Search

Plants copiously rely on intense sensitivity recognition and acclimation mechanisms to cope against various environmental perturbations. Abiotic stresses such as water availability (drought or flooding), salinity, nutrient stress and metal stress aregrievous threatto the global agriculture as they hinder the crop plant to attain its whole genetic potential resulting in the notable yield loss. Signal transduction networks validate the plants in stress signal perception accompanied by transduction than finally inception of the response. Stress signal transduction and its perception is hugely decisive step to conquer these environmental obstacles for the better growth and survival of the crop plant. This review emphasizes on various pathways namely hormone signaling and their cross talk, ROS signaling, ABA signaling, Ion homeostasis, MAPK pathways, SOS signaling and transcriptional factors (TFs). Peculiarly, in future recent biotechnological innovations will help in understanding the gene function and ingress to whole genome sequences provide new guidance for crop refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz waveguides and resonators have brought numerous applications from biomedical to modern communications. In this paper, we have demonstrated numerically a straight semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor(SIS) waveguide attached to a split ring resonator, which acts as a terahertz frequency filter and can be used for refractive index sensing. The device's transmission properties have been studied using the finite element method. To fix the third dimension of the device, that is the depth of the waveguide the effective mode index and power density calculations are done for the propagating mode. The frequency tuning of the filter is achieved by changing the geometric parameters of the waveguide and resonator system such as ring radii and split width. Both the symmetric and antisymmetric modes of the split ring show almost the same rate of change of resonance frequency with the change in geometric parameters. To demonstrate the importance of the split position, the transmittance is studied by placing the split at different positions on the ring. We obtained the same transmittance for the split at left and right positions, whereas the split at the top and bottom shows different transmittance similar to the transmittance of a ring resonator. The symmetric and antisymmetric modes of the split ring are calculated for refractive index sensing and the highest sensitivity of 0.741 THz/ refractive index unit (RIU) for the symmetric mode as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel architecture of bidirectional underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system has been proposed to interconnect stationary and moving underwater sensor nodes for diverse applications. To achieve the bidirectional communication, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and remodulation approach have been used in this work. The proposed bidirectional UWOC system works at 40 Gbps data rate for both downlink (stationary node to moving node) and uplink (moving node to stationary node). Two distinct wavelengths of 532 nm and 531 nm have been used for uplink and downlink, the main attraction of the proposed architecture is that both the laser sources are placed at the stationary node. The moving node do not have any laser source and it remodulates the signal for sending data back to the stationary node. Because of this, the moving node contains lesser components which results in cost effectiveness, low power requirement and light weight. The proposed system successfully transmits the bidirectional information at a link range of 40 m under pure sea conditions in the presence of distinctive air bubble populations. The observed bit error rate (BER) values are 1.89 × 10− 13 and 1.19 × 10− 04 for the downlink and uplink respectively at a link range of 40 m, these BER values are under the acceptable forward error correction (FEC = 2 × 10− 3) limit. The proposed bidirectional UWOC system is beneficial for the development of a high-speed last-mile underwater solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of physical properties of compound semiconductors plays a vital role in the device fabrication point of view. Different investigations suggest that one can tune these properties by impurity dopants, irradiation techniques, adopting different synthesis techniques, etc. In this study, the physical properties of nanostructured thin films of Se–S compound were tuned by different Hg dopant concentrations. X-ray diffraction spectra clarify the preferred crystallite growth occurs in the cubic phase of the corresponding Bravi’s crystal system. The particle size calculated from Bragg’s reflection spectra by using Scherrer’s analytical formula illustrates an enhancement of crystallite size in highly concentrated Hg-doped sample. Similar consequences are found in surface morphological micrographs. The optical band gap reduced from 1.65eV to 1.54eV on increasing the doping concentration of Hg, according to the computed optical parameters using optical transmission spectra in the wavelength range 200–1100nm. The thin-film refractive index dispersion data fits well in accordance with the single oscillator model. Investigation of electrical properties tells that there is significant improvement in electrical conductivity in highly concentrated Hg-doped samples. Therefore, the apparent tuning as observed in the physical properties of the investigated material may have practical uses in industry for a variety of optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nebraska is the number one producer of food‐grade white corn in the United States. Pollen‐mediated gene flow (PMGF) from genetically engineered high alpha‐amylase corn, known as Enogen corn, to food‐grade white corn can have undesirable outcomes. Alpha‐amylase can convert starch in white corn to sugar during or after its processing, degrading the quality of processed products. Thus, proximity to Enogen corn puts white corn production at risk. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the PMGF from herbicide‐resistant yellow corn to food‐grade white corn and assess the significance of wind speed and direction. Field experiments were set up using a Nelder‐wheel design in 2021 and 2022 in Nebraska, with yellow field corn as pollen donor in the center and white corn surrounding it as pollen receptor. At the end of the season, samples of white corn cobs were collected up to 50 and 70 m from four cardinal and ordinal directions, respectively. PMGF was detected by counting the number of yellow kernels on the white cobs. More than 4 million kernels were screened and the highest frequency of PMGF (0.0621–0.1950) was detected at the nearest distance (1 m). PMGF decreased exponentially with distance; however, it was still observed (0.0020–0.0032) at the greatest distance (70 m) evaluated in this study. Wind profile played a significant role in PMGF. Wind frequency (r = 0.58 ≤ 0.86) and wind run (r = 0.36 ≤ 0.95) were moderately to strongly correlated with PMGF in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The results are concerning for white corn growers due to the coexistence of Enogen corn and food‐grade white corn. Core Ideas: The pollen‐mediated gene flow (PMGF) from yellow corn to white corn was greatest at the nearest distance (1 m).The exponential decay model was the best fit to explain PMGF with distance from the yellow corn.Wind parameters such as wind speed, direction, and frequency affected PMGF, signifying the role of wind in PMGF in corn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future decarbonisation scenarios will make carbon capture and storage (CCS) a viable solution for organisations that use a lot of energy. Nevertheless, due to current technology's high energy and financial costs, CCS systems are challenging to deploy, making researchers prioritise novel solutions based upon new/improved methods such as chemical absorption, adsorption and solutions like solvents, sorbents, membranes, and new process designs. Mitigating CO2 using water is a potential and cost-effective method; hence, this paper presents a simulation analysis of CO2 absorption technology in a spray column scrubber with a novel helical sparger (NHS). In this context, a model was developed using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique where a spray column scrubber with two different spargers (a conventional sparger and a novel helical sparger (NHS)) was designed to absorb CO2. The turbulent kinetic energy, the volume fraction of CO2, and hydrodynamics for both the spargers were determined. The results showed significant improvement in CO2 absorption in the novel helical scrubber as it shows a CO2 absorption efficiency of 52.64% while the conventional sparger shows it of 29.34% during experiments in aqueous medium. However, the simulations results show a higher absorption efficiencies of 50.945%, and 70.628% for conventional sparger, and novel helical sparger, respectively. This work shows that a properly designed CFD simulation can help to optimise the scrubber design and improve absorption performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G be a group. An automorphism α of G is called a commuting automorphism if [α(g), g] = 1 for all g ∈ G. Let A(G) denote the set of all commuting automorphisms of G. A group G is said to be an A(G)-group if A(G) forms a subgroup of Aut(G), where Aut(G) denotes the group of all automorphisms of G. In [Proc. Japan Acad. Ser. A Math. Sci. 91 (2015), no. 5, 57-60] Rai proved that a finite p-group G of co-class 2 for an odd prime p is an A(G)-group. We prove that a finite p-group G of co-class 3 for an odd prime p, under some conditions, is an A(G)-group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian agriculture is suffered with a number of problems for enhancing the productivity of grain crops to protect the food security by increasing the food production in India's green revolution to get self-sufficiency during 1970s leaving something for widespread scarcity of food. To secure the food self sufficiency caused so many problems despite the improved technologies, so there is need to address all the factors, which affecting on the Indian agriculture. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India. Keeping in view the above, therefore tried to discuss the major problems in Indian agriculture in this article. The information related to the problems of agriculture were collected from internet and also taken from the previous work of different researchers in 2020 at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gurdaspur with the objectives to address the threats caused by agricultural intensification. Several problems as land holding, intensive cropping and excessive use of chemical, excessive irrigation, inadequate seed replacement and inadequate mechanization impact on soil productivity and caused degraded land. Other factors like lack of proper transport in rural areas, minimum support price, poor credit facility concern the economic conditions of the farmers and impact on Indian agriculture and also influence directly or indirectly on the food security of the country. As per the objectives the influence of agricultural intensification on productivity and production of food grains factors discussed all the factors with their solution in this article for the benefits of all the concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of multiferroic materials has opened up a plethora of possibilities for revolutionary futuristic magnetoelectric devices. The selection of an appropriate material for good multiferroic characteristics has always been a point of debate. Therefore, (1−x)Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3–xNi0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 composites were thoroughly investigated in the this research work. The mixed phase of composites is revealed by powder X-ray diffraction, wherein NZFO and BCZT display the spinel phase and perovskite phase, respectively. Microstructural and elemental analyses show that the constituent phases of composites are distributed uniformly, with no evidence of impurity elements. The ferroelectric properties improved up to x = 0.3, after which lossy P–E loops were observed. The saturation magnetization rises from 7.358 to 38.916 emu g−1 with an increase in ferrite concentration because the NZFO phase serves as the magnetization centre in composites. An increase in NZFO content resulted in improved ferroelectric and magnetic characteristics of the composites, whereas the value of dielectric constant decreases. The presence of a magnetodielectric (M–D) property indicates magnetoelectric (M–E) coupling at room temperature. With an addition of 20% NZFO, the highest value of M–D was found to be 8.75% and γ = −2.3657 × 10−4 g2 emu−2. The M–E coupling in the present composites resulted in an induced M–E voltage that can be tuned with external dc magnetic field. The maximum value of αmax = 1.46 mV cm−1 Oe−1 is obtained for x = 0.3 composite at magnetic field of 100 Oe. Further, it has been found that due to its soft magnetic nature and low conductivity, NZFO is a potential candidate as magnetostrictive phase of perovskite/magnetostrictive-based composites. Also, the M–E coupling in prepared composites has been established as a product property having a direct association with dynamic magnetostriction of the ferrite phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Site diversity is the most effective way to recover a signal lost during heavy downpours, especially in tropical regions since other mitigation techniques such as adaptive power control and code modulation may be unreliable during such. Duplicated links at diverse sites are deployed, and the least-attenuated signal of either site will be routed to the prime site for further operation. Since the deployment is costly, a diversity-gain model is used to estimate the appropriateness of selected sites. Diversity gain is known to depend on site-separation distance and elevation angle and, optionally, baseline angle and signal frequency, based on the region of research. In addition to these factors, the horizontal rain-cell span and the wind's impact on the gain are ongoing investigations, especially in tropical regions. This article presented the rain analysis from the year 2014 to mid-July 2017 at eight sites in the Gombak and Sepang districts of Malaysia to investigate the dependency relevancies. The rain rates were then used to predict the attenuation using the ITU-R P.618-13 rain-attenuation model, and the inter- and cross-district gain characteristics were evaluated. The observation of diurnal rain during the northeast seasons yielded that the northeast wind stimulates intense rain at locations along its direction, thus, extending the horizontal rain-cell span to 15 km distant from a host. Meanwhile, sites located at 5 km distant, slightly perpendicular to the wind direction, and from 90° to 180° from due north of the host, experience less rain. The baseline angle variation establishes nonimpact to the gain and lengthening the site-separation distance presented equal chances to the shorter span towards diversity-gain increment. The research outcome is necessary to formulate a more reliable diversity-gain model to be used in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G be a finite non-abelian p-group, where p is a prime. Let γn(G) and Zn(G) respectively denote the nth term of the lower and upper central series of G, and let Ln(G) denote the nth absolute center of G. An automorphism α of G is called an IAn-automorphism if x−1α(x) ∈ γn+1(G) for all x ∈ G. The group of all IAn-automorphisms of G is denoted by IAn(G). Let denote the subgroup of IAn(G) which fixes Zn(G) elementwise. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a finite non-abelian p-group G of class (n + 1) such that , where M is a subgroup of G such that γn+1(G) ≤ M ≤ Z(G) ∩ Ln(G), and as a consequence, we obtain the main result of Chahal, Gumber and Kalra [7, Theorem 3.1]. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for a finite non-abelian p-group G of class (n+1) such that Autz (G) = IAn(G), and obtain Theorem B of Attar [4] as a particular case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although doxorubicin chemotherapy is commonly applied for treating different malignant tumors, cardiotoxicity induced by this chemotherapeutic agent restricts its clinical use. The use of silymarin/silibinin may mitigate the doxorubicin-induced cardiac adverse effects. For this aim, the potential cardioprotective effects of silymarin/silibinin against the doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity were systematically reviewed. Methods: In this study, we performed a systematic search in accordance with PRISMA guideline for identifying all relevant studies on "the role of silymarin/silibinin against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity" in different electronic databases up to June 2022. Sixty-one articles were obtained and screened based on the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thirteen eligible papers were finally included in this review. Results: According to the echocardiographic and electrocardiographic findings, the doxorubicin-treated groups presented a significant reduction in ejection fraction, tissue Doppler peak mitral annulus systolic velocity, and fractional shortening as well as bradycardia, prolongation of QT and QRS interval. However, these echocardiographic abnormalities were obviously improved in the silymarin plus doxorubicin groups. As well, the doxorubicin administration led to induce histopathological and biochemical changes in the cardiac cells/tissue; in contrast, the silymarin/silibinin co-administration could mitigate these induced alterations (for most of the cases). Conclusion: According to the findings, it was found that the co-administration of silymarin/silibinin alleviates the doxorubicin-induced cardiac adverse effects. Silymarin/silibinin exerts its cardioprotective effects via antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic activities, and other mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep-deprived fatigued person is likely to commit more errors that may even prove to be fatal. Thus, it is necessary to recognize this fatigue. The novelty of the proposed research work for the detection of this fatigue is that it is nonintrusive and based on multimodal feature fusion. In the proposed methodology, fatigue is detected by obtaining features from four domains: visual images, thermal images, keystroke dynamics, and voice features. In the proposed methodology, the samples of a volunteer (subject) are obtained from all four domains for feature extraction, and empirical weights are assigned to the four different domains. Young, healthy volunteers (n = 60) between the age group of 20 to 30 years participated in the experimental study. Further, they abstained from the consumption of alcohol, caffeine, or other drugs impacting their sleep pattern during the study. Through this multimodal technique, appropriate weights are given to the features obtained from the four domains. The results are compared with k-nearest neighbors (kNN), support vector machines (SVM), random tree, random forest, and multilayer perceptron classifiers. The proposed nonintrusive technique has obtained an average detection accuracy of 93.33% in 3-fold cross-validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic daily headaches (CDH) are common and associated with significant morbidity, poor quality of life, and substantial burden on the healthcare system. CDH tends to be refractory to conventional medical management and/or patients cannot afford expensive treatments. It is stipulated that CDH share a mechanism of central sensitization in the trigeminocervical complex, mediated by activation of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Ketamine, a non-competitive NMDA antagonist, has been used in the treatment of chronic pain, but its role in CDH has not been completely established. This trial aims to evaluate the effect of high-dose IV ketamine infusions (compared to placebo) on the number of headache days at 28 days post-infusion. Methods: A multicenter, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trial will be conducted with two parallel groups and blinding of participants and outcome assessors. The study will include 56 adults with a CDH diagnosis as per ICHD-3 criteria. Participants will be randomized (1:1) to either ketamine (1 mg. kg−1 bolus followed by infusion of 1 mg. kg−1. h−1 for 6 h) or placebo (0.9% saline in the same volume and infusion rate as the trial medication) bolus and infusion for 6 h. The impact on the number of monthly headache days, headache intensity, physical activity, mood, sleep, quality of life, analgesic consumption, and adverse effects will be recorded at baseline, immediately post-infusion, and from 1 to 28 days, 29 to 56 days, and 57 to 84 days after the infusion Discussion: Despite advancements in treatment, many patients continue to suffer from CDH. This trial investigates whether high-dose IV ketamine infusions can effectively and safely improve the CDH burden as compared to a placebo infusion. This treatment could become a safe, affordable, and widely available option for patients living with refractory headache. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05306899. Registered on April 1, 2022 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel strategy for the improvement in the sensing performance of p-type NiO is developed by employing the unique functional properties of self-assembled monolayers. Specifically, hole concentration near the surface of NiO nanowires (NWs) is modulated by terminal epoxy groups of the organosilane. This modulation leads to the increase in electron transfer from reducing gases to NWs surface. As a result, SAM-functionalized sensors showed 9-times higher response at low-temperature as compared to bare NiO NWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) is a wireless access technique that has been studied and investigated in response to the worldwide bandwidth demand in the wireless communication sector (MIMO). Massive MIMO, which brings together antennas at the transmitter and receiver to deliver excellent spectral and energy efficiency with comparatively simple processing, is one of the main enabling technologies for the upcoming generation of networks. To actualize diverse applications of the intelligent sensing system, it is essential for the successful deployment of 5G—and beyond—networks to gain a better understanding of the massive MIMO system and address its underlying problems. The recent huge MIMO systems are highlighted in this paper's thorough analysis of the essential enabling technologies needed for sub-6 GHz 5G networks. This article covers most of the critical issues with mMIMO antenna systems including pilot realized gain, isolation, ECC, efficiency, and bandwidth. In this study, two types of massive 5G MIMO antennas are presented. These types are used depending on the applications at sub-6 GHz bands. The first type of massive MIMO antennas is designed for base station applications, whereas the most recent structures of 5G base station antennas that support massive MIMO are introduced. The second type is constructed for smartphone applications, where several compact antennas designed in literature that can support massive MIMO technology are studied and summarized. As a result, mMIMO antennas are considered as good candidates for 5G systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pearl millet, a vital staple food and an important cereal, is emerging as crop having various end-uses as feed, food as well as fodder. Advancement in high-throughput sequencing technology has boosted up pearl millet genomic research in past few years. The available draft genome of pearl millet providing an insight into the advancement of several breeding lines. Comparative and functional genomics have untangled several loci and genes regulating adaptive and agronomic traits in pearl millet. Additionally, the knowledge achieved has far away from being applicable in real breeding practices. We believe that the best path ahead is to adopt genome-based approaches for tailored designing of pearl millet as multi-functional crop with outstanding agronomic traits for various end uses. Presently review highlight several novel concepts and techniques in crop breeding, and summarize the recent advances in pearl millet genomic research, peculiarly genome-wide association dissections of several novel alleles and genes for agronomically important traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landing of a fixed-wing aircraft on a ship is a challenging task due to a constrained landing space, wind disturbances, and the ship motion. In this paper, we consider the landing problem as a moving path following problem and present a decoupled three-dimensional State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE)-based guidance law for net recovery landing of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on board a ship deck. Stability analysis of the guidance law is carried out and its performance is evaluated on aerosonde UAV in MATLAB and RASCAL aircraft in software-in-the-loop (SITL) taking actuator dynamics, different sea states for ship motion and varying wind disturbances into account. The proposed approach shows the general applicability of the guidance law for different types of aircraft [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chemiresistive sensor has been developed for the room-temperature detection of ammonia vapors using CeO2/multiwalled carbon nanotubes composite synthesized via. two-step method. Structural analysis has revealed the successful formation of the composite. The ammonia sensing measurements using composite-based sensor have shown an increase in device resistance when exposed to ammonia vapors. This indicates p-type conduction in the composite. A linear relation between sensing response and ammonia concentration was obtained. On the one hand, sensor made from CeO2 also gave a sensing response at room temperature and corresponding recovery time was quiet large (190 s). On the other hand, sensor made from CeO2/MWCNTs has shown a response time of 35 s and relatively smaller recovery time (100 s). Further, composite-based sensor has shown higher sensitivity to ammonia when compared with dimethyl formamide, N-methyl pyrrolidone, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, ethanol and chloroform. Importantly, the device has shown a stable and reproducible characteristics over a wide range of humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of surface defects, such as epoxy and carbonyl groups, is known to control the charge-carrier transport in graphene oxide (GO). In addition, these surface entities also provide an opportunity to synthesize novel hybrid (NH) materials via chemical bonding. These hybrid materials are particularly interesting for sensing as they offer novel properties like larger surface area and improved physical/chemical properties. Herein, we are proposing a novel SiO2@GO–NH based room-temperature (RT) ethanol sensor. The NH is realized from solution-route by following the sol–gel chemistry of tetraethyl orthosilicate. The attachment of SiO2 with the GO network occurs via the formation of Si–O–C bonds, which also leads to the reduction in the atomic percentage of electron-withdrawing groups. This reduction results in the improvement in electron charge transport in GO, which leads to the RT detection of ethanol. Specifically, the charge transport in NH is found to be dominated by a field-driven temperature-independent 2D variable-range hopping mechanism. While the ethanol sensing mechanism is found to be governed by two processes, i.e., via direct interaction of ethanol with NH and interaction with chemisorbed oxygen ions on the Pt/Si@GO–NH interface. Detailed observations reveal that the SiO2–GO NH has great potential to be used as a biomarker for food quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let p 1 , p 2 , ... , p n be distinct positive real numbers and m be any integer. Every symmetric polynomial f (x , y) ∈ C [ x , y ] induces a symmetric matrix f (p i , p j) i , j = 1 n. We obtain the determinants of such matrices with an aim to find the determinants of P m = (p i + p j) m i , j = 1 n and B 2 m = (p i − p j) 2 m i , j = 1 n for m ∈ N (where N is the set of natural numbers) in terms of the Schur polynomials. We also discuss and compute determinant of the matrix K m = p i m + p j m p i + p j i , j = 1 n for any integer m in terms of the Schur and skew-Schur polynomials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the impact of wear process parameters on the sliding wear behavior of titanium oxide (TiO2) and yttrium oxide (Y2O3) reinforced pure aluminum (Al) hybrid nanocomposites. The optimization of wear test parameters for hybrid aluminum matrix nanocomposites (HAMNCs) was examined with the design of experiments Taguchi method. The HAMNCs were manufactured by a vacuum die casting technique using a unique double‐layer feeding method. Initially, mechanical characterization as tensile and hardness of HAMNC samples was performed to identify the optimum reinforcement. The nanocomposites at 5‐wt.% TiO2 + 5‐wt.% Y2O3 (HAMNC1) showed excellent tensile strength and microhardness of 127.6 MPa and 75.43 BHN, respectively, than the other configurations of HAMNCs. The three levels of machine process parameters as load at 5, 10, 15 N, sliding velocity at.5, 1, 1.5 m/s and sliding distance at 200, 400, and 600 m are selected to identify optimum process parameters of HAMNC1 that possess ultimate wear properties. The results derived from optimization were further predicted using ANOVA and regression equations for individual influences. The improved grain size observed in the wear surface morphology of HAMNC1 was performed using field emission scanning electron microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and associated protein (Cas) systems, since their discovery, have found growing applications in cell imaging, transcription modulation, therapeutics and diagnostics. Discovery of Cas12 and Cas13 have brought a new dimension to the field of disease diagnosis. These endonucleases have been extensively used for diagnosis of viral diseases in humans and animals and to a lesser extent in plants. The exigency of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has highlighted the potential of CRISPR-Cas systems and sparked the development of innovative point-of-care diagnostic technologies. Rapid adaptation of CRISPR-chemistry combined with sensitive read-outs for emerging pathogens make them ideal candidates for detection and management of diseases in future. CRISPR-based approaches have been recruited for the challenging task of cancer detection and prognosis. It stands to reason that the field of CRISPR-Cas-based diagnosis is likely to expand with Cas12 and Cas13 playing a pivotal role. Here we focus exclusively on Cas12- and Cas13-based molecular diagnosis in humans, animals and plants including the detection of SARS-coronavirus. The CRISPR-based diagnosis of plant and animal diseases have not found adequate mention in previous reviews. We discuss various advancements, the potential shortfalls and challenges in the widespread adaptation of this technology for disease diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) turns out to be a primary sought alternative to wireless technology, which can provide high data rate, enormous bandwidth, and low deployment cost and resolve the crowded radio frequency band issues. The performance of the UWOC link is significantly affected by the turbulent ocean environment. In this paper, the different turbulence scenarios such as salinity gradients, temperature gradients, and air bubbles are considered to model the turbulent nature of the ocean environment experimentally. These turbulent conditions induce severe intensity fluctuations in the received optical signal. These intensity fluctuations are modeled stochastically, and a novel turbulence channel model is proposed, which excellently fitted with the experimental data. The conformity of the proposed model is validated by performing a goodness of fit test in terms of R2 and root mean square error (RMSE) coefficients. The results show that for all the considered turbulent scenarios, the Gaussian mixture model better approximates the experimental observations than the Weibull distribution. As the strength of the turbulence increases, the chances of link outage and the probability of bit errors increase. At a flow rate of 4 L/min, the bit error rate (BER) of 10−20, 10−14, and 10−10 is recorded under clear water, salinity, and temperature gradient channel conditions, respectively. It is observed that the air bubbles have a significant impact on the propagating optical beam in comparison to temperature and salinity‐induced turbulence. Moreover, a close agreement between the proposed model and the experimental data is also observed, which makes the proposed model more appropriate to describe the turbulent ocean environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Avascular necrosis (AVN) of hip of the femoral head is increasingly seen in young age, disabling them in their productive years of life. Available treatment options need to be evaluated. Aim: The aim was to compare the outcome of various treatments at different stages of AVN hip. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was done in patients with idiopathic AVN hip, who had undergone different treatment modalities. The data of the included patients at different time intervals were compared. All patients were graded with the help of Harris Hip Score (HHS), and their outcome was evaluated. Results: The age distribution of patients showed that nearly 80% of them were below the age of 50 years. The patients were presenting more often in Ficat and Arlet stage 4 compared to earlier stages. The patients in stage 1 were treated by core decompression alone, which produced good-to-excellent results in 4 of 7 (57.1%) patients. Patients in stage 2 and 3 were treated by core decompression with fibular bone grafting and had good-to-excellent results in 6 of 8 (75%) patients. In stage 4 of disease, cemented total hip replacement (THR) was done, and it produced good-to-excellent results in 13 of 15 (86.6%) patients. Conclusion: In the early stage of disease, core decompression with and without bone grafting produced satisfactory results. In an advanced stage of AVN, THR is an excellent treatment option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salinity gradients (SGs), temperature gradients (TGs), and different-sized air bubbles affect the optical signal propagating in the UWOC link. These effects contribute to beam wandering, spot dancing, and intensity fluctuations in the received optical signal. In this paper, experimental analysis has been carried out to estimate the effect of SG, TG and air bubbles on the underwater optical signal. The beam wandering, mean and variance deviation, displacement of weighted centroid, the statistical distribution of received intensities and link outage probability have been estimated in this work. It has been found that the beam wandering effects follow a Gaussian mixture model (GMM). It is also observed that in the presence of air bubbles in the SG, the chances of link outage increase from 48% to 80% and it increases from 7% to 28% in the TG conditions. Furthermore, the experimental and theoretical modelled outage probabilities are in close agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the corrosion and flexural behaviour of advanced hybrid aluminium matrix nanocomposites (HAMNCs) made with a vacuum-assisted stir die casting (two-layer feeding) and reinforced with titanium oxide (TiO2) and yttrium oxide (Y2O3) nanoparticles. The previous researchers have shown that TiO2 and Y2O3 nanoparticles make aluminium composites much more resistant to corrosion and wear. Design/methodology/approach: Salt spray corrosion tests were done on the samples over time as well as the pre-and post-corrosion morphology of the test samples was also investigated. The density, porosity and energy dispersive X-ray of the fabricated samples were observed. Findings: It was observed that a lower corrosion rate of 0.127 mils/year and 0.573 mils/year was seen in the Al/5 Wt.%TiO2/5 Wt.%Y2O3 (HAMNC1) and Al/7.5 Wt.%TiO2/2.5 Wt.%Y2O3 (HAMNC3), respectively. It was evident from the results that the pores and densities of the samples varied with the filler concentrations and matrix filler wettability. HAMNC1 has the lowest values of density and porosity at 2.568 g/cm3 and 9.91%, respectively. At the same time, a significant improvement in the flexural strength of 72 N/mm2 was also seen in the HAMNC1 configuration. Practical implications: The proposed hybrid samples are well suited for aerospace and automobile structural components such as brake drums, discs, engine cylinders and fins. Originality/value: The mixed influence evaluation of TiO2 and Y2O3 nanoparticles with pure Al on composite samples has not been studied. This research aims to examine the combined influence of nanoparticles on the corrosion aspects of two-step feeding vacuum stir casted products, as well as their morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An antenna assumes a significant role in expanding the levels of communication to meet the demands of contemporary technologically based industry and private data services. In this paper, a printed compact meander line patch antenna array for wireless local-area network (WLAN) applications in the frequency span of 2.3685–2.4643 GHz is presented. The impedance matching of the antenna is generated by applying a partial rectangular-shaped ground plane backside of the meander line antenna. The proposed antenna evolved on the Rogers RT5880 substrate with a dielectric permittivity of 2.2, and the height of the substrate was 1.575 mm to accomplish the lowest possible return loss. The proposed antenna was developed to achieve particular outcomes, for example, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) 1.32, reflection coefficient 20 dB with a bandwidth of 94.2 MHz, a gain of 2.8 dBi, and an efficacy measurement of 97%. This antenna is appropriate for WLAN applications that utilize a 2.4 GHz resonance frequency. The overall dimensions of the antenna are 15 mm × 90.86 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UWOC link range is significantly limited by the severity of the turbulent nature of the ocean. The present study investigates the performance of a high-speed spectrally efficient UWOC link incorporating polarization division multiplexing based quadrature phase-shift keying modulation scheme operating at a data rate of 112 Gbps. To alleviate the absorption, scattering, and turbulence induced by air bubbles, a digital signal processing aided coherent detection system is deployed at the receiver node along with spatial diversity techniques. It is observed that the operational link range under pure seawater is 195 m for single input single output configuration. The link length extends to 215 m for 3 × 3 repetition coding multiple-input multiple-output configuration. Considering the dynamic nature of the oceanic medium, the maximum link range feasibility analysis is also verified using Monte Carlo yield estimation. The received power improvement of 5.02 dBm is observed for 3 × 3 MIMO over 1 × 1 SISO configuration. Thus, the proposed MIMO technique reduces the impact of underwater turbulence on the propagating beam and as a result, it increases the reliable communication range for all the water scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating industrialization trend underscores the imperative for sustainable waste management practices. The present investigation explores a sustainable methodology for managing the waste generated from the kraft process by directly converting it into activated carbon (BLAC) through a cost-effective hydrothermal-assisted activation method. The research involved a comparative analysis of BLAC with acid-washed black liquor lignin-derived activated carbon (ABLAC) and commercial lignin-derived activated carbon (SALAC). The analysis revealed that BLAC possesses a well-developed micro and mesoporous structure, yielding a significantly higher surface area of 2277.2 m2/g as compared to ABLAC (1260 m2/g) and SALAC (1558.4 m2/g). The presence of inherent alkali in the black liquor is the main factor influencing the surface area of the BLAC. Furthermore, it demonstrated impressive electrochemical performance, showing a specific capacitance value of 871.4 F/g at 1 A/g current density, positioning it as a formidable electrode material for supercapacitor applications. The proposed direct conversion strategy will eliminate the need for high-temperature pre‑carbonization and additional lignin extraction, reducing chemical usage and presenting a greener approach. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating industrialization trend underscores the imperative for sustainable waste management practices. The present investigation explores a sustainable methodology for managing the waste generated from the kraft process by directly converting it into activated carbon (BLAC) through a cost-effective hydrothermal-assisted activation method. The research involved a comparative analysis of BLAC with acid-washed black liquor lignin-derived activated carbon (ABLAC) and commercial lignin-derived activated carbon (SALAC). The analysis revealed that BLAC possesses a well-developed micro and mesoporous structure, yielding a significantly higher surface area of 2277.2 m2/g as compared to ABLAC (1260 m2/g) and SALAC (1558.4 m2/g). The presence of inherent alkali in the black liquor is the main factor influencing the surface area of the BLAC. Furthermore, it demonstrated impressive electrochemical performance, showing a specific capacitance value of 871.4 F/g at 1 A/g current density, positioning it as a formidable electrode material for supercapacitor applications. The proposed direct conversion strategy will eliminate the need for high-temperature pre‑carbonization and additional lignin extraction, reducing chemical usage and presenting a greener approach. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The silymarin phytosome (SPY) was developed to improve the solubility and dissolution. The prepared phytosome was evaluated for hemolytic, membrane stabilization activity, and in vivo acute and subchronic toxicity. Materials and Methods: The toxicological evaluation was carried out by assessing its effects on liver, kidney, brain, lungs, heart and spleen in a rat model. In addition to confirmation of formation of phytosome, the physical-chemical characterization was done by FTIR, DSC, PXRD, and 1H NMR. Results: The optimized formulation has higher aqueous solubility of SPY compared to that of pure silymarin. The formulation also exhibited a significantly higher rate and extent of silymarin release in dissolution studies. The percent hemolysis for SPY was significantly less than silymarin. As a result, SPY can be concluded to be non-toxic and biocompatible for in vivo administration. SPY significantly inhibited hypotonic solutioninduced hemolysis in a dose-dependent manner. In acute oral toxicity, no treatment-related death or toxic signs were observed. The sub-acute test observations indicated that there are no treatment-related changes up to the high dose level. Food consumption, body weight, organ weight, hematological parameters, biochemical parameters and histopathological examination revealed no abnormalities. Conclusion: The study shows that SPY is a promising and viable strategy for improving the delivery of silymarin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LpqY‐SugABC transporter of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) salvages residual trehalose across the cell membrane, which is otherwise lost during the formation of cell‐wall glycoconjugates in the periplasm. LpqY, a substrate‐binding protein from the SugABC transporter, acts as the primary receptor for the recognition of trehalose, leading to its transport across the cell membrane. Since trehalose is crucial for the survival and virulence of Mtb, trehalose receptors should serve as important targets for novel drug design against tuberculosis. In order to comprehend the detailed architecture and substrate specificity, the first crystal structures of both apo and trehalose‐bound forms of M. tuberculosis LpqY (Mtb‐LpqY) are presented here at 2.2 and 1.9 Å resolution, respectively. The structure exhibits an N‐lobe and C‐lobe and is predominantly composed of a globular α/β domain connected by a flexible hinge region concealing a deep binding cleft. Although the trehalose‐bound form of Mtb‐LpqY revealed an open ligand‐bound conformation, the glucose moieties of trehalose are seen to be strongly held in place by direct and water‐mediated hydrogen bonds within the binding cavity, producing a Kd of 6.58 ± 1.21 µM. These interactions produce a distinct effect on the stereoselectivity for the α‐1,1‐glycosidic linkage of trehalose. Consistent with the crystal structure, molecular‐dynamics simulations further validated Asp43, Asp97 and Asn151 as key residues responsible for strong and stable interactions throughout a 1 µs time frame, thus capturing trehalose in the binding cavity. Collectively, the results provide detailed insights into how the structure and dynamics of Mtb‐LpqY enable it to specifically bind trehalose in a relaxed conformation state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio frequency energy harvesting (RF-EH) is a potential technology via the generation of electromagnetic waves. This advanced technology offers the supply of wireless power that is applicable for battery-free devices, which makes it a prospective alternative energy source for future applications. In addition to the dynamic energy recharging of wireless devices and a wide range of environmentally friendly energy source options, the emergence of the RF-EH technology is advantageous in facilitating various applications that require quality of service. This review highlights the abundant source of RF-EH from the surroundings sources, including nearby mobile phones, Wi-Fi, wireless local area network, broadcast television signal or DTS, and FM/AM radio signals. In contrast, the energy is captured by a receiving antenna and rectified into a working direct current voltage. This review also summarizes the power of RF-EH technology, which would provide a guideline for developing RF-EH units. The energy harvesting circuits depend on cutting-edge electrical technology to achieve significant efficiency, given that they are built to perform with considerably small current and voltage. Hence, the review includes a thorough analysis and discussion of various RF designs and their pros and cons. Finally, the latest applications of RF-EH are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive aspects like perception, problem-solving, thinking, task performance, etc., are immensely influenced by emotions making it necessary to study emotions. The best state of emotion is the positive unexcited state, also known as the HighValence LowArousal (HVLA) state of the emotion. The psychologists endeavour to bring the subjects from a negatively excited state of emotion (Low Valence High Arousal state) to a positive unexcited state of emotion (High Valence Low Arousal state). In the first part of this study, a four-class subject independent emotion classifier was developed with an SVM polynomial classifier using average Event Related Potential (ERP) and differential average ERP attributes. The visually evoked Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were acquired from 24 subjects. The four-class classification accuracy was 83% using average ERP attributes and 77% using differential average ERP attributes. In the second part of the study, the meditative intervention was applied to 20 subjects who declared themselves negatively excited (in Low Valence High Arousal state of emotion). The EEG signals were acquired before and after the meditative intervention. The four-class subject independent emotion classifier developed in Study 1 correctly classified these 20 subjects to be in a negatively excited state of emotion. After the intervention, 16 subjects self-assessed themselves to be in a positive unexcited (HVLA) state of emotion (which shows the intervention accuracy of 80%). Testing a four-class subject independent emotion classifier on the EEG data acquired after the meditative intervention validated 13 of 16 subjects in a positive unexcited state, yielding an accuracy of 81.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher cyclic variability in combustion adversely influences emissions, efficiency, and driveability of internal combustion engines. In this paper, we used wavelet transform techniques to investigate the dynamical characteristics of a combustion process in numerous combustion parameters of a 4-cylinder turbocharged common rail direct injection (CRDI) diesel engine fuelled with Argemone mexicana biodiesel (AGB)/diesel blended fuel. In addition, statistical analysis is described to validate the results of the wavelet spectrum methods for cyclic variation in the diesel engine. The results show that the cyclic variations in IMEP and Pmax are sensitive to the engine load and fuel properties. The coefficient of variation of both combustion parameters decreases as engine load increases for all tested fuels. Moreover, adding Argemone mexicana biodiesel (AGB) into diesel fuel up to 20% (AB20) reduces cyclic variations in combustion parameters at all tested engine loads. Furthermore, the global wavelet spectrum and wavelet power spectrum are utilized to identify the dominant oscillatory combustion modes. The cycle-to-cycle fluctuations in combustion parameters (i.e., IMEP and Pmax) exhibit multi-scale dynamics for all experimental conditions. Compared to long and intermediate oscillations in diesel fuel, AB10 and AB20 fuel showed short and intermittent period fluctuations. The findings of this experimental work will be helpful to optimize engine control strategies for AGB/diesel blended fueled multi-cylinder CRDI diesel engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the people who do not take required sleep are prone to sleep-deprived mental fatigue. This mental fatigue due to sleep deprivation is very harmful to persons involved in critical jobs like Pilots, Surgeons, Air traffic controllers and others. The present research paper proposes an intelligent method based on re-enforced learning, followed by classification supported by the adaptive threshold. Moreover, the method proposed by us is non-intrusive, in which the subject is unaware of being monitored during the test; it helps prevent biased results. The novelty lies in the use of the Inter-frame interval of an open and close eye for feature extraction that leads to the detection of "Alertness" or "Fatigue" based on the adaptive threshold. The proposed self-learning framework is real-time in nature and has a detection accuracy of 97.5 %. Since the method is self-learning, as the size of the data set increases, its accuracy and sensitivity are likely to increase further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an efficient technique is adopted to solve a classical one-dimensional nonlinear eigenvalue problem of the well known Gelfand elliptic BVP: − Δ y = λ exp ⁡ (± y) with y = 0 at the endpoints and λ as the eigenvalue, commonly known as Bratu problem. Advancement of the Haar wavelet method (HWM) has been proposed to improve the precision and solution's convergence rate. Numerical illustrations showed the performance and efficiency of the method. The numerical findings help to manifest the betterment of the proposed method over various existing techniques including splines, wavelets and decomposition methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUTs) can be considered as a potential candidate to interconnect physical devices (things) such as submarines, ships, divers, buoys, and unmanned underwater vehicles (AUVs) to collect and exchange information with each other in the ocean environment. Traditionally, sound waves have been used to transfer information between IoUTs, but due to the lack of limited bandwidth and data rate, the underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC)‐based IoUTs can be considered as a viable solution. In this work, a real‐time RGB image is transferred between two IoUTs using an intensity modulation direct detection (IM/DD) on–off keying (OOK) modulation scheme. To estimate the performance of the reconstructed image, structure similarity index (SSIM) and peak signal‐to‐noise ratio (PSNR) have been evaluated. During transmission of an image through the water, the quality of the received image degrades due to the absorption, scattering, and underwater turbulence which further limits the transmission range. Thus, to enhance the quality of the received images, two filters, that is, median and Wiener filters, have been proposed. The median filter improves the SSIM and PSNR of the reconstructed image more appropriately as compared to the Wiener filter. The results show that the proposed median filter can enhance the communication range of the UWOC point‐to‐point link by 100 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasing demand of renewable energy resources, fuel cell represents the highly efficient, clean and sustainable energy conversion source. Broadly speaking, fuel cell can be divided into six different categories according to the types of electrolyte and fuels used. Each type of fuel cells has their own advantages and disadvantages. Among them, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) gains significant attentions due to their high efficiency, cost-effectiveness and the possibility to utilize variety of fuels other than hydrogen such as hydrocarbons, coal gas etc. As name implies, SOFC uses solid electrolyte for their operation. Indeed, in medium and large power requirement sectors, SOFC are highly suitable. In the present review article, recent advances and future perspectives of SOFC have been discussed via reviewing the literature over last five years. Most of the available review articles discussed the literature in terms of specific SOFC component such as anode, cathode, electrolytes and so on. In contrast, herein the literatures have been reviewed in the context of two types of SOFC stack designs i.e. planar and tubular that have been immensely used to fabricate efficient SOFC devices. Furthermore, fundamental of SOFC operation and its typical I–V characteristics and SOFC designs are also discussed in detail. Furthermore, preparation techniques for planar and tubular SOFC are briefly described. Finally, some of the recent trends in SOFC technology along with challenges and future perspectives are presented in this review article. [Display omitted] • Decade of progress in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC's) in the context of planar and tubular stack designs. • Self-supported, porous substrate-supported and metal-supported SOFC's. • Challenges and future perspectives in SOFC's technology. • Metal-supported SOFC as a next generation fuel cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]