No abstract

The study was initiated to generate genetic information on characters associations for tomato germplasm under open field condition. Nineteen indeterminate tomato germplasm were evaluated to estimate the nature and magnitude of associations of different characters with fruit yield and among themselves at Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, SHIATS, Allahabad (India) during 2012-2013. The experiment was conducted using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Estimates of genetic parameters revealed that fruit yield was significantly and positively correlated with number of flowers per plant (0.2894 and 0.2891) followed by number of fruits per plant (0.4480 and 0.4486) and fruit weight (0.6223 and 0.6230) at genotypic and phenotypic level, respectively, strong association of these traits revealed that the selection based on these traits would ultimately improve the fruit yield and it is also suggested that hybridization of genotypes possessing combination of above characters is most useful for obtaining desirable high yielding segregation. In order to obtain a clear picture of the inter relationship between fruit yield per plant and its components, direct and indirect effects were measured using path coefficient analysis. Fruit weight had a very high positive direct genotypic and phenotypic effect 0.9566 and 0.9442, respectively on fruit yield per plant followed by number of flowers per plant, fruit set per cent, number of fruits per plant, TSS o Brix, plant height, radial diameter of fruit, leaf curl incidence per cent and days to 50% flowering. The characters showed high direct effect on yield per plant indicated that direct selection for these traits might be effective and there is a possibility of improving yield per plant through selection based on these characters. Residual effect was considerably low (0.0611 and 0.0751) which indicated that characters included in this study explained almost all variability towards yield.

No abstract

Replacement of the Essen intramuscular (EIM) by the updated Thai Red Cross intradermal (UTRCID) regimen for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), in high-throughput hospitals of India, has been advocated since 2006 thanks to its cost-effectiveness. However, several anti-rabies clinics in India and other parts of the world have not initiated this switchover of regimens because of the paucity of financial literature, generated in realistic settings, regarding the same. We calculated the procurement costs of various items required for providing rabies vaccinations via the EIM regimen and UTRCID regimen, on an annual basis, a year before and after the switchover. From a healthcare provider’s perspective, the cost of vaccination per patient was calculated to be 5.60 USD for the EIM regimen and 2.40 USD for the UTRCID regimen. The switchover to the UTRCID regimen from the EIM regimen reduced the financial burden of the rabies vaccination by almost 60%. Procurement of vaccine vials contributed to the majority of the cost (>94%) in both of the regimens. Procurement of syringes with fixed needles contributed negligibly (<6%) to the financial burden in both the regimens. A policy to progressively switch over to the UTRCID regimen from the EIM in all high-throughput anti-rabies centers of India would dramatically reduce the economic burden of running a successful anti-rabies program.