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Several construction projects globally suffer due to time and cost overruns. These could be due to reasons attributable to the contracting parties or unforeseen external circumstances. Disputes often arise between the parties regarding which side caused the delay and the compensation terms for the delay. Thus, this study is motivated to explore a digital contractual solution for contract administrators and project managers using blockchain technology-enabled smart contracts. In this regard, the research attempts to develop smart contract clauses that (1) carefully allocate liability and delay accountability at various construction stages; (2) automatically compute the delay compensations and notify the responsible party; and (3) determine the resultant extensions of time and cost, with cost variations. The goal is to develop computable legal contracts for industry and academia focusing on the extension of time, delay compensation, and variation, which can be applied to all projects worldwide, regardless of the complexity or scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Itolizumab downregulates the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules by inhibiting CD6 leading to lower levels of interferon-γ, interleukin-6, and tumor necrotic factor-α and reduced T-cell infiltration at inflammatory sites. This study aims to compare the effects of tocilizumab and itolizumab in the management of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: The study population was adults (>18 years) with severe COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to the intensive care unit receiving either tocilizumab or itolizumab during their stay. The primary outcome was clinical improvement (CI), defined as a two-point reduction on a seven-point ordinal scale in the status of the patient from initiating the drug or live discharge. The secondary outcomes were time until CI, improvement in PO2/FiO2 ratio, best PO2/FiO2 ratio, need for mechanical ventilation after administration of study drugs, time to discharge, and survival days. Results: Of the 126 patients included in the study, 92 received tocilizumab and 34 received itolizumab. CI was seen in 46.7% and 61.7% of the patients in the tocilizumab and itolizumab groups, respectively and was not statistically significant (P=0.134). The PO2/FiO2 ratio was significantly better with itolizumab compared to tocilizumab (median [interquartile range]: 315 [200–380] vs. 250 [150–350], P=0.043). The incidence of serious adverse events due to the study drugs was significantly higher with itolizumab compared to tocilizumab (14.7% vs. 3.3%, P=0.032). Conclusions: The CI with itolizumab is similar to tocilizumab. Better oxygenation can be achieved with itolizumab and it can be a substitute for tocilizumab in managing severe COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, four varieties of hybrid Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) panels made of kevlar-29 and natural fibers are studied. All panels have kevlar-29 face sheets and natural fiber core, such as jute, flax, sisal, and hemp. This research focuses on the behavior of these hybrid FRP panels under flexural and impact loading so that the panels can be explored for the structural/semi-structural members of army shelters, portable helipad, and roofing panels in high-altitude areas. Natural fibers are chemically treated with NaOH to improve hydrophobicity. The panels are vacuum bagged, the fiber volume fraction is 0.39, and the thickness is close to 4 mm. Three-point flexural loading using the universal testing machine and low-velocity impact loading up to 24 J under drop weight impact test setup is carried out to characterize the panels. Damage area, delamination, permanent deformation, indentation depth, energy absorbed, flexural strength, and modulus are measured. The hybrid flax/kevlar panel and hemp/kevlar panel, each resist impact with permanent deformation less than 0.5 mm up to 24 J. Without significant face sheet or core fiber breakage, the delamination is spread over a small radial distance of 18.5 and 24.5 mm, respectively. Interface matrix breakage causes delamination. The load vs deflection curve is almost linear under flexural loading, and specimens failed under compression at 240 MPa. The numerical simulation is also done using ANSYS and LS-DYNA for detailed study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistent challenges posed by pollution and climate change are significant factors disrupting ecosystems, particularly aquatic environments. Numerous contaminants found in aquatic systems, such as ammonia and metal toxicity, play a crucial role in adversely affecting aquaculture production. Against this backdrop, fish feed was developed using quinoa husk (the byproduct of quinoa) as a substitute for fish meal. Six isonitrogenous diets (30%) and isocaloric diets were formulated by replacing fish meal with quinoa husk at varying percentages: 0% quinoa (control), 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35%. An experiment was conducted to explore the potential of quinoa husk in replacing fish meal and assess its ability to mitigate ammonia and arsenic toxicity as well as high-temperature stress in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. The formulated feed was also examined for gene regulation related to antioxidative status, immunity, stress proteins, growth regulation, and stress markers. The gene regulation of sod, cat, and gpx in the liver was notably upregulated under concurrent exposure to ammonia, arsenic, and high-temperature (NH3 + As + T) stress. However, quinoa husk at 25% downregulated sod, cat, and gpx expression compared to the control group. Furthermore, genes associated with stress proteins HSP70 and DNA damage-inducible protein (DDIP) were significantly upregulated in response to stressors (NH3 + As + T), but quinoa husk at 25% considerably downregulated HSP70 and DDIP to mitigate the impact of stressors. Growth-responsive genes such as myostatin (MYST) and somatostatin (SMT) were remarkably downregulated, whereas growth hormone receptor (GHR1 and GHRβ), insulin-like growth factors (IGF1X, IGF2X), and growth hormone gene were significantly upregulated with quinoa husk at 25%. The gene expression of apoptosis (Caspase 3a and Caspase 3b) and nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were also noticeably downregulated with quinoa husk (25%) reared under stressful conditions. Immune-related gene expression, including immunoglobulin (Ig), toll-like receptor (TLR), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), and interleukin (IL), strengthened fish immunity with quinoa husk feed. The results revealed that replacing 25% of fish meal with quinoa husk could improve the gene regulation of P. hypophthalmus involved in mitigating ammonia, arsenic, and high-temperature stress in fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of a new and sustainable catalyst is necessary to the society for providing economical technology. Surface modification of nanometal oxides is one of the rapidly growing methods for developing a sustainable catalyst with attractive properties than their parent oxide. In this work, surface‐modified nickel ferrites have been carried out using 4,4′‐biphenyldisulfonic acid (BPDSA) as the linker. Thus, obtained modified material has been characterized using different techniques such as DLS, FT‐IR, TGA, XRD, VSM, and XPS. This well‐characterized, stable, robust, recyclable material offers a good conversion in the fatty acid, that is, oleic acid esterification in the presence of methanol in a short period of time (3.0 h). Based on the kinetic study in the oleic acid esterification, it fits in the pseudo first‐order kinetics, and activation energy was found to be 60.0 kJ/mol. Further, the potentiality of our catalyst was also tested in the transesterification of various raw materials like mustard oil, olive oil, almond oil, and neem oil. In addition, it provides an excellent conversion with microalgae lipid extraction for the production of biodiesel. The kinematic viscosity of the methyl oleate (biodiesel) has been found to be 5.0426 mm2/s at 25°C whereas the dynamic viscosity is 6.0511 mPa, which is nearly the same as biodiesel obtained from Dunaliella salina, microalgae lipid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stagnant crop productivity and declining factor productivity especially under rice-wheat system in changing climate scenario demand the adoption of nutrient responsive high yielding climate-resilient varieties. Considering these challenges, the present study was conducted during two consecutive Rabi seasons of 2020-21 and 2021-22 with an aim to improve wheat productivity through appropriate combinations of genotypes, nutrient management and plant growth regulators (PGRs). The experiment was conducted in split-plot design with two nutrient levels {recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) as 150:60:40 kg N, P2O5 and K2O ha-1, respectively, and 150% RDF + 15 t FYM (farm yard manure) ha-1 + two sprays of PGRs consisting of tank-mix of chlormequat chloride @ 400 g + tebuconazole @ 172 g ha-1 at the first node and flag leaf stage} in main-plots and nine genotypes (DBW187, DBW303, DBW327, DBW332, DBW370, DBW371, DBW372, HD3086 and PBW872) in sub-plots. The plant height significantly reduced while earheads m-2 and grains m-2 improved with PGRs application under high fertility which led to increased (12.6%) mean grain yield over RDF. Among genotypes, maximum yield was observed for DBW370 (67.84 q ha-1) followed by PBW872, DBW371 and DBW372. Nutrient management and genotype interaction revealed that more grains m-2 in DBW370 led to maximum yield (66.2 q ha-1) at RDF while bolder grains in PBW872 made it top yielder (71.16 q ha-1) under high fertility condition. It is concluded that productivity of modern wheat cultivars can be improved through higher fertility and tank-mix application of chlormequat + tebuconazole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimizing the design and operational parameters for tillage tools is crucial for improved performance. Recently, artificial intelligence approaches, like ANN with learning capabilities, have gained attention for cost-effective and timely problem solving. Soil-bin experiments were conducted and data were used to develop ANN and regression models using gang angle, velocity ratio, soil CI, and depth as input parameters, while tractor equivalent PTO (PTOeq) power was used as an output. Both models were trained with a randomly selected 90% of the data, reserving 10% for testing purposes. In regression, models were iteratively fitted using nonlinear least-squares optimization. The ANN model utilized a multilayer feed-forward network with a backpropagation algorithm. The comparative performance of both models was evaluated in terms of R2 and mean square error (MSE). The ANN model outperformed the regression model in the training, testing, and validation phases. A well-trained ANN model was integrated with the particle-swarm optimization (PSO) technique for optimization of the operational parameters. The optimized configuration featured a 36.6° gang angle, 0.50 MPa CI, 100 mm depth, and 3.90 velocity ratio for a predicted tractor PTOeq power of 3.36 kW against an actual value of 3.45 kW. ANN–PSO predicted the optimal parameters with a variation between the predicted and the actual tractor PTOeq power within ±6.85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now a days, secure data communication over computer network system is a major issue in which impact of feature reduction plays a vital role to secure network by early detection of intrusion. It not only keeps a deep impact on the performance of existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) algorithms but also affects the computational complexity. Although lots of techniques have been offered for feature reduction by researchers and they have their own perks and quirks, but still they are several flows. To manipulate the same dataset for different classifiers and to select different number of features for the detection of attacks are not only having too much computational cost but also time consuming. The experiments have been carried out using "Python" programming language based library "Scikit‐Learn" software on "Kddcup99" dataset from UCI machine learning repository as a test bed. In this article a classification and regression trees (CART) based feature selection algorithm has been proposed which offers optimum set of features. Further optimum set of features has been offered by our proposed work passed over various classifiers for training and testing to establish network intrusion detection system (NIDS). We have compared the performance accuracy of various existing machine learning (ML) based classification algorithms and obtained higher performance accuracy with lower computational cost. The proposed algorithm having optimum time complexity and accuracy in designing of IDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT), an enlarged Internet-based network, is a key element of the next information technology revolution. With the evolution of numerous IoT based smart applications like smart city, healthcare, huge amount of heterogenous data called big data with varying volume, velocity and variety is getting space on various storage systems. Data redundancy is a serious problem that wastes a lot of storage capacity and network bandwidth with less data security in setups that blend cloud integrated IoT data storage. Data deduplication/redundancy elimination strategies can effectively decrease and control this issue by removing duplicate data in cloud-integrated IoT storage systems. Security and privacy of data is another major concern. To maximise the storage effectively and extremely securely, with maintained data integrity, confidentiality, minimal storage cost and increased storage use, data deduplication (DD) over encrypted data is also a key problem in cloud integrated IoT storage and computing environment. With the dynamic nature of big data, the majority of current data deduplication techniques which primarily revolve around the static scenes like the backup and archive systems, are inappropriate to be applicable for real time scenarios in IoT environment. To overcome the aforementioned issues this survey presents an analysis of literature on conventional deduplication techniques. It is highlighting the need of deduplication in IoT oriented big data, its parameters and properties of effectiveness, with taxonomy for secure and conventional deduplication and scope of implementing it with new technologies; Blockchain. Further, it elaborates on issues and challenges along with future scope of deduplication schemes in various application domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an urgent needs to address climate change and pollution in aquatic systems using suitable mitigation measures to avoid the aquatic animals' extinction. The vulnerability and extinction of the aquatic animals in the current scenario must be addressed to enhance safe fish food production. Taking into consideration of such issues in fisheries and aquaculture, an experiment was designed to mitigate high temperature (T) and low pH stress, as well as arsenic (As) pollution in fish using copper (Cu) containing diets. In the present investigation, the Cu-containing diets graded with 0, 4, 8, and 12 mg kg-1 were prepared and fed to Pangasianodon hypophthalmus reared under As, low pH, and high-temperature stress. The gene expression was highly affected in terms of the primary, secondary, and tertiary stress response, whereas supplementation of Cu-containing diet mitigates the stress response. Oxidative stress genes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were significantly upregulated by stressors (As, As + T, and As + pH + T). Whereas, heat shock protein (HSP 70), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), metallothionine (MT), caspase 3a (Cas 3a), and cytochrome P450 (CYP 450) were highly upregulated by stressors, while dietary Cu at 8 mg kg-1 diet significantly downregulated these gene expressions. Indeed, the immunity-related genes viz. TNFα, Ig, TLR, and immune-related attributes viz. albumin, globulin, total protein, A:G ratio, blood glucose, NBT, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were also improved with Cu-containing diets. Cu containing diets substantially improved neurotransmitter enzyme (AChE) and vitamin C (Vit C). DNA damage was also reduced with supplementation of Cu at 8 mg kg-1 diet. The growth index viz. final body weight gain (%), specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, food conversion ratio, relative feed intake, and daily growth index were noticeably enhanced by Cu diets (4 and 8 mg kg-1 diet). The growth-related genes expressions viz. growth hormone (GH), growth hormone regulator 1 (Ghr1), growth hormone regulator β (Ghrβ,) myostatin (MYST), and somatostatin (SMT) supported the growth enhancement with Cu at 8 mg kg-1 diet. The bioaccumulation of As was reduced with Cu-containing diets. The fish were infected with Aeromonas hydrophila at the end of the 105 days experimental trial. Cu at 8 mg kg-1 diet improved immunity, reduced the cumulative mortality, and enhanced the relative percentage survival of the fish. The results revealed that the innovative Cu diets could reduce the extinction of the fish against climate change and pollution era and produce the safest production that is safe to humans for consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing challenges of climate change and pollution are major factors disturbing ecosystems, including aquatic systems. They also have an impact on gene regulation and biochemical changes in aquatic animals, including fish. Understanding the mechanisms of gene regulation and biochemical changes due to climate change and pollution in aquatic animals is a challenging task. However, with this backdrop, the present investigation was conducted to explore the effects of arsenic (As) and ammonia (NH3) toxicity and high-temperature (T) stress on gene regulation and biochemical profiles, mitigated by dietary manganese (Mn) in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. The fish were exposed to different combinations of As, NH3, and T, and fed with dietary Mn at 4, 8, and 12 mg kg−1 to evaluate the gene expression of immunity, antioxidative status, cytokine, and NfKB signaling pathway genes. HSP 70, cytochrome P450 (CYP 450), metallothionein (MT), DNA damage-inducible protein (DDIP), caspase (CAS), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), toll-like receptor (TLR), interleukin (IL), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were noticeably highly upregulated by As + NH3 + T stress, whereas Mn diet at 8 mg kg−1 downregulated these genes. Further, total immunoglobulin (Ig), myostatin (MYST), somatostatin (SMT), growth hormone (GH), growth hormone regulator 1 and β, insulin-like growth factors (IGF1X1 and IGF1X2) were significantly upregulated by Mn diets. The biochemical profiles were highly affected by stressors (As + NH3 + T). The bioaccumulation of arsenic in different tissues was also notably reduced by Mn diets. Furthermore, the infectivity of the fish was reduced, and survival against pathogenic bacteria was enhanced by Mn diet at 8 mg kg−1. The results of the present investigation revealed that dietary Mn at 8 mg kg−1 controls gene regulation against multiple stressors (As, NH3, As + NH3, NH3 + T, As + NH3 + T) in fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public construction projects are exposed to corruption vulnerabilities at various stages, which can be manipulated by corrupt actors. Effective management of public resources requires holistic anticipation and mitigation of corruption along the entire project cycle. This study examines the role of the organizational integrity climate in influencing project corruption risks. Twenty-two critical integrity climate measures (ICMs) and 30 major project corruption risks (PCRs) are identified from an extensive literature review and parallel discussions with practitioners. A total of one hundred and ninety-three practitioners in large public organizations in India evaluated the ICMs and PCRs through a questionnaire survey. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four integrity climate factors and five project corruption risk factors which were used to build a hypothesized model of their relationship. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) used to test the model shows a significant mitigating effect of integrity climate on project corruption. Key process management, control and oversight, commitment to integrity, and system accessibility and stakeholders' engagement are the critical integrity climate factors that inhibit corruption. The study underpins the role of the organizational integrity climate in addressing corruption in public construction projects and thus enriches the literature on anti-corruption management. The rich insights offered will enable policymakers and practitioners to develop a control environment in public organizations with a focus on integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the project is to develop a fast, simple, precise, and cost-efficient RP-HPLC method for measuring the amounts of Imatinib mesylateand Anastrazole simultaneously in both pharmaceutical products and bulk samples. This technique has effectively achieved the separation of Imatinib mesylateand Anastrazole in large quantities. The separation was performed using a Phenomenex C18 150 x 4.6 mm, 5m analytical column at a wavelength of 280 nm. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of methanol, water and acetonitrile in a ratio of 30:60:10. The pH of the buffer was adjusted to 5.5. The separation was carried out in isocratic elution mode with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Imatinib mesylate had a retention time of 1.885 minutes, whereas Anastrazole showed a retention duration of 3.139 minutes. Quantitative analysis of Imatinib mesylate and Anastrazole was achieved using PDA detection at 285 nm using a linear calibration curve. The concentration ranges of 10-50 μg/ml (with a correlation coefficient of 0.9995) and 1-5 μg/ml (with a correlation coefficient of 0.9995) were used for reliable quantification. The limit of detection (LOD) for Imatinib mesylate was 3.1245 μg/ml, whereas the LOD for Anastrazole was 0.3356 μg/ml. The proposed method is highly suitable for use in quality-control laboratories for the bulk and pharmaceutical quantitative analysis of pharmaceuticals, whether used individually or in combination. This technique is characterised by its simplicity and efficiency, while yet ensuring a high level of accuracy and precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Temperature stress (heat or cold) is becoming a major area of concern due to climate change affecting crop production worldwide. Chickpea leaves are most sensitive to variation in temperature so any variation in temperature (High or Low) causes substantial losses in yield due to disruption in physiological processes of the plant cell. Therefore to achieve maximum production under current scenario of climate change a better understanding of stress induced responses in leaves of chickpea and interrelationship between seed yield and leaf traits can prove to be useful. Methods: The field trials was conducted with ten genotypes of chickpea for two consecutive years (2017-2019) at Pulses Section, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar to study various traits of leaf at 50% flowering stage (80-90 DAS). Temperature stress (cold or heat) was given by manipulating the sowing dates that is 15th October (early sown condition in Haryana), 15th November (Normal sown condition in Haryana) and 15th December (late sown condition in Haryana). Data were recorded when temperature was (<523892C for 7 days) in early sown and (>3523892C for 7 days) in late sown crops. Result: Results indicated that early sown crops experienced low temperature stress in the month of December-January while late sown crops showed high temperature stress in the month of March-April. The maximum values of leaf parameters were found in crops sown on 15th Novemberand minimum in 15th December sown crops and no significant differences in seed yield was recorded between 15th October and 15th November sowing, however, further delay in sowing to 15th December showed significant reduction in seed yield. Among genotypes maximum leaf parameters and seed yield were observed in H12-64 and H13-01 while minimum were found in H14-04. Seed yield exhibited significant positive correlation with all traits in 15th October and 15th November sowing while non-significant was on 15th December sowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central venous access devices (chemoport) are nowadays most commonly used for delivering chemotherapy drugs. As the chemoport insertion procedures are increasing in number, there are documented complications which are common, life threatening if not immediately treated, and rare. The common complications are pneumothorax, infection, thrombosis, hemothorax, drug extravasation, and malfunction of chemoport. A rare and dangerous complication is fracture embolization of catheter. Another rare complication is flipping of chemoport. In this article, we would like to present images of two patients with one image showing catheter embolized to right ventricle and another patient with port flipping and their management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several speech enhancement techniques like Spectral Subtraction, MMSE, Log-MMSE, β -order MMSE, adaptive β -order MMSE and compressive sensing methods are developed worldwide. Scientists, engineers and researchers have implemented, evaluated and tested all methods individually with the different speech corpus. However, we found few articles on comparative studies of various speech enhancement techniques. In the present paper, several speech enhancement techniques have been studied, and their performance in terms of speech quality measures is compared objectively and subjectively. The results have been evaluated not only through speech quality measures but also in terms of waveform and spectrogram for speech enhancement applications. For this, MATLAB is used for the simulation of all methods. After getting the enhanced speech signals, we evaluated their enhanced speech signals of the methods. Results in terms of objective evaluation parameters indicated that the adaptive β -order MMSE-based method produces good-quality speech signals compared to the other methods. Also, we evaluated their enhanced speech signals using a listening test, i.e. subjective evaluation. In the subjective quality test through mean opinion score (using the listening test), the performance of the adaptive β -order MMSE method and GOMP are equal. In the case of waveform and spectrogram, the visualisation of enhanced speech signal obtained from GOMP-based compressive algorithms is very close to clean speech signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia and arsenic pollution, along with the impact of climate change, represent critical factors influencing both the quantity and quality of aquaculture production. Recent developments have underscored the significance of these issues, as they not only disrupt aquatic ecosystems but also have far reaching consequences for human health. To addressed above challenges, an experiment was conducted to delineate the potential of manganese nanoparticles (Mn-NPs) to mitigate arsenic and ammonia pollution as well as high temperature stress in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. The fish were exposed to different combination of arsenic and ammonia pollution as well as high temperature stress, while simultaneously incorporating diets enriched with Mn-NPs. The inclusion of Mn-NPs at 3 mg kg−1 in the diet led to a noteworthy downregulation of cortisol and HSP 70 gene expression, indicating their potential in mitigating stress responses. Furthermore, immune related gene expressions were markedly altered in response to the stressors but demonstrated improvement with the Mn-NPs diet. Interestingly, the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), caspase (CAS), metallothionine (MT) and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes expression were prominently upregulated, signifying a stress response. Whereas, Mn-NPs at 3 mg kg−1 diet was significantly downregulated theses gene expression and reduces the stress. In addition to stress-related genes, we evaluated the growth-related gene expressions such as growth hormone (GH), growth hormone regulator 1 (GHR1 and GHRβ), Insulin like growth factor (IGF1 and IGF2) were significantly upregulated whereas, myostatin and somatostatin were downregulated upon the supplementation of dietary Mn-NPs with or without stressors in fish. The gene expression of DNA damage inducible protein and DNA damage in response to head DNA % and tail DNA % was protected by Mn-NPs diets. Furthermore, Mn-NPs demonstrated a capacity to enhance the detoxification of arsenic in different fish tissues, resulting in reduced bioaccumulation of arsenic in muscle and other tissues. This finding highlights Mn-NPs as a potential solution for addressing bioaccumulation associated risks. Our study aimed to comprehensively examined the role of dietary Mn-NPs in mitigating the multiple stressors using gene regulation mechanisms, with enhancing the productive performance of P. hypophthalmus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of Compressed natural gas as a complement to diesel in compression ignition engines in dualfuel combustion mode is a viable technology for increasing efficiency and lowering emissions. This work investigates the impact of a dual-fuel operating mode on the engine exhaust pollutant emissions of a diesel engine using compressed natural gas as the principal fuel and neat diesel as the pilot fuel. Compressed natural gas was injected into an intake manifold of a single-cylinder diesel test engine under different engine operating parameters, and up to 80% substitution was attained. And diesel fuel was injected after the compressed natural gas air mixture was compressed. The tests were carried out at five different compression ratios ranging from 13:1 to 15:1 in steps of 0.5:1. The experiment study revealed that injecting CNG into diesel engines via dual fuel combustion significantly impacted exhaust gas emissions compared to pure diesel combustion. The Carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were increased, while carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOX) and smoke opacity were decreased in dual fuel combustion compared to single diesel fuel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the intense worldwide efforts towards the identification of potential anti-CoV therapeutics, no antiviral drugs have yet been discovered. Numerous vaccines are now approved for use, but they all serve as preventative measures. To effectively treat viral infections, it is crucial to find new antiviral drugs that are derived from natural sources. Various compounds with potential activity against 3 chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) were reported and some are validated by bioassay studies. Therefore, we performed the computational screening of phytoconstituents of Codonopsis lanceolata to search for potential antiviral hit candidates. The curated compounds of the plant C. lanceolata were collected and downloaded from the literature. The binding affinity of the curated datasets was predicted for the target 3CLpro. Stigmasterol exhibits the highest docking score for the 3CLpro target. In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were conducted for the validation of docking results using root mean square deviation and root mean square fluctuation plots. The MD results indicated that the docked complex was stable and retained hydrogen bonding and non-bonding interactions. Furthermore, the calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters and Lipinski's rule of five suggest that C. lanceolata has the potential for drug-likeness. In order to develop new medicines for this debilitating disease, we will focus on the primary virus-based and host-based targets that can direct medicinal chemists to identify novel treatments to produce new drugs for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytochrome P450s (Cyt P450s) and peroxidases are enzymes featuring iron heme cofactors that have wide applicability as biocatalysts in chemical syntheses. Cyt P450s are a family of monooxygenases that oxidize fatty acids, steroids, and xenobiotics, synthesize hormones, and convert drugs and other chemicals to metabolites. Peroxidases are involved in breaking down hydrogen peroxide and can oxidize organic compounds during this process. Both heme-containing enzymes utilize active FeIV＝O intermediates to oxidize reactants. By incorporating these enzymes in stable thin films on electrodes, Cyt P450s and peroxidases can accept electrons from an electrode, albeit by different mechanisms, and catalyze organic transformations in a feasible and cost-effective way. This is an advantageous approach, often called bioelectrocatalysis, compared to their biological pathways in solution that require expensive biochemical reductants such as NADPH or additional enzymes to recycle NADPH for Cyt P450s. Bioelectrocatalysis also serves as an ex situ platform to investigate metabolism of drugs and bio-relevant chemicals. In this paper we review biocatalytic electrochemical reactions using Cyt P450s including C–H activation, S-oxidation, epoxidation, N-hydroxylation, and oxidative N-, and O-dealkylation; as well as reactions catalyzed by peroxidases including synthetically important oxidations of organic compounds. Design aspects of these bioelectrocatalytic reactions are presented and discussed, including enzyme film formation on electrodes, temperature, pH, solvents, and activation of the enzymes. Finally, we discuss challenges and future perspective of these two important bioelectrocatalytic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring material availability and reducing material waste are two crucial aspects of material management to improve construction project performance and sustainability. Past studies have illustrated several material management practices without revealing their effect on material availability and waste reduction. This study fills these research gaps and aims to explore important material management practices by examining their impact on material availability and waste reduction in construction projects. This study identified 23 material management practices from a literature review and collected 107 responses from a questionnaire survey. An underlying structure of the practices was established, and factors were extracted from the exploratory factor analysis. A structural equation model was then developed to explore their influence on material availability and waste reduction. The results revealed six critical factors and associated practices that significantly and positively affect material availability and waste reduction: System for procurement and storage was found to have the highest impact, followed by on-site material control, procurement quality, procurement costing, central procurement database, and material planning systems. By revealing the underlying structure of the practices and establishing their positive influence on material availability and waste reduction, the present study adds value to existing knowledge. Construction practitioners can focus on implementing these crucial practices to ensure material availability and reduce material waste, which will enhance the project's success and sustainability. Construction projects often suffer from nonavailability of materials and waste of materials at construction sites. It is vital to know the important material management practices that can reduce these problems. Hypotheses are developed in this study to explore the effect of material management practices on material availability and waste reduction. This study identified six critical material management factors (systems for procurement and storage, on-site material control, procurement quality, procurement costing, central procurement database, and material planning) that can be managed to improve material management in construction. Implementing these factors and associated practices will enhance material availability and reduce material waste in construction projects which will ultimately support completing the projects within the scheduled time and budgeted cost and promote sustainable construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With recent advances in information and communication technologies, trust and collaboration have become imperative in the construction industry. The increasing exchange of digital information and assets without much regard to contractual requirements has resulted in various data corruption, privacy, and security issues escalating to claims and disputes. Hence, there is a need to institute reforms in the existing contracting system to achieve a more efficient, collaborative, and transparent system. However, little research has investigated the digitalization of the contracting process, which continues to be traditional. This study is one of the first to develop a digital and automated contract management system leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts. Design science research methodology was adopted for the research work. The proposed system aims to achieve the following: (1) a decentralized permissioned network of stakeholders with well-defined roles and approval workflow, (2) automated contract execution based on predefined conditions using smart contracts, and (3) transaction history integrity with time stamps via a blockchain-based secured data structure. To exemplify these points, a use case is presented for implementing blockchain-based contract management in a construction megaproject. A conceptual model was developed illustrating the decentralized network of the key project stakeholders based in a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain environment. The roles and access controls of the stakeholders within the network are defined using the responsibility assignment [responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) matrix]. A computable and automated smart contract clause is formulated for the price variation clause used in construction contracts. A prototype of the proposed system was developed and demonstrated to industry experts for evaluation and validation. Positive feedback from the experts concerning the system characteristics and user-friendliness of the prototype showed that it possesses the potential to improve trust and transparency in the existing system. Whereas the decentralized stakeholder network would add trust and accountability to the system, the underlying blockchain data structure would enhance security and traceability by providing an immutable and real-time record of the transactions. The study provides a workable solution that serves as a valuable reference for future research in the field of contract management across multiple sectors. Although the system is shown to be applicable and feasible in this study, it may not be economically viable. It could be optimized in the future through cost–benefit analysis for different projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Climate change causes variation in global temperature in last two decades which causes detrimental effects on agricultural crops being grown in arid and semi-arid regions. Chickpea crop sensitive to variation in temperature as the late-sown crop is exposed to high temperatures (>35°C) at its reproductive stage in the months of February and March and early sown crops is exposed to low temperature (<5°C) at its vegetative stage in December and January so optimum sowing time plays a vital role for overall growth and development of the plants. Methods: The experiment comprising of three sowing dates that is 15th October (early sown condition in Haryana), 15th November (Normal sown condition in Haryana) and 15th December (late sown condition in Haryana) with ten chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes namely ICCV 88503, ICCV 92944, HC-1, HC-3, HC-5, H12-64, H13-01, H13-02, H14-01 and H14-04 in randomized block design during Rabi season of 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Pulses Section, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Result: Statistically no significant differences in seed yield was recorded between 15th October and 15th November sowing, however, further delay in sowing to 15th December showed significant reduction in seed yield while maximum values for recorded physiological parameters in chickpea genotypes were found in 15th November sowing and minimum in 15th December sowing. Among genotypes maximum physiological parameters and seed yield were observed in H12-64 and H13-01 while minimum were found in H14-04. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal energy management in building is gaining the significant attention in the present energy scenario to manage the temperature. Graphene‐related additives are known for their exceptional properties viz. excellent binding and high intrinsic thermal conductivity. The hybrid phase change materials (PCMs) with graphene additives have been applied to enhance the thermal conductivity. Graphene‐related materials are drastically used to improve the properties of PCMs. Incorporating graphene‐related fillers increase the thermal conductivity and preserve the latent heat storage ability of hydrocarbon‐based PCMs. Also, graphene‐related fillers can prevent the leaching properties of the PCMs. These composites can ease concerns regarding energy demand to some level by reversibly storing an incredible quantity of renewable as well as sustainable thermal energy helping to keep up thermal comfort and this has motivated authors to write present mini review. In this review, authors have described PCMs, preparation methods, graphene, graphene oxide, and their composite related PCMs, nanographene added PCMs and their applications in building envelopes utilizing graphene and relative additives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of cementless hip stems depends on the primary stability of the implant quantified by the amount of micromotion at the bone-stem interface. Most finite element (FE)–based preclinical studies on post-surgery stem stability rely on static analysis. Hence, the effect of dynamic gait loading on bone-stem relative micromotion remains virtually unexplored. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research on the primary stability of grooved stems as opposed to plain stem design. The primary aim of this FE study was to understand whether transient dynamic gait had any incremental effect on the net micromotion results and to further draw insights into the effects of grooved texture vis-à-vis a plain model on micromotion and proximal load transfer in host bone. Two musculoskeletal loading regimes corresponding to normal walking (NW) and stair climbing (SC) were considered. Although marginally improved load transfer was predicted proximally for the grooved construct under static loading, the micromotion values (max: NW ~ 7 μm; SC ~ 10 μm) were found to be considerably less in comparison to plain stem (max: NW ~ 50 μm; SC ~ 20 μm). For both physiological load cases, a significant surge in micromotion values was predicted in dynamic analyses as opposed to static analyses for the grooved stem (~ 390% greater). For the plain model, the increase in these values from static to dynamic loading is relatively moderate yet clinically significant (~ 230% greater). This suggests that the qualitative similarities notwithstanding, there were significant dissimilarities in the quantitative trends of micromotion for different cases under both analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite enormous research, material, and manufacturing advancements in bearings, these continue to fail in critical aerospace applications. Material and processing aspects of bearing, which are often secondary, then become the central theme of investigation in place of a systemic and holistic view. Therefore, unlike conventional failure analysis, the present review critically examines potential issues in functionality, operation, unusual assembly configurations resulting in opposing inputs to the rolling elements, high DN (diameter × rpm) situations, distress due to slip, skid, and fatigue. Contra-rotating bearing can alleviate the effect of opposing inputs in aeroengine bearings where both the races rotate. It covers both state-of-the-art and conventional concepts. A brief on bearing materials, both conventional and unconventional, is also presented. Various techniques for monitoring bearing health and fault diagnosis are outlined. Life testing of bearing is mandatory to improve the design, material selection, manufacturing, and analysis. While prediction of the B10 life of bearings using Weibull analysis is more prevalent among industries, aerospace industry prefers B1.0 life. A brief on future possibilities is also presented. The present review aims to bring an application perspective on aerospace bearings to prevent their failures and enhance life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, three‐dimensional (3D) printing has become a research focus point and has evolved as a powerful tool for manufacturing complex objects for advanced technology platform designs. Herein, we review the current state‐of‐the‐art 3D‐printed hydrogels and aerogels for wastewater treatment and energy storage applications. Several 3D printing methods such as direct ink writing, digital light processing, and fused filament fabrication have been discussed. Among these, direct ink writing is the most employed 3D printing technique for hydrogels and aerogels. We systematically investigated the most important results of several 3D‐printed hydrogels and aerogels for adsorption, photocatalysis, membrane filtration, and desalination for wastewater treatment, supercapacitors, and batteries in energy storage applications. Finally, we conclude our understanding with the prospect of future opportunities in this field using 3D‐printed hydrogels and aerogels for wastewater treatment and energy storage applications. In summary, the fundamental knowledge of 3D printing and critical assessment of the key literature on 3D‐printed hydrogels and aerogels and their applications in water treatment and energy storage will provide guidance for future studies in smart materials and waste management aspects of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese (Mn) is an essential element for humans and animals including, fish. It is a still poorly studied in aquatic organisms, where it can be noticeably useful for dietary components and also found pollutant in aquatic environment at high concentrations. On the above information, an experiment was delineated to determine the lethal concentration of manganese (Mn) and manganese nanoparticles (Mn-NPs) alone and with high temperature (34 °C) and its effect on various biochemical markers in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. The median lethal concentration (96-LC50) of Mn alone (111.75 mg L−1) and along with high temperature (110.76 mg L−1), Mn-NPs alone (93.81 mg L−1) and with high temperature (34 °C) (92.39 mg L−1) was determined in P. hypophthalmus. The length and weight of the fish were 6.32 ± 0.23 cm and 7.57 ± 1.35 g. The present investigation used five hundred forty-six fish, including range finding (216 fish) and definitive test (330 fish). The acute definitive doses were applied to assess the effect of oxidative stress, glycolytic biomarkers, protein biomarkers, fish immunity, neurotransmitter, energy level, stress hormone and histopathology. Oxidative stress (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione-s-transferase and glutathione peroxidase), stress biomarkers (lipid peroxidation, cortisol, heat shock protein, and blood glucose), lactate and malate dehydrogenase, alanine and aspartate aminotransferase, a neurotransmitter, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), ATPase, immune system biomarkers (NBT, total protein, albumin, globulin and A:G ratio) were altered with exposure to Mn and Mn-NPs. The histopathology of the liver and gill were also changed due to exposure to Mn and Mn-NPs. The bioaccumulation of Mn in the liver, gill, kidney, brain and muscle tissues, and experimental water at different intervals of 24, 48, 72 and 96 h were determined. Based on the present results, it is strongly suggested that Mn and Mn-NPs exposure alone and with high temperature (34 °C) enhanced toxicity and altered biochemical and morphological attributes. This study also suggested that essential elements in both forms (inorganic and nano) at higher concentrations of Mn and Mn-NPs lead to pronounced deleterious alteration in cellular and metabolic activities and histopathology of P. hypophthalmus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for the edge binomials of the tree forming a d-sequence in terms of the degree sequence notion of a graph. We study the regularity of powers of the binomial edge ideals of trees generated by d-sequence edge binomials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the Sataun landslide was investigated along the National Highway-72 (NH-72) between Sirmauri Tal and Sataun towns of the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, Northwestern Himalaya, India. Geologically, the Sataun landslide is composed of Middle Siwalik sandstones, which are highly fractured and faulted due to the interaction of the active Sirmauri Tal Fault zone and the Malgi Fault at the site of the Sataun landslide. Through the geological field investigations, three unstable zones were identified, which are prone to landslides. A major failure along one of the unstable zones (Sataun landslide, Zone 1) occurred on the 9th of October 2019. The investigation of the Sataun landslide was carried out using geological, geomorphological, geotechnical, and kinematic analysis. A pre-landslide topography was used to analyse the slope stability using FEM (finite element modelling) technique. Geomorphological studies and field investigations suggest the presence of an active fault zone (Sirmauri Tal Fault zone) passing through the Sataun landslide zone. Grain size analysis demonstrates that the soil is non-cohesive poorly graded sandy soil and geotechnical parameters indicate low cohesion (0.17 kPa) and low angle of internal friction (33.09°). Pre-landslide slope modelling suggests a low factor of safety (0.76). Toe cutting by the Giri River, the presence of radial, transverse cracks on the landslide body, and tension cracks on the crown propose the active and progressive nature of the landslide. Although the role of active fault is the most crucial factor for the Sataun landslide failure, rainfall played a critical triggering role in the Sataun landslide. This study shows that the unstable condition of the Sataun landslide may trigger another event of similar or greater intensity in the near future; therefore, proper monitoring is required to mitigate this landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart Grid (SG) has smart instruments which can communicate using Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). This will require SG a large storage space for storing the time-series data. The veracity of data increases with respect to time and becomes a challenging task for data managers. For managing large data sets, preprocessing is a fundamental part of the data management system, and often it is called Intelligent Compression (IC). IC is a method for removing redundant or repeated data from a disk or any other storage device. In this paper, various filtering techniques are used to compress and preprocess large data set of power consumption in SG. Filtering eliminates abnormal or unwanted components, signals, or features from a data set. Here, five filtering techniques have been used as Butterworth, Smoothing, Kalman, Frequency swept, and Filtfilt with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to predict Power Consumption in the Smart Grid. The results are compared with different evaluation metrics for five different datasets. It is found that Filtfilt filtering techniques with LSTM provide better performance and accuracy over other filtering techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiparent advanced eneration inter-cross (MAGIC) populations improve the precision of quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping over biparental populations by incorporating increased diversity and opportunities to reduce linkage disequilibrium among variants. Here, we describe the development of a MAGIC B-Line (MBL) population from an inter-cross among 4 diverse founders of grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] across different races (kafir, guinea, durra, and caudatum). These founders were selected based on genetic uniqueness and several distinct qualitative features including panicle architecture, plant color, seed color, endosperm texture, and awns. A whole set of MBL (708 F6) recombinant inbred lines along with their founders were genotyped using Diversity Arrays Technology (DArTseq) and 5,683 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were generated. A genetic linkage map was constructed using a set of polymorphic, quality-filtered markers (2,728 SNPs) for QTL interval-mapping. For population validation, 3 traits (seed color, plant color, and awns) were used for QTL mapping and genome-wide association study (GWAS). QTL mapping and GWAS identified 4 major genomic regions located across 3 chromosomes (Chr1, Chr3, and Chr6) that correspond to known genetic loci for the targeted traits. Founders of this population consist of the fertility maintainer (A/B line) gene pool and derived MBL lines could serve as female/seed parents in the cytoplasmic male sterility breeding system. The MBL population will serve as a unique genetic and genomic resource to better characterize the genetics of complex traits and potentially identify superior alleles for crop improvement efforts to enrich the seed parent gene pool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation triggers immune system-mediated actions that contribute to the development of multiple diseases. Zymosan, a polysaccharide derived from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall, is mainly made up of glucan and mannan residues and is used as an inflammatory agent. Zymosan is a fungal product that activates the immune system through the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways, and releases a variety of harmful chemicals including pattern recognition receptors, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the excitatory amino acid glutamate, cytokines, adhesion molecules, etc. Furthermore, we will dive into the molecular mechanistic insights through which this fungal agent induces and influences various inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular, neuroinflammation, diabetes, arthritis, and sepsis. Based on the evidence, zymosan appears to be a promising inflammatory-inducing agent. Nonetheless, more animal data is the need of the hour to catch a glimpse and unravel the capacity of zymosan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the last few years, we have witnessed an exponential increase in the usage of delay-sensitive applications by the end-users because of the paradigm shift and revolution in different technologies starting from 1G to 5G most of which are having focus on QoS and QoE to the end-users. The existing standards on 5G mainly concentrate on the following issues: 10 Gigabyte data rate, 1-millisecond latency, high bandwidth per unit area, 99.999% availability, 100% coverage and 90% reduction in network energy usage. Hence, 5G has the capability to support various types of communications from the low power Local Area Network (LAN) to Wide Area Networks (WAN) with low-latency and high-speed. It allows human-to-human (H2H), human-to-machine (H2M) interactions for exchanging of data and signals. So, for better data transmission between different entities (for example, smart objects located across different geographic locations), efficient communication between billions of smart devices is required and the associated technology is called as "Internet of Things". However, issues such as- latency-tolerant, low-data rate, high complexity, privacy and security in existing solutions may deteriorate the performance of any implemented solution in this environment. To mitigate the above-mentioned problems, the literature suggests that fog computing can be one of the options as it provides ultra-low-latency for Tactile-based applications. Tactile Internet is an emerging technology used for H2M interactions to support high-reliability, ultra-responsive, and high fidelity. Keeping focus on all the aforementioned challenges and constraints, in this paper, we provide an analysis on the usage of the strong backbone infrastructure of fog computing for 5G-enabled Tactile Internet with a maximum bandwidth of 1 Gigabyte having the minimum latency of 1-millisecond. It supports low-latency and high-reliability in Tactile-based applications. Keeping focus on the issues such as- resource management, communication infrastructure, fog orchestration, fog networking, healthcare, security and privacy of fog system in Tactile-based applications, we have explored and compared the existing state-of-the-art proposals using various parameters such as- energy-efficient, QoS, scalability, mobility, and interoperability. In addition, a number of open research challenges of fog computing for 5G-enabled Tactile Internet are also explored to provide deep insights to the readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The toxicity of ammonia surged with arsenic pollution and high temperature (34 °C). As climate change enhances the pollution in water bodies, however, the aquatic animals are drastically affected and extinct from nature. The present investigation aims to mitigate arsenic and ammonia toxicity and high-temperature stress (As + NH3 + T) using zinc nanoparticles (Zn-NPs) in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. Zn-NPs were synthesized using fisheries waste to developing Zn-NPs diets. The four isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated and prepared. The diets containing Zn-NPs at 0 (control), 2, 4 and 6 mg kg−1 diets were included. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione-s-transferase (GST) were noticeably improved using Zn-NPs diets in fish reared under with or without stressors. Interestingly, lipid peroxidation was significantly reduced, whereas vitamin C and acetylcholine esterase were enhanced with supplementation of Zn-NPs diets. Immune-related attributes such as total protein, globulin, albumin, myeloperoxidase (MPO), A:G ratio, and NBT were also improved with Zn-NPs at 4 mg kg−1 diet. The immune-related genes such as immunoglobulin (Ig), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), and interleukin (IL1b) were strengthening in the fish using Zn-NPs diets. Indeed, the gene regulations of growth hormone (GH), growth hormone regulator (GHR1), myostatin (MYST) and somatostatin (SMT) were significantly improved with Zn-NPs diets. Blood glucose, cortisol and HSP 70 gene expressions were significantly upregulated by stressors, whereas the dietary Zn-NPs downregulated the gene expression. Blood profiling (RBC, WBC and Hb) was reduced considerably with stressors (As + NH3 + T), whereas Zn-NPs enhanced the RBC, WBC, and Hb count in fish reread in control or stress conditions. DNA damage-inducible protein gene and DNA damage were significantly reduced using Zn-NPs at 4 mg kg−1 diet. Moreover, the Zn-NPs also enhanced the arsenic detoxification in different fish tissues. The present investigation revealed that Zn-NPs diets mitigate ammonia and arsenic toxicity, and high-temperature stress in P. hypophthalmus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyureas are an emerging class of materials which have broad potential applications because of their versatility, complex internal structures. Here polyureas are prepared by the reaction of hexamethylene diisocyanate with either aliphatic or aromatic diamines. Multiple characterization techniques revealed that polyurea materials are porous in nature and stable up to 250 ℃. Further, CP TOSS (Cross Polarized Total Sideband Suppression) 13C solid state NMR revealed the formation of polyurea. PXRD showed that some polyureas were crystalline and formed a network structure through hydrogen bonds which served as a cross linker. Their highly insoluble nature in polar and non-polar solvents, layered structure makes them apt heterogeneous catalysts. A higher catalytic performance was detected in Knoevenagel condensation reaction between aromatic aldehyde and malononitrile in the presence of polyurea. A decrease in the catalytic activity was detected in the 7th recycle tentatively due to the adsorption of water molecule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the synthesis of MnTiO3 nanoparticles employing a simple, eco‐friendly and low‐cost hydrothermal method. The properties of MnTiO3 nanoparticles were analysed by XRD, FTIR, FE‐SEM, TEM and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Structural properties revealed that the MnTiO3 have rhombohedral phase. Morphological studies revealed that the synthesised sample has granular‐like structure. FTIR technique confirmed the formation of MnTiO3 nanoparticles. TGA shows that the as synthesised sample is thermally more stable. The electrochemical detection of acetaminophen (AMP) by using nano‐perovskite‐type manganese titanate (MnTiO3)‐modified glassy carbon electrode is reported. The conductive behaviour of MnTiO3‐modified glassy carbon electrode (MnTiO3/GCE) was confirmed by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was employed for the detection of AMP. DPV technique showed a comparatively lower detection potential with a higher peak response towards AMP sensing with a linear range of 1.3 to 13.8 μM. The limit of detection and sensitivity were found 1.26 μM and 36.22 μA μM−1 m−2, respectively. Moreover, the modified electrode also demonstrated better repeatability, reproducibility and higher stability, hence used for the analysis of AMP in pharmaceutical and human serum samples with good recoveries. Electrochemical properties showed that the MnTiO3 perovskite has specific capacitance 357.2 F g−1 revealing its charge storing ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) is an important site for fish culture in sewage-fed areas, which are major receivers of pollutants and wastages from Kolkata. EKW is internationally important as the Ramsar site was declared on Aug 2002 with an area of 125 km2. EKW is a natural water body where wastewater-fed natural aquaculture has been practiced for more than 70 years. It is ecologically vulnerable due to the discharge of toxic waste through sewage canals from cities. Assessing the EKW to understand the inflow and load of the toxic metal (s) in fish, water, and sediments samples is essential. The field (samples collection from 13 sites) and lab (determination of toxic level of metals) based research were carried out to assess metal toxicity and health risk assessment in EKW. The levels of eighteen metals (18), namely Chromium, Vanadium, Cobalt, Manganese, Copper, Nickel, Zinc, Silver, Molybdenum, Arsenic, Selenium, Tin, Gallium, Germanium, Strontium, Cadmium, Mercury, and Lead, were determined using Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in five fish tissues viz. muscle, liver, kidney, gill and brain, along with the water samples and soil sediments in 13 sampling sites. The bioaccumulation and concentration of metals in fish tissues, soil sediments, and water samples were well within the safe level concerning the recommendation of different national and international agencies except for a few metals in a few sampling sites like Cd, As, and Pb. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) was also determined in the soil sediments, indicating moderate arsenic, selenium, and mercury contamination in a few sites. The contamination index in water was also determined in 13 sampling sites. The estimated daily intake (EDI), reference dose (RfD), target hazard quotient (THQ), slope factor and cancer risk of Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Pb and Hg from fish muscle were determined. Based on the results of the present investigation, it is concluded that fish consumption in the East Kolkata Wetland (EKW) is safe. The effects of bioaccumulation of metals in muscle tissue were well within the safe level for consumption as recommended by WHO/FAO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a method to predict when a woman will develop breast cancer (BCa) from her lifestyle and health history features. To address this objective, we use data from the Alberta's Tomorrow Project of 18,288 women to train Individual Survival Distribution (ISD) models to predict an individual's Breast-Cancer-Onset (BCaO) probability curve. We show that our three-step approach–(1) filling missing data with multiple imputations by chained equations, followed by (2) feature selection with the multivariate Cox method, and finally, (3) using MTLR to learn an ISD model–produced the model with the smallest L1-Hinge loss among all calibrated models with comparable C-index. We also identified 7 actionable lifestyle features that a woman can modify and illustrate how this model can predict the quantitative effects of those changes–suggesting how much each will potentially extend her BCa-free time. We anticipate this approach could be used to identify appropriate interventions for individuals with a higher likelihood of developing BCa in their lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we have investigated the electrochemical corrosion behavior of boron carbide (B4C) ceramic-reinforced Al-Mg-Si matrix composites in various aqueous environments (NaOH, NaCl, HCl, and H2SO4). The samples were produced by the powder metallurgy (P/M) route and the corrosion investigations were conducted by potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The morphology of the as-prepared and corroded samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) studies. The investigations revealed that the corrosion resistance of Al-Mg-Si composites is highest in NaCl medium due to a less negative corrosion potential, higher charge transfer (Rct) resistance, and lower double-layer capacitance (Cdl) as compared to other media. The SEM morphology suggests that B4C ceramics enhance corrosion resistance by forming a protective barrier layer of OH- and Cl- deposits in the composite and unreinforced alloy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chickpea Adaptation Trial (CAT) of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), comprising of 36 genotypes was raised during rabi 2019-20 for estimation of variability, heritability and association among yield and its components characters. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block (RCBD) design with two replications. Analysis of variance showed significant variability among the genotypes used for the study. Days to flowering and days to maturity were observed to record high heritability, which indicated the influence of dominant and epistatic gene action for these traits. Character association study among yield and yield contributing traits revealed that seed yield exhibited significant positively correlation with test weight. All the chickpea genotypes were grouped into three discrete clusters with higher genetic diversity for different traits suggesting good amount of variability among the genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible data hiding (RDH) schemes based on pixel value ordering have gained significant popularity due to their unique capability of providing high-quality marked images with a decent embedding capacity, while also enabling secret information extraction and the lossless recovery of the original images at the receiving side. However, the marked image quality may be distorted severely when the pixel value ordering (PVO) method is employed in a layer-wise manner to increase the embedding capacity. In this paper, a new high-capacity RDH scheme using a complementary strategy is introduced to overcome the limitation of the image quality in the case of layer-wise embedding. The proposed RDH scheme first divides the cover image into non-overlapping blocks of 2 × 2 pixels uniformly and then sorts the pixels of each block according to their intensity values. The secret data are then embedded into two layers. In the first layer, the minimum value of the block is decreased and the maximum value is increased by either 1 or 2 to embed the secret data bits. The second layer is used as a complement to the first layer and is in symmetry with the first layer. In the second layer, the proposed RDH scheme increases the minimum valued pixel and decreases the maximum valued pixel in order to minimize the distortion resulting from the first layer embedding and to embed an additional amount of the secret data. As a result, the proposed RDH scheme significantly increases the embedding capacity, which is clearly evident from the conducted experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-flow nasal cannula is commonly used to manage hypoxic respiratory failure. High-flow nasal cannula not only reduces respiratory effort and work of breathing but also provides better patient comfort. It lowers mortality compared to standard oxygen therapy or non-invasive ventilation and is associated with more ventilator-free days. A 60-year-old female presented for the correction of ankle fracture with pneumonia and successfully underwent lower limb orthopaedic surgery under the subarachnoid block with the use of high-flow nasal oxygen therapy. High-flow nasal cannula may be considered as one of the useful options for intraoperative management of pneumonia in patients undergoing lower limb surgery under regional anaesthesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we have shown the interaction between opium poppy alkaloid noscapine-based ionic liquid [Pip-Nos]OTf and ct-DNA using UV–visible absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, CD, and computational studies. The absorption spectra showed a hypochromic shift with no shift in the absorption maxima suggesting groove or electrostatic binding. Fluorescence spectra showed an enhancement in fluorescence emission suggesting that the probable mode of binding should be groove binding. Ethidium bromide (EB) competitive and Ionic strength study showed the absence of intercalative and electrostatic modes of interaction. Further, CD analysis of ct-DNA suggested a groove binding mode of interaction of [Pip-Nos]OTf with ct-DNA. [Pip-Nos]OTf displayed a strong binding with the target ct-DNA with a molecular docking score of −41.47 kJ/mol with all 3D coordinates and full conformation. Also, molecular binding contact analyses depicted the stable binding of drug and ct-DNA with potential hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. The structural superimposition dynamics analysis showed the stable binding of [Pip-Nos]OTf with the ct-DNA model through RMSD statistics. Moreover, the ligand interaction calculations revealed the involvement of large binding energy along with a high static number of molecular forces including the hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions in their complexation. These significant results report the potency of [Pip-Nos]OTf and its important futuristic role in cancer therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated from construction projects impacts the environment if not managed properly; appropriate C&D waste management is therefore necessary. The first step in this practice is the estimation of the quantity of C&D waste generated. The literature recommends numerous approaches for the quantification of C&D waste in a region based on the availability of data pertaining to construction and demolition activity and the accuracy of the estimate required. The major obstacle in this process is the nonavailability of data in developing countries such as India. A novel approach for gathering such information and processing it further to quantify and manage C&D waste is presented in this study. The study was conducted in the Indian city of Hyderabad during the January 2017 to December 2020 period. The C&D waste data were ascertained based on the building permits issued during this period. Quantitative analysis was conducted to identify the proportion of different types of buildings for which permits were issued, number of buildings demolished before the construction of new buildings, types of buildings demolished, and C&D waste generated using a random sampling technique. Furthermore, regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the built-up area and the building permit fee collected by the town planning department. The results of this analysis allowed for the calculation of the total construction area of buildings based on the fee collected for issuing the permit. The suggested approach is beneficial, especially in developing countries where data pertaining to construction activity in a region are scarcely available. The findings of this study will help waste governors and policy makers formulate policies for effectively and efficiently managing C&D waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a protein-and-carbohydrate meshwork that supports a variety of biological structures and processes, from tissue development and elasticity to the preservation of organ structures. ECM composition is different in each organ. It is a remarkably dynamic 3-dimensional structure that's constantly changing to maintain tissue homeostasis. This review aims to describe the involvement of ECM components in the remodeling process of spinal cord injury (SCI) and intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). Here, we have also described the current ECM-based therapeutic targets, which can be explored for ECM remodeling SCI is a neurological condition with intense influences resulting from a trauma inflicted on the spinal cord. SCI leads to damage to the intact ECM that leads to regeneration failure. IVDD mainly occurs due to aging and trauma. Various ECM components enable fragmentation of the disc and are thereby involved in disc degeneration. ECM manipulation can be used as an adjunct treatment in SCI and IVDD. Current treatment approaches for SCI and IVDD are conservative and unsatisfactory. Targeting ECM remodeling as an adjunct therapy may result in better disease outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]