 36, 80 and 137 kg ha−1, in the hybrid system and 24, 54 and 104 kg ha−1 in the conventional system, respectively. The return on investment (ROI) of the N, P, K, S and Zn for the hybrid rice was 21.2, 7.1, 6.7, 4.1, and 0.3 USD, respectively, while for the maize it was 28.8, 7.6, 4.9, 6.5, and 0.7 USD, respectively. The results suggest that there is a direct link between the soil nutrient supplying capacity and the nutrient requirements by different types of crops in calcareous soil; therefore, the omission plot technique used for the assessment of the indigenous nutrient supplying capacity could be used in the larger domain for improved nutrient management, through synchronization with a targeted crop yield for improved productivity, soil fertility, nutrient use efficiency and farm income.

From 2005 to 2020, the application of hydraulic fracturing technology in India has touched the length and breadth of the country in almost every basin and reservoir section. The variety of reservoirs and operating environment present in India governed this evolution over the past 15 years resulting in a different fit for purpose fracturing strategy for each basin varying from conventional single-stage fracturing (urban, desert & remote forested regions) to high volume multi-stage fracturing, deepwater frac-packs and offshore ultra-HPHT fracturing. The objective of this paper is to present the milestones along this evolution journey for hydraulic fracturing treatments in India from 2005 to 2020.This paper begins with a review of published industry literature from 2005 to 2020 categorized by reservoir type and the proven economical techno-operational fracturing strategy adopted during that period. The milestones are covered chronologically since the success or failure of technology application in one basin often influenced the adoption of novel hydraulic fracturing methods in other basins or by other operators during the initial years. The offshore evolution is branched between the west and the east coasts which have distinctly different journeys and challenges. The onshore evolution is split into 5 categories: Cambay onshoreBarmer Hills & Tight GasEast India CBM and shale gasAssam-Arakan BasinOnshore KG BasinEach of these regions is at different stages of evolution. The Barmer region is in the most advanced state of evolution with frac factories in place while the Assam-Arakan Basin is in a relatively nascent stage. Figure 1 presents estimated hydraulic stage count based on published literature underlining the exponential growth in hydraulic fracturing activity in India.This paper enlists the technical and operational challenges present in the onshore and offshore categories mentioned above along with the identified novel techno-operational strategies which have proven to be successful for various operators in India. A comparison is presented of the different timelines of the exploration-appraisal-development journey for each region based on the economic viability of fracturing solutions available today in the Industry. Lastly, specific non-technical challenges related to available infrastructure, logistics and social governance are discussed for each region.This paper concludes by identifying the next step-change in the evolution of hydraulic fracturing operations in India among the 5 categories. Each of Government, operators and service providers have important roles to play in expanding the adoption of this technology in India. These roles are discussed for each identified category with the perspective of continuing the country's journey towards energy security.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have gained considerable attention, with growing interest in various areas and applications. The backbone of an AI-based application is its capability to support a distributed architecture and environment. AI- and IoT-based health care systems require complex learning, planning, and decision making due to large-scale computation and spatial distribution of computing resources. Distributed AI solves this problem by distributing the task to autonomous processing nodes also called agents. This chapter focuses on the history of AI, challenges of AI, and the necessity of integration with a distributed computing environment. Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) relies on multiagent systems to distribute problem-solving over a set of autonomous processing nodes. Finally, an application of DAI in order to deliver effective solutions to real-time problems is offered.

The Triassic–Jurassic petroleum system reserves in Krishna Godavari Basin are found at 3500 to 4500 m depth with bottomhole static temperature (BHST) ranging from 270 to 340°F. Hydraulic fracturing is required to produce economically from these wells because the in-situ permeability of these sands is in the range of ~ 0.01 md. Hence, after perforations, minimal production is observed or the flash production from these wells dies out in a short time span. Between 2010 and 2017, several appraisal wells were drilled and completed using hydraulic fracturing in the onshore Krishna Godavari Basin. However, the success rate of effective fracture placement and sustained production enhancement due to hydraulic fracturing was limited. This was attributed to insufficient understanding of rock mechanical properties and lack of a refined fluid fracturing system despite using a superior fluid system like carboxymethyl hydroxypropyl guar (CMHPG) with organometallic zirconate-based crosslinkers. In 2018, nine wells were successfully hydraulically fractured, and sustained production from these wells was established using a simple borate-based crosslinked fluid system. A key change for the field was rather than designing and pumping fracturing fluid based on only BHST, one of the critical components that led to better proppant placement is the stable fracturing fluid that was fine tuned for the well based on factors like change of source water, tubular shear exposure time for designed fracturing treatment pumping rate, and hydrocarbon properties. This combination of rock mechanical properties and fracturing fluids used is captured as the efficiency of the fluid system, and this governed the usage of fluid loss additives, again a novel introduction for the field. Finally, the key to producing these sands was adequate cleanup and minimal guar residue to maximize the proppant pack conductivity. The paper also discusses the strategy to design fluids with minimal guar loading to reduce polymer retention and to achieve maximum fracture fluid recovery. This robust management of fracturing fluids along with understanding of rock mechanical properties can be seen in the post-fracturing production results.

The novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed a serious threat to global public health. Respiratory failure followed by cardiovascular complications with wide-spread endothelial dysfunction and inflammation is rapidly emerging as a key threat in COVID-19. ACE-2 receptors are the cell-entry gate for SARS-CoV-2. Valproic Acid (VPA) is a proposed potential drug to treat COVID-19 but its mechanism of action is not well understood. We demonstrate that VPA-treatment significantly reduced ACE-2 expression in endothelial cells. VPA-treatment significantly reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 along with the endothelial activation marker ICAM-1. We provide evidence and discuss the plausible mechanism in detail for VPA use to prevent and treat COVID-19 in a personalized manner. Our study is expected to entice the scientific and clinical society to investigate VPA as a potential therapeutic option against COVID-19.

International audience; This study was conducted to identify stable resistance to net form of net blotch (NFNB) in spring barley in Moroccan environments. Seedling resistance to NFNB was evaluated by inoculating 336 barley genotypes with two NFNB isolates LDNH04Ptt-19 and TD-10 in the greenhouse. These genotypes were evaluated for adult plant resistance to NFNB under seven environments in Morocco in 2015 and 2016. The disease severity was estimated at GS 77-87 on barley leaves using a double-digit scale. To investigate stability of resistance, 149 barley genotypes were subjected to AMMI analysis. At the seedling stage, differential responses of barley genotypes to different NFNB isolates were identified, whereas genotypes had variable stability to NFNB resistance at the adult stages. Five genotypes, AM-68, AM-95, AM-250, AM-267 and AM-322, were resistant to both NFNB isolates at the seedling stage. There were significant (p < .001) effects of genotype (G) and G x E interaction on NFNB severity for barley genotypes at the adult stage. The principal components, IPCA1 and IPCA2, accounted for 48.4% and 18.7% variation for NFNB severity, respectively. The AMMI stability values (ASVs) ranged from 0.01 to 15.5, and fifty-nine barley genotypes had stable responses (ASV

Due to the increasing population and industrialization of nations, waste management has become a challenging issue for all of us. A small scale waste management is also adding same potential as large scale waste management. IoT and machine learning based waste management system for residential society are aimed to enhance the same concern as the waste management of smart city. This paper employs on monitoring of various dustbins located at different residential societies. Dustbin is equipped with sensors which monitors for dustbin capacity, metal level and poisonous gas level. The machine learning classification technique such as SVM, NB, RF, DT and KNN are used to test their ability to predict the accuracy of sending alert messages to third party in order to manage the waste of the society. In addition, results suggest that RF algorithm produced the most accurate forecasts of the alert message. The accuracy of RF algorithm is 85.29 %. The overall impact of this research is in the upliftment of the green technologies by reducing pollution of the smart city.

The aims of this study were to identify resistance to spot form of net blotch (SFNB) in spring barley and to investigate the stability of SFNB resistance in Morocco. The seedling resistance to SFNB was evaluated by inoculating 340 barley genotypes with the Pyrenophora teres F. maculata (Ptm) isolate FGOB10Ptm-1 (FGO) in the greenhouse. The same barely genotypes were evaluated for adult-stage plant resistance to SFNB in field trials in Morocco. All experiments were conducted in alpha-lattices with two replicates. SFNB disease severity was estimated on barley leaves using double digit scale. To investigate the stability of both qualitative and quantitative resistance to SFNB, 104 barley genotypes were subjected to AMMI analysis. Differential responses of SFNB barley resistance to FGO were found at the seedling stage in the greenhouse. Twelve genotypes showing scores of

A careful examination of the Quasi-Localized Modes (QLMs) that exist in a generic atomistic model of a glass former reveals at least two types of them, each exhibiting a different density of states, one depending on the frequency as and the other as . The properties of the glassy energy landscape that is responsible for the two types of modes is examined here, explaining the analytic feature responsible for the creations of (at least) two families of QLMs. It is argued that the QLMs that are revealed by diagonalizing the Hessian matrix are not related to possibly existing Two-Level Systems (TLS).

Coefficient of variation (CV) plays an important role in statistical practice; however, its sampling distribution may not be easy to compute. In this paper, the distributional properties of the sample CV from an inverse Gaussian distribution are investigated through transformations. Specifically, the symmetrizing transformation as outlined in Chaubey and Mudholkar (1983), that requires numerical techniques, is contrasted with the explicitly available variance stabilizing transformation (VST). The symmetrizing transformation scores very high as compared to the VST, especially in a power family. The usefulness of the resulting approximation is illustrated through a numerical example.

Background: Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important pulse crop for food, feed and sustainable crop production systems in Ethiopia. Despite its advantages in nutrition and adaptability to harsh climate and low fertile soil, it contains a neurotoxin, β-N-oxalyl-α,β-diamiono propionic acid (β-ODAP), which paralyses the lower limbs and is affected by genotypic and agronomic factors. To determine the effect of zinc application and planting date on yield and β-ODAP content of two genotypes, experiments were conducted in two regions of Ethiopia.; Results: The main effects of variety, sowing date and zinc and their interactions were significant (P < 0.001) for β-ODAP and seed yield, which had a linear relationship with zinc. For the improved grasspea variety, an application of 20 kg ha-1 zinc showed a reduction of β-ODAP from 0.15% to 0.088% at Debre Zeit and 0.14% to 0.08% at Sheno and increased its yield from 841 kg ha-1 to 2260 kg ha-1 at Debre Zeit and from 715 to 1835 kg ha-1 at Sheno. Early sowing showed a reduction in ODAP content in relation to the late sowing.; Conclusion: An application of Zn beyond even 20 kg ha-1 with an early sowing is recommended for the improved variety. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Stephen Hawking gave a formula for the temperature of black holes as given by . Some of the black holes have their spinning velocity from 50% to 99% of the velocity of light. Due to this velocity, the mass of black holes will vary which cause the variation in the temperature of black holes. In the present research article, we have applied the variation of mass with velocity to obtain the rate of change in temperature of the black holes with respect to velocity. We have also calculated their values for super dense stars like black holes existing in XRBs and AGN and concluded that for super dense stars like black holes of lower velocity as well as the velocity comparable to the velocity of light, the rate of change in temperature with respect to velocity is directly proportional to their velocities. This work will help us to find out the variation in temperature of different black holes spinning with different velocity percentage related to light speed and can be used as the references for other research works.

Amorphous solids display a ductile to brittle transition as the kinetic stability of the quiescent glass is increased, which leads to a material failure controlled by the sudden emergence of a macroscopic shear band in quasi-static protocols. We numerically study how finite deformation rates influence ductile and brittle yielding behaviors using model glasses in two and three spatial dimensions. We find that a finite shear rate systematically enhances the stress overshoot of poorly-annealed systems, without necessarily producing shear bands. For well-annealed systems, the non-equilibrium discontinuous yielding transition is smeared out by finite shear rates and it is accompanied by the emergence of multiple shear bands that have been also reported in metallic glass experiments. We show that the typical size of the bands and the distance between them increases algebraically with the inverse shear rate. We provide a dynamic scaling argument for the corresponding lengthscale, based on the competition between the deformation rate and the propagation time of the shear bands., 12 pages, 8 figures

Development of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) varieties with low seed anti-nutritional factor, β-N-Oxalyl-L-α, β-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP) content but with high seed protein content would be beneficial for human consumption. In this study, a total of 702 germplasm accessions, from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, were grouped into seven sets of trials based on their origin, and evaluated for seed ODAP content and seed protein content at two experimental sites, Tel Hadya and Breda over eight years. Significant genotypic differences were found for both the traits in all the germplasm sets except for seed ODAP content in BANG1 and ETH1. The effects associated with genotype × year within locations interactions were larger than genotypic effects for seed protein content in all the germplasm sets except ICARDA and for seed ODAP content in all the sets except ICARDA and PAK. The highest range was found for seed protein content (28.82-30.72%) in ICARDA germplasm set and for seed ODAP content in ETH2 (0.32-0.47%) and PAK (0.38-0.53%) germplasm sets. On the basis of best linear unbiased predictor values, new promising sources with low seed ODAP content such as ILG468, ILG1934, ILG1950 and ILG1951 and for high protein content such as ILG311, ILG670, ILG688, ILG691 and ILG708 and were identified for future grass pea breeding.

It was recently demonstrated that a simple Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm involving the swap of particle pairs dramatically accelerates the equilibrium sampling of simulated supercooled liquids. We propose two numerical schemes integrating the efficiency of particle swaps into equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We first develop a hybrid MD/MC scheme combining molecular dynamics with the original swap Monte Carlo. We implement this hybrid method in LAMMPS, a software package employed by a large community of users. Secondly, we define a continuous time version of the swap algorithm where both the positions and diameters of the particles evolve via Hamilton's equations of motion. For both algorithms, we discuss in detail various technical issues as well as the optimisation of simulation parameters. We compare the numerical efficiency of all available swap algorithms and discuss their relative merits., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures

The restricted maximum likelihood method was used to assess performance following the introduction of improved varieties of chickpea and mungbean (an important source of plant protein in Afghanistan) as compared to local varieties using 242 farmer participatory demonstrations laid out in eight districts in Baghlan, Balkh and Uruzgan provinces in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012. The impact of the varieties introduced on the enhancement of security of food and nutrition of farmers adopting such technologies was also assessed. Taking an average over the study period, chickpea improved varieties (Madad and Sehat) recorded 56 and 72 % more yield over the local ones, respectively, while in case of mungbean varieties, Mai 2008 and Maash 2008 recorded 22 and 30 % more yield over local ones respectively. Though there is a significant yield difference between the improved and the local varieties of both crops, the difference between the improved varieties of chickpea was not significant while it was significant in the case of mungbean. The study revealed a non-zero variance component for variety type [improved vs. local] × year within district interaction for the yield of chickpea while none of the interactions in mungbean had a positive variance component. Risk analysis showed that at a chosen probability level of 90 %, the improved varieties yielded more than local varieties in both crops (> 1.0 t ha−1). Thus, the study highlighted the scope for enhancing the security of both food and nutrition in Afghanistan through improved productivity of pulse crops.

The Mandapeta-Malleswaram field in India comprises Triassic-Jurassic age sands found at 4000m– 4500m depth, where reservoir pressure ranges 6,000 psi to 9,500psi with static temperature up to 340°F. This tectonically active basin with strike slip stress regime causes a heterogeneous distribution of in-situ stress which complicates the design and execution of effective hydraulic fracturing treatments. Previous attempts at fracturing from 2013 to 2017 were not successful and geomechanics inputs were different from actual values. This paper describes the lifecycle of a production enhancement project, from construction of a geomechanics-enabled mechanical earth model (MEM) to the successful design and execution of fracturing jobs on nine wells increasing proppant placement by 250% compared to previous hydraulic fracturing campaign and achieving 730% incremental gain in gas production compared to pre- fracturing production. Challenges like fracture modeling in tectonically stressed formations, issues of proppant admittance, and complicated fracture plane growth in highly deviated wells (>65°) were overcome by Geomechanical modeling. The modeling incorporated advanced 3D anisotropy measurements, providing better estimation of Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and horizontal stresses, resulting in realistic estimation of closure and breakdown pressure. Fault effects were modeled and taken into consideration for perforation depth selection and estimation of pumping pressure with model update based on extensive Minifrac injections and analysis. This study describes the results of injection tests (step rate, pump in-flowback, and calibration injection tests) carried out in the field addressing specific challenges in each well. Pre frac diagnostic injection and decline analysis was used to calibrate the MEM and tailor the design for every well. Proper job preparation for well completions and extensive stability testing involving a borate-based fluid system has reduced the screen out risk and enabled successful fracture placement. Effective pressure management on the job eliminated the problem with frequent screen outs and led to successful execution of all nine jobs while increasing the average job size from 30 t to ~150 t of proppant per stage. From this project, a practical guide to address issues of multiple complexities occurring simultaneously in a reservoir, such as the presence of tectonic stress, fracture misalignment, fissure mitigation, and high tortuosity was developed for future application in tectonically complex fields.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is an important cereal crop for its high demand for grain feed and forage/grazing for the animals as well as for human food in the WANA region under the low rainfall situations and thus creating an urgent need for developing high yielding barley genotypes. A total of 542 hulled and hulless genotypes with seven checks were evaluated at three locations with diverse agro-ecological conditions, Terbol in Lebanon and Marchouch and Allal Tazi in Morocco. The aim of this study was to understand the nature of genotype × environment interaction (GEI), quantify the genotypic variability and identify high yielding genotypes. The mixed models were fitted to evaluate heritability and predicted means to identify genotypes with specific adaptation to the locations using GGE-biplot. GEI across locations was significant for days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, spike length and grain yield. On a trial-wise analysis, days to maturity was most heritable (49 – 50% broad sense heritability on mean basis) while the grain yield was the least (5 – 13%). The genotype G427 (4812 kg/ha) at Marchouch, the check VMorales (4889 kg/ha) at Allal Tazi and G528 (6995 kg/ha) at Terbol were the highest yielding genotypes. Several hulled and hulless genotypes with higher grain yield and early flowering time in the three environments were identified for utilization by the national programs globally. The test locations, Marchouch and Allal Tazi, were found comprising one mega environment while Terbol showed maximum discrimination of genotypes for grain yield.

This study was conducted to understand the adoption of improved technologies and cultivation practices in rice production in Bihar. The study is based on the high-frequency field-level data being collected under ICAR-ICRISAT project on village dynamics studies in South Asia. The findings of the study show that the adoption of modern technology is directly related to the size of holding. The inverse relationship between productivity and farm size has ceased to operate in recent years. This study reaffirms this trend. The study suggests for designing appropriate and implementable agrarian policies with strong monitoring and evaluation framework to accelerate the speed of adoption of modern technologies to enhance rice productivity in eastern India in general and Bihar in particular.

Faba bean is one of the oldest crops that originated in the Fertile Crescent and is now distributed around the world and produced under different agro-climatic conditions. It is mainly cultivated in high rainfall and irrigated areas which are favorable for the development of foliar diseases causing severe crop losses. The purpose of this study was to identify new sources of resistance to the three key foliar diseases. A total of 2000 accessions, breeding lines and populations were screened for resistance to chocolate spot, Ascochyta blight and rust diseases from 2005 to 2012, at Lattakia Station, Syria. A total of 30 lines combining Ascochyta blight, chocolate spot and rust resistance were identified from accessions collected from China, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon and Spain. These new sources of resistance will enhance the development of faba bean breeding lines with combined resistance to the three foliar diseases.

While perfect crystals may exhibit a purely elastic response to shear all the way to yielding, the response of amorphous solids is punctuated by plastic events. The prevalence of this plasticity depends on the number of particles $N$ of the system, with the average strain interval before the first plastic event, $\overline{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\gamma}}$, scaling like ${N}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ with $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ negative: larger samples are more susceptible to plasticity due to more numerous disorder-induced soft spots. In this paper we examine this scaling relation in ultrastable glasses prepared with the swap Monte Carlo algorithm, with regard to the possibility of a protocol-dependent scaling exponent, which would also imply a protocol dependence in the distribution of local yield stresses in the glass. We show that, while a superficial analysis seems to corroborate this hypothesis, this is only a preasymptotic effect and in fact our data can be well explained by a simple model wherein such protocol dependence is absent.

At ICARDA, germplasm collections obtained from five countries namely, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Syria, Nepal and Pakistan were grouped in to seven sets of trials (BANG1, BANG2, ICARDA, ETH1, ETH2, NEP, PAK) and evaluated in two experimental locations, Tel Hadya and Breda over eight years. Characterization was done for the most desirable agronomic traits such as days to first flowering, days to 95 % maturity, biological yield, seed yield, hundred seed weight and Harvest index. Significant genotypic and interaction effect were found for the expression of the traits. Substantial amount of variability was revealed in the germplasm collections for most of the traits. High broad sense heritability was observed for days to first flowering and hundred seed weight indicating early phenotypic selection of these two traits. The stability over years for the seed yield (in terms of the CV), identified promising accessions such as ILG2178 in BANG1 and ILG1721, ILG1632, ILG1624, ILG1540 and ILG1501 for future breeding.

The aim of this research was to develop an understanding of how mountainous forests function in relation to forest phytomass and carbon accumulation in the terrestrial vegetation pools which will help develop options for climate change. In this study, the forest phytomass has been assessed in range of subtropical and temperate forest dominated by tree species of Quercus semicarpifolia Sm. and Pinus roxburghii Sarg in Himalayan region Purola tehsil in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state of India. In-situ measurements of the phytomass were taken with clustered sampling approach on a total of 40 plots (0.1 ha each), i.e. in 10 MODIS pixels with 4 plots laid in an individual pixel. The field measured phytomass was found in the range of 67.76 - 1,108 t ha-1. Weighted-area phytomass was estimated at an individual MODIS (MOD13Q1, 250m) pixel where in-situ measurements varied from 207.93 t ha-1 - 1,042 t ha-1. The best fit equation of pixel phytomass values was regressed on red, infra-red and vegetation indices (NDVI) derived from the MODIS data. The correlation between the measured phytomass and NDVI was found significant and maximum in the month of December (R value -0.71, p < 0.01). However, such a relationship was not persistent throughout the year. The R2 value between observed phytomass and predicted phytomass was 0.53. The predicted phytomass based on 250×250 m MODIS data varied from 216.88 - 1,011 t ha-1. The average phytomass density in study area was 470.42 t ha-1 and carbon density 221.09 t ha-1.

The information on salinity threshold levels for food legumes when irrigating with saline water is limited and old. In a multi-year study at two sites in the Euphrates Basin, we aimed at (i) evaluating the potential of saline water irrigation for chickpea, faba bean and lentil production; and (ii) using the SALTMED model to determine threshold crop yields based on irrigation water salinity in equilibrium with ambient soil solution salinity. To evaluate 15 accessions each of lentil and chickpea, and 11 accessions of faba bean, three irrigation treatments were used with salinity levels of 0.87, 2.50 and 3.78 dS m-1 at Hassake and 0.70, 3.0 and 5.0 dS m-1 at Raqqa. Aggregated grain yields showed significant differences (p < 0.05) among crop accessions. Calibration and validation of the SALTMED model revealed a close relationship between actual grain yields from the field sites and those predicted by the model. The 50% yield reduction (π50 value) in chickpea, lentil, and faba bean occurred at salinity levels of 4.2, 4.4 and 5.2 dS m-1, respectively. These results suggest that of the three food legume crops, faba bean can withstand relatively high levels of irrigation water salinity, followed by lentil and chickpea.

Block designs are normally used in evaluation of crop varieties. The responses or yield data arising from designed trials in a crop variety improvement program are generally analyzed using linear mixed models under the frequentist paradigm. Such analysis ignores information on the genotypic parameters available from previ - ous similar trials. Another approach with a rela - tively wider inferential framework is Bayesian, which integrates the prior information with the likelihood of current data. While the Bayesian approach has been implemented in numerous situations, stepwise presentation of its appli - cation in routine crop variety trials is not avail - able. Illustrated with a dataset from a resolvable incomplete block design, this study provides a working tool for Bayesian analysis based on pri - ors available from a series of crop variety trials. The posterior estimates of predicted values of mean of genotypes and precision, coefficient of variation, heritability, and genetic gain due to selection were obtained. The a posteriori mean of experimental error variance, coefficient of variation, and genotypic variance were lower for the Bayesian than the frequentist approach. The precision of a posteriori means was higher than that of predicted means under the frequentist approach. Accounting for incomplete blocks, rather than ignoring them, using a Bayesian approach showed a large reduction in esti - mates of error variance components and large increases in heritability and genetic gain. The current a posteriori distributions also serve as updated priors for future analysis. The step- by-step procedure presented here is recom - mended for routine analysis of variety trials.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus Subsp. culinaris) is important dietary source of macro and micro-nutrients essential for human health. It provides essential amino acids to meet nutrient requirements. In order to develop macro/micro-nutrient rich lines, it is essential to know the level of genetic variability in the lentil accessions. A preliminary evaluation of seeds of 234 germplasm collected from various countries was carried out to understand the macro and micro-nutrient concentration level of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, iron, manganese, boron, copper and zinc which are essential nutrients for maintaining human health. Substantial variability of mineral concentration was estimated across the accessions. Highest seed concentrations (in mg kg-1) were recorded in ILL8194 [P (5800); K (13600)], ILL8105 [Ca (1860)], ILL7200 [Mg (1300)], ILL6212 [S (3100)], ILL7547 [Fe (86)], ILL9886 [Mn (20)], ILL6459 [B (9.7)], ILL1005 [Cu (17)] and ILL5480 [Zn (60)]. Significant correlation was observed among the macro and micro-nutrients. Highest positive correlation was observed between Ca and Mg followed by K and S, P and K, and Ca and B; and K showed higher negative correlation with B and Ca. The high nutrient-content accessions identified in this study will be used as parents in developing nutritious lentils at ICARDA and by its cooperating national partner institutions.

In very recent work the mean field theory of the jamming transition in infinite-dimensional hard sphere models was presented. Surprisingly, this theory predicts quantitatively the numerically determined characteristics of jamming in two and three dimensions. This is a rare and unusual finding. Here we argue that this agreement is nongeneric: only for hard sphere models does it happen that sufficiently close to the jamming density (at any temperature) the effective interactions are binary, in agreement with mean field theory, justifying the truncation of many-body interactions (which is the exact protocol in infinite dimensions). Any softening of the bare hard sphere interactions results in many-body effective interactions that are not mean field at any density, making the d=∞ results not applicable.

This paper presents success story of a SIMOPS multistage fracturing campaign peformed in Raageshwari Deep Gas field of India to produce from tight retrograde gas producing reservoir. Usually hydraulic fracturing in India is performed on a few selected candidate wells of a field with treatment frequencies ranging anywhere between 1-20 hydraulic fracturing treatments per year for a field. This is a well centric approach where individual services such as Eline perforations, CTU clean out, Well Testing etc operate in silos. The focus in this well centric approach is on optimizing each individual operation. On the other hand SIMOPS multistage fracturing campaign adopts an integrated approach and various services operate simultaneously on adjacent wells of same well pad. The focus in SIMOPS is on optimizing overall operations and can be considered a field centric approach. Accordingly average well completions cost and time is lower for integrated operations approach as compared to single well centric approach. CAPEX on the other hand is higher for SIMOPS approach since the number of wells being completed is higher and the scale of operations is much bigger than that of a single well approach. SIMOPS approach is more suited for tight reservoirs where economic production cannot be achieved without hydraulic fracturing. Raageshwari is a laminated tight retrograde gas producing reservoir and wells in this field do not produce economically without hydraulic fracturing (Gupta 2015). Each hydraulic fracturing treatment targeted multiple clusters of perforations and multiple such hydraulic fracturing treatments were required on each well to achieve full pay zone coverage of gross thickness ~ 700m on each well. The number of clusters completed in each treatment varied from 2-6 and number of treatments performed on a well varied from 5-10. High fracturing treatment frequency and a need to reduce average well completions cost paved way for the first SIMOPS multistage fracturing campaign in India.

Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important pulse crop for food, feed and sustainable crop production systems in Ethiopia. Despite its advantages in nutrition and adaptability to harsh climate and low fertile soil, it contains a neurotoxin, β-N-oxalyl-α,β-diamiono propionic acid (β-ODAP), which paralyses the lower limbs and is affected by genotypic and agronomic factors. To determine the effect of zinc application and planting date on yield and β-ODAP content of two genotypes, experiments were conducted in two regions of Ethiopia.The main effects of variety, sowing date and zinc and their interactions were significant (P0.001) for β-ODAP and seed yield, which had a linear relationship with zinc. For the improved grasspea variety, an application of 20 kg haAn application of Zn beyond even 20 kg ha

The mechanical failure of amorphous media is a ubiquitous phenomenon from material engineering to geology. It has been noticed for a long time that the phenomenon is "scale-free", indicating some type of criticality. In spite of attempts to invoke "Self-Organized Criticality", the physical origin of this criticality, and also its universal nature, being quite insensitive to the nature of microscopic interactions, remained elusive. Recently we proposed that the precise nature of this critical behavior is manifested by a spinodal point of a thermodynamic phase transition. Moreover, at the spinodal point there exists a divergent correlation length which is associated with the system-spanning instabilities (known also as shear bands) which are typical to the mechanical yield. Demonstrating this requires the introduction of an "order parameter" that is suitable for distinguishing between disordered amorphous systems, and an associated correlation function, suitable for picking up the growing correlation length. The theory, the order parameter, and the correlation functions used are universal in nature and can be applied to any amorphous solid that undergoes mechanical yield. Critical exponents for the correlation length divergence and the system size dependence are estimated. The phenomenon is seen at its sharpest in athermal systems, as is explained below; in this paper we extend the discussion also to thermal systems, showing that at sufficiently high temperatures the spinodal phenomenon is destroyed by thermal fluctuations., Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1701.01019

The GGE stands for genotype main effect (G) added to genotype by environment (GE) interaction. GGE-biplot a graphical tool was applied to study adaptation of 18 sorghum genotypes to the six environments using data from a multi-environment trials (MET) conducted in randomized complete block designs at two locations during 2009-2012 in Sudan. Analysis of variance was used to test the significance of GE interactions, estimates of variance components and predicted means were obtained using restricted maximum likelihood REML method. A number of priors for the variance components of the model were considered for Bayesian analysis using R2WinBUGS software. The best set of priors was selected using the deviance information criterion (DIC). Thus, the predicted estimates of GE means using REML method for frequentist approach and posterior estimates for the Bayesian approach were used for the graphical presentation of the genotypes and the environments. In frequentist approach, the first two principal components accounted for 64% of variation in total GGE interactions where the individual two principal components accounted for PC1=43% and PC2=23% respectively. The Bayesian approach accounted for 89% variation in the total GGE interaction with PC1=58% and PC2=31% respectively. The Bayesian GGE biplot analysis explained much larger proportion of variation in GGE interaction in comparison with frequentist approach, and thus resulted in a more powerful inference on the adaptation of genotypes to the environments considered.

Amorphous solids increase their stress as a function of an applied strain until a mechanical yield point whereupon the stress cannot increase anymore, afterwards exhibiting a steady state with a constant mean stress. In stress controlled experiments the system simply breaks when pushed beyond this mean stress. The ubiquity of this phenomenon over a huge variety of amorphous solids calls for a generic theory that is free of microscopic details. Here we offer such a theory: the mechanical yield is a thermodynamic phase transition, where yield occurs as a spinodal phenomenon. At the spinodal point there exists a divergent correlation length which is associated with the system-spanning instabilities (known also as shear bands) which are typical to the mechanical yield. The theory, the order parameter used and the correlation functions which exhibit the divergent correlation length are universal in nature and can be applied to any amorphous solids that undergo mechanical yield., 12 pages, 15 figures - Submitted to PNAS. Minor modifications with respect to v1

Stephen Hawking gave the formula for the temperature for the black holes as 3 8 c T kGM   . In the present research article, we have converted this formula in terms of Chandrasekhar limit [Mch] and also calculated their values for different test black holes existing in XRBs and AGN. 20 3.165 10 ch M T M         Kelvin.