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Of late, intensive farming for higher food production is often associated with many negative implications for soil systems, such as decline of soil organic matter (SOM), increase in risks of soil erosion by wind and/or water, decline in soil biological diversity, increase in degradation of soil physical quality, lower nutrient-use efficiency, high risks of groundwater pollution, falling water tables, increasing salinization and waterlogging, in-field burning of crop residues, pollution of air and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), leading to global warming, and decline in factor productivity. These negative implications necessitate an objective review of strategies to develop sustainable management practices, which could not only sustain soil health and ensure food security, but also enhance carbon sequestration, decrease GHG emissions, and offer clean and better ecosystem services. Conservation agriculture (CA), that includes reduced or no-till practices along with crop residue retention and mixed crop rotations, offers multiple benefits. Adoption of a system-based CA conserves water, improves and creates more efficient use of natural resources through the integrated management of available soil nutrients, water, and biological resources, and enhances use efficiency of external inputs. Due to apparent benefits of CA, it is increasingly being adopted and now covers about 180 million hectares (Mha) worldwide. However, in South Asia its spread is low (<5 Mha), mostly concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). In this region, one of the serious issues is "residue burning" with severe environmental impacts. A huge amount of crop residue left over after the combine harvest of rice has forced farmers to practice widespread residue burning (∼140 M tonnes) to cope with excessive stubble and also for timely planting/sowing of succeeding crops. In rice-wheat cropping systems, which cover more than 10 Mha in the IGP, CA practices are relatively more accepted by farmers. In these systems, any delay in sowing leads to yield penalty of 1–1.5% per day after the optimum sowing date of wheat. The strong adoption of CA practices in IGP is mainly to overcome delayed sowing due to the field preparation and control of weeds, timely planting, and also escape from terminal heat during the grain-filling stage. Major challenges to CA adoption in South Asia are small land holdings (<1 ha), low technological reach to farmers, nonavailability of suitable farm implements for small farm holders, and the staunch conventional farming mind-set. South Asia region consists of many countries of diverse agro-ecologies with contrasting farming systems and management. This region, recently known for rapid economic growth and increasing population, necessitates higher food production and also hot-spots for adoption of CA technologies. Therefore, in this review critically explores the possibility, extent of area, prospects, challenges, and benefits of CA in South Asia. Conservation agriculture (CA), consisting of reduced or no-tillage and crop residue retention, is a self–sustainable system which offers an alternative to crop residue burning. The CA approach improves soil health by increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) and aggregation and also conserves soil, water and energy than conventional farming systems. South Asian countries are suitable for adoption of CA practices but the area under CA remains low (<5 Mha) as compared to the global area (180 Mha). Adoption of CA in South Asia has skewed distribution, mainly in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh in South Asia. Development of herbicide-resistant weed species and weed shift by continuous application of herbicides are the major challenges in adoption of CA. The traditional-farming mind-set, socio-economic conditions, small farm-holdings, weed and residue management, and non-availability of suitable machinery are key constraints to the low adoption of CA practices in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydraulic or filtration efficiency of residential swimming pools, quantified in terms of residence time characteristics, is critical to disinfection and thus important to public health. In this study, a threedimensional computational fluid dynamics model together with Eulerian and Lagrangian-based techniques are used for investigating the residence time characteristics of a passive tracer and particles in the water, representative of chemicals and pathogens, respectively. The flow pattern in the pool is found to be characterized by dead zone regions where water constituents may be retained for extended periods of times, thereby potentially decreasing the pool hydraulic efficiency. Two return-jet configurations are studied in order to understand the effect of return-jet location and intensity on the hydraulic efficiency of the pool. A two-jet configuration is found to perform on par with a three-jet configuration in removing dissolved constituents but the former is more efficient than the latter in removing or flushing particles. The latter result suggests that return-jet location and associated flow circulation pattern have an important impact on hydraulic efficiency. Thus return-jet configuration should be incorporated as a key parameter in the design of swimming pools complementing current design standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: After chemotherapy for breast cancer, most women will recover some ovarian function, but the timing and extent of this recovery are poorly understood. We studied post-chemotherapy ovarian recovery in women with and without a history of ovarian suppression during chemotherapy.Methods: Reproductive age breast cancer patients who were seen prior to chemotherapy for fertility preservation consult were consented for follow-up ovarian function assessment (every 3-6 months after chemotherapy) with antral follicle count (AFC) in this prospective cohort study. We restricted our analysis to those with menses present after chemotherapy. Box plots were used to demonstrate the change in follow-up AFC versus time elapsed after chemotherapy. A mixed effects regression model was used to assess differences in AFC.Results: Eighty-eight patients with a history of newly diagnosed breast cancer were included. Forty-five patients (51%) had ovarian suppression with GnRH agonist (GnRHa) during chemotherapy. AFC recovery appeared to plateau at 1 year after completing chemotherapy at a median of 40% of pre-chemotherapy AFC. After adjustment for age, initial AFC, cyclophosphamide exposure, combined hormonal contraceptive (CHC) use, and tamoxifen use, AFC recovered faster and to a greater degree for those women who underwent GnRHa therapy for ovarian protection during chemotherapy (P = 0.032).Conclusions: Women with menses after chemotherapy for breast cancer appear to recover their full potential AFC 1 year after their last chemotherapy dose. Treatment with GnRHa during chemotherapy is associated with a higher degree of AFC recovery. The findings of this study can aid in counseling patients prior to chemotherapy about expectations for ovarian recovery and planning post-treatment fertility preservation care to maximize reproductive potential when pre-treatment fertility preservation care is not possible or has limited oocyte yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a vibrant and culturally diverse country with more than 3600 heritage sites and monuments of national importance, of which only 36 are recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. These heritage sites and monuments are precious and non-renewable resources which need to be conserved, protected and monitored. Conventional along with emerging geospatial techniques are required to prepare databases and action plans to manage them effectively and efficiently. This article discusses ISRO's efforts in the last decade in the field of archaeology using highresolution remote sensing data in conjunction with GIS, GPS and other geospatial techniques in various applications like inventory and site management plans for a monument/site, cultural resources management plans for World Heritage Sites as well as in exploration archaeology and research for predictive location modelling in the identification of areas with high archaeological potential. Most of the projects have been executed in collaboration with major stakeholders involved in archaeology and in the process have institutionalized the use of geospatial technology to a large extent in operational and research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present work presents small signal stability analysis of an autonomous hybrid energy system with dish-Stirling solar thermal systems (DSTS) in integration with diesel engine generators (DEG), fuel cells (FC), battery energy storage system (BESS), and aqua electrolyzer (AE). The performance of Genetic algorithm (GA) optimized integral (I), proportional plus integral (PI), and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers in containing the frequency deviation in the proposed system has been investigated. The dynamic performance of all three controllers, so optimized, is compared with manually tuned I controller. Simulation results revealed that the performance of the GA optimized PID controller is found to be the best amongst all three controllers. Further, sensitivity analysis is carried out to access the robustness of the controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prospective, interventional study was carried out to evaluate the outcome of printed health education (H.E.) material in bringing about changes in the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) in 850 literate mothers whose infants were hospitalized for various ailments. It was observed that there was a significant improvement in the knowledge and practices of mothers under study group regarding various aspects of child care, like, personal hygiene, causation of diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, importance of immunization, breastfeeding and weaning. No such changes were observed in the control group. It was also observed that this changed knowledge and practices in the study group, was retained on subsequent follow-ups. Therefore we are of the opinion that not only should printed health educational material be distributed from the reception counters, nursing stations in hospitals and different health care providing centers, but a proactive effort should be made to see that they are read and understood by the patients, their attendants and visitors; in order to have the desired lasting effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Urea-succinic acid crystals have been grown at room temperature from aqueous solution in the presence of maleic acid by a slow evaporation technique. The structural parameters were determined using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and found to have monoclinic symmetry (space group P21/m) with a=9.902, b=17.510, c=5.555Å and α=γ=90°, β=96.46°. The transparency and optical analysis were carried out using UV–vis analysis. The optical band gap is found to be 4.71eV. The presence of various functional groups was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The samples have shown piezoelectric behavior with a fairly good piezoelectric charge coefficient (d 33) of 5pC/N, when it is poled at 7kV/cm. The hysteresis loop was plotted and the remnant polarization and coercive field were found to be 2.8μC/cm2 and 4kV/cm, respectively. The dielectric analysis was carried out as a function of temperature at various frequencies and the results were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Separated Local Field (SLF) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the determination of structure and dynamics of oriented systems such as membrane proteins oriented in lipid bilayers and liquid crystals. Of many SLF techniques available, Polarization Inversion Spin Exchange at Magic Angle (PISEMA) has found wide application due to its many favorable characteristics. However the pulse sequence suffers from its sensitivity to proton resonance frequency offset. Recently we have proposed a new sequence named 24-SEMA (J. Chem. Phys. 132 (2010) 134301) that overcomes this problem of PISEMA. The present work demonstrates the advantage of 24-SEMA as a highly sensitive SLF technique even for very large proton offset. 24-SEMA has been designed for obtaining reliable dipolar couplings by switching the magic-angle spin-lock for protons over four quadrants as against the use of only two quadrants in PISEMA. It is observed that for on-resonance condition, 24-SEMA gives rise to signal intensity comparable to or slightly higher than that from PISEMA. But under off-resonance conditions, intensities from 24-SEMA are several fold higher than those from PISEMA. Comparison with another offset compensated pulse sequence, SAMPI4, also indicates a better intensity profile for 24-SEMA. Experiments carried out on a single crystal of 15N labeled N-acetyl–dl-valine and simulations have been used to study the relative performance of the pulse sequences considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Flower-like ZnO nanocrystals were grown by low temperature solution technique after controlling Zn2+/OH− ratio. The morphology and structural studies confirmed the formation of nano structure, revealing the [0001] oriented growth of the ZnO nanorods. The variation of dielectric constant, loss, ac conductivity and activation energy as a function of frequency was studied. In UV–Vis absorption spectra, a sharp absorption band-edge at 355 nm is observed from which direct optical band gap 3.40 eV was calculated. In P–E hysteresis piezoelectric characterization for unpoled ZnO, the value of remnant polarization and coercive field was found to be 16.31 µC/cm2 and 6.11 kV/cm respectively which increased to 25.65 µC/cm2 and 8.35 kV/cm, respectively after poling at 1 kV/cm. The piezoelectric charge coefficient (d 33) was found to be 1.7 pC/N. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Experimental studies on the collective field emission from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on metallic cathode substrate show wide variability. In this paper, we investigate several related effects, such as the relationship between the electron–phonon transport and the mechanical deformation in the CNTs. A systematically coupled model of randomly oriented CNTs in a thin film is developed. Numerical simulations are reported, which are able to reproduce several experimentally observed phenomena, such as a fluctuating field emission current, deflected CNT tips and the heating process. Examples are shown, where the electrodynamic stretching of the initially deflected CNTs can produce transients in the collective field emission current as large as times the usual field emission current. Correspondingly, the tip temperature rises from 303 to 520K within a time interval of 40s. A 10K variability in the maximum temperature is observed over the 0.0144–0.0202V/nm range of the DC bias electric field. The maximum tensile stress is found to be 1.2GPa, which is much smaller than the fracture stress. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The measurement of hetero-nuclear dipolar coupling using two-dimensional separated local field (SLF-2D) NMR experiments is a powerful technique for the determination of the structure and dynamics of molecules in the solid state and in liquid crystals. However, the experiment is sensitive to a number of factors such as the Hartmann–Hahn match condition, proton frequency off-set and rf heating. It is shown here that by the use of phase alternated pulses during spin-exchange the effect of rf mismatch on the dipolar coupling measurement can be compensated over a wide range of off-sets. Phase alternation together with time and amplitude modulation has also been considered and incorporated into a pulse scheme that combines spin exchange with homonuclear spin decoupling based on magic sandwich sequence and named as SAMPI4. Such time and amplitude averaged nutation experiments use relatively low rf power and generate less sample heating. One of these schemes has been applied on liquid crystal samples and is observed to perform well and yield spectra with high resolution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background & objectives: Anaemia is a public health problem in India, particularly in women and children. Clinical diagnosis by health workers may be inaccurate. It is therefore important to evaluate simple methods for diagnosis of anaemia in rural set up with no or minimal laboratory facilities. We carried out this study to evaluate the performance of haemoglubin colour scale and palmar pallor against filter paper cyanmethaemoglobin method as screening methods for anaemia in children 6-35 months of age. Methods: A total of 772 children between 6-35 months were studied from three primary health centres of Wardha district, central India, by house-to-house visit, The child was examined for presence of palmar pallor and Haemoglobin estimated by haemoglobin colour scale (HCS) and filter paper cyanmethaemoglobin method independently by two persons. Results: Haemoglobin colour scale had sensitivity of 89 per cent and specificity of 97 per cent in detecting anaemia in children. Pallor had sensitivity of 73 per cent and specificity of 98 per cent. The predictive values were 99 per cent and 69 per cent for positive and negative HCS result. Similarly, the predictive values were 99 and 48 per cent for positive and negative pallor result. Correct diagnosis of anaemia was 34 and 0.1 times common if HCS test result was positive (lib < 110.0 g/l) and negative (Hb > 110.0 g/l) for anaemia. Interpretation & conclusions: HCS fulfils the requirement of field test for screening of anaemia in resource poor country. It also has acceptable precision and accuracy and hence can be used in national anaemia control programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peptides have been instrumental in the development of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and their roles in the development of solid-state NMR of aligned samples is reviewed. In particular, the roles of synthetic peptides in the development of triple-resonance methods are described. Recent developments of pulse sequences and NMR probes for triple-resonance NMR of aligned samples are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urease activity (by buffer and non-buffer method) of soils of different agro-ecosystems in alluvial soil was studied. Urease activity by buffer method records a higher value than the non-buffer method. Both the methods showed significant positive correlation (0.99**) between each other. Urease activity by both methods showed positive correlation with organic matter (0.88** and 0.89**, buffer method) and clay content (0.91** and 0.83*, non-buffer method)) of the soils. Multiple regression analysis showed that the stabilization of urease activity in the soils studied was due to an organic matter-enzyme complex. Among the organic matter humus C plays a dominating role to control the urease activity of the soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annexin V has an important role in the regulation of apoptosis and antibodies directed against it have been shown to lead to apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells. To evaluate the role of anti-annexin V antibodies (AA5A) in Takayasu's arteritis (TA), we investigated these antibodies in the sera of 66 TA patients, 50 healthy controls and in the follow-up sera of 12 active TA patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The AA5A-positive patients were analysed further for the presence of anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) and anticardiolipin antibodies (ACLA) to determine the relationship of AA5A with these autoantibodies. AA5A were observed in 36% (24/66) of the patients versus 6% (3/50) of the controls ( P < 0·001) and in 53% (19/36) of patients with active TA versus 17% (5/30) of those with inactive disease ( P < 0·01). Levels of AA5A were also observed to be significantly higher in patients with TA compared to controls (0·557 ± 0·362 versus 0·259 ± 0·069; P < 0·0001) and in patients with active disease compared to those with inactive disease (0·700 ± 0·403 versus 0·385 ± 0·205; P < 0·0001). In the follow-up study, 6/12 patients who became inactive during follow-up also showed normalization of AA5A levels. AECA and ACLA were detected in 54% (13/24) and 12% (3/24) of the AA5A-positive patients, respectively. Our results show that a significant proportion of TA patients have AA5A, which exhibit an association with AECA and because they have a correlation with disease activity thus appear to be involved in the disease pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method combining an initial search phase to find an admissible starting solution followed by a multidimensional minimization phase is proposed for robust pole placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barley varieties were screened for their efficient drought enduring ability and associated characters which may be useful in breeding programmes. The characters studied were: relative water content, content of proline, chlorophyll stability index (CSI), and percentage grain loss per plant due to water stress subjected to 10 days from jointing to boot stage. Proline and chlorophyll stability index were greatly associated with drought response (r = +0.54; -0.49), flag leaf area (r = +0.69; -0.51) and, to a certain extent, with leaf number (r = -0.35 and +0.34). Among the studied 19 varieties of barley, only three (DL 192, DL 36, DL 3) showed high enduring ability, of these the former two fall in the early, and the last one in the late flowering group. Morphological architecture of DL 192 had gathering type tiller (narrow tiller angle), wider and floppy leaves and it also bears physiological characters (high proline and high relative water content, and low value of chlorophyll stability index) necessary for drought resistance. DL 3 and DL 36 had dispersing type tiller (wider tiller angle) and erect leaf with good leaf area/plant, but unit leaf area was low in DL 3 (relates with shading behaviour reducing water loss). Other relations of drought resistance are briefly discussed in the text. An appraisal of the various traits revealed that high proline content, and low CSI (biochemical characters), earliness, larger flag leaf area and fewer leaves per plant (morphological characters) were directly correlated with productivity of the cultivars under drought conditions. These characters could be used as a guideline for breeding drought resistant cultivars of barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor and its response regarding the article "Unusual way of loosened total hip arthroplasty treatment with an Austin Moore endoprosthesis" published in a previous issue is presented.

In this study, we have synthesized a new family of bioactive glass (BAG) comprising of SiO 2 , Na 2 O, CaO, K 2 O, P 2 O 5 and MgO via sol-gel route. The composition of these oxides has been selected in such a way that the BAG has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to the 316L stainless steel (SS). In vitro test by soaking the BAG in simulated body fluid (SBF) showed good bioactivity due to ion exchange between alkali ions from the BAG and the ions present in the SBF. The 316L SS substrates were textured using laser before application of BAG using sol-gel dip coating. Pull off test showed that the adhesion strength in case of textured and non-textured surfaces were 4.2 MPa and 2.46 MPa, respectively. This implies that texturing of the surface is helpful in increasing the adhesion strength of the coating. The bioactive glass-coated textured surface of 316L SS substrate showed better corrosion resistance in SBF than the bare substrate for which the respective corrosion current densities were 35 nA/cm2 and 353 nA/cm2, thereby indicating that the single layer sol-gel dip coating of bioactive glass improved the corrosion resistance of the 316L SS implants. The analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the coating after immersion in SBF shows the formation and growth of the apatite layer that will further inhibit the corrosion of the substrate. These results demonstrate the potential of the synthesized BAG as a coating material for 316L SS implants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approach is proposed for determining the robust stability of discrete-time systems where each coefficient of the characteristic polynomial can take any value between specified lower and upper bounds. It is based on the use of Rouche's theorem in the theory of complex variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five plum cultivars were investigated for polyphenoloxidase. Stanley cultivar, which showed highest PPO activity, was selected for characterization of this enzyme. The activity of crude enzyme was 3.5 times greater in the flesh than in the skin of the fruit. The enzyme showed a Km of 20 mM of catechol and Vmax of 5.41 x 10−1 O.D./min at pH 6.0. Its pH and temperature optima were 6.0 and 20°C respectively. The enzyme lost activity below pH 4.5, but was stable even at 70°C. Among substrates, 4-methylcatechol was oxidized more rapidly, although catechol, dopamine, pyrogallol and caffeic acid were also good substrates. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by sodium metabisulfite Na2S2O5), L-cysteine and ascorbic acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many sustainable farming approachbased on natural and organicinputs are gaining popularityacross the world. However, information on its impacts on soil health is quite scanty. Therefore, in present study we evaluated the effect of nature-based farming and different nutrient management practices on soil chemical, biological and crop physiological attributes after three years of adopting various nutrient management practices includingorganic farming during the kharif season of 2021 and 2022. The treatments comprised of: T1—control, T2—nutrient supplement through indigenous natural preparation, T3—organic farming, T4—integrated crop management + natural pest control, and T5—integrated crop management with chemical pesticides (ICM-P). In terms of soil nutrients status, integrated crop management) with need-based chemical pesticides had the highest available macro and micronutrients, followed by ICM with natural-basedfarming. The organic farming practice had the lowest soil pH, EC and the highest soil organic carbon. The higher soil enzymatic and biochemical activity was found under the organic farming and natural preparation. Enzymatic indices, including the biological activity index and the geometric mean of enzyme activities were greater in organic farming and natural preparation compared to control. At higher soil depth, nutrient availability and biological activity declined. Plant total chlorophyll and nitrate reductase activity found highest under ICM-P at 60 days after sowing under the ICM-P treatment; however, it declined thereafter. Soil enzymatic activity and all available nutrients are positively correlated. Integrating nutrient sources through nature-basedand organic farming can benefit soil fertility, biological activity, and overall system sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the exciting applications of laser directed energy deposition (LDED) is the fabrication of complex-shaped engineering components involving graded composition. In the present work, a 2 kW fibre laser-based LDED system is used to deposit copper-nickel (CuxNi(100−x) (x = 25, 50, and 75)) layers on copper (Cu) substrate. The single tracks are deposited at different combination of laser power, scan speed, and Cu-Ni compositions. Track geometry (width and height) indicates direct and inverse dependence with laser power and scan speed, respectively. For same LDED processing parameters, there is lower track height and wider track width with increasing Cu in Cu-Ni composition due to improved wettability. Further, analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that laser power and scan speed are more significant for track width and track height, respectively. Graded bulk structures built at identified process parameters are characterized using optical microscopy, microhardness, and single cycle automated ball indentation (SC-ABI). Deposited Cu-Ni graded bulk has a density of > 99% with pure Cu and Ni phase. The microscopy analyses reveal defect-free deposition with fine dendritic growth in the bottom and middle layers, while equiaxed grains are observed in top layers. Microhardness measurements show a smooth hardness transition from deposit to the substrate with higher hardness. SC-ABI presents an increase in energy storage capacity by 2.25 times with the increase in Cu percentage. This work paves a way for fabricating Cu-Ni graded components for manufacturing engineering components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented on the case of a Chinese girl suffering from pachydermodactyly (PDD).

The presence of high concentration of arsenic in conventional water sources can cause serious health and environmental hazards. An urgent need is to find an efficient adsorbent for the removal of arsenic ions (As3+) from contaminated water. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulation is used to understand the adsorption behaviour of As3+ on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and graphene nanosheets. The adsorption of As3+ follows the Langmuir isotherm and the maximum adsorption capacities are found to be 270.1 and 211.7 mg/g for h-BN and graphene nanosheets, respectively. Further, potential of mean force (PMF) of As3+ revealed that the h-BN nanosheet possesses lower contact minima (-1.35 kcal/mol) for arsenic ion compared to graphene nanosheet (-1.2 kcal/mol). These results indicate strong interaction between arsenic ion and h-BN nanosheet. On the other hand, desorption of As3+ on h-BN nanosheet showed higher energy barriers (2.3 kcal/mol) compared to graphene nanosheet (1.5 kcal/mol). Correspondingly, the residence time of As3+ is approximately threefold higher on h-BN nanosheet compared to graphene nanosheet. We also report that the presence of partial charges on B and N atoms in the h-BN sheet influence the adsorption behaviour As3+ ions and the maximum adsorption capacity of h-BN nanosheet with partial charges is found to be 311.7 mg/g. Thus, our study strongly suggests the potential applicability of h-BN nanosheet as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of arsenic ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulose biomass (LCB) is a plant waste material that is generated throughout the globe in massive amounts every year and may act as an alternative source of carbon for the generation of various types of value-added products, including biofuels and carboxylic acids (e.g., formic, acetic, and succinic acid). Hence its importance to the scientific community is increasing day by day. However, LCB conversion requires diverse treatment processes, including physical, chemical, and physicochemical processes, which are not economically viable and not sustainable. Hence, the microbiological systems capable of producing desired biocatalysts for generating desired products are being developed. At present, increasing population requires higher amounts of these value-added products, so enhanced efficiency of these processes are essential. As a result, the application of multi-component microbial systems, especially consortium systems, rather than monoculture systems, is prioritized for the amelioration of LCB waste conversion and formation of value-added products. The present review aims to critically analyze the different strategies used by microbial consortia to generate value-added products and discuss the future prospects of this field for the upcoming research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Digital/Internet Age, digital multimedia holds an unlimited potential, and virtually all forms of media content, including books, video games, music and software are now available for digital distribution. Digital multimedia libraries, comprising a large amount of such digital media (the so-called Digital Intellectual Property), in the form of images, video, audio and graphics are rapidly growing. Also, due to the unprecedented growth of the World Wide Web, vast amounts of multimedia data is readily available leading to an explosion of multimedia and hypermedia database creation and sharing. Digital information embedding techniques for various types of media, for a variety of applications including digital libraries, museum cataloging, medical and healthcare industries, digital preservation systems, educational systems and personalization systems, are of significant interest in two areas. Firstly, these are useful for the realization of efficient database indexing schemes and customization, which in turn lead to efficient tools for the organization, retrieval, adaptive presentation, and distribution of digital media content. Secondly, these are useful in developing tools to protect, detect and verify ownership and/or usage rights for the Digital Intellectual Property and also the tracking of these in the distribution medium. In either of these applications, information embedding schemes which allow for a detailed level of source description, and which are robust to some of the distortions encountered in the distribution medium (e.g., JPEG compression for images), are particularly attractive. This paper presents an overview of multimedia presentation adaptation through the use of robust information descriptors and a novel information embedding technique for digital images that allows for significantly higher information throughput and increased robustness compared to many of the existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Finite element modelling (FEM) is performed on AlN-TiN composites. The structure-property relationships are studied for 5 and 10 vol.% TiN composites in view of thermal and thermo-mechanical properties. Thermal stresses are simulated at various temperatures for the 5 and 10% TiN samples in homogeneous and heterogeneous temperature environments. It is found that compressive stresses are associated with the microstructure and these stresses are largest at the interface of the AlN-TiN phases. In addition, thermal strains are simulated at various temperatures for both the compositions. Thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient are estimated using FEM and compared with other known analytical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical properties of aerosols over Hanle (4500mamsl) in the western Himalayas were studied using skyradiometer observations during October 2007 to December 2010. Yearly mean value of aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500nm is 0.042±0.002, which demonstrates the pristine environment of the station. Seasonal mean AODs at 500nm during summer, autumn, winter, and spring are 0.044±0.002, 0.031±0.001, 0.031±0.001, and 0.061±0.002, respectively. The relatively high AOD during spring, associated with an elevated aerosol layer observed from space, supports the hypothesis of middle-upper tropospheric heating during pre-monsoon period. Seasonal mean values of Angstrom exponent (α) estimated from linear regression method varied from minimum 0.65 (spring) to maximum 1.02 (autumn). Dominance of coarse mode aerosols at the site is thus evident during spring. Analysis of AOD profiles obtained from satellite data and airmass back trajectories superimposed with fire-counts data indicated the presence of desert–dust at the altitudes of 5 to 7kmamsl during the episodes of high AOD and low α. These trajectories indicated airmasses mostly coming from different desert regions, e.g in north-west Asia and Iran in the Middle east. Further, arrival of airmasses from the densely populated and industrialized Punjab and Haryana regions from the north-west of India apparently explains the relative contribution of transported anthropogenic aerosols over the station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]