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Background/Objectives: SARS-CoV-2 provokes acute oxidative stress in the lungs via cytokines, inflammatory mediators, and apoptotic factors, which might cause alveolar injury followed by severe respiratory syndrome during COVID-19 infection. The lack of particular antivirals for SARS-CoV-2 has opened novel avenues of complementary and alternative medicine as a potential remedy. The current study explored the mechanistic role of the ultradiluted formulation of Eupatorium (UDE) against SARS-CoV-2 recombinant S protein-mediated oxidative stress and mitochondriopathy. Methods: Cell line and BALB/c mice were used to report that SARS-CoV-2 S protein caused an inflammatory response and subsequent cytokine storm via the NF-κB pathway in the lung along with oxidative damage. Morphological examination was performed using DAPI staining and histology for treated cells and lung tissues of animals, respectively. The molecular mechanism of action of UDE was investigated through qRT-PCR for the genetic expressions of various cytokines, inflammatory, and apoptotic mediators; ELISA, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot for the translational expression of the same molecules assayed for genetic expressions; and biochemical assays for various enzymes and ROS. Results: UDE treatment suppressed the inflammatory cell infiltration and tissue-level oxidative stress and safeguarded mitochondrial integrity from free radical-mediated oxidative damage. Additionally, UDE played a direct role in restoring cellular redox homeostasis and reducing the inflammatory response by suppressing NF-κB, IL-1β, IL-18, caspase-1 expression, and ROS formation. Further, a plausible mechanism of action of UDE against S protein-induced damage was proposed. Conclusions: This study described a novel therapeutic approach against S protein-mediated hyperinflammation, apoptosis, and oxidative damage. Hence, UDE may be considered as a prospective alternative to combat life-threatening consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plant sources is one of the most environmentally sound, economically safer, and operationally simple approaches compared with their physiochemical methods. In this work, we have developed the biogenic synthesis of Ag nanoparticles using the aqueous peel extract of Punica granatum L. fruit, which mitigates the requirement for any hazardous reagents or toxic chemicals. The ultraviolet‐visible spectrum confirmed the formation of Ag@PPE NPs with an absorption peak at 420 nm. The X‐ray diffraction analysis confirms that the biosynthesized Ag@PPE NPs are crystalline, with a crystallite size of 9.23 nm. SEM and TEM images revealed the spherical morphology of Ag@PPE NPs, with particle sizes ranging from 2 to 20 nm. The biosynthesized Ag@PPE NPs were explored as antimicrobial agents against both Gram‐positive (CA‐MRSA) and Gram‐negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria as well as Candida albicans (ATCC 14053). The mean zone of inhibition against the CA‐MRSA group was 15.34 ± 2.5 mm, while it was 12.33 ± 1.5 mm against E. coli. In this study, Ag@PPE NPs demonstrated strong antibiofilm activity and antioxidant activity. Moreover, the catalytic applicability of the synthesized Ag@PPE NPs has been investigated for the oxidative hydroxylation of differently substituted aryl boronic acids into phenols at room temperature. The reaction proceeded efficiently in a short reaction time, and the desired products were obtained with high to excellent yields (82%–94%). Notably, the nanocatalyst can be recovered in five consecutive runs without decreasing its catalytic performance. The plausible mechanism of this ipso‐hydroxylation reaction is well presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production in the tropics is threatened by heavy incidence of anthracnose disease causing substantial crop loss when infected at the early growth stages. Breeding strategies for enhanced productivity, high pod protein content combining resistance to anthracnose disease needs attention and are to be formulated. Methods: Diverse genotypes with broad genetic base and phenotypic diversity in five bush and one pole types were crossed in a 6 × 6 half diallel mating design to estimate combining ability, mode of gene action and extent of heterosis for 11 quantitative traits. Statistical analyses were done with Windostat (ver. 8.0, Indostat Services, Hyderabad, India). Result: The additive genetic effect was evident for percent disease index (PDI) of anthracnose and ten pod weight. Rapid genetic gain can be achieved due to predominance of additive gene action and can therefore be selected in early generation through simple breeding methods. The remaining economic traits controlled by additive and non-additive gene effects could be improved through biparental mating, reciprocal recurrent selection, or diallel selective mating. Anthracnose disease resistant and high yielding cultivars can be developed utilizing good general combiners viz., Laxmi, Arka Sharath and Vaishnavi-264 with high gca effects. Although two cross combinations Arka Sharath × Lakshmi and Arjun × Arka Sharath showed significant heterobeltiosis in desired direction for PDI of anthracnose and other desirable horticultural traits but could not be exploited at commercial level due to complexity in hybridization. Identifying pure lines with resistance against anthracnose disease and favourable horticultural attributes could be accomplished in segregating generations of the prospective hybrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A functionalized Hf(IV)-based metal–organic framework (MOF) was synthesized, characterized, and successfully employed as a highly sensitive and selective fluorometric sensor for (1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene) FOX-7, which is a significant nitro explosive. The fluorescent sensor (MOF), denoted as CSMCRI-KNC′, exhibited a turn-off fluorescence signal towards FOX-7 in a water medium even in the presence of other potentially competitive explosives. The limit of detection (LOD) value for the detection of FOX-7 is fairly low (189 nM), and the response time is extremely rapid (<20 s). The sensing mechanism was investigated in detail and found to be based on non-covalent interactions, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and photo-induced electron transfer (PET) processes. The sensing medium (water), detection time, sensitivity, and selectivity demonstrate the great potential of CSMCRI-KNC′ in the fluorescence-based sensor field. Additionally, the MOF was utilized as an efficient, recyclable, and heterogeneous catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation between barbituric acid and aromatic aldehydes in the presence of ethanol in an eco-friendly reaction medium. The present catalytic methodology has several attractive features, including mild reaction conditions, a short reaction time, high atom economy, and tolerance of various functional moieties. The catalyst could be recovered and reused successively without any remarkable loss in its catalytic activity. Moreover, the "hot filtration method (Sheldon's test)" has also been established to ensure the heterogeneity of the catalyst. Furthermore, the plausible mechanism of the catalysis is well presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivation is currently threatened in the tropics and subtropics, leading to enormous economic losses. Identifying genetically diverse donor parents for the development of mosaic-resistant varieties/hybrids in disease hotspot areas needs to be improved. Twenty-nine eggplant genotypes were screened for tolerance to mosaic disease and other economic traits to identify genotypes that can be utilized in future breeding. Based on field screening, the genotypes '2019/BRR Var-11,' '2020/BRR Var-7,' '2020/BRL Var-1,' and '2020/BRL Var-5' were found to be moderately resistant (>10%–20% disease severity) to mosaic disease, according to the disease rating scale. This study revealed no parallelism between genetic diversity and geographical divergence in eggplant. Multivariate analysis and the mean of economic characters indicate that the genotypes '2020/BRR Var-7,' '2019/BRR Var-11,' '2020/BRL VAR-1,' '2020/BRL VAR-5,' '2019/BRR Var-7,' and '2019/BRL Var-7' could be potential donors for mosaic disease resistance breeding. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, total phenols, and trichome density in the abaxial and adaxial leaves exhibited significant negative correlations with mosaic disease incidence, suggesting their application as selection indices for the identification of tolerant genotypes. Breeders might be able to introgress mosaic disease tolerance into commercial genotypes through systemic breeding to obtain prospective recombinants possessing desired economic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two monomeric octahedral complexes {[Ni(N(CN)2)2(bpy)2]2·H2O (1) and [Mn(N(CN)2)2(bpy)2] (2) where bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine} were synthesized and characterized by single crystal X‐ray diffraction, elemental analysis, UV–visible, and IR spectra. The geometry optimization through DFT measurements predicts that both the complexes have similar monomeric structures with hexa‐coordinated metal centers having a couple of bpy and mononegative dca anions and thus satisfying the octahedral geometry. Moreover, it is found that the HOMO–LUMO energy gaps are ΔE = 4.981 and 5.563 eV for complexes 1 and 2, respectively, which are responsible for the stabilization of the complex formation. The calculated absorption bands are located at 304 and 235 nm, which are in excellent agreement with the experimental result. Moreover, the DFT study of the electronic spectra of both complexes shows that the calculated absorption bands are in well agreement with the experimental results. In the electrical studies, direct current (dc) measurements on the copper/complex (1 or 2)/copper structure confirm a definite development in the device current with applied bias. Complex 1 has shown better electrical conductance compared to complex 2 based on the reduction of device resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, Indian power distribution companies (PDCs) are implementing smart distribution networks. Older cities are becoming smarter as per the recent government’s policy. Existing overhead distribution lines are being replaced by underground cables as an essential criterion of a smart city. One of the main problems arising in this process is the overheating of the neutral grounding resistor (NGR) in 11 kV distribution systems, even in normal conditions. NGRs, placed inside the substations, are overloading the air conditioning and exhaust systems of the substation. Sometimes failure of the NGR occurs due to overheating. In this paper, a comprehensive investigation has been carried out to reach the roots of this problem. It is observed that long underground cables have a higher ground capacitance than overhead distribution lines. Due to the higher cable capacitance, the third harmonic current circulates through neutral, which overheats the NGR even in normal conditions. The situation becomes worse when the substation runs on diesel generators (DGs) in an isolated state under main grid failure, as a higher amount of third-harmonic current circulates depending on the type of winding and pitch factor of the DGs. Different solutions are proposed, and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. Finally, the rating of the NGR is modified, and louvers-cooling fan arrangement is preferred for the running substation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an abundance of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, there has been a recent global surge in vaccine hesitancy, primarily driven by the spread of misinformation on social media platforms. It is crucial to address this issue and raise awareness about the importance of vaccination in combating the deadly COVID-19 virus. Predicting community sentiment through social media platforms can provide valuable insights into vaccine hesitancy, aiding health workers and medical professionals in taking necessary precautionary measures. However, the lack of high-quality labeled data presents a challenge for building an effective COVID-19 sentiment classifier. Additionally, the available labeled datasets suffer from severe class imbalance. To address these challenges, this article presents an effective COVID-19 sentiment prediction framework. Firstly, a deep adversarial active learning framework leverages abundant unlabeled data by training autoencoder and discriminator components adversarially to select the most informative unlabeled samples. Secondly, to mitigate the effects of imbalanced labeled datasets, a resampling phase is incorporated into the adversarial training loop. The proposed framework, named Resampling Supported Deep Adversarial Active Learning (RS-DAAL), is rigorously evaluated using two different datasets comprising social media posts from Twitter and Reddit. Various resampling techniques, including undersampling, oversampling, and hybrid methods, are assessed, with oversampling techniques further tested at different levels of resampling. Comparative studies are conducted against a baseline model without any resampling layer and with current state-of-the-art methods as well. Experimental results and statistical analysis demonstrate the superiority of the proposed RS-DAAL method in identifying COVID-19 sentiments on social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Al-Cu-Ni composite, featuring Ni-Al3Ni2/Al3Ni core–shell intermetallics within its matrix produced via powder metallurgy, was subjected to isothermal compression tests at different conditions so as to garner an insight into its hot deformation behaviour. These experiments were conducted from 300 to 500 °C, with strain rates varying from 0.0001 s−1 to 0.1 s−1. It is found that the flow stress is influenced by both strain rate and temperature. As the deformation temperature reduced or the strain rates increased, the peak stress level increased. To characterize the flow stress of the composite, a sine-hyperbolic constitutive equation was developed and the calculated value of activation energy (234 kJ/mol) was substantially higher than that for the self-diffusion of pure Al. Subsequently, the strain-compensated Arrhenius model and the artificial neural network (ANN) model were developed to predict the composite flow behaviour. With a lower average absolute relative error of 2.266%, a smaller root means square error of 0.668 MPa, and a higher correlation coefficient of 0.999 than the Strain-compensated Arrhenius model, the ANN model is more predictable. The processing maps show that the ideal hot working conditions for the composite are between 400 and 500 °C, with strain rates between 0.0001 s−1 and 0.01 s−1 with an efficiency of 37%. The uneven distribution in the shape and size of Core–shell/Al3Ni intermetallic compounds influenced the flow stress curves, leading to dynamic recrystallization (DRX), followed by partial dynamic recovery (DRV), and ultimately strain hardening at 0.01 s−1 & 0.1 s−1. The occurrence of recrystallization and recovery up to a specific strain followed by strain hardening at all the deformation temperatures is a rare phenomenon and has been attributed to the structure and composition of core–shell intermetallics. The occurrence of work hardening at higher strains throughout the operational range of temperatures imparts greater reliability to structural components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This 6‐month randomized split‐mouth and placebo‐controlled clinical trial aimed to evaluate the clinical and radiographic efficacy of adjunctive use of 0.05% zoledronate (ZLN) gel as local drug delivery to scaling and root planing (SRP) in stage III, grade B periodontitis patients with and without controlled type‐2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: A total of 120 infrabony sites were divided into two groups: Group‐1 (non‐diabetic periodontitis) and Group‐2 (periodontitis + DM). A total of 60 sites in each group were randomized to receive treatment with SRP + placebo gel (control) or SRP + 0.05% ZLN gel (test). Plaque index (PI), modified sulcus bleeding index (mSBI), pocket probing depth (PPD), and relative attachment levels (RAL) were assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months, and digital intraoral periapical and cone‐beam computed tomography imaging were used to measure the linear and percentage reduction of intrabony defect depth (DD, DDR%) after 6 months. Results: Group‐1 showed significant reduction in PI (0.56 ± 0.15 and 0.52 ± 0.19 from 0.67 ± 0.17), mSBI (0.7 ± 0.60 and 0.47 ± 0.57 from 0.9 ± 0.48), PPD (4.6 ± 0.85 and 3.43 ± 0.63 from 6.5 ± 1.04) and gain in RAL (7.03 ± 0.85 and 5.93 ± 0.69 from 8.9 ± 1.09) in the ZLN‐treated sites than the placebo sites and also from Group‐2 sites after 3 and 6 months, respectively. A significant reduction in DD of 28.79% in Group‐1 and 22.20% in Group‐2 at ZLN sites was seen compared to placebo sites of both groups. Conclusion: ZLN gel applied subgingivally in infrabony pockets resulted in significant clinical improvements evident by probing depth reduction and gain in attachment levels along with radiographic evidence of more bone fill seen in non‐diabetic patients compared to diabetic periodontitis patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A very crucial branch of Natural Language Processing is Sentiment Analysis, which seeks to elicit feelings in the public from feedback provided by users. This study proposes a Hybridized Deep Neural Network-based framework for the sentiment analysis, where we have modified Dispersive Flies Optimization by adjusting its neighbor counterpart and applied that Neighbour Adjusted Dispersive Flies optimization for optimizing feature space with the aid of sentiment information extracted using our specially developed SentiWordNet lexicon-linked fitness function, after preliminary processing of data. This modification helps to avoid the local optimal solution and supports the optimization process to approach the global optimal solution in more effective way. Next, to handle the textual features efficiently through Deep Learning approaches, we use pre-trained embedding technique to represent them mathematically. The Hybridized Deep Neural Network, which is made up of a Convolutional Neural Network and Long Short Term Memory, is then given the embedded features. In order to store locally implanted information, Convolutional Neural Networks construct hierarchical representations, while Long Short Term Memory attempts to recollect pertinent prior data for opinion categorization. This hybridization helps to take advantage of both the component networks. The deep neural network system ultimately delivers the desired sentiment category. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the suggested hybrid methodology is reckoned and contrasted with numerous cutting-edge methodologies utilizing a variety of performance indicators. Our proposed framework gives the best performance compared to the baselines with an accuracy of 89.0%, 81.9%, 67.9%, 64.6%, 83.2%, 79.8% and 91.3% for Amazon, ETSY, Big Basket, Facebook, Finance, Twitter and Wine dataset respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Man in today's world is engulfed in the grief of comfort and mechanized social life. Under such circumstances, man suffers from many social and psychological problems. Such issues arise as a result of declining human values. Education is the only tool that can change the world's current circumstances. So, there is a need to redefine the leadership process worldwide. The leader can foster moral, social, and ethical values among the learners. Adding spirituality to the existing leader qualities and associated school practices is the only way to inculcate and foster values among educational leaders. Spirituality will assist the leaders in attaining positive thinking, inner peace, egolessness, unconditional love, optimism, harmony, humility, responsibility, compassion, justice, simplicity, and reciprocity. The integral educational leadership approach is the only way to integrate different dimensions, including the spiritual aspect of the human being, at the individual and collective levels. The concept of integral leadership is inclined to synthesize ancient knowledge with 21st-century needs and the requirement to balance human life perfectly. Its aim is the holistic development of leaders with spiritual growth. The integral leadership approach strives to perceive supra-ethical good, supra-rational truth, and beauty. It encourages leaders to combine and harmonize their knowledge. It also strives to promote universality and oneness. An essential trait of integral philosophy is to develop each individual's potential to attain knowledge, will, harmony, and skills. Therefore, integral leadership is the best alternative to deal with the world's prevalent, educational conditions and the leader's changing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotics are widely used to prevent and treat bacterial infections, increasing aquaculture productivity. However, their imprudent use can lead to unintended consequences, including pathological alterations in vital organs of aquatic organisms. The safety of florfenicol following in-feed administration at 10 times the recommended dose and three times the recommended period in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus was studied. Florfenicol induced significant histoarchitectural anomalies as observed from the photomicrographs of double-stained sections of various tissues, including gills, liver, and kidneys of P. hypophthalmus, following in-feed administration at graded doses, viz., 0mg, 10mg, 30mg, 50mg and 100 mg/kg biomass-1 day-1 for 30 days, i.e., three times the recommended therapeutic duration. Gills exhibited lamellar fusion, epithelial lifting, and hyperplasia indicative of respiratory distress. There were hepatocellular vacuolation, degeneration, and congestion, suggesting impaired hepatic integrity. The kidney sections demonstrated tubular degeneration, necrosis, and interstitial inflammation implying renal dysfunction. These changes were prominent at higher doses, mostly in 50 mg and 100 mg groups, and in the extended duration of the treatment, underscoring the potential adverse effects of florfenicol on the histological integrity and physiological homeostasis of P. hypophthalmus. As the catfish species holds significant economic value in Asian aquaculture, understanding the impacts of antibiotic exposure is crucial for sustainable fish farming practices. Implementing appropriate antibiotic usage protocols and monitoring strategies can mitigate the risks associated with antibiotic-induced pathological alterations in commercially important aquatic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater has been the largest accessible freshwater source globally. The overall dimensions of every basin's water budgeting are closely linked to the quantity quality of available surface and subsurface water. In this paper, the groundwater levels trend in six districts within the Baitarani River Basin, Odisha State, India has been analyzed. Data on the depth to groundwater level for pre and post-monsoon season from 32 wells spread over six different regions from 1997 to 2020 were analyzed. Sen's slope techniques and creative trend analysis were used to investigate the behavior of groundwater level changes in pre- and post-monsoon periods to identify both monotonic and non-monotonic behaviors. The findings showed that, throughout the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods, the depth to groundwater level for four Tubewell, five Borewell, and seven Dugwell locations increased. However, only three tubewell stations Champua, Bhadrak, and Karanjia exhibited declining trends in the pre- and post-monsoon periods. In the case of borewell, only one station (Anadapur) has a negative trend in post-monsoon. For Dugwell, during pre-monsoon Banspal represents the –ve trend, and Bhandaripokhari, Banspal, Anandapur, and Joda show negative trends in post-monsoon seasons. A significant decline in groundwater level was observed in three stations for tubewell, one station for borewell, and four stations for dugwell observed in the current study. Accordingly, spatial maps of increasing and decreasing trends of groundwater levels were prepared, which can be used by water resource managers to identify the causes of declining groundwater levels for managing the resources effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fungal entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana could be established as an endophyte within jute (Corchorus capsularis) plant through seed inoculation. The highest colonization was observed in ITCC 6063 followed by ITCC 5562 and ITCC 5408 which are statistically at par (p < 0.05). The lowest apion infestation was observed in ITCC 5408, ITCC 6063, ITCC 4512 and ITCC 4563 which are statistically at par (p < 0.05). Highest apion infestation was observed in case of two non-endophytic isolates ITCC 4644 and ITCC 4925. Transcriptome study showed that a significant number of stem-weevil (Apion corchori) resistant genes involved in biosynthesis of plant volatiles viz., oxidative cleavage of fatty acids, LEGO-like building blocks, salicylic acid activation pathway, methyl jasmonic acid synthesis pathway were activated in ten B. bassiana isolate treated plants. RNA Sequencing was used to identify 1017 DEGs between 'endophyte colonised plant' and 'untreated plant'. 1117 genes were up-regulated and 279 genes were down regulated in treated plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to determine the efficacy and safety of paracetamol in preterm babies with hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA). BACKGROUND: In preterm babies, patent ductus arteriosus, when hemodynamically significant, causes considerable morbidity and mortality and also affects 20% of very low birth weight infants. Medical therapy is the mainstay of treatment. Currently used drug cyclooxygenase inhibitor has multiple serious adverse effects, including gastrointestinal perforation, bleeding, and renal failure. Hence, an alternative drug like paracetamol has been proposed for the treatment of hsPDA for fewer side effects. Hence, we used paracetamol in our neonatal intensive care unit in preterm neonates with hsPDA. METHODS: A total of 14 preterm babies diagnosed to have hsPDA on clinical and echocardiographic evaluation in neonatal ICU on days 3-14 of life during 13 months were included. Birth weight was between 1000 g and 1650 g and gestation was between 28 weeks and 33 weeks. Paracetamol in a dose of 15 mg/kg/dose every six hourly given to all the included babies for 3 days and re-evaluated echocardiographically after 3 days of treatment. RESULTS: In 12 (86%) out of 14 cases, PDA was closed, whereas in 2 (14%) hemodynamic closure with insignificant residual flow was achieved. Paracetamol was effective in 100% of cases. No adverse event was observed during treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Paracetamol is a very safe and efficacious drug for treating hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus in premature babies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) being major public health problems in India, including West Bengal needs to be continuously monitored through recommended methods and indicators. Present study is aiming to assess the total goiter rate, urinary iodine excretion, iodine content of salts at households’ level among primary school children and to find association with the socio-demographic characteristics of the study population. Method: A school-based, cross-sectional study was conducted during March 2019 to August 2019 among 540 schoolchildren of class three and four. Goiter was assessed by standard palpation technique, urinary iodine excretion (UIE) was analyzed by wet digestion method and salt samples were tested by spot iodine testing kits. The total goiter rate (TGR) was 10.56 %. About 97.22 % of the salt samples tested were adequately iodized. Though consumption of iodized salt was adequate irrespective of socio demographic characteristics; goiter prevalence was significantly different with respect to mother’s education level. Median urinary iodine excretion was found to be with in normal range. Lastly, a comparison is made between indicators of IDD over years which showed significant fall of TGR % of North 24 Pgs and a significant increase of adequately iodized salt consumption from 2004 to 2019. Conclucion: 2019 resurvey of North 24 parganas indicates that the district achieved close to the goal of NIDDCP i.e. prevalence of IDD should be below 10%. It also proved that universal salt iodinization program has increased the household’s iodine consumption above national goal of 91.2%. Goiter prevalence is found to be less in children whose mother attend the education upto 12th standard and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reverse osmosis (RO) has become an attractive option to produce potable water to cater the global needs. Despite the potential advantages of the RO process, it has limitations too. To address such limitations membrane distillation (MD), forward osmosis (FO) and pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) are now becoming emerging areas of research for seawater desalination. With significant advances in FO and MD for desalination, the entire operation to be conducted at low hydraulic pressure, which reduces fouling and improves membrane life. PRO is an osmotically driven process that produces green energy from the brine stream. However, hybrid desalination processes in combination with RO, are found to be efficient compared to stand-alone technology, with a reduced desalination cost. Although a few studies are available, practical integration of the current state of the art and its gradual progress is rarely addressed. In this context, emerging FO, MD, PRO processes, and the development of membranes for energy minimisation with improved performance are presented herein. Hybrid processes in combination with renewable energy resources are evaluated. Significant technological development and emergence of new materials is anticipated to play a pivotal role so that membrane-based desalination technologies become more efficient and economical in near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global rise of zoonotic bacteria resistant to multiple antimicrobial classes and the growing occurrence of infections caused by Aeromonas spp. resistant to β-lactam antibiotics pose a severe threat to animal and human health. However, the contribution of natural environments, particularly aquatic ecosystems, as ideal settings for the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a key concern. Investigating the phenotypic antibiotic resistance and detection of β-lactamase producing Aeromonas spp. in Lamellidens marginalis, which inhabit all freshwater ecosystems of the Indian subcontinent, is essential for implications in monitoring food safety and drug resistance. In the present investigation, 92 isolates of Aeromonas spp. were recovered from 105 bivalves and screened for their antimicrobial resistance patterns. In vitro antibiotic resistance profiling showed a higher Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index of 0.8 with the highest resistance against ampicillin/sulbactam (82%), while 58, 44, 39 and 38% of the isolates were resistant to cephalothin, erythromycin, cefoxitin and imipenem, respectively. PCR results revealed that these isolates carried the blaTEM gene (94%), which was followed by the blaCTX-M gene (51%) and the blaSHV gene (45%). A combination of blaSHV, blaCTX-M, and blaTEM genes was found in 17% of the isolates, indicating the presence of all three resistance genes. This is the first investigation which highlights the importance of multidrug-resistant Aeromonas spp. in L. marginalis. The identification of extended-spectrum-β-lactamases (ESBLs) genes demand the necessity of continuous surveillance and systematic monitoring, considering its potential health risks for both animals and human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation was conducted during the rabi season (September 2019 to February 2020) of 2019 to 2020 at the research field of All India Co-ordinated Vegetable Crops, located at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya in Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India. The aim of the study was to examine the characteristics of twenty-six chilli genotypes across twelve qualitative traits. The investigation unveiled a broad range of phenotypic variability using Randomized Block Design in three replications. Among the assessed traits, leaf density, leaf shape, fruit shape, plant habit, fruit curvature, and anther colour exhibited the most extensive variations among the genotypes. Conversely, the traits with the least diversity values, all falling below the overall mean, included fruit surface (0.28%), leaf colour (0.42%), stem pubescence (0.42%), stem colour (0.42%), anthocyanin colouration at nodes (0.48%), and leaf pubescence (0.48%). The Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index (H') ranged from 0.28 to 1.07. Of the traits evaluated, leaf density displayed the highest diversity index (1.07), followed by leaf shape (1.05), fruit shape (1.01), plant habit (0.86), fruit curvature (0.69), and anther colour (0.58). The obtained Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index, with an average value of 64.66%, confirmed the presence of significant diversity within the examined chilli genotypes. The results suggest that the indirect selection of chilli parent plants based on a range of morphological characteristics can offer advantages in the management of both biotic and abiotic stresses. The information holds significant value for effective pre-breeding, management, and utilization in crop improvement initiatives, in addition to augmenting the genetic potential of the crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil degradation in Odisha poses a significant conservation concern for the local environment. The present research focused on a region in central Odisha State, India, affected by drought conditions. Several models have emerged to assess soil loss, with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) standing out as the most suitable option. The erosion computation process entails utilizing the digital elevation model (DEM), Landsat-9 imagery, and soil data from several sources accessible in different forms and scales. The present analysis took into account various elements, namely, crop management factor (C), practice management factor (P), slope length factor (LS), steepness factor of the slope (S), and rainfall factor (R). Multiplying these factors yielded the average rate of soil erosion. Areas with a high slope length factor, such as those in Kandhamal, Kalahandi, and Nuapada, have a high erosion rate. The study reveals that 57% of the land in the study area experiences very low to moderate soil erosion at a rate of 2–10 tons per hectare per year, while 43% faces moderately to very severe erosion at a rate of 10–25 tons per hectare per year. Erosion hotspots, covering 32,205 square kilometers, are mainly identified in agricultural and forested hilly areas where slopes exceed 10°, such as those in Kandhamal, Kalahandi, and Nuapada, which have a high erosion rate. These districts are especially vulnerable to soil loss and resulting climate action (Sustainable Development Goals-13) because of frequent and severe rainfall, shifting agricultural practices, a thin surface soil covering, natural erosion, and barren hills. The research emphasizes the urgent need for implementing conservation and management measures to protect high-risk areas from further degradation. In conclusion, the study underscores the effectiveness of the RUSLE-GIS model in conducting quantitative and spatial assessments of soil erosion on a river watershed scale. The model is deemed crucial in formulating conservation strategies to address the identified erosion issues in the tropical highlands of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the scarcity of water supplies, coastal groundwater quality most importantly influences sustainable development in the coastal region. Rising groundwater pollution through heavy metal contamination is an intense health hazard and environmental concern worldwide. This study shows that 27%, 32%, and 10% of the total area come under the categories very high, high, and very low human health hazard index (HHHI) accordingly. This area's water quality is also much polluted; the study shows approximately 1% has very good water quality. High concentrations of Fe, As, TDS, Mg2+, Na, and Cl− are relatively noticed in the portion of the western part of this district. The concentration of heavy metals in coastal aquifers influences the groundwater pollution of that region. The average heavy metal concentration in this region is 0.20 mg/l (As) and 1.160 mg/l (TDS). The groundwater quality and hydrogeochemical properties are determined through the Piper diagram. The study stated that TDS, Cl− (mg/l), and Na+ (mg/l) are the most regulatory issues of vulnerability. In the present study region, a huge number of alkaline substances are present resulting in the water being unfit for drinking purposes. Lastly, it is clear from the study's findings that multiple risks exist there like As, TDS, Cl−, and other hydrochemical parameters in the groundwater. The proposed approach applied in this research work may be a pivotal tool for predicting groundwater vulnerability in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The three‐tier grading scheme described in "The Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology (PSC) System for reporting Pancreaticobiliary Cytopathology" (TPSCRPBC) which remained unchanged following the WHO Reporting System for Pancreaticobiliary Cytopathology (WRPBC) was evaluated on pancreatic adenocarcinomas (PACs) reported on endoscopic ultrasound‐guided fine needle aspiration cytology (EUS‐FNAC). Methods: The Papanicolaou and May Grunwald Giemsa‐stained smears from 116 cases of PACs were graded using the three‐tier grading scheme laid down by TPSCRPBC/WRPBC. Cases exhibiting multiple grades were assigned primary, secondary and tertiary grades. Each case was assigned a grade score, either by adding the primary and secondary grades, by adding the primary and tertiary grades when the tertiary grade was 3 or by doubling the grade when only one grade existed. Necrosis was estimated semi‐quantitatively. The inter‐observer reproducibility in grading was evaluated using Kappa and Kendall's tau‐c. Correlations between the various grades, the stage of the tumour and the amount of necrosis were assessed using Spearman rho and Kendall's tau‐b. Results: 31.89% of cases showed one grade, and 68.11% showed at least two grades. 16.38% showed three grades. The two commonest grade scores were 3 and 5. The inter‐observer reproducibility for grading and grade scoring was satisfactory. A positive correlation was noted between the grades and the amount of necrosis. No significant correlation was found between the grades, grade scores and the stage of the tumours. Conclusions: The TPSCRPBC/WRPBC grading scheme can be suitably applied to PACs with good inter‐observer reproducibility. Cases often show multiple grades in the same tumour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years groundwater contamination through nitrate contamination has increased rapidly in the managementof water research. In our study, fourteen nitrate conditioning factors were used, and multi-collinearity analysis is done. Among all variables, pH is crucial and ranked one, with a value of 0.77, which controls the nitrate concentration in the coastal aquifer in South 24 Parganas. The second important factor is Cl−, the value of which is 0.71. Other factors like—As, F−, EC and Mg2+ ranked third, fourth and fifth position, and their value are 0.69, 0.69, 0.67 and 0.55, respectively. Due to contaminated water, people of this district are suffering from several diseases like kidney damage (around 60%), liver (about 40%), low pressure due to salinity, fever, and headache. The applied method is for other regions to determine the nitrate concentration predictions and for the justifiable alterationof some management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have established the success of deep learning models in facial emotion recognition. However, such models are often not well suited to tackle one of the most commonly encountered problems of imbalanced classes. In real datasets, various emotion classes are found to be highly underrepresented leading to dramatic reduction in the performance of classification models. In the current study, a residual variational autoencoder-based model has been proposed to address the problem of imbalanced facial emotion recognition. Firstly, in order to capture the most important features in the form of embeddings, a variational autoencoder equipped with residual connections has been trained in an unsupervised fashion to obtain the most effective latent space representation of all input images. After the training phase, only the encoder part of the actual autoencoder is used to transform all labeled facial images into a latent vector form. Next, the imbalanced latent vectors are resampled using well-known algorithms to tackle the imbalanced classes. In this context, three major types of algorithms viz., Undersampling, Oversampling, and Hybrid are used for the same. To establish the quality of the proposed method, various well-known classifiers are trained and tested in terms of test phase confusion matrix-based performance indicators. All hyperparameters are selected by employing the Grid search method. In addition, to understand the effect of oversampling minority class samples, a separate study is conducted by observing classifier performance against varying degrees of oversampling. Experimental results and extensive comparative studies have shown that the residual variational autoencoder model combined with SMOTE-ENN hybrid resampling technique can boost the classifier performance to a greater extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this case report is to present a unique and rare finding in a 29‑year‑old male with the chief complaint of swelling in the gums related to the back teeth of the lower left jaw, since 20 days. In the absence of any alarming findings on the intraoral periapical radiograph and blood profile, an excisional biopsy of the provisionally diagnosed pyogenic granuloma was planned with a high‑power diode LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). Following the excision, an unusual amount of bleeding was encountered from a single point on the buccal cortical plate between the teeth #35 and #36. On reevaluating the left face with advanced radiodiagnostic methods, an accessory buccal foramen was reported distal to #35 which housed a thin, tortuous, and aberrant branch of the inferior alveolar artery. The swelling was histopathologically diagnosed as lobular capillary hemangioma, and the aberrant artery was labeled as its feeder vessel. The patient had no episode of recurrence until 2 years of follow‑up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a large portion of the tropics, there is a demand for the development of hybrid chilies (Capsicum annuum L.) with high pungency, antioxidant vitamins, and tolerance to chili leaf curl virus, and anthracnose. Six genetically diverse parents were crossed in half-diallel fashion to develop 15 F1 hybrids to assess the level of heterosis, combining ability and gene action for 17 quantitative traits. The inheritance of most traits was apparently controlled by non-additive gene action. "Bidhan Chili 4" recorded the maximum, significant, GCA effects in a desired direction for PDIs of leaf curl virus and anthracnose along with commercially important traits. The maximum extent of heterobeltiosis was for oleoresin content followed by ascorbic acid and capsaicin contents, PDIs of chili leaf curl virus and anthracnose, and fruit yield per plant. The hybrids "Bidhan Chili 4 × Chili 38-Ragi" and "Pant C 1 × Bidhan Chili 4" could be isolated on the basis of their average performance, heterosis manifested in them, and SCA effects. Such hybrids could make a difference by meeting the horticultural requirements, high yield, disease tolerance and pungency, of commercial chili growing zones in the tropics. Hybrid vigor is available for commercial production of chili hybrids. A different approach from hybrid vigor is to isolate pure lines from segregating generations of potential heterotic F1s to increase fruit yield, quality attributes, and resistance to the chili leaf curl virus and anthracnose disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermating between genetically diverse tomatoes could provide information on the underlying biology as a source of new alleles for phytonutrient contents and tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) disease tolerance in cherry tomato [Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme (Dunnal) A. Gray]. The study determined combining ability effects, heterosis and gene action for conditioning 19 quantitative traits involving crosses between anthocyanin rich (Aft gene) tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) lines and 7 breeding lines of nutritionally rich cherry tomato [S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme (Dunnal) A. Gray]. An overwhelming response of non-additive gene action in controlling expression of most traits was evident. Purple tomato line "Bidhan Purple" and the cherry tomato lines "Cherry Round Yellow Big Fruit" and "18/ToCVAR-2" could be potential genitors for cherry tomato breeding. Based on combining ability, average heterosis, and mean performance, the promising hybrids: "Alisha Craig Aft ×18/TOCVAR-2," "Bidhan Purple × 18/TOCVAR-2" and "Alisha Craig Aft × Cherry Round Yellow Big Fruit" were identified in terms of phytonutrient contents and ToLCV disease tolerance. Partial, to over-dominance, reaction in inheritance of most traits reflects the genetic basis of heterosis. Promising cherry tomato hybrids could be exploited following appropriate testing or could be used in segregating generations to produce line-bred cultivars that are ToLCV disease-tolerant and high in phytonutrient contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beneficial microbes are essential to sustainable agricultural production because they help meet population need for food, preserve the environment, and ensure excellent yields at reasonable prices. This experiment focused on the effects of bio-inoculants and fungicides on growth, yield, quality and disease incidence in cabbage grown in the Gangetic plains of West Bengal. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design replicated thrice with seven treatment combinations comprising different bio-inoculants [Trichoderma asperellum (IIVR strain); Trichoderma (TTV-2-IIVR strain); Bacillus subtilis (CRB-7-IIVR strain); Actinomyces sp. (IIVR N-1.2strain)] either sole or dual application compared with fungicide application and control. The findings showed that compared to other treatment combinations, cabbage responded better to the dual inoculation of T. asperellum (IIVR strain) + B. subtilis (CRB-7). The study also showed that the head yield of the crop, as well as its nutritional value, disease control, and the economic return on its cultivation, were influenced by the dual inoculation with T. asperellum (IIVR strain) + B. subtilis (CRB-7) @ 10 g/kg of seedling and soil drenching with the same bio-inoculant combinations @1% in the root zone at 30 days after transplanting adopted for cabbage production in the Gangetic plains of eastern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescence quenching by polarons is an important loss mechanism in polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). Steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of polyaniline (PAni) thin films with varying polaron doping has helped us to realize polaron density-dependent photoluminescence quenching mechanisms inside the thin films. A sharp reduction in photoluminescence emission spectra has been observed at doping densities between 1017 and 1019 cm−3. This doping concentration-dependent photoluminescence phenomenon in PAni is modeled quantitatively using quenching of excitons by polarons through long-range Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and short-range charge transfer (CT) mechanisms. The results match well with the experimental findings that demonstrate that both models need to be considered to explain the mechanisms of luminescence quenching. FRET and CT phenomena inside an emissive layer of PLEDs have been demonstrated to play a pivotal role in the quantum efficiency roll-off phenomenon at high current density using experimentally obtained and theoretically calculated kinetic quenching parameters. To get rid of low luminescence in PAni, it has been blended with poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA) that enhances its luminescence manifold. The blending of PMMA leads to the introduction of a new photophysical phenomenon—donor PMMA concentration-dependent FRET contrary to original FRET theory proposed by Förster. Concentration-dependent FRET leads to a sharp drop in luminescence from the polymer blend after reaching a critical concentration of PMMA. Therefore, the present study explores the reason behind low luminescence in conducting polymers and demonstrates ways to mitigate it along with providing an account of the photo-physics of the conducting polymer as an emissive layer in PLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic (As) is a toxic environmental contaminant with global public health concern. In aquatic ecosystems, the quantification of total As is restricted chiefly to the individual organisms. The present study has quantified the total As in different trophic layers (sediment–water-phytoplankton-periphyton-zooplankton-fish-gastropod-hydrophytes) of lentic freshwater ecosystems. As transfer pathways quantifying the transmission rate across trophic-level compartmental route were delineated using a novel model-based approach along with its potential contamination risk to humans. Lentic water bodies from Indo-Gangetic region, a core area of groundwater As, were selected for the present investigation. The study revealed that among the lower biota, zooplankton were the highest accumulator of total As (5554–11,564 µg kg−1) with magnification (rate = 1.129) of the metalloid, followed by phytoplankton (2579–6865 µg kg−1) and periphytic biofilm (1075 to 4382 µg kg −1). Muscle tissue of zooplanktivore Labeo catla is found to store higher As (80–115 µg kg−1 w.w.) compared to bottom-dwelling omnivore Cirrhinus mrigala (58–92 µg kg−1 w.w.). Whereas, Amblypharyngodon mola has accumulated higher As (203–319 µg kg−1 w.w.) than Puntius sophore (30–98 µg kg−1 w.w.) that raised further concern. The hepatic concentration indicated arsenic-mediated stress based on As stress index (threshold value = 1). Mrigal and Mola showed significant biomagnification among fishes while biodiminution was observed in Catla, Bata, Rohu and Punti. All the studied fishes were under the arsenic mediated stress. In the 'sediment–water-periphytic biofilm-gastropod' compartment, the direct grazing accumulation was higher (rate = 0.618) than the indirect path (rate = 0.587). Stems of edible freshwater macrophytes accumulated lesser As (32–190 µg kg−1 d.w.) than roots (292–946 µg kg−1 d.w.) and leaves (62–231 µg kg−1 d.w.). The target cancer risk (TCR) revealed a greater concern for adults consuming edible macrophyte regularly. Similarly, the varied level of target hazard quotient and TCR for adults consuming fishes from these waterbodies further speculated significant health concerns. The trophic transfer rate of environmental As in soil–water-biota level at an increasing trophic guild and consumer risk analysis have been unravelled for the first time in the Indo-Gangetic plains, which will be helpful for the strategic mitigation of As contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater plays an important role in our environment. In recent decades, groundwater-related issues within the river basin are significantly increasing in most part of the world. It is essential to estimate the magnitude of groundwater storage changes as well as runoff generated within the river basin. The principal objectives of the study are to quantify the water budget parameters for Baitarani River Basin of India and to analyze the season-wise trend analysis of groundwater storage by using Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA). Climatic data from eight Indian meteorological stations were used to estimate direct runoff from enhanced SCS-CN (Soil Conservation Service Curve Number) method, Potential Evapo-Transpiration (PET) was estimated by using Hargreaves method in R studio platform. The analysis showed that precipitation and surface runoff followed a non-monotonic negative (− ve) trend in winter season and monotonic positive (+ ve) trend in all other season for all stations. It was also observed that the groundwater storage is increasing in winter and post-monsoon season. In the lower catchment areas, groundwater storage was more due to flat topography and good aquifer type, where groundwater use can be enhanced. But in upper catchment areas, groundwater storage capacity is comparatively less hence rain water conservation structures could be suggested to check the surface runoff and provide options for increasing groundwater recharge. This study will be helpful to focus on regional scale planning to address the water management issues within the basin, which will be ultimately helpful for agriculture, watershed development and environmental planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-COV2 or the coronavirus disease even after two years of identification is still a problem because of its varying mutations. The prediction and classification of the virus are one of the most important tasks for controlling the spread of the pandemic. So immediate development of some strong techniques with artificial intelligence implementation to predict COVID-19 is required. The paper's main aim is to develop an accurate, efficient, and time-saving model for detecting COVID-19 from Chest X-Ray (CXR) images. This study utilises a dataset from the Kaggle database containing CXR images of COVID-19, Viral Pneumonia, and Normal Healthy lung images. Here, some Deep Learning (DL) models like GoogleNet, SqueezeNet, and ResNet-18 are utilised for the detection of the virus. The overall accuracy achieved from the models like GoogleNet is 92.46%, for SqueezeNet is 92.57%, and ResNet-18 is 97.38%. From the obtained outcomes it is concluded that ResNet-18 provides accurate results as compared with the other three models. The achieved outcomes could help medical experts in the future to predict and classify COVID-19 and can very quickly diagnose cases with effective models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work explores the photophysical, electrochemical, and fluorescence polarization properties of a group of π-conjugated phenylethynyl-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole derivatives (BTDs) bearing different electron-donating (ED) or electron-withdrawing (EW) substituents at the para position of the phenylethynyl moiety. The BTDs were synthesized through the Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction between 4-bromo-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole and the respective para-substituted phenylethynyl derivatives. The BTDs with the EW-substituents show relatively weak solvatochromic behavior, while the BTDs with the strong ED-substituents like methoxy and N,N-dimethylamino-based substituents (BTDPhOMe and BTDPhNMe2) exhibit a pronounced solvatochromic behavior. The change in dipole moments in the excited states of the derivatives was calculated using Lippert–Mataga plots. The conclusions drawn on the spectral behavior of the molecules could be rationalized by TD-DFT calculations involving electron density difference (EDD) maps that correlate with the ICT characteristics of the molecules. The experimental and theoretical calculations reveal that the BTDs with the strong ED-substituents (strong push–pull type BTDs) have a strong ICT character in the excited state. These strong push–pull type BTDs show high fluorescence quantum yield (ΦF) in apolar solvents and low ΦF in polar solvents. In contrast, the BTDs with the weak ED-substituents (weak push–pull type BTDs) and EW-substituents (pull–pull type BTDs) have a weaker ICT character with low ΦF in apolar and high ΦF in polar solvent media. There is good a agreement among the HOMO–LUMO band gaps obtained from absorption spectroscopy and electrochemical studies and theoretical calculations. The fluorescence anisotropy measurement in the glycerol medium shows that the studied BTDs generally exhibit higher sensitivity towards microviscosity than the traditional DPH fluorescence anisotropy probe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a multimode terahertz absorber is implemented using an ultrathin silicon ring with varying multimodal resonance. The rectangular silicon ring is providing three resonances with creating electromagnetic dipoles. The altering of these resonances is explicitly controlled with the help of a circular graphene ring. The graphene ring is used in the centre for tenability and to achieve perfect absorption. An equivalent circuit model is also presented and verified for the proposed structure. The design is intended to measure the glucose percentage in water. In addition, this can be used as a biosensor for the detection of malaria parasite percentage in water. A few important parameters like sensitivity and quality factors are considered to evaluate the performance of the said design. The sensitivity with analyte thickness is found to be 0.445 THz TU−1, 0.4255 THz TU−1, and 0.4305 THz TU−1. The corresponding quality factor is noted for the lower, middle, and upper bands as 235, 653, and 264 respectively. Further, the sensitivity and quality factors were measured just by changing the refractive index. The new estimated values are 0.480 THz RIU−1, 0.403 THz RIU−1, and 0.562 THz RIU−1 and corresponding quality factors are 203, 555, and 261 for lower, middle, and upper bands respectively. The design is also expected to flourish as a polarization‐insensitive absorber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practical quantum error correction implementations, the measurement of syndrome information is an unreliable step—typically modeled as a binary measurement outcome flipped with some probability. However, the measured syndrome is in fact a discretized value of the continuous voltage or current values obtained in the physical implementation of the syndrome extraction. In this paper, we use this "soft" or analog information to benefit iterative decoders for decoding quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes. Syndrome-based iterative belief propagation decoders are modified to utilize the soft syndrome to correct both data and syndrome errors simultaneously. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme not only in terms of comparison of thresholds and logical error rates for quasi-cyclic lifted-product QLDPC code families but also with faster convergence of iterative decoders. Additionally, we derive hardware (FPGA) architectures of these soft syndrome decoders and obtain similar performance in terms of error correction to the ideal models even with reduced precision in the soft information. The total latency of the hardware architectures is about 600 ns (for the QLDPC codes considered) in a 20 nm CMOS process FPGA device, and the area overhead is almost constant—less than 50% compared to min-sum decoders with noisy syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment Analysis is a highly crucial subfield in Natural Language Processing that attempts to extract the public sentiment from the accessible user opinions. This paper proposes a hybridized neural network based sentiment analysis framework using a modified term frequency-inverse document frequency approach. After preprocessing of data, the basic term frequency-inverse document frequency scheme is improved by introducing a non-linear global weighting factor. This improved scheme is combined with the k-best selection method to vectorize textual features. Next, the pre-trained embedding technique is employed for the mathematical representation of the textual features to process them efficiently by the Deep Learning methodologies. The embedded features are then passed to the deep neural network, consisting of Convolutional Neural Network and Long Short Term Memory. Convolutional Neural Networks can build hierarchical representations for capturing locally embedded features within the feature space, and Long Short Term Memory tries to recall useful historical information for sentiment polarization. This deep neural network finally provides the sentiment label. The proposed model is compared with different state-of-the-art baseline models in terms of various performance metrics using several datasets to demonstrate its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the genetic control of disease tolerance is necessary for effective transfer of desirable genes in resultant progenies leading to development of disease tolerant cultivars and hybrids. Bacterial wilt (BW) disease-resistant varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) express differential reactions to bacterial biovars distributed in specific regions. Genetic control of host tolerance to BW disease was studied using the generations P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1, BC2 of three tolerant × susceptible crosses ("Utkal Kumari × CLN- 2460E;" "Utkal Kumari × CLN-2764A;" "Utkal Deepti × CLN-2460E") involving two tolerant ("Utkal Kumari," "Utkal Deepti"), and two susceptible ("CLN-2460E" and "CLN-2764A") genotypes exposed to the virulent bacterial biovars III and VI. The inheritance pattern indicated tolerance to BW disease was conditioned by a single dominant gene in three crosses when exposed to both biovars. Genetic control of bacterial wilt resistance did not depend on the interaction between genotype and bacterial biovars tested. Predominance of non-additive gene action and duplicate epistasis for conditioning of first appearance and incidence of BW disease in crosses indicated hindrance in progress through conventional selection. Selection for improvement of BW disease-related traits should be delayed to later segregating generations. The modified bulk method of selection appeared to be best for improving BW disease-related traits of tomato. Tomato hybrids tolerant to BW disease could be developed with the involvement of one parent tolerant to this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]