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Large scale surface coal mining activities result in disturbance of the local ecosystem by creating different land uses that alter soil properties and hydrological balance of the mining area and surrounding environment. This study aims to evaluate the changes in soil properties in mining affected lands (mine face topsoil, wasteland and agriculture land) and reclaimed mine soil (RMS), and to quantify the changes of the selected soil properties with respect to reference Sal forest (Shorearobusta Gaertn. F.). Changes in soil properties were analyzed on a profile basis (0–20, 20–40 and 40–60 cm). The study indicates that soil pH, electrical conductivity, and bulk density were increased significantly, while a decrease in nutrient content (N, P, and K) was observed in the mining affected lands. The overall findings of this study indicated that conversion of Sal forest into other land uses due to mining significantly reduced the nutrient content and soil quality of the area. Reclamation of the mine degraded land in short duration does not restore the overall properties of the soils, which has long term impacts on the surrounding ecosystem.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of two novel gladiolus hybrid selections IIHRG-7 and IIHRG-11 along with commercial checks, for flower quality traits and Fusarium wilt resistance in completely randomized block design, during 2012-13 to 2014-15. Three years data were pooled and analyzed statistically. The hybrid selections IIHRG-7 and IIHRG-11 had been developed through hybridization by crossing Arka Meera x Picardy and Gold Medal 412 x Arka Poonam, respectively followed by selection. IIHRG-7 has novel flower colour (as per RHS Colour Chart) i.e., Red-Purple (65.B) having Red-Purple (62.A) streaks with Red-Purple (67.B) splash and spike with variegated florets, while, IIHRG-11 has novel floret colour as Red (41.C) having Red (41.A) margin. Blotch Red (46.B) with yellow (13.C) border and resistance to Fusarium wilt disease. These hybrid selections are suitable for cut-flower and flower arrangement purposes. Further, these hybrid selections will be useful for developing new gladiolus hybrid selections with novel traits and resistance to Fusarium wilt disease.

© 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab. A cryogenic apparatus is described that enables a new experiment, nEDM@SNS, with a major improvement in sensitivity compared to the existing limit in the search for a neutron Electric Dipole Moment (EDM). This apparatus uses superfluid 4He to produce a high density of Ultra-Cold Neutrons (UCN) which are contained in a suitably coated pair of measurement cells. The experiment, to be operated at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, uses polarized 3He from an Atomic Beam Source injected into the superfluid 4He and transported to the measurement cells where it serves as a co-magnetometer. The superfluid 4He is also used as an insulating medium allowing significantly higher electric fields, compared to previous experiments, to be maintained across the measurement cells. These features provide an ultimate statistical uncertainty for the EDM of 2-3× 10-28 e-cm, with anticipated systematic uncertainties below this level.

An experiment was conducted in the field of Indian Institute of Hortricultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bangalore during August 2006 to June 2008. The experiment consisting of eight treatment combinations were laid out in ‘2x4’ factorial RCBD with 5 replications to assess seed set per capsule. The results revealed that highly significant differences were observed for number of well-developed seeds and underdeveloped seeds. Among four cross combinations ‘H.S. 88-10-22 x Shobha’ (27.63 well-developed seeds per capsule) and ‘H.S. 84-7-11 x Shobha’ (27.01 well-developed seeds per capsule) were significantly higher than those of other two cross combinations. The interaction effect of fresh pollen- cum- ‘H.S.88-10-22 x Shobha’ produced significantly higher number of welldeveloped seeds (41.02 per capsule) than those of the other treatment combinations. In contrast, treatment combinations viz., cryopreserved pollen- cum- ‘H.S. 88-10-22 x Shobha’ produced the lowest number of welldeveloped seeds (10.85 per capsule).Inclusion of fresh pollen to genotype ‘Shobha’ and cryopreserved pollen of H.S. 88-10-22' revealed better performances for maximum seed set per capsule. Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 14, No. 1 (2013) 31-34 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njst.v14i1.8874

Objective: The objective of the present study was to collect different Lactic acid bacterial strains from culture collection centers and screen their functional probiotic characteristics such as acid tolerance, bile tolerance, antibacterial activity and antibiotic sensitivity for their commercial use. Materials and Methods: Acid and bile tolerence of selected LAB(Lactic acid bacteria) was determined. The antibiotic resistance of Lactobacillus species was assessed using different antibiotic discs on de Mann Rogosa Sharpe broth (MRS) agar plates seeded with the test probiotic organism. The antibacterial activity of LAB was assessed by using well diffusion method.Results: Among the six probiotic strains tested, all showed good survivability at high bile salt concentration (0.3 to 2.0 % oxgall) and good growth at a low pH of 1.5 to 3.5. These probiotic species showed good survival abilities in acidic pH of 2.0 to 3.5 except Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspp. bulgaricus 281 which did not grown at pH of 2.0. Lactobacillus fermentum 141 was able to grow even at pH of 1.5 also. Among the six lactic acid species, Lactobacillus fermentum 141 (except Tetracycline), Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspp. Bulgaricus 281 except (Cefpodoxime) and all other LAB were resistant to all the antibiotics tested (Ampicillin, Nalidixic acid , Ciprofloxacin ,Co-Trimoxazole, Gentamicin and Cefpodoxime). All these probiotic organisms were screened for their in vitro inhibition ability against pathogenic microorganisms namely, E.coli ATCC (American type culture collection centre), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella paratyphi, Staphylococcus aureus. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspp. bulgaricus 281, Lactobacillus casei 297 and Lactobacillus fermentum 141 inhibited the growth of all the pathogenic bacteria used in the study. Conclusion: The study indicated Lactobacillus fermentum 141 and Lactobacillus casei 297 as potential functional probiotics for future in vivo studies for commercialization in the food industry.

The road network of a small town is represented as a directed graph where each road junction is a vertex and each road segment (which has a length and a priority value) is a directed edge. We assume that there are several plows available to service the roads. We seek to compute an optimal allocation of routes to plows. Each route begins and ends at the same (depot) vertex. The union of all plow routes must cover every edge in the graph at least once. In addition, we wish to minimize the following parameters: total distance covered by all plows (thereby minimizing the deadhead miles), amount of variation in the mileage covered by individual plows (thereby dividing the workload equitably), number of u-turns and extent of priority misplacements. In this paper, we propose a Genetic Algorithms (GA)-based solution to compute a near-optimal route allocation and the minimization of other parameters simultaneously. This algorithm is based on our GA solution to the 1-plow problem reported earlier. We have developed a Java application that implements our algorithm. Our experiments with reasonably large graphs have yielded good solutions. These solutions are especially useful in snowplow routing for small towns, as plowing costs consume significant portions of the total municipal budgets of these communities. Most of the route planning in small towns is currently done manually and routes have evolved over time by experience. In these times of severe budget stress, route allocation using our approach can help in performing this essential service in a more efficient manner.

Viability and fertility profiles of cryopreserved gladiolus pollen from 7 cultivars have shown that it is possible to use cryogenic methods for conservation and management of the haploid gene pool in this species. There was no decline in pollen viability (in vitro) levels after 1 and 10 years of cryogenic storage. Field pollinations with cryogenic stored pollen induced capsule and seed set in varying capacities. Long-term cryogenic storage of gladiolus pollen could enhance breeding efficiency through better management of the haploid gene pool resources. Pollen parents could be made available throughout the breeding programme, ensuring guaranteed supply at the time of peak stigma receptivity. A ‘pollen cryobank’ facility established for this species would increase genetic diversity conservation at the haploid stage.

The road network of a small town is represented by a directed graph. Road junctions are the vertices of this graph and each road segment (which has a length and a priority value) is represented by a directed edge. Priority values are numbers 1, 2, etc. with the assumption that 1 is the highest priority. We seek to compute an optimal route map that begins at a particular vertex (the depot) and covers all the edges at least once and returns to the start vertex. The parameters that we wish to minimize are: the total distance covered (thereby minimizing the deadhead miles), the number of u-turns and priority misplacements. In this paper, we propose a Genetic Algorithms-based solution to compute near-optimal route maps in such a graph. Specifically, we have developed a Java software application that generates route maps that minimize a linear combination of the three parameters. We have experimented with reasonably large graphs and obtained good solutions. These solutions are especially useful in snowplow routing for small towns, as plowing costs consume significant portions of the total municipal budgets of these communities. Most of the route planning is currently done manually and routes have evolved over time by experience. In these times of severe budget stress, route planning using our approach can help in performing this essential service in an efficient manner.

SUMMARYThe problem of path planning for a mobile robot has been studied extensively in recent literature. Much of the work in this area is devoted to the study of path planning for an earth-bound robot in two dimensions. In this paper, we explore the problem for a robot that can fly in three dimensional space or crawl on 3D surfaces or use a combination of both. We assume that the obstacles can be modeled as polyhedral objects.

When wireless sensors are capable of variable transmit power and are battery powered, it is important to select the appropriate transmit power level for the node. Lowering the transmit power of the sensor nodes imposes a natural clustering on the network and has been shown to improve throughput of the network. However, a common transmit power level is not appropriate for inhomogeneous networks. A possible fitness-based approach, motivated by an evolutionary optimization technique, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is proposed and extended in a novel way to determine the appropriate transmit power of each sensor node. A distributed version of PSO is developed and explored using experimental fitness to achieve an approximation of least-cost connectivity.

The field of robotics is in rapid development. As robots become cheaper to build, new applications involving many robots systems can be envisioned. One reason for using many robots is to achieve robustness. Having many robots, however, does not ensure robustness. A control strategy and robot behaviors must be engineered to incorporate robustness into the system. Swarm intelligence based approaches are popular for developing optimal and robust control strategies for systems of robots. Here we analyze the behavior of a swarm of robots modeled after a swarm of ants, where tasks are spatially distributed in the environment and robots/ants are recruited through short-range recruitment. For ants that move probabilistically in response to the short range signal and who adjust their probabilities such that they are near a phase change boundary, or edge-of-chaos, in the mean field analysis of their motions, we find a significant improvement in the robustness of the system.

A graph is edge-biconnected if it requires the removal of at least two edges to disconnect it. Assume that we have weighted graph that is not biconnected, and an additional set of augmentation edges. The (NP-hard) edge biconnectivity augmentation problem is to select a minimal subset of the augmentation edges, whose inclusion will cause the graph to be biconnected. This paper explores the application of particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms for this problem.

Clustering is necessary for data aggregation, hierarchical routing, optimizing sleep patterns, election of extremal sensors, optimizing coverage and resource allocation, reuse of frequency bands and codes, and conserving energy. Optimal clustering is typically an NP-hard problem. Solutions to NP-hard problems involve searches through vast spaces of possible solutions. Evolutionary algorithms have been applied successfully to a variety of NP-hard problems. We explore one such approach, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), an evolutionary programming technique where a 'swarm' of test solutions, analogous to a natural swarm of bees, ants or termites, is allowed to interact and cooperate to find the best solution to the given problem. We use the PSO approach to cluster sensors in a sensor network. The energy efficiency of our clustering in a data-aggregation type sensor network deployment is tested using a modified LEACH-C code. The PSO technique with a recursive bisection algorithm is tested against random search and simulated annealing; the PSO technique is shown to be robust. We further investigate developing a distributed version of the PSO algorithm for clustering optimally a wireless sensor network.

Multiple-modulus arithmetic, which allows error-free computation for rational inputs, is implemented in a software package called ZIP. Experimentation is carried out comparing floating point and multi-mod arithmetic.

Gladiolus is one of the most important bulbous flower crops. It is grown in many parts of the world for cut flowers or for garden displays. The major limitation in commercial cultivation of gladiolus is a wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum Schl. f. sp. gladioli Snyd. & Hans. This disease was described as early as 1909 from California, but in India, the disease was noticed only in 1969 in a severe form (Singh, 1969). Though some of the cultivars are tolerant to this disease, they do not produce good quality spikes (Jagadish Chandra et al., 1985). Hence, work on breeding gladiolus was initiated at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bangalore(India) in 1982 to develop cultivars possessing resistance to fusarial wilt disease as well as producing good quality spikes. This paper reports the results obtained from this investigation.

World modeling and path planning techniques for a mobile robot that can navigate through a three dimensional world are developed. A crystal map (an extension of the 2D meadow map representation) serves as the world model. A free-space decomposition algorithm is described that produces this representation. Four variations of the A* search technique are applied to the crystal map producing paths for a robot that can fly and/or crawl through the modeled world. Path improvement strategies are also described. Simulation studies indicate the feasibility of these methods.

Fresh pollen of 16 promising genotypes of gladiolus was tested for their pollen viability. Modified cellophane method was employed to assess the pollen viability. Pollen germination media consisted of 15% sucrose supplemented with 300 ppm calcium nitrate, 200 ppm magnesium sulphate, 100 ppm potassium nitrate and 100 ppm boric acid. Highly significant variations were observed for percentage of pollen germination, non-germinated pollen and sterile pollen. The highest pollen germination (76.41%) was in genotype Hybrid selection 88-10-22, and did not differ significantly from Gladiolus callianthus (75.41%), Sapna (75.10 %), Hybrid selection 86-32-11, (73.28 %), Kum Kum (69.41%), Poonam (69.22 %), Hybrid selection 87-22-1 (67.87 %), Hybrid selection 87-1-1 (67.61 %), Psittacinus hybrid (64.64%) and Darshan (63.97%). The lowest non- germinated pollen (10.47%) was in genotype Gladiolus callianthus, and insignificantly followed by Hybrid selection 88-10-22 with 18.77 % and Hybrid selection 87-22-1 with 18.95 %. The lowest percentage of sterile pollen was noticed in genotype Sapna (2.82%) followed by Poonam with 4.00 % Hybrid selection 88-10-22 with 4.82% and Hybrid selection 82-11-27 with 5.22%. Key words: Gladiolus; germination; pollen DOI: 10.3126/njst.v11i0.4089Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 11 (2010) 47-50

This study was conducted in the field of Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore, India. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with different genotypes replicated three times. Observations were recorded for sixteen floral characters. Among different genotypes, viz., ‘Arka Kesar', ‘H.S.84-7-11' and ‘Shobha' were early in respect of days to spike emergence, full spike emergence, the first bud showing color, basal bud loosening and flowering. Duration of spike emergence to flowering was long in ‘Psittacinus hybrid' (14.18 days),' H.S.87-22-11'(13.17 days) and ‘Dhiraj' (13.13 days). Duration of first floret bud loosening to complete opening of florets was short in ‘Shobha' (21 hours 31 minutes), ‘H.S.84-7-11'(21 hours 53 minutes) and ‘Darshan ‘(21 hours 58 minutes). Duration of initiation and completion of anther dehiscence was long in ‘Psittacinus hybrid ‘ (5 hours 19 minutes) and ‘H.S. 82-11-27' (5 hours 7 minutes). Duration of initiation to completion of stigma receptivity was long in ‘H.S. 87-22-1' (4 days 1 hour 37 minutes), ‘Tilak' (4 days 1 hour) and ‘H.S.87-1-1'(3 days 22 hours 59 minutes). Key words : Anther dehiscence; Gladiolus; Spike; Stigma receptivity DOI: 10.3126/njst.v10i0.2821 Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Volume 10, 2009 December Page: 37-43

Several algorithms to play mastermind have been published. However, the overall complexity of the algorithm has not been discussed. In this paper, we present three algorithms and an analysis of their complexity.

The design and implementation of a small expert system, ADVISOR, is discussed. The system provides academic advisement for a Brockport Math/Computer Science major. The college rules are coded as a rule base of if-then rules. The system answers questions in simple English, produces a course schedule for future semesters and prints a student transcript. The language of implementation is LISP.

In a finite-segment p-adic number system one of the difficult problems is concerned with converting Hensel codes back into rational numbers. An algorithm for this conversion is proposed which is based on a sophisticated table look-up procedure.