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A detailed discussion of magnetocaloric properties of distinct materials is a vital aspect in magnetic refrigeration technology. This review paper deals with all kinds of magnetocaloric materials such as ferromagnetic perovskites, glass ceramics, oxide-based composites and spinel ferrites. The comparative study of magnetocaloric properties revealed that manganites have the potential applications in magnetorefrigeration technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was undertaken to understand the genetic architecture of Deccani and Nellore sheep breeds and to assess the genetic distance between the breeds. Allele diversity, genetic variability and population structure in the two breeds were estimated using 30 microsatellite markers. A total of 100 sheep, 50 each from Deccani and Nellore breeds were genotyped. The total number of alleles observed was 254 and 260 in Deccani and Nellore, respectively. The mean expected heterozygosity among the breeds ranged from 0.79 (Deccani) to 0.80 (Nellore) whereas the mean observed heterozygosity levels ranged from 0.77 in Deccani to 0.78 in Nellore sheep. The overall mean inbreeding coefficient was 0.029 in Deccani and 0.031 in Nellore sheep and of the 30 loci studied, 14 loci in Deccani and 16 loci in Nellore sheep showed negative inbreeding coefficient indicating the presence of outbreeding. However, eight loci (BM1314, BM6506, BM8125, ILSTS28, MAF70, MCM140, OarCB226 and OarFCB128) showed positive, mild to moderate inbreeding ranging from 0.007 to 0.25 in Deccani and 0.066 to 0.37 in Nellore sheep studied. The FIS values ranged from -0.372 to 0.74, FST values ranged from 0.001 to 0.172 and FIT values ranged from -0.370 to 0.728 between the Deccani and Nellore sheep breeds studied. The PIC values ranged from 0.498 to 0.886 with a mean of 0.773 in Deccani and from 0.574 to 0.894 with a mean of 0.777 in Nellore breed. The information generated from the present study will be valuable for setting conservation priority of these two breeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety four genotypes of black gram were evaluated under rainfed condition for their biometric characters viz., plant height, number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, 100 seed weight and seed yield plant-1 for preliminary screening to identify the best performing genotype. Based on their yield performance, eight genotypes viz., RU8-705, PALAVAYALLOCAL, T 9, PHM 8, ADT 3, CBG-09-06, VANNIYUR-LOCAL and CBG-09-13 were selected and raised in three environments. Among them, two genotypes viz., T 9 and CBG-09-13 were selected and their root parameters viz., root and shoot length, shoot length, number of roots, root diameter, fresh weight of root, fresh weight of shoot, dry weight of root, dry weight of shoot, root volume and gas exchange characters viz., net photosynthetic rate, leaf temperature, stomatal conductance and intercellular CO2 were studied to identify the best genotype among them suitable for moisture stress condition. Based on the results, it was found that CBG-09-13 performed well under moisture stress condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glass fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials are widely used in industrial, aerospace and automotive sector. It has excellent properties such as high strength to weight ratio, higher fatigue limit, high stiffness to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and design flexibility. The strength of the composite highly depends upon orientation of the fibre material. Drilling is one of the major machining operations that are carried out on Glass fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials to the need for components assembly. There are many problems encountered while drilling glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites. The major problems are excessive tool wear and delamination of the composite during drilling, which reduce the strength of the composite during application. In the present study, the experimental investigations are carried out to analyse the effect of various machining parameters, i.e. cutting speed and feed rate on the tool wear and delamination. The time and frequency domain analysis of vibration signals measured using sound sensor is also used to predict the effect of machining parameters on delamination as well as to develop the tool replacement strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation deals with the distribution of 210Pb radionuclides and their dependence on various physico-chemical parameters of soil, in Virajpet taluk, Coorg District. The samples were analyzed using standard radioanalytical methods for the determination of 210Pb activity. The 210Pb activity varies from 3.59 Bq kg−1 to 44.63 Bq kg−1 in the first layer, 0.79 Bq kg−1 to 22.86 Bq kg−1 in the second layer and 0.88 Bq kg−1 to 16.34 Bq kg−1 in the third layer. A negative correlation was found between 210Pb activity and clay% and also with organic matter%, in all three layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal conductivity and rheological properties of TiO 2 -PAG nanolubricant for 0.07 to 0.8% volume fractions in the temperature range 20°C to 90°C have been investigated. The nanolubricant is prepared using two step method. The results showed that the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanolubricant increase with increase in volume fraction and decrease with increase in temperature. The measured thermal conductivity and viscosity are compared with that obtained from classical models and the classical models fail to predict these properties accurately. The highest thermal conductivity and viscosity are observed to be 1.38 and 10 times greater than that of pure lubricant for 0.8% and 0.6% volume fraction respectively. Non-Newtonian shear thinning behaviour of TiO 2 -PAG nanolubricant was confirmed by computing power law and consistency indices. The optimum value of volume fraction for refrigeration application is 0.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with study of seasonal variation of outdoor and indoor radon in Somwarpet taluk, Coorg district using pin-hole dosimeter cups and LR-115(type II) films. The LR-115 films, placed in dosimeter cups with pin-holes, were exposed to radon in different seasons of the year. The annual inhalation dose due to outdoor and indoor radon ranges from 0.036 to 0.068 mSv year and 0.53 to 0.75 mSv year respectively. The radon levels are low, due to blocking of radon atoms in porespaces of porous soil, due to rainfall in all seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulses are one of the most important legume crops in India contributing significantly high quality protein. Among the legumes, black gram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper), is an important legume crop in our country belonging to the family leguminoceae. The low productivity in pulses may be due to the fact that they are normally grown in marginal lands with inadequate soil moisture and poor fertility status. To increase yield under these circumstances, integrated seed treatment is given as a presowing treatment. Hence, a study was attempted to find out the influence of integrated seed treatments on growth and yield parameters in black gram. The seeds of black gram cv VBN 4 were subjected to various seed treatments and treated seeds along with the control were evaluated for their seed quality, growth, gas exchange and yield parameters both in laboratory and field trials. The study revealed that seeds fortified with MgSO4 + polykote + carbendazim + dimethoate + bioinoculant (Pseudomononas fluorescens) + Rhizobium + Azophos + pelleting with DAP recorded higher seed yield and other parameters when compared to control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azo dyes, possessing a primary aromatic amino group, on diazotisation in presence of cotton followed by treatment with soda ash at 60–65 °C were found to ‘reactively’ dye cotton with varying degrees of fixation depending on the chemical structure of the azo dye. Evidence of dye-fibre reaction is indirectly inferred from poor to fair colour values obtained in absence of added soda ash. Dyed cotton retained significant colour even after three treatments with boiling dimethyl formamide (DMF). Coloured cellulose precipitated when a solution of dyed cotton in 85% w/w phosphoric acid was diluted with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The phosphoric acid-DMSO mixture was colourless. These two tests prove the existence of a dye-fibre covalent bond. A new class of reactive dyes without an externally attached reactive system is therefore, in principle, available. It will have the advantage of reduced raw material and manufacturing costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel process model has been proposed for biomass gasification integrated with combined heat and power generation using various biomass, which have been selected based on availability in abundant quantities from different regions of India. In the proposed system, high thermal energy carried out by gasification products has been utilized to operate a combined heat and power cycle system consisting of steam and organic Rankine cycles with provisions of air and water heating. Syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, has been obtained as the final product which has potential for many applications. The influences of various operating parameters such as water to biomass ratio, mass flow rate, reactor temperature and type of biomass on the methane, syngas, total combustible gas and hydrogen productions and performance index have been studied. Gasification temperature has been optimized for maximum syngas production. Study shows that the best performance in term of CHP does not simultaneously ensure maximum syngas production. Hence, a trade off is required between CHP and syngas production for biomass selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive care facilities are always in demand in the public sector and there is constant competition for beds. Appropriate allocation of children to these resources is based on the ethical principles of distributive justice and beneficence that is determined on the presumed short-term outcome of the acute illness, long-term outcome of the underlying chronic disease and the overall demand for these facilities. At the onset of the HIV epidemic in South Africa, HIV-infected children were refused admission to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) on the basis of poor ICU outcomes and the lack of provision of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) for survivors. The recent significant improvement in outcome in these patients through early recognition and treatment of HIV-related opportunistic infections, the provision of advanced organ support and the routine availability of cART suggests that the previous policy requires review. Ethical principles, the Paediatric Index of Mortality Score for each request, the quality and disability-adjusted life years and cost-effectiveness of care are all important considerations in deciding which patients should be allowed access to these limited and expensive resources. With the improved long-term outcome in HIV-infected children on cART, admission of these cases to a PICU should now be based on the prognosis of the acute illness, as with any other chronic disease such as asthma or diabetes. Withholding and withdrawing advanced life support should accord with standard protocols applied to any condition for which a child is admitted to the PICU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Retraction of: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03392-8, published online 15 December 2021 The Editors have retracted this Article. S. Suriya Uma Devi, Rabha W. Ibrahim, Faisal Shahzad, Mohamed R. Eid, Abdel-Haleem Abdel-Aty, M. Motawi Khashan, and I. S. Yahia did not reply to the correspondence about the retraction. Retraction Note: A brief comparative examination of tangent hyperbolic hybrid nanofluid through a extending surface: numerical Keller-Box scheme. [Extracted from the article]

Simple Summary: Pediatric hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) is a rare tumor and often observed in abnormal livers. Despite advances in adults, there is little progress in understanding the origin and management of pediatric HCAs. Evidence of multifocality, malignant transformation and rupture in a subset of patients warrant a thorough understanding of this rare entity to guide optimum management. We present a concise review of the current literature on HCA, with a focus and comparative assessment on pediatric patients. Current understanding and classification of pediatric hepatocellular adenomas (HCA) are largely based on adult data. HCAs are rare in children and, unlike in adults, are often seen in the context of syndromes or abnormal background liver. Attempts to apply the adult classification to pediatric tumors have led to several "unclassifiable" lesions. Although typically considered benign, few can show atypical features and those with beta-catenin mutations have a risk for malignant transformation. Small lesions can be monitored while larger (>5.0 cm) lesions are excised due to symptoms or risk of bleeding/rupture, etc. Management depends on gender, age, underlying liver disease, multifocality, size of lesion, histologic subtype and presence of mutation, if any. In this review, we summarize the data on pediatric HCAs and highlight our experience with their diagnosis and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on phytate-degrading enzymes from lactobacilli are scarce, despite its potential in improving the nutritional quality of plant-based foods. Therefore, the current investigation deals with the phytate-degrading enzyme produced by a native Lactobacillus pentosus strain. Phytase activity was highest towards the end of the exponential phase. Activity increased in the presence of maltose (381.1%) compared with glucose. The presence of phytate in the media stimulated the enzyme production. The enzyme of interest was a 70 kDa protein with a pH and temperature optima of 5.0 and 55-60 °C, respectively. It retained 46% of activity after exposure to 70 °C for 20 min and also showed broad substrate specificity. It was completely inhibited by Hg2+, Fe2+ and PMSF while being activated by Co2+. This report is the first to show dephytinisation of autoclaved finger millet flour either by fermentation with L. pentosus or by treatment with the corresponding cell-free extract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field experiments were conducted to screen the mungbean genotypes based on root characters and root penetration ability. Observations on root and shoot characters viz., root length, shoot length, number of roots, root diameter, fresh weight of root, fresh weight of shoot, dry weight of root, dry weight of shoot, root volume, growth and yield parameters viz., plant height, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight, seed yield per plant were recorded. Based on the root characters, the genotypes HUM 1, VMGG 67, VMGG 82, VMGG 83 and VMGG 90 were found to be promising. They also performed well in the field experiments. These genotypes were crossed with high yielding varieties like VBN 1, VBN 2, VBN 3 and KM 2 to get Ft Among the 20 crosses obtained, three crosses VMGG-83/VBN 2, VMGG-90/VBN 3 and VMGG-83/VBN 1 were found to perform well in F2 and they will be forwarded to next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The efficacy of midazolam as premedication in children for providing pre-operative sedation and reducing parental separation anxiety has been well established. Many studies have compared the effectiveness and medication acceptance of midazolam via oral and intranasal routes. In this study, we have compared the ease of administration of oral midazolam syrup and intranasal midazolam spray as premedication, administered by parents to children. Methods: Ninety children were randomly allocated into one of the two groups: group N received nasal midazolam spray 0.2 mg/kg and group O received oral midazolam syrup 0.5 mg/kg administered by the parent. The parent recorded ease of administration score and facial hedonic score. The observer recorded modified medication acceptance score. Vitals and sedation scores were assessed at specific intervals. Thirty minutes after drug administration the child was separated from the parent, and parental separation anxiety score was recorded. Mask acceptance score was recorded after application of mask upon arrival in the OT. Results: Oral midazolam syrup was found to have better ease of administration than intranasal midazolam spray as felt by the parent. Medication acceptance was better for oral midazolam. Both the groups had similar sedation scores at 15 and 30 min. Children in the oral group had a better reduction in parental separation anxiety at 30 min after drug administration and better mask acceptance than the nasal group. Conclusion: Oral midazolam syrup is easier for parents to administer and has better medication acceptance in children when compared to intranasal midazolam spray. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the world, concrete is presence broadly used for the structure of greatest of the buildings, bridges etc. Presently, the complete construction industry is in exploration of an appropriate and operative the unused product that would greatly minimalize the use of cement and eventually decrease the creation cost. Such a substitute material are egg shell powder and silica fume. Greatest of egg shell waste is willing in landfills short of any pre-treatment since it is conventionally unusable and eventually makes thoughtful eco glitches. Therefore, proper alternate is required to manage the wastes in eco-friendly way. The goal of this investigation work is to use the egg shell powder, silica fume as a limited additional of cement. Egg shell powder is replaced by 5%, 10% and 15% in addition with the silica fume by 2.5%, 5%, and 7.5% of weight of cement. An experimental research demonstrates the strength features such as split tensile strength, compressive strength, and flexural strength test of egg shell based concrete were investigated. It is found the strength of the concrete rises with the adding of egg shell powder and silica fume and finally the comparison is made for the egg shell and silica fume added strength of concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty genotypes of okra along with pusa sawani as susceptible check were screened for YVMV resistance under field conditions. Per cent disease incidence and coefficient of infection were calculated for all the genotypes. Per cent disease incidence ranged from 10.0 to 100.0, where as coefficient of infection varies from 5.0 to 100.0. Out of 60 genotypes screened, seven genotypes were resistant (MHO -10, MHO -24, MHO -30, KRCO -3, KRCO -10, KRCO -15 and KRCO-28). Fifteen genotypes were moderately resistant(MHO-1, MHO-4 , MHO-6, MHO -13, MHO -14, MHO-16, MHO -21, MHO -27, KRCO-13, KRCO -16, KRCO -18, KRCO -19, KRCO-21, KRCO-23, KRCO-30) and sixteen genotypes were moderately susceptible(MHO -12, MHO -18, MHO -20, MHO -22, MHO -26, MHO -29, KRCO-1, KRCO -4, KRCO -5, KRCO -7, KRCO -8, KRCO -9, KRCO -20, KRCO-22, KRCO-27, KRCO-29).Thirteen genotypes were found to be susceptible (MHO-2, MHO-3 , MHO -6 , MHO -7, MHO -8, MHO -9, MHO -11, MHO -15 , MHO -22 ,MHO -25 ,KRCO -12 , KRCO -14 , KRCO-24 , KRCO-26) and nine were highly susceptible (MHO -5, MHO -17, MHO -19, MHO -28, KRCO -2, KRCO -6 , KRCO -11, KRCO -17, KRCO-25) .Resistant genotypes identified in the present study can be utilized further YVMV resistance breeding programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we demonstrate synthesis and characterization of MWCNTs embedded SU-8 electrospun nanofibers and their application towards ultrasensitive detection of cardiac biomarkers using Electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The composite nanofibers have excellent electrical and transduction properties owing to the presence of MWCNTs in addition to ease of functionalization and biocompatibility, which can be attributed to the presence of SU-8. Thus the synthesized nanofibers are ideal candidates for sensitive biosensor applications. As a proof concept, the detection of cardiac biomarkers, Myoglobin (Myo), cardiac Troponin I (cTn I) and Creatine Kinase MB (CK-MB) is demonstrated. The synthesized nanofibers were functionalized with the antibodies of the biomarkers and the detection was carried using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, an excellent technique for understanding the adsorption kinetics. A minimum detection limit of nano-gram/ml is demonstrated using this nanobiosensor platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the mechanism of toxicity in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings to zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and zinc (Zn) ions. We subjected plants to different ZnO NPs and Zn ion concentrations (0, 20, 50, 100 and 200 mg/L) and analyzed resulting morphological changes, transcriptional regulation of genes involved in Zn-homeostasis, macro- and microelement homeostasis, as well as auxin regulation. Except for 20 mg/L, the fresh weight and primary root length was reduced after exposure to all other concentrations of Zn ion and ZnO NP concentrations. An increase in lateral root formation (19 and 32%) was observed after exposure to 20 and 50 mg/L of Zn ions respectively; whereas 20 mg/L ZnO NPs treatment triggered a 9% increase in lateral root formation. Both qualitative, using Zynpyr-1 fluorescent probe and quantitative analysis revealed Zn uptake and translocation from roots to shoots after Zn ion exposure. However, ZnO NPs-treated seedlings resulted in no root to shoot translocation and Zn accumulation was mainly located in root tips, primary-lateral root junctions and root- shoot junctions. The macronutrients viz. P (1.34 mg/kg DW), K (13.29 mg/kg DW), S (1.29 mg/kg DW) and micronutrients Cu (0.004 mg/kg DW) and Fe (0.345 mg/kg DW) contents were highly decreased as a result of exposure to 200 mg/L of Zn ions. Similarly, the highest reduction of P (2.30 mg/kg DW), K (6.36 mg/kg DW), S (2.63 mg/kg DW) and Cu (0.004 mg/kg DW) was observed after exposure to 200 mg/L of ZnO NPs. Gene regulation studies indicated the transcriptional modulation of various genes involved in Zn, macro- and micro nutrient homeostasis as well as hormone regulation. Taken together, it was observed that the mechanism of toxicity of Zn ions and ZnO NPs were different. These findings will help to design safer strategies for the application of ZnO NPs as plant fertilizer without compromising the morphological and nutritional qualities as well as for the future phytoremediation purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free sugars were rapidly converted into the corresponding di-O-isopropylidene derivatives and methylO-benzylidene glycosides in excellent yields and purity in a deep eutectic solvent made from choline chloride and malonic acid (ChCl:MA). Reaction conditions were mild; work-up was easy, and further purification was not necessary. Given the inexpensive, nontoxic, and recyclable nature of ChCl:MA, this protocol is environmental friendly. A mild and efficient preparation ofO-isopropylidene derivatives and methyl 4,6-O-benzylidene glycosides from monosaccharides in a deep eutectic solvent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study is mainly concerned with the problem on synchronization criteria for Markovian jumping time delayed bidirectional associative memory neural networks and their applications in secure image communications. Based on the variable transformation method, the addressed second order differential equations are transformed into first order differential equations. Then, by constructing a suitable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and based on integral inequalities, the criteria which ensure the synchronization between the uncontrolled system and controlled system are established through designed feedback controllers and linear matrix inequalities. Further, the proposed results proved that the error system is globally asymptotically stable in the mean square. Moreover, numerical illustrations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the derived analytical results. Finally, the application of addressed system is explored via image encryption/decryption process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal manufacturing plants, nuclear power plants (which produce steam, by using thermal energy yielded during the nuclear fission, for spinning enormous turbines to generate electricity), and geothermal power plants are a few in the extensive list of technologies where different processes occur in high temperature environment in the presence of strong magnetic fields. Nanofluids (NFs), on the other hand, have been successful in achieving wide acceptance as the next generation coolant in the above mentioned industries as well as in the automobiles, heat exchangers, and steam boilers, owing to their remarkable thermal performance. These observations motivate the authors to explore the change in the movement and thermal behavior of nanofluid (being used as a coolant) under a strong Lorentz force. We have considered the flow (being driven by counter-moving lids) containing nanoparticles in a square cavity subject to magnetic source below. Single-phase model (based on the assumption that the solid nanoparticles together with host fluid are in thermal equilibrium, with the same velocity field) has been employed for mathematically modeling the nanofluid, whereas a pseudo-transient approach is approved to treat the governing equations numerically in the stream-vorticity form. Nanoparticle volume fraction (0.0 ≤ ϕ ≤ 0.2), Reynolds number (1 ≤ Re ≤ 300) and Magnetic parameter (0 ≤ Mn ≤ 1000) are the ranges considered for the governing parameters, considered in the present investigation. We have noted that the nanoparticle concentration and the Lorentz force do not influence the Nusselt number much at the upper wall of the cavity whereas a remarkable rise in the heat transfer is noted in the upward direction, along the right vertical wall. Further, by almost doubling the magnetic field intensity, as high as 40% reduction in the average Nusselt number along the left vertical wall has been noted, whereas the friction factor undergoes a nearly 60% increase along the lower horizontal wall. We have also noted the emergence of new vortices in the flow field, as a result of the imposition of the magnetic force. It is therefore recommended that special care must be taken, about the presence of external magnetic fields, where vortices negatively influence the performance of industrial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid industrialization has led to the generation of a considerable amount of waste, both solid and liquid, in industrial fields like food processing, sugar, pulp, sago or starch, dairies, paper, fruit processing, poultry, distilleries, slaughterhouses, tanneries, and so forth. Despite the requirement for pollution control measures, the waste is discharged into water bodies or generally dumped on land without appropriate management, and thus becomes a significant source of environmental pollution and health hazards. The most essential step of waste management is the segregation of waste into the various elements, and normally this process is done automatically by hand-picking. A smart waste material classification technique is required to simplify the procedures. Therefore, the study presents a new Metaheuristics with Deep Transfer Learning Enabled Detection and Classification Methods for Industrial Waste Management (MDTLDC-IWM) method. The presented MDTLDC-IWM model facilitates the use of DL models for the identification and classification of waste materials in the IWM system. To accomplish this, the presented MDTLDC-IWM model follows two key phases, namely waste object recognition and waste object classification. At the initial stage, the YOLO-v5 object detector with the Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm is used. Next, in the second stage, the stacked sparse auto encoder (SSAE) model is applied for the waste object classification method. The SSAE model is effectively optimized using the Aquila Optimization Algorithm (AOA), which helps to accomplish maximum classification of waste objects. The MDTLDC-IWM model has achieved a precision of 96.84 percent and an F score of 96.71 percent. A benchmark dataset is used to test the experimental validity of the presented MDTLDC-IWM model. Extensive comparative analysis reported the enhanced performance of the MDTLDC-IWM model over recent state-of-the-art approaches. [Display omitted] • This study introduces a novel Metaheuristics with Deep Transfer Learning Enabled Detection and Classification Methods for Industrial Waste Management (MDTLDC-IWM) approach. • The described MDTLDC-IWM model supports the employment of DL models in the IWM system for the identification and classification of waste products. Since the YOLO-v5 object detector with the Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) method is employed. • The stacked sparse auto encoder (SSAE) model is utilised for the classification of waste objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a woman who underwent open surgical mitral valve replacement by using Edwards Sapien-XT valve. The woman presented with dyspnoea and history of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma. Cardiac computed tomography was performed which revealed circumferential mitral annular calcification.

Background: Adequate height and thickness of labial alveolar bone are crucial for the longer stability of mucosal margins around implants. The diagnostic value of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in determining labial cortical bone thickness needs to be explored. Aim: The aim of this study was to measure alveolar bone thickness of the labial of maxillary central incisor teeth in Indian population using CBCT. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective observational study where radiographs of 200 patients from the archived CBCT images in the Department of Oral Implantology in Saveetha Dental College were assessed. In each CBCT, labial cortical bone thickness of maxillary central incisors was measured. Each tooth was divided into three parts - cervical, middle, and apical using cross-sectional view: Cervical - at the level of crest of the alveolar bone, middle of the root - by extending a line from cement-enamel junction to the apex of the tooth in dividing the distance by two to determine the middle of the root, and apical third - by dividing the length of the root by three to determine the apical third; the thickness of the labial cortex was measured in relation to this point. Results: The mean thickness of labial cortical bone for central incisor was 0.58 ± 0.19, 0.68 ± 0.29, and 0.82 ± 0.19 mm in the cervical, middle, and apical regions, respectively, and a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed between the labial cortical bone thicknesses in the various surfaces. Conclusion: The thickness of the labial plate of alveolar bone was greater at the apex and least at the cervical for central incisors. This gives awareness about the thickness of labial cortex which prevents the incidence of perforation, fenestration, and dehiscence during implant placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submergence tolerance is an important character to be considered when flash flood damages rice. Tolerant genotypes can withstand submergence for 1-2 weeks based on their tolerance level. Hence with a view to study the effect of submergence on germination and seedling attributes, eight cultivated varieties were subjected to submergence tolerance at five levels of flooding viz., 1 cm, 2 cm, 3 cm, 4 cm and 5 cm flooding levels. CR 1009 sub 1, a submergence tolerant variety was used as check. With increase in submergence levels, greater reduction was observed for all the parameters. Survival % and seedling length were found to be decreased under flooded conditions, but to a much lower extent in the tolerant genotype. Flooding decreased shoot, root and total dry matter production in all the varieties with more reduction in higher flooding (5 cm) rather than lower flooding (1cm) levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigations were carried out to study the influence of various seed hardening treatments on growth and yield parameters in black gram under drought condition. The black gram cv.VBN 3 was imposed with various seed hardening treatments (i.e.,) MnSO4 @ 100 ppm, ZnSO4 @ 100 ppm, Cobalt nitrate @ 1 %, Sodium molybdate @ 100 ppm, KCl @ 100 ppm, Pungam leaf extract @ 1 %, Prosopis leaf extract @ 1% and GA3 @ 40 ppm. The above treated seeds along with control were evaluated for their seed quality parameters, growth, gas exchange and yield parameters under laboratory and drought field condition. The study revealed that seeds hardened with prosopis leaf extract @1% recorded higher seed yield, yield attributing characters and many seed quality characters as compared to other treatments and control under drought condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ascertain the quality of drinking water, surveillance of drinking water quality was conducted in Bhopal. The water supply to water treatment plants (WTPs) is from Kolar dam and Upper Lake. There was no significant change in water quality at the Kolar WTP on a day-to-day basis except in summer, when the manganese content of raw water was 0.3-0.4 mg/L, which was removed during treatment. The treated water quality from Birla Mandir WTP was within desirable limits during all the seasons. Filtered water from Idgah WTP showed significant coliform counts, indicating malfunctioning of filter beds. However, after chlorination coliforms were absent. For Phulphukta WTP, residual chlorine at the sump was 0.8-2.0 mg/L, therefore finished water was free from bacterial contamination. The finished water quality of all the WTPs met Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation guidelines. Although the sump water was free from bacterial contamination, it was contaminated with coliforms at the consumer end, which may be attributed to improper maintenance of service reservoirs and contamination en route. The proper maintenance of the distribution network, awareness of hygienic and sanitary conditions around public taps and proper storage of water are prerequisites for maintaining a safe water supply in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distributed arithmetic (DA)-based decision feedback equalizer architecture for IEEE 802.11b PHY scenarios is presented. As the transmission data rate increases, the hardware complexity of the decision feedback equalizer increases due to requirement for large number of taps in feed forward and feedback filters. DA, an efficient technique that uses memories for the computation of inner product of two vectors, has been used since DA-based realization of filters can lead to great computational savings. For higher-order filters, the memory-size requirement in DA would be high, and so ROM decomposition has been employed. The speed is further increased by employing digit-serial input operation. Two architectures have been presented, namely the direct-memory architecture and reduced-memory architecture where the later is derived using the former. A third architecture has also been presented where the offset-binary coding scheme is employed along with the ROM decomposition and digit-serial variants of DA. Synthesis results on Altera Cyclone III EP3C55F484C6 FPGA show that the proposed DA-based implementations are free of hardware multipliers and use less number of hardware resources compared to the multiply-and-accumulate-based implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory experiments were conducted to study the effect of different pre storage treatments and packaging materials on storability of Jatropha seeds. The treatments included halogen mixture @ 3g kg-1, Thiram @ 2g kg-1 and packed in three different containers viz., Aluminium container, Polythene bag and Cloth bag. The seeds were evaluated at monthly intervals upto ten months and observations on germination percent and vigour index were recorded in two varieties viz., Chidambaram local and Sirkali local. The results revealed that Jatropha seeds treated with halogen mixture and stored in aluminium container could be stored upto 7 months without loss in vigour and viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) are widely used in several commercial products due to their unique physicochemical properties. However, their release into the aquatic environments through various anthropogenic activities will lead to toxic effect in aquatic organisms. Although several investigations have been reported on the effect of ZnONPs in aquatic organisms using traditional end points such as survival, growth, and reproduction, the molecular level end points are faster and sensitive. In this study, the expression of different genes involved in oxidative stress response, detoxification, and cellular defense was studied in an ecotoxicologically important bio-monitoring organism Chironomus riparius in order to understand the subcellular effects of ZnONPs. The fourth instar larvae were exposed to 0, 0.2, 2, 10, and 20 mg/L of ZnONPs and Zn ions (in the form of ZnSO 4 .7H 2 O) for 24 and 48 h period. The expression of CuZn superoxide dismutase, manganese superoxide dismutase, catalase, phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase, thioredoxin reductase 1 and delta-3, sigma-4 and epsilon-1 classes of glutathione S -transferases, cytochrome p4509AT2, and heat shock protein 70 were studied using real-time polymerase chain reaction method. Gene expression results showed that the expression of genes related to oxidative stress response was more pronounced as a result of ZnONPs exposure as compared to Zn ions. The mRNA expression of genes involved in detoxification and cellular protection was also modulated. Significantly higher expression levels of oxidative stress-related genes shows that oxidative stress is an important mechanism of toxicity as a result of ZnONPs exposure in C. riparius . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endoscopic endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR), when compared to external techniques, has always had guarded acceptance primarily due to inconsistent success rates. The most common cause of surgical failure in endoscopic DCR is very high/very low mucosal incision, obstruction of neo-ostium by granulation tissue, infolding of flap or formation of synechiae between middle turbinate and the neo-ostium site post-operatively. Several techniques and modifications have been suggested by various authors over the years since the first introduction of endoscopic endonasal DCR. With the newer techniques and advancements, the success rates have become comparable or even higher than external DCR. The aim of our study was to determine the success of endoscopic endonasal DCR using the classical Wormald technique with a few modifications. A total of 37 cases of epiphora secondary to nasolacrimal duct obstruction were operated using endoscopic endonasal DCR technique. The surgical technique included classical Wormald principle of mucosal flap, removal of the overlying bone using Kerrisons punch & chisel-hammer followed by vertical incision on the sac. The medial wall of lacrimal sac was then trimmed using microdebrider, thus apposing it to the nasal mucosal flaps. The anterior end of middle turbinate was also trimmed prophylactically to prevent synechiae formation. The outcome and long term patency of the cases were evaluated. Of the 37 cases, 35 cases (94.6 %) had complete resolution of the epiphora at the end of 1 year follow up period. The two cases of failure were due to canaliculitis in one patient and extensive granulation around the neo-ostium in another. Thus the above method has very good success rate comparable to previous studies and very less chances of granulation tissue formation and blockage of neo-ostium by synechiae/flap infolding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript presents the HIV-1 infection model along with cause of differentiation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte response, the total carrying capacity of CD4+ T-cells, logistic growth term, effect of combination of antiretroviral therapy and discrete type immune response delay. The possibility of existence of multiple equilibriums for the proposed model is analyzed. Asymptotic stability of the non-delayed infection model is proved from the roots of characteristic equation which are obtained by employing the Jacobian matrix method. The existence of Hopf bifurcation due to immune activation delay is proved. The stability switching is studied by choosing immune activation delay as a bifurcation parameter. Utilizing normal form theory and center manifold , we derive the explicit formulae for determining the stability and direction of the periodic solutions bifurcating from Hopf bifurcations. Numerical simulations are executed to verify the derived analytical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density functional theory calculations have been combined with forcefield-based grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations to explore the adsorption of CO2, N2, CH4and H2on the small one-dimensional channel MIL-102, a naphthalene tetracarboxylate-based metal-organic framework (MOF) built up from a connection of trimers of trivalent iron. A detailed analysis is provided on the preferential arrangement of the confined adsorbates as well as the energetics of the host/guest interactions. The co-adsorption properties of this solid for the elimination of CO2from hydrogen, natural and flue gases are then revealed. The so-predicted performances are further compared with those reported so far for a diverse series of MOFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since HIV was first diagnosed in human, a great number of scientific works have been undertaken to explore the biological mechanisms involved in the infection and progression of the disease. This paper deals with stability and bifurcation analyses of mathematical model that represents the dynamics of HIV infection of thymus. The existence and stability of the equilibria are investigated. The model is described by a system of delay differential equations with logistic growth term, cure rate and discrete type of time delay. Choosing the time delay as a bifurcation parameter, the analysis is mainly focused on the Hopf bifurcation problem to predict the existence of a limit cycle bifurcating from the infected steady state. Further, using center manifold theory and normal form method we derive explicit formulae to determine the stability and direction of the limit cycles. Moreover the mitosis rate r also plays a vital role in the model, so we fix it as second bifurcation parameter in the incidence of viral infection. Our analysis shows that, while both the bifurcation parameters can destabilize the equilibrium E* and cause limit cycles. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the qualitative behaviors of the inherent model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Study was conducted at Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University Annamalai Nagar to standardize the dosage of flyash for seed pelleting in sesame with different concentrations ranging from 25 g to 300 g with 3 doses of gum as adhesive material. Based on the results, it was found that seed quality charecters increased along with increased dosage of flyash treatment in general and flyash treatment @ 250 g.kg-1 and with 10% or 5 % gum Arabica as adhesive material was identified as the best dose for seed pelleting in sesame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five lines and four testers were crossed in a line x tester fashion resulting in twenty hybrids. Among the twenty hybrids, the two best hybrids viz., VRMGG 1 x VBN 1 and VRMGG Local x PMB 27 were selected and subjected to generation mean analysis. Among the characters studied, the parents VBN 1 and VRMGG 1 were found to be good general combiners for seed yield plant-1 and its all its related characters. Among the crosses, VRMMG 1 x VBN 1 and EC 30072 x VBN 1 exhibited the highest per se performance, hence they were selected for this study. The significance of 'C' & 'M', m, d, h, i and 1 components demonstrated the importance of both additive and dominance effects for traits among the crosses. However, the value of H was greater than D for grain yield plant-1, number of pods plant-1, seed protein content and leaf area index for both the crosses depicting the preponderance of dominance effects in their genetic control. Hence, the selection followed by hybridization in early generations was a suitable breeding method for progress in these traits. Conversely, greater value of D over H demonstrated additive nature of genes for number of branches plant-1, number of clusters plant-1, nitrate reductase activity, photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance which advocated the utilization of pedigree for improvement of these parameters. Inter-mating or recurrent selection would be followed for genetic enhancement of grain yield in mungbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To report the prevalence of abnormal treadmill test responses and their association with mortality in a large consecutive series of patients referred for standard exercise tests, with testing performed and reported in a standardized fashion.Background: Exercise testing is widely performed, but few databases exist of large numbers of consecutive tests performed on patients referred for routine clinical purposes using standardized methods. Even fewer of the available databases have information regarding all-cause mortality as an outcome.Methods: All patients referred for evaluation at two university-affiliated Veterans Affairs medical centers who underwent exercise treadmill testing for clinical indications between 1987 and 2000 were determined to be dead or alive using the Social Security death index after a mean 6.2 years (median, 7 years) of follow-up. Clinical and exercise test variables were collected prospectively according to standard definitions; testing and data management were performed in a standardized fashion using a computer-assisted protocol. All-cause mortality was utilized as the end point for follow-up. Standard survival analysis was performed, including Kaplan-Meier curves and a Cox hazard model.Results: There were 6,213 male patients (mean +/- SD age, 59 +/- 11 years) who underwent standard exercise ECG treadmill testing over the study period with a mean follow-up duration of 6.2 +/- 3.7 years. There were no complications of testing in this clinically referred population, 78% of whom were referred for chest pain, or risk factors or signs or symptoms of ischemic heart disease. Overlapping thirds had typical angina or history of myocardial infarction (MI). Five hundred seventy-nine patients had prior coronary artery bypass surgery, and 522 patients had a history of congestive heart failure (CHF). Indications for testing were in accordance with published guidelines. Twenty percent died over the follow-up period, for an average annual mortality rate of 2.6%. Cox hazard function chose the following variables in rank order as independently and significantly associated with time to death: exercise capacity (metabolic equivalents < 5, age > 65 years, history of CHF, and history of MI. A score based on these variables (summing up the four variables [if yes = 1 point]) classified patients into low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk groups. The high-risk group (score > or = 3) has a hazard ratio of 5.0 (95% confidence interval, 4.7 to 5.3) and a 5-year mortality rate of 31%.Conclusion: This comprehensive analysis provides rates of various abnormal responses that can be expected in patients referred for exercise testing at a typical medical center. Four simple variables combined as a score powerfully stratified patients according to prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Milk production is one of the most important economic traits in dairy cattle. Crossing of zebu cattle (Bos indicus) with temperate cattle breeds (Bos taurus) was undertaken to improve the milk production in India. Crossbreeding has resulted in improved production performance of the dairy animlas over the past few decades. Methods: Data on 50 purebred Sahiwal cows from the Livestock Farm Complex, College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad and 50 Holstein Friesian  Sahiwal crossbred cows maintained at the Military Dairy Farm, Secunderabad were utilized to study the influence of breed and parity on various production and reproduction traits. The various traits studied were: Total lactation milk yield (TLMY) Lactation length (LL), Peak yield (PY), Age at first service (AFS), Age at first calving (AFC), Gestation period (GP), Service period (SP), Dry period (DP) and Calving interval (Cl). Result: In the present study, significant effect of breed was found on the TLMY and PY with the crossbreds recording higher values for both the traits. The means for TLMY, PY, LL, GP, SP, DP and CI were 1768.32±109.67 kg, 10.17±0.50 kg, 304.41±13.00 days, 277.71±2.24 days, 182.60±15.51 days, 167.47±10.68 days and 430.23±13.46 days in Sahiwal and 2983.45±78.32 kg, 14.92±0.36 kg, 324.71±9.29 days, 275.34 days, 181.09±10.91 days, 127.01±7.51, 413.61±9.47 days in crossbred cows respectively. It may be concluded that the productive performance of crossbred cows was better than that of indigenous cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19, an acute respiratory viral infection conveyed by pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has affected millions of individuals globally, and is a public health emergency of international concern. Till now, there are no highly effective therapies for this infection without vaccination. As they can evolve quickly and cross the strain level easily, these viruses are causing epidemics or pandemics that are allied with more severe clinical diseases. A new approach is needed to improve immunity to confirm the protection against emerging viral infections. Probiotics can modify gut microbial dysbiosis, improve the host immune system, and stimulate immune signaling, increasing systemic immunity. Several probiotic bacterial therapies have been proven to decrease the period of bacterial or viral infections. Superinduction of inflammation, termed cytokine storm, has been directly linked with pneumonia and severe complications of viral respiratory infections. In this case, probiotics as potential immunomodulatory agents can be an appropriate candidate to improve the host’s response to respiratory viral infections. During this COVID-19 pandemic, any approach that can induce mucosal and systemic immunity could be helpful. Here, we summarize contexts regarding the effectiveness of various probiotics for preventing virus-induced respiratory infectious diseases, especially those that could be employed for COVID-19 patients. In addition, the effects of probiotics, their mechanisms on different aspects of immune responses against respiratory viral infection, and their antiviral properties in clinical findings have been described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents four highly efficient hardware architectures for Deblocking Filter (DBF) which can be used in High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder or decoder. Mixed pipelined and block processing techniques are used in these architectures to achieve high throughput while consuming minimum possible area. In these proposed architectures, the coding tree unit with 64 × 64 blocks of pixels in a frame are processed in the form of 32 × 32 blocks of pixels. Once the deblocking filtering process completes, these pixels will be stored in block memory via output buffer. Experimental results on Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platforms demonstrate that the proposed hardware architecture has a throughput improvement of 69% to 83% at the expense of slightly increased gate count compared to the previously known architectures of DBF. With 180 nm technology library, the fastest architecture out of the four achieves a throughput of 162 FPS (Frames per second) at an operating frequency of 250 MHz. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government agencies and many non-governmental organizations often need to publish sensitive data that contain information about individuals. The sensitive data or private data is an important source of information for the agencies like government and non-governmental organization for research and allocation of public funds, medical research and trend analysis. The important problem here is publishing data without revealing the sensitive information of individuals. This sensitive or private information of any individual is essential to several data repositories like medical data, census data, voter registration data, social network data and customer data. In this paper a personalized anonymization approach is proposed which preserves the privacy while the sensitive data is published. The main contributions of this paper are three folds: (i) the definition of the data collection and publication process, (ii) the privacy framework model and (iii) personalized anonymization approach. The experimental analysis is presented at the end; it shows this approach performs better over the distinct l -diversity measure, probabilistic l -diversity measure and k -anonymity with t -closeness measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the interaction potential energy profiles corresponding to the imidazole + CO2 system are determined using explicitly correlated coupled-cluster methods (CCSD(T)-F12) in combination with the VTZ-F12 basis set. The imidazole + CO2 van der Waals complex, which represents a relevant system for the study of the CO2 capture and storage in new materials, such as the zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), shows three different equilibrium geometries, two planar ones of Cs symmetry and one C1 structure. Their geometrical parameters and harmonic frequencies, as well as the one-dimensional potential energy profiles for the complex formation processes, are provided. Intermolecular bindings occur through the imidazole nitrogen atoms. The interaction energy depends strongly on the two molecule relative orientations. The full-dimensional intermolecular potentials show a significant anisotropy. The implications for the macromolecular simulations of the CO2 capture and sequestration in ZIFs are discussed. Preliminary tests of various theoretical methods (DFT and ab initio) have been performed to search for a methodology suitable for further application in large systems such as the substituted imidazoles (Zn-imidazoles or R-imidazoles). In these tests, the results obtained using CCSD(T)-F12 are employed as benchmarks. Suddenly, the MP2 theory competes with the explicitly correlated methods. MP2 theory corrects the deviation of the density functional theory calculations in the long-range region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of machining parameters (rake angle and turning speed) at fixed feed rate and depth of cut on corrosion behavior of mild steel is addressed in the present study along with analysis of tribological properties of the machined samples. Immersion and salt-fog exposure tests in 3.5% NaCl are carried out to understand the corrosion behavior of the machined samples. Detailed microstructural characterization of the machined samples (optical metallography and scanning electron microscopy) and their rust constituents as determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is used to establish microstructure-properties correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Substance abuse and dependency are most common during adolescence. Adolescents are in a transitional phase, confusion can sometimes make them susceptible to taking up unfavourable habits. Attitude shaping by parents and knowledge of harmfulness of substance abuse can indirectly motivate the user to give up the habit. Substance abuse control programmes, focusing on youth, are essential, to reduce the burden of related diseases. Objectives: It was aimed to assess the level of knowledge of adolescents regarding substance abuse, to find the effectiveness of role play on knowledge regarding substance abuse among adolescents, to find out the association of knowledge scores of adolescents regarding substance abuse with selected socio demographic variables. Material and Methods: A quasi experimental, one group pre-test post-test design with evaluative approach was adopted for this study. The study was conducted at Krishna Charitable Trust's English Medium School and Junior College, Karad, Maharashtra, India. Simple random sampling with lottery method was used for selecting the 60 subjects from VIIIth, IXth and Xth class. On the 1st day a structured knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge on substance abuse and role play was conducted followed by post test on the 7th day. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: The mean and standard deviation of the knowledge scores of the subjects in pre test was 11.51 ± 3.55 which increased in post test after role play to 17.5 ± 2.89. The paired 't' test value were 15.363 (p < 0.0001) showing a significant increase in knowledge regarding substance abuse. There was an association between type of family and general information on substance abuse, education of father with commonly abused substances and the total score on substance abuse, education of mother with commonly abused substances and prevention and management of substance abuse and number of children in the family was associated with general information on substance abuse after role play. Conclusion: The study showed that the role play on substance abuse was effective in improving the knowledge of adolescents and thus helps them to understand the harmful effects of substance abuse and to take necessary methods to control it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis is one of the most common infections in the world. It is seen that tuberculous otitis media (TOM) is almost secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis. In this review we have tried to deal with all the aspects of the intra cranial complications of TOM such as tuberculoma, otitic hydrocephalus, brain abscess and tuberculous meningitis. The aspects covered in this review are the pathology, clinical features, and investigations of the intra cranial manifestations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhinosporidiosis is a fungal disease caused by the organism Rhinosporidum seeberi. The life cycle and mode of infection are vague, and there are many hypothesis on it. Its prevalence in the world is unique as it is only limited to certain regions like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. We have tried to correlate the various factors, which will probably be associated with this pattern of prevalence of the disease. We have included factors like community practices, climatic conditions, rain fall pattern, water physiochemical properties, zoonotic and the aquatic organism composition in the specified regions. Thus, it serves as a wholesome idea of why the disease must only be prevalent in certain parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]