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Toxic environmental pollutants pose a health risk for both humans and animals. Accumulation of industrial contaminants in freshwater fish may become a significant threat to biodiversity. Comprehensive monitoring of the impact of environmental stressors on fish functional systems is important and use of non‐invasive tools that can detect the presence of these toxicants in vivo is desirable. The blood circulatory system, by virtue of its sensitivity to the external stimuli, could be an informative indicator of chemical exposure. In this study, microscopic photoplethysmography‐based approach was used to investigate the cardiac activity in broad whitefish larvae (Coregonus nasus) under acute exposure to cadmium and phenol. We identified contamination‐induced abnormalities in the rhythms of the ventricle and atrium. Our results allow introducing additional endpoints to evaluate the cardiac dysfunction in fish larvae and contribute to the non‐invasive evaluation of the toxic effects of industrial pollutants on bioaccumulation and aquatic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embarrassment plays a pivotal role in the consumer landscape by significantly influencing consumers' purchase and consumption experiences. While marketing scholarship has primarily focused on the undesirable facets of embarrassment, the present research examines the positive outcomes of embarrassment for consumers, firms, and the environment. Based on costly signaling theory, this research seeks to determine the effect of embarrassment on consumer preferences toward prosocial products. Using six experimental studies (including one in the Supporting Information: Appendix), we demonstrate that embarrassment positively influences the purchase intention for environment‐friendly and sustainable products. Using lab and consequential studies, we show that the motivation to repair the social image mediates the effect of embarrassment on prosocial product preference. We also identify that public self‐consciousness moderates this effect, such that embarrassed individuals with high (vs. low) public self‐consciousness exhibit higher prosocial product preference. We also show that our core predictions on the effect of embarrassment on prosocial products is contingent upon the social context, such that embarrassment leads to enhanced intentions to repair social image and prosocial product preference in public but not in private purchase context. The results hold for various product categories. The findings contribute to a greater theoretical understanding of embarrassment by revealing a prosocial facet of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Development of protein‐enriched chickpea varieties necessitates an understanding of specific genes and key regulatory circuits that govern the synthesis of seed storage proteins (SSPs).Here, we demonstrated the novel involvement of Ca‐miR164e‐CaNAC100 in regulating SSP synthesis in chickpea.Ca‐miRNA164e was significantly decreased during seed maturation, especially in high‐protein accessions. The miRNA was found to directly target the transactivation conferring C‐terminal region of a nuclear‐localized transcription factor, CaNAC100 as revealed using RNA ligase‐mediated‐rapid amplification of cDNA ends and target mimic assays. The functional role of CaNAC100 was demonstrated through seed‐specific overexpression (NACOE) resulting in significantly augmented seed protein content (SPC) consequential to increased SSP transcription. Further, NACOE lines displayed conspicuously enhanced seed weight but reduced numbers and yield. Conversely, a downregulation of CaNAC100 and SSP transcripts was evident in seed‐specific overexpression lines of Ca‐miR164e that culminated in significantly lowered SPC. CaNAC100 was additionally demonstrated to transactivate the SSP‐encoding genes by directly binding to their promoters as demonstrated using electrophoretic mobility shift and dual‐luciferase reporter assays.Taken together, our study for the first time established a distinct role of CaNAC100 in positively influencing SSP synthesis and its critical regulation by CamiR164e, thereby serving as an understanding that can be utilized for developing SPC‐rich chickpea varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preference structure of consumers remains a perplexing issue for sharing platforms. This study aims to broaden the understanding of shared consumption (SC) adoption. It employed the theory of interpersonal behaviour (TIB) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to propose a conceptual model integrating cognitive, affective and normative beliefs to explain sharing intention. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted using a self‐administered questionnaire to gather responses. Using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM), the assessment of 298 valid responses revealed that economic incentives, normative beliefs, environmental concerns and perceived moral norms are significant predictors of sharing intention. The results of this study offer insights into the fact that consumers are cognizant of the sustainability concern and are ready to amend their consumption patterns driven by moral norms. Additionally, non‐cognitive factors like freedom from ownership hassles and availability uncertainty influence sharing intention. The study's theoretical contributions include extending the application of TIB to shared consumption behaviour and integrating non‐cognitive factors with TPB factors to understand shared consumption intention better. Accordingly, the study offers guidance to marketers for promoting shared consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary challenge of salt hydrates as phase change materials (PCMs) is their high degree of supercooling (∆TSup). Past studies have attempted to alleviate ∆TSup by incorporating nucleators possessing similar lattice structure, without a thorough analysis of the nucleator/PCM interactions. This work presents a novel in‐operando study to visually observe the crystallization process of zinc nitrate hexahydrate (ZNH) in real‐time using suitable nucleators and a thickener. We have introduced a new dataset where zinc acetate dihydrate (ZnAc.2H) has been employed as an additive to ZNH for thermal energy storage (TES). According to our in‐operando study, ZnAc.2H underwent hydrolysis in molten ZNH to precipitate needle‐like ZnO particles, which acted as nucleators for the PCM. In the absence of a thickener, the crystal propagation of ZNH exhibited a preferential directional tendency, whereas incorporation of thickener made the phase change process uniform along all directions. Self‐hydrolysis of ZnAc.2H generated excess water which caused the undesirable effect of broadening the endothermic peak. The addition of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) thickener could restrict the activity of excess water and reduce the broadening of the endothermic peak. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that 5 wt% ZnAc.2H additive and 2 wt% CMC thickener added to ZNH can considerably improve the TES properties of ZNH PCM (∆HFusion 125.9 J·g−1, ∆TSup 3.0°C, melting point [M.P.] 29.0°C). Our in‐operando studies can unveil real‐time phase change behaviors to better design PCM systems with desired characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared consumption is rapidly evolving as a potential alternative consumption paradigm and hence gaining increased scholarly attention. In the last 5 years, there has been an exponential increase in research focusing on the adoption of shared consumption. There is a pressing need to consolidate and reconcile the resultant insights, which calls for an appropriate review study. Accordingly, this study aims to systematically review the extant literature on the adoption of shared consumption, synthesize the body of knowledge and provide a comprehensive understanding of this emerging consumption mode. Following the SPAR‐4‐SLR review protocol, this systematic review draws upon the theoretical guidance provided by the theory of consumption values, innovation resistance theory and value‐attitude‐behaviour hierarchy to synthesize 331 research articles. Bibliometric analysis was employed to reveal the research trend, most prominent journals, authors, articles and countries of research. A thematic analysis was carried out to synthesize the knowledge of the literature corpus. The results suggest that while economic incentives commonly drive individuals to participate in shared consumption, social incentives significantly influence participation in a peer‐to‐peer setting. Perceived risks (physical, privacy, safety and security) deter participation, while trust plays a vital role in adoption. It has also unveiled some inconclusive relationships in the literature, such as the effect of environmental considerations and materialism on sharing intention. The analysis shows that the providers' perspective has received less attention than the consumers. Further, it is important to empirically validate the findings in domains that transcend the extant industry specificity of studies. The salient observations were structured in an integrated model capturing the drivers and inhibitors of the adoption of the phenomenon. Finally, based on the TCCM framework, pertinent future research directions have been elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron deficiency is a major nutritional stress that severely impacts crop productivity worldwide. However, molecular intricacies and subsequent physiological and metabolic changes in response to Fe starvation, especially in leguminous crops like chickpea, remain elusive. In the present study, we investigated physiological, transcriptional, and metabolic reprogramming in two chickpea genotypes (H6013 and L4958) with contrasting seed iron concentrations upon Fe deficiency. Our findings revealed that iron starvation affected growth and physiological parameters of both chickpea genotypes. Comparative transcriptome analysis led to the identification of differentially expressed genes between the genotypes related to strategy I uptake, metal ions transporters, reactive oxygen species‐associated genes, transcription factors, and protein kinases that could mitigate Fe deficiency. Our gene correlation network discovered several putative candidate genes like CIPK25, CKX3, WRKY50, NAC29, MYB4, and PAP18, which could facilitate the investigation of the molecular rationale underlying Fe tolerance in chickpea. Furthermore, the metabolite analysis also illustrated the differential accumulation of organic acids, amino acids and other metabolites associated with Fe mobilization in chickpea genotypes. Overall, our study demonstrated the comparative transcriptional dynamics upon Fe starvation. The outcomes of the current endeavor will enable the development of Fe deficiency tolerant chickpea cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercooling (∆TSup) is one of the crucial problems in utilizing a phase change material (PCM), which has been attempted to overcome using nucleators possessing small lattice disregistry without comprehensive understanding of the nucleation phenomenon. Here, this work studies the interactions between nucleators and PCM via in‐operando direct visualization for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to better understand the crystallization process during freezing of a PCM using zinc nitrate hexahydrate (ZNH) and a zinc oxide (ZnO) nucleator. According to our in‐operando study, freezing was randomly initiated by only a fraction of the nucleator particles during each thermal cycling. However, previously unresponsive nucleators also suddenly crystalized PCM when the propagating crystal encountered them, improving the crystal initiation and thereby ∆TSup. Consequently, for equal wt% of ZnO, better nucleation behavior was obtained using uniformly distributed small nucleator particles throughout the PCM, as compared to either large or poorly distributed aggregated nucleators. DSC results using ZnO‐needle as nucleator confirmed a 38% and 33.3% lower ∆TSup upon employing 5 wt% small (individual) particles (~4 μm on average), as compared to using equal wt% of small (aggregated) particle clusters (~200 μm) and large particles (~46 μm), respectively. Crystallization of ZNH caused additional hair‐like ZnO growth preferentially decorated along lateral faces of the original nucleator particles. The in‐operando studies are valuable tools to correlate inherent crystallization phenomena to the practical thermal energy storage properties of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have reported up to 1.9 × 1029 bacterial endospores in the upper kilometre of deep subseafloor marine sediments, however, little is understood about their origin and dispersal. In cold ocean environments, the presence of thermospores (endospores produced by thermophilic bacteria) suggests that distribution is governed by passive migration from warm anoxic sources possibly facilitated by geofluid flow, such as advective hydrocarbon seepage sourced from petroleum deposits deeper in the subsurface. This study assesses this hypothesis by measuring endospore abundance and distribution across 60 sites in Eastern Gulf of Mexico (EGM) sediments using a combination of the endospore biomarker 2,6‐pyridine dicarboxylic acid or 'dipicolinic acid' (DPA), sequencing 16S rRNA genes of thermospores germinated in 50°C sediment incubations, petroleum geochemistry in the sediments and acoustic seabed data from sub‐bottom profiling. High endospore abundance is associated with geologically active conduit features (mud volcanoes, pockmarks, escarpments and fault systems), consistent with subsurface fluid flow dispersing endospores from deep warm sources up into the cold ocean. Thermospores identified at conduit sites were most closely related to bacteria associated with the deep biosphere habitats including hydrocarbon systems. The high endospore abundance at geological seep features demonstrated here suggests that recalcitrant endospores and their chemical components (such as DPA) can be used in concert with geochemical and geophysical analyses to locate discharging seafloor features. This multiproxy approach can be used to better understand patterns of advective fluid flow in regions with complex geology like the EGM basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and prevalence of bacterial pathogens in freshwater aquaculture systems is a growing concern as the economic losses associated with diseases are mounting and impacting the fishery sector. One way of controlling fish mortality and morbidity is using bacteriocin‐secreting probiotics, which are generally considered safe without any adverse effects that usually accompany other treatment strategies. Understanding the mode of action of bacteriocin on pathogens is vital for considering them suitable for application as a prophylactic in aquaculture. Although several measures such as antibiotic treatment, chemotherapy, vaccination, etc., are available, though not without concerns, these methods have limitations for field‐level applications since they result in several adverse effects both for the animals and the aquatic environment affecting several species in the food chain. In this situation, the use of bacteriocin can be an excellent alternative to minimize the disease burden in freshwater aquaculture if delivered appropriately. Here, we provide an update on the various bacteriocins and their mode of action against important pathogens encountered in aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Endospore‐forming bacteria make up an important and numerically significant component of microbial communities in a range of settings including soils, industry, hospitals and marine sediments extending into the deep subsurface. Bacterial endospores are non‐reproductive structures that protect DNA and improve cell survival during periods unfavourable for bacterial growth. An important determinant of endospores withstanding extreme environmental conditions is 2,6‐pyridine dicarboxylic acid (i.e. dipicolinic acid, or DPA), which contributes heat resistance. This study presents an improved HPLC‐fluorescence method for DPA quantification using a single 10‐min run with pre‐column Tb3+ chelation. Relative to existing DPA quantification methods, specific improvements pertain to sensitivity, detection limit and range, as well as the development of new free DPA and spore‐specific DPA proxies. The method distinguishes DPA from intact and recently germinated spores, enabling responses to germinants in natural samples or experiments to be assessed in a new way. DPA‐based endospore quantification depends on accurate spore‐specific DPA contents, in particular, thermophilic spores are shown to have a higher DPA content, meaning that marine sediments with plentiful thermophilic spores may require spore number estimates to be revisited. This method has a wide range of potential applications for more accurately quantifying bacterial endospores in diverse environmental samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning has evolved as a strong and efficient framework that can be applied to a broad spectrum of complex learning problems which were difficult to solve using the traditional machine learning techniques in the past. The advancement of deep learning has been so radical that today it can surpass human‐level performance. As a consequence, deep learning is being extensively used in most of the recent day‐to‐day applications. However, efficient deep learning systems can be jeopardised by using crafted adversarial samples, which may be imperceptible to the human eye, but can lead the model to misclassify the output. In recent times, different types of adversaries based on their threat model leverage these vulnerabilities to compromise a deep learning system where adversaries have high incentives. Hence, it is extremely important to provide robustness to deep learning algorithms against these adversaries. However, there are only a few strong countermeasures which can be used in all types of attack scenarios to design a robust deep learning system. Herein, the authors attempt to provide a detailed discussion on different types of adversarial attacks with various threat models and also elaborate on the efficiency and challenges of recent countermeasures against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The domain of noise fading from digital images, by virtue of its enormous appellation amongst the researchers, stands out uniquely in the recent research field of image processing over the last few decades. Periodic noises are unintended spurious signals which often agitate an image during acquisition/transmission, thereby resulting in repetitive patterns having spatial dependency and extensively demeaning visual excellence of the image. However, high amplitude noisy spectral components are clearly noticeable from the remaining uncorrupted ones in the corresponding Fourier transformed corrupted image spectrum. Hence, it is easier to distinguish and minimise those noisy components using an appropriate thresholding and filtration technique. Therefore, to start with, a simple yet elegant model of the noise‐free natural image has been developed from the corrupted one followed by a proper thresholding method to get the noisy bitmap. Finally, an elegant adaptive sinc restoration filter with the concept of extracting the exact shape of a noise spectrum profile has been applied in the filtration phase. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been assessed both visually and statistically with other state‐of‐the‐art algorithms in the literature in terms of various performance measurement attributes, providing evidence of achieving more effective restoration with considerable lower computational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt was made to individually analyze a germplasm collection of 54 indigenous Indian sesame cultivars for fatty acid and lignan composition of their seed oil by gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, respectively. The entries varied in their fatty acid and lignan composition. The mean percentage contents of palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and α-linolenic acids ranged between 10-22, 5-10, 38-50, 18-43 and less than 1 whereas sesamol, sesamin and sesamolin scored between 3-37, 27-67, 20-59 of the total percentage of lignan, respectively. The highest percentage of α-linolenic acid (ALA) was obtained in Var- 9 (1.3 % of the total fatty acids). Among the lignans, high sesamin content is considered to be significant, particularly in terms of long shelf life and nutraceutical value of sesame seed oil. The study has broadened our understanding related to differential biochemical composition of the rich sesame germplasms, thereby providing us with a useful groundwork for identifying potential targets and suitable cultivars for genetic engineering approaches to be undertaken in order to improve the nutritional quality of sesame oil, which in turn would be beneficial towards human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT With the increasing clinical use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, a better understanding of their safety in the blood stream is required. The present study evaluates the toxic effect of commercially available TiO2 nanoparticles (~100 nm) using a battery of cytotoxic, genotoxic, hemolytic and morphological parameters. The cytotoxic effects of TiO2 nanoparticles in human lymphocyte cells were studied with respect to membrane damage, mitochondrial function, metabolic activity and lysosomal membrane stability. Genotoxicity in lymphocyte cells was quantitated using a comet assay. The mode of cell death (apoptosis/necrosis) was evaluated using PI/Annexin V staining. TiO2 nanoparticles were also evaluated for their hemolytic properties, osmotic fragility and interaction with hemoglobin. Human erythrocyte cells were studied for morphological alterations using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results suggest that the particles could induce a significant reduction in mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity in human lymphocyte cells. Membrane integrity remained unaffected by nanoparticle treatment. DNA damage and apoptosis were induced by TiO2 nanoparticles in a dose-dependent manner. A study on human erythrocyte cells revealed a hemolytic property of TiO2 nanoparticles characterized by spherocytosis and echinocytosis. Spectral analysis revealed a hemoglobin TiO2 nanoparticle interaction. Our in vitro study results suggest that commercially available blood contacting nanoparticles (TiO2 nanoparticle) should be carefully evaluated for their toxic potential. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martensitic or complex phase steels are leading candidates for automotive impact management applications. However, achieving high strengths while obtaining high quality coatings via continuous galvanizing is a challenge due to cooling rate limitations of the processing equipment and selective oxidation of alloying elements such as Cr, Mn, and Si adversely affecting reactive wetting. The galvanizability of a CrMnSi steel with a target tensile strength above 1250 MPa was investigated within the context of the continuous galvanizing line. The continuous cooling transformation behavior of the candidate alloy was determined, from which intercritical and austenitic annealing thermal cycles were developed. The evolution of substrate surface chemistry and oxide morphology during these treatments and their subsequent effect on reactive wetting during galvanizing were characterized. The target strength of 1250 MPa was achieved and high quality coatings produced using both intercritical (75% γ) and austenitic (100% γ) annealing using a conventional 95%N2-5%H2, −30°C dew point process atmosphere and 0.20 wt% dissolved (effective) Al bath, despite the presence of significant Mn and Cr oxides on the substrate surfaces. It is proposed that complete reactive wetting by the Zn(Al, Fe) bath was promoted by in situ aluminothermic reduction of the Mn and Cr-oxides by the dissolved bath Al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In eukaryotic organisms, pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDHK) plays a significant role in the Krebs cycle, cellular respiration, and energy production by regulating the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (mtPDC) via reversible phosphorylation. The present study reports pdhk gene downregulation effects on maturation time of a late maturing, aromatic, native indica rice {Oryza sativa L.) cultivar, Badshahbhog. A double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA)-mediated gene silencing strategy was used to downregulate rice mitochondrial pdhk gene expression. The transgenic plant lines displayed altered growth patterns--early flower initiation, increased grain formation per panicle, and -10 d earlier maturation--compared to a nontransformed cultivar. Northern blot, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR), and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses provided evidence for endogenous pdhk gene downregulation in T0, T1 and T2 generations of transgenic rice lines. These results provided evidence for stable pdhk gene downregulation throughout filial generations. It was further observed that transgenic lines with two insertion events of transferred dsRNA effected more downregulation of pdhk gene expression relative to rice lines carrying a single dsRNA insertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA) is a cancer-prone genetic disorder characterized by pure red-cell aplasia and associated physical deformities. The ribosomal protein S19 gene ( RPS19) is the most frequently mutated gene in DBA (∼ 25%). TP53-mediated cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis in erythroid cells have been suggested to be major factors for DBA development, but it is not clear why mutations in the ubiquitously expressed RPS19 gene specifically affect erythropoiesis. Previously, we showed that RPS19 deficiency in zebrafish recapitulates the erythropoietic and developmental phenotypes of DBA, including defective erythropoiesis with severe anaemia. In this study, we analysed the simultaneous loss-of-function of RPS19 and Tp53 in zebrafish to investigate the role of Tp53 in the erythroid and morphological defects associated with RPS19 deficiency. Co-inhibition of Tp53 activity rescued the morphological abnormalities, but did not alleviate erythroid aplasia in RPS19-deficient zebrafish. In addition, knockdown of two other RP genes, rps3a and rpl36a, which result in severe morphological abnormalities but only mild erythroid defects, also elicited an activated Tp53 response. These results suggest that a Tp53-independent but RPS19-dependent pathway could be responsible for defective erythropoiesis in RPS19-deficient zebrafish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of the marvels brought by the conventional frame‐based cameras, they have significant drawbacks due to their redundancy in data and temporal latency. This causes problem in applications where low‐latency transmission and high‐speed processing are mandatory. Proceeding along this line of thought, the neurobiological principles of the biological retina have been adapted to accomplish data sparsity and high dynamic range at the pixel level. These bio‐inspired neuromorphic vision sensors alleviate the more serious bottleneck of data redundancy by responding to changes in illumination rather than to illumination itself. This paper reviews in brief one such representative of neuromorphic sensors, the activity‐driven event‐based vision sensor, which mimics human eyes. Spatio‐temporal encoding of event data permits incorporation of time correlation in addition to spatial correlation in vision processing, which enables more robustness. Henceforth, the conventional vision algorithms have to be reformulated to adapt to this new generation vision sensor data. It involves design of algorithms for sparse, asynchronous, and accurately timed information. Theories and new researches have begun emerging recently in the domain of event‐based vision. The necessity to compile the vision research carried out in this sensor domain has turned out to be considerably more essential. Towards this, this paper reviews the state‐of‐the‐art event‐based vision algorithms by categorizing them into three major vision applications, object detection/recognition, object tracking, localization and mapping. This article is categorized under:Technologies > Machine Learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cover page of the periodical is presented.