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Photoreforming biomass-derived waste such as glycerol into hydrogen fuel is a renewable hydrogen generation technology that has the potential to become important due to unavoidable CO2 production during methane steam reforming. Despite tremendous efforts, the challenge of developing highly active photocatalysts at a low cost still remains elusive. Here, we developed a novel photocatalyst with a hybrid support comprising reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and TiO2 nanorods (TNR). rGO in the hybrid support not only performed as an excellent scavenger of electrons from the semiconductor conduction band due to its suitable electrochemical potential, but also acted as an electron transport highway to the metal co-catalyst, which otherwise is not possible by simply increasing metal loading due to the shadowing effect. A series of hybrid supports with different TNR and rGO ratios were prepared by the deposition method. Pd nanoparticles were deposited over hybrid support through the chemical reduction method. Pd/rGO-TNRs photocatalyst containing 4 wt.% rGO contents in the support and 1 wt.% nominal Pd loading demonstrated hydrogen production activity ~41 mmols h−1g−1, which is 4 and 40 times greater than benchmark Au/TiO2 and pristine P25. The findings of this works provide a new strategy in optimizing charge extraction from TiO2, which otherwise has remained impossible due to a fixed tradeoff between metal loading and the detrimental shadowing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the antioxidant potential of hen egg white lysozyme N-acetylmuramide Glycan hydrolase in full fat Mozzarella cheese, an experiment was conducted where control sample was brined without the addition of lysozyme; while four samples were brined along with 0.02%;w/v (T1), 0.04%;w/v (T2), 0.06%;w/v (T3) and 0.08%;w/v (T4) lysozyme. The antioxidant potential of hen egg white lysozyme in full fat Mozzarella cheese samples were measured through several methods, including 2, 2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline6-sulphonic acid assay (ABTS), 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, superoxide radical scavenging activity (PMS-NADH system), free fatty acid analysis and lipid peroxidation inhibition assay in a linoleic acid emulsion system. Intensity scale was used to evaluate the sensory characteristics of cheese. The results showed the percentage inhibition for DPPH, ABTS and superoxide anion activity in control sample increased up to 30 days; but decreased afterwards till 40 days of storage However in case of lysozyme treated samples % inhibition increased throughout storage. Free fatty acid % in full fat Mozzarella cheese was affected by lysozyme and storage days. Lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity in α-linoleic acid model system of lysozyme added samples showed lower absorbance at 500 nm showing higher lipid peroxidation inhibition. Furthermore, it was observed that absorbance was decreased till 30 days of storage which increased further upto 40 days storage period. The study showed that addition of lysozyme improved the shelf life and sensory characteristics of full fat Mozzarella cheese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between IrO2 and TiO2 (anatase) in non-isothermal reduction conditions has been studied by the temperature programmed reduction technique. IrO2 clusters are of sizes between 0.5 and 0.9 nm as determined from High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). Largely, two main regions for reduction were found and modeled at ca. 100 and 230 °C. The first region is attributed to the partial reduction of IrO2 clusters, while the second one is due to reduction of the formed crystalline (rutile IrO2), during TPR, to Ir metal. Two methods for calculating kinetic parameters were tested. First, by applying different ramping rates on a 3.5 wt.% IrO2/TiO2 using Kissinger's method. The apparent activation energy values for the first and second reduction regions were found to be ca. 35 and 100 kJ/mol, respectively. The second method was based on fitting different kinetic models for the experimental results in order to extract qualitative information on the nature of interaction during the reduction process. It was found that the first reduction is largely due to the amount of IrO2 (reactant concentration) while the second one involved phase boundary effect as well as nucleation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study photo-oxidative stability of pasteurized milk packaged in polyethylene pouches was investigated. Milk packaged in three layer polyethylene pouch packs was exposed to 400, 600 and 800 l×florescent light at 4 °C for 6 days, compared with a control (stored in dark). Light had a pronounced effect on fat content of milk with no effect on protein, lactose and ash content. Photo-oxidative stability of milk decreased as the intensity of light increased, peroxide value, anisidine value and conjugated dienes increased during the storage period of 6 days, higher values were observed in samples exposed to 800 l×florescent light. After 6 days of storage period, milk exposed to 400 l×florescent light did not reveal any oxidized flavour. The results of this study depicted that polyethylene pouches have the capability to resist photo-oxidation up to 400 l×ight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study photo-oxidative stability of pasteurized milk packaged in polyethylene pouches was investigated. Milk packaged in three layer polyethylene pouch packs was exposed to 400, 600 and 800 l× florescent light at 4 °C for 6 days, compared with a control (stored in dark). Light had a pronounced effect on fat content of milk with no effect on protein, lactose and ash content. Photo-oxidative stability of milk decreased as the intensity of light increased, peroxide value, anisidine value and conjugated dienes increased during the storage period of 6 days, higher values were observed in samples exposed to 800 l× florescent light. After 6 days of storage period, milk exposed to 400 l× florescent light did not reveal any oxidized flavour. The results of this study depicted that polyethylene pouches have the capability to resist photo-oxidation up to 400 l× light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Serum ferritin levels are usually raised in dengue virus infection. This study was conducted to see the association of raised serum ferritin levels on the day of admission with the disease severity. Methods: In this cross sectional observational study, patients admitted with the diagnosis of dengue fever were included. Serum ferritin levels of all the patients were measured by ELISA on the day of admission. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of ferritin levels. Group A comprised those with normal ferritin level; those having raised level were included in group B. Patients were followed up during their hospital stay for development of severe dengue. Chi-square test was used as test of significance. Results: out of 104 patients 63.5% (n=66) patients were male and 36.5% (n=38) were female. Mean patient age was 30.7 ± 13.8 years. Mean duration of hospital stay was 3.7 ± 1.02 days. In 70% serum ferritin level was found >100 μg/dl, whereas 30% had ferritin level ≤ 100μg/dl. Out of 31 with normal ferritin level only 2 (6.45%) developed severe dengue, whereas 35 (47.94%) out of 73 developed severe dengue with ferritin level >100 μg/dl( p Value <0.005). Conclusion: Serum ferritin levels on the day of admission may serve as biomarker for an early prediction of disease severity in dengue virus infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology is a booming avenue in science and has a multitude of applications in health, agriculture, and industry. It exploits materials' size at nanoscale (1–100 nm) known as nanoparticles (NPs). These nanoscale constituents are made via chemical, physical, and biological methods; however, the biological approach offers multiple benefits over the other counterparts. This method utilizes various biological resources for synthesis (microbes, plants, and others), which act as a reducing and capping agent. Among these sources, microbes provide an excellent platform for synthesis and have been recently exploited in the synthesis of various metallic NPs, in particular iron. Owing to their biocompatible nature, superparamagnetic properties, small size efficient, permeability, and absorption, they have become an integral part of biomedical research. This review focuses on microbial synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using various species of bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Possible applications and challenges that need to be addressed have also been discussed in the review; in particular, their antimicrobial and anticancer potentials are discussed in detail along with possible mechanisms. Moreover, some other possible biomedical applications are also highlighted. Although iron oxide nanoparticles have revolutionized biomedical research, issues such as cytotoxicity and biodegradability are still a major bottleneck in the commercialization of these nanoparticle-based products. Addressing these issues should be the topmost priority so that the biomedical industry can reap maximum benefit from iron oxide nanoparticle-based products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders affecting two opposite ends of life span, i.e., childhood and old age. Both disorders pose a cumulative threat to human health, with the rate of incidences increasing considerably worldwide. In the context of recent developments, we aimed to review correlated symptoms and genetics, and overlapping aspects in the mechanisms of the pathogenesis of ASD and AD. Dementia, insomnia, and weak neuromuscular interaction, as well as communicative and cognitive impairments, are shared symptoms. A number of genes and proteins linked with both disorders have been tabulated, including MECP2, ADNP, SCN2A, NLGN, SHANK, PTEN, RELN, and FMR1. Theories about the role of neuron development, processing, connectivity, and levels of neurotransmitters in both disorders have been discussed. Based on the recent literature, the roles of FMRP (Fragile X mental retardation protein), hnRNPC (heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein-C), IRP (Iron regulatory proteins), miRNAs (MicroRNAs), and α-, β0, and γ-secretases in the posttranscriptional regulation of cellular synthesis and processing of APP (amyloid-β precursor protein) have been elaborated to describe the parallel and overlapping routes and mechanisms of ASD and AD pathogenesis. However, the interactive role of genetic and environmental factors, oxidative and metal ion stress, mutations in the associated genes, and alterations in the related cellular pathways in the development of ASD and AD needs further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was designed to evaluate the effects of sweet lime peel powder (SLPP) on the quality and stability of butter at different storage intervals. Butter is a high-fat food containing trace amounts of water, minerals, and vitamins. Limetta Citrus Risso contains polyphenols, antioxidants, antimicrobial compounds, minerals, and vitamins. Physicochemical analysis (hunter color (L*, a*, and b*) and pH), quality tests (TBARS value and peroxide value), antioxidant activity (DPPH and total phenolic contents), microbiological analysis, and sensory evaluation of butter enriched with SLPP were performed to observe the changes on different treatments at storage intervals with vacuum and aerobic packaging. The butter was treated with 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, and 6% sweet lime peel powder (SLPP). The variations in TBARS and POV were observed significantly in butter during different treatments, storage periods, and packaging. The results showed that color was changed significantly concerning different treatments, storage periods, and packaging. The L* and b* values were observed to be highest in aerobic packaging, whereas the a* value was increased in vacuum packaging. The antioxidants (DPPH, and TPC) varied significantly in both types of packaging on different treatments at storage intervals. High DPPH and phenolic contents were noticed in the 6% SLPP sample, while lower values were noted in the control sample. The negligible variations were analyzed in appearance, taste, color, odor, and overall acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted for the phytase production using solid-state fermentation (SSF) by Aspergillus niger. Optimization of various medium components was carried out for better production of phytase. Maximum enzyme activity (265.12±5.51 IU/g) was obtained, when the fungus was grown in the optimized culture medium containing glucose (1%), NH4NO3 (0.5%), FeSO4.7H2O (0.1%), KCl (0.1%), and MgSO4.7H2O(0.1%) at 35 °C after 5 days of incubation time with pH 6. Then phytase was supplemented as poultry feed additive and given to broiler chickens during a feeding trial of 5 weeks. For this purpose, the birds of the control group (T0) were fed on a basal diet without external phytase, whereas, the birds of the experimental group (T3) were given basal feed + 3000 IU phytase per Kg diet. The results exhibited that there was an improvement in the body weight gain (BWG) of chicks i.e. 1903 g - 2090 g for the control group (T0) and experimental group (T3), respectively. The current study thus indicated the affectivity of phytase as a supplement in the broilers diet for better growth performance and recommended its use as an efficient additive in poultry feed formulatio [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research work was conducted to improve the phytase production by genetic alteration of Aspergillus niger with induced mutagenesis using solid state fermentation. Strain improvement was carried out in the presence of ultra violet (UV) irradiation and ethylmethane sulphonate (EMS) [0.5% v/v] treatments for various time intervals. We reported an improved strain of Aspergillus niger designated as UV-3 mutant producing a zone of hydrolysis of about 40 mm, in comparison to wild strain (26 mm). The highest enzyme activity was found to be 547.64 IU/g for UV-3 mutant followed by EMS-4 mutant (492.23 IU/g) compared to wild strain which showed 406.45 IU/g of enzyme activity. There was 1.35- fold increase in phytase production after mutation studies of Aspergillus niger. Phytase was applied as poultry feed additive and given to broiler chickens for 5 weeks. The results exhibited that there was increase in body weight gain (BWG) of chicks for experimental group (2028 g) in comparison to control group (1903 g). Thus, physical and chemical mutagenesis was proved as an effective technique for the improvement of strain and ultimately for enhanced and economical phytase production for different industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the frequency of meningitis in infants having late onset sepsis (LOS). Bacterial sepsis and meningitis endure being leading causes of illness and mortality in neonates around the world, predominantly in preterm neonates. They must be discovered and cured as soon as possible to avoid death or disability. Study Design: The Cross-Sectional method was used to conduct a study. Duration and Place of Study: The study period was from July to December 2021. Data was collected from Pak Emirates Military Hospital (PEMH) NICU Rawalpindi. Material and Method: The study comprised a total of 110 individuals, both male, and female. All of them were older than 3 days and had been hospitalized and diagnosed with late-onset sepsis. A neonate was diagnosed with meningitis if his or her cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) had > 30 leukocytes/mm3 and any of these two: >200 mg/dl protein or 40 mg/dl glucose. Results: Out of 110 infants having LOS 38 were diagnosed with meningitis of which 21(55.2%) were male and 17(44.8%) were female. The overall mean weight of neonates was 2.38±1.72. A total of 24(63.1%) having low body weight and 22(57.8%) were premature. Meningitis was found to have a significant association with low bod weight and pre-term birth (p value<0.05). Conclusion: Meningitis was considerably high in neonates with (LOS). Low body weight and pre-term birth had significant associations with meningitis (LOS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research into the role of engineered nanoparticles in drug delivery systems (DDSs) for medical purposes has developed numerous fascinating nanocarriers. This paper reviews the various conventionally used and current used carriage system to deliver drugs. Due to numerous drawbacks of conventional DDSs, nanocarriers have gained immense interest. Nanocarriers like polymeric nanoparticles, mesoporous nanoparticles, nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, liposomes, metallic nanoparticles, nanomedicine, and engineered nanomaterials are used as carriage systems for targeted delivery at specific sites of affected areas in the body. Nanomedicine has rapidly grown to treat certain diseases like brain cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and many others. These nanomedicines can improve drug bioavailability and drug absorption time, reduce release time, eliminate drug aggregation, and enhance drug solubility in the blood. Nanomedicine has introduced a new era for drug carriage by refining the therapeutic directories of the energetic pharmaceutical elements engineered within nanoparticles. In this context, the vital information on engineered nanoparticles was reviewed and conferred towards the role in drug carriage systems to treat many ailments. All these nanocarriers were tested in vitro and in vivo. In the coming years, nanomedicines can improve human health more effectively by adding more advanced techniques into the drug delivery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical investigation of unsteady boundary layer flow with heat and mass transfer of non-Newtonian fluid model, namely, Jeffrey fluid subject, to the significance of Soret and Dufour effects is carried out by using the local nonsimilarity method and homotopy analysis method. An excellent agreement in the numerical results obtained by both methods is observed and we establish a new mathematical approach to obtain the solutions of unsteady-state flow with heat and mass transfer phenomenons. Similarity transformation is applied to governing boundary layer partial differential equations to obtain the set of self-similar, nondimensional partial differential equations. Graphical results for different emerging parameters are discussed. The dimensionless quantities of interest skin friction coefficient, Sherwood number, and Nusselt number are discussed through tabulated results. The main novelty of the current work is that the average residual error of the m t h -order approximation of the OHAM scheme for steady-state solution is decreased for higher-order approximation. Further, a rapid development of the boundary layer thickness with the increasing values of dimensionless time τ is observed. It is noted that for large values of τ , the steady state in the flow pattern is gained. It is worth mentioning that the magnitude of Sherwood number is increased with the increasing values of Schmidt number S c and Dufour number D f . The magnitude of local Nisselt number is increased for the increasing values of Soret number, S r . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical component of HCI is face recognition technology. Emotional computing heavily relies on the identification of facial emotions. Applications for emotion-driven face animation and dynamic assessment are numerous (FER). Universities have started to support real-world face expression recognition research as a result. Short video clips are continually uploaded and shared online, building up a library of videos on various topics. The enormous amount of movie data appeals to system engineers and researchers of autonomous emotion mining and sentiment analysis. The main idea is that categorizing things may be done by looking at how individuals feel about specific issues. People might choose to have a basic or complex facial appearance. People worldwide continually express their feelings through their faces, whether they are happy, sad, or uncertain. An online user can visually express themselves through a video's editing, music, and subtitles. Additionally, before the video data can be used, noise in the data must frequently be eliminated. Automatically figuring out how someone feels in a video is a challenging task that will only get harder over time. Therefore, this paper aims to show how facial recognition video analysis can be used to show how sentiment analysis can help with business growth and essential decision-making. To determine how people are affected by reviewers' writing, we use a technique for deciding emotions in this analysis. The feelings in movies are assessed using machine learning algorithms to categorize them. A lightweight machine learning algorithm is proposed to help in Aspect-oriented emotion classification for movie reviews. Moreover, to analyze real and published datasets, experimental results are compared with different Machine Learning algorithms, i.e., Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and CNN. The proposed approach obtained 84.72 accuracy and 79.24 sensitivity. Furthermore, the method has a specificity of 90.64 and a precision of 90.2. Thus, the proposed method significantly increases the accuracy and sensitivity of the emotion detection system from facial feature recognition. Our proposed algorithm has shown contribution to detect datasets of different emotions with symmetric characteristics and symmetrically-designed facial image recognition tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of as 38-year-old male patient with a history of high grade fever and fatigability. He was diagnosed with a Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) with Immunophenotyping (IPT) following a bone marrow examination. The article discusses a scoring system proposed by the European Group for the Immunological Characterization of Acute Leukemias (EGIL) to identify biphenotypic acute leukaemia (BAL) from other leukaemia subtypes.

Within the context of electron transfer during the catalytic water oxidation reaction, the Ir-based system is among the most active. The reaction, mimicking photosynthesis II, requires the use of an electron acceptor such the Ce4+ cation. This complex reaction, involving adsorbed water at the interface of the metal cation and Ce4+, has mostly been studied in homogenous systems. To address the ambiguity regarding the gradual transformation of a homogenous system into a heterogeneous one, we prepared and studied a heterogeneous catalyst system composed of IrO2, with a mean particle size ranging from about 5 Å to 10 Å, dispersed on a TiO2 anatase support, with the objective of probing into the different parameters of the reaction, as well as the compositional changes and rates. The system was stable for many of the runs that were conducted (five consecutive runs with 0.18 M of Ce4+ showed the same reaction rate with TON > 56,000) and, equally importantly, was stable without induction periods. Extraction of the reaction rates from the set of catalysts, with an attempt to normalize them with respect to Ir loading and, therefore, to obtain turnover frequencies (TOF), was conducted. While, within reasonable deviations, the TOF numbers extracted from TPR and XPS Ir4f were close, those extracted from the particle shape (HR-STEM) were considerably larger. The difference indicates that bulk Ir atoms contribute to the electron transfer reaction, which may indicate that the reaction rate is dominated by the reorganization energy between the redox couples involved. Therefore, the normalization of reaction rates with surface atoms may lead to an overestimation of the site activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of PV systems can be improved by accurate estimation of PV parameters. Parameter estimation of PV cells and modules is a challenging task as it requires accurate operation of PV cells and modules followed by an optimization tool that estimates their associated parameters. Mostly, population-based optimization tools are utilized for PV parameter estimation problems due to their computational intelligent behavior. However, most of them suffer from premature convergence problems, high computational burden, and often fall into local optimum solution. To mitigate these limitations, this paper presents an improved variant of particle swarm optimization (PSO) aiming to reduce shortcomings offered by conventional PSO for estimation of PV parameters. PSO is improved by introducing two strategies to control inertia weight and acceleration coefficients. At first, a sine chaotic inertia weight strategy is employed to attain an appropriate balance between local and global search. Afterward, a tangent chaotic strategy is utilized to guide acceleration coefficients in search of an optimal solution. The proposed algorithm is utilized to estimate the parameters of the PWP201 PV module, RTC France solar cell, and a JKM330P-72 PV module-based practical system. The obtained results indicate that the proposed technique avoids premature convergence and local optima stagnation of conventional PSO. Moreover, a comparison of obtained results with techniques available in the literature proves that the proposed methodology is an efficient, effective, and optimal tool to estimate PV modules and cells' parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteases have gained commercial value due to multiple applications in different industrial sectors. The current research aimed to use cheaper agricultural waste for optimal protease production. The maximum level of protease production was achieved at 37 °C, an incubation period of 24 h, pH 9.0, inoculum size 3%, 1.5 g sucrose as a carbon source, and 30% moisture content by using solid-state fermentation. Ammonium nitrate and yeast extract tremendously increased protease production among the various inorganic and organic nitrogen sources. Ca2+ ions and Tween 40 showed optimal protease production among the tested metal ions and surfactants. Protease purification was carried out by ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by Sephadex G-100 gel filtration chromatography. The purification resulted in 1.3-fold of purified protease with 51.5U/mg specific activity and a total yield of 37.5 %. The molecular weight of purified protease was confirmed upon SDSPAGE with a single band of ~36 kDa. The protease was stable over a temperature range of 35-45 °C and pH 7-9, with maximal activity at 40 °C and pH 9. The kinetic parameters Vmax (maximum rate) and Km (Michaelis-Menten constant) were calculated as 0.307 U/g and 11.2 mg/mL, respectively. The alkaline protease significantly dehair the goat skin and successfully removed the animal blood stain from cotton cloth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the study was to determine the suitable selection method for genetic improvement in chickpea. The current investigation was conducted at the research area of the Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. Twelve chickpea genotypes were sown in RCBD following three replicates. Data regarding primary & secondary per plant, days for maturity, plant height as well as potential yield were recorded. The measured data were analyzed to principal component analysis (PCA), correlation, and path coefficient analysis. Analysis of variants revealed good variation among the accessions for the data recorded traits. Principal coefficient analysis differentiates all the traits into six PCs. Two components expressed more than one Eigenvalue which collectively contributed 80.12% towards the genetic variation. High positive loadings were expressed by the secondary branches per plant and pods per plant in all components. Path analysis revealed that secondary branches/plants expressed the highest direct positive effect (0.872) grain yield followed by the pods per plant (0.623). Analysis of correlation coefficient also confirmed the highest significant contribution of secondary branches per plant (91.57%) followed by pods (78.12%) and each plant's primary branches (64%). It was proved from the current experiment that Plants with secondary branches as well as pods may be focused on while assessing meaningful selection criteria for genetic improvement in chickpea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cymbopogon citratus is a medicinal and well-known aromatic plant which is usually used as a substitute for green-tea with extraordinary phytomedicinal potential. It is of great importance because it offers several promising health effects. The objective of the study was to investigate the antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of lemongrass leaves extracted by maceration and ultrasound-assisted extraction techniques. Different concentrations of both acetone and ethanol (50% and 70%) as solvents were tested for their radical scavenging activity against the stable free radical DPPH in quantization using a spectrophotometric assay. The ultrasound-assisted extraction technique had advantageous results in the polyphenols extraction yield (26.68%), TPC (61 mg GAE/g of extract) and DPPH (73.85%) compared to the maceration technique. Overall, the results were significant from 50% ethanol and the DPPH results were more significant from 70% ethanol than other concentrations. It is concluded that the ultrasound-assisted extraction is a better extraction technique for polyphenols than other conventional techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the study was to determine the suitable selection method for genetic improvement in chickpea. The current investigation was conducted at the research area of the Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. Twelve chickpea genotypes were sown in RCBD following three replicates. Data regarding primary & secondary per plant, days for maturity, plant height as well as potential yield were recorded. The measured data were analyzed to principal component analysis (PCA), correlation, and path coefficient analysis. Analysis of variants revealed good variation among the accessions for the data recorded traits. Principal coefficient analysis differentiates all the traits into six PCs. Two components expressed more than one Eigenvalue which collectively contributed 80.12% towards the genetic variation. High positive loadings were expressed by the secondary branches per plant and pods per plant in all components. Path analysis revealed that secondary branches/plants expressed the highest direct positive effect (0.872) grain yield followed by the pods per plant (0.623). Analysis of correlation coefficient also confirmed the highest significant contribution of secondary branches per plant (91.57%) followed by pods (78.12%) and each plant's primary branches (64%). It was proved from the current experiment that Plants with secondary branches as well as pods may be focused on while assessing meaningful selection criteria for genetic improvement in chickpea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population is increasing rapidly globally, and urban expansion of the cities has become an extensive trend in developing nations. Urban expansion patterns, such as transportation structure and road networks, affect transportation planning. This research was conducted on a mega project in Lahore city of Pakistan, i.e., the Lahore Ring Road (LRR) project. Limited research focused on the beneficiary assessment of the road project, and this research was carried out to fill this research gap. This research aims to evaluate the beneficiary assessment of DHA Phase 8 and Halloki Settlement along the Lahore Ring Road. The simple Random Sampling technique was used to conduct the household survey in the study area. This study concluded that most of the residents did not modify their houses nor increase the built-up area and height after the introduction of the project. This study inferred that the rental potential was high at some locations and low at old existing settlements. This research further concluded that community participation was ignored, and public facilities were not improved in the study area. But a project of LRR was very much beneficial and alive for the residents of Lahore city. Community participation should be enhanced in such types of megaprojects, and allied facilities in the nearby community should be upgraded. This research will be helpful for policymakers, urban planners, transportation planners, development authorities, and other stakeholders in planning future road projects in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a numerical strategy for finding the approximate solution of the nonlinear foam drainage (NFD) equation with a time-fractional derivative. In this paper, we formulate the idea of the Laplace homotopy perturbation transform method (LHPTM) using Laplace transform and the homotopy perturbation method. This approach is free from the heavy calculation of integration and the convolution theorem for the recurrence relation and obtains the solution in the form of a series. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphical models are described at various fractional orders. This paper puts forward a practical application to indicate the performance of the proposed method and reveals that all the outputs are in excellent agreement with the exact solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, pristine anatase titanium oxide (TiO2), vanadium oxide (V2O5), and yttrium oxide (Y2O3) nanopowders (NPs), and tri-phase TiO2–Y2O3–V2O5 nanocomposite (NC) were prepared via a simple co-precipitation method. The grown products were characterized by employing a range of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis. The XRD diffraction pattern confirmed the formation of NC having TiO2 tetragonal, Y2O3 cubic, and V2O5 orthorhombic phases. FTIR spectra evident the presence of metal–oxygen bond in NPs and NC. The energy bandgap (2.55 eV) of NC is found in the range of visible region specified its use as an efficient photocatalyst under sunlight illumination. EDX analysis confirmed the existence of Ti, Y, and V in the nanocomposite. The antibacterial studies against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Proteus vulgaris bacteria by varying concentrations (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg ml−1) showed that the NC has higher antibacterial activity than individual oxides. The photocatalytic activity exhibited that NC has the highest degradation efficiency 99.29%, 90.69%, and 99.83% against methylene blue (MB), safranin-O (SO), and methyl orange (MO) dyes as compared to pristine TiO2, V2O5, and Y2O3 NPs under 80 min direct sunlight irradiation. Furthermore, the grown NC is a good candidate for treating organic pollutants and bacteria inactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the presence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in post-menopausal breast cancer patients receiving hormonal therapy. Study Design: Comparative Cross-sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Oncology Department, Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Dec 2020 to May 2021. Methodology: This study was conducted on 200 post-menopausal female breast cancer patients who had been taking Aromatase inhibitors for more than six months. All the study participants underwent a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan to measure bone mineral density. As a result, they were classified as having osteoporosis or osteopenia based on bone mineral density. In addition, age, duration of therapy, tumour stage and molecular subtypes of breast cancer were correlated with the presence of osteopenia/osteoporosis in the study participants. Results: A total of 200 post-menopausal patients with breast cancer using hormonal therapy for more than six months were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the patients was 56.331 ± 6.744 years. In addition, 55 (22.5%) patients had normal bone mineral density, 92 (46%) had osteopenia, while 53 (26.5%) had osteoporosis on a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. Molecular subtypes of the tumour, the advancing age of patients and the long duration of hormonal therapy were statistically significantly associated with the presence of osteopenia/osteoporosis (p-value <0.05) in our study participants. Conclusion: Considerable number of post-menopausal patients with advanced breast cancer taking hormonal therapy showed the presence of osteopenia and osteoporosis. Molecular subtyping, the advanced age of patients and the long duration of hormonal therapy significantly predicted osteopenia/osteoporosis in patients included in our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To look for QTc changes associated with Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors and factors related to these changes among patients suffering from cancer. Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Oncology Department, CMH Rawalpindi Pakistan from Dec 2020 to Apr 2021. Methodology: The study included one hundred and eighty patients with solid or haematological malignancies taking Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors for more than three months. They underwent 12 lead ECGs inside the oncology department. QTc interval was calculated on the ECG of all the patients, and they were evaluated for the presence of prolonged QT interval. Age, gender, duration of Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor use and presence of comorbid illness were correlated with the presence of QTc changes in our study participants. Results: Out of 180 cancer patients using Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors for more than three months included in the study, 96 (53.3%) were male, while 84 (46.7%) were female. One hundred and eighteen (65.5%) had normal QTc intervals, while 62 (34.5%) had prolonged QTc intervals in our study participants. Chi square test revealed that the advanced age of the patient and prolonged use of Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors was statistically significantly associated with QTc prolongation in our study (p-value<0.001). Conclusion: Significant number of cancer patients using Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors had prolonged QTc intervals in our study. Special attention should be paid to cancer patients with advancing age and prolonged use of Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low solubility and enhanced fixation of zinc (Zn) in semi-arid and dry climates limits Zn uptake in plants. Zn deficiency in soil impairs crop production and human health, necessitating agricultural biofortification. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Zn and various types of manure on the Zn biofortification of lentils. The treatments, consisting of a control (Con), normal manure (NM), composted manure (CM), and acidified manure (AM), were applied under saline soil (EC 8.00 dS m−1) and non-saline soil (EC 1.48 dS m−1) conditions along with two levels of Zn, including Zn at 0 kg ha−1 (native soil Zn = 2.2 mg kg−1) and Zn at 25 kg ha−1 (62.2 mg Zn kg−1 soil was achieved). The AM was prepared by adding sulfur and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to the composted manure. All the manures were applied at 1% (w/w), and ZnSO4 (33% Zn) was used as a Zn source. Lentil variety Masoor 2021 was cultivated as a test crop in five replications of each treatment arranged in a completely randomized design. Applying AM with Zn considerably increased the lentils' growth, yield, and Zn content under saline and non-saline conditions. Under non-saline soils, the treatment of AM + Zn significantly promoted the Zn content in the root (132.5%), shoot (91.7%), grain (49.1%), root length (79.7%), plant height (33.7%), and SPAD value (29.9%). Under saline conditions, application of AM + Zn promoted uptake of Zn in the root (218.5%), Zn content in the shoot (175.7%), Zn accumulation in the grain (107.7%), root length (109.7%), plant height (37.8%), and SPAD value (52.8%) compared to the control. According to the results, lentils should be grown with AM and Zn to increase their growth, yield, and Zn content significantly. This is a cost-effective and sustainable way to combat Zn deficiency in lentils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results of the development and testing of a methodology for selecting parameters of the characteristics of fast valving in a steam turbine for emergency power system management to maintain dynamic stability based on machine learning algorithms. Modern power systems have reduced inertia and increased stochasticity due to the active integration of renewable energy sources. As a result, there is an increased likelihood of incorrect operation in traditional emergency automation devices, developed on the principles of deterministic analysis of transient processes. To date, it is possible to increase the adaptability and accuracy of emergency power system management through the application of machine learning algorithms. In this work, fast valving in a steam turbine was chosen as the considered device of emergency automation. To form the data sample, the IEEE39 mathematical model was used, for which benchmark laws of change in the position of the cutoff valve during the fast valving of a steam turbine were selected. The considered machine learning algorithms for classifying the law of change in the position of the steam turbine's cutoff valve, k-nearest neighbors, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting were used. The results show that the highest accuracy corresponds to extreme gradient boosting. For the selected eXtreme Gradient Boosting algorithm, the classification accuracy on the training set was 98.17%, and on the test set it was 97.14%. The work also proposes a methodology for forming synthetic data for the use of machine learning algorithms for emergency management of power systems and suggests directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pt/Er nanoparticles are decorated on Cd-MOF derived hierarchical carbon. • Pt-Er@PCN-900 shows wide range porosity and large active sites. • Pt-Er@PCN-900 presented excellent ORR and HER catalytic activity. • Stability and durability of Pt-Er@PCN-900 is marvelous in alkaline media. Fabrication of Pt alloy with controlled morphology and size has drawn an attractive attention in developing active electrocatalysts for fuel cell and water splitting application. However, the effectively controlled synthesis strategy and morphology on N-doped carbon structure is still a challenging issue. Herein, a facile strategy for uniform dispersion of active sites of Pt/Er on the hierarchical N-doped carbon structure through pyrolysis in innert atmosphere is addopted. The developed product of Pt-Er@PCN-900 has exhibited efficacious trifunctional catalytic activity for hydrogen/oxygen evolution as well as oxygen reduction reaction. Comparatively, Pt-Er@PCN-900 with 8% Pt presents excellent performance than commercial 20%Pt/C. The present work highlights the importance of the rationalized dispersion of Pt/Er active sites for the future large-scale commercial applications of fuel cell and water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to improve the solubility and prevent the ulcerogenic effect of flurbiprofen. Initially, binary and ternary solid dispersions (BSDs and TSDs) of flurbiprofen were prepared by using non-ordered mesoporous silica and gelucire. After preformulation testing (solubility, flow properties, % yield, and entrapment efficiency), four formulations were selected for further detailed studies. Solid-state characterization of optimized formulations (S1, S6, S7, and S12) showed successful drug incorporation in the solid dispersion at the molecular state without any noticeable interactions. The in vitro solubility and release study showed an increase in solubility and 98–100% of drug release in 30–45 min. The in vivo gastro-protective effect of the optimized formulations containing flurbiprofen and silica (1:1) with 25% w/w gelucire (S6 and S12) showed a reduction in the gastric lesion index (GLI) after four days of treatment. Moreover, histological images of the stomach lining (S6 and S12) illustrated normal epithelial cells and a partially protected mucosal membrane. Thus, TSD exhibited a significant increase in solubility and the dissolution rate and reduced the gastric ulceration. Therefore, TSDs are dubbed as efficacious carriers to enhance the bioavailability of flurbiprofen while simultaneously reducing its side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual metal doping is a state-of-the-art technique for improving the electrocatalytic characteristics for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and enhancement of the antibacterial activity of the material. Series of rare earth dual metal-doped Pr 2 O 3 electrocatalysts (Pr 2 CeMO 3 , M = Sm, Yb, Er) were successfully fabricated by employing sol-gel treatment. The antimicrobial and electrochemical applications of grown products were studied along with physical properties using advanced techniques such as FESEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, IV, CV, LSV, EIS, and ECSA. The prepared products retain the monoclinic Pr 2 O 3 structure with the successful doping of rare-earth elements. From the FESEM analysis, grown products have the grainy conglomerate shape, icy monoclinic boxes, irregular lamellar shaped, and well-crystallized grains with the plate-like morphology. EDX has confirmed the presence of metal elements Pr, Ce, Sm, Yb, and Er in grown samples. The electrochemical measurements exhibited the enhancement by dual-doping, and Pr 2 CeSmO 3 has an extraordinarily low overpotential of 189 mV to reach 10 mAcm−2 density and lower Tafel slope (75 mV/dec) for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic efficiency of Pr 2 CeSmO 3 electrocatalyst for OER is extremely long-lasting for (>16 h). The antibacterial test showed that all grown single and dual-doped nanostructures have good antibacterial performance, but Pr 2 CeSmO 3 exhibits strong inhibition activity towards E. coli , K. pneumoniae , S. aureus , and P. vulgaris bacterial strains with maximum inhibition zone diameter 30, 32, 35, and 31 mm, respectively. This low-cost method for the production of rare earth dual metal-doped materials holds a lot of potential for making efficient catalysts, electrochemical energy-conversion devices, and economical antibacterial agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capture and utilization of rainwater by crops under various mulching conditions have great importance in agriculture production systems, especially in dry-prone regions. Understanding the effect of mulching on rainwater use efficiency growth and yield of a crop is very important. For this purpose, field experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018 to evaluate the potential of ridge-furrow mulching on maize growth and development under rain-fed conditions. The field study compared four treatments, i.e., ridge-furrow without mulch (WM), black plastic mulch (BM), transparent plastic mulch (TM) and grass mulch (GM). The BM treatment consistently increased the soil moisture and temperature, resulting in earlier emergence, as well as increased plant height and plant biomass, compared to the WM treatment. Compared to WM, the two-years mean yield of maize with BM, TM and GM were recorded to be increased by 33.6%, 28.1% and 10.8%, respectively. The BM produced a maximal crop growth rate at 90 days after sowing (DAS) as specified by a greater leaf area index. Transpiration rate and leaf stomatal conductance were significantly higher with BM and TM than with WM, however, the BM treatment showed the highest net photosynthetic rate in both years. Net income for the BM treatment was the highest (USD 1226 ha−1) of all the treatments and USD 335 ha−1 greater than WM. As growth, yield and net income of maize were improved with BM, therefore this treatment was found to be the most effective for maize production in rain-fed conditions. This system is evaluated at a small scale, hence to maximize its effectiveness on a large scale, a simulation design needs to be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of solar to chemical energy is one of the central processes considered in the emerging renewable energy economy. Hydrogen production from water splitting over particulate semiconductor catalysts has often been proposed as a simple and a cost-effective method for large-scale production. In this review, we summarize the basic concepts of the overall water splitting (in the absence of sacrificial agents) using particulate photocatalysts, with a focus on their synthetic methods and the role of the so-called "co-catalysts". Then, a focus is then given on improving light absorption in which the Z-scheme concept and the overall system efficiency are discussed. A section on reactor design and cost of the overall technology is given, where the possibility of the different technologies to be deployed at a commercial scale and the considerable challenges ahead are discussed. To date, the highest reported efficiency of any of these systems is at least one order of magnitude lower than that deserving consideration for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning is a quite useful and proliferating technique of machine learning. Various applications, such as medical images analysis, medical images processing, text understanding, and speech recognition, have been using deep learning, and it has been providing rather promising results. Both supervised and unsupervised approaches are being used to extract and learn features as well as for the multi-level representation of pattern recognition and classification. Hence, the way of prediction, recognition, and diagnosis in various domains of healthcare including the abdomen, lung cancer, brain tumor, skeletal bone age assessment, and so on, have been transformed and improved significantly by deep learning. By considering a wide range of deep-learning applications, the main aim of this paper is to present a detailed survey on emerging research of deep-learning models for bone age assessment (e.g., segmentation, prediction, and classification). An enormous number of scientific research publications related to bone age assessment using deep learning are explored, studied, and presented in this survey. Furthermore, the emerging trends of this research domain have been analyzed and discussed. Finally, a critical discussion section on the limitations of deep-learning models has been presented. Open research challenges and future directions in this promising area have been included as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Prior milk processing affects proteolysis during cheese ripening. • Sonication, microwaves and HPP of milk increased bioactive compounds in cheese. • Antihypertensive properties of cheese can be improved by milk pre-processing. Dairy processing provides acceptable safety and shelf-life to final products, and improves their bioactivity. The present study evaluated the potential of different milk processing techniques to improve the antioxidant and angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity of Cheddar cheese, during ripening. Cheese was made from milk subjected to different pre-treatments (C = untreated control, US-1 = ultrasonication, specific energy = 23 J/g, 20 kHz frequency; US-2 = Ultrasonication specific energy = 41 J/g, 20 kHz; HPP = high-pressure processing, 400 MPa for 15 min, at temperature < 40 °C; MW = microwave, temperature<40 °C, specific energy = 86.5 J/g) and analysed after ripening for 0, 3, 6 and 9 months. The results showed that the rate of proteolysis during both cheese making and subsequent ripening was significantly affected by the pre-treatment. Antioxidant activity and ACE-inhibitory potential of cheeses made from pre-treated milk significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the following order: US-2 > HPP > US-1 > MW > C. These findings demonstrate the possibility of using ultrasound, microwaves or high-pressure processing as pre-treatments to improve the nutritional attributes of cheese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parameters associated with electrical equivalent models of the photovoltaic (PV) system play a significant role in the performance enhancement of the PV system. However, the accurate estimation of these parameters signifies a challenging task due to the higher computational complexities and non-linear characteristics of the PV modules/panels. Hence, an effective, dynamic, and efficient optimization technique is required to estimate the parameters associated with PV models. This paper proposes a double exponential function-based dynamic inertia weight (DEDIW) strategy for the optimal parameter estimation of the PV cell and module that maintains an appropriate balance between the exploitation and exploration phases to mitigate the premature convergence problem of conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO). The proposed approach (DEDIWPSO) is validated for three test systems; (1) RTC France solar cell, (2) Photo-watt (PWP 201) PV module, and (3) a practical test system (JKM330P-72, 310 W polycrystalline PV module) which involve data collected under real environmental conditions for both single- and double-diode models. Results illustrate that the parameters obtained from proposed technique are better than those from the conventional PSO and various other techniques presented in the literature. Additionally, a comparison of the statistical results reveals that the proposed methodology is highly accurate, reliable, and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the thin-film flow problem of a third-grade fluid on an inclined plane under a fuzzy environment. The highly nonlinear flow governing differential equations (DEs) with the boundary conditions are fuzzified using the triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs) developed by α -cut α ∈ 0,1 . The fuzzy perturbation (FPM) method is adopted to calculate the fuzzified form of the governing equations as well as the fuzzified boundary conditions. For the validation, the present work is in good agreement as compared to existing work in the literature under the crisp form. For various values of the fluid parameter λ , inclined parameter γ and fuzzy parameter α -cut is presented in graphical form. The α -cut controls TFNs, and the variability of uncertainty is investigated using a triangular membership function (MF). Using TFNs, the middle (crisp), left, and right values of the fuzzy velocity profile are used for fuzzy linear regression analysis. The outcome of this study and the fuzzy velocity profile have the maximum rate of flow as compared to the crisp velocity profile (mid values). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the association of serum cholesterol and body mass index with body composition in the healthy Pakistani adults. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Physiology Department, Army Medical College Rawalpindi/National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS), in collaboration with Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFIRM) Rawalpindi and Clinical Pathology Laboratory (CPL), Pak-Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi. (Duration to be asked form the authors). Methodology: The total study sample of 100 participants was taken, that comprised of two groups. Group-1 included male participants (n=50) while group-2 included female participants (n=50). The participants were healthy adults of ages 18-60 years having same physical activity background. Body composition of the participants was evaluated by bioelectric impedance analysis machine. Measurement of serum cholesterol was carried out by the Bosh Diagnostic Kit. Body Mass Index (BMI) was determined by the formula. Results: Serum cholesterol was found to be significantly correlated with body fat mass and percent body fat in males (r-value = 0.90 and 0.82, p-value <0.001 and 0.002 respectively) and in females there was significantly positive correlation with the body fat mass (r-value=0.51, p-value 0.007), skeletal muscle mass (r-value = 0.59, p-value 0.005), total body water (r-value=0.67, pvalue 0.006) and fat free mass (r-value=0.47, p-value 0.008). Conclusion: Serum cholesterol and BMI were associated with the body composition in females but with only fat parameters in the males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ergot alkaloids are novel pharmaceutical and therapeutic agents synthesized in this study using fungal species Penicillium citrinum. To get the maximum yield of ergot alkaloids a statistical process of response surface methodology was employed using surface culture fermentation technique. Initially, the strain of Penicillium was improved using physical (ultraviolet (UV) and chemical (ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) treatments to get the maximum yield of ergot alkaloids through surface culture fermentation technique. After improving the strain, survival rate of colonies of Penicillium citrinum treated with UV and EMS was observed. Only 2.04% living colonies were observed after 150 min of exposure of Penicillium citrinum in UV light and 3.2% living colonies were observed after 20 min of the exposure in EMS. The mutated strains of Penicillium citrinum were screened for their production of ergot alkaloids and after fermentation experiments, maximum yield was obtained from PCUV-4 and PCEMS-1 strains. After strain improvement, Plackett–Burman design (PBD) and Box–Behnken design (BBD) of RSM were employed and 10-fold yield enhancement (35.60 mg/100 mL) of ergot alkaloids was achieved. This enhancement in yield of ergot alkaloids proved the positive impacts of RSM and UV on the yield of ergot alkaloids. The study provides a cost effective, economical and sustainable process to produce medically important ergot alkaloids which can be used in various pharmaceutical formulations to treat human diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of ultrasonic (US) treatment on chemical characteristics and antioxidant potential of pulps obtained from eight mango varieties indigenous to Pakistan. There was a significant (p < 0.05) effect of varieties and US treatment on chemical characteristics i.e. pH, acidity, TSS, vitamin C contents, total sugars (%), reducing sugars (%) and non-reducing sugars (%). Microstructure evaluation of pulp from all mango varieties showed deshaped middle lamella and cell wall of cells after 8 min of US treatment. At 4 min of US treatment as per shaped cell wall and middle lamella, the chemical characteristics and antioxidant potential were higher. The total phenolics (TP), flavonoids (TF) and total antioxidant activity (TAA) of pulp from most varieties increased significantly (p < 0.05) after US treatment for 4 min but decreased successively after each treatment i.e. 8 and 12 min. The maximum value (314.17 μg AAE/mL pulp) of DPPH was shown by pulp from Dosehri and the minimum (158.67 μg AAE/mL pulp) was found in pulp from Langra before US treatment. The DPPH values of pulp from most of the varieties increased significantly (p < 0.05) after US treatment for 4 min but decreased successively after each treatment but pulp from Langra showed increasing trend after 8 min of US treatment which decreased after 12 min of treatment. The total anthocyanin (TA) values of pulp from Chaunsa, Dosehri, Sindhri, Gulab Khas and Langra increased abruptly after US treatment for 4 min but decreased successively after subsequent treatment. The pulp from Desi, Anwar Ratol, Gulab Khas and Langra showed an abrupt decrease in TA after 8 min of US treatment. An increasing trend of values of total carotenoids (TC) was shown by pulp from all mango varieties after 4 min of US treatment but decreasing trend was observed with subsequent increase in time of US treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep Learning (DL) algorithms enabled computational models consist of multiple processing layers that represent data with multiple levels of abstraction. In recent years, usage of deep learning is rapidly proliferating in almost every domain, especially in medical image processing, medical image analysis, and bioinformatics. Consequently, deep learning has dramatically changed and improved the means of recognition, prediction, and diagnosis effectively in numerous areas of healthcare such as pathology, brain tumor, lung cancer, abdomen, cardiac, and retina. Considering the wide range of applications of deep learning, the objective of this article is to review major deep learning concepts pertinent to brain tumor analysis (e.g., segmentation, classification, prediction, evaluation.). A review conducted by summarizing a large number of scientific contributions to the field (i.e., deep learning in brain tumor analysis) is presented in this study. A coherent taxonomy of research landscape from the literature has also been mapped, and the major aspects of this emerging field have been discussed and analyzed. A critical discussion section to show the limitations of deep learning techniques has been included at the end to elaborate open research challenges and directions for future work in this emergent area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) play an important role in minimizing power losses and voltage deviations while increasing the real power transfer capacity of transmission lines. The extent to which these devices can provide benefits to the transmission network depend on their optimal location and sizing. However, finding appropriate locations and sizes of these devices in an electrical network is difficult since it is a nonlinear problem. This paper proposes a technique for the optimal placement and sizing of FACTS, namely the Thyristor-Controlled Series Compensators (TCSCs), Shunt VARs Compensators (SVCs), and Unified Power Flows Controllers (UPFCs). To find the optimal locations of these devices in a network, weak buses and lines are determined by constructing PV curves of load buses, and through the line stability index. Then, the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is employed not only to find an ideal ratings for these devices but also the optimal coordination of SVC, TCSC, and UPFC with the reactive power sources already present in the network (tap settings of transformers and reactive power from generators). The objective here is the minimization of the operating cost of the system that consists of active power losses and FACTS devices cost. The proposed method is applied to the IEEE 14 and 30 bus systems. The presented technique is also compared with Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The findings showed that total system operating costs and transmission line losses were considerably reduced by WOA as compared to existing metaheuristic optimization techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant landraces represent a repository of a gene pool, local adaptation of their domestic species, and thereby are considered a great source of genetic variations. Such genetic variation can be helpful to mitigate the current and future food challenges. A total of 183 common bean accessions including three commercial varieties collected from 19 Turkish provinces were grown to record their morpho-agronomic variations and to evaluate the best performing accessions under multi-environmental conditions. Plant height, days to maturity, pods weight, seed length, and 100-seed weight were used to evaluate the best performing accessions under different environmental conditions. A wide range of variations for traits like days to maturity (99–161), plant height (21–168.7 cm), seed length (7.41–16.4 mm), seeds per plant (17.8–254.4), and 100-seeds weight (24.97–73.8 g) were observed and can be useful for breeding purposes. The analytic results derived from the first three eigenvectors suggested that plant height, plant weight, 100-seed weight, and days to flowering were biologically significant bean traits. Seed yield per plant was positively and significantly correlated with plant weight and pods weight. Genotype × environment biplot discriminated the studied common bean accessions based on their plant height and growth habit. Plant height, days to maturity, seed width, and first pod height were found highly heritable traits and were least affected by environmental forces. Among 19 provinces, accessions of Bilecik showed maximum pods per plant, seed yield per plant and 100-seed weight, while Erzincan and Sivas provinces reflected the prevalence of bushy and early maturing accessions. Information provided herein comprehensively explored the occurrence of genotypic variations which can be used for the development of candidate varieties responding to breeder, farmer, and consumer preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antioxidants play an important role in animal and plant life owing to their involvement in complex metabolic and signaling mechanisms, hence uncovering the genetic basis associated with antioxidant activity is very important for the development of improved varieties. Here, a total of 182 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) landraces and six commercial cultivars collected from 19 provinces of Turkey were evaluated for seed antioxidant activity under four environments and two locations. Antioxidant activity was measured using ABTS radical scavenging capacity and mean antioxidant activity in common bean landraces was 20.03 µmol TE/g. Analysis of variance reflected that genotype by environment interaction was statistically non-significant and heritability analysis showed higher heritability of antioxidant activity. Variations in seed color were observed, and a higher antioxidant activity was present in seeds having colored seed as compared to those having white seeds. A negative correlation was found between white-colored seeds and antioxidant activity. A total of 7900 DArTseq markers were used to explore the population structure that grouped the studied germplasm into two sub-populations on the basis of their geographical origins and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity contents. Mean linkage disequilibrium (LD) was 54%, and mean LD decay was 1.15 Mb. Mixed linear model i.e., the Q + K model demonstrated that four DArTseq markers had significant association (p < 0.01) for antioxidant activity. Three of these markers were present on chromosome Pv07, while the fourth marker was located on chromosome Pv03. Among the identified markers, DArT-3369938 marker showed maximum (14.61%) variation. A total of four putative candidate genes were predicted from sequences reflecting homology to identified DArTseq markers. This is a pioneering study involving the identification of association for antioxidant activity in common bean seeds. We envisage that this study will be very helpful for global common bean breeding community in order to develop cultivars with higher antioxidant activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In developing and developed countries, several versions of safe and shelf-stable Ultra High Temperature, UHT-treated products are manufactured. Terminologies and formulations of UHT-treated tea whitener, milk and dairy drink considerably vary. Comprehensive studies have been performed on UHT-treated milk; however, fatty acids compositional changes and oxidation status of UHT-treated tea whitener and dairy drink at different storage intervals have not been reported in literature. Methods: UHT-treated tea whitener, milk and dairy drink samples (450 each) of the same manufacturing date were purchased from the market and stored at ambient temperature (25-30 °C) for 90 days. At the time of collection, all the samples were only one week old. Samples of UHT-treated tea whitener, milk and dairy drink were regarded as treatments and every treatment was replicated five times. Chemical composition, fatty acid profile, 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyle (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, total antioxidant activity, reducing power, antioxidant activity in linoleic acid system and induction period were determined at 0, 45 and 90 days of storage. Results: Fat content in freshly collected samples of UHT treated-tea whitener, milk and dairy drink were 6 and 3.5%. UHT treated milk had highest total antioxidant capacity, antioxidant activity in linoleic acid and 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyle (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity followed by UHT tea whitener and dairy drink. In freshly collected samples of UHT-treated milk, concentrations vitamin A and E were 0.46 μg/100 g and 0.63 mg/100 g, respectively. UHT-treated tea whitener had the lowest concentrations of vitamin A and E. With the progression of storage period, amount of vitamin A and E decreased. In freshly collected samples, amount of short, medium and unsaturated fatty acids in UHT-treated milk were 10.54, 59.71 and 27.44%, respectively. After 45 days of storage of UHT-treated milk, the loss of short, medium and unsaturated fatty acid was 7%, 7.1 and 5.8%, respectively. After 90 days of storage of UHT-treated milk, the loss of short, medium and unsaturated fatty acid was 8.53, 13.51 and 11.88%, accordingly. After 45 days of storage of UHT-treated tea whitener, the loss of medium and unsaturated fatty acid was 1.6 and 0.99%, respectively. After 90 days of storage, the loss of medium and unsaturated fatty acids were 8.2 and 6.6%, respectively. The induction period of fresh UHT-treated tea whitener, milk and dairy drink was 15.67,.74 and 7.27 h. Strong correlations were recorded between induction period and peroxide value of UHT-treated products. Conclusion: This investigation disclosed that UHT-treated tea whitener had 6% fat content with no short-chain fatty acids. Antioxidant capacity of UHT-treated milk was higher than dairy drink and tea whitener. Due to the presence of partially hydrogenated fat, oxidative stability of UHT-treated tea whitener was better than UHT-treated milk and dairy drink. Vitamin A and E was not found in UHT-treated tea whitener. For the anticipation of oxidative stability of UHT-treated milk, dairy drink and tea whitener, induction period/ Rancimat method can be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Agile" is an effective software engineering model with a high trust and acceptance rate among its users. The term agility comes from the concept of rapid development and working in a team for better results and a faster competition rate when compared with any other software engineering model. In this study, an assessment of the different patterns, frameworks, and application program interfaces available for distributed development in an agile model is given. After analyzing the state-of-the-art distributed models, a novel framework of a dynamic agile distributed development method (DADDM) is introduced in this paper. Many researchers have worked on global software development using the agile approach; however, we are presenting the idea of incorporating the agile benefits with dynamic distributed software development. The applicability of the proposed model is checked via two selected parameters: a feasibility study and a business study. The complete DADDM development life cycle is presented in the methodology section. The techniques used in DADDM and team members' roles and responsibilities in DADDM are defined in this study. This study reflects all pillars of planning, controlling, organizing, and management of leadership. The use of DADDM in distributed agile development encourages future researchers to use this proposed framework for comparison and testing of their models and to check the effectiveness through a comparison with DADDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laurel is a medicinally important plant and is known to the world for its essential oil. Turkey is the main market in the laurel leaf trade by sharing about 90% of the world trade. Here we made an effort to elucidate genetic diversity and population structure of 94 Turkish laurel genotypes collected from 26 provinces and four geographical regions using inter-primer binding site (iPBS) retrotransposon markers. A total of 13 most polymorphic primers were selected which yielded 195 total bands, of which 84.10% were found polymorphic. Mean polymorphism information content (PIC) was (0.361) and diversity indices including mean effective number of alleles (1.36), mean Shannon's information index (0.35) and overall gene diversity (0.22) revealed the existence of sufficient amount of genetic diversity in the studied plant material. Most diversity was found in genotypes collected from the Mediterranean region. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that most of the variation (85%) in Turkish laurel germplasm is due to differences within populations. Model-based structure, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and neighbor-joining algorithms were found in agreement and clustered the studied germplasm according to their collection provinces and regions. This is a very first study exploring the genetic diversity and population structure of laurel germplasm using iPBS-retrotransposon marker system. We believe that information provided in this work will be helpful for the scientific community to take more interest in this forgotten but the medicinally important plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercropping (IC) is a promising approach used to improve soil health and sustainable crop production. However, it is unknown whether IC improve the soil health status and biomass productivity of crops cultivated in podzols under cool climate in boreal ecosystems. Two silage corn and three forage soybean genotypes were cultivated either as inter or monocrop (MC) treatments in a randomized complete block design. IC resulted in 28% increase in total forage production (FP). A reduction in rhizosphere soil pH (RS-pH) was observed in the IC treatments. Conversely, the rhizosphere soil acid phosphatase (RS-APase) activity was significantly higher (26–46%) in the IC treatments and occurred concomitant with a significant increase in available phosphorus (RS-Pavailable) (26–74%) in the rhizosphere. Furthermore, IC enhanced the active microbial composition and strong positive correlations were observed between RS-Pavailable, RS-APase, microbial biomass and FP; while RS-pH was negatively correlated with FP, RS-APase and RS-Pavailable. These findings suggested silage corn intercropped with forage soybean could be a viable approach to enhance FP through improved active microbial community structure, RS-APase activity and RS-Pavailable when cultivated on podzols in cool climate boreal ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dairy and livestock industry drives the economy and food security through sustainable supply of dairy products and meat across the globe. Dairy farm operations produce a large quantity of manure, which is a cheap and abundant plant nutrient source. However, insufficient forage production with low quality matrix are the current challenges of dairy industry in boreal climate due to extreme weather conditions. To address these challenges, a field experiment was conducted for three years to determine the effects of organic (dairy manure-based phosphorus (DMP)) and inorganic phosphorus (P) amendments on forage yield and quality indices of silage-corn cultivated in boreal climate. Experimental treatments were: (i) DMP with high P concentration (DMP1); (ii) DMP with low P concentration (DMP2) and (iii) inorganic P, also designated as control; and five silage-corn genotypes (Fusion-RR, Yukon-R, A4177G3-RIB, DKC23-17RIB, DKC26-28RIB). Results revealed that DMP1 amendment produced significantly higher forage yield compared to inorganic P, whereas non-significant effects were shown on quality indices except P mineral, available and crude protein. Yukon-R and DKC26-28RIB showed superior agronomic performance and produced significantly higher forage yield, whereas A4177G3-RIB produced lowest forage yield but exhibited superior nutritional quality; higher minerals, protein, total digestible nutrients, net energy for gain, net energy for maintenance and calculated milk production compared to other genotypes. Yukon-R not only produced higher forage, but also displayed good forage quality indices which were very close to A4177G3-RIB genotype. Therefore, we conclude that Yukon-R cultivation following DMP as organic amendment could be a sustainable production practice to attain high forage yield with optimum nutritional quality to meet the forage needs of growing dairy industry in boreal climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]