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Traditional processing of Circular Polarimetric (Compact Polarimetric)—Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP-SAR) images from the Satellites has been done after receiving the raw data in the Ground Station. The availability of million gate FPGAs has given scope for doing many processing steps on-board itself which has given scope for Smart Small Satellites. The feasibility exists especially for small scenes of interest which have limited data in smaller volumes for ease of processing. National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (NRSC, ISRO) have carried out ground processing with software tools hosted in high performance computers, using the m-delta (δ) decomposition method on the L1-SLC data of CP-SAR payload of RISAT-1 satellite for classification. In our research work, the same data set, and m-delta(ẟ) decomposition method have been chosen for implementation and processing in FPGA fabric, for comparison with earlier Ground based processed results. As part of prototyping, an Intel FPGA evaluation board kit was used. Preliminary results are encouraging and can lead to potential future Smart Small Satellite missions with CP-SAR and on-board processing for direct classification of the scene under imaging for its possible direct delivery to the end user. Major advantage of this approach is the reduction in bandwidth, as the volume of data to be downlinked is reduced, due to lower latency, computational and round-trip times, potential scope for delivery to user with near real-time processing.

In a large study, cardiac risk-factor burden was correlated with cardiovascular disease and mortality. High-income countries had a high risk burden but low rates of major cardiovascular events, which suggests that contributors other than risk factors influence outcome. Worldwide, 18 million deaths annually are attributed to cardiovascular diseases. 1 From the 1930s to the 1950s, the rate of cardiovascular disease increased in high-income countries, but during this period, the rates were low in middle- and low-income countries. 2 , 3 Since the mid-1970s, the rate of death from cardiovascular diseases has declined markedly in several high-income countries, owing to reductions in risk factors and improved management of cardiovascular disease. 4 By contrast, the incidence of cardiovascular disease has been increasing in some low-income and middle-income countries, 5 , 6 with 80% of the global burden estimated to occur in these countries. 1 It is not . . .

WHO estimates that about 170 000 deaths by suicide occur in India every year, but few epidemiological studies of suicide have been done in the country. We aimed to quantify suicide mortality in India in 2010. The Registrar General of India implemented a nationally representative mortality survey to determine the cause of deaths occurring between 2001 and 2003 in 1·1 million homes in 6671 small areas chosen randomly from all parts of India. As part of this survey, fieldworkers obtained information about cause of death and risk factors for suicide from close associates or relatives of the deceased individual. Two of 140 trained physicians were randomly allocated (stratified only by their ability to read the local language in which each survey was done) to independently and anonymously assign a cause to each death on the basis of electronic field reports. We then applied the age-specific and sex-specific proportion of suicide deaths in this survey to the 2010 UN estimates of absolute numbers of deaths in India to estimate the number of suicide deaths in India in 2010. About 3% of the surveyed deaths (2684 of 95 335) in individuals aged 15 years or older were due to suicide, corresponding to about 187 000 suicide deaths in India in 2010 at these ages (115 000 men and 72 000 women; age-standardised rates per 100 000 people aged 15 years or older of 26·3 for men and 17·5 for women). For suicide deaths at ages 15 years or older, 40% of suicide deaths in men (45 100 of 114 800) and 56% of suicide deaths in women (40 500 of 72 100) occurred at ages 15–29 years. A 15-year-old individual in India had a cumulative risk of about 1·3% of dying before the age of 80 years by suicide; men had a higher risk (1·7%) than did women (1·0%), with especially high risks in south India (3·5% in men and 1·8% in women). About half of suicide deaths were due to poisoning (mainly ingestions of pesticides). Suicide death rates in India are among the highest in the world. A large proportion of adult suicide deaths occur between the ages of 15 years and 29 years, especially in women. Public health interventions such as restrictions in access to pesticides might prevent many suicide deaths in India. US National Institutes of Health.

The recent spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exemplifies the critical need for accurate and rapid diagnostic assays to prompt clinical and public health interventions. Currently, several quantitative reverse transcription–PCR (RT–qPCR) assays are being used by clinical, research and public health laboratories. However, it is currently unclear whether results from different tests are comparable. Our goal was to make independent evaluations of primer–probe sets used in four common SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic assays. From our comparisons of RT–qPCR analytical efficiency and sensitivity, we show that all primer–probe sets can be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 at 500 viral RNA copies per reaction. The exception for this is the RdRp-SARSr (Charité) confirmatory primer–probe set which has low sensitivity, probably due to a mismatch to circulating SARS-CoV-2 in the reverse primer. We did not find evidence for background amplification with pre-COVID-19 samples or recent SARS-CoV-2 evolution decreasing sensitivity. Our recommendation for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing is to select an assay with high sensitivity and that is regionally used, to ease comparability between outcomes. This is a comparative analysis of the performance of the primer–probe sets from four open-source molecular diagnostic assays for SARS-CoV-2 recommended by the World Health Organization.

To determine whether brief intervention and contact is effective in reducing subsequent suicide mortality among suicide attempters in low and middle-income countries. Suicide attempters (n = 1867) identified by medical staff in the emergency units of eight collaborating hospitals in five culturally different sites (Campinas, Brazil; Chennai, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Karaj, Islamic Republic of Iran; and Yuncheng, China) participated, from January 2002 to October 2005, in a randomized controlled trial to receive either treatment as usual, or treatment as usual plus brief intervention and contact (BIC), which included patient education and follow-up. Overall, 91% completed the study. The primary study outcome measurement was death from suicide at 18-month follow-up. Significantly fewer deaths from suicide occurred in the BIC than in the treatment-as-usual group (0.2% versus 2.2%, respectively; chi2 = 13.83, P < 0.001). This low-cost brief intervention may be an important part of suicide prevention programmes for underresourced low- and middle-income countries.

Tremendous efforts have been taken worldwide to develop genome-wide genetic stocks for rice functional genomic (FG) research since the rice genome was completely sequenced. To facilitate FG research of complex polygenic phenotypes in rice, we report the development of over 20 000 introgression lines (ILs) in three elite rice genetic backgrounds for a wide range of complex traits, including resistances/tolerances to many biotic and abiotic stresses, morpho-agronomic traits, physiological traits, etc., by selective introgression. ILs within each genetic background are phenotypically similar to their recurrent parent but each carries one or a few traits introgressed from a known donor. Together, these ILs contain a significant portion of loci affecting the selected complex phenotypes at which allelic diversity exists in the primary gene pool of rice. A forward genetics strategy was proposed and demonstrated with examples on how to use these ILs for large-scale FG research. Complementary to the genome-wide insertional mutants, these ILs opens a new way for highly efficient discovery, candidate gene identification and cloning of important QTLs for specific phenotypes based on convergent evidence from QTL position, expression profiling, functional and molecular diversity analyses of candidate genes, highlights the importance of genetic networks underlying complex phenotypes in rice that may ultimately lead to more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular bases of quantitative trait variation in rice.

One hundred and ninety three parental lines obtained from 26 countries for an international rice molecular breeding program were evaluated using 101 well-distributed simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. An overall genetic diversity of 0.68 and an average of 6.3 alleles per locus were revealed, indicating a high level of genetic variation in these lines. Cluster analysis of the 193 accessions showed three major groups and nine subgroups. Group I corresponded to the classical indica subspecies, whereas groups II and III belong to the japonica subspecies. Indica and japonica differentiation accounted for only 6.5% of the total variation in the entire sample and 93.5% was due to within-subspecies diversity. Differentiation among eco-geographic regions accounted for 24% of the diversity within the subspecies. Larger amounts of the eco-geographical differentiation were resolved within japonica than within indica. The largest indica-japonica differentiation based on the single locus level was detected by markers on chromosomes 9 and 12, while the smallest differentiation was detected by markers on chromosomes 4 and 8. Furthermore, genetic differences at the single-locus and two-locus levels, as well as components due to allelic and gametic differentiation, were revealed between indica and japonica and among the main geographic regions. The multilocus analysis in genetic diversity showed a higher proportion of variation caused by predominant non-random associations of different loci within and among the classified subspecies and geographic subdivisions. The results suggest that selection for eco-geographical adaptation on multilocus associations was largely responsible for the maintenance of the extensive variation in the primary gene pool of rice.

Sprayed thin coatings of tin sulphide (SnS) onto glass substrates utilizing tin chloride dehydrate and CS (NH 2 ) 2 as precursors, in various substrate temperatures (250–325 °C) in steps of 25 °C. The physical properties were studied for all the as prepared SnS thin films. The increased substrate temperature on the film shows the increased crystallinity along orthorhombic nature of (040) plane. The Debye-Scherer formula was used to determine the crystallite’s size, which ranged from 20 to 29 nm. The morphological, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and 3D AFM micrographs were characterized to find the morphology and surface roughness of thin film. Optical transmittance spectra (500 nm–1100 nm) revealed that all films had direct band gap values with appropriate range of photo voltaic applications. In the FT-IR spectrum’s absorption band, the characteristic stretching vibration mode of SnS thin films were analysed. The film developed at 325 °C had the lowest electrical resistivity of 4.28 Ω cm with a hole concentration of around 10 13  cm −3 . As the temperature of growth of the thin film increased, the resistance rapidly reduced.

Nanotechnology is an emerging technology in the field of food and agriculture; every individual molecule and atom can be modified or controlled by this technology. Everything that exists on the earth is made up of atoms and molecules. Problems in all the fields can easily be overcome by modifying or altering their nanosize. Similarly, nanotechnology could address many issues in the agriculture and food industries. Nanomaterials play a keen role in the place of pesticides, fertilizers, and biosensors. Nutrition enhancement, safe delivery of bioactive components and micronutrients, and food preservations were facilitated by the applications of nanotechnologies. Efforts have to be taken to create awareness among the public in this nanotechnology field. Future research directions were identified in this review to improve the nanoembedded agriculture system. This article reviews the recent development in the agriculture and food industries through nanotechnology, application of nanotechnology in the food and agricultural sectors, and research backlogs in such sectors.

One hundred twenty six doubled-haploid (DH) rice lines were evaluated in nine diverse Asian environments to reveal the genetic basis of genotype x environment interactions (GEI) for plant height (PH) and heading date (HD). A subset of lines was also evaluated in four water-limited environments, where the environmental basis of G x E could be more precisely defined. Responses to the environments were resolved into individual QTL x environment interactions using replicated phenotyping and the mixed linear-model approach. A total of 37 main-effect QTLs and 29 epistatic QTLs were identified. On average, these QTLs were detectable in 56% of the environments. When detected in multiple environments, the main effects of most QTLs were consistent in direction but varied considerably in magnitude across environments. Some QTLs had opposite effects in different environments, particularly in water-limited environments, indicating that they responded to the environments differently. Inconsistent QTL detection across environments was due primarily to non- or weak-expression of the QTL, and in part to significant QTL x environment interaction effects in the opposite direction to QTL main effects, and to pronounced epistasis. QTL x environment interactions were trait- and gene-specific. The greater GEI for HD than for PH in rice were reflected by more environment-specific QTLs, greater frequency and magnitude of QTL x environment interaction effects, and more pronounced epistasis for HD than for PH. Our results demonstrated that QTL x environment interaction is an important property of many QTLs, even for highly heritable traits such as height and maturity. Information about QTL x environment interaction is essential if marker-assisted selection is to be applied to the manipulation of quantitative traits.