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Effects of part replacement (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%) of whole wheat flour by composite flour (based on foxtail millet, proso millet and buckwheat flours in equal proportions) on physical, nutritional, sensory and antioxidant properties of multi-millet cookies were investigated. Increase in the ratio of composite flour in the blend and formulated cookies resulted in increase in ash, fiber, fat and protein and decrease in moisture and carbohydrate contents. Increase in supplementation levels of composite flour added to the TPC, DPPH, reducing power and FRAP and decrease in metal chelating activity of cookies. Maximum gain in thickness and weight as well as loss in diameter, spread ratio and bake loss were observed with the highest composite flour substitution. Color values such as a* was found to be enhanced whereas L* and b* were found to be weakened, simultaneously NEB values got increased upon substitution. A 60% blend of composite flour with whole wheat flour was selected best used in the cookie’s formulation on the basis of sensory evaluation. Overall, this study demonstrates that millet based composite flour can effectively improve the functional values of formulated cookies, in addition to an option for the development of gluten free products for celiac patients. 

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Orchid bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Euglossini) play a vital role as key pollinators in the Neotropical forests. Their preference for forested areas makes these bees more susceptible to environmental changes, particularly in areas under severe human impact, such as the Chocó-Darien biodiversity hotspot. This study presents new data on orchid bees within the Canandé Biological Reserve, a lowland rainforest in the Chocó region of northwestern Ecuador. At this site, four species of orchid bees were recorded for the first time in Ecuador: Euglossa bursigera Moure, 1970, Euglossa crassipunctata Moure, 1968, Euglossa villosiventris Moure, 1968 and Eufriesea macroglossa (Moure, 1965). We also provide species-specific information on diagnosis, distribution maps, and high-resolution images. With these records, the total number of orchid bee species recorded in Ecuador now stands at 119.

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Mycosphaerella graminicola, the causal agent of septoria tritici blotch (STB), is a widespread and significant pathogen of wheat. To determine mating types, 89 isolates were collected randomly from wheat fields of Khuzestan, East Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Kermanshah and Golestan provinces of Iran, during 2006-7. DNA was extracted based on standard protocols. Multiplex PCR was conducted using two pairs of mating type-specific primers for MAT1-1 and MAT1-2. Sensitivity to strobilurin fungicide was determined using strobSNPrc7 and strobSNPrc1 primers. The results showed that in 35 isolates, a fragment of 340 bp amplified with MAT1-1 idiomorph specific primers and in 54 isolates a fragment of 660 bp was amplified with MAT1-2 idiomorph specific primers. While the mating type frequencies were highly unequal, the MAT1-1 was predominant. All isolates were sensitive to strobilurin and amplified a fragment of 639 bp. It is concluded that both mating types are present in Iran, although with different frequencies, which may affect genetic variation through sexual cycle. Meanwhile the studied isolates were not resistant to strobilurin fungicides which may be due to growing wheat cultivars resistant to STB rather than using strobilurin fungicides as a dominant control method.

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The significant reduction of bollworm infestation by the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Bt Cotton as a component of IPM led to reduction in bollworm infestation and increase in yield. However, these alterations have brought in many new biotic problems hitherto unknown or of little economic importance. Field survey of rainfed Bt cotton fields in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu, India during 2008-2014 revealed that the incidence of various insect pests and plant diseases is on the rise in different Bt cotton hybrids. In 2008-2009, it was observed that the Bt cotton was damaged by cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley), green mirid bug (Creontiades biseratance Distant) and root rot (Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn) which caused severe yield losses. In addition to that, other pests like papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus Williams & Granara de Willink) and Alternaria leaf spot caused more damage in Bt cotton during 2009-10. Besides these pests, the mirid bug (Campyloma livida Reuter), stripped mealybug (Ferrissia virgata Ckll), tobacco streak virus, grey mildew Ramularia areola and boll rot incidence in Bt cotton were noticed in 2010-12. Apart from this pest and disease problems, the Alterrnaria leaf blight, root rot (Macrophomina phaseolina Maubl) and Myrothecium leaf spot caused severe yield losses in Bt cotton during 2012-2014. The survey revealed that, the pests and disease problems are increasing year by year in Bt cotton which caused yield reduction and also increased the cost of cultivation. If left unchecked these pests and disease problems are capable of undoing all benefits gained due to Bt cotton in terms of increased yield and reduction in use of chemical pesticides.

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Two species of family Thripidae, Hydatothrips onari Kudô, 1997 from subfamily Sericothripinae and Thrips alius Palmer, 1992 from subfamily Thripinae are collected on Guizotia abssinica and general vegetation respectively for the first time from India after their original description. Due to the addition of these two species in the Indian fauna, the number of species increased under the genus Hydatothrips from 10 to 11 and under the genus Thrips from 44 to 45. Species diagnosis with illustrations and distribution of the newly recorded taxa is also provided.

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Aims: The article’s purpose was to consider the problematic issues of forming an understanding of such concepts as health, pain, and suffering.
Information & Methods: A set of general scientific and special methods was used in work: dialectical, dogmatic, hermeneutics, comparative legal method, statistic, and sociological method.
Findings: Considered the category of "health" in various humanities and compared the characteristics of "physical pain" and "physical and moral suffering" as possible consequences of criminal offenses that harm the health of the individual.
Conclusion: The research of such problematic issues allowed to development of a unified approach to the understanding of such concepts as “health”, “pain” and “suffering” this, in turn, will make it possible to unify legislation in this area.

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The thrips fauna of Jammu and Kashmir is known for 21 species of suborder Terebrantia, while there are no known species of suborder Tubulifera till now. Two Phaleothripid genera, Bolothrips Priesner of the subfamily Idolothripinae and Cephalothrips Uzel of the subfamily Phaleothripinae are reported for the first time from India as well as for the Oriental region. These include Bolothrips dentipes (Reuter) and Cephalothrips monilicornis Uzel, and were collected in the year 1984 from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on grasses. Detailed diagnostic notes, material examined, distribution, and illustrations for these new records are also provided. Furthermore, the thrips fauna of Jammu and Kashmir has not been thoroughly studied, necessitating additional surveys to identify thrips species in this unexplored region.

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The paper attempts to study the efficiency of crop production and resource use effi-ciency on temple tenants and owner farms in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu. A sam-ple of 90 temple tenants and 50 owner farmers from two taluks of Tirunelveli District, nawely, Shencottah and Tenkasi were selected for the study. The reference period of the study was 2002-2003. The efficiency analysis with the stochastic frontier production func-tion has shown, and a resource use efficiency analysis implied that there was ample scope to increase the productivity of the temple tenants and owner farmers by adopting appro-priated technologies as well as the optimum allocation of the available resources. Effi-ciency of the farmers could be supported by technical efficiency, the results of which had indicated that owner farmers were more efficient than the temple tenants. This reveals that there is wider scope for further improvement in the technical efficiency of the temple owned lands.

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At the crop level, the drought stress accounts for most variations in yield. A controlled glasshouse investigation at day/night temperatures of 22/15°C based at Perth City, Western Australia was performed (in 2006) to assess the influence of different soil moisture contents (field capacity percentage basis) on emergence as well as early plant growth in twenty chickpea genotypes. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with soil moisture con-tent as the main treatment and genotype as sub-treatment. Significant differences (P < 0.001) as regards plant emergence and early growth were observed among different soil moisture contents (from 100 to 50, then to 25% field capacity). This brought about a quad-ratic reduction in mean emergence percentage, delayed the first day to emergence and sup-pressed the early growth in all the chickpea genotypes. Highly significant differences were also noticed among the genotypes for mean emergence percentage, first day to emergence, plant height, leaf area, total above-ground biomass (plant size) as well as specific leaf area. Significant interaction effect of soil moisture contents and genotypes were observed only for some of the characteristics. Inverse relationship between first day to emergence with plant height (r= - 0.87**) and above-ground biomass (r= -0.84**) were observed, indicating that the chickpea genotypes which emerged sooner produced greater plant size. Seed size and density were found to have no relationship with plant size. Although the Kabuli types on av-erage germinated faster and produced larger plants as opposed to the Desi types under the limited soil moisture content, but there was no consistency observed among the chickpea genotypes. Susceptibility of the genotypes to limited soil moisture condition was shown through relatively longer delays in time to emergence (lower germination rate) and reduc-tion in seedling parameters as compared to the resistant genotypes. Final average above-ground biomass (plant size) and plant height under the limited soil moisture content, as op-posed to adequate moisture level (F. C. 25% vs. 100%), were reduced 79-85% in Kabuli and 77-79% in Desi types, respectively.

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Textbooks play a crucial role in language education even in a digital age where education tends to be digitalized. It has been claimed that pronunciation is underrepresented in EFL textbooks, notwithstanding its significance in spoken interaction. To this end, this research investigated the treatment of pronunciation in a multilevel EFL textbook series along with such components as teacher’s book, pronunciation extra, and MyEnglishLab. Following the analysis of a total of 264 units in student’s book and other textbook components individually, it was found that suprasegmental features predominated the textbook series compared to segmentals. It was also discovered that controlled practice activities prevailed, pursued respectively by description and analysis, and listening discrimination activities. The findings suggest that the analyzed textbook series contain sufficient amount of pronunciation practice, albeit not including adequate guided and communicative practice. The research concluded that pronunciation is not underrepresented in this textbook series. It might accordingly be inferred that there might be other causes of ignoring pronunciation than its treatment in EFL textbooks in the Turkish context, such as teacher cognition (i.e. beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge, etc.), institutional policies, time constraints, or psychological reasons.

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This small-scale corpus-based study delineates the most common and significant dialectal variations between the two most commonly spoken English varieties: American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). As a result of the corpus analysis, four main areas have emerged as to where dialectal variations take place: pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and orthography/punctuation. A total of 26 variations (f=10 in pronunciation, f=5 in vocabulary, f=6 grammar, and f=5 in orthography/punctuation) was identified by analyzing a variety of sources, including books, articles, online dictionaries, and websites. The significance of the variations in the abovementioned language areas and their implications for language teaching were discussed empirically and pedagogically. Notwithstanding the limitations, the research is expected to contribute to our understanding and awareness of the dialectal variations and assist language learners and teachers with the learning and teaching of these variations pedagogically and systematically since it might serve as a guide or a framework of reference.

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Nowadays thin-walled tube rotary draw bending in small bending ratio is a production process widely used in advanced industries such as aerospace and automotive. Cross section ovality, wall thickness changing during tube bending are the main inevitable defects in this process. The purpose of this research is to obtain the smallest bending ratio and maximum pressure applicable in hydro-rotary draw bending of thin-walled aluminum alloy 8112 tube using failure criterion. For this purpose, the equivalent plastic strain at the critical extrados region used for necking prediction. Concluded results showed that this failure criterion by a maximum difference of 12.5% from experimental tests, is a useful method for predicting the necking onset in the bending process. Moreover, the effects of bending ratio and internal pressure on the defects such as cross section ovality and thickness changing are investigated with simulation in the ABAQUS software and experimental methods. The maximum ovality is not located at the mid-cross section of bent tube unexpectedly and regardless of the internal pressure and bending ratio, occurs at the cross-section with an angle of approximately θ=33°. The minimum achievable amounts of ovality at R/D1.6, R/D1.8 and R/D2 were 11.42%, 7.72% and 4.35% respectively. Furthermore, bending ratio and internal pressure had noticeable effects on the cross section of the bent tubes, so that as the bending ratio or pressure increased, cross-section ovality and the thickening of the tube wall at the intrados decreased, but contrary to bending ratio, as the internal pressure increased, extrados thinning increased.

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Concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere is likely to increase up to 550 µmol mol^-1 by the middle of 21^st century. Such an increase in the atmospheric CO₂ would affect plant growth, and as well the productivity of crop plants. A field experiment was conducted with two potato cultivars namely Kufri Surya and Kufri Chipsona-3 grown inside Open Top Chambers (OTCs) at ambient (385±30 µmol mol^-1) vs. elevated CO₂ (570±50 µmol mol^-1) levels during rabi (winter) season of the year 2009-2010. The photosynthetic rate significantly increased in both cultivars when under high CO₂ concentration, with the enhancement being more in Kufri Chipsona-3 than in Kufri Surya. There were significantly increased accumulations of reducing, non-reducing and total sugars observed in the leaves of both cultivars as due to CO₂ enrichment. Crop Growth Rate (CGR) and Tuber Growth Rate (TGR), in both cultivars, were recorded higher in plants grown under elevated CO₂ as compared with the ambient CO₂ content. High CO₂ increased the partitioning of dry matter towards the tubers at all the harvesting stages. Potato plants grown under elevated CO₂ exhibited increased tuber yield due to the enhanced number of tubers per plant. At the final harvest, total tuber fresh weight was by 36% higher, under high CO₂ treatments, as compared with that in the ambient. The response of K. Chipsona-3 was more pronounced, to elevated CO₂ concentration, as compared with K. Surya. It is concluded that rising atmospheric CO₂ in the future climatic change scenario may be beneficial to such tuber crops like potato to enhance growth as well as tuber number and finally yield.

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In this paper, by introducing of development of two approaches based on the relative map filter (RMF); it has been tried to improve simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The implementation of Extended Kalman Filter SLAM (EKF-SLAM) in large environments is not practical due to large volume of calculations. On the other hand, the observation and motion models of many robots are nonlinear and these cause the divergence of EKF-SLAM. The basis of RMF is relative distances between landmarks; therefore its equations are independent from the robot motion model. Also, the robot observation model can be linearly defined and its convergence is guaranteed. Despite these features, the relative filter proposed methods are faced with the problem of ambiguity in absolute positioning of robot and landmarks. In this article, ILPE (Improved Lowest Position Estimation) and IMVPE (Improved Minimum Variance Position Estimation) methods are introduced. In these methods, the ambiguity problem in localization and mapping of robot and landmarks are solved by sequential switching between absolute and relative spaces. The calculation volume of these methods does not depend on the number of landmarks and depends on the average number of landmarks observed in each scan of the robot. In this paper, the equations and the required algorithm to find the position of landmarks and robot are presented. Moreover by simulation, the performance and efficiency of the proposed methods are discussed in comparison with the previous methods including EKF-SLAM.