Atul Singh - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Atul Singh

Viruses

Drug-resistance-associated mutation in essential proteins of the viral life cycle is a major conc... more Drug-resistance-associated mutation in essential proteins of the viral life cycle is a major concern in anti-retroviral therapy. M46I, a non-active site mutation in HIV-1 protease has been clinically associated with saquinavir resistance in HIV patients. A 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and MM-PBSA calculations were performed to study the molecular mechanism of M46I-mutation-based saquinavir resistance. In order to acquire deeper insight into the drug-resistance mechanism, the flap curling, closed/semi-open/open conformations, and active site compactness were studied. The M46I mutation significantly affects the energetics and conformational stability of HIV-1 protease in terms of RMSD, RMSF, Rg, SASA, and hydrogen formation potential. This mutation significantly decreased van der Waals interaction and binding free energy (∆G) in the M46I–saquinavir complex and induced inward flap curling and a wider opening of the flaps for most of the MD simulation period. The predominan...

Sustainability

Municipal solid waste management and poor fertility status of sodic soils are two important issue... more Municipal solid waste management and poor fertility status of sodic soils are two important issues experienced by all developing nations including India. Disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) being produced in huge amounts is a challenging task for researchers and policy makers. Reclamation of salt affected soils with chemical amendments is a costly affair for resource-poor farmers. Composting of MSW and its enrichment with microbes is one of the options for its recycling and utilization for the reclamation of salt-affected soils. A field experiment was conducted in sodic soil to study the performance of microbial enriched municipal solid waste compost (EMSWC) alone and in combination with a reduced dose of gypsum on growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and grain quality of rice and wheat. The experiment was conducted for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2019 and 2020 to 2021 at ICAR Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Research farm, Shivri, Lucknow, India, in sodic soil havi...

Tropical Agricultural Research and Extension

The present investigation was carried out to study the variation in morphological and biochemical... more The present investigation was carried out to study the variation in morphological and biochemical characters of different seabuckthorn (Hippophae salicifolia) populations growing naturally in and around Harsil and Gangotri area of Uttarkashi district of Uttaranchal, India. Plants showed varied morphology from shrub to tree, fruit shape from round to ovate and fruit colour from greenish-yellow to yellow-orange. Number of leaves per 10 cm running length of branch ranged from 10.83 to 29.83 and leaf area from 2.28 to 9.35 cm 2. Weight of 100 fruits varied from 11.53 to 18.87g, number of fruits per 10 cm fruiting branch ranged from 10.69 to 99.40 and fruit yield of same length of branch from 1.34 to 15.98 g. Acidity in juice calculated as citric acid varied between 4.89 to 7.93 per cent and total soluble solids ranged between 6.93 to 10.0 ºB. Higher juice percentage was observed in this species as compared to H. rhamnoides and the range was between 70.70 to 79.23 per cent. Based on the study, it is concluded that wide variations exists in different populations of H. salicifolia growing in this region. Intensive survey is required for the selection of some promising forms of H. salicifolia in the region and other seabuckthorn growing regions of Garhwal Himalaya.

The Journal of Basic and Applied Zoology, 2021

Background African catfish Clarias gariepinus introduced to India has gravitated into the Ganga R... more Background African catfish Clarias gariepinus introduced to India has gravitated into the Ganga River as an invasive species. Morphological plasticity and reproductive adaptation are considered and reported as important manifestation contributing to evolution and persistence of an invasive species in the novel environment facilitating its expansion and establishment. African catfish in the Ganga River although documented to exist, it is yet to investigate if it elicits adaptation responses through morphological and reproductive plasticity in the riverine conditions. Therefore, morpho-meristic changes, plasticity in the reproductive stages, gonadosomatic index (GSI) and gonadal hormones were examined in C. gariepinus that invaded into the Ganga River so as to ascertain its invasion success. Results Out of 23 morpho-meristic characters examined, head length (HL), head depth (HD), anal fin length (AFL) and the pectoral fin rays (PECFR) were observed to differ significantly (p<0.05)....

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus are the most abundantly captured in... more Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus are the most abundantly captured invasive fish species in the mid-stretch of the Ganga river. Fish yield and biomass data based on mean abundance by weight was calculated using algorithms and spatio-temporal population dynamics model for future prediction of these invasive fish species. Temporal biomass forecast based on mean abundance by wieght for the period from 2020 to 2029 was determined. The findings of this study predicted fish yield of 176 ± 16.33 kg km-1 day-1C. carpio and 55.43 ± 6.4 kg km-1 day-1 O. niloticus during 2029 which might result into 117.87% and 116.9% rise in temporal biomass of Common Carp and Tilapia respectively in a decade's time while 139.2% rise in temporal biomass was predicted for the invasive African catfish. The yield of invasive Common Carp, Tilapia and African Catfish was correlated with rainfall and temperature data using ANOVA and we found that variance was F = 1.36; p = 0.263 for ...

Abstract: The diverse natural resource-base, wide climatic diversity of the cold water sector har... more Abstract: The diverse natural resource-base, wide climatic diversity of the cold water sector harbour plentiful gene pool which are conducive to conservation and rearing for developing domestic market, aquaculture and growing interest of people in fish farming, ornamental fish keeping and eco-tourism including angling. However, emerging anthropogenic pressure, flow regimes of streams, and climate change are adversely affecting coldwater resources and their fisheries; lead to reduce overall productivity. Nevertheless, technology developed for the culture, breeding and management of the economically viable cold water fish species has a positive impact on the production and productivity, employment generation and sustainable management of the aquatic resources and their piscine fauna.

140 The coldwater fishery resource of India spread throughout 2500 km from Jammu & Kashmir in the... more 140 The coldwater fishery resource of India spread throughout 2500 km from Jammu & Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east and 200-400 km from north to south comprise a mountainous 2 area of 5,33,604 km (FAO 2003). The geographical area of this region is about 16.2% and about 4% of total population of the country. The coldwater resources are distributed mainly in the form upland streams, rivers, high and low altitude lakes and reservoirs located in different hill states (Table 1). As the cold water resources are situated in difficult areas, it has not yet been exploited to its potential. Thus DCFR undertook exploration for the resource assessment of this sector both physical and faunal through different running projects.

ArXiv, 2020

Training robust Speech to Text (STT) system require "tens of thousand" of hours of data... more Training robust Speech to Text (STT) system require "tens of thousand" of hours of data. Variability present in the dataset, in the form of unwanted nuisances (noise) and biases (accent, gender or age) is the reason for the need of large datasets to learn general representations, which is unfeasible for low resource languages. A recently proposed deep learning approach to remove these unwanted features, called adversarial forgetting, was able to produce better results on computer vision tasks. Motivated by this, in this paper, we study the effect of de-entangling the accent information from the input speech signal on training STT systems. To this end, we use an information bottleneck architecture based on adversarial forgetting. This training scheme aims to enforce the model to learn general accent invariant speech representations. The trained STT model is tested on two unseen accents in the common voice V1. The results are in favour of STT model trained using the adversar...

Journal of Natural Resource Conservation and Management, 2021

Automatically operated equipment or machines or systems with no or minimal manual intervention is... more Automatically operated equipment or machines or systems with no or minimal manual intervention is referred to as automation. Automation facilitates in minimizing the requirement of manual labour, bring precision to the production process and save time with several other benefits. Generally, an automation system engages sensory systems, feedback control processes, and automatic actuating devices. Indian economy is highly dependent on agriculture. Automation has been well taken in the country in recent years in several production sectors including agriculture. With changing climate, and decreased availability of resources such as human labour, water, land, etc. in the agriculture sector the realization is to make the various agricultural processes efficient not only in input application but also in timely execution. In this endeavor, attempts have been made to automize the water application process for irrigating different crops. Irrigation use is one of the critical input resources in Agriculture which demands its judicious as it also has the demand for drinking for a billion-plus country. Precision agriculture technologies in irrigation water management use sensors and controllers to preciously deliver the right amount of water at right time and maintain the moisture to the optimum level. An automatic irrigation system as compared to manual irrigation can save water and maximize productivity. Irrigation systems such as drip, sprinkler, the surface can be automated with help of timers, sensors or computers, or mechanical appliances. Automation of irrigation enhances water use efficiency and reduces the use of resources energy. This review attempts to highlight concepts of automation, recent developments, and the experiences of researchers while automizing various irrigation modules.

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

In order to assess the distribution pattern and understand the prevailing factors for predicting ... more In order to assess the distribution pattern and understand the prevailing factors for predicting further expansion of an exotic fish Oreochromis niloticus, this study was undertaken in the Ganga river flowing through the state of Uttar Pradesh using MaxEnt model. The authors report the distribution pattern of O. niloticus and prevailing causative factors mounting the expansion of O. niloticus in the Ganges based on MaxEnt modeling technique. The presence only occurrence data-set for this invasive species was prepared from the field data and also from data collated from the authenticated publications of different fisheries researchers. The data-set was analyzed with environmental and topographical variables typically incorporating seasonal and temporal variability using MaxEnt, a maximum entropy algorithm which showed that the area under curve was much closer to 1 ( 0.999). The model predicted elevation as the most influential predictor variable with permutation importance of 69.2% f...

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

India, a megadiverse tropical country is grappling with the rising trend of aquatic invasions. Ou... more India, a megadiverse tropical country is grappling with the rising trend of aquatic invasions. Out of 532 introduced non-native fish, 16 species of freshwater aquaculture and aquarium were assessed invasive by using a risk assessment protocol, ‘Fish Invasiveness Screening Test’. Six major identified invasion pathways of the aquatic invasive species were inadvertent or deliberate releases, escapes, contaminants from hatcheries, river corridors, stowaways and unaided introductions. Invasion mechanism further elucidated the factors promoting successful invasion in freshwater ecosystems. For predictive future performance of invasive fish, the concrete and predictive values based on mean abundance by weight was calculated. Over 28.67% and 29.02 % persistent increased yield of the invasive Tilapia and Common Carp respectively was predicted in the Ganga river in the coming decades. Single species Tilapia invasion facilitated multiple species fish invasion, manifesting in invasion meltdown....

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

The present article is aimed at understanding current policies and implementation strategies for ... more The present article is aimed at understanding current policies and implementation strategies for the management of aquatic invasive species in India and identifying opportunities for improvement. Existing management approaches and policies have briefly been put into place concerning fish introductions and aquatic invasive species, but looking at their effectiveness, it is argued that mitigating the negative impacts caused by invasive species should be at the core for their successful management. International institutions have explicitly recognized the need to contain and eradicate biological invasions and have set of relevant guidelines and enforcements. In India, risk assessment, risk management, quarantine, biosecurity and regulatory mechanisms have been developed and implemented to filter fish introductions and consequently check aquatic invasions. Nevertheless, invasive species introduced into the inland waters are emerging as ‘chronic risks’ to the aquatic biodiversity and eco...

Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, 2009

A need exists to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems. Current r... more A need exists to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems. Current research has shown that the user interfaces of these systems are too complex and difficult to use. Enterprise resources planning systems for small enterprises are currently too rigid and are not flexible enough to match the constantly changing business landscape of small enterprises. This paper proposes the use of adaptive user interfaces as a means to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems for small enterprises. Adaptive user interfaces are capable of improving system usability by reducing user interface complexity and improving the overall user experience. This could provide small enterprises with the flexibility and adaptability that they require from enterprise resource planning systems.

The Oriental Anthropologist: A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man, 2009

The present study attempts to find out the association between left and right hand grip strength ... more The present study attempts to find out the association between left and right hand grip strength with seven anthropometric traits, viz. height, weight, upper arm length, forearm length, total extremity length, hand breadth and hand length on randomly selected 320 healthy collegiate population (160 boys and 160 girls) aged 18-25 years of Amritsar, Punjab. The findings of present study indicate a strong association of right hand grip strength with height (r =0.309), weight (r=0.456), forearm length (r=0.182) and total extremity length (r=0.212) in boys and with weight (r=0.224) in cases of girls. On the other hand, left hand grip strength was reported to be closely associated with height (r=0.391), weight (r=0.439), upper arm length (r=0.167), forearm length (r=0 .311), total extremity length (r=0.329), hand breadth (r=0.482), and hand length (r=0.270) in boys and with weight (r=0.214) and hand length (r=0.179) in girls. The findings of the present study would be helpful to search the talents in sports and also to diagnose various musculoskeletal deformities especially related to upper extremities and many other related fields.

Journal of Fisheries Research, 2018

In India, recently introduced pacu fish farming is picking up fast without envisaging scientific ... more In India, recently introduced pacu fish farming is picking up fast without envisaging scientific track to promote or regulate it. The unofficially introduced pacu in India is projected to be Piaractus brachypomus relying on the identifying characteristics. However, the species available in aquaculture and that in aquarium trade is yet to be scientifically validated. The identification of juvenile fish available at hatcheries, farms and aquarium shops based on morphological features may not be correct particularly when possibility of existing different species of pacu and their interspecific hybrids may exist. Monitoring, risk assessment and identification of the individual species should be scientifically conducted. In India, the farm-raised pacu grows well but its production differs from farm to farm. The fish can utilize diets high in carbohydrates and plant proteins, tolerates poor water quality conditions, varied environments and culture conditions. Breeding of the fish is now well established for its farm raising and propagation yet ornamental value of the fish has also further fascinated aquarium shopkeepers and hobbyists to keep and propagate it in different states of the country. Farm raising, hatchery production and aquarium trading of pacu facilitated inadvertant releases of introduced pacu which has gravitated into several natural water bodies. It is proposed that the available pacu farms and hatcheries need to be urgently registered in view of proper management and scientific regulations on pacu farming. Based on the synthesized and field oriented information presented in this study, there are several apprehensions of adverse ecological concerns and consequences. The issues and concerns of rapid expansion of pacu in the country draws attention of the policy makers and the scientific community to address them keeping in view of the larger interest of the farmers community, society and the environment.

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2013

In this study, we document an increasing trend of catches of alien fish species from the Ganga Ri... more In this study, we document an increasing trend of catches of alien fish species from the Ganga River system. The changing fishery during 1980 to 2011 and the fish yield rate (kg km−1) are positively correlated with an invasion coefficient index (Ixi) of alien species within the river. The reproductive propagule pressure (PPP) of alien fishes (Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus, Aristichthys nobilis, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Clarias gariepinus) was determined and found to be 19.45×106 for C. carpio, 0.33×106 for O. niloticus and 0.82×106 for A. nobilis at confluences suggesting that these alien species may be migrating into new habitats. Further, these invaded species exhibited all reproductive stages, indicating their likely establishment within the river. The trophic spectrum of alien fishes spanned all levels and the gut repetitive index (GRI) indicated that that food items in most of the fishes were similar showing early trends of food-web alte...

The Anthropologist, 2010

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the grip strength between the two sides for the righ... more The aim of the present study was to evaluate the grip strength between the two sides for the right and left handed male and female collegiate Indian population, as grip strength provides an objective index for the functional integrity of upper extremity. The study is based on151 males (103 right handed and 48 left handed) and 152 females (129 right handed and 23 left handed) collegiate population of Amritsar, Punjab, India, aged 18-25 years. Hand grip strength was measured by hand grip dynamometer. The findings of the present study indicate that statistically significant differences (p< 0.05) were found for hand grip strength both in males and females between right hand dominant and non-dominant groups (t=3.13 and 2.78 respectively) and left hand dominant and nondominant groups (t=2.66 and 3.13 respectively). When comparisons were made between dominant right and left hand groups and non-dominant right and left hand groups, both in males and females, statistically no significant differences were noted in any case.

Paddy and Water Environment, 2018

Sodic soils are characterized by high exchangeable sodium on exchange sites, soil pH greater than... more Sodic soils are characterized by high exchangeable sodium on exchange sites, soil pH greater than 8.5, relatively low electrical conductivity, low infiltration rate and dispersed clay. These characteristics restrict the capacity of soil to absorb water, resulting in poor infiltration. Evidently, these soils require application of irrigation water at shorter intervals for crop production. Thus, irrigation strategy for sodic soils differs from that of normal soils. An experiment to determine the suitable irrigation strategy along with methods of application namely: surface (farmer's practice), sprinkler (double nozzle impact sprinkler), and low-energy water application device (LEWA) were initiated in the year 2012 for rice crop. Irrigation depths of 6 cm in case of surface method and 4 cm in case of sprinkler and LEWA methods were applied at each irrigation event. The irrigation events for rice were scheduled at 2-DAD (days after the disappearance of the ponded water), 3-DAD, and 4-DAD through surface method, and at daily, 1-and 2-day intervals (after initial ponding disappeared) by sprinkler and LEWA methods. Sprinkler and LEWA methods resulted in highest rice yield of 4.4 t ha −1 in irrigated plots at the 2-day interval which was at par with the highest yielding surface-irrigated plot scheduled at 2-DAD. At the same time, irrigation strategy of 2-day interval through sprinkler and LEWA methods registered water saving to the extent of 30-40% over 2-DAD under surface irrigation method. Results revealed that there could be substantial saving of water and energy (electricity and diesel) through the use of sprinkling devices for irrigating rice under sodic soil environments.

Natural Product Communications, 2009

In the continuing search for newer pancreatic lipase inhibitors from plants, a total of 63 extrac... more In the continuing search for newer pancreatic lipase inhibitors from plants, a total of 63 extracts from 21 different plants were screened to study their pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory activity in vitro. All three extracts (DCM, EtOAc and MeOH) of Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng leaves (Rutaceae) exhibited antilipase activity greater than 80%. Further, bioactivity guided fractionation of the EtOAc extract led to the isolation of four alkaloids, namely mahanimbin, koenimbin, koenigicine and clausazoline-K, with IC50 values of 17.9 μM, 168.6 μM, 428.6 μM and ≤500 μM, respectively. This study reports for the first time the PL inhibitory potential of carbazole alkaloids from plants.

Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Jan 19, 2018

In India, glaucoma is the third most common cause of blindness, reflecting both its asymptomatic ... more In India, glaucoma is the third most common cause of blindness, reflecting both its asymptomatic presentation and a lack of knowledge in the general population. No previous published data of glaucoma awareness among the Indian Armed forces personnel exists, who constitute a unique group consisting of people drawn from all parts of the country and society. Bilingual questionnaires were distributed to 496 serving Army, Navy and Air Force personnel serving in units local to the Zonal military hospital in North India. Having heard of the term glaucoma resulted in the subject being 'glaucoma aware', while 'knowledge of glaucoma' required at least three out of six questions to be answered correctly. 110/496 (22%) participants were found to be glaucoma aware, while knowledge of glaucoma was found in 60/496 (12%) participants. This study demonstrates that glaucoma awareness and knowledge is high compared with rural or urban Indian populations. This is likely reflects the fre...

Viruses

Drug-resistance-associated mutation in essential proteins of the viral life cycle is a major conc... more Drug-resistance-associated mutation in essential proteins of the viral life cycle is a major concern in anti-retroviral therapy. M46I, a non-active site mutation in HIV-1 protease has been clinically associated with saquinavir resistance in HIV patients. A 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and MM-PBSA calculations were performed to study the molecular mechanism of M46I-mutation-based saquinavir resistance. In order to acquire deeper insight into the drug-resistance mechanism, the flap curling, closed/semi-open/open conformations, and active site compactness were studied. The M46I mutation significantly affects the energetics and conformational stability of HIV-1 protease in terms of RMSD, RMSF, Rg, SASA, and hydrogen formation potential. This mutation significantly decreased van der Waals interaction and binding free energy (∆G) in the M46I–saquinavir complex and induced inward flap curling and a wider opening of the flaps for most of the MD simulation period. The predominan...

Sustainability

Municipal solid waste management and poor fertility status of sodic soils are two important issue... more Municipal solid waste management and poor fertility status of sodic soils are two important issues experienced by all developing nations including India. Disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) being produced in huge amounts is a challenging task for researchers and policy makers. Reclamation of salt affected soils with chemical amendments is a costly affair for resource-poor farmers. Composting of MSW and its enrichment with microbes is one of the options for its recycling and utilization for the reclamation of salt-affected soils. A field experiment was conducted in sodic soil to study the performance of microbial enriched municipal solid waste compost (EMSWC) alone and in combination with a reduced dose of gypsum on growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and grain quality of rice and wheat. The experiment was conducted for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2019 and 2020 to 2021 at ICAR Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Research farm, Shivri, Lucknow, India, in sodic soil havi...

Tropical Agricultural Research and Extension

The present investigation was carried out to study the variation in morphological and biochemical... more The present investigation was carried out to study the variation in morphological and biochemical characters of different seabuckthorn (Hippophae salicifolia) populations growing naturally in and around Harsil and Gangotri area of Uttarkashi district of Uttaranchal, India. Plants showed varied morphology from shrub to tree, fruit shape from round to ovate and fruit colour from greenish-yellow to yellow-orange. Number of leaves per 10 cm running length of branch ranged from 10.83 to 29.83 and leaf area from 2.28 to 9.35 cm 2. Weight of 100 fruits varied from 11.53 to 18.87g, number of fruits per 10 cm fruiting branch ranged from 10.69 to 99.40 and fruit yield of same length of branch from 1.34 to 15.98 g. Acidity in juice calculated as citric acid varied between 4.89 to 7.93 per cent and total soluble solids ranged between 6.93 to 10.0 ºB. Higher juice percentage was observed in this species as compared to H. rhamnoides and the range was between 70.70 to 79.23 per cent. Based on the study, it is concluded that wide variations exists in different populations of H. salicifolia growing in this region. Intensive survey is required for the selection of some promising forms of H. salicifolia in the region and other seabuckthorn growing regions of Garhwal Himalaya.

The Journal of Basic and Applied Zoology, 2021

Background African catfish Clarias gariepinus introduced to India has gravitated into the Ganga R... more Background African catfish Clarias gariepinus introduced to India has gravitated into the Ganga River as an invasive species. Morphological plasticity and reproductive adaptation are considered and reported as important manifestation contributing to evolution and persistence of an invasive species in the novel environment facilitating its expansion and establishment. African catfish in the Ganga River although documented to exist, it is yet to investigate if it elicits adaptation responses through morphological and reproductive plasticity in the riverine conditions. Therefore, morpho-meristic changes, plasticity in the reproductive stages, gonadosomatic index (GSI) and gonadal hormones were examined in C. gariepinus that invaded into the Ganga River so as to ascertain its invasion success. Results Out of 23 morpho-meristic characters examined, head length (HL), head depth (HD), anal fin length (AFL) and the pectoral fin rays (PECFR) were observed to differ significantly (p<0.05)....

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus are the most abundantly captured in... more Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus are the most abundantly captured invasive fish species in the mid-stretch of the Ganga river. Fish yield and biomass data based on mean abundance by weight was calculated using algorithms and spatio-temporal population dynamics model for future prediction of these invasive fish species. Temporal biomass forecast based on mean abundance by wieght for the period from 2020 to 2029 was determined. The findings of this study predicted fish yield of 176 ± 16.33 kg km-1 day-1C. carpio and 55.43 ± 6.4 kg km-1 day-1 O. niloticus during 2029 which might result into 117.87% and 116.9% rise in temporal biomass of Common Carp and Tilapia respectively in a decade's time while 139.2% rise in temporal biomass was predicted for the invasive African catfish. The yield of invasive Common Carp, Tilapia and African Catfish was correlated with rainfall and temperature data using ANOVA and we found that variance was F = 1.36; p = 0.263 for ...

Abstract: The diverse natural resource-base, wide climatic diversity of the cold water sector har... more Abstract: The diverse natural resource-base, wide climatic diversity of the cold water sector harbour plentiful gene pool which are conducive to conservation and rearing for developing domestic market, aquaculture and growing interest of people in fish farming, ornamental fish keeping and eco-tourism including angling. However, emerging anthropogenic pressure, flow regimes of streams, and climate change are adversely affecting coldwater resources and their fisheries; lead to reduce overall productivity. Nevertheless, technology developed for the culture, breeding and management of the economically viable cold water fish species has a positive impact on the production and productivity, employment generation and sustainable management of the aquatic resources and their piscine fauna.

140 The coldwater fishery resource of India spread throughout 2500 km from Jammu & Kashmir in the... more 140 The coldwater fishery resource of India spread throughout 2500 km from Jammu & Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east and 200-400 km from north to south comprise a mountainous 2 area of 5,33,604 km (FAO 2003). The geographical area of this region is about 16.2% and about 4% of total population of the country. The coldwater resources are distributed mainly in the form upland streams, rivers, high and low altitude lakes and reservoirs located in different hill states (Table 1). As the cold water resources are situated in difficult areas, it has not yet been exploited to its potential. Thus DCFR undertook exploration for the resource assessment of this sector both physical and faunal through different running projects.

ArXiv, 2020

Training robust Speech to Text (STT) system require "tens of thousand" of hours of data... more Training robust Speech to Text (STT) system require "tens of thousand" of hours of data. Variability present in the dataset, in the form of unwanted nuisances (noise) and biases (accent, gender or age) is the reason for the need of large datasets to learn general representations, which is unfeasible for low resource languages. A recently proposed deep learning approach to remove these unwanted features, called adversarial forgetting, was able to produce better results on computer vision tasks. Motivated by this, in this paper, we study the effect of de-entangling the accent information from the input speech signal on training STT systems. To this end, we use an information bottleneck architecture based on adversarial forgetting. This training scheme aims to enforce the model to learn general accent invariant speech representations. The trained STT model is tested on two unseen accents in the common voice V1. The results are in favour of STT model trained using the adversar...

Journal of Natural Resource Conservation and Management, 2021

Automatically operated equipment or machines or systems with no or minimal manual intervention is... more Automatically operated equipment or machines or systems with no or minimal manual intervention is referred to as automation. Automation facilitates in minimizing the requirement of manual labour, bring precision to the production process and save time with several other benefits. Generally, an automation system engages sensory systems, feedback control processes, and automatic actuating devices. Indian economy is highly dependent on agriculture. Automation has been well taken in the country in recent years in several production sectors including agriculture. With changing climate, and decreased availability of resources such as human labour, water, land, etc. in the agriculture sector the realization is to make the various agricultural processes efficient not only in input application but also in timely execution. In this endeavor, attempts have been made to automize the water application process for irrigating different crops. Irrigation use is one of the critical input resources in Agriculture which demands its judicious as it also has the demand for drinking for a billion-plus country. Precision agriculture technologies in irrigation water management use sensors and controllers to preciously deliver the right amount of water at right time and maintain the moisture to the optimum level. An automatic irrigation system as compared to manual irrigation can save water and maximize productivity. Irrigation systems such as drip, sprinkler, the surface can be automated with help of timers, sensors or computers, or mechanical appliances. Automation of irrigation enhances water use efficiency and reduces the use of resources energy. This review attempts to highlight concepts of automation, recent developments, and the experiences of researchers while automizing various irrigation modules.

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

In order to assess the distribution pattern and understand the prevailing factors for predicting ... more In order to assess the distribution pattern and understand the prevailing factors for predicting further expansion of an exotic fish Oreochromis niloticus, this study was undertaken in the Ganga river flowing through the state of Uttar Pradesh using MaxEnt model. The authors report the distribution pattern of O. niloticus and prevailing causative factors mounting the expansion of O. niloticus in the Ganges based on MaxEnt modeling technique. The presence only occurrence data-set for this invasive species was prepared from the field data and also from data collated from the authenticated publications of different fisheries researchers. The data-set was analyzed with environmental and topographical variables typically incorporating seasonal and temporal variability using MaxEnt, a maximum entropy algorithm which showed that the area under curve was much closer to 1 ( 0.999). The model predicted elevation as the most influential predictor variable with permutation importance of 69.2% f...

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

India, a megadiverse tropical country is grappling with the rising trend of aquatic invasions. Ou... more India, a megadiverse tropical country is grappling with the rising trend of aquatic invasions. Out of 532 introduced non-native fish, 16 species of freshwater aquaculture and aquarium were assessed invasive by using a risk assessment protocol, ‘Fish Invasiveness Screening Test’. Six major identified invasion pathways of the aquatic invasive species were inadvertent or deliberate releases, escapes, contaminants from hatcheries, river corridors, stowaways and unaided introductions. Invasion mechanism further elucidated the factors promoting successful invasion in freshwater ecosystems. For predictive future performance of invasive fish, the concrete and predictive values based on mean abundance by weight was calculated. Over 28.67% and 29.02 % persistent increased yield of the invasive Tilapia and Common Carp respectively was predicted in the Ganga river in the coming decades. Single species Tilapia invasion facilitated multiple species fish invasion, manifesting in invasion meltdown....

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2021

The present article is aimed at understanding current policies and implementation strategies for ... more The present article is aimed at understanding current policies and implementation strategies for the management of aquatic invasive species in India and identifying opportunities for improvement. Existing management approaches and policies have briefly been put into place concerning fish introductions and aquatic invasive species, but looking at their effectiveness, it is argued that mitigating the negative impacts caused by invasive species should be at the core for their successful management. International institutions have explicitly recognized the need to contain and eradicate biological invasions and have set of relevant guidelines and enforcements. In India, risk assessment, risk management, quarantine, biosecurity and regulatory mechanisms have been developed and implemented to filter fish introductions and consequently check aquatic invasions. Nevertheless, invasive species introduced into the inland waters are emerging as ‘chronic risks’ to the aquatic biodiversity and eco...

Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, 2009

A need exists to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems. Current r... more A need exists to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems. Current research has shown that the user interfaces of these systems are too complex and difficult to use. Enterprise resources planning systems for small enterprises are currently too rigid and are not flexible enough to match the constantly changing business landscape of small enterprises. This paper proposes the use of adaptive user interfaces as a means to improve the overall usability of enterprise resource planning systems for small enterprises. Adaptive user interfaces are capable of improving system usability by reducing user interface complexity and improving the overall user experience. This could provide small enterprises with the flexibility and adaptability that they require from enterprise resource planning systems.

The Oriental Anthropologist: A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man, 2009

The present study attempts to find out the association between left and right hand grip strength ... more The present study attempts to find out the association between left and right hand grip strength with seven anthropometric traits, viz. height, weight, upper arm length, forearm length, total extremity length, hand breadth and hand length on randomly selected 320 healthy collegiate population (160 boys and 160 girls) aged 18-25 years of Amritsar, Punjab. The findings of present study indicate a strong association of right hand grip strength with height (r =0.309), weight (r=0.456), forearm length (r=0.182) and total extremity length (r=0.212) in boys and with weight (r=0.224) in cases of girls. On the other hand, left hand grip strength was reported to be closely associated with height (r=0.391), weight (r=0.439), upper arm length (r=0.167), forearm length (r=0 .311), total extremity length (r=0.329), hand breadth (r=0.482), and hand length (r=0.270) in boys and with weight (r=0.214) and hand length (r=0.179) in girls. The findings of the present study would be helpful to search the talents in sports and also to diagnose various musculoskeletal deformities especially related to upper extremities and many other related fields.

Journal of Fisheries Research, 2018

In India, recently introduced pacu fish farming is picking up fast without envisaging scientific ... more In India, recently introduced pacu fish farming is picking up fast without envisaging scientific track to promote or regulate it. The unofficially introduced pacu in India is projected to be Piaractus brachypomus relying on the identifying characteristics. However, the species available in aquaculture and that in aquarium trade is yet to be scientifically validated. The identification of juvenile fish available at hatcheries, farms and aquarium shops based on morphological features may not be correct particularly when possibility of existing different species of pacu and their interspecific hybrids may exist. Monitoring, risk assessment and identification of the individual species should be scientifically conducted. In India, the farm-raised pacu grows well but its production differs from farm to farm. The fish can utilize diets high in carbohydrates and plant proteins, tolerates poor water quality conditions, varied environments and culture conditions. Breeding of the fish is now well established for its farm raising and propagation yet ornamental value of the fish has also further fascinated aquarium shopkeepers and hobbyists to keep and propagate it in different states of the country. Farm raising, hatchery production and aquarium trading of pacu facilitated inadvertant releases of introduced pacu which has gravitated into several natural water bodies. It is proposed that the available pacu farms and hatcheries need to be urgently registered in view of proper management and scientific regulations on pacu farming. Based on the synthesized and field oriented information presented in this study, there are several apprehensions of adverse ecological concerns and consequences. The issues and concerns of rapid expansion of pacu in the country draws attention of the policy makers and the scientific community to address them keeping in view of the larger interest of the farmers community, society and the environment.

Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 2013

In this study, we document an increasing trend of catches of alien fish species from the Ganga Ri... more In this study, we document an increasing trend of catches of alien fish species from the Ganga River system. The changing fishery during 1980 to 2011 and the fish yield rate (kg km−1) are positively correlated with an invasion coefficient index (Ixi) of alien species within the river. The reproductive propagule pressure (PPP) of alien fishes (Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus, Aristichthys nobilis, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Clarias gariepinus) was determined and found to be 19.45×106 for C. carpio, 0.33×106 for O. niloticus and 0.82×106 for A. nobilis at confluences suggesting that these alien species may be migrating into new habitats. Further, these invaded species exhibited all reproductive stages, indicating their likely establishment within the river. The trophic spectrum of alien fishes spanned all levels and the gut repetitive index (GRI) indicated that that food items in most of the fishes were similar showing early trends of food-web alte...

The Anthropologist, 2010

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the grip strength between the two sides for the righ... more The aim of the present study was to evaluate the grip strength between the two sides for the right and left handed male and female collegiate Indian population, as grip strength provides an objective index for the functional integrity of upper extremity. The study is based on151 males (103 right handed and 48 left handed) and 152 females (129 right handed and 23 left handed) collegiate population of Amritsar, Punjab, India, aged 18-25 years. Hand grip strength was measured by hand grip dynamometer. The findings of the present study indicate that statistically significant differences (p< 0.05) were found for hand grip strength both in males and females between right hand dominant and non-dominant groups (t=3.13 and 2.78 respectively) and left hand dominant and nondominant groups (t=2.66 and 3.13 respectively). When comparisons were made between dominant right and left hand groups and non-dominant right and left hand groups, both in males and females, statistically no significant differences were noted in any case.

Paddy and Water Environment, 2018

Sodic soils are characterized by high exchangeable sodium on exchange sites, soil pH greater than... more Sodic soils are characterized by high exchangeable sodium on exchange sites, soil pH greater than 8.5, relatively low electrical conductivity, low infiltration rate and dispersed clay. These characteristics restrict the capacity of soil to absorb water, resulting in poor infiltration. Evidently, these soils require application of irrigation water at shorter intervals for crop production. Thus, irrigation strategy for sodic soils differs from that of normal soils. An experiment to determine the suitable irrigation strategy along with methods of application namely: surface (farmer's practice), sprinkler (double nozzle impact sprinkler), and low-energy water application device (LEWA) were initiated in the year 2012 for rice crop. Irrigation depths of 6 cm in case of surface method and 4 cm in case of sprinkler and LEWA methods were applied at each irrigation event. The irrigation events for rice were scheduled at 2-DAD (days after the disappearance of the ponded water), 3-DAD, and 4-DAD through surface method, and at daily, 1-and 2-day intervals (after initial ponding disappeared) by sprinkler and LEWA methods. Sprinkler and LEWA methods resulted in highest rice yield of 4.4 t ha −1 in irrigated plots at the 2-day interval which was at par with the highest yielding surface-irrigated plot scheduled at 2-DAD. At the same time, irrigation strategy of 2-day interval through sprinkler and LEWA methods registered water saving to the extent of 30-40% over 2-DAD under surface irrigation method. Results revealed that there could be substantial saving of water and energy (electricity and diesel) through the use of sprinkling devices for irrigating rice under sodic soil environments.

Natural Product Communications, 2009

In the continuing search for newer pancreatic lipase inhibitors from plants, a total of 63 extrac... more In the continuing search for newer pancreatic lipase inhibitors from plants, a total of 63 extracts from 21 different plants were screened to study their pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory activity in vitro. All three extracts (DCM, EtOAc and MeOH) of Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng leaves (Rutaceae) exhibited antilipase activity greater than 80%. Further, bioactivity guided fractionation of the EtOAc extract led to the isolation of four alkaloids, namely mahanimbin, koenimbin, koenigicine and clausazoline-K, with IC50 values of 17.9 μM, 168.6 μM, 428.6 μM and ≤500 μM, respectively. This study reports for the first time the PL inhibitory potential of carbazole alkaloids from plants.

Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Jan 19, 2018

In India, glaucoma is the third most common cause of blindness, reflecting both its asymptomatic ... more In India, glaucoma is the third most common cause of blindness, reflecting both its asymptomatic presentation and a lack of knowledge in the general population. No previous published data of glaucoma awareness among the Indian Armed forces personnel exists, who constitute a unique group consisting of people drawn from all parts of the country and society. Bilingual questionnaires were distributed to 496 serving Army, Navy and Air Force personnel serving in units local to the Zonal military hospital in North India. Having heard of the term glaucoma resulted in the subject being 'glaucoma aware', while 'knowledge of glaucoma' required at least three out of six questions to be answered correctly. 110/496 (22%) participants were found to be glaucoma aware, while knowledge of glaucoma was found in 60/496 (12%) participants. This study demonstrates that glaucoma awareness and knowledge is high compared with rural or urban Indian populations. This is likely reflects the fre...