Inter-varietal sterility and fertility restoration in Oryza sativa Linn.

This study explored the underlining reproductive factors that cause sterility in rice, using hybrids obtained from crosses among landrace selections and improved varieties. The study was carried out between 2016 and 2018. Nine landrace cultivars and two improved varieties were involved in the hybridization experiment. Among the 17 putative hybrids that were obtained, only 5 were confirmed as true hybrids. Meiotic chromosome studies and pollen studies in the F1, and Mendelian segregation studies for fertility in the F2 were carried out. Some F2 lines were monitored to F3 to ascertain the level of fixation of gene combinations for fertility. The results obtained from the chromosomal studies showed that phenomena such as laggards, precocious movements, formation of multivalents, and unequal segregation to the poles are associated with pollen sterility in all - 5 hybrids, at the F1 and F2 generations. The indehiscence of anthers contributed to infertility due to pollen shortage than the fertility of the pollens themselves. Even though in males, there is a preponderance of male sterility, female sterility is also a phenomenon that is possibly contributing to inter-varietal sterility. The segregational pattern of 13:3 was observed for fertility in the F2 which suggests the inhibition of fertility by a gene in the dominant state. There was the restoration of fertility in many of the lines advanced to the F3 to up to 93 % fertility. It was, therefore, concluded from the study that landraces of rice still hold the key for the rice crop improvement and should therefore be conserved.

Contextualizing four-stage legal transitions in convergent evolution

Summary This article posits that both Roman and early Chinese states underwent four stages in their multiple-step transformations from local states to major empires during the classical period. For both states, at stage 2, one dominant state formed alliance with a group of smaller autonomous polities, and at stage 3 that dominant state deepened its regulation of the smaller polities whose autonomy was curtailed. There existed striking similarities between Rome and China (early Han Empire) at stages 2 and 3 regarding the constitutional rules enforced by the two central governments to control the newly-acquired subordinate territories, which were the Macedonian/Greek states for Rome and the vassal kingdoms in eastern territories for Han Empire. In particular, this article discusses: (i) why Macedonian/Greek states have been chosen for comparative studies; (ii) similar constitutional rules at stage 2 governing the two empires’ relationships with their subordinate polities; (iii) similar legal rules at stage 3 aiming at dividing up the territories of the subordinate polities and restraining their self-rule; (iv) similar stage-3 constitutional rules that preserved some autonomy for the subordinate polities; and (v) similar stage-3 legal rules that regulated certain economic activities of the subordinate polities. After analyzing Roman governance of Macedonia/Greece within the broader context of Roman institutions for territorial integration, the article explores the underlying trends and deeper mechanism that led to such convergent evolution of legal rules.

Transformation of economic systems in countries with emerging markets: the phenomenon of hybrid state capitalism — what is forward?

The article is devoted to the actual and complex topic of the economic transformation of a number of countries with emerging (growing) markets, which are distinguished by a hybrid systemic structure with a dominant state-capitalist order. A retrospective of the transformation of the entire enclave of emerging market economies in a large number of countries has described. On this ground, the author analyzes the process of the reproduction of economic systems, distinguished by the dominant state-capitalist order, in a separate conglomerate of post-developing and post-socialist countries in the last ten-year period. According to the author, the observed tremendous increase in demand and at the same time in prices for commodities after the peak of the Pandemic in non-Western countries is temporary. It will soon exhaust itself in the face of rapid progress in the efficiency of resource consumption in the largest producing countries, primarily in China and India, and the rapid general process of decarbonization in the world economy. In the future, the fundamental factors of national economic development will play a decisive role. With regard to the conglomerate of considered national economies, the most significant fundamental competitive advantage, at least in a five-year perspective, presents still the preservation of a relatively low cost of production factors. Based on the author’s argumentation and the available research results, a vision of the near and longterm prospects for the transformation of such national economies has supposed. The main conclusion concerns the possibility of successful adaptation of the considered national economic systems to the expected fundamental changes, including those associated with the transition to economic and overall social sustainable development.

Revealing the nature of the transient source MAXI J0637-430 through spectro-temporal analysis

We study the spectral and temporal properties of MAXI J0637-430 during its 2019-2020 outburst using NICER, AstroSat and Swift-XRT data. The source was in a disc dominant state within a day of its detection and traces out a ‘c’ shaped profile in the HID, similar to the ‘mini’-outbursts of the recurrent BHB 4U 1630-472. Energy spectrum is obtained in the 0.5 − 10 keV band with NICER and Swift-XRT, and 0.5 − 25 keV with AstroSat. The spectra can be modelled using a multicolour disc emission (diskbb) convolved with a thermal Comptonisation component (thcomp). The disc temperature decreases from 0.6 keV to 0.1 keV during the decay with a corresponding decrease in photon index (Γ) from 4.6 to 1.8. The fraction of Compton scattered photons (fcov) remains < 0.3 during the decay upto mid-January 2020 and gradually increases to 1 as the source reaches hard state. Power Density Spectra (PDS) generated in the 0.01-100 Hz range display no Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs) although band-limited noise (BLN) is seen towards the end of January 2020. During AstroSat observations, Γ lies in the range 2.3 − 2.6 and rms increases from 11 to 20%, suggesting that the source was in an intermediate state till 21 November 2019. Spectral fitting with the relativistic disc model (kerrbb), in conjunction with the soft-hard transition luminosity, favour a black hole with mass 3 − 19 M⊙ with retrograde spin at a distance <15 kpc. Finally, we discuss the possible implications of our findings.

Scalar politics of Indigenous waterscapes in Navajo Nation and Nepal: Conflict, conservation and development

We use case studies of the Diné in the United States of America, and the Musahar people in Nepal, to understand how indigeneity is enacted in relation to the developmental and conservationist impulses of the dominant American and Nepalese states. We mobilize the concept of ‘waterscapes’ as assemblages of practices, technologies, emotions and worldviews, to unpack how geographical scales are produced and contested through symbolic and material practices. We find that the Diné of the Navajo Nation have socially differentiated engagement with the techno-legal assemblages embedded in the US Western water law and the water development infrastructure, e.g. the Glen Canyon Dam, that enables the tourism economy. The Musahar people, much like the Diné, have been excluded from their customary livelihoods as global-scale conservation was enacted in their waterscapes through techno-legal assemblages including the Chitwan National Park and water development and conservation policies for the Narayani River. In both the United States and Nepal, centralized agencies of the US federal government and the Nepali state tend to perpetuate exclusionary geographies of access to water and Indigenous livelihoods in the waterscapes. The national and international scales, at times, violently constrict local-scale Indigenous spaces. But the oppositional symbolic and material practices, of both the Diné and the Musahar, destabilize the dominant ontologies on local waterscapes. This paper demonstrates that across vast distances of history, geography and wealth, indigeneity does not just get repressed or occluded by the dominant state but is instead constantly reimagined and re-enacted in creative ways by the Indigenous People themselves.

Change not State: Perceptual coupling in multistable displays reflects transient bias induced by perceptual change

We investigated how changes in dynamic spatial context influence visual perception. Specifically, we reexamined the perceptual coupling phenomenon when two multistable displays viewed simultaneously tend to be in the same dominant state and switch in accord. Current models assume this interaction reflecting mutual bias produced by a dominant perceptual state. In contrast, we demonstrate that influence of spatial context is strongest when perception changes. First, we replicated earlier work using bistable kinetic-depth effect displays, then extended it by employing asynchronous presentation to show that perceptual coupling cannot be accounted for by the static context provided by perceptually dominant states. Next, we demonstrated that perceptual coupling reflects transient bias induced by perceptual change, both in ambiguous and disambiguated displays. We used a hierarchical Bayesian model to characterize its timing, demonstrating that the transient bias is induced 50–70 ms after the exogenous trigger event and decays within ~200–300 ms. Both endogenous and exogenous switches led to quantitatively and qualitatively similar perceptual consequences, activating similar perceptual reevaluation mechanisms within a spatial surround. We explain how they can be understood within a transient selective visual attention framework or using local lateral connections within sensory representations. We suggest that observed perceptual effects reflect general mechanisms of perceptual inference for dynamic visual scene perception.

Dominant Mental State and Mood in People with Different Professional Self-Awareness

The research featured the effect of dominant mental state on professional self-awareness. The survey was conducted as part of personnel audit and involved 113 employees of an agricultural holding with 1–5 years of experience. The empirical data were provided by two questionnaires: Professional Self-Awareness and Determining the Dominant State. The activity parameter reflected the level of claims and setting for professional self-development. As an indicator of professional selfawareness, it is connected with such parameters of mental state as "active (passive) attitude to the life" and "high (low) tonus". The positivity indicator defines one’s acceptance and perception of oneself as a professional. It is interconnected with "vigor" as a mental state indicator. In subjects with an active-positive professional self-awareness, synthonic and active types of mood prevailed. In situations where activity dominated over positivity, active mood also domineered. Synthonic mood dominated if positivity indicators were more pronounced than activity. Subjects with a balanced professional self-awareness demonstrated a happy and enthusiastic mood. Enthusiastic mood prevailed when activity dominated, a happy mood increased with increasing positivity. Passive-negative professional self-awareness was associated with a contemplative mood. The research can help to prevent tonic "risk conditions", e.g. overwork and asthenic conditions. In addition, the study can be used to develop an active-positive professional self-awareness in employees, as well as the sense of vocational and psychological well-being.