Investigations on the use of (2-chloroethyl) phosphonic acid (ethephon,CEPA) for the control of biennial bearing in mango

Biennial bearing is a serious economic problem facing mango growers. In the past it has been attributed to the lack of new growth and insufficient carbohydrate and nitrogenous reserves following a year of heavy cropping. The results of our studies conducted over a period of 4 years have shown that ethephon (200 ppm) could be used to induce heavy flowering and fruiting during the “off year” in the notedly biennial bearing cv. ‘Langra’. The spray applications of ethephon should be started during September and continued four to five times at 15–20 days interval. Higher concentrations of ethephon, viz. 500, 1000 and 2000 ppm, induced moderate to heavy leaf abscission in the experimental trees. Consecutive applications of 200 ppm ethephon for a period of 3 years did not show any decline in the vigour and yielding ability of the treated ‘Langra’ mango trees.     

Bovine diaphragmatic hernioplasty using autologous skin grafts.

A 2nd recurrence of diaphragmatic hernia in a buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), which twice previously had been subjected to herniorrhaphy, was successfully treated by hernioplasty, using a fresh autologous skin graft to compensate for the lost tissue.     

Identification and classification of aromatic rices based on DNA fingerprinting

Aromatic rices are preferred by the consumers all over the world due to its flavour and palatability. Although a large number of these collections are available, little systematic analysis of genetic diversity has been carried out. With the objective of identification and classification of aromatic rice genotypes, RAPD profiling was employed using 58 random decamer primers. Most of these primers (96.5%) detected polymorphism among the genotypes. Of the 465 amplified bands, 314 were polymorphic. Cluster analysis based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient using UPGMA grouped all the traditional tall, photosensitive, low yielding, long grained ‘basmati’ aromatics together. The short grained aromatic cultivars, formed a different cluster with high level of average similarity among themselves. The dendrogram based on 58 primers was highly similar to that based on 10 and 15 primers with matrix correlation (r) of 0.88 and 0.91, respectively. This suggested that a set of 10 primers can be employed for an initial assessment of genetic diversity in a large number of collections. All the rice genotypes included in the study could be distinguished from each other at the level of 19 to 186 polymorphic bands between individuals in pair wise comparison over all the 58 primers. Probability of identical profiles by chance suggested that about 10⁴¹ genotypes can be unambiguously differentiated by RAPD fingerprints obtained by 58 primers. A diagrammatic mode of presentation of DNA fingerprints of the aromatic rices based on 10 of the informative primers was developed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Arterial Blood Gases in Dogs with Bacterial Pneumonia

The purpose of this study is to report the aterial blood gas findings in dogs with bacterial pneumonia. Arterial blood gas samples were collected from 62 dogs with culture-confirmed bacterial pneumonia. These results were compared with 46 normal dog arterial blood gas samples. Results demonstrated that respiratory acidosis was not a problem in dogs with pneumonia in this study. Significant evidence of hypoxemia was noted with abnormal mean values in PaO₂ (P<0.001) and the Alveolar-arterial (A-α) gradient (P<0.001).     

Borehole Temperatures and a Baseline for 20th-Century Global Warming Estimates

Lack of a 19th-century baseline temperature against which 20th-century warming can be referenced constitutes a deficiency in understanding recent climate change. Combination of borehole temperature profiles, which contain a memory of surface temperature changes in previous centuries, with the meteorological archive of surface air temperatures can provide a 19th-century baseline temperature tied to the current observational record. A test case in Utah, where boreholes are interspersed with meteorological stations belonging to the Historical Climatological Network, yields a noise reduction in estimates of 20th-century warming and a baseline temperature that is 0.6° ± 0.1°C below the 1951 to 1970 mean temperature for the region.