Life Sciences

The present work was focused on analyzing the aerosol optical properties over Rohtak during winter season from December 2015 to February 2016 using sky-radiometer data. The results reveal that AOD shows strong spectral dependence. Higher value of AOD was observed during January at all wavelengths. The monthly mean AOD at 500 nm were found to be 0.44±0.23, 0.80±0.37 and 0.57±0.34 for December, January and February, respectively with seasonal average of 0.63±0.36.

Domestication of Meliponinae in log hive or simple box has often been used in Africa. However, colonyloss in these two hive types due to pest infestation after honey harvesting still occurs. We hypothesized that the two hive types were the probable causes for the infestations.We designed and assessed the hive acceptance andpostharvest colony losses of three Afrotropical Meliponinae namely Plebeina hildebrandti, Meliponula bocandei and two M. ferruginea morpho-speciesin a vertical compartmented hive (called the icipe-4M), as an alternative. We observed that P.

The study was carried out in Dumbriguda Mandal by collecting and analysing the physic- chemical parameters of water samples (four open well, two bore and one spring) during April - October 2015. The results were compared with standards prescribed by WHO and ISO 10500-91.

The present experiment was conducted using 60 genotypes of cowpea to study their correlation and path analysis during kharif-2015. It can be concluded from these experiment findings that main yield contributing traits are biological yield per plant, number of pods per plant, number of flowers per plant, test weight, number of pods per cluster, pod length, number of seeds per pod, number of clusters per plant, harvest index and plant height due to their direct high positive association with seed yield.

The study entitled “to study the constraints experienced by the tribal women participating in decision making in farming” was conducted in Chikhaldara tahsil (Melghat) of Amravati district in Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State. The study was conducted in ten villages of Chikhaldara Panchayat Samiti From list of 197 villages 10 villages was selected by ‘N’th method of randomization. A list of tribal women from randomly selected villages was prepared. They were arranged alphabetically and thus total 120 tribal women were selected randomly as respondents for the study.

Wetlands provide innumerable valuable services to the society at large such as recharging ground water, recycling nutrients, attenuating floods and as natural habitat supporting various species biodiversity. Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization the only available rain water harvesting wetland of Chennai city, the Pallikaranai marsh land which has been designated as a reserve forest area has been reduced to one-tenth of its original extent due to anthropogenic pressures.

Consumption of contaminated maize poses a significant aflatoxin problem in many countries including Kenya, and many people living in developing countries may be unknowingly chronically exposed to aflatoxin through diet from maize and other cereals. The objective of this study was to determine and compare aflatoxin levels of maize stored households in different altitude areas and in different maize harvest seasons, in Makueni County in Kenya. Design of the study was comparative cross sectional analytical study and setting was in Kibwezi and Kilome sub-counties of Makueni County, Kenya.

Parenting styles are defined as set of attitudes; beliefs and goals parents have and put into practice in their daily interactions with their children. Baumrind (1971) has mentioned three types of parenting styles viz., authoritative/democratic, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. The present study was under taken to know the parenting styles adopted by mothers of pre-school children.

The wetlands are suitable habitats for variety of animals, birds and many aquatic plants, which form a typical food web. A total number of 13 macrophytes were reported from Dudhebhavi reservoir out of them 8 species of emergent and 5 were of submerged type. In aquatic ecosystem, the phytoplankton play an important role of primary producers. The Chlorophyceae is dominant group represented by 15 genera and 20 species where, Cyanophyceae showed 5 genera and 5 species. Bacillariophyceae reported with 7 genera and 8 species. Euglenophyceae, with only Euglena acus.

Swarna is most popular indica rice variety cultivated in India. However, Swarna is highly susceptible to blast disease. As genes that confer effective resistance to blast are available along with gene-specific markers, the present study was carried out to introgress a major blast resistance gene, Pi54 into the genetic background of Swarna through marker-assisted backcross breeding. Rice line Tetep possessing Pi54 gene served as the donor. Marker-assisted backcross breeding strategy was used for introgression of the resistance gene into Swarna.