A meteor radar in the UK (near 52 N) has been used to measure the mean winds of the mesosphere/lowerthermosphere (MLT) region over the period 1988–2000. The seasonal course and interannual variability is characterised and comparisons are made with a number of models. Annual mean wind trends were found to be +0.37 ms−1 yr−1 for the zonal component and +0.157 ms−1 yr−1 for the meridional componen...

The crops that we grow for food need specific climatic conditions to show better performance in view of economic yield. A changing climate could have both beneficial and harmful effects on crops. Keeping the above view in mind, this study is undertaken to investigate the impacts of climate change (viz. changes in maximum temperature, minimum temperature, rainfall, humidity and sunshine) on the ...

This study presents a global scale analysis of cropping intensity, crop duration and fallow land extent computed by using the global dataset on monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas MIRCA2000. MIRCA2000 was mainly derived from census data and crop calendars from literature. Global cropland extent was 16 million km around the year 2000 of which 4.4 million km (28%) was fallow, resulting in an...

A double cropping system has been commercially adopted in southern China, where there is abundant sunshine and heat resources. In this viticulture system, the first growing season normally starts as a summer cropping cycle; then, the vine is pruned and forced, resulting in a second crop in winter. Due to climate differences between the summer and winter growing seasons, grape ripening progressi...

Zonal flows, by which we mean azimuthally symmetric band-like shear flows, are ubiquitous phenomena in nature and the laboratory. It is now widely recognized that zonal flows are a key constituent in virtually all cases and regimes of drift wave turbulence, indeed, so much so that this classic problem is now frequently referred to as "drift wave-zonal flow turbulence." In this theory overview, ...

The role of zonal flows in the formation of the transport barrier in the helical plasmas is analyzed using the transport code. A set of one-dimensional transport equations is analyzed, including the effect of zonal flows. The turbulent transport coefficient is shown to be suppressed when the plasma state changes from the weak negative radial electric field to the strong positive one. This bifur...

Rainfed agriculture occupies 68% of India’s cultivated area and supports 40% of the human and 60% of the livestock population. It produces 445 of the food requirement, thus has and will continue to play a critical role in India’s food security. However, aberrant behaviour of monsoon rainfall, eroded and degraded soils with multiple nutrient and water deficiencies, declining ground water table a...

[1] The dynamics of the seasonal cycle in the upper equatorial Atlantic ocean are studied using observations and a hierarchy of ocean models. Distinctive features of the seasonal cycle are strong annual and semiannual components: eastward (westward) propagating sea surface height (SSH) and thermocline depth at the equator (off the equator) and westward propagating surface zonal currents at the ...

Zonal differences of DNA synthesis in hepatocytes induced by hepatocyte growth factor and/or scatter factor (HGF/SF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) were investigated using male Wistar rats under fed or starved conditions. Overall, DNA synthesis was greater in fed rats than in starved rats. The predominance of EGF in periportal hepatocytes (PPH) on zonal DNA synthesis was reversed by starved ...

The major classes of lipoproteins were isolated from human plasma by ultracentrifugation in continuous density gradients using the Ti-14 and Ti-15 zonal rotors. Chylomicrons + VLDL, LDL, and HDL were separated from each other and from the more dense residual proteins (albumin fraction) of plasma by rate-zonal flotation in NaBr gradients in the density range 1.0-1.4. The chylomicron-VLDL fractio...