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The present study was conducted to investigate the genotoxic effect of Bis-Phenol A (BPA) after acute and subchronic exposure in different tissues of Channa punctata. The recovery in DNA damage was also ascertained after 30 days of cessation of exposure. Fish were exposed to different sublethal concentrations of BPA along with two controls i.e., with positive (acetone) and negative (water) controls for 96h (acute exposure) and 60 days (subchronic exposure) and after that fish were allowed to recover for 30 days in freshwater. The blood, liver, and gill tissue samples were collected at 24, 48, 72 and 96h for acute exposure and after 20, 40, and 60 days post-exposure for subchronic exposure. Exposed groups showed significantly higher DNA damage in both acute and subchronic exposure as compared to control groups. In the case of acute exposure, the highest damage was observed at 24 h of exposure followed by a decline in the value of all the parameters, while in the later hours of exposure these values further increased. On the other hand, in the case of sub-chronic exposure, the highest damage was observed after 60 days of exposure. Recovery experiment showed a decrease in the values of all the parameters studied. The result of the study clearly showed that BPA caused DNA damage in Channa punctata after acute as well as subchronic exposure.

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen known for high morbidity and mortality. It causes life-threatening infections, such as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), bacteremia, meningitis, wound and urinary tract infections (UTI). Increase in carbapenem resistance exhibited by A. baumannii has accentuated the need for novel targets for effective treatment. Despite the pronounced relevance of PPK2 as a pathogenicity determinant in several pathogens, it has not been explored as a drug target in A. baumannii. The present study was piloted to investigate the substrate binding by A. baumannii PPK2 (AbPPK2), a two-domain Class II polyphosphate kinase 2. A homology model of AbPPK2 was developed and validated for molecular docking of ATP and ADP in the predicted binding pocket. Further analysis of AbPPK2 revealed a set of common residues in the catalytic cleft interacting with ATP and ADP which would be useful for the screening of inhibitors against A. baumannii.

Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) are being utilized to reduce the flammability of plastics, textiles, and electronics. They differ in their chemical properties and structures, and it is conventional that these distinctions alter their biological interactions as well as toxicity. Tetra-Bromo-Bis-Phenol A (TBBPA) is a pervasive environmental contaminant that is seen in both abiotic and biotic matrices. This review discusses the occurrence, distribution, and fate of TBBPA from source to the environment. Recent studies have raised worry over the potentially harmful implications of TBBPA exposure in humans and wildlife, prompting its characterization under group 2A “Probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Worldwide there are no present confinements on its production and usage. On the other hand, very little information is accessible with respect to its toxicity to humans and aquatic animals. More research is required to characterize human exposure to TBBPA in and around production facilities, as well as in e-waste recycling regions. So as to safeguard the environment and human health, detailed investigations are urgently needed, especially on tracking the exposure pathways which may affect the workers and local residents around the exposure sites.

A smart bag is a specially designed bag that is tailored to a certain use and can benefit practically everyone in society. Smart implies clever, and the bag will be capable of carrying out a variety of functions for regular use. The bag developed uses renewable source of energy. The solar panel on the front of the backpack will not only charge electrical devices such as phones and laptops, but will also provide energy to the complete system. This energy helps in activating our cyber-physical device which consists of microcontrollers, sensors. As soon as the zip of the bag is opened, the microcontroller transmits the information to the user, using an android based application. It also sends a notification about the percentage of battery charged, in the bag using the solar panel to the user on their device Keywords: Smart bag, Microcontroller, Solar panel, Internet of Thing, sensors.

Materials play a key role in our day to day life and have shaped the industrial revolution to a great extent. Right selection of material for meeting a particular objective is the key to success in today’s world where the cost as well as sustainability of any equipment or a system have assumed greater significance than ever before. In automotive industry, materials have a definitive role as far as the mobility and safety is concerned. Materials that can absorb the required energy or impact can be manufactured through different manufacturing as well as metallurgical processes which involves appropriate heat treatment and bringing correct chemical compositions etc. However, they can also be formed by simpler methods such as combining certain materials together in the form of layered combinations to form light weight composites. Analyzing the response of different materials during incidents such as high-speed impact or transmission of shock waves as a result of earthquakes, tsunami or manmade disasters like explosion, is of great importance. Those materials which can respond in a desirable manner to meet a particular requirement during the most undesirable conditions such as high energy impacts can be termed as high energy absorbing materials and they play a crucial role in designing important structures, frames, protective vehicles and equipments, sacrificial components and claddings etc. These materials and structures need to be tested for their strength and design against adverse loading conditions. In this paper, different materials like steel, aluminum and aluminum-rubber combination are analyzed to understand their response during high pressure loading incidences. Judicious and scientific application of these materials can ensure a much better protection to different structures of importance, buildings as well as in defence, aerospace and automotive related applications. There are different methods of analyzing the strength and capabilities of materials or their combinations such as experimental, lab and simulation method. Out of these, the simulation (numerical analysis) method is one of the most appropriate methods which give very accurate results as compared to other methods. Here, Ansys- Autodyn simulation is used to draw the analysis of the materials and their combinations under high pressure shock loadings, resulting due to explosion or blast, and the total energy, pressure, displacement and velocity parameters are studied and compared.

We present a comprehensive timing and spectral analysis of the HMXB 4U 1538-522 by using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observatory data. Using three archived observations made between 2019 and 2021, we have detected $\sim $ 526 s coherent pulsations up to 60 keV. We have found an instantaneous spin-down rate of $\dot{P} = 6.6_{-6.0}^{+2.4} \times 10^{-6}$ s s$^{-1}$ during the first observation. The pulse profiles had a double peaked structure consisting of a broad primary peak and an energy dependent, weak secondary peak. We have also analysed the long-term spin-period evolution of 4U 1538-522 from data spanning more than four decades, including the data from Fermi/GBM. Based on the recent spin trends, we have found that the third torque reversal in 4U 1538-522 happened around MJD 58800. The source is currently spinning up with $\dot{P} = -1.9(1) \times 10^{-9}$ s s$^{-1}$. We also report a periodic fluctuation in the spin-period of 4U 1538-522. The broad-band persistent spectra can be described with a blackbody component and either powerlaw or Comptonization component along with a Fe K$_{\alpha}$ line at 6.4 keV and a cyclotron absorption feature around 22 keV. We have also found a relatively weak absorption feature around 27 keV in the persistent spectra of 4U 1538-522 in all three observations. We have estimated a magnetic field strength of $1.84_{-0.06}^{+0.04} (1+z) \times 10^{12}$ and $2.33_{-0.24}^{+0.15} (1+z) \times 10^{12}$ G for the two features, respectively., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Truss is a structural twin of kinematic mechanism. A truss is specially used to support the roof, rocket launch structures, telecom towers, and bridges as structural entities. They have a great tendency to bear heavy load and withstand impact loading conditions. In this paper, spatial truss formula “n = 2j-3” is derived using a simple kinematic approach and Grubler criterion. A primitive hit and trial method based on stability and mobility is used to separate stable trusses followed by mathematical analysis. In addition, a modification of Grubler criterion is introduced in this work to especially understand and derive the truss equation. Connectivity constants are incorporated further evolve the understanding of stability and mobility in 2D structures. Finally, the complex Grubler criterion is reduced to the simple truss equation.

Transformation of paclitaxel, an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved highly potent anticancer drug, to its nano dimensions was achieved using bioenhancers namely piperine and quercetin. After addition of bio enhancer, paclitaxel nanoparticles expressed better solubility and bioavailability in comparison to free paclitaxel. The size, morphology, entrapment efficiency, diffusion pattern, cytotoxicity and pharmacokinetic behaviour were studied for the transformed drug. The shape and size of paclitaxel mixed with piperine and quercetin were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The particle size was found between 95 nm and 155 nm having oval shape. The entrapment efficiency of particles was found to be increased with the addition of bioenhancers and the cytotoxicity of the particles was also found in acceptable range. The observations suggest the nano transformation of paclitaxel and addition of bioenhancers may enhance the efficacy of anticancer activity of paclitaxel.

Materials which can absorb the high energy flow are of great importance. The high pressure waves, generated by an explosion or high impact loading, have a very high energy value and it causes a great damage to the objects which come in its path. Though every material, depending upon its properties, offers certain degree of resistance to the flow of energy, there are some materials which have the ability to absorb much more energy than others. These materials when combined together or when layered with other materials, can act as an entity which if suitably formed and placed, can resist the flow of high energy in a very effective manner. The research in the field of developing new materials and composites, is evolving as one of the promising research area in the field of material science as they can do wonders in saving precious lives and properties from the damaging effects of high pressure waves. In this paper the concept is presented by employing the high energy absorbing materials and their combinations (i.e. layered together), to study their effectiveness against the impact of high pressure waves produced by an explosion of TNT charge kept at a certain distance. Conditions have been simulated using ANSYS Autodyn software. Attenuation of high pressure waves is observed by studying the Energy absorption property of the materials as a key parameter. The deformation of the material plate and other associated parameters are also studied.

Development of metal dichalcogenides based air and water stable opto-electronic devices is a bottleneck in their commercial implementation. Here we address this issue by the direct catalyst-free deposition of fluorographene (FG) protective layer over monolayer MoS2 (MS), where such an atomic interface is found to be providing enormous photoresponse and chemical stability to the device. Electric field modulated (ionic liquid (IL) electrolyte based top-gated) photodetectors are developed with MS only and FG-MS heterostructure, where the MS photodetector has the responsivity of ~1.3 A/W (with VGS = 0 V while unstable with IL gating) while that of FG-MS is ~2000 A/W (with VGS = 0 V and ~8000 A/W with VGS = 1.5 V, and the detectivity ~1013). This giant photoresponse of the FG-MS is validated with the help of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy assisted charge carrier dynamics studies at different temperatures. The broad optical response (350–850 nm) of the FG-MS is found to be intact not only in IL based gating but also after exposing in water for a month or heat treated in air at 200 °C. Interfacing and capping with FG, developed via the direct growth method, are found to be ideal for realizing high shelf-life and good responsivity photodetectors and solar cells of several other monolayer TMDs too, while available for wafer-scale manufacture.

Co-infection with other respiratory pathogens has been reported in patients with COVID-19. Common respiratory pathogens can infect as co-pathogens during SARS-nCoV-2 infections. The aim of this article is to spread knowledge regarding possible co-infections during COVID-19, and reduce their occurrence. Google scholar was used to search the literature for possible co-infections in the people with COVID-19 and reviewed the existing published data. In most cases, co-infections are common due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumonia, Legionella pneumophila, and Acinetobacter baumannii.Prevalence of fungal and viral co-infections is low. However, Candida species and Aspergillus flavusare the common co-infective fungi. Viruses such as Influenza, Corona virus, Rhinovirus/ Enterovirus, Parainfluenza, Metapneumo virus, Influenza B virus, and Human immunodeficiency virus have also been reported as co-infecting agents during COVID-19. Influenza A was one of the most common co-infective viruses, which may have caused initial false-negative results of a real-time RT-PCR for severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The prevalence of co-infections could be up to 50% among non-survivors. Only newly developed syndromic multiplex panels that incorporate SARS-CoV-2 may facilitate the early detection of co-infections. The suitable antimicrobial agents can be recommended for the co-infections caused by other respiratory pathogens during COVID-19.

Quantum materials with non-trivial band topology and bulk superconductivity are considered superior materials to realize topological superconductivity. In this regard, we report detailed density functional theory (DFT) calculations and Z2 invariants for the NbC superconductor, exhibiting its band structure to be topologically non-trivial. Bulk superconductivity at 8.9 K is confirmed through DC magnetization measurements under field cooled (FC) and zero field cooled (ZFC) protocols. This superconductivity is found to be of type II nature as revealed by isothermal M-H measurements, and thus the Ginzburg–Landau parameter is calculated. A large intermediate state is evident from the phase diagram, showing NbC to be a strong type-II superconductor. Compared with earlier reports on superconducting NbC, a non-monotonic relationship of critical temperature with lattice parameters is seen. In conclusion, NbC is a type-II around 10 K superconductor with topological non-trivial surface states.

Graphical abstract, The widespread use of bisphenol A (BPA) has led to its ubiquity in the natural environment. It is extensively incorporated into different industrial products and is associated with deleterious health effects on both public and wildlife. The current trial was conducted to determine the toxic potential of bisphenol A using various parameters viz haematological, biochemical, and cytological in freshwater fish Channa punctatus. For this purpose, fish were exposed to 1.81 mg/l (1/4 of LC50) and 3.81 mg/l (1/2 of LC50) of BPA along with positive (acetone) and negative controls (water) for 96 h. The blood samples were collected at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h post-exposure. Compared to the control group, fish after acute exposure to BPA showed a significant decrease in HB content, number of red blood cells, PCV values whereas a significant increase in WBCs count was recorded with an increase in the exposure period. Besides, oxidative stress (determined as malondialdehyde content) increased as BPA concentration increased. Further, the activity of different antioxidant enzymes like catalase, and superoxide dismutase decreased significantly after treatment. Results also showed significantly increased frequency of morphological alterations, nuclear changes, and increased DNA damage potential of BPA in red blood cells. Further structural analysis of erythrocytes in maximally damaged group using Scanning Electron Microscopy was performed. The study concludes that BPA exhibits genotoxic activity and oxidative stress could be one of the mechanisms leading to genetic toxicity.

Mucoadhesive microspheres have their own significant amongst the various sustained release drug delivery systems. The prolonged residence time of these delivery devices at drug absorption site results in steep concentration gradient and enhanced bioavailability. In this study, the mucilage of Isabgol husk was applied as polymeric backbone to develop gliclazide loaded microspheres by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde. The formulations were studied for surface morphology, swelling behavior, particle size

We present the broad-band spectral analysis of the low-mass X-ray binary 2S 0921-63 by using the Suzaku archival data covering the orbital phase between 0.31 and 1.16 during four close observations. It is the first time that a broad-band spectral analysis of 2S 0921-63 has been done up to 25 keV. The 0.5-10 keV XIS count rate varied between $\sim$ 1 and $\sim$ 5 counts s$^{-1}$ during the observations. A partial X-ray eclipse and broad post-eclipse intensity dip were observed during the observations. The X-ray emission hardened marginally during the intensity dip. We have modelled the source spectra by simultaneously fitting the XIS and HXD-PIN spectra for each of the four observations. The broad-band spectra of the source can be described by a model comprising a very hot blackbody having temperature, $kT_{\rm BB} \approx$ 1.66 - 2.13 keV, a high-energy cutoff power law, and an Fe emission line at $E_{\rm line} \sim$ 6.7 keV. A second model, accounting for the Comptonization of the thermal emission from accretion disc along with an Fe emission line, describes the broad-band spectra of 2S 0921-63 equally well., 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading cause of death worldwide, and the world is fighting with this global health emergency from the past 25 year. The current clinical interventions for the management of TB face a number of inherent challenges which includes low patient compliance due to the long therapy regimen, and emerging antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, there is an unmet need of new anti-TB therapeutic agent with enhanced safety profile, which can reduce the duration of therapy, enhanced bioavailability and efficacy against drug resistant forms of TB. Bacteriocins or anti microbial peptides (AMPs) occurring in microbes, human beings and other life forms have been investigated as host defense peptides. Structurally AMPs are short and ionized and play crucial role in innate immunity of host. Some AMPs can kill microbial infections directly while others function indirectly by altering the host defense mechanisms. Amidst rising issue of antibiotic resistance, AMPs are being tested in clinical research as potential antibiotics and novel therapeutics to fight against infections and non-infectious diseases. Studies have also highlighted the ability of AMPs to act against the bacteria spreading tuberculosis. The present review provides information on antimicrobial peptides, highlights their biological role, classification and mode of action in treatment and prevention of tuberculosis. It further mentions the prospects and challenges of developing peptides for their therapeutic applications against

Natural fibres of plant and animal origin have been explored vastly over the last two decades and are gaining importance over synthetic counterparts owing to their biodegradability, renewability, lightweight and better biochemical and strength properties. Plant-based natural fibres such as banana, coir, sisal, jute, kenaf and many others have been studied for industrial applications. Among these, banana fibre is of major interest as banana is one of the most consumed fruit worldwide with annual production of 115.7 million tonnes in the year 2018 and is grown in 130 countries, which makes banana waste available locally. Various parts of banana plant such as fruit, fruit peel, flower bud, leaves and pseudo-stem (banana trunk) are utilized for different industrial purposes. Pseudo-stem is the major portion of banana waste biomass and yields good quality fibre that has the potential for industrial applications in the making of sanitary pads, textiles, pulp and paper, food and reinforced composite materials for automobiles, construction material, aerospace and other composite materials. Recently, Philippine Department of Science and Technology prepared masks from banana fibre which can cut the usage of single usage plastic. This review outlines various methods of extraction of fibre, biochemical and mechanical properties of banana fibre and its applications.

Instantaneous release of energy and pressure waves is always associated with every blast and explosion. The amount and the rate of release of energy depend upon the type and nature of explosive employed. When such events take place inadvertently or in the form of terrorist attacks, it causes great damage. Diminishing the amplitude and intensity of the energy and pressure waves before it interacts with human beings or assets has always been a challenge. The capacity and the rate of absorbing or reflecting the blast by a particular target or a system decide its importance. Different materials are studied to understand the influence of explosive conditions on their response and behavior. Being commonly used in our daily lives, the materials like, steel, aluminum, rubber etc. assume greater significance in providing different degree of protection against blast loading. These materials and their applications are constantly being explored from scientific point of view to understand their full potential and in finding their suitable combinations and variants to best meet the desired purpose. Designing an effective protective structure needs a good understanding of the various parameters associated with it like its capability to safely absorb the blast energy as well as the mechanical and physical behavior of the materials used. In this paper the behavior and the response of single 4 mm thick mild steel plate (having yield strength as 350 MPa) is studied against the different combinations of rubber with yield strength of 145 MPa and plates of same mild steel keeping the total overall thickness same as 4 mm. In all the cases, the standoff distance , the charge quantity and type of explosive were kept same as 100 mm, 100 gms and TNT explosive charge respectively. Various parameters like energy absorption, velocity, displacement are observed to understand and to quantify the response of the materials.

Data offloading offers a significant solution to the problem of explosive rise in mobile data traffic. A naive approach would be to utilize the infrastructure (cellular tower, WiFi, femtocell) or other mobile devices to offload data. However, increasing the number of a cellular towers, WiFi, or femtocells is costlier deal for data delivery. Recently, device-to-device (D2D) paradigm of data communication has emerged out as one of the most promising solutions to deal with cost effective cellular traffic offloading. D2D communication provides a direct communication link between closely located mobile users. Another significant feature of D2D is its content centric nature, which makes it useful in data offloading. In this paper, we have addressed the issue of data offloading in mobile devices and proposed a hybrid model of D2D communication with ad-hoc nature. The paper also considers the issues like memory constraints of the devices, pruning of replicated messages and energy efficiency to increase the lifetime of the battery. Considering all the constraints and trade off, we have modeled our problem into optimal target selection problem and distributed community detection problem, both of which are NP-hard. We propose a clustering algorithm to optimize the cooperative mobile nodes. The proposed algorithm uses the betweenness centrality and k-means for optimizing target set section. Our proposed algorithm requires less time in terms of computational complexity with limited space. We compare it with the community-based approach in terms of load transferred for varying target set sizes for validation. The simulation results of the suggested algorithm may reduce the energy requirements up to 16.7% and is able to accommodate 80% more traffic as compared to the community-based algorithm.

In this article, we reconnoiter the differential reflection signal of a Bi2Se3 single-crystal flake, using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy in the femtosecond time domain and thereby explore the experimental data in terms of terahertz frequency generated in the sample. An exfoliated flake of a well-characterized self-flux grown bulk Bi2Se3 single crystal having rhombohedral structure and layered morphology is used in the present study. The kinetic profile of the same being generated through a reflection signal by a pump laser of 650 nm at an average power of 0.5 mW is studied utilizing time-resolved ultrafast technique. The silhouette as a function of probe delay predicting the capability of the terahertz generation is estimated. Here, two methods FFT (fast Fourier transformation) and FFD (filtering high-frequency component followed by fitting data) are performed to estimate the value of terahertz generated in the system. While comparing the two (FFT & FFD), it is found that a large amount of magnitude difference occurs in the prediction of terahertz frequency. Summarily, we not only report the generation of terahertz in Bi2Se3 flake, also but points out that the exact order of magnitude and the capability of the same depends upon the method of analysis. It is important to extract the vibration signal from the background one so that to find the exact order of magnitude and capability of terahertz generation by any quantum material.

Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is presently wreaking havoc on public health and socio-economic development. Besides the upper and lower respiratory tract involvement, gastrointestinal symptoms are also reported in COVID-19 patients through gut-lung axis. Finding its way through the feces of infected individuals and other sources, the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 (ssRNA) is reported widely in wastewater and is being used as a fingerprint for its detection. With millions of cases arriving every day, there is a need to level up the testing speed efficiency. Due to the restricted sampling potential of testing laboratories, clinical testing is unable to track all the symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) bestows an auxiliary monitoring tool that will contribute in community level screening. Sample collection, concentration, RNA extraction, quantification and data analysis are the main steps involved in implementation of WBE that can be relied upon as an alarm call for an upcoming wave, emergence of a new variant or any future pandemic. WBE can be a cheaper and more practical alternative to high end and sophisticated clinical testing for community transmission detection. Worldwide, there are more than 300 reports entailing the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater exhibiting unique temporal trends with five of them in India. This review aims to address the present knowledge on surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and its implications.

We report on timing and spectral analysis of transient Be X-ray pulsar GRO J1750-27 by using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observation from September 2021. This is the fourth outburst of the system since 1995. The NuSTAR observation was performed during the rising phase of the outburst. Pulsations at a period of 4.450710(1) s were observed in the 3-60 keV energy range. The average pulse profile comprised of a broad peak with a weak secondary peak which evolved with energy. We did not find any appreciable variation in the X-ray emission during this observation. The broad-band phase-averaged spectrum is described by a blackbody, a powerlaw or Comptonization component. We report discovery of Fe K$_{\alpha}$ line at 6.4 keV along with presence of two cyclotron resonant scattering features around 36 and 42 keV. These lines indicate a magnetic field strength of $3.7_{-0.3}^{+0.1} \times 10^{12}$ and $4.4 \pm 0.1 \times 10^{12}$ G for the neutron star. We have estimated a source distance of $\sim$ 13.6-16.4 kpc based on the accretion-disc torque models., Comment: 8 pages, 9 Figures, 1 Table, Updated and accepted version for publication in MNRAS