January 2011

The study on Indigenous Knowledge of Tribals of Pachaimalai hills, was conducted to study the constraints experienced by the tribal farmers in adopting the indigenous agricultural practices. The study was conducted in Pachaimalai hills of Trichy district. A sample of one hundred tribal farmers (respondents) was selected from the tribal hamelets using proportionate random sampling technique. Nearly twenty one indigenous agricultural practices were identified in the crops like paddy, tapioca and sorghum. In addition ten common indigenous agricultural practices were also identified. The data were collected with the help of well structured and pretested interview schedule and suitable statistical tools were used to analyses the data. The important constraints reported were ‘no reward for indigenous agricultural practices by Government Officials’, ‘youth’s preference for urban life,’ ‘Lack of documentation’, and ‘poor income from agriculture’.

In this paper, the Single-Term Haar Wavelet series (STHW) is used to study the periodic and oscillatory problems. Results obtained using STHW and classical fourth order Runge-Kutta (RK) methods are compared with the exact solutions of the periodic and oscillatory problems. The results obtained using STHW are found to be very closer to the exact solutions of these problems. Further, it is found that the STHW is superior when compared to RK method. Error graphs for the obtained results and exact solutions are presented in a graphical form to highlight the efficiency of this method. This STHW can be easily implemented in a digital computer and the solution may be obtained for any length of time.

In this work, the amino acid family material viz. Bis β-Alanine Picrate(BBAP) was synthesized and single crystals of the synthesized bis β-alanine picrate were grown by adopting slow evaporation technique. The crystals are yellow in color and are transparent. The grown crystals were subjected to various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis, FTIR analysis and TG / DTA analyses, SHG studies, UV-vis transmittance studies etc. The crystal structure of the grown crystals was found to be orthorhombic. By FTIR spectral analysis, the functional groups present in the compound have been identified. Thermal analysis was carried out to ascertain the thermal stability and mechanical strength was analyzed by measuring microhardness of the grown BBAP crystals.

In this paper, we propose an intelligent and robust system for forest fire detection using wireless sensor network. The intelligent system consists of three different neural network classifiers to overcome the problem of training and testing under conditions of insufficient and noisy data. The aim of using three classifiers in the intelligent system is that classification in this forest fire context is extremely important as the cost of misclassification using a single classifier is very high. Hence, a combination of their beliefs by Dempster– Shafer evidence combination which provides a representation of epistemic plausibility overcomes weaknesses exhibited by anyone classifier to a particular data set and helps to detect the forest fire accurately. The combination approach provides a higher accuracy in detecting and forecasting forest fire more promptly. The experimental results show the combination approach yield better accuracy in predicting the forest fire.

The present work demonstrated that selected growth stimulating bacterial strains with AM fungi are able to increase the growth, yields and nutrient uptake of Chilli in vertisols. Two experiments were conducted in pots as well as in field at ANGRAU, Agricultural Research Station, Amaravathi to study the response of Chilli to the inoculation of mixed microbial consortium of Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Phosphate solubilizing bacteria, Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and chemical fertilizers on AM fungal root colonization, soil microbial populations, yield attributes and yield. Inocuation of mixed microbial consortium including two diazotrophs of Azospirillum and Azotobacter(MC3 consortium) performed the best in recording AM colonization, Number of fruits per plant, Fresh and dry fruit weights per plant in pots. The highest mycorrhizal root colonization 78% and dry fruit weight 51.2 g/plant obtained by inoculation of MC3 consortium with 75%RDF in pots. The inoculation of MC3 consortium with 75% RDF enhanced the soil microbial populations under field conditions. This consortium recorded maximum per cent of nitrogen uptake(2.205%) and gave highest dry chilli yields of 3409.7 kg/ha with a saving of 25% of chemical fertilizers. Over-all the mixed microbial consortium MC3 considered being the balanced combination of different microorganisms for achieving maximum output in the cultivation of Chilli in vertisols of India.

Response of three stable dwarf mutant lines, namely dwf1, dwf2 and dwf3 to 170mM NaCl treatment was studied in comparison with untreated dwarf lines (positive control or PC) and treated mother varieties (used as negative control or NC) from 20d old seedling stage to maturity in grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.). The three mutants differed significantly from both controls and also, from each other by onset of flowering, flower and pod production, their abortion, pollen fertility, different seed yield components, leaf injury level, plant dry weight and seed neurotoxin (β-ODAP) contents under salt stress. Among the five types of genotypes, dwf1 and dwf2 showed tolerance, while dwf3 was considered as a salt-sensitive line. Among the five genotypes, NC plants were the least tolerance to NaCl treatment.

A wide range of pathogens is associated with ornamental fish diseases. Among the bacteria, Aeromonas hydrophila causes disease under stress conditions or in concert with infection by other pathogens in ornamental fish. The present study was undertaken to the Aeromonas hydrophila pathogenesis of goldfish (Carrassius auratus) and Koi (Cyprinus carpio koi), during massive fish disease outbreaks in various infected ornamental fish hatcheries in Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu, India. Also the virulence factors such as protease, proteolytic activity and haemolytic activity was studied the virulence strains compared with the non-virulent A. hydrophila strains. The virulent A. hydrophila was challenged with the fingerlings of ornamental fish and the virulence was discussed.

The exocarp of Garcinea mangostana was dissolved in various organic solvents namely Methanol, Ethanol and Butanol was tested for antimicrobial, antiproliferative and/or cytotoxic activity. Significant antimicrobial activity was found with Garcinea mangostana against Pseudomonas aeroginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The extracts were also found to possess antifungal activity against Candida albicans. Out of different extracts tested, methanolic extract was found to be the most active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa followed by S. aureus and P.mirablis. Total Polyphenolic content ranged from 102.4to 138.6mg GAE/g of extract. Among the three solvent extracts, methanol extract showed maximum Polyphenol content at 6 hr extraction time followed by ethanol and butanol respectively. The extractive yield of sample was higher in methanol, compared to ethanol and butanol. The yield obtained decreased with decrease in polarity. The LD50 values of the plant extract against HEp2 cells was determined by MTT assay. The LD50 value of Garcinea mangostana was ≥ 120µg,92 µg and 85 µg for, methanol, ethanol, and butanol extracts respectively and the study revealed that the exocarp possessed free radical scavenging activity. Methanolic extract, Ethanolic extract, Butanolic extract were found to reduce the GSH level than the control. TBARS of stress induced HEp2 cells was reduced in the presence of Ethanolic extract and Butanolic extract. All extracts were found to reduce GPx activity.

Drought and salinity are major abiotic stress factors that severely affect agricultural systems and food production. Many plant species including most important crops are subjected to growth inhibitions under high NaCl conditions. In the present study, seeds of ten different rice genotypes were allowed to germinate and grow in the absence (control) and presence of different concentrations (50mM, 100mM, 150mM and 200mM) of NaCl. The varieties ASD-16, ADT-36 and ADT-43 show higher percentage of reduction in germination than IR-50, JGL-1728 and MDU-5. After 5days, 10days and 15days of salt treatment, the seedlings were harvested and the shoot length and root length measured. Ten days old seedlings were transferred to 50mM and 100mM of NaCl and accumulation of proline was monitored after 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. The rice varieties IR-50, JGL-1728, MDU-5 and ADT-43 show better tolerance against other varieties.

Between June 2008- May 2009 we analyzed the antibiotic susceptibility profile of one hundred and fifty (150) K. pneumoniae strains isolated from different clinical samples (urine= 72, high vaginal swab (HVS)=12, sputum=50 and wound swab= 16) from patients visiting University of Nigeria teaching hospital (UNTH) Enugu. All samples were analyzed and organisms isolated using standard Microbiology techniques, antibiotic susceptibility testing was carried out as described in the manual of antibiotic susceptibility testing. Clonal relatedness of resistance strains of K. pneumoniae from different samples was determined by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Antibiotic susceptibility studies revealed that Klebsiella pneumoniae strains from wound samples were the most susceptible strains followed by HVS, sputum and urine. The overall susceptibility proflie are as follows; imipenem (100%), amikacin (100%), cefoxitin (99.4%), aztreonam (98%), ceftazidime (98%), cefotaxime (96.7%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (96%), ciprofloxacin (96%), tobramycin (93.3%), kanamycin (90%), cefuroxime (86.7%), gentamicin (76%), sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim (22%), chloramphenicol (15.4%) and ampicillin (5%). RAPD analysis to determine the clonal relatedness of resistance strains grouped them into two clusters (A and B) based on band patterns. All strains resistant to ampicillin and chloramphenicol showed 100% similarity in band patterns (clonal group A) while strains resistant to sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim showed different band patterns (clonal group B). Our findings revealed high resistant ampicillin, chloramphenicol and sulphamethoxazole/trimethroprim Klebsiella pneumoniae strains from different clinical strains belonging to two clusters. These resistant strains may have some public health implications as their spreading is not from single source.