Enhancing Drought Tolerance in Wheat through Improving Morpho- Physiological and Antioxidants Activities of Plants by the Supplementation of Foliar Silicon

The main objective of the research is to assess the role of foliar application of silicon(Si)for enhancing the survival ability of wheat under drought stress through improving its morphology,physicochemical and antioxidants activities.Treatments were five doses of Si at the rate of 2,4,6 and 8 mM and a control.After completion of seeds germination,pots were divided into four distinct groups at various field capacity(FC)levels,such as 100%FC(well-irrigated condition),75%FC(slight water deficit),50%FC(modest water deficit)and 25%FC(severe water deficit stress condition).Foliar application of Si at the rate of 2,4,6 and 8 mM and a control were given after 30 days of sowing at the tillering stage of wheat.Findings of the present investigation indicated that increasing the level of water deficit stress reduced the morphological parameters(such as root and shoot fresh and dry-biomass weight)and physico-biochemical events((such as chlorophyll contents by estimating SPAD value),total free amino acid(TFAA),total soluble sugar(TSS),total soluble protein(TSP),total proline(TP),CAT(catalase),POD(peroxidase),SOD(superoxide dismutase)and APX(ascorbate peroxidase))of wheat;while foliar application of Si at 6 mM at tillering stage enhanced the drought tolerance in wheat by increasing morphology and physiochemical characters under all levels of drought stress.Similarly,antioxidants activities in wheat also enhanced by the application of Si at 6 mM under normal as well as all drought stress levels.There-fore,it may be concluded that foliar application of Si at 6 mM at the tillering stage of wheat is an important indication for increasing the drought tolerance by improving the morphology,physico-biochemical and antioxidants activities in plants under deficit water(drought)conditions.

Foliar Application of Phosphorus Enhances Photosynthesis and Biochemical Characteristics of Maize under Drought Stress

Water is essential for the growth period of crops;however,water unavailability badly affects the growth and physiological attributes of crops,which considerably reduced the yield and yield components in crops.Therefore,a pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of foliar phosphorus(P)on morphological,gas exchange,biochemical traits,and phosphorus use efficiency(PUE)of maize(Zea mays L.)hybrids grown under normal as well as water deficit situations at the Department of Agronomy,University of Agriculture Faisalabad,Pakistan in 2014.Two different treatments(control and P@8 kg ha^(−1))and four hybrids(Hycorn,31P41,65625,and 32B33)of maize were tested by using a randomized complete block design(RCBD)with three replications.Results showed that the water stress caused a remarkable decline in total soluble protein(9.7%),photosynthetic rate(9.4%)and transpiration rate(13.4%),stomatal conductance(10.2%),and internal CO_(2)rate(20.4%)comparative to well-watered control.An increase of 37.1%,36.8%,and 24.5%were recorded for proline,total soluble sugar,and total free amino acid,respectively.However,foliar P application minimized the negative impact of drought by improving plant growth,physio-biochemical attributes,and PUE in maize plants under water stress conditions.Among the hybrids tested,the hybrid 6525 performed better both under stress and non-stress conditions.These outcomes confirmed that the exogenous application of P improved drought stress tolerance by modulating growth,physio-biochemical attributes,and PUE of maize hybrids.

Alterations in Growth and Yield of Camelina Induced by Different Planting Densities under Water Deficit Stress

Camelina(Camelina sativa L.)is famous for its oil quality and unique fatty acid pattern.Growth and yield of crops reduced under water deficit conditions.Environmental threat such as drought or water deficit condition is the emerging problem which creates the negative impact on the growth of plants.Based upon the current situation a pot study was performed in rain out-shelter to explore the effect of different plant densities(15,10 and 5 plants per pot)on growth and seed yield of two camelina genotypes under normal(100%WHC)and water deficit(60%WHC)conditions by using completely randomized design with factorial arrangement having three replicates.Results indicated that individual effects of plant densities and water deficit stress levels considerably influenced the growth and seed yield of camelina but interaction effects did not indicate any significant variation.Maximum values of leaf area index(LAI)and crop growth rate(CGR)were recorded in P_(3) treatment(15 plants per pot).However,maximum values of leaf area duration(LAD),net assimilation rate(NAR),yield and yield components were observed in the treatment P_(1)(5 plants per pot).Water deficit condition(60%WHC)significantly minimized the growth,seed yield(0.82 g/m^(2))and yield components of camelina genotypes.Both camelina genotypes(611 and 618)did not differ significantly under water deficit conditions.

Characterization of the Causal Organism of Soft Rot of Tomatoes and Other Vegetables and Evaluation of Its Most Aggressive Isolates

To isolate the causal organism of soft rot of vegetables, diseased samples of potato, tomato, carrot, chilies, and bell pepper, were analyzed in the lab, using nutrient agar (NA) and/or the enrichment host (Bell pepper) technique. Successful isolations were purified by sub-culturing, identified as Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora through biochemical tests and their pathogenicity was confirmed through inoculation on green tomato fruits. The isolates were tested for their aggressiveness to find out the most aggressive one in term of producing maximum soft rot on tomatoes. CRD (completely randomized design), with four replication was used and data were analyzed using LSD (least significant test) test. Among the five isolates evaluated for aggressiveness on tomato fruits, chili isolate was found to be the most aggressive followed by tomato and potato isolates producing 22.3 mm, 7.9 mm, and 7.8 mm diameter soft rot lesions, respectively.

Varietal Reaction of Cucumber against <i>Cucumber mosaic virus</i>

Family Cucurbitaceae is primarily found in the warmer regions of the world. It is the major family for economically important species, particularly edible fruits. In Pakistan cucurbits occupies an area of 28,600 ha with a very low production in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa due to many biotic and abiotic stresses. The reason is also the lack of growers’ awareness about the diseases and the cultural practices adopted to provide favorable environment for development of epidemics. Viral diseases such as Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) cause losses as high as 100%. Various control strategies are being used to control CMV. The aim of the current study was to screen out different verities and to find the most resistant one against CMV. CMV isolate was collected from farmer’s field at the site of TaruJaba during a survey of cucurbit crops. The identity of the virus was confirmed through DAS-ELISA using diagnostic kit (ADGEN, UK). Seventeen cucumber germplasm seeds were sown in earthen pots in which fourteen were germinated and exhibited characteristics symptoms of the virus while none of them showed resistance against CMV. Symptoms’ expression was delayed in summer green and local green till 12 days post inoculation. While in khyber, Diamond, VEGAF1 and Yousaf, symptoms started to appear soon after inoculation categorizing them as highly susceptible. No resistance is found in available commercial germplasm, so more germplasm from different area of Pakistan should be tested for resistance against CMV. If no resistance is found locally imported, germplasm can be evaluated for a source of resistance against the prevalent isolates of CMV.

Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Forest Cover Change in Tehsil Barawal, District Dir, Pakistan

The forests of Pakistan replicate plentiful climatic, physiographic and edaphic differences in the country and these forests face a serious problem of deforestation. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques and remote sensing (RS) from satellite platforms offer a best way to identify those areas of deforestation, and thus a GIS and RS based study was conducted in tehsil Barawal, district Dir (U) to analyze forest cover change. The main objectives of the study were to: 1) identify different classes of land use and land cover, and its spatial distribution in the study area;2) determine the trend, nature, location and magnitude of forest cover change;and 3) prepare maps of forest-cover change in different time periods in the study area. To assess the objectives remote sensing and GIS techniques were utilized. A supervised image classification technique was applied on Landsat 5 satellite images of 2000 and 2012. Five main classes such as agriculture, forest, barren land, snow and water were identified. The results showed that the area of forest, barren land, agriculture, water and snow in year 2000 was 49.54%, 43.38%, 5.19%, 1.40% and 0.49% and the area in 2012 was 37.17%, 41.36%, 12.69%, 5.05% and 3.72% respectively. Furthermore 2.02% decrease in barren land, 12.37% decrease in forest and 7.5% increase in agriculture land were identified. Due to high deforestation rate and increased agricultural activities, it is recommended that awareness campaign should be launched in the study area to protect and conserve this forest from further deforestation.

Microwave-assisted pre-ionization experiments on GLAST-Ⅲ

GLAss Spherical Tokamak(GLAST-Ⅲ)is a spherical tokamak with an insulating vacuum vessel that has a unique single-passage capability for incident microwaves.In this work,electron cyclotron resonance heating(ECRH)-assisted plasma pre-ionization in GLAST-Ⅲis explored for three radio-frequency(RF)polarizations(the O-,X-,and M-modes)at different toroidal-field(TF)strengths and filled gas pressures.The optimum hydrogen pressure is identified for efficient plasma pre-ionization.A comparison of the plasma pre-ionizations initiated by the O-,X-,and M-modes shows prominent differences in the breakdown time,location,and wave absorption.In the case of O-mode polarization,microwave absorption occurs for a relatively shorter duration,resulting in a bell-shaped electron-temperature(Te)temporal profile.Microwave absorption is dominant in the case of the X-mode,leading to a broader Te temporal profile.The M-mode discharge contains features of both the X-and O-modes.Efficient plasma pre-ionization is achieved in the X-mode polarization for the intermediate TF strengths(with a central toroidal magnetic field B0=0.075 T).Traces of the electron-number density show a similar tendency,as revealed by Te.These results suggest that the X-mode is the best candidate for efficient plasma pre-ionization at low filled gas pressures(10-2 Pa)in small tokamaks.

Response of Fodder Maize to Various Levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorus

Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are of the most important and complex nutrients for the crop plants in particular for grain yield and quality. The field trials were laid out in randomized complete block design having three replications. Research trial plots were located at Agricultural Research Farm of Agricultural University Peshawar (Ameer Mohammad Khan Campus Mardan) during kharif season in 2012 to investigate the response of maize variety (Jalal) to three phosphorus rates (60, 90 and 120 kg&middotha-1) and four nitrogen rates (90, 120, 150, 180 kg&middotha-1) for agronomical traits. These traits investigated included number of plant per m2 (NP m2), plant height (PH), number of leaves plant-1 (NLP), leaf area plant-1&middotcm2 (LAP), fresh weight of plants kg&middotha-1 (FW) and dry weight of plant kg&middotha-1 (DW), were investigated. Results of the study showed that application of N @ 180 and P @ 120 kg&middotha-1 significantly increased fodder yield of maize. The linear increase in biomass yield clearly indicated that N was a limiting nutrient factor and that N demand along with P has a positive response. At higher application rates, N fertilizer significantly increased biomass component, improved N uptake with increasing nitrogen use efficiency and decreased its losses to the environment and below plant zone. So this study showed that the phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers have a positive effect on the fodder yield of maize.

General Classes of Variance Estimators in Simple Random Sampling Using Multi-auxiliary Variables

Srivastava and Jhajj [ 1 6] proposed a class of estimators for estimating population variance using multi auxiliary variables in simple random sampling and they utilized the means and variances of auxiliary variables. In this paper, we adapted this class and motivated by Searle [13], and we suggested more generalized class of estimators for estimating the population variance in simple random sampling. The expressions for the mean square error of proposed class have been derived in general form. Besides obtaining the minimized MSE of the proposed and adapted class, it is shown that the adapted classis the special case of the proposed class. Moreover, these theoretical findings are supported by an empirical study of original data.

Analysis of the dielectric properties of R410A Gas as an alternative to SF_(6)for high-voltage applications

Electric power industry is extensively using gas-insulated systems for the transmission and distribution of electrical energy.In high-voltage technology,the gas insulation is dominated by Sulphur-hexafluoride(SF_(6))since the early 60th.It is a greenhouse gas and has long atmospheric lifetime.This paper proposes comparatively more environmental friendly R410 gas as an alternative to SF_(6)for high-voltage applications.To validate the performance and theoretical concepts,it has been analysed experimentally.Buffer gases air and carbon dioxide were mixed with the base gas R410A to reduce the liquification temperature and global warming potential.Dielectric strength of R410A was tested for DC as well as AC voltage,results were compared with that of SF_(6)and other alternatives available in literature,and the results were comparable.Insulation self-recoverability test of R410A was performed and the synergistic effect of the mixed gases was calculated.Consequently,this work has discovered that R410A is the suitable alternative to SF_(6)for high-voltage applications.