Constraints and Suggestions of the Cotton Growers in Vidharba for Adoption of Improved Integrated Management Practices of Pink Bollworm

The pink bollworm (PBW) is an insect known for being a pest in cotton farming. In Maharashtra cotton growers are set to lose nearly 13 % of their output due to pink bollworm attacks on the standing crop in major production regions of the state. The impact of PBW attack has been felt the most in regions of vidarbha where cotton is cultivated as the main cash crop. Present study was conducted in six districts of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra considering the maximum area under cotton cultivation namely Buldana, Akola, Amravati, Yavatmal Wardha and Nagpur. A sample of 300 cotton growers were randomly selected from twelve taluka (two taluka from each district).The major constraints faced by cotton growers were non availability of labourers and high wage rate for undertaking the manual work of handpicking of larvae destruction of affected fruiting bodies and removal of rosette flower (95.00 %), non availability of biofungicides Beauveria bassiana at nearby market (90.33%), non availability of good quality pheromone trap & good quality pheromone lure (89.00%). In case of suggestions expressed by cotton growers overcome constraints were availability of biofungicides Beauveria bassiana should made available at subsidized rate nearby market, followed by availability of recommended insecticides should made available at subsidized rate in nearby market (94.33%), the government should made available good quality pheromone trap and lure used for pink bollworm at village level (93.00%), credit facilities should be increased and process should also easy and quick (87.33%).

A Study of Tomato Growers' Marketing Behaviour in The Dindigul Area of Tamil Nadu, India

The present study was carried out in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, India by using random sampling method with 120 respondents and data collected by well structured interview schedule. There are 8 blocks of Dindigul district (Tamil Nadu, India) out of which 4 blocks were selected on the basis of maximum area (1568 ha) and production (18002 MT). Objective of this research is to study the Marketing behaviour of tomato growers. Consumers' marketing behaviour when looking for, buying, selling, using, evaluating, and discarding products and services that they believe will meet their requirements. According to the findings, the majority of respondents (64.16 per cent) had a medium level of overall marketing behaviour, followed by 23.34 per cent of them having high and only 12.5 percent of them having low level of marketing behaviour.

Differentiating T1a–T1b from T2 in gastric cancer lesions with three different measurement approaches based on contrast-enhanced T1W imaging at 3.0 T

Background To explore the diagnostic value of three different measurement approaches in differentiating T1a–T1b from T2 gastric cancer (GC) lesions. Methods A total of 95 consecutive patients with T1a–T2 stage of GC who performed preoperative MRI were retrospectively enrolled between January 2017 and November 2020. The parameters MRI T stage (subjective evaluation), thickness, maximum area and volume of the lesions were evaluated by two radiologists. Specific indicators including AUC, optimal cutoff, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of MRI T stage, thickness, maximum area and volume for differentiating T1a–T1b from T2 stage lesions were calculated. The ROC curves were compared by the Delong test. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical benefit. Results The ROC curves for thickness (AUC = 0.926), maximum area (AUC = 0.902) and volume (AUC = 0.897) were all significantly better than those of the MRI T stage (AUC = 0.807) in differentiating T1a–T1b from T2 lesions, with p values of 0.004, 0.034 and 0.041, respectively. The values corresponding to the thickness (including AUC, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, PLR and NLR) were all higher than those corresponding to the MRI T stage, maximum area and volume. The DCA curves indicated that the parameter thickness could provide the highest clinical benefit if the threshold probability was above 35%. Conclusions Thickness may provide an efficient approach to rapidly distinguish T1a–T1b from T2 stage GC lesions.

Prediksi spasio temporal rob berbasis model LISFLOOD FP di Pesisir Jakarta.

Abstrak Jakarta khususnya daerah pesisir sangat rentan dengan adanya permasalahan lingkungan berupa rob. Pemetaan daerah yang berpotensi terdampak rob sangat diperlukan guna menyusun upaya mitigasi. Pada penelitian ini dilakukan prediksi tinggi muka laut dengan model Delft3D dan digunakan untuk memprediksi daerah tergenang rob menggunakan model LISFLOOD FP pada tanggal 18 – 20 November 2019 di pesisir Jakarta. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa prediksi tinggi muka laut memiliki akurasi yang baik, dengan koefisien korelasi pada tingkat kuat sebesar 0,93 dan nilai RMSE sebesar 0,13 meter. Sementara itu, prediksi rob model LISFLOOD FP menunjukkan luas maksimum yang terjadi 2 hingga 3 jam setelah fase puncak tinggi muka laut dan menggenangi 8 kecamatan di Jakarta Utara dan Jakarta Barat. Abstract Jakarta region especially the coastal areas are very vulnerable to environmental problems such as coastal inundation. Mapping of areas potentially affected by coastal inundation is needed to arrange mitigation efforts. In this study, sea level prediction was estimated using the Delft3D model and used to predict coastal inundation areas using the LISFLOOD FP model on 18-20 November 2019 on the coast of Jakarta. The results showed that the sea-level prediction model has good accuracy, with a correlation coefficient at a strong level of 0.92 and an RMSE error value of 0.13 meters. Meanwhile, coastal inundation prediction from the LISFLOOD FP model inundated 8 sub-districts in North Jakarta and West Jakarta and showed the maximum area in 2 to 3 hours after the peak phase of sea level.

Study on the Soil Fertility and Mapping in Ramasamudram-1 Microwatershed of Yadgir Taluk and District of Karnataka, India

An investigation was under taken to study the soil fertility status of major nutrients, micronutrients and mapping in Ramasamudram-1 microwatershed of Yadgir taluk and district of Karnataka, India during the year 2019. Total seventy-four grid wise surface soil samples were collected at 320 m grid interval at 0-15 cm depth to assess the soil parameters (texture, pH, EC, OC, available P, K, S, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and B) and prepare the soil fertility maps through GIS using Kriging method. The results of the study indicated that, the texture of the soil varied from loamy sand to sand clay loam in surface. Soil reaction varied from acidic to neutral with non-saline in nature. The distribution of soil organic carbon (32%), available phosphorous (56%) and potassium (47%) status was found to be medium in most of the area of microwatershed. The available sulphur status was found to be low (57%) in maximum area of the microwatershed. The available zinc status was found to be sufficient (46%) in majority area of the microwatershed. The available copper, iron and manganese status of the soils were sufficient (58%) in entire area. Whereas available boron status was found to be low (57%) in maximum area of the microwatershed. Therefore, the study showed that, the soils of the microwatershed were medium in fertility status. There is need of proper fertilizer recommendation and soil management practices can be made productive thereby, increasing the crop yield.

A Mathematical Description of the Agricultural Fields of the Acolhua Codices Vergara and Santa María Asunción

We carry out a mathematical analysis of the quadrilateral fields from Codex Santa María Asunción and compare it with similar previous results from Codex Vergara, as well as analyze fields with more than four sides from both codices. We also provide a computational tool to draw all the possible shapes of the fields. Finally, we use the concept of maximum area to test the feasibility of the areas recorded in the codices and conclude that the Acolhua were very good surveyors.

Differentiating T1a-T1b from T2 in Gastric Cancer Lesions with Three Different Measurement Approaches Based on Contrast-enhanced T1W Imaging at 3.0 Tesla

Background To explore the diagnostic value of three different measurement approaches in differentiating T1a-T1b from T2 gastric cancer (GC) lesions. Methods A total of 95 consecutive patients who performed preoperative MRI with T1a-T2 stage were retrospectively enrolled between January 2017 and November 2020. The parameters MRI T stage (subjective evaluation), thickness, maximum area and volume of the lesions were evaluated by two radiologists. Specific indices including AUC, optimal cutoff (if required), sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of MRI T stage, thickness, maximum area and volume for differentiating T1a-T1b from T2 staged lesions were calculated. The ROC curves were compared by the Delong test. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical benefit. Results The ROC curves for thickness (AUC = 0.926), maximum area (AUC = 0.902) and volume (AUC = 0.897) were all significantly better than those of the MRI T stage (AUC = 0.807) in differentiating T1a-T1b from T2 lesions, with p values of 0.004, 0.034 and 0.041, respectively. The values corresponding to the thickness (including AUC, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, PLR and NLR) were all higher than those corresponding to the MRI T stage, maximum area and volume. The DCA curves indicated that the parameter thickness could provide the highest clinical benefit if the threshold probability was above 35%. Conclusions Thickness may provide an efficient approach to rapidly distinguish T1a-T1b from T2 staged GC lesions.

The maximum diversity assortment selection problem

In this article, we introduce the Maximum Diversity Assortment Selection Problem (MDASP), which is a generalization of the two-dimensional Knapsack Problem (2D-KP). Given a set of rectangles and a rectangular container, the goal of 2D-KP is to determine a subset of rectangles that can be placed in the container without overlapping, i.e., a feasible assortment, such that a maximum area is covered. MDASP is to determine a set of feasible assortments, each of them covering a certain minimum threshold of the container, such that the diversity among them is maximized. Thereby, diversity is defined as the minimum or average normalized Hamming distance of all assortment pairs. MDASP was the topic of the 11th AIMMS-MOPTA Competition in 2019. The methods described in this article and the resulting computational results won the contest. In the following, we give a definition of the problem, introduce a mathematical model and solution approaches, determine upper bounds on the diversity, and conclude with computational experiments conducted on test instances derived from the 2D-KP literature.