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For a reliable and risk-free power source, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been the subject of much research. The method is very attractive because of its cheap manufacturing cost, environmentally friendly manufacture, and competitive efficiency. This study constructed a heterojunction as a photoanode for DSSCs using a combination of TiO2 and graphene using a wet chemical technique. According to the XRD and TEM findings, the graphene sheets consist of evenly wrapped spherical nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 30 to 40 nm, and the TiO2 exhibits a tetragonal (anatase) phase. It is common for anatase to have a bandgap energy of 3.15 eV for TiO2, whereas graphene/TiO2 has a bandgap energy of 2.77 eV. With a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.2%, graphene/TiO2 DSSCs outperform cells based on pure TiO2 electrodes by a margin of 2.22%. In particular, graphene's ability to absorb solar light has the potential to improve the power conversion efficiency of DSSCs by increasing the light harvest of dye molecules. In addition, graphene/TiO2 had an average electron transit time of 1.765 ms while TiO2 had an average of 2.981 ms. The research shows that DSSCs' power conversion efficiency may be greatly improved by strategically adding graphene, which can be affordably synthesized, to certain layers of the photoanode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we obtain the generalized distance spectra of the graphs constructed by 19 unary and 21 binary graph operations of M-join type when the constituting graphs satisfy some conditions. Also, we deduce a result on the generalized distance spectrum of the double graph of a connected regular graph in the literature. As applications, we construct infinite families of generalized distance cospectral graphs. Also, we construct infinite families of distance (distance Laplacian, distance signless Laplacian) integral graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seaweed extracts are extensively used as fertilizers across the globe. However, their mechanism of action and effects are less understood and need to be studied in detail. The present study investigated the effect of Ulva lactuca seaweed extract as a liquid fertilizer (SLF) on the growth characteristics of green gram. The seeds of green gram were soaked in varied concentrations of aqueous seaweed extract like 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 %. Additionally, the SLF was applied on germinated seedlings as foliar spray treatment in 2 days interval. The maximum growth parameters were observed in foliar spray treatment at 8 % concentration and in seed soaking treatment at 2 % concentration. The seaweed extract was effective in influencing the growth characteristics of green gram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice is grown by transplanting under wetland conditions or by direct sowing depending upon the availability of water. In India, the total area under irrigated rice is about 22.00 million hectares, which accounts for about 49.5 per cent of the total area under rice crop in the country. Upland rice fields are generally dry and directly seeded. In India, the total area under upland rainfed rice is about 6.00 million hectares, which accounts13.5 per cent of the total area under rice crop in the country. Wet seeding of rice is practiced when there is insufficient time to prepare the nursery for transplanting or when the cost of transplanting of rice is too high. Sowing is done either by broadcasting or with equipment like drum seeder. Manually operated drum seeder has drawbacks like a scattering of seeds, dislocation of seeds due to surface water or rain and seeds being picked up by pests, etc. Asystem for accurately placing multiple seeds in hills will eliminate the above problems. Hence a method of sowing pelletized rice was developed. The seed pellets will be sown by a seeder in a wet rice field. In this present study, a projected seed cell vertical rotor device of 120 mm diameter with 12 cells on the rotor periphery was evaluated. The parameter used to evaluate the sowing performance were rotor speeds of 8, 11, 14, 16 and 20 rpm, seed sizes of 8 to 9 mm, 9 to 10 mm and 10 to 11mm diameter, cell sizes of 10, 11, 12 mm and three depths of seeds in hopper as 10, 20 and 30 mm above the disc center line. Due to the non singulation of seeds, 60 mm rotor was dropped. Hence 120 mm vertical rotor seed metering mechanism was selected for sowing in field condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creatinine is a kidney dysfunction biomarker, and its sensing properties have become an important tool in the diagnosis of abnormal kidney function. In the present study, a new enzyme-less creatinine sensor was developed by the bulk modification of carbon paste with the as-prepared inulin-based bio-nanocomposite. The electrochemical sensing of creatinine was conducted using the a sensor that exhibited two linear working ranges of 0.2 μM to 1 μM and 0.05 mM to 12 mM with the corresponding limits of detections of 60 nM and 90 μM. The sensitivity (204 mA mM cm−2), selectivity (in presence of other interferences like glucose, urea, ascorbic acid and uric acid) and stability (240 days) were also established. The sensitivity of the fabricated electrode was further validated by the determination of creatinine in urine samples spiked with various concentrations of creatinine. The analytical performance of the electrode was compared with that of the standard spectrophotometric method. This implied the better sensitivity of the fabricated sensor with nM-level sensing, which is a million times higher than that obtained using the spectrophotometric method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]