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Tensile and fracture specimens (pre-charged with H 2 S) were tested in solution using customised rigs. When comparing with uncharged specimens, the tensile test results showed significant reduction in ductility for base and weld metal. The fracture resistance test results showed similar reduction of ∼0.3 times in base and weld metals and heat affected zone. There was noticeable increase in yield and tensile strength in both base and weld metals, due to the effect of hydrogen. When using partially coated specimens, higher fracture resistance was obtained, with reduction of ∼0.4 times only. This was mainly contributed by crack tip hydrogen and less so by the bulk hydrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of controlling impact time against various types of target – stationary, constant velocity, or maneuvering. Analytical expression of time-to-go, that is exact for non-maneuvering target but approximate for maneuvering ones, is first presented based on true-proportional-navigation guidance concepts. Guidance strategies are then derived, using Lyapunov theory, to meet impact time constraints, without linearizing the engagement dynamics. Hence, the proposed strategies remain effective even for large initial heading errors. Further, a cooperative guidance strategy to achieve simultaneous target interception by multiple interceptors is also proposed. Guidance commands that ensure consensus among the time-to-go values of the interceptors are utilized for this purpose. Using judicious choices of gains, the common time of target interception may be either pre-fixed, or the same may be decided cooperatively during the engagement. Stability analysis of the possible equilibria in heading angle dynamics, for different choices of parameters, is also performed. For both one-to-one and cooperative homing, simulation results are presented for various engagement scenarios to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Recalibration of Lucey et al. (2000b) with hyperspectral data. [•] Origin is optimized for M3 sensor As (0.08,1.18). [•] Optical maturity and FeO contents of two craters are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marker genes are essential for the selection and identification of rarely occurring transformation events generated in biotechnology. This includes plastid transformation, which requires that multiple copies of the modified chloroplast genome be present to obtain genetically stable transplastomic plants. However, the marker gene becomes dispensable when homoplastomic plants are obtained. Here, we demonstrate the precise excision of attP- and attB-flanked DNA from the plastid genome mediated by the large serine recombinase Bxb1. We transformed the tobacco plastid genome with the pTCH-PB vector containing a stuffer fragment of DNA flanked by directly oriented nonhomologous attP and attB recombinase recognition sites. In the absence of the Bxb1 recombinase, the transformed plastid genomes were stable and heritable. Nuclear-transformed transgenic tobacco plants expressing a plastid-targeted Bxb1 recombinase were crossed with transplastomic pTCH-PB plants, and the T1 hybrids exhibited efficient excision of the target sequence. The Bxb1- att system should prove to be a useful tool for site-specifically manipulating the plastid genome and generating marker-free transplastomic plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Analysis of a fuel processor based on methanol steam reforming has been carried out to produce fuel cell grade H2. Six reactor configurations namely FBR1 (fixed bed reactor), MR1 (H2 selective membrane reactor with one reaction tube), MR2 (H2 selective membrane reactor with two reaction tubes), FBR2 (FBR1+preferential CO oxidation (PROX) reactor), MR3 (MR1+PROX), and MR4 (MR2+PROX) are evaluated by simulation to identify the suitable processing scheme. The yield of H2 is significantly affected by H2 selective membrane, residence time, temperature, and pressure conditions at complete methanol conversion. The enhancement in residence time in MR2 by using two identical reaction tubes provides H2 yield of 2.96 with 91.25mol% recovery at steam/methanol ratio of 1.5, pressure of 2bar and 560K temperature. The exit retentate gases from MR2 are further treated in PROX reactor of MR4 to reduce CO concentration to 4.1ppm to ensure the safe discharge to the environment. The risk of carbon deposition on reforming catalyst is highly reduced in MR4, and MR4 reactor configuration generates 7.4NLmin−1 of CO free H2 from 0.12molmin−1 of methanol which can provide 470W PEMFC feedstock requirement. Hence, process scheme in MR4 provides a compact and innovative fuel cell grade H2 generating unit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This work proposes two different cooperative integrated guidance and control schemes for a group of interceptors, each steered by combined effects of canard and tail aerodynamic surfaces, aiming a simultaneous interception of a non-maneuvering target. The first approach is based on a leader-follower framework, in which the time of interception can be prescribed before homing, while the second approach is of a leaderless framework, in which the time of interception is decided during engagement. The proposed integrated guidance and control design for multi-body engagement is carried out under nonlinear settings, with time-to-go formulations that relax the restrictive assumption of interceptors' small heading angles. This facilitates wide applicability of the proposed design in scenarios necessitating large terminal time requirements. In addition to the nonlinearity in kinematics of engagement and interceptors' dynamics, effect of actuators are also considered, making the design suitable for practical implementation. Since canard and tail aerodynamic surfaces have different capabilities, a weighted effort allocation scheme is devised to apportion the total effort in both control surfaces in a suitable manner. Finally, various engagement scenarios have been considered in simulations to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the lunar surface from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data have played a prominent role in the exploration of the lunar surface in recent times. This study uses data from SAR sensors from three Moon missions: Chandrayaan-1 Mini-SAR, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Mini-RF and Chandrayaan-2 Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR). DFSAR sensor is the first of its kind to operate at L-band and S-band in fully and hybrid polarimetric modes. Due to the availability of only L-band data out of the two bands (L-and S-band) for the study site, this study only used DFSAR's L-band data. The dielectric characterization and polarimetric analysis of the lunar north polar crater Hermite-A was performed in this study using Chandrayaan-1 Mini-SAR, LRO Mini-RF and Chandrayaan-2 DFSAR data. Hermite-A lies in the Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) of the lunar north pole and whose PSR ID is NP_879520_3076780. Because of its location within the PSR of the lunar north pole, the Hermite-A makes an ideal candidate for a probable location of water-ice deposits. This work utilizes S-band hybrid polarimetric data of Mini-SAR and Mini-RF and L-band fully polarimetric data of DFSAR for the lunar north polar crater Hermite-A. This study characterizes the scattering mechanisms from three decomposition techniques of Hybrid Polarimetry namely m-delta, m-chi, and m-alpha decompositions, and for fully polarimetric data Barnes decomposition technique was applied which is based on wave dichotomy. Eigenvector and Eigenvalue-based decomposition model (H-A-Alpha decomposition) was also applied to characterize the scattering behavior of the crater. This study utilizes the hybrid-pol and fully polarimetric data-based Integral Equation Model (IEM) to retrieve the values of dielectric constant for Hermite-A crater. The dielectric constant values for the Hermite-A crater from Chandrayaan-1 Mini-SAR and LRO Mini-RF are similar, which goes further in establishing the presence of water-ice in the region. The values of the dielectric constant for Chandrayaan-2 in some regions of the crater especially on the left side of the crater is also around 3 but overall the range is relatively higher than the compact/hybrid polarimetric data. The dielectric characterization and polarimetric analysis of the Hermite-A indicatively illustrate that the crater may have surface ice clusters in its walls and on some areas of the crater floor, which can be explored in the future from the synergistic use of remote sensing data and in-situ experiments to confirm the presence of the surface ice clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the penetration depth of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals into the ground surface at different frequencies. We applied dielectric models (Dobson empirical, Hallikainen, and Dobson semi-empirical) on the ground surface composed of different soil types (sandy, loamy, and clayey). These models result in different penetration depths for the same set of sensors and soil properties. The Dobson semi-empirical model is more sensitive to the soil properties, followed by the Hallikainen and Dobson empirical models. We used the Dobson semi-empirical model to study the penetration depth of the upcoming NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar (NISAR) mission operated at the L-band (1.25 GHz) and the S-band (3.22 GHz) into the ground. We observed that depending upon the soil types, the penetration depth of the SAR signals ranges between 0 to 10 cm for the S-band and 0 to 25 cm for the L-band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of agitation and aeration rates on copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) [P(3HB-co-3HV)] production by Azohydromonas lata MTCC 2311 using cane molasses supplemented with propionic acid in a bioreactor were investigated. The experiments were conducted in a three-level factorial design by varying the impeller (150-500 rev min) and aeration (0.5-1.5 vvm) rates. Further, the data were fitted to mathematical models [quadratic polynomial equation and artificial neural network (ANN)] and process variables were optimized by genetic algorithm-coupled models. ANN and hybrid ANN-GA were found superior for modeling and optimization of process variables, respectively. The maximum copolymer concentration of 7.45 g l with 21.50 mol% of 3HV was predicted at process variables: agitation speed, 287 rev min; and aeration rate, 0.85 vvm, which upon validation gave 7.20 g l of P(3HB-co-3HV) with 21 mol% of 3HV with the prediction error (%) of 3.38 and 2.32, respectively. Agitation speed established a relative high importance of 72.19% than of aeration rate (27.80%) for copolymer accumulation. The volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient ( k a) was strongly affected by agitation and aeration rates. The highest P(3HB-co-3HV) productivity of 0.163 g l h was achieved at 0.17 s of k a value. During the early phase of copolymer production process, 3HB monomers were accumulated, which were shifted to 3HV units (9-21%) during the cultivation period of 24-42 h. The enhancement of 7.5 and 34% were reported for P(3HB-co-3HV) production and 3HV content, respectively, by hybrid ANN-GA paradigm, which revealed the significant utilization of cane molasses for improved copolymer production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many problems of physical and engineering sciences are described by singular boundary value problems (SBVPs). Due to the presence of singularity, these problems pose difficulties in obtaining their solutions, and various solution schemes have been proposed to overcome these difficulties. The present work is concerned with the application of one such recently developed method, namely optimal homotopy analysis method (OHAM), to solve SBVPs. The OHAM has certain advantages: (i) it is a general method, (ii) contains an adjustable parameter to control the convergence of solution, and (iii) for certain choices of auxiliary quantities, its working resembles with those of other similar methods. The effectiveness of the OHAM has been evaluated by successfully solving two SBVPs given in recent literature as well a SBVP related to the reaction–diffusion process in a spherical catalyst. The obtained results for these problems show an excellent agreement when compared with the numerical/exact/available solutions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study the application of a newly developed efficient method namely, optimal homotopy analysis method (OHAM) has been illustrated for solving nonlinear singular boundary value problems (SBVPs) which frequently arise in chemical and biochemical engineering. For demonstration, the reaction-diffusion process occurring in a spherical permeable biocatalyst has been successfully solved with the Michaelis-Menten form of kinetics. The obtained OHAM results match well with the numerical solutions and are found to be equally good or superior to those obtained by available approximate method. OHAM is a flexible method and can be applied to solve different types of singular or nonsingular BVPs. Moreover, it can easily be implemented in various symbolic soft computing tools, e.g. MATHEMATICA, MAPLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, three nonlinear heat transfer problems namely, steady state heat conduction in a rod, unsteady cooling of a lumped system and steady state heat transfer from a rectangular fin into the free space by the radiation mechanism, have been solved analytically. Earlier these three problems were solved by various researchers by using homotopy perturbation, homotopy analysis and optimal homotopy analysis methods and the approximate series solutions were obtained. Here, we have obtained exact analytical solutions of these three problems in terms of a simple algebraic function, a Lambert W function and the Gauss's hypergeometric function, respectively. These exact solutions agree very well with those obtained by the numerical schemes and are better than the recent approximate solutions. Moreover, these can also serve as the yardsticks for future testing of the approximate solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication infrastructure of a complex multicore system-on-a-chip is getting an increasing fraction of the overall chip area. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, killer defect density does not decrease over successive technology generations. For this reason, the probability that a manufacturing defect affects the communication system is predicted to increase. In this paper, we deal with manufacturing defects which affect the links in a network-on-chip-based interconnection system. The goal of this paper is to show that by using effective routing functions, supported by appropriate selection policies and with a limited amount of extra logic in the router, it is easy to exploit partially faulty links to improve the performance of the system. We show that, instead of discarding partially faulty links, they can be used at reduced capacity to improve the distribution of the traffic over the network, yielding performance and power improvements. We couple an application-specific routing function with a set of selection policies which are aware of link fault distribution and evaluate them on both synthetic traffic and a real complex multimedia application. We also present an implementation of the router, augmented with the extra logic, to support both the proposed selection functions and the transmission of messages over partially faulty links. We analyze the router in terms of silicon area, timing, and power dissipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a nonlinear suboptimal three-dimensional guidance strategy based on a finite-time state-dependent Riccati equation technique is proposed to achieve interception of a non-maneuvering target at a desired impact time. To design the proposed guidance, range error for a spatial engagement between an interceptor and non-maneuvering target is introduced as the difference between the desired range-to-go and range-to-go of the predicted interception point. It is shown that forcing the range error and its rate to the origin are sufficient to achieve impact time constrained interception. Several existing impact time guidance strategies require a time-to-go estimate, to implement their guidance command, which may become erroneous in the presence of measurement noise and affect their performance. However, the proposed guidance does not require any such time-to-go estimate in its design process. Furthermore, guidance for the case of planar engagements is shown to be a special case of the proposed guidance scheme. Finally, numerical simulation studies for multiple engagement geometries, along with a comparison study with an existing strategy, are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes integrated guidance and control design to intercept a target, which may execute various motions, at a pre-specified time of interception. The problem is addressed considering nonlinear engagement kinematics and the interceptor is steered using the combined effects of canard as well as tail configurations (dual-controlled interceptors). Different formulations of time-to-go, without the restrictive assumption of interceptor's small heading angle, have been used in deriving the guidance commands, allowing the proposed strategy to remain effective over a wide range of impact time values. A weighted effort allocation scheme, in canard and tail deflections, has been proposed to generate the required lateral acceleration. The overall design uses sliding mode control owing to its simplicity of design, while a nonlinear finite-time disturbance observer is used to estimate the target's maneuver. Finally, simulations are presented for various target motions, and time-constrained interception with an impaired actuator is also shown, vindicating the efficacy of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with nonsingular guidance and control design for an interceptor, using a decoupled approach, steered by the combined effects of both canard and tail, to intercept a moving but non-maneuvering target at a time specified a priori. First, interceptor's desired lateral acceleration, consisting of nominal and corrective components, is derived using deviated pursuit guidance. While the nominal component is the pursuit guidance law, the corrective component drives the time-to-go error to zero within a finite-time in an optimal manner. Using a desired error dynamics and a meaningful performance index, the lateral acceleration demand is minimized during the transient phase. With exact knowledge of time-to-go and the consideration of nonlinear kinematic model, the proposed design circumvents the errors arising out of any approximations. Interceptor's canard and tail deflection commands are derived using predefined-time convergent sliding mode control, which allows the autopilot to precisely track the commanded lateral acceleration within a time specified during design. Finally, simulations are presented for various cases to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of maximizing the warhead effectiveness, by achieving impact at the structurally vulnerable points of the targets. The impact direction is first defined using target frame, and then a unique relation between the desired impact angles and the desired line-of-sight angles is derived. Using this relation, two nonlinear guidance strategies, based on finite-time sliding mode and optimal control methods, are proposed to achieve interception of maneuvering targets at a pre-specified desired impact orientation. Unlike most of the existing three-dimensional guidance strategies, the proposed guidance strategies are derived without decoupling nonlinear coupled engagement kinematics into two mutually orthogonal planes and performing linearization, thereby avoiding possible performance deterioration for engagement with large heading errors. The performances of proposed guidance strategies are evaluated for various engagement geometries as well as constant speed and different realistic time-varying speed pursuer models subjected to aerodynamics parameter variations, and found to be satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel nonlinear guidance law for an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that enables it to track any predefined path while taking into account wind effects. The approach involves treating the desired path as the trajectory of the virtual target, which the UAV tracks without relying on knowledge of the path's curvature. This makes the design applicable to paths with varying levels of complexity and smooth curvatures. Additionally, the proposed method draws inspiration from pursuit guidance, known for its simplicity and ease of implementation. Theoretical analysis ensures that the UAV will converge to the intended path within a fixed time, irrespective of its initial configuration relative to the path. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, showcasing the UAV's ability to accurately follow diverse curvilinear paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The natural astaxanthin from algae (marketed only 5%) is the most powerful antioxidant for health compared to the synthetic that shares about 95% of the market. Therefore, there is a huge demand for natural astaxanthin from algae, which can accumulate significantly higher astaxanthin. We have isolated a new algal strain from the Himalayan region, Northern India, which was identified as Dysmorphococcus globosus-HI based on morphological and molecular analysis. Its growth conditions were optimized in the laboratory. Among the seven different tested culture media, MBBM and 3N-BBM provided the maximum growth and astaxanthin production. The highest biomass production (1.14 g L−1) was observed in the modified BBM medium. It is an excellent source of producing natural astaxanthin, to a tune of 391 mg L−1, which is greater than any other known algal species. The productivity of astaxanthin was about 15.6 mg L−1 d−1 under normal conditions, which is higher than the commercially used H. pluvialis species. It is the first report of natural astaxanthin production from D. globosus-HI that has great potential for commercial application. Synthesized astaxanthin (ASX), stereoisomers of 3S,3′R, 3R,3′R, and 3S,3′S, have over 95% market share and have relatively poor antioxidant and bioactivity properties, with persistent issues in terms of biological functions, health benefits, and biosafety if compared to natural ASX. Bioprospecting of new microalgal strains could be vital for a new source of powerful antioxidant (ASX). In this study, a new algal strain was isolated from the Indian foothills of the Himalayas. Its identity was discerned by morphological and DNA barcode studies. It is a unicellular spheroidal cell-shaped alga with 100–200 μm diameter. The isolate has 93.4% similarity to Dysmorphococcus globosus species based on 18S-rDNA phylogenetic analysis and named as D. globosus-HI (HI stands for Himalayan India). Its growth and major cellular components (carotenoids, carbohydrates, protein, lipids, fatty acid profile, and ASX) were optimized using the seven different culture media. The highest biomass (1.14 g L−1) was observed in the MBBM medium, with a specific growth rate (0.087 day−1), division/day (0.125), and cellular yield (6.16 x 106 cells/mL). The highest carotenoids (1.56 mg g−1), lipids (32.5 mg L−1), and carbohydrates (135.62 mg L−1) were recorded in the 3N-BBM medium. The maximum ω3-FAs (17.78%), ω6-FAs (23.11%), and ω9-FAs (7.06%) were observed in MBBM, JW, and BG-11 medium respectively. The highest amount of antioxidant ASX was accumulated in the 3N-BBM medium (391 mg L−1). It is more than any other known algal species used in the production of natural ASX. The optimized biochemical studies on the D. globosus-HI strain should fulfill the increasing demand for natural ASX for commercial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spaceborne and airborne polarimetric synthetic-aperture radar interferometry (PolInSAR) data have been extensively used for forest parameter retrieval. The PolInSAR models have proven their potential in the accurate measurement of forest vegetation height. Spaceborne monostatic multifrequency data of different SAR missions and the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI)-derived forest canopy height map were used in this study for vegetation height retrieval. This study tested the performance of PolInSAR complex coherence-based inversion models for estimating the vegetation height of the forest ranges of Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, India. The inversion-based forest height obtained from the three-stage inversion (TSI) model had higher accuracy than the coherence amplitude inversion (CAI) model-based estimates. The vegetation height values of GEDI-derived canopy height map did not show good relation with field-measured forest height values. It was found that, at several locations, GEDI-derived forest height values underestimated the vegetation height. The statistical analysis of the GEDI-derived estimates with field-measured height showed a high root mean square error (RMSE; 5.82 m) and standard error (SE; 5.33 m) with a very low coefficient of determination (R2; 0.0022). An analysis of the spaceborne-mission-based forest height values suggested that the L-band SAR has great potential in forest height retrieval. TSI-model-based forest height values showed lower p-values, which indicates the significant relation between modelled and field-measured forest height values. A comparison of the results obtained from different SAR systems is discussed, and it is observed that the L-band-based PolInSAR inversion gives the most reliable result with low RMSE (2.87 m) and relatively higher R2 (0.53) for the linear regression analysis between the modelled tree height and the field data. These results indicate that higher wavelength PolInSAR datasets are more suitable for tree canopy height estimation using the PolInSAR inversion technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) remote sensing has been widely used for forest mapping and monitoring. PolSAR data has the capability to provide scattering information that is contributed by different scatterers within a single SAR resolution cell. A methodology for a PolSAR-based extended water cloud model (EWCM) has been proposed and evaluated in this study. Fully polarimetric phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR) data of advanced land observing satellite (ALOS) was used in this study for forest aboveground biomass (AGB) retrieval of Dudhwa National Park, India. The shift in the polarization orientation angle (POA) is a major problem that affects the PolSAR-based scattering information. The two sources of POA shift are Faraday rotation angle (FRA) and structural properties of the scatterer. Analysis was carried out to explore the effect of FRA in the SAR data. Deorientation of PolSAR data was implemented to minimize any ambiguity in the scattering retrieval of model-based decomposition. After POA compensation of the coherency matrix, a decrease in the power of volume scattering elements was observed for the forest patches. This study proposed a framework to extend the water cloud model for AGB retrieval. The proposed PolSAR-based EWCM showed less dependency on field data for model parameters retrieval. The PolSAR-based scattering was used as input model parameters to derive AGB for the forest area. Regression between PolSAR-decomposition-based volume scattering and AGB was performed. Without deorientation of the PolSAR coherency matrix, EWCM showed a modeled AGB of 92.90 t ha−1, and a 0.36 R2 was recorded through linear regression between the field-measured AGB and the modeled output. After deorientation of the PolSAR data, an increased R2 (0.78) with lower RMSE (59.77 t ha−1) was obtained from EWCM. The study proves the potential of a PolSAR-based semiempirical model for forest AGB retrieval. This study strongly recommends the POA compensation of the coherency matrix for PolSAR-scattering-based semiempirical modeling for forest AGB retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a polynomial-based three-dimensional (3D) impact angle-constrained guidance law considering the seeker's field-of-view (FOV) bound. The guidance laws are derived using nonlinear coupled dynamics of the interceptor-target engagement against stationary as well as constant velocity targets. Line-of-sight (LOS) orientations between the interceptor and the target in both pitch and yaw planes are shaped as two cubic polynomial functions of relative range. An explicit expression for the look angle of the interceptor is acquired in terms of the LOS polynomials. This expression facilitates the embodiment of the FOV constraint in the boundary conditions inflicted on the polynomials. A system of equations with the eight unknown coefficients is obtained by employing the appropriate launch and terminal conditions of the interceptor-target engagement. Reference LOS angle and lead angle profiles are generated using the calculated coefficients, complying to which the interceptor achieves a zero miss distance with desired impact angle and FOV constraints. A tracking controller is then designed using a nonlinear control technique that enables the interceptor to follow reference lead angle profiles in mutually orthogonal planes. Unlike the already existing guidance strategies for 3D impact angle and FOV-constrained target interception, the proposed nonlinear guidance strategy is designed without the use of linearization or decoupling. Moreover, no switching logic or multi-phase guidance structures are employed in the proposed guidance strategy, which eliminates possible jumps in the guidance command. The effectiveness of the proposed guidance law is validated using numerical simulations, along with a comparison study with the existing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High cultivation cost and low lipid yield are framed as a major bottleneck for the production of microalgae biodiesel. Hence, we first and foremost highlight a trophic mode transition, coupled with a combinatorial effect of organic carbon, nitrogen and light (C/N/L) on an isolated microalga Chlorococcum sp. SVF in a one pot tri-phasic intermittent feeding system by developing a lab scale Raceway tank (40L). Hitherto, waste molasses syrup without hydrolysis is unexplored in algal bioenergy arena. The direct utilisation capability of sucrose, served by waste unhydrolysed molasses syrup (WUMS), effectively modulates the intrinsic biochemical and physiological characteristics towards microalgae biomass and lipid assimilation. Response surface methodology—central composite design (RSM-CCD) tool has been employed to observe the cumulative impact of light irradiation and nutrient sources (carbon and nitrogen) on cellular stoichiometric analysis. Experimental results exhibit a potentially achievable biomass (18.88 g L−1) and lipid accumulation (80.34%) under the light intensity of 75.5 µmol m−2 s−1 with stepwise light attenuation strategy. Characterisation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) reveals the dominance of oleic acid (32.72%) and palmitic acid methyl esters (32.49%) in mixotrophic condition, which are considered as the upmost indicators of quality biodiesel. The biofuel properties were obtained in acquiescence with American and European standard. These findings are therefore a way forward towards the effective growth of Chlorococcum sp. SVF in sucrose rich inexpensive industrial waste stream that positively influences the lipid yield for large scale sustainable biodiesel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India, with 1.32 billion people is the second most populous country in the world with considerably high levels of population density. Previous research shows global temperatures continue to increase causing in increased heat stress and Heat waves affecting the communities and causing extensive damage to crops and agro-rural economy. In this context, SWAT data of the NCEP over the 36-year from 1979 to 2014 are used to access the long term variability of heat stress and heat wave. Over this period, more than 150 days a year, the Eastern coastal region of India have significantly higher no of peak heat stress days (> 120 degrees Fahrenheit) as compared to 100 days in another part of the country leaving the hill states of India where Heat Stress are below 20 days. This may be due to westerly wind from Bay of Bengal drawing heat and moisture to the landmass. The heat stress has increased most in the north-eastern region, more the 4 degrees Fahrenheit, as compared to rest of the country from 1979 to 2014 which can be a result of increased humidity and solar insolation. The country has witnessed an average of 4 to 6 heat wave days a year over the region but few states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab and Haryana have witnessed more than 8 days a year where relative humidity has gone up due to increased precipitation causing increased heated days. The analysis shows that a high percentage of land mass are venerable to the increased heat stress, although more detailed studies considering the spatial and temporal distribution of the population are needed to be done for the future scenarios. This work can be used as a guideline for the next steps in detailed studies on mitigation plan and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study addresses a comparative evaluation of airborne AVIRIS-NG and spaceborne PRISMA hyperspectral datasets for mapping hydrothermally altered minerals in Jahazpur town (25°25′23.37″N; 75°06′23.17″E) of Bhilwara district in southeastern Rajasthan. This area is located in Aravalli Craton which host notable base metal mineralization namely Rampura-Agucha, Pur-Banera and Rajpura-Dariba. The hyperspectral datasets were classified using spectral angle mapper which identified talc, soapstone, and kaolinite clay minerals in the study area. The samples were collected from the identified areas. Their spectral signature was compared with AVIRIS-NG, PRISMA, and USGS mineral spectral library and showed greater similarity in spectral absorption features. Conventional geological techniques such as thin section studies and XRD diffraction pattern analysis were carried out to validate the presence of minerals in the study area. Comparative analysis shows AVIRIS-NG and PRISMA sensor capability to identify altered/weathered minerals. The PRISMA dataset did not identify small surface exposure of talc deposit at the Padampura location due to its low spatial resolution (30 m) and SNR values. In contrast, AVIRIS-NG imagery successfully maps this exposure in the classified mineral map. The types of alteration in the area show formation of talc mineral from dolomite and argillic alteration resulting in kaolinite and montmorillonite formation. Therefore, airborne AVIRIS-NG proves its efficiency in mapping of relatively small surface exposure of altered minerals compared with the spaceborne PRISMA hyperspectral dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani remains of public health concern in rural India. Those at risk of VL are also at risk of other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) including soil transmitted helminths. Intestinal helminths are potent regulators of host immune responses sometimes mediated through cross-talk with gut microbiota. We evaluate a meta-taxonomic approach to determine the composition of prokaryotic and eukaryotic gut microflora using amplicon-based sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) and 18S rRNA gene regions. The most abundant bacterial taxa identified in faecal samples from Bihar State India were Prevotella (37.1%), Faecalibacterium (11.3%), Escherichia-Shigella (9.1%), Alloprevotella (4.5%), Bacteroides (4.1%), Ruminococcaceae UCG-002 (1.6%), and Bifidobacterium (1.5%). Eukaryotic taxa identified (excluding plant genera) included Blastocystis (57.9%; Order: Stramenopiles), Dientamoeba (12.1%; Family: Tritrichomonadea), Pentatrichomonas (10.1%; Family: Trichomonodea), Entamoeba (3.5%; Family: Entamoebida), Ascaridida (0.8%; Family: Chromodorea; concordant with Ascaris by microscopy), Rhabditida (0.8%; Family: Chromodorea; concordant with Strongyloides), and Cyclophyllidea (0.2%; Order: Eucestoda; concordant with Hymenolepis). Overall alpha (Shannon’s, Faith’s and Pielou’s indices) and beta (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity statistic; weighted UniFrac distances) diversity of taxa did not differ significantly by age, sex, geographic subdistrict, or VL case (N = 23) versus endemic control (EC; N = 23) status. However, taxon-specific associations occurred: (i) Ruminococcaceae UCG- 014 and Gastranaerophilales_uncultured bacterium were enriched in EC compared to VL cases; (ii) Pentatrichomonas was more abundant in VL cases than in EC, whereas the reverse occurred for Entamoeba. Across the cohort, high Escherichia-Shigella was associated with reduced bacterial diversity, while high Blastocystis was associated with high bacterial diversity and low Escherichia-Shigella. Individuals with high Blastocystis had low Bacteroidaceae and high Clostridiales vadin BB60 whereas the reverse held true for low Blastocystis. This scoping study provides useful baseline data upon which to develop a broader analysis of pathogenic enteric microflora and their influence on gut microbial health and NTDs generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algae have been explored for renewable energy, nutraceuticals, and value‐added products. However, low lipid yield is a significant impediment to its commercial viability. Genetic engineering can improve the fatty acid profile of algae without compromising its growth. This study introduced the diacylglycerol acyltransferase (BnDGAT) gene from Brassica napus into Chlorella sorokiniana‐I, a fast‐growing and thermotolerant natural strain isolated from wastewater, which increased its intracellular lipid accumulation. Hygromycin‐resistant cells were selected, and enhanced green florescence protein fluorescence was used to distinguish pure transgenic cell lines from mixed cultures. Compared to the wild type, BnDGAT expression in transgenic C. sorokiniana‐I caused a threefold increase in non‐polar lipid and a twofold increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nile red staining reaffirmed the presence of higher intracellular lipid bodies in transgenic cells. There was a substantial alteration in the fatty acid profile of transgenic alga expressing BnDGAT. The non‐essential omega 9 (C18: 1) fatty acid decreased (5%–7% from 18%), while alpha‐linolenic acid, an essential omega 3 fatty acid (C18: 3), was increased (23%–24% from 11%). This study substantiates a valuable strategy for enhancing essential omega‐3 fatty acids and neutral lipids to improve its nutritional value for animal feed. The increased lipid productivity should reduce the cost of producing fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Improved FAME quality should address the clouding issues in cold regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algal biorefinery is rising as a prominent solution to economically fulfill the escalating global requirement for nutrition, feed, fuel, and medicines. In recent years, scientific productiveness associated with microalgae-based studies has elaborated in multiplied aspects, while translation to the commercial level continues to be missing. The present microalgal biorefinery has a challenge in long-term viability due to escalated market price of algal-mediated biofuels and bioproducts. Advancements are required in a few aspects like improvement in algae processing, energy investment, and cost analysis of microalgae biorefinery. Therefore, it is essential to recognize the modern work by understanding the knowledge gaps and hotspots driving business scale up. The microalgae biorefinery integrated with energy-based products, bioactive and green compounds, focusing on a circular bioeconomy, is urgently needed. A detailed investigation of techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) is important to increase the market value of algal products. This review discusses the valorization of algal biomass for the value-added application that holds a sustainable approach and cost-competitive algal biorefinery. The current industries, policies, technology transfer trends, challenges, and future economic outlook are discussed. This study is an overview through scientometric investigation attempt to describe the research development contributing to this rising field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, proportional derivative control has been explored further to devise dynamic velocity error-based controller for trajectory tracking of space robotic manipulator. The dynamic velocity error is defined using the difference between current velocity and dynamic desired velocity, which is calculated based on the current position and successive desired position. The dynamic velocity error-based controller consists only of the derivative term, unlike conventional proportional derivative control which consists of both proportional as well as derivative terms. Although proposed dynamic velocity error-based controller is simple and robust, the modified versions of direct and indirect adaptive controllers are also presented utilizing dynamic velocity error to handle external disturbances and internal uncertainties in non linear dynamics. Lyapunov theory is employed to prove the stability of the closed-loop system. The main advantage of the dynamic velocity error based controller is that it is as simple as a proportional derivative controller and as robust as adaptive controllers. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control designs is validated using numerical simulations, and a comparative study of various control designs has also been provided to substantiate the claims further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil microbiome contributes to nutrient acquisition and plant adaptation to numerous biotic and abiotic stresses. Numerous studies have been conducted over the past decade showing that plants take up nutrients better when associated with fungi and additional beneficial bacteria that promote plant growth, but the mechanisms by which the plant host benefits from this tripartite association are not yet fully understood. In this article, we report on a synergistic interaction between rice (Oryza sativa), Piriformospora indica (an endophytic fungus colonizing the rice roots), and Azotobacter chroococcum strain W5, a free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium. On the basis of mRNA expression analysis and enzymatic activity, we found that co-inoculation of plant roots with the fungus and the rhizobacterium leads to enhanced plant growth and improved nutrient uptake compared to inoculation with either of the two microbes individually. Proteome analysis of O. sativa further revealed that proteins involved in nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism are upregulated and improve nitrogen and phosphate uptake. Our results also show that A. chroococcum supports colonization of rice roots by P. indica, and consequentially, the plants are more resistant to biotic stress upon co-colonization. Our research provides detailed insights into the mechanisms by which microbial partners synergistically promote each other in the interaction while being associated with the host plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the utility of multifrequency SAR and Optical multispectral data for land-cover classification of Mumbai city and its nearby regions with a special focus on water body mapping. The L-band ALOS-2 PALSAR-2, X-band TerraSAR-X, C-band RISAT-1, and Sentinel-2 datasets have been used in this work. This work is done as a retrospective study for the dual-frequency L and S-band NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission. The ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data has been pre-processed before the implementation of machine learning algorithms for image segmentation. Multi-looking is performed on ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data to generate square pixels of size 5.78 m and then target decomposition is applied to generate a false-color composite RGB image. While in the case of TerraSAR-X and RISAT-1 datasets, no multi-looking was performed and direct target decomposition was applied to generate false-color composite RGB images. Similarly, for the optical dataset that has a resolution of 10 m, a true color composite, and a false color composite RGB image are generated. For the comparative study between ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-2 dataset, the RGB images are divided into smaller chunks of size 500*500 pixels each to create a training and testing dataset. Ten image patches were taken from the large dataset, out of which eight patches were used to train the machine learning models Random Forest (RF), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM), and two patches were kept for testing and validation purpose. For training the machine learning models, feature vectors are generated using the Gabor filter, Scharr filter, Gaussian filter, and Median filter. For patch 1, the mIOU for true-color composite based Optical image varies from 0.2323 to 0.2866 with the RF classifier performing the best and the mIOU for false-color composite based Optical image varies from 0.4130 to 0.4941 with the RF classifier performing the best while for ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data, the mIOU varies from 0.4033 to 0.4663 with the RF classifier outperforming the KNN and the SVM classifiers. For patch 2, the mIOU for true-color composite based Optical data varies from 0.3451 to 0.4517 with KNN performing the best and the mIOU for false-color composite based Optical image varies from 0.5156 to 0.5832 with the RF classifier performing the best while for ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data, the mIOU varies from 0.4600 to 0.5178 with the RF classifier outperforming the KNN and the SVM classifiers. The gap between the performance of ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data and Sentinel-2 optical data is observed when the IOU of water class is compared, with IOU w for the true-color composite based optical image at a maximum of 0.2525 and for false-color composite based optical image at a maximum of 0.7366 while for ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data a maximum IOU w of 0.7948 is achieved. The better performance of SAR data as compared to true-color composite based optical image data is due to the misclassification of ground and water classes into urban and forest in the case of the true-color composite based optical dataset which can be attributed to the high similarity between water and forest classes in the case of true-color composite based optical data whereas both these classes are easily separable in case of SAR data. This issue is however resolved by using the false color composite based optical image dataset for the classification task which performs slightly better than ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data in the overall classification task. However, the SAR data works best in water body detection as notable from the high IOU for water class in the case of SAR data. In addition to the comparative analysis between Sentinel-2 optical and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data, land-cover classification has been performed on X-band TerraSAR-X and C-band RISAT-1 data on a single patch and it has been found that the RF classifier performs the best, recording the mIOU 0.5815 for X-band TerraSAR-X data, mIOU of 0.4031 for the C-band RISAT-1 data, and mIOU of 0.6153 for the L-band ALOS-2 data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-In this paper,we present a methodology to develop efficient and deadlock-free routing algorithms for Network-on-Chip (NoC) platforms that are specialized for an application or a set of concurrent applications. The proposed methodology,called the Application- Specific Routing Algorithm (APSRA),exploits the application-specific information regarding pairs of cores that communicate and other pairs that never communicate in the NoC platform to maximize communication adaptivity and performance. The methodology also exploits the known information regarding concurrency/nonconcurrency of communication transactions among cores for the same purpose. The methodology does not require virtual channels to guarantee deadlock freedom. We demonstrate,through analysis of adaptivity and simulation-based evaluation of latency and throughput,that algorithms produced by the proposed methodology give significantly higher performance as compared to other deadlock-free algorithms for both homogeneous and heterogeneous 2D mesh topology NoC systems. Since the APSRA methodology is topology agnostic,the most appropriate general implementation of the routing function within the router is using a table. A table-based implementation of the router is costlier as compared to an algorithm-based implementation. We also propose a technique to compress the routing table in a mesh topology NoC to very small sizes with very little negative effect on routing adaptivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The simplicity of regular mesh topology Network on Chip (NoC) architecture leads to reductions in design time and manufacturing cost. A weakness of the regular shaped architecture is its inability to efficiently support cores of different sizes. A proposed way in literature to deal with this is to utilize the region concept, which helps to accommodate cores larger than the tile size in mesh topology NoC architectures. Region concept offers many new opportunities for NoC design, as well as provides new design issues and challenges. One of the most important among these is the design of an efficient deadlock free routing algorithm. Available adaptive routing algorithms developed for regular mesh topology cannot ensure freedom from deadlocks. In this paper, we list and discuss many new design issues which need to be handled for designing NoC systems incorporating cores larger than the tile size. We also present and compare two deadlock free routing algorithms for mesh topology NoC with regions. The idea of the first algorithm is borrowed from the area of fault tolerant networks, where a network topology is rendered irregular due to faults in routers or links, and is adapted for the new context. We compare this with an algorithm designed using a methodology for design of application specific routing algorithms for communication networks. The application specific routing algorithm tries to maximize adaptivity by using static and dynamic communication requirements of the application. Our study shows that the application specific routing algorithm not only provides much higher adaptivity, but also superior performance as compared to the other algorithm in all traffic cases. But this higher performance for the second algorithm comes at a higher area cost for implementing network routers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Production planning of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is plagued by two interrelated problems, namely 1) part-type selection and 2) operation allocation on machines. The combination of these problems is termed a machine loading problem, which is treated as a strongly NP-hard problem. In this paper, the machine loading problem has been modeled by taking into account objective functions and several constraints related to the flexibility of machines, availability of machining time, tool slots, etc. Minimization of system unbalance (SU), maximization of system throughput (TH), and the combination of SU and TH are the three objectives of this paper, whereas two main constraints to be satisfied are related to time and tool slots available on machines. Solutions for such problems even for a moderate number of part types and machines are marked by excessive computational complexities and thus entail the application of some random search optimization techniques to resolve the same. In this paper, a new algorithm termed as constraints-based fast simulated annealing (SA) is proposed to address a well-known machine loading problem available in the literature. The proposed algorithm enjoys the merits of simple SA and simple genetic algorithm and is designed to be free from some of their drawbacks. The enticing feature of the algorithm is that it provides more opportunity to escape from the local minimum. The application of the algorithm is tested on standard data sets, and superiority of the same is witnessed. Intensive experimentations were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, and the efficacy of the same is authenticated by efficiently testing the performance of algorithm over well-known functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban area mapping is an important application of remote sensing which aims at both estimation and change in land cover under the urban area. A major challenge being faced while analyzing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) based remote sensing data is that there is a lot of similarity between highly vegetated urban areas and oriented urban targets with that of actual vegetation. This similarity between some urban areas and vegetation leads to misclassification of the urban area into forest cover. The present work is a precursor study for the dual-frequency L and S-band NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and aims at minimizing the misclassification of such highly vegetated and oriented urban targets into vegetation class with the help of deep learning. In this study, three machine learning algorithms Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been implemented along with a deep learning model DeepLabv3+ for semantic segmentation of Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data. It is a general perception that a large dataset is required for the successful implementation of any deep learning model but in the field of SAR based remote sensing, a major issue is the unavailability of a large benchmark labeled dataset for the implementation of deep learning algorithms from scratch. In current work, it has been shown that a pre-trained deep learning model DeepLabv3+ outperforms the machine learning algorithms for land use and land cover (LULC) classification task even with a small dataset using transfer learning. The highest pixel accuracy of 87.78% and overall pixel accuracy of 85.65% have been achieved with DeepLabv3+ and Random Forest performs best among the machine learning algorithms with overall pixel accuracy of 77.91% while SVM and KNN trail with an overall accuracy of 77.01% and 76.47% respectively. The highest precision of 0.9228 is recorded for the urban class for semantic segmentation task with DeepLabv3+ while machine learning algorithms SVM and RF gave comparable results with a precision of 0.8977 and 0.8958 respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Moon has a large potential for space exploration and mining valuable resources. In particular, 3He provides rich sources of non-radioactive fusion fuel to fulfill cislunar and Earth's energy demands, if found economically feasible. The present study focuses on developing advanced techniques to prospect 3He resources on the Moon from multi-sensor remote sensing perspectives. It characterizes optical changes in regolith materials due to space weathering as a new retention parameter and introduces a novel machine learning inversion model for retrieving the physical properties of the regolith. Our analysis suggests that the reddening of the soil predominantly governs the retention, along with attenuated mafic band depths. Moreover, semi-variograms show that the spatial variability of 3He is aligned with the episodic weathering events at different timescales. We also observed that pyroclastic regoliths with high dielectric constant and increased surface scattering mechanisms exhibited a 3He abundant region. For ejecta cover, the retention was weakly associated with the dielectric contrast and a circular polarization ratio (CPR), mainly because of the 3He-deficient nature of the regolith. Furthermore, cross-variograms revealed inherent cyclicity attributed to the sequential process of weathering effects. Our study provides new insights into the physical nature and near-surface alterations of lunar regoliths that influence the spatial distribution and retention of solar wind implanted 3He. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The present study aimed at analysing the probable effects of full mouth oral rehabilitation on bite forces at their maximum extent in young paediatric patients with primary as well as mixed dentitions. Methodology: The present study is one of a kind and explores the maximum bite forces in young children. A statistically significant number of children (n = 30) with a mean age of 6.54 years. About 44.75% were boys and 55.25% were girls. The maximum voluntary bite force was assessed for each participant immediately before treatment and 1 month (3–5 weeks) following completion of the needful dental treatment. The difference in bite force magnitude before and after dental treatment was analysed statistically. In addition, the correlations of key variables including, age, height, weight, BMI, gender and caries severity or dental status with maximum bite force were statistically analysed. Results: The mean maximum bite force for the total sample (n = 30) prior to treatment was found to be 167.83 N (SD = 65.20). The mean bite force in the male subgroup was 175.39 N (SD = 64.69) while for the females the mean bite force was equal to 166.29 N (SD = 68.93). Following comprehensive dental treatment, the recorded mean maximum bite force for the children (n = 30) who attended the post-treatment review appointment was 182.60 N (SD = 68.58). Conclusion: The essential factors such as the extent of dental caries, their severity, presence of clinical signs and symptoms has a negative impact on maximum bite force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-orthodontics specialist should have the responsibility of taking care of the smiles of the patients. This also has the implications on the oral health of the patient. The present study was done to determine awareness, perception, and practice regarding orthodontic practice and principles among non-orthodontic specialists. Materials and Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire study conducted among non-orthodontic specialists working in private clinics. The survey was conducted in among 212 non-orthodontic specialists. In the present study a close ended interview schedule was prepared to perception and practice of Dental specialists. After entry of data in Microsoft excel 2007. SPSS version 19.0 is used to analyze the data. Results: Dental specialists have moderate awareness, positive perception and poor practice regarding Orthodontic practice and principles. Awareness regarding, Orthodontic was significantly (P = 0.02*) associated with practice while Perception was significantly associated (P = 0.00*) with Awareness. Age group was significantly (P = 0.01**) associated with awareness of study participants. Specialty and year of practice of dental professional was significantly (P = 0.05*), (P = 0.00***) associated with perception regarding Orthodontic practice and principles. Number of Orthodontic patients treating per months was significantly associated (P = 0.00***) with Practice of study participants of Orthodontic practice and principles. Conclusion: From above it has been concluded that dental specialists has moderate awareness, positive perception and poor practice regarding Orthodontic practice and principles. Age group, type of Specialty, Year of practice and number of Orthodontic cases treated per month significantly associated with awareness, perception, and practice of dental professionals regarding Orthodontic practice and principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unfolded protein response (UPR) of the endoplasmic reticulum (UPRER) helps maintain proteostasis in the cell. The ability to mount an effective UPRER to external stress (iUPRER) decreases with age and is linked to the pathophysiology of multiple agerelated disorders. Here, we show that a transient pharmacological ER stress, imposed early in development on Caenorhabditis elegans, enhances proteostasis, prevents iUPRER decline with age, and increases adult life span. Importantly, dietary restriction (DR), that has a conserved positive effect on life span, employs this mechanism of ER hormesis for longevity assurance. We found that only the IRE-1-XBP-1 branch of UPRER is required for the longevity effects, resulting in increased ER-associated degradation (ERAD) gene expression and degradation of ER resident proteins during DR. Further, both ER hormesis and DR protect against polyglutamine aggregation in an IRE-1-dependent manner. We show that the DR-specific FOXA transcription factor PHA-4 transcriptionally regulates the genes required for ER homeostasis and is required for ER preconditioning-induced life span extension. Finally, we show that ER hormesis improves proteostasis and viability in a mammalian cellular model of neurodegenerative disease. Together, our study identifies a mechanism by which DR offers its benefits and opens the possibility of using ER-targeted pharmacological interventions to mimic the prolongevity effects of DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) are considered as a pro inflammatory and interleukin-10 (IL-10) anti inflammatory have been shown to predict the risk of incident of coronary artery disease (CAD). The polymorphism at promoter of TNF-α and IL-10 has been shown to increase transcriptional activity of the gene and play a important role in patho physiology of CAD. Aim of present study is to examine the impact of the TNF-α and IL-10 variant allele on various markers of the CAD and to study its relation with circulating TNF-α and IL-10 levels. Methods The −308 G/A & −238 G/A of TNF-α and −1082 G/A & −819 C/T of IL-10 gene polymorphism has been studied in 301 diagnosed CAD subjects (Age 51.50 ± 9.28; BMI 25.30 ± 3.58) and 305 healthy controls (Age 51.57 ± 9.50; BMI 24.06 ± 7.26). These polymorphism of TNF-α and IL-10 were detected by real time PCR by using Taqman SNP genotyping assay. Furthermore serum TNF-alpha and IL-10 levels were also measured by ELISA. Results Allelic and genotypic frequencies did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the controls ( p  > 0.05). On allele contrast, significant association with susceptibility to CAD was detected with polymorphisms in TNF-α -308 G/A, that variant genotype GA + AA (dominant model) (p = 0.030: OR = 1.61: 95% CI = 1.06–2.44) and variant allele (A) (p = 0.006: OR = 1.71: 95% CI = 1.17–2.51) of TNF-α 308 G/A gene was significant highly observed in the cases as compared to control group. Furthermore, variant genotype CT + TT (dominant model) (p = 0.004: OR = 1.62: 95% CI = 1.17–2.24) and variant allele (T) (p < 0.001: OR = 1.49: 95% CI = 1.17–1.89) of IL-10 −819 C/T gene was significant highly observed in the cases as compared to control group. Conclusion Our results suggest that the TNF-α G-308A polymorphism independently associated with DBP, cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL, TNF-α and IL-10 levels which may be leads to the development of coronary artery disease of North Indians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Engineering a natural diploid S. cerevisiae for increased FAEE production. • Rational allocation of metabolic fluxes towards expanding FAEE precursor pools. • Process optimization in shake flask increased the titer to ∼40-folds. • Scale-up production in fed-batch bioreactor yielded a final 5.0 g/L FAEE titer. Developing microbial chassis for synthesizing value-added compounds is the most eco-friendly approach to minimize the impacts of overusing fossil fuels and other harsh chemicals. Recent research has focussed on harnessing microbial fatty acid metabolism to generate oleochemicals for use in industries as diverse as fuel production, cosmetics, lubricants and more. Considering the economic viability of generating "green biocatalysts", we reconfigured the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway in an environmentally robust strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTCC4796 to produce fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) with high yield and titer. We applied the push–pull-block strategy wherein a heterologous wax ester synthase (WS2) was initially integrated to establish a FAEE biosynthetic pathway (pull) with additional rewiring including overexpression of PDH-bypass pathway genes for increasing the supply of precursor fatty acyl-CoA (push) and single allele disruption of non-essential genes from competing pathways (block) to maximize the metabolic flux towards FAEE overproduction. Our final engineered strain NGYT carrying 11 genetic modifications produced 26 mg/L and 1 g/L of FAEE before and after glucose optimization respectively. This titer was further scaled-up to reach 5 g/L in fed-batch bioreactors, which, to our knowledge, is the highest reported FAEE titer achieved from Saccharomyces cerevisiae with glucose as carbon source. Additionally, the FAEE's produced by NGYT strain showed a higher percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are ideally suitable for biodiesel applications. Given the global emphasis on the development of cleaner fuels, the findings from this study expedite our progress towards industrial scale-FAEE production as a substitute to conventional diesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interfaces between precipitations and the matrix of a welded material and the triple junctions of its grain boundaries (GBs) are two favorable sites for crack initiation. We have developed a theoretical model to describe the initiation and growth of microcracks near a precipitation located at the GB and near one of the triple junctions. Under loading, the stiff precipitation is modeled as a local stress concentrator. GB sliding occurs via the movement of GB dislocations which are accumulated at the triple junction. As such, the GB triple junction acts as an obstacle for GB sliding. The stress fields produced by the interaction between precipitation and GB sliding under uniaxial quasi-static tensile loading are derived using the Muskhelishvili method. By utilizing the energy criterion of crack growth, the initiation and growth of microcracks at the site of the precipitation and at the triple junction are investigated. The obtained results indicate that cracking at the sites of stiff precipitations is the main factor contributing to the cleavage fracture of the coarse-grained zones, which are common for welded materials such as HSLA steel weldments which contain local brittle zones. The majority of microcracks initiates at the boundaries of precipitations and propagates into them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artemisinin is highly effective against drug-resistant malarial parasites, which affects nearly half of the global population and kills >500 000 people each year. The primary cost of artemisinin is the very expensive process used to extract and purify the drug from Artemisia annua . Elimination of this apparently unnecessary step will make this potent antimalarial drug affordable to the global population living in endemic regions. Here we reported the oral delivery of a non-protein drug artemisinin biosynthesized (∼0.8 mg/g dry weight) at clinically meaningful levels in tobacco by engineering two metabolic pathways targeted to three different cellular compartments (chloroplast, nucleus, and mitochondria). The doubly transgenic lines showed a three-fold enhancement of isopentenyl pyrophosphate, and targeting AACPR, DBR2, and CYP71AV1 to chloroplasts resulted in higher expression and an efficient photo-oxidation of dihydroartemisinic acid to artemisinin. Partially purified extracts from the leaves of transgenic tobacco plants inhibited in vitro growth progression of Plasmodium falciparum -infected red blood cells. Oral feeding of whole intact plant cells bioencapsulating the artemisinin reduced the parasitemia levels in challenged mice in comparison with commercial drug. Such novel synergistic approaches should facilitate low-cost production and delivery of artemisinin and other drugs through metabolic engineering of edible plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aimed to longitudinally analyse changes in the levels of serum fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) and associated minerals in patients undergoing renal transplantation. Methods: Sixty-three patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who underwent living donor transplantation were recruited. Serum FGF23, iPTH, uric acid, inorganic phosphorous (iP), blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine were measured pre-transplant and at 1 (M1), 3 (M3) and 12 months (M12) post-transplantation. Results: FGF23 levels were decreased at M1, M3 and M12 by 93.81, 96.74 and 97.53%, respectively. iPTH levels were decreased by 67.95, 74.95 and 84.9%, respectively. The prevalence of hyperparathyroidism at M1, M3 and M12 post-transplantation was 63.5, 42.9 and 11.1%, respectively. FGF23 and iP levels remained above the normal range in 23 (36.5%) and 17 (27%) patients at M1, 10 (15.9%) and 5 (8%) at M3 and in none at M12 post-transplantation, respectively. A multivariate regression model revealed that, pre-transplant, iP was positively associated with iPTH (P = 0.016) but not with FGF 23; however, post-transplant, iP level was negatively associated with FGF23 (P < 0.001) but not with iPTH. Conclusions: Post-transplant FGF23 levels settle faster than those of iPTH. However, 11% of patients continued to have hyperparathyroidism even after 12 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The island of Borneo is enveloped by tropical rainforests and hostile terrain characterized by high denudation rates. Owing to such conditions, studies pertaining to neotectonics and consequent geomorphic expressions with regard to surface processes and landscape evolution are inadequately constrained. Here we demonstrate the first systematic tectono-geomorphic evaluation of north Borneo through quantitative and qualitative morphotectonic analysis at sub-catchment scale, for two large drainage basins located in Sarawak: the Rajang and Baram basins. The extraction of morphometric parameters utilizing digital elevation models arranged within a GIS environment focuses on hypsometric curve analysis, distribution of hypsometric integrals through spatial autocorrelation statistics, relative uplift values, the asymmetry factor and the normalized channel steepness index. Hypsometric analysis suggests a young topography adjusting to changes in tectonic boundary conditions. Autocorrelation statistics show clusters of high values of hypsometric integrals as prominent hotspots that are associated with less eroded, young topography situated in the fold and thrust belts of the Interior Highlands of Borneo. High channel steepness and gradients (> 200 m 0.9 ) are observed in zones corresponding to the hotspots. Relative uplift values reveal the presence of tectonically uplifted blocks together with relatively subsided or lesser uplifted zones along known faults. Sub-catchments of both basins display asymmetry indicating tectonic tilting. Stream longitudinal profiles demonstrate the presence of anomalies in the form of knickzones without apparent lithological controls along their channel reaches. Surfaces represented by cold spots of low HI values and low channel gradients observed in the high elevation headwaters of both basins are linked to isolated erosional planation surfaces that could be remnants of piracy processes. The implication of our results is that Borneo experiences active folding of the Rajang Group fold–thrust belt to present and these events reactivated old major faults and minor related dislocations. From geomorphic analysis associated with sedimentary record, we posit that the terrain could have undergone high uplift rates since 5 Ma or multi-phased uplift with periodic intermittent pulses of high and low uplift rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Type I diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is caused by autoimmune destruction of β-cells of pancreas. Two forms of T1DM are known called as 1A (autoimmune) and 1B (idiopathic). Aim: Aim was to study the prevalence of Anti-TTG IgA, Anti- TPO, GADA, ZnT8 and IA-2 autoantibodies and HLA DR and DQ genes and its diagnostic value in T1DM. Materials and Methods: Thirty four T1DM patients, 59 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and 28 healthy controls were included in study. Antibodies levels were estimated by ELISA and HLA typing was performed by SSP-PCR method. Result: The prevalence of various autoantibodies in T1DM were Anti-TTG 14.7%, Anti-TPO 17.65%, GADA 38.23%, ZnT8 11.76% and IA-2 5.88%. Only GADA and ZnT8 were significantly positive in T1DM. GADA (66.67%) and ZnT8 (33.33%) positivity was more in patients below 15 years age while levels of other antibodies were higher after 15 years age. All autoantibodies were detected in higher frequency in T1DM than in T2DM and controls. HLA DR and DQ typing showed highly significant increase in DRB1*0301 (61.76%, p=0.00) and DQB1*0201 (64.71%, p=0.00) in T1DM. Subjects with HLA DRB1*0301 and DQB1*0201 had 80-100% positive prevalence of GADA, ZnT8, IA-2, Anti-TTG and Anti-TPO autoantibodies. Conclusion: Combination of GADA antibody with DRB1 and DQB1 estimation improved diagnosis of T1A than insulin antigen specific antibodies alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]