A molecular modeling approach applied to a study of the photochromic behaviour of screen printed protein and polyamide substrates

A specifically-synthesized water-soluble photochromic acid dye has been applied by screen printing on to silk, wool and nylon. The influence of processing parameters and the nature of the substrate on the photochromic response of the printed materials has been evaluated using specifically-developed colour measurement methodology. The printed substrates show photochromic colour change from weakly coloured to an intense blue colour under sunlight or UV irradiation. In most cases, the photochromic colour build up is higher on wet substrates than after drying. Computer aided molecular modelling techniques have been used to explain aspects of the photochromic behaviour.     

Assessing the ‘true impact’ of development assistance in the Gaza Strip and Tokelau: ‘Most Significant Change’ as an evaluation technique

The democratic evaluative tradition has sought to change evaluation practice towards approaches and techniques that generate diverse forms of knowledge and foster public deliberation over a programme's merit and worth. This paper locates one evaluation method, ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC), within this tradition. Drawing on two different evaluations – one, of a comprehensive economic sector assistance package to the Government of Tokelau, and the other of a psychosocial and academic support intervention for pre‐adolescent children in conflict‐affected regions of the Gaza Strip – the paper provides evidence of how MSC can capture unexpected outcomes, act as a tool for real‐time formative learning, and expose the competing theories, logics and values behind programme activity. The examples within the paper also provide evidence of how MSC begins to redistribute traditional power relationships in assessing the merit and worth of observed impacts by increasing the legitimacy of local programme knowledge, and engaging all parties in evaluative decisions. By doing so, MSC, the paper argues, better serves the purposes of learning, improvement and mutual accountability which should sit at the core of good development practice.     

Tree age influences nutritional,pectin, and anatomical changes in developing ‘Kinnow’ mandarin (Citrus nobilis Lour × Citrus deliciosa Tenora) fruit

An understanding of variation in fruit quality in relation to tree age can help understand the issue of poor fruit quality in young orchards; however, limited information is available on the citrus fruit. In this study, the endogenous nutritional status in rind, rag, and leaves; pectin status in rind and rag; and anatomical fruit growth parameter in rind tissues were studied in ‘Kinnow’ mandarins fruit during their development on trees from three age (6-, 18-, and 35-year-old) groups. In older (35-year-old) trees, rind, rag, and leaf nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) concentrations were superior. In fruit from all tree age groups, total pectin and protopectin reduced; however water-soluble pectin (WSP) improved. In rind tissues harvested from young (6-year-old) trees, cell density was more while cell size was less. In all tree age groups, cell density in rind tissues correlated negatively with rind WSP.     

Species Composition,Diversity and Productivity of Homesteads in Southeastern Bangladesh

A homestead is an integrated production system where trees, crops, livestock and poultry are found in and around the household residence in Bangladesh. It is a potential production unit that provides various product, service and ecological functions. Almost all people in Bangladesh including landless households have homesteads in which they grow trees and crops even in a small piece of land. This study characterizes the species composition, diversity and productivity of the homestead production system in the Teknaf peninsula, southeastern Bangladesh. Survey data collection was from a total of 180 homesteads covering five household categories: large, medium, small, marginal and landless. Vegetable, fruit, timber, and livestock and poultry were common components in the homestead production system. Various types of plants were mainly concentrated in back yards, front yards, boundaries and corners of homesteads. The mean number of tree species per homestead was about 15. In total, 189 tree and shrub species were recorded, and were distinctly high and low in the large (363.7) and landless (55.7) household categories. Species composition, diversity and productivity of homesteads were found to be related to household categories. Richness and diversity of tree and shrub species increased with household size. Betel nut was the dominant tree species followed by mango, jackfruit and coconut. Annual income from homesteads also varied among the household categories, with a mean contribution of the homestead to annual income of about 25 %. A large portion of homestead income came from betel nut trees. There is scope to increase species diversity and income by designing homesteads with the engagement of women and other family members.     

Growth and physiology of basmati rice under conventional and water-saving production systems

Conventionally flooded rice (CFR) requires enormous water and labor inputs. Water scarcity aspires for cultivation of water-saving rice. Growth response and physiology of basmati rice genotypes under the water-saving production systems has not been reported yet. Studies were conducted for 2 years to compare the growth and physiology of three rice cultivars (Super Basmati, Basmati-2000 and Shaheen Basmati), under high (CFR), medium (alternate wetting and drying [AWD]) and low water input (aerobic rice [AR]) systems. Leaf area index, crop growth rate, leaf area duration and dry matter accumulation were higher for AR followed by AWD and CFR, respectively. Shaheen Basmati had a lower growth and relative water contents than Super Basmati and Basmati-2000, probably due to its shorter stature and shorter life cycle. Photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance of rice cultivars in the different production were affected only at reproductive stage. Basmati-2000 grown as AR had the highest photosynthetic rate followed by the same cultivar under AWD. The results of this study provide us an idea that basmati cultivars can attain a high growth and development with low water input. This would be helpful to grow rice successfully under water-short rice-growing environments.     

Effectiveness of Zinc and Gypsum Application Against Cadmium Toxicity and Accumulation in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Cadmium (Cd) is a nonessential and toxic element because it inhibits the growth and development of plants and is dangerous for end consumer. It enters in the human food chain through food crops. Application of plant nutrients such as zinc (Zn) and gypsum is a viable and cheap strategy to minimize its accumulation in edible plant portions. Therefore, this investigation was conducted to determine the effectiveness of Zn and gypsum against Cd accumulation in wheat. The results showed that Cd toxicity considerably decreased the plant growth, physiological activities, and yield attributes and increased the Cd accumulation in root, shoot, and grain, while application of Zn and gypsum remarkably increased the growth and yield and decreased the Cd accumulation in plant parts in Cd-contaminated soil. The results also depicted that application of Zn showed better results as compared to gypsum. In conclusion, we can say that application of Zn and gypsum remarkably ameliorated the Cd toxicity and decreased its accumulation in wheat, grown in Cd-contaminated soil.     

Changes in enzyme activities,soluble sugars and phenols during in vitro adventitious shoot regeneration from leaflet explants of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Albizia procera</Emphasis> (Roxb.) Benth

Changes in nitrate reductase, i.e. NR (E.C. 1.7.1.1) activity, peroxidase (E.C. 1.11.1.14) activity, soluble sugars and phenols were monitored at various time intervals from day 0 to 60 during in vitro adventitious shoot regeneration from leaflet explants of Albizia procera (Roxb.) Benth. The explants were incubated on semi-solid Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 2.6 g l^?1 Phytagel^®, 2.5% sucrose, 10 μM BAP, 1 μM NAA and 15 μM AgNO₃. NR activity, soluble sugars and phenols exhibited initial sharp rise on around day 20 followed by steep decline on day 25, whereas peroxidase activity peaked on day 50, highlighting significance of early input of nitrogen and energy and late emergence of lignification process for cellular differentiation and organization into adventitious shoot primordia. Morpho-anatomical changes in leaflets at various stages of in vitro adventitious shoot formation also followed the endogenous biochemical pattern.     

Identification of sediment source and sink areas in a Himalayan watershed using GIS and remote sensing

Erosion is a natural geomorphic process occurring continually over the Earth's surface and it largely depends on topography, vegetation, soil and climatic variables, and therefore, exhibits pronounced spatial variability due to catchment heterogeneity and climatic variation. This problem can be circumvented by discretizing the catchment into approximately homogeneous sub‐areas using GIS. In this study, the remote sensing and GIS techniques (through Imagine®8.6 and ArcGIS®9.1 software) were used for derivation of spatial information, catchment discretization, data processing etc. for the Himalayan Chaukhutia watershed (India). Various thematic layers for different factors of USLE were generated and overlaid to compute spatially distributed gross soil erosion maps for the watershed using 18‐year rainfall data. The concept of transport limited accumulation was formulated and used in ArcGIS® for generating the transport capacity maps. Using these maps, the gross soil erosion was routed to the catchment outlet using hydrological drainage paths, for derivation of transport capacity limited sediment outflow maps. These maps depict the amount of sediment rate from a particular grid in spatial domain and the pixel value of the outlet grid indicates the sediment yield at the outlet of the watershed. Up on testing, the proposed method simulated the annual sediment yield with less than ±40% error. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Valuation of gamma irradiation for proficient production of parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae & Eucoilidae) in the management of the peach fruit-fly,Bactrocera zonata (Saunders)

Recognizing the potential significance of using nuclear techniques in biological control, investigations were conducted on the rearing of parasitoids of the peach fruit-fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) to lead to a greater flexibility in the use of irradiated hosts. For improving mass production of the biological control agents, the use of irradiated fruit-fly larvae at the dose of 15 Gy proved useful for enhancing the parasitism and adult emergence of the larval parasitoid, Trybliographa daci (Weld) (Hymenoptera: Eucoilidae) due to no negative repercussions on parasitoid development. Overall, parasitism by the parasitoid increased with age of the host larvae; however, significantly higher parasitism occurred on 4 d-old irradiated larvae of B. zonata compared to those aged 5 d. The female parasitoids preferred the irradiated larvae, and significantly higher numbers of larvae were parasitized compared with non-irradiated larvae. There was no significant difference in adult parasitoid emergence with respect to the sex of the host. A radiation level of 80 Gy was the best dose for rearing of the pupal parasitoid, Dirhinus giffardii (Silvestri) (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) owing to broad tolerances in the use of irradiation for the rearing of fruit-fly's parasitoids. Percentage parasitism by D. giffardii varied with host pupal age, and the preference of the female parasitoid was lower on 48 h old host pharate pupae due to optimum size and mass of host. Present findings further revealed that the 24 h old host pupae of B. zonata were relatively more suitable for the maximum parasitism and progeny production of D. giffardii. Parasitisms by D. giffardii and T. daci were significantly higher on B. zonata host when parasitoids were released at a density of 3000 individuals per acre (7500 per hectares) than the other release rates of parasitoids for the management of fruit-flies in mango orchards. The implementation of these findings ought to help improve the mass production of parasitoids and the effectiveness of releases of biocontrol agents for control of B. zonata in mango plantations.     

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