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A label-free electrochemical biosensor has been developed using Zinc Oxide nanoflowers (ZnONFs) for the detection of Uric acid. ZnONFs have been synthesized by hydrothermal process and characterized with several techniques such as Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) study, X-ray diffraction study, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM) and electrochemical analyser to confirms the formation of nanoflowers and fabrication of electrode and bioelectrodes for uric acid detection. Pure and uniform needle flowers and deposited onto Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate through electrophoretic deposition technique. Further, electrochemical studies have been performed with immobilized enzymatic bioelectrode followed by various uric acid concentrations. It has been found that the fabricated biosensor shows high sensitivity (10.38 µA/ mg/mL /cm2) and a limit of detection of 0.13 mg/mL in the range of 0.005 to 1.0 mg/mL. This study demonstrates the potential use of ZnONFs for the construction of overly sensitive biosensors for Uric acid detection.

Histological interpretation of the rare pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) has been the holy grail for treatment options. However, no stand-alone clinical interventions have been developed owing to the lack of gene expression profiling data in PXA/APXA patients. We first time report the comprehensive analyses of the coding as well as long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) signatures of PXA/APXA patients. Several genes such as IGFBP2, NF1, FOS, ERBB2, and lncRNAs such as NEAT1, HOTAIRM1, and GAS5 known to play crucial roles in glioma patients were also deregulated in PXA patients suggesting the commonality in the molecular signatures. PPI network, co-expression, and lncRNA-mRNA interaction studies unraveled hub genes (such as ERBB2, FOS, RPA1) and networks that may play a critical role in PXA biology. The most enriched pathways based on gene profiles were related to TLR, chemokine, MAPK, Rb, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways. The lncRNA targets were enriched in glucuronidation, adipogenesis, TGF-beta signaling, EGF/EGFR signaling, and cell cycle pathways. Interestingly, several mRNAs like PARVG, and ABI2 were found to be targeted by multiple lncRNAs suggesting a tight control of their levels. Some of the most prominent lncRNA-mRNA pairs were LOC728730: MRPL9, XLOC_l2_011987: ASIC2, lnc-C1QTNF5-1: RNF26. Notably, several lncRNAs such as lnc-CETP-1, lnc-XRCC3-1, lnc-RPL31-1, lnc-USP13-1, and MAPKAPK5-AS1, and genes such as RPA1, NTRK3, and CNRP1 showed strong correlation to the progression-free survival of PXA patients suggesting their potential as novel biomarkers. Overall, the findings of this study may facilitate the development of a new realm of RNA biology in PXA that may have clinical significance in the future.

This paper addresses a simple energy-based overset finite element method (EbO-FEM) to solve pseudo-static deformation problems consisting of overlapped meshes based on the domain composition method (DCM). This scheme is a non-iterative equation-based method for enforcing the continuity of the displacement field. Hence, the scheme consumes possible minimal computational costs for deformation problems with non-conforming overlapping meshes. The system’s total energy is augmented with continuity constraint energy (CCE) which is a function of the gaps in the displacement field between two overlapping regions. Subsequently, two conventional integration schemes, the Gauss-point projection, and the point-to-point projection, are utilized to discretize the CCE. It is confirmed that both schemes can yield accurate and unique solutions in the overlapped region of the finite element meshes. Further, we proposed a dimensionless relative penalty parameter (DRP). We found that DRP ranging between 1 to 10 is appropriate to robustly obtain accurate solutions for a wide range of scales, stiffness, and geometries, which is supported by three numerical simulations without increasing computational costs after assembling the global matrices and vectors.

Background Ziziphus species particularly Ziziphus mauritiana and Ziziphus nummularia constitute an important part of genetic resources in India. They contribute economically as a fruit crop with lots of morphological and pomological variability. In current study, 48 accessions belonging to two wild Ziziphus species, i.e., Z. mauritiana and Z. nummularia, were characterized using SSR markers. In addition, external features were also examined using stereomicroscope. Results Present investigation was done to explore the genetic structure of North Indian jujube. In total, 23 SSR markers detected 57 SSR alleles with an average of 2.47 alleles. Highest number of alleles (4) were detected by three primers, namely BFU1178, BFU479, and ZCMS14, while lowest number of alleles (2) were detected by fifteen primers. Highest Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) was 0.500 and shown by two primers, namely BFU528 and BFU1248, while lowest PIC (0.041) was observed in primers BFU286 with mean value of 0.443. Similarly, highest value of marker index (MI) was detected by primer BFU1178 i.e. 1.969, and lowest value of marker index was observed in primer BFU286 i.e. 0.021. Dendrogram generated using SSR markers data and principal component analysis showed two major groups of the analyzed germplasm with intermixing. STRUCTURE analysis also clustered all the accessions into two groups. We did not found correlation between geographic and genetic distances. Conclusions The preliminary results suggest that there is high level of gene pool mixing in these species which can be attributed to their cross-pollination habit. However, more such studies with large numbers of samples are required in future to gain concrete insights of the genetic structure in these species.

Renal disease has always been a challenge for the treating obstetrician. With new advances in the management of renal disease, an increasing number of patients can continue the pregnancy and with individualization have a better outcome. MATERIAL AND METHODS: To analyze the pregnancy outcomes in renal disease, a retrospective cohort observational study over 5 years at a tertiary care institute in northern India was done. All the pregnant women with pre-existing renal disease of any etiology presenting at any period of gestation who consented were included and those not consenting were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Of 62 patients enrolled, 82.26% (n = 51) were followed,17.74%(n = 11) were lost to follow up. 58.82% (n = 30) had to undergo termination of pregnancy and 41.18%(n = 21) had delivery after 28 weeks of gestation. The antenatal complications seen were hypertension in 15.69%, diabetes mellitus in 9.80%, anemia in 5.88%. Fetal complications included preterm delivery (42.85%) and small for gestational age babies(61.90%). Cesarean delivery was 85.71% and normal delivery in 14.29% of patients. CONCLUSION: Both maternal and fetal outcomes are influenced by the cause and degree of renal dysfunction. A better outcome is seen when the renal disease is under control, good antenatal follow-up, multidisciplinary approach, and timely delivery.

Under varying speed, a bearing exhibits a severely modulated signal, to which the classical techniques of time and frequency domain fails to detect. An experimental investigation exhibiting detection of bearing faults at both constant and varying speed using empirical wavelet transform (EWT) is presented. EWT employs a filter bank to decompose a non-stationary signal into different sub-bands. The selection of sub-band influences fault detection because residual noises remain unfiltered. Therefore, identification of sensitive sub-band is crucial for a detailed investigation, which is done using correlated correlation and kurtosis. Upon selection of sensitive sub-band the envelope spectrum was used to detect the presence of fault based on the frequencies noticed. The results were validated by permutation entropy. Two case studies: in-house bearing vibration signal at a constant speed and, online available bearing data set at varying speed, were performed to exhibit the promising result of the proposed approach to detect the bearing fault.

In this letter, support vector regression (SVR)- and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)-based controllers are implemented for position control of a three-phase permanent magnet brushless DC (PMBLDC) motor. The performance of proposed control schemes is compared with the conventional PI controller for different angular positions of the rotor. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes in terms of rise time $$(t_\mathrm{r})$$ and steady-state error $$(e_\mathrm{ss})$$ with ANFIS showing an improvement of 99.2% and SVR showing 90.6% for steady-state error in comparison with the conventional PI approach. The improvement for rise time is 4% and 1.4% by ANFIS and SVR, respectively, in comparison with the conventional PI approach.

Harnessing the benefits of plant–microbe interactions towards better nutrient mobilization and plant growth is an important challenge for agriculturists globally. In our investigation, the focus was towards analyzing the soil–plant–environment interactions of cyanobacteria-based formulations (Anabaena–Nostoc consortium, BF1–4 and Anabaena–Trichoderma biofilm, An–Tr) as inoculants for ten maize genotypes (V1–V10). Field experimentation using seeds treated with the formulations illustrated a significant increase of 1.3- to 3.8-fold in C–N mobilizing enzyme activities in plants, along with more than five- to six-fold higher values of nitrogen fixation in rhizosphere soil samples. An increase of 22–30% in soil available nitrogen was also observed at flag leaf stage, and 13–16% higher values were also recorded in terms of cob yield of V6 with An-Tr biofilm inoculation. Savings of 30 kg N ha−1 season−1 was indicative of the reduced environmental pollution, due to the use of microbial options. The use of cyanobacterial formulations also enhanced the economic, environmental and energy use efficiency. This was reflected as 37–41% reduced costs lowered GHG emission by 58–68 CO2 equivalents and input energy requirement by 3651–4296 MJ, over the uninoculated control, on hectare basis. This investigation highlights the superior performance of these formulations, not only in terms of efficient C–N mobilization in maize, but also making maize cultivation a more profitable enterprise. Such interactions can be explored as resource-conserving options, for future evaluation across ecologies and locations, particularly in the global climate change scenario.

In the present research work, waste fly ash powder-filled chopped glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites are fabricated. Conventional open mold casting technique is used for fabrication of composite samples. The fly ash powder is incorporated from 0 to 15 wt.% in the composite at an interval of 5 wt.% to analyze the physical (experimental and theoretical densities, void fraction and hardness), mechanical (tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength), thermo-mechanical (dynamic mechanical analysis, DMA), and three-body abrasive wear rate, respectively. From this study, it is clearly seen that density, void fraction, and hardness of the composites improved with fly ash content. The strength and modulus of the composites increased with filler content up to 10 wt.%. For the analysis of the homogeneity of composites, the storage modulus, loss modulus, and the cole-cole plot are drawn from dynamic mechanical analysis. Finally, a three-body abrasive wear test is conducted for composite samples, in a steady-state abrasive wear condition up to 10 wt.% fly ash filled composites shown better wear resistance with the variation in sliding distance and normal load. The Taguchi’s design of experiment method is used for designing of experimental runs having input controlling variables like sliding distance, normal load, filler content, and abrasive size.

Necrotizing fasciitis is severe inflammation of the muscle sheath that leads to necrosis of the subcutaneous tissue and adjacent fascia. The disease entity is more commonly described in adults and the literature seems quite sparse with respect to children and even lesser in neonates. Monomicrobial infection with necrotizing fasciitis in Neck following insect bite is rare and even rarer in neonates. 07 day old neonate had history of rapid onset discoloration and swelling of the Right side of Neck following an insect bite which was followed fever and irritability and eventually black discoloration. The neonate was irritable with excessive crying, had tachycardia, tachypnea and was febrile. There was a diffuse swelling in the right side of neck with multiple patchy areas of tissue necrosis in form of blackening of the skin over the swelling Management: Necrotizing fasciitis was identified early and the neonate prepped for surgery. All the biochemical parameters were WNL. CRP was raised. Empirical treatment with Cefotaxime, Clindamycin and cloxacillin started and neonate taken for local debridement. All necrotic tissue was removed including tail of parotid. Over next 5 days serial debridement and wound wash with Hydrogen peroxidase, Betadine, saline and metronidazole was done. The edges of the wound became healthy with no new slough formation and necrotic tissue. An early diagnosis and definitive management with both surgery and antibiotics is the key to a reduce mortality in the neonates. It needs to be followed up with good local wound care.

Numerous studies on vibration-based techniques for fault diagnosis of wind turbine gearboxes operating under nonstationary conditions have been reported. In spite, a review on vibration-based condition monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques for gearboxes of wind turbines operating under nonstationary conditions is unavailable. Thus, the objective of this review is to discuss filtering, decomposition, entropy, and cyclostationary analysis techniques, as well as summarizing the remaining issues. This review will discuss various vibration-based diagnostic approaches developed for wind turbine gearboxes under nonstationary conditions, including both simulation and experimental approaches. Studies on dynamic models of gear systems and advanced signal-processing techniques developed for nonstationary conditions are reviewed. Additionally, the importance of multi-sensor and cointegration based approaches is discussed, and intelligent classification methods that have been used to distinguish healthy and faulty gear systems are also reviewed. Finally, the remaining research challenges are outlined.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor in humans. Hypoxia has been correlated with the aggressive form of glial tumors, poor prognosis, recurrence and resistance to various therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical mediators of hypoxic responses and have shown great potential for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Here, we focus on the regulatory and functional characterization of miR-196a, a hypoxia-inducible miRNA, in GBM. Hypoxia/HIF regulation of miR-196a was assessed by RT-qPCR, promoter-luciferase and ChIP assays in GBM cell lines. miR-196a levels were analyzed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-GBM, Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) and Indian GBM patient cohorts. miR-target interactions were studied using RNA/protein quantification and 3’UTR luciferase assays. The effect of miR-196a overexpression/inhibition was assessed on cellular viability, migration and apoptosis under hypoxia and normoxia. Microarray-based gene expression profiling studies were performrd to study the effect of miR-196a on the GBM cellular transcriptome under hypoxia. We identified miR-196a as a hypoxia-inducible and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-regulated miRNA that plays an oncogenic role in GBM. miR-196a was found to be significantly up-regulated in TCGA-GBM, CGGA glioma as well as Indian GBM patient cohorts. miR-196a overexpression was found to induce cellular proliferation, migration, spheroid formation and colony formation and to inhibit apoptosis, while miR-196a inhibition using anti-miR-196a yielded opposite results, suggesting an oncogenic role of miR-196a in GBM. We further unveiled NRAS, AJAP1, TAOK1 and COL24A1 as direct targets of miR-196a. We also report a complex competitive regulation of oncogenic NRAS by miR-196a, miR-146a and let-7 in GBM. Analysis of microarray-based gene expression data obtained by miR-196a inhibition under hypoxia revealed a role of miR-196a in HIF, calcium adhesion, Wnt and cell adhesion pathways. Interestingly, miR-196a was found to positively regulate the expression of various genes involved in the induction or stabilization of HIFs and in maintenance of hypoxic conditions, thereby suggesting the existence of an indirect miR-196a/HIF positive feedback loop under hypoxia. Overall, our work identifies a novel association between hypoxia/HIF signalling and miR-196a in GBM and suggests its therapeutic significance.

The problem deals with an investigation about propagation of Love type waves in a geometrical configuration which is composed of a viscoelastic layer sandwiched between fiber-reinforced layer and a substratum. The substratum is modeled using size-dependent consistent couple stress theory which involves a length scale parameter called characteristic length to capture the role of inner microstructures on the behavior of material. The geometric scheme of the problem is an attempt to approximate the inner structure of earth. The dispersion and damping equations are derived analytically for the propagation of Love type waves. The impact of various parameters such as fiber reinforcement parameters, heterogeneity, internal friction parameter, thickness ratio of the layers and microstructural parameter of couple stress substratum are presented on the propagation behavior of Love type waves.

Horsegram is an important drought resistant pulse crop from Fabaceae and can be easily grown in dry lands with no irrigation facilities. However, it remained neglected since long and has been considered as orphan legume which requires immediate attention for its improvement and for the development of new promising varieties in future. In the present study, 7352 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed from the transcriptome data and 150 SSR were randomly synthesized for validation and diversity analysis in a panel of 58 horsegram genotypes. The synthesized primers included all types of repeats spanning direpeats to hexarepeats. Of the validated SSR markers, 33 markers were polymorphic and produced 40 loci which were used to analyze the genetic diversity and structure of horsegram. In total, 130 alleles were produced in a range of 2–9 alleles with maximum alleles produced by primer HTSSR 155. Expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from 0.03 to 1.00 and observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from 0.13 to 0.81. Polymorphism information content value ranged from 0.065 to 0.78. Dendrogram based on UPGMA and principal component analysis showed four groups of the 58 genotypes of horsegram. Structure analysis showed three genetic stocks for the analyzed germplasm. Thus, the developed SSRs can be useful in future population genetics analysis, molecular breeding studies and mapping works in horsegram germplasm as well as in related legume species.

In the foothills of the North-West Himalayan region of India, agriculture is the main occupation of the residents. The soil and water resources are becoming the major constraints in agricultural production in the erosion-prone fragile ecosystem of the region. However, due to intensive rains and sloping lands of the region, erosion of the topsoil becoming the major problem for practicing sustainable agriculture in the region, which further dissects the lands, reduces the fertility potentials and land productivities of the region. The root cause of this huge erosion in the region is the intensive rains within a short interval of time on the bare sloping hillsides and handling this problem in both ways could reduce their erosion damage. Socio-economically the farmers are illiterate, poor, and hesitate to adopt innovative techniques of both land and water conservation. All this makes the challenge of reducing erosion losses quite difficult. Farmers in the region do have the skills to manage the problem of soil erosion which they learned from their forefathers and have faith in them. These technologies put together are termed as "Indigenous Technical Knowledge" (ITKs) and these ITKs have helped them a lot for sustainable agriculture in the region. Among different ITKs bunding of field, plowing before monsoon, filter strips, earthing-up in maize, mulching, compression of soil in sugarcane are the important ones for restoring the fertility of soils, reducing erosion losses, improving land productivity, and ultimately livelihoods in the region.

Glioblastoma is the most life-threatening tumor of the central nervous system. Despite recent therapeutic advancements, maximum survival of glioblastoma patients remains dismal. The mediator complex is a set of proteins, essential for eukaryotic gene expression. Abnormal expression/mutations of specific mediator genes have been associated with progression of various cancers, however, its role and status in glioblastoma remains largely unknown. Our work shows overexpression of a subunit of kinase assembly of mediator complex, MED12, in various glioblastoma patient cohorts including Indian glioblastoma patients and cell lines. Functional characterization of MED12 using both overexpression and knockdown approach revealed that it promotes glioblastoma cell proliferation, migration and inhibits apoptosis. Transcriptome analysis post MED12 knockdown revealed Vitamin D receptor (VDR) pathway to be one of the key pathways affected by MED12 in glioblastoma. We studied direct interaction of MED12 with VDR protein using docking studies and co-immunoprecipitation assay. We identify BCL6, a secondary regulator of VDR signaling, to be directly regulated by MED12 through a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation, qRT-PCR and western analyses. We further show that MED12 brings about the inhibition of p53 levels and apoptosis partly through induction of BCL6 in glioblastoma. Overall, this stands as the first report of MED12 over-expression and involvement in glioblastoma pathogenesis and identifies MED12 as an important mediator of VDR signaling and an attractive molecule for development of new therapeutic interventions.

In this paper, we emphasize on a nondifferentiable minimax fractional programming (NMFP) problem and obtain appropriate duality results for higher-order dual model under higher-order B-(p,r)-invex functions. We provide a nontrivial illustration of a function which belongs to the class of higher-order B-(p,r)-invex but not in the class of second-order B-(p,r)-invex functions already existing in literature. An example of finding a minimax solution of NMFP problem by using higher-order B-(p,r)-invex functions has also been given. Various known results are discussed as particular cases.

Malignant otitis externa (MOE) is a relatively rare complication of Otitis externa with a tendency to spread to other parts of temporal bone and skull base. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common pathological agent. It generally occurs in the elderly with poorly controlled diabetes. In this report we present a case of MOE with atypical initial presentation causing immense conundrum in deciphering the diagnosis early.

In this note we have discussed that a simplex like algorithm to solve a indefinite quadratic fractional programming problem proposed by Mekhilef et al. (Ann Oper Res, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-019-03178-2) fails to find its optimal solution and so it may not generate the actual set of efficient points of the corresponding multi-objective integer indefinite quadratic fractional programs. A counter example in support of this argument is also given.

This paper presents a comparative study on gas-sensing behavior of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) synthesized by chemical and green synthesis route. GO is synthesized by Hummers method and then reduced employing two reducing agents hydrazine hydrate [represented by (rGO)1] and l-citrulline [represented by (rGO)2]. Synthesized products were then obtained in the form of thin films, and tested for 10 ppm NO2 and CO at operating temperatures of 50, 100, and 150 °C. The green-synthesized reduced graphene oxide (rGO)2 exhibits higher relative response of 254.7% as compared to conventionally synthesized (rGO)1 (93.9%) and GO (22.7%) for 10 ppm NO2 at operating temperature of 150 °C. Furthermore, a switching of conductivity from usual p-type behavior to n-type on exposure of NO2 is observed at all operating temperatures (50, 100, and 150 °C) for GO, (rGO)1, and (rGO)2. The XRD, FTIR, and Raman confirm the oxidation and reduction process. (rGO)2 shows high thermal stability as observed through TGA. FESEM and TEM images show wrinkled sheet structure for GO as well (rGO)1 and (rGO)2. The data observed from the characterization of resultant products have made it possible to explain better reduction of GO through green-reducing agent and enhanced gas-sensing performance of green-synthesized reduced graphene oxide.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is a popular spice and a plant of high medicinal value. Conventional breeding and genetic improvement efforts were largely limited due to self-incompatibility and heterozygosity. Recently, marker assisted breeding has significantly reduced time and labour in developing elite varieties. But very limited polymorphic and cross-transferable markers are available in onion. There is an urgent need to develop polymorphic markers in Allium to expedite and introgress desirable traits from wild relatives (which are rich bioresource of various biotic and abiotic resistance genes) to A. cepa. Considering limited availability of reliable molecular markers in Allium and wild relatives, in current study, 20,204 ESTs (3750 contigs and 8364 singletons), of A. cepa were successfully utilized for identification of over 2689 intron length polymorphic (ILP) markers. A set of 30 markers was tested for polymorphism in onion and cross-transferability in garlic and related wild species. Among these, eighteen markers amplified at least one of the accessions of A. cepa. Transferability of these ILP markers was ranged from 21.7 to 95.7% in Allium spp. Low level of polymorphism in A. cepa compared to wild Allium species is reported. Based on the Jaccard dissimilarity matrix, a neighbour-joining tree was constructed, which clustered all the 23 varieties/accessions under three groups. All the varieties of A. cepa were clearly clustered separately under group I. However, there was intermixing of varieties/accessions of A. sativum L. and wild relatives, which may possibly be due to less number of markers validated for cross-transferability. In future, larger set of markers will be used to resolve the genetic variations among wild varieties and A. sativum These 18 polymorphic ILP markers could be utilised for diversity characterization of Allium spp., varietal identification, mapping of genes and introgression of desirable traits from wild relatives.

Betula utilis D. Don. is an important species of alpine Himalaya and forms the major treeline component of western Himalaya. The different populations of B. utilis are declining and are under high risk. In the present study, novel expressed sequence tag–simple sequence repeat (EST–SSR) primers were developed from expressed sequence tag (EST) data of different Betula species. Of the 10,796 designed primers, the percentages of di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-repeats were 36%, 35%, 15%, 5.5% and 7.7%, respectively. For validation, 50 primers were synthesized randomly and were characterized in 20 different B. utilis accessions from north-western Himalaya. Of these, 45 primers amplified fragments in a range of 1–6. The 24 polymorphic primers produced 111 fragments in aggregate with 4.6 fragments on average. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.288 in marker BUMS-24 to 0.497 in BUMS-3 and BUMS-7, with an average of 0.447 among polymorphic markers. Dendrogram based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficient and UPGMA method showed that newly developed SSR markers distinguished twenty accessions of B. utilis into two groups. As no SSR markers were available in this species, the newly developed markers will foster molecular genetics research and conservation efforts for this species.

Dendrocalamus hamiltonii is a giant bamboo species native to Indian subcontinent with high economic importance. Nevertheless, highly outcross nature and flowering once in decades impose severe limitation in its propagation. Identification and mixed cultivation of genetically diverse genotypes may assist successful breeding and natural recombination of desirable traits. Characterization of existing genetic diversity and population structure are indispensable for efficient implementation of such strategies, which is facing a major challenge due to non-availability of sequence-based markers for the species. In this study, 8121 EST-SSR markers were mined from D. hamiltonii transcriptome data. Among all, tri-repeats were most represented (52%), with the abundance of CCG/CGG repeat motif. A set of 114 polymorphic markers encompassing epigenetic regulators, transcription factors, cell cycle regulators, signaling, and cell wall biogenesis, detected polymorphism and interaction (in silico) with important genes, that might have role in bamboo growth and development. Genetic diversity and population structure of the three D. hamiltonii populations (72 individuals) revealed moderate to high-level genetic diversity (mean alleles per locus: 5.8; mean PIC: 0.44) using neutral EST-SSR markers. AMOVA analysis suggests maximum diversity (59%) exists within population. High genetic differentiation (Gst = 0.338) and low gene flow (Nm = 0.49) were evident among populations. Further, PCoA, dendrogram, and Bayesian STRUCTURE analysis clustered three populations into two major groups based on geographical separations. In future, SSR marker resources created can be used for systematic breeding and implementation of conservation plans for sustainable utilization of bamboo complex.

A hybrid trilayered transparent conducting electrode (TCE) based on graphene oxide (GO) in the form of GO/Ag/GO multilayer synthesized using GO suspension in water and polyethylene glycol (PEG) is investigated for their suitability as TCE. The GO layers prepared from modified Hummer’s method were suspended in water and EG solution separately and spin coated on a glass substrate. Ag film (~ 8 nm) was DC sputtered coated on these films before a second spin coat of GO layer to prepare two variants of trilayered structure (GO/Ag/GO). AFM/SEM images verified the smooth surface topology. Structural analysis by Raman spectroscopy showed shifting and broadening of GO peak, which represents defects/disorder with obtained ID/IG ratio as 0.70 and 0.98 for EG and DI water-based trilayered structure, respectively. Hall measurements concluded superior electrical and optical properties; with an average transmittance of ~ 75% in visible region, sheet resistance Rs = 24.43 Ω/sq, and high charge carrier concentration (n = 2.11 × 1022 cm−3) in films prepared with GO suspension in EG. The other combination prepared with DI water showed transmittance of ~ 73% and sheet resistance of 34.73 Ω/sq. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique was further used to determine quantitative and chemical state information of elements by depth profile measurement of the trilayer electrode.

Psoriasis is now recognized as an immune-mediated inflammatory dermatosis with increased risk for metabolic syndrome, its individual components, and cardiovascular disease. We quantitatively estimated malondialdehyde (MDA), lipoprotein-a (LP-a), lipoprotein ratios, comprehensive lipid tetrad index (CLTI), and atherogenic index (AI), and evaluated cardiovascular risk in 132 (M:F 94:38) patients with psoriasis aged 20–79 years with chronic plaque psoriasis and equal number of age and gender-matched controls. Lipoprotein ratios, CLTI and AI were calculated using standard formulae. Cardiovascular 10-year risk was graded by Framingham risk score (FRS) as low, intermediate and severe. Mild-to-moderate and severe psoriasis was present in 125 (94.7%), and 7 (5.3%) patients, respectively, and 19 (14.39%) patients had psoriatic arthritis. Statistically significant differences were noted for LDL, LDL/HDL, non-HDL/HDL, MDA, LP-a, AI and CLTI. There was a significantly positive correlation between PASI with LP-a (p = 0.003, r = 0.25) and AI (p = 0.012, r = 0.22). Serum levels of MDA correlated positively with LP-a (p

We have been studying the role of Hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) Induced Protein 1 (HEXIM1) as a tumor suppressor whose expression is decreased in breast and prostate cancer. The anti-cancer actions of HEXIM1 in melanomas and AML have been reported by other groups. Previous studies have shown that 5-Aza-2′deoxycytidine (5-AzadC), a DNMT1 inhibitor, induces re-expression of tumor suppressor genes by removing/erasing methylation marks from their promoters. Our studies highlighted another mechanism wherein 5-AzadC induced DNA damage, which then resulted in enhanced occupancy of NF-ĸB, P-TEFb, and serine 2 phosphorylated RNA Polymerase II on the HEXIM1 gene. As a consequence, 5-AzadC induced HEXIM1 expression in prostate cancer cell lines and triple negative breast cancers. 5-AzadC-induced DNA damage enhanced P-TEFb occupancy via a mechanism that involved activation of ATR and ATM and induction of NF-ĸB recruitment to the HEXIM1 promoter. Downregulation of NF-ĸB attenuated 5-AzadC-induced HEXIM1 expression in prostate and breast cancer cells. The functional relevance of 5-AzadC-induced HEXIM1 expression is revealed by studies showing the HEXIM1 is required for the induction of apoptosis. Collectively, our findings support a non-epigenetic mechanism for 5-AzadC-induced re-expression of HEXIM1 protein, and may contribute to the clinical efficacy of 5-AzadC.

The efficient machining of metal matrix composite becomes important factor with respect to the high strength and hardness properties. The presented research work observes the influence of CO2 laser processing parameters on various metal matrix composite materials in terms of material removal rate (MRR). A comparison has been explored between various composite materials such as silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and zirconium oxide (ZrO2) metal matrix composites for MRR. This results in novel research in context of MRR that examines the microstructure of machined work material. In the present study, to determine MRR various weighing evaluations and topography of machined surface were studied. The results indicated that the focal position, cutting speed and reinforced particles are the significant parameters for MRR. The morphological and metallurgical changes such as formation of recast layer have been analyzed using scanning electron microscope. The chemical composition of machined work materials and formation of new compound have been identified using EDS/XRD technique.

The traditional medicinal systems (TMS) of India (Prakriti) and Korea (Sasang) classify human individuals based on their constitution determined by the physiological and psychological traits of individuals. Similarities in the constitutions are already found between the classes of Prakriti (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) and Sasang (TE: Taeeumin, SE: Soeumin, and SY: Soyangin) systems. Gut health is an important aspect of this constitution based classification in TMS. To determine the role of gut microbes in such classifications, we have analyzed the gut microbiome (taxa and imputed functions) in the constitutionally similar Prakriti and Sasang classes. An enrichment of Bacteroides and Prevotella enterotypes is observed in the Sasang and Prakriti samples, respectively. The impact of the constitution is found to be more prominent with respect to the taxa and predicted-functions within the Prakriti classes. Gut microbiome functional-level similarities are found to correlate well with the host phenotypes of the constitutionally similar Prakriti and Sasang classes. An enrichment of carbohydrate and amino-acid metabolism is observed in the Vata and SE classes which may be responsible for meeting with their high energy demands and lean phenotype. The Pitta and SY classes exhibit the high capacity to metabolize toxins. An enrichment of functions responsible for predisposition to obesity and high drug metabolism is observed in the Kapha and TE classes. The contribution of gut adaptive functions is found to correlate with the constitution-based classification in both Prakriti and Sasang systems. The TE class harboured the highest number of biofilm-forming and stress-tolerant microbes thus exhibiting the maximum tolerance of environmental stress. Similarities in the gut microbiota and the resulting disease predisposition patterns are found to exist between the constitutionally matching Prakriti and Sasang classes.

This paper presents theoretical investigations of Love waves in a layered structure composed of a layer of finite thickness exhibiting heterogeneities in the form of void pores lying over a couple stress substrate which possesses inner microstructures. The top surface of layer and the interfacial surface between two media are assumed to be sinusoidal corrugated in nature. Dispersion relationships for the propagation of Love waves in the considered model are calculated, and some special cases are also discussed considering different types of conditions at the boundary surfaces. Profiles of wave propagating through a material are affected by microscopic heterogeneities and inner microstructures of the material. So, the impact of various parameters engaged in the problem such as void parameters, corrugation parameter and microstructural parameter of half space called characteristic length parameter is provided on both phase and damping velocities of Love waves. A comparative assessment is provided by depicting all the outcomes for various sub-cases.

Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) is a legume species that is widely distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent. It is considered to be an important dietary protein supplement and nutraceutical. Horsegram has a great potential for fulfilling future pulse crop demand due to its inherent ability to grow under very low moisture conditions. However, the genome structure and organization of this crop is poorly understood, thereby limiting the effective use of gene resources for genetic improvement. We report here our construction of the first framework linkage map of horsegram, consisting of 211 molecular markers (157 SSR, 39 RAPD, 8 ISSR and 7 COS), using a mapping population of 190 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between parental lines HPK4 and HPKM249. The map comprises 13 linkage groups (LGs) that span 1423.4 cM, with a mean marker interval of 9.6 cM. Phenotypic data for eight agronomic traits were recorded for 2 years and utilized to detect associated quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Five QTLs for four traits related to drought (days to temporary wilting, root length) and yield (numbers of seeds per plant, days to maturity) were detected on five LGs, with an LOD threshold of 4.0. The linkage and QTL analysis reported here provides useful information for future research work pertaining to the construction of highly enriched genetic maps as well as to the development of drought-resistant and high-yielding varieties of horsegram using marker-assisted selection.

Biofilm formation of a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena torulosa with a beneficial fungus Trichoderma viride (An-Tr) was examined under laboratory conditions. A gradual enhancement in growth over A. torulosa alone was recorded in the biofilm, with 15–20% higher values in nitrogen fixation, IAA and exopolysaccharide production illustrating the synergism among the partners in the biofilm. To investigate the role of such biofilms in priming seed attributes, mesocosm studies using primed seeds of two maize inbred lines (V6, V7) were undertaken. Beneficial effects of biofilm (An-Tr) were recorded, as compared to uninoculated treatment and cyanobacterial consortium (Anabaena–Nostoc; BF 1-4) at both stages (7 and 21 DAS, days after sowing) with a significant increase of more than 20% in seedling attributes, along with 5–15% increment in seed enzyme activities. More than three- to fivefold higher values in nitrogen fixation and C-N mobilizing enzyme activities, and significant increases in leaf chlorophyll, proteins and PEP carboxylase activity were observed with V7-An-Tr biofilm. Cyanobacterial inoculation brought about distinct changes in the soil phospholipid fatty acid profiles (PLFA); particularly, significant changes in those representing eukaryotes and anaerobic bacteria. Principal component analyses illustrated the significant role of dehydrogenase activity and microbial biomass carbon and distinct elicited effects on soil microbial communities, as evidenced by the PLFA. This investigation highlighted the promise of cyanobacteria as valuable priming options to improve mobilization of nutrients at seed stage, modulating the abundance and activities of various soil microbial communities, thereby, enhanced plant growth and vigour of maize plants. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13205-020-2141-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Betula utilis, commonly known as Himalayan birch is an important tree species of fragile ecosystem of Himalayas placed in endangered category. In the present study genetic diversity, structure and interrelationships of B. utilis accessions from North-western Himalayan regions were analyzed using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers. 15 RAPD and 16 ISSR primers collectively amplified 109 polymorphic fragments with an average of 3.51 fragments in a size range of 300–1300 bp. Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) ranged from 0.21 to 0.5 with an average of 0.43. Dendrogram grouped all the accessions into two major clusters. Factorial analysis showed three groups for all the analyzed accessions. Bayesian clustering using STRUCTURE grouped all the accessions in two clusters and separated majority of accessions belonging to Jammu & Kashmir Himalaya (cluster-II) from other accessions of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Himalaya (cluster-I). Exceptionally, four accessions namely, Sinth-12, Sinth-20, Son-06 and Son-16 from Kashmir grouped in Cluster-I. Structure analysis showed that two genetic stocks were contributing in genetic makeup of all the analyzed accessions. Results of the present study can be useful for selection of diverse accessions as well as can be useful in designing conservation and management strategies in North-western Himalayan regions.

Development of genomic resources in any crop is the pre-requisite for the construction of linkage map and implementation of molecular breeding strategies to develop superior cultivars. Large number of molecular markers are required to enrich the scanty information available in horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum).We employed the next-generation Illumina sequencing platform to develop a large number of microsatellite markers in this species. Of the total 23,305 potential SSRs motifs, 5755 primers were designed. Of these, 1425, 1310, 856, 1276, and 888 were of di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide repeats respectively. Thirty polymorphic SSR primers and 24 morphological traits were used in 360 horsegram accessions to detect the genetic diversity and population structure. Thirty primers amplified 170 polymorphic alleles with an average of 5.6 alleles per primer having size 80 to 380 bp. The polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.15 to 0.76 with an average of 0.50, suggesting that SSR markers used in the study were polymorphic and suitable for characterization of horsegram germplasm. Dendrogram-based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficient and neighbor-joining tree grouped the horsegram accessions into two major clusters. Similarly, STRUCTURE analysis assigned genotypes into two gene pools namely Himalayan origin and Southern India. Diversity analysis based on 24 agro-morphological traits also suggested the presence of high level of diversity among the accessions.

Nb-doped TiO2 (referred hereafter as NTO) thin films were deposited by sol–gel spin coating method to investigate their use as transparent conducting electrode (TCE). A range of Nb x Ti1−x O2 (x = 0, 0.003, 0.005, 0.008, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02) compositions were synthesized and deposited as thin films via spin coating. The films were deposited at room temperature and showed crystallization on annealing at 550 °C for 1 h in air. The X-ray diffraction confirms formation of anatase TiO2 by showing dominant peak at 2θ ~25.5° corresponding to (101) reflection plane. Raman spectroscopy shows the characteristics modes of TiO2. Surface topography and morphology measured by atomic force microscopy and field-emission scanning electron microscopy exhibit smooth and uniform deposition of films. Optical transmittance reduces from 85 to 70% as Nb content increases from 0 to 2 at.%. Meanwhile, electrical resistivity attained a minimum value of 3.65 Ω cm for 2 at.% Nb doping. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis exhibits shifting of Ti 2p peak which confirms substitution by Nb5+ in TiO2 lattice and Nb–O–Ti bond formation. Transmission electron microscope and selected area electron diffraction patterns reveal that films consist of Nb and crystalline phase of TiO2. All films were characterized by Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Present study reports low-cost and effective fabrication of TCE for optoelectronic applications.

Surface weather observations over the Western Himalayas (WH) are spatially and temporally inhomogeneous and short in data length. Various reanalysis products provide estimates of spatially and temporally homogeneous meteorological (climatological) variables. Such data products can serve as an important dataset in the absence of adequate observations over the WH for various applications linked to and influenced by weather and climate. However, performances of various reanalysis products are not known over the WH. In this study, performances of National Centres for Environmental Prediction and National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis data (R1) and NCEP-Department of Energy (DOE) (NCEP-DOE) reanalysis data (R2) for winter seasonal mean air temperature and winter seasonal total precipitation amount are evaluated at nine station locations over the WH. Air temperatures of R1 and R2 at 700 hPa pressure surface are found to be spatially and temporally consistent, and precipitable water contents of R1 and R2 are found to be inconsistent with each other over the WH. Mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and bias for air temperature and precipitable water content of R1 and R2 are computed at different station locations over the WH. Errors (MAE, RMSE) and biases for air temperature and precipitation amount are found to be higher for R1 compared to R2. Performances of R1 and R2 for air temperature are found poor for stations at lower elevations compared to stations at higher elevations. R1 and R2 are found to perform better for air temperature compared to precipitation amount over the WH.

The pea (Pisum sativum L.) is one of the oldest domesticated, highly valued and extensively cultivated pulse crops throughout the world. We studied genetic structure, diversity and inter-relationships in a worldwide collection of 151 pea accessions using 21 morphological descriptors and 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers. Among quantitative traits, seed yield per plant followed by seed weight and pod length have shown significant variation. SSR primers showed a high level of diversity and amplified a total of 179 alleles with an average of 8.95 alleles per primer in a size range of 95–510 bp. Primer AA-122 amplified the maximum (21) alleles while primer AB-64 amplified the minimum (4) alleles. Mean polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.72. Observed heterozygosity (Ho) varied from 0.10 to 0.99 in primers AB-64 and AD-160, respectively, with a mean value of 0.46. Expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from 0.47 to 0.94 in primers C-20 and AA-122, with a mean of 0.75. Genetic relationships inferred from a neighbour-joining tree separated accessions into 3 groups. Bayesian model-based STRUCTURE analysis detected 3 gene pools for the analysed pea germplasm and showed a high admixture within individual accessions. Furthermore, STRUCTURE analysis showed that these 3 gene pools co-existed in accessions belonging to different geographic regions indicating frequent transference and exchange of pea germplasm during its domestication history. The results of the present study will be useful in understanding the pea’s genetic structure and in the selection of suitable diverse accessions for future improvement programmes in the pea.