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A total of 30 native Trichoderma isolates were collected from the Agricultural Research Station, Ummedganj- Kota, Rajasthan, India. Out of which 9 native isolates were evaluated for bio-efficacy against Sclerotium rolfsii. Isolate ARS K-21 exhibited maximum inhibition (89.26%), followed by ARS K-11 (83.70%) in dual culture. Subsequent evaluations revealed the compatibility of efficient isolate ARS K-21 with various bio botanicals displaying minimum inhibition with Vermiwash (1.11–3.70%) followed by Beejamarat (0.38–15.92%) and Brahmastra (7.78–19.68%), while ARS K-11 displayed compatibility only with Dasparni ark with a minimum inhibition of 1.11–3.70%. Assessment of abiotic stress tolerance of the isolates revealed that most isolates thrived at 200 mM and 400 mM NaCl salt concentrations, with ARS K-21 and ARS K-24 demonstrating moderate growth levels across higher concentrations, except at 1200 mM. Optimal growth of the isolates occurred at 25 and 30 °C, with deviations leading to growth inhibition. Isolates ARS K-1, ARS K-11, ARS K-12 and ARS K-21 exhibited resilience to temperature extremes. ARS K-21 has shown exceptional growth proficiency across a wide pH spectrum (pH 5 to 8.5) followed by ARS K- 24, highlighting their versatility. Mass multiplication of efficient isolate ARS K-21 enriched with vermicompost led to the standardization of a dosage (30 g/kg soil) for managing collar rot in lentil crops at 5 g inoculum per kg soil of S. rolfsii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nitrogen and phosphorus are amongst fundamental macronutrients, which are crucial for the growth and development of plant. Soils of dry land of central Rajasthan are deficit in nitrogen and phosphorus content which leads to lower productivity of kasuri methi. Therefore, adequate supply of nitrogen (foliar spray) and phosphorus could enhance productivity of kasuri methi. Methods: The experiment consisted of sixteen treatment combinations including four levels of phosphorus (control, 20, 40 and 60 kg/ha) and four levels of foliar application of nitrogen (control, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0%). They were under taken in FRBD with three replications. Result: Growth parameters and yield of fresh and dried leaves of the crop increased almost linearly with increasing levels of phosphorus and foliar application of nitrogen. The result indicated that application of phosphorus 60 kg/ha and foliar nitrogen @ 2.0% to the kasuri methi crop significantly increased the plant height (cm) and leaf area per plant (cm² ) at each harvest, number of nodules per plant (58.17 and 53.33, respectively) and chlorophyll content (2.32 and 2.39 mg/100 g, respectively), fresh leaves yield (139.1 and 141.66 q/ha, respectively), dry leaves yield (20.01 and 22.38 q/ha, respectively), protein content in leaves (5.28 and 5.75%, respectively) and ascorbic acid in leaves (218.15 and 222.42 mg/100 g, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a numerical study of a two-layer fluid flowing around a vertical hollow cylindrical structure. We analyze the effect of two-layer fluid in the presence of hollow cylindrical structure in the surface and internal wave modes. We consider a hollow cylinder within a two-layer fluid wherein the upper fluid is bounded by a free surface above and the lower fluid is bounded by an impermeable solid below. A matched eigenfunction expansion and separation of variables method are used to obtain the diffracted velocity potentials in the identified domains. The obtained diffracted velocity potential gives us the wave elevation at the surface and the internal wave modes. We present the wave elevations with different parameters of the device in various wave modes of motion, including surface waves and internal waves. It is observed that in the surface mode, the free surface elevation is higher than the interface elevation and the free surface and the interface elevations are in same phase whereas in the internal wave mode, the elevation at the interface is greater than that at the free surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice-wheat cropping system is the largest cereal-based agricultural production system in India. It provides considerable significance to national food, nutrition, and livelihood security. However, the extensive use of resources under rice-wheat system has resulted in significant issues, including a decline in groundwater levels, indiscriminate use of fertilizers, the burning of rice residues, increased emissions of greenhouse gases, and the development of herbicide-resistant weeds which led to stagnant crop productivity and reduced profitability. This study was conducted at the research farm of ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal, India, to evaluate the combined effects of conventional and nano urea on productivity, profitability, and efficient nitrogen management strategy in wheat under rice-wheat system. The study evaluated eight treatment combinations of nitrogen application through conventionally applied urea (46% N) and foliar applied nano urea (4% N). The results of the study showed that the application of 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and just before 1st and 2nd irrigation, either alone (T2) or along with a spray of nano urea (T5), resulted in the highest grain yield and profitability. Top dressing of urea just before irrigation with a dose of nitrogen 150 kg/ha applied in three equal splits (T2) resulted in 420 kg/ha additional grain yield over top dressing at 7-10 days after irrigation with same dose (T3). Treatment T5 recorded the highest gross and net returns with 2492.5 and 1804.0 US $/ha. The study's findings suggest that efficient nitrogen management is essential for sustainable wheat production in India. The application of 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits, either alone or along with a spray of nano urea, is a promising strategy for improving wheat productivity and profitability in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global water crisis has led researchers to explore various wastewater treatment methods not only to mitigate environmental pollution and but also to assure the reusability of wastewater for further use. Synthetic polymer-based adsorbents are quite useful for successfully treating wastewater, but their high-cost production and non-biodegradability have restricted their uses. Hence, a main focus has been exclusively given on naturally derived chitosan/alginate-based polyelectrolyte complexes (CS/Alg-based PECs) as adsorbents because of their remarkable features such as nontoxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and ease of modification. In this review article, an attempt has been made to systematically evaluate the most recent developments in CS/Alg-based PECs for the wastewater treatment in terms of their formation, stability, patterns of interaction, limitations, physicochemical properties, and trends in removing heavy metals, dyes, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of accurate and reliable diagnostic tools is crucial for the timely and effective treatment of pulmonary diseases. However, in the midst of a pandemic, it is also important to have faster diagnosis of other types of pneumonia using reliable assistive technology to ensure effective treatment. To address this need, a novel DWTMBConvNet Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model has been proposed. This model aims to detect multiple pulmonary diseases, including normal/healthy conditions, tuberculosis, Covid-19, bacterial pneumonia, and non-Covid-19 viral pneumonia. By analyzing Chest X-Ray (CXR) images, the model extracts relevant features for the classification of these diseases. The DWTMBConvNet model incorporates wavelet features and EfficientNet-inspired MBConv blocks to achieve impressive accuracy. With an accuracy of 0.955, specificity of 0.989, and sensitivity of 0.955 for five-way classification, the model outperforms several state-of-the-art CNN models. The discrete wavelet transform is employed to extract frequency and location-based features, which are informative for detecting pulmonary diseases. The EfficientNet-inspired MBConv blocks allow the model to learn highly discriminative features while using fewer parameters, thereby improving its performance. The model's accuracy for binary, three way, four way and five is analyzed which outperforms the various state-of-the-art models. These results showcase the effectiveness of the proposed DWTMBConvNet model in detecting pulmonary diseases with a high degree of accuracy. Consequently, it serves as a valuable tool for clinical diagnosis, aiding in the timely and effective treatment of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel series of 7‐[2‐(4‐substituted)‐2‐oxoethyl]amino‐4‐methyl‐2H‐1‐benzopyran‐2‐one derivatives (3 a‐f) were synthesized using 7‐amino‐4‐methyl coumarin and p‐substituted phenacyl bromides, and their pharmacological effects were examined. This reaction was carried out with potassium carbonate as a catalyst in dimethylformamide for 24 h at ambient temperature. The structures of synthesized compounds have been characterized by analysis using FTIR, NMR (1H and 13C) and Mass spectroscopic techniques, and their antibacterial, antidiabetic, and anti‐inflammatory properties have been explored. All synthesized compounds have exhibited good antibacterial activity against S. aureus, B. substilis, E. coli, and S. typhi.Compound 3 f shows maximum activity (zone of inhibition) at a 12 g/mL concentration compared to others. Compounds 3 c and 3 f showed excellent α‐amylase activity and had the lowest IC50 values for α‐glucosidase enzyme activities. The least IC50 value (12.42±0.27 g/mL) was demonstrated by the 3 e compound, which exhibited potent anti‐inflammatory activities. in silico Molecular docking studies suggested that compounds 3 f and 3 a interacted effectively with 4DO3: FAAH and 5DI1: MAP4 K4 proteins with good binding energies of −10.3 and −9.5 Kcal/mol, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was conducted to find out optimize Nitrogen (N) dose and its scheduling to achieve nutrient uptake and higher productivity of ZT wheat with residue retention at the research farm of CCSHAU, Regional Research Station (RRS), Karnal during rabi seasons of 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. The field experiment comprised four main plot treatments viz., Zero tillage wheat-Happy seeder (ZTW-HS) with full residue (chopped), ZTW-HS with full residue (unchopped), ZTW-HS with partial residues (anchored stubbles), and conventional tillage wheat- drill sown (CTW-DS) with full residue (chopped); and six sub-plots having two N levels viz., 150 and 180 kg/ha applied into 2 and 3 splits, i.e. at sowing, before 1st irrigation, after 1st irrigation, and after 2nd irrigation. ZTW-HS with full residue (unchopped) in wheat increased the grain yield of wheat by 9.18% more than CTW-DS with full residue (chopped). Three N-splits, i.e. at sowing, before 1st irrigation and after 1st irrigation in wheat increased grain yield of wheat by 8.08% more than 2 splits, i.e. at sowing and after 1st irrigation. ZTW-HS with full residue (unchopped) with N@150 kg/ha with 3 splits, i.e. at sowing, before 1st irrigation and after 1st irrigation provides the best combination effect and improved the nutrient uptake in grain and straw, N, Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), and yield of wheat and provide high economic returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the realm of disease transmission dynamics, assigning blame to every susceptible individual for propagating an illness proves untenable. This limitation plagues prevailing compartmental models, including SI, SIS, SIR, SEIR, and others, impeding accurate disease-spread prognostication. This study innovatively partitions the susceptible population into two distinct classes: the unaware and the aware. This conceptual leap facilitates the evolution of the SIR model into a more realistic UAIR epidemic model, characterized by a bilinear incidence rate in the unaware class and a saturated incidence rate in the aware class. The study rigorously establishes key insights, encompassing the stability of the endemic equilibrium state, transcritical and Hopf bifurcations, and stability of bifurcated periodic solutions in the reduced UAI epidemic model. Notably, the analysis uncovers potential disease-induced chaos, the turbulence that heightened community awareness can potentially harness. Delving deeper, the research explores a self-diffusive spatio-temporal UAI epidemic model with zero-flux boundary conditions, unveiling instability insights that preclude the emergence of Turing patterns and associated Turing bifurcation. Rigorous numerical simulations validate the analytical framework, unveiling captivating non-Turing patterns within a 2-dimensional domain. This study proffers a predictive exploration, poised to unearth diverse medically significant observations, further enriching our understanding of disease dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the synthesis of 3,3'-(phenylmethanediyl)bis(4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2H-pyran-2-one) derivatives using Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) as a catalyst. The researchers investigated the substrate scope and various parameters involved in the synthesis. The structure of the synthesized compounds was determined using spectroscopic techniques, and their biological activity was evaluated. The compounds showed effective results against bacterial activity and moderate inhibition against inflammation. Molecular docking studies were also conducted to determine the interaction of the compounds with the COX-2 receptor. The article provides insights into the potential of biocatalysis and the synthesis of pyran derivatives for various applications. [Extracted from the article]

Green algae, Ulva Linnaeus, 1753 (Ulvales, Chlorophyta), is found abundantly in intertidal regions of the coasts. Members of the genus exist in foliose, filamentous, and tubular forms and may be distromatic or monostromatic. This study investigates the phylogenetic distribution of foliose Ulva from various geographical locations in India. The morphological and microscopic features of 20 specimens were studied, and ITS, tufA, 18S, and atpB regions were sequenced using specific primers. BLAST results were used for similarity search and MEGAX for phylogenetic reconstruction using these amplified sequences. A total of 35 sequences were generated and used to trace back the evolution of different species and the effects of geographical locations on the cryptic diversity of Ulva. Also, this study reports the occurrence of Ulva fasciata, Ulva reticulata, Ulva taeniata, Ulva linza, and Ulva ohnoi. A pressed herbarium voucher was prepared for future records of each sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice–wheat production in the Indo-gangetic plains (IGPs) of India faces major concerns such as depleting resources, rice residue burning, excessive fertilizer use, and decreasing nitrogen use efficiency. These issues threaten sustainable crop production in the future. Therefore, a field study was conducted during the winter seasons of 2020–21 and 2021–22 to evaluate the effect of combined conventional and nano fertilizers on nitrogen application just before or after irrigation to improve wheat productivity, profitability and NUE under conservation tillage. The study evaluated eight treatment combinations of nitrogen application through conventionally applied urea (46% N) and foliar applied nano urea (4% N) under zero tillage with rice residue retention. Results revealed that growth, physiological indices, yield, and quality parameters were enhanced with the application of 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and just before 1st and 2nd irrigation alone (T2) or along with a spray of nano urea (T5) compared to other treatments. T5 recorded 7.2%, 8.5%, and 7.8% more plant dry matter, number of tillers, and grain yield, respectively, over the conventional practice of applying 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and 7–10 days after 1st and 2nd irrigation (T3, farmers practice). Although, T2 showed similar results to T5, T5 recorded significantly higher gross ($2542/ha) and net returns ($1279/ha) than the other treatments. However, the benefit–cost ratio of T2 and T5 was same (2.01). A significant and positive correlation coefficient between grain yield and physiological parameters such as CCI and NDVI confirmed that increasing the nitrogen dose enhanced the chlorophyll content, greenness, and plant vigor. Based on the results, it can be concluded that applying 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and just before 1st and 2nd irrigation under conservation agriculture, along with a single spray of nano urea (4% N) at 60–65 days after sowing, can improve growth, yield attributes, wheat yield, and NUE compared to farmers practice (T3) in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells characterized by immature lymphocytes. Due to blood cancer, many people die every year. Hence, the early detection of these blast cells is necessary for avoiding blood cancer. A novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN) 3SNet that has depth-wise convolution blocks to reduce the computation costs has been developed to aid the diagnosis of leukemia cells. The proposed method includes three inputs to the deep CNN model. These inputs are grayscale and their corresponding histogram of gradient (HOG) and local binary pattern (LBP) images. The HOG image finds the local shape, and the LBP image describes the leukaemia cell's texture pattern. The suggested model was trained and tested with images from the AML-Cytomorphology_LMU dataset. The mean average precision (MAP) for the cell with less than 100 images in the dataset was 84%, whereas for cells with more than 100 images in the dataset was 93.83%. In addition, the ROC curve area for these cells is more than 98%. This confirmed proposed model could be an adjunct tool to provide a second opinion to a doctor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetron sputtering is a plasma-based Physical Vapor Deposition technique for synthesis of surface coatings. In the present survey, we have summarized and discussed in detail both previous trends and recent developments on magnetron sputtering-based TiN coating deposition. TiN is a frontline surface engineering material. TiN in the form of multilayers and composites find several industrial applications ranging from tribology to microelectronics. Various magnetron sputtering configurations used to derive TiN coating architectures are discussed. The survey includes overview of mechanical as well as tribological properties variations observed in coatings due to alteration in deposition process parameters. In addition, process parameters used by various research groups for synthesis of TiN coatings have been compared. The multi-component coatings derived from TiN like TiAlN, TiCN, TiCrN, TiBN, TiSiN, Ti/VN as well as Cr- and Nb-based nitrides are also discussed. With respect to manufacturing industry, which is reliant on cutting tools, TiN-based coatings have been used to improve reliability, efficiency and longevity. The technical advantages are ascribed to high hardness, good adhesive properties, enhanced tribological characteristics and corrosion-resistant behavior. Magnetic field variation and its effect on deposition behavior have also been surveyed. The survey includes discussion on enhanced wear resistance arising from addition of MoS2 and WS2. In addition, oxidation resistance enhancement by incorporation of Al and Cr has been deliberated. Si incorporation that contributes to both wear and oxidation resistance is also highlighted. The sputtering technique variants includes discussion on upcoming High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering. Future research directions based on plasma simulation and modeling along with surface analytical approach to have in depth insight into magnetron-sputtered coatings are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice–wheat production in the Indo-gangetic plains (IGPs) of India faces major concerns such as depleting resources, rice residue burning, excessive fertilizer use, and decreasing nitrogen use efficiency. These issues threaten sustainable crop production in the future. Therefore, a field study was conducted during the winter seasons of 2020–21 and 2021–22 to evaluate the effect of combined conventional and nano fertilizers on nitrogen application just before or after irrigation to improve wheat productivity, profitability and NUE under conservation tillage. The study evaluated eight treatment combinations of nitrogen application through conventionally applied urea (46% N) and foliar applied nano urea (4% N) under zero tillage with rice residue retention. Results revealed that growth, physiological indices, yield, and quality parameters were enhanced with the application of 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and just before 1st and 2nd irrigation alone (T2) or along with a spray of nano urea (T5) compared to other treatments. T5 recorded 7.2%, 8.5%, and 7.8% more plant dry matter, number of tillers, and grain yield, respectively, over the conventional practice of applying 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and 7–10 days after 1st and 2nd irrigation (T3, farmers practice). Although, T2 showed similar results to T5, T5 recorded significantly higher gross ($2542/ha) and net returns ($1279/ha) than the other treatments. However, the benefit–cost ratio of T2 and T5 was same (2.01). A significant and positive correlation coefficient between grain yield and physiological parameters such as CCI and NDVI confirmed that increasing the nitrogen dose enhanced the chlorophyll content, greenness, and plant vigor. Based on the results, it can be concluded that applying 150 kg N/ha in three equal splits as basal and just before 1st and 2nd irrigation under conservation agriculture, along with a single spray of nano urea (4% N) at 60–65 days after sowing, can improve growth, yield attributes, wheat yield, and NUE compared to farmers practice (T3) in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells characterized by immature lymphocytes. Due to blood cancer, many people die every year. Hence, the early detection of these blast cells is necessary for avoiding blood cancer. A novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN) 3SNet that has depth-wise convolution blocks to reduce the computation costs has been developed to aid the diagnosis of leukemia cells. The proposed method includes three inputs to the deep CNN model. These inputs are grayscale and their corresponding histogram of gradient (HOG) and local binary pattern (LBP) images. The HOG image finds the local shape, and the LBP image describes the leukaemia cell's texture pattern. The suggested model was trained and tested with images from the AML-Cytomorphology_LMU dataset. The mean average precision (MAP) for the cell with less than 100 images in the dataset was 84%, whereas for cells with more than 100 images in the dataset was 93.83%. In addition, the ROC curve area for these cells is more than 98%. This confirmed proposed model could be an adjunct tool to provide a second opinion to a doctor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosing burns in humans has become critical, as early identification can save lives. The manual process of burn diagnosis is time-consuming and complex, even for experienced doctors. Machine learning (ML) and deep convolutional neural network (CNN) models have emerged as the standard for medical image diagnosis. The ML-based approach typically requires handcrafted features for training, which may result in suboptimal performance. Conversely, DL-based methods automatically extract features, but designing a robust model is challenging. Additionally, shallow DL methods lack long-range feature dependency, decreasing efficiency in various applications. We implemented several deep CNN models, ResNeXt, VGG16, and AlexNet, for human burn diagnosis. The results obtained from these models were found to be less reliable since shallow deep CNN models need improved attention modules to preserve the feature dependencies. Therefore, in the proposed study, the feature map is divided into several categories, and the channel dependencies between any two channel mappings within a given class are highlighted. A spatial attention map is built by considering the links between features and their locations. Our attention-based model BuRnGANeXt50 kernel and convolutional layers are also optimized for human burn diagnosis. The earlier study classified the burn based on depth of graft and non-graft. We first classified the burn based on the degree. Subsequently, it is classified into graft and non-graft. Furthermore, the proposed model performance is evaluated on Burns_BIP_US_database. The sensitivity of the BuRnGANeXt50 is 97.22% and 99.14%, respectively, for classifying burns based on degree and depth. This model may be used for quick screening of burn patients and can be executed in the cloud or on a local machine. The code of the proposed method can be accessed at https://github.com/dhirujis02/Journal.git for the sake of reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change in habits and lifestyle of citizens during health crisis like COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the struggles for solid waste management across the globe. Not only underdeveloped and developing economies are struggling with the challenges posed by mounting piles of infectious waste but even developed countries are adversely affected in similar manner. The routine waste management strategies followed by various countries are overturned due extremely altered trends in the amount and type of waste generated by households and medical facilities. The aim of this paper is to study and list the best available waste management policies adopted by some developing, developed and underdeveloped economies. The listed case studies were selected due to some unique steps undertaken for solid waste disposal during pandemic. The findings revealed that the guidelines issued by WHO for waste management of corona virus infected waste were followed by these nations and certain additional preventive steps were taken. Due to unavailability of single framework as prescribed by international authorities, various sustainable steps taken by individual countries to curb the pandemic menace can be useful in the present context. Few of these measures can be permanently adopted at global level by other nations for handling the pandemic like situations efficiently in pandemic situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reported the synthesis of a novel series of (2-hydroxyphenyl)-5-phenyl-6-(pyrrolidine-1-carbonyl)-1H-pyrano[2,3-d]pyrimidine-2,4(3H,5H)-dione derivatives 5(a–j) by the reaction of 4-hydroxy coumarin, substituted aldehydes, barbituric acid, and pyrolidine in ethanol at ambient temperature. The titled pyranopyrimidines 5(a–j) were characterized by spectral analysis including IR, NMR (1H & 13C), and HRMS. The newly synthesized compounds were examined for in vitro anti-inflammatory activity. The results demonstrated that compound 5b displayed excellent efficacy and the remaining compounds exhibited moderate activity. Also, the potency of the new compounds toward antimicrobial and antifungal activity was investigated by a disk diffusion method. The results show that compounds 5b and 5g were more potent than the other compounds. Furthermore, the molecular docking studies were carried out using a COX-2 receptor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation is aimed to study the joint effect of the variable gravity field and chemical reaction on the onset of convection in a sparsely packed porous layer. Linear, parabolic, cubic and exponential functions are considered to account for the variable gravity field. The normal mode technique is used to study the linear stability of the problem. The corresponding eigenvalue problem is solved for the free-free, rigid-free, and rigid-rigid boundaries. The influence of the Damkohler number Dm, the solutal Rayleigh number Rs, the Lewis number Le, the Darcy number Da and the variable gravity field parameter on stability of the system in a sparsely packed porous layer is investigated. The results show that the onset of convection is delayed due to increase in the solutal Rayleigh number, the variable gravity parameter, and the Lewis number. In contrast, the onset of convection is enhanced by increase in the Darcy number and the Damkohler number. It is also observed that the system becomes more stable for exponential variation in the gravity field and less stable for cubic variation in the gravity field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free floating test masses (TM) of inertial reference instruments accumulate charge mainly through the triboelectric effect during separation from their housings and, if in the space environment, from cosmic radiation. These charges will degrade the accuracy of high sensitivity accelerometers and drag-free sensors. We demonstrate in ground testing two passive bipolar charge management systems using photoelectrons emitted from gold coated surfaces under illumination by ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) with 255 nm, 275 nm, and 295 nm central wavelengths. The first method uses fast photoelectrons, generated by two 255 nm UV-LEDs with adjustable-intensity (through fine-tuning of their excitation currents) and illuminating the TM and its housing respectively. A second technique uses slow photoelectrons generated by one UV-LED, of either 275 nm or 295 nm, directed at the TM. Fast and slow electrons are defined as having kinetic energies after photoemission above and below e V T M max , where V T M max is the maximum allowable potential required for normal operation of the TM. In its optimized configurations and following an exposure of <30 s to UV, the fast-photoelectron control system converges to zero TM potential from ±1 V with a drift of ≈1.5 mV/day. The slow-photoelectron system requires about 5 min to converge to zero TM potential from 100 mV, with a similar drift of ≈2.0 mV/day. For reference, V T M max â‰... 80 m V for the LISA and LISA pathfinder sensors. Insight into the slow photoelectrons charge control method is provided by our simple Gaussian model of the work function for gold films (that approximates their quasi-triangular measured shape): 4.6 eV center, 0.2 eV standard deviation, and 4.30 eV and 4.90 eV cutoffs. The longest wavelength (lowest energy) photoemission is obtained with the 295 nm LED (11 nm FWHM) at about 285 nm (4.35 eV), where only about 3.5% of the photons have an energy above the photoelectric threshold. While the two-source UV fast photoelectron method is a modification of the LISA Pathfinder approach, the slow photoelectron method is a new passive charge management technique. These two passive techniques were developed for instruments without sensing and activation systems. For instruments with electric fields surrounding the TM and more complex geometries additional adaptations are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we utilized a simple condensation process for the effective synthesis of coumarin hydrazone fluorescent tag (CHFT) and the evidence for the formation of CHFT was given through FT‐IR, 1H‐NMR, HRMS, UV‐Vis and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Quantum chemical parameters and molecular electrostatic potential were assessed using DFT investigations. CHFT was found to be aggregation induced emission (AIE) active and exhibited strong cyan blue emission with large stokes shift. The optical band gap (Eg) value was determined by Kubelka‐Munk theory. The latent fingerprints (LFPs) developed by synthesized coumarin, exhibited excellent sensitivity, selectivity and low background hindrance on various material surfaces. Further, the synthesised CHFT was employed in anti‐counterfeiting applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work describes the synthesis of novel 3-[2-(5-phenyl-1,3-thiazol-2-yl)hydrazinyl]-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one derivatives 4(a-h) and the characterization of synthesized hybrids has been done using various spectroscopic techniques like FT-IR, NMR, and HRMS. Through computational study, some global parameters and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) were analyzed. The solvatochromic UV–Vis absorption study was performed using various solvents and the optical bandgap of the synthesized compounds was determined by using Kubelka–Munk theory. The antimycobacterial activity of the synthesized compounds was evaluated against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the results suggested that compounds 4d and 4e are effective inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The anti-inflammatory activity against MMP-2 and MMP-9 was determined using gelatin zymography; from the results, it was evaluated that the synthesized derivatives act as good anti-inflammatory agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human burn diagnosis is becoming essential. Early diagnosis of a burn can save human life. Therefore, it is essential to develop a fast, robust, and efficient computer-based system for the diagnosis of burn. In recent days, the deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model is set as a benchmark for medical image diagnosis. We have investigated ResNeXt, VGG16 and AlexNet on our human burn image dataset. We found that these model performance is not optimal. Therefore, in this work, we have designed a new model called BNeXt. The BNeXt CNN model kernel and convolutional layers are designed in such a way that it can discriminate the human burn efficiently. In previous studies, the burn has been classified into two broad categories that are graft and non-graft. The proposed study first determines the degree of a burn and later it classifies a burn into graft and non-graft. The manual burn diagnosis is time-consuming and accuracy varies from 75 to 80% by an expert doctor. The proposed model is efficient with an accuracy of 97.17% for burn degree and 99.67% for the grafting and non-grafting determination based on the depth of a burn. This model can be deployed on the cloud or the local system for the fast screening of burn patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a D–π–A based coumarin–pyridone conjugate (CPC) was synthesised by a one-pot multicomponent reaction and the structure was proven from infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Quantum chemical parameters and molecular electrostatic potential were assessed using DFT investigations. CPC exhibited absorption and emission spectra in the ranges 451–460 nm and 532–549 nm, respectively, and also exhibited positive solvatochromic behavior. It was employed as a fluorescent labeling agent for the visualization of latent fingerprints (LFPs) on various surfaces. LFPs visualized by CPC exhibited information from level-I to level-III LFPs, with low background interference, and high sensitivity and selectivity. The electrochemical sensitivity and reliable detections of nitrite (NO2−) in neutral PBS (pH = 7) electrolyte solution was investigated. It was found that the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chrono-amperometric (CA) oxidation current at 0.60 V (applied potential 0.50 V) by a modified CPC/GC electrode exhibit good sensitivity and detection. Under optimum conditions, a lower detection limit for CV; 10 nM and CA; 7.5 nM (at an S/N ratio of 3) was achieved. A CPC/GC electrode based nitrite sensor also displays good selectivity in the presence of interference molecules such as ascorbic acid, dopamine, uric acid, paracetamol and glucose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In search of potent solvatochromic and biological agents, here we reported the synthesis of four azo dyes (S1–S4) owing sulfonamide functionality by diazo coupling reaction and their spectroscopic properties were investigated through UV, DRS, IR, NMR and mass spectrometry. Quantum chemical parameters of the synthesised colourants were assessed through DFT studies. The solvatochromic behaviour of sulfonamide incorporated azo compounds was investigated in ten different solvents owing different polarity and proticity and they exhibited remarkable positive solvatochromic behaviour and they exhibited λmax in the range 395–464 nm. Antituberculosis efficacy was evaluated using MABA assay against M. Tuberculosis,among the synthesised colourants compound S3furnished good activity viz MIC=3.85 μM and the remaining compounds showed moderate activity with the MIC values in the range 14.84–32.38 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to establish a manufacturer-retailer integrated inventory model to jointly compute the optimal values of order quantity, lead time, reorder point, and number of shipments considering the effect of learning-forgetting phenomenon on the setup cost. The fabrication process of the manufacturer is not perfect; therefore, a certain level of product quality can be obtained for an additional cost. Service level constraint is incorporated into the inventory model to evade the backorder, which has negative impact on the company reputation. The lead time is also reduced by crashing cost. The proposed inventory model is illustrated through an example according to which centralized decision is preferred over the decentralized one. In addition, the analysis reveals that players should make a compromise concerning their profit if they wish to enhance the service level and product quality. The profit of the centralized system increases under the effect of learning-forgetting on the setup cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate insecticides against the whitefly Bemisia tabaci Genn. in potato at the Agricultural Research Station, Kota, using variety K Bahar during 2018-19 and 2019-20. Based on pooled data, results revealed that two sprays of diafenthiuron 50WP 350 g a. i./ ha mixed with castor oil @ 0.05% at 10 days interval gave maximum mortality (82.0%), maximum tuber yield (24.7 t/ ha) with incremental cost benefit ratio (ICBR 1:2.1) which was at par with two sprays of diafenthiuron 50WP 350 g a. i./ ha (without mixed castor oil) at 10 days interval (78.0%) with tuber yield (23.8 t/ha). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A healthy and robust seedling is one of the benchmarks for mechanical transplantation. The investigation aimed to see how different environmental conditions affect the growth of onion seedlings. Onion seedlings (varieties Puna Fursungi and Gavraan) were grown in an open field nursery compared to a protected structure viz., low tunnel and a 50 % shade net. During the nursery's growth period, environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and solar intensity were recorded. At 50 days after sowing, physical and mechanical properties were observed. Higher temperature was measured in a low tunnel structure, followed by shade net and open field. The shade net structure had the highest percentage of seedling survival (76.23 %), followed by the low tunnel (68.77 %) and the open field (58.37 %). Plant height was also greater in the shade net structure, followed by the low tunnel and open field conditions, respectively. This could be attributed to how plants compete for sunlight, water, aeration, and nutrition under different growing conditions. Except for plant height, all physical and mechanical properties were higher in open field conditions. Because of its adequate strength, the healthy seedling obtained from open field conditions was more suitable for mechanical transplanting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem borer Stromatium barbatum has recently emerged as a serious pest problem of grapevines in India. Hidden biology and lack of effective chemical control of stem borer warranted finding out weak links in its life cycle which aids in formulating effective management strategies. Being a monovoltine pest with annual life cycle, the systematic studies on developmental biology and stage specific mortality of stem borer in grapes are limited. In present study, a cohort life table was constructed for S. barbatum by rearing it on grapevine wood logs in the laboratory at 27 ± 1 ℃ temperature and 65 ± 5% RH. The life cycle of S. barbatum was tracked from egg hatching through larval and pupal stages till adult emergence and observations were recorded on stage specific developmental durations and mortality of immature stages, and longevity and fecundity of adult stages. The results revealed that the mean durations of egg, larvae and pupae were 6.60 ± 0.28 days, 296.10 ± 1.06 days and 19.70 ± 1.17 days, respectively. The adults after emerging from pupae could survive up to 36.40 ± 0.81 days. The egg hatching and adult emergence from pupae were 42.51% and 83.02%, respectively. S. barbatum population attained a net reproductive rate of 64.96 females/female/generation and a gross reproductive rate of 72.93 females/female/generation in her mean oviposition period of 9.80 ± 0.13 days. The data indicated that, S. barbatum population potentially might increase with an intrinsic rate (rm) of 0.087 females/female/day and a finite rate (λ) of 1.09 females/ female/ day with a doubling time of 9.98 days and a mean generation time of 324.30 days. The mortality was relatively higher during the egg and larval stages, which was then gradually decreased for rest of the life span when S. babatum was reared on grapevine wood logs under laboratory conditions. Generation mortality for S. barbatum was 90.72%. The present study has generated detailed information on critical life events such as days to egg hatch, adult longevity and fecundity, time required for adults to oviposit after mating, and age-stage specific mortality. This could facilitate formulation and implementation of effective management strategies for S. barbatum in grape vineyards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth and productivity are traumatized by the low temperature that triggers a series of physiological, morphological, molecular and biochemical changes in plants that eventually disturb plant life. Most of the cultivable lands of the world are adversely affected by temperature stress conditions which have an adverse impact on global tomato productivity. Plants undergo several water related metabolic activities for their survival during cold stress conditions. Understanding the morphological, physiological and biochemical reactions to low temperature is essential for a comprehensive view of the perception of tomato plant tolerant mechanism. This review reports some aspects of low temperature inflated changes in physiological and biochemical in the tomato plant. Low temperature stress influences the reproductive phases of plants with delayed flowering which enhance pollen sterility resultant drastically affects the harvest yield. It also decreases the capacity and efficiency of photosynthesis through changes in gas exchange, pigment content, chloroplast development and decline in chlorophyll fluorescence photosynthetic attributes. Amassing of osmoprotectant is another adaptive mechanism in plants exposed to low temperatures stress, as essential metabolites directly participate in the osmotic adjustment. Furthermore, low temperature stress enhanced the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which may oxidize lipids, proteins and nucleic acids which bring in distortion at the level of the cell. At the point when extreme reactive oxygen species produced, plants synthesize antioxidant enzymes and osmoprotectants that quench the abundance of reactive oxygen species. These reviews focus on the capacity and techniques of the tomato plant to react low temperature stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a simple and convenient method for the synthesis of substituted-aryllidine-2,2-dimethyl-7-thioxo/oxo-4H-[1,3]dioxino[4,5-d]pyrimidine derivatives (4a-g) via one-pot Biginelli reaction of Meldrum's acid (1), indole-3-carbaldehyde/thiophene-2-carbaldehyde/2-chloro-quinoline-3-carbaldehyde (2) and amines (3) in aqueous ethanol in the presence of a catalytic amount of CAN. The obtained pyrimidine hybrids were screened for their antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculi H37RV strain. The antimycobacterial results showed that compounds 4a and 4b exhibited excellent activity with MIC value of 1.6 µg/mL, four-fold greater than the standard streptomycin (6.24 µg/mL), while compounds (4c-g) showed lower efficacy. To study the interaction between the synthesized compounds and receptor, the compounds 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d were studied for molecular docking on the enzyme enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (enoyl-ACP reductase) and the compounds 4a and 4b have emerged as active antitubercular agents with least binding energy –9.4 kcal/mol and −9.3 kcal/mol respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of inconstant gravity force and uniform throughflow on the start of convective movement in an anisotropic porous matrix is investigated numerically utilizing large-term Galerkin procedure. The porous layer is acted to uniform upright throughflow and inconstant downward gravitational force which changes with the height from the layer. In this study, two types of gravity field digression were examined: (a) linear and (b) parabolic. It is found that the throughflow parameter Pe, the thermal anisotropy parameter  and gravity deviation parameter  postpone the beginning of convective activity, whereas the mechanical anisotropy parameter  rapids the onset of convective activity. The dimension of the convection cells enhances on enhancing the thermal anisotropy parameter , the mechanical anisotropy parameter  and gravity deviation parameter  while, the throughflow parameter Pe decreases the extent of the convective cells. It is also noted that the structure with linear variation of gravity force is more stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation is focused on development of aerobic biofilm on tire-derived rubber (TDR) media and then evaluation of such system for bioremediation of Methylene blue (MB) dye for 9 weeks. After 9 weeks of operation, the COD, BOD, ammonia and color values have been declined by 89.2%, 98.3%, 99.61% and 99.81%, respectively, While SEM-EDX results showed a variance in weight percent of various elements in TDR without biofilm i.e. raw TDR media, as well as in the 1st and 9th-week samples. Moreover, fine and strong peaks were observed in both the MB simulated wastewater and 9th week TDR samples at 1190, 1300, 1400, 1450, 1500 and 1618 cm−1 respectively by Raman Spectroscopic analysis. Further, FTIR analysis was performed for the MB simulated wastewater, and absorbance peaks ranging from 1591 to 1363 cm-1 and 3410 cm−1 were observed in all the samples with different intensities. To assess the biodeterioration of the TDR media, ATR was performed for the raw, 1st, 2nd and 9th week TDR media samples and in the raw TDR, two important bands, 842 and 2962 cm−1 were noticed representing –CH = CH and –CH3. A clear variation of bands and peak intensities were observed in different support media samples. The results indicate that TDR media is a resilient, chemically resistant material and could be employed for the biofilm growth for biological treatment of textile dye wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the removal of Methylene Blue dye from the synthetic textile effluent has been investigated using a hybrid system (photocatalysis and nanofiltration). The Commercial ZnO powder was used as a catalyst in the photocatalytic operation. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the various operating parameters such as pH, catalyst loading and time duration and this optimization has enhanced the decolorization efficiencies. The results were compared and contrasted with the individual as well as the combined systems at optimized conditions. The results indicate that the photocatalysis process alone has resulted in 33% of dye decolorization and 26.5% of total organic carbon (TOC) removal, while the individual ceramic nanoflitration system has yielded 43% of decolorization and 35.03% TOC removal. About 94% of the dye was decolorized, and 70% of TOC was removed in 94.23 minutes of operation by the hybrid system at optimized initial operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A trial was carried out during 2018-19 and 2019-20 for evaluation of efficacy of two most popular insecticides against aphid in potato. Based on pooled data of two years, result revealed that maximum aphid mortality (94.0%) was observed with two foliar sprays of flonicamid 50 WG @ 75 g ai ha-1 followed by imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 75 g ai ha-1 (80.8%). The tuber yield was also higher with flonicamid (25.81 t ha-1) followed by imidacloprid (23.74 t ha-1) as compared to control (16.93 t ha-1). Maximum incremental cost: benefit ratio (ICBR)1:2.22 was found with application of flonicamid 50 WG @ 75 g ai ha-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the concept of non compatible mapping as property (E.A.) in G-metric space and prove some common fixed point theorems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEA is a very powerful tool for biomechanically examining orthopaedic trauma. In order to improve the design, screening, estimation and treatment of orthopaedics, finite element (FE) simulations can evaluate thousands of variables effectively and reliably (including implant variance, surgical procedures and different diseases). In addition, FEA can be used to evaluate and fix issues or failures retrospectively in order to deter similar injuries in the future. FEA will potentially be used in a time-efficient and cost-effective assessment of implants, therapies and techniques. This work includes a description of the development of FE models, 3D printing techniques used in orthopaedics along with the evolution of biopolymers in medical industry. For FE models, geometry of interest must be developed, the material properties of virtual tissues measured and the numerical solver correctly used to construct an effective solution and to define the field variables. The purpose of this work is to introduce the reader to the effectiveness of integrating the FEA in orthopaedics application with 3D printing and biopolymers and to provide a brief description of the modelling process. Also FEA is applied for designing LCP for Femur bone. From this work, it can be concluded that the integration of FE analysis and 3D printable biopolymers with 3D printing in orthopaedics research can provide considerable new information to make technically more appropriate decisions and highly beneficial from society point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reported the synthesis of coumarin-pyrimidine derivatives by a four-component reaction involving 4-hydroxycoumarin, aldehyde, thiobarbituric acid and piperidine in ethanol. All the synthesized compounds were well-characterized by IR, NMR and mass spectroscopic techniques. Further, to evaluate the biological potency of the synthesized compounds, initially, DNA cleavage studies were performed. Encouraged by the results obtained from the cleavage studies, the synthesized compounds were screened for in-vitro antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activity. From the biological activity results, it revealed that most of the synthesized compounds were found to exhibit potent antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity with least IC50 than compared with standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the synthesis of novel 1 H -pyrano[2,3- d ]pyrimidine-2,4(3 H,5 H)-dione derivatives 5(a–j) by a facile multicomponent reaction. The structures of all the newly synthesized compounds were characterized by different spectroscopic techniques including infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance (1H and 13C) and mass spectral analysis. All the new compounds were assessed for their in vitro α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitory potential. The results of the assays revealed that all compounds showed different enzyme inhibition activities. The concentration required to inhibit enzyme activity is less in the case of α-glucosidases than for α-amylases, that is, the synthesized compounds are more potent in arresting α-glucosidase enzyme activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's society, sentiment analysis has gained due importance as it provides useful information about products that are used by variety of users. It gives a sneak peek of users' reactions towards the products that are available in the market at an early stage. It thus intimates users' perception and charts out a path that is beneficial for the market to grow as a whole. Although a lot of research is done to exploit the product based sentiment analysis but due to increase demand of the detailed components based products and their associated features, a novel method is desired to meet these criteria. So far, no such method is explored that analyses the product's components and their features simultaneously, on the basis of sentiments of the users. This paper proposes an improvised Feature Based Algorithm (FBA) for the sentiment analysis of product reviews while formulating a tree structure of product, components, and associated features. In addition, evaluation of double negative sentences, detecting questions and emotions from the review sentences are measured which increases efficiency of the FBA method. The comparison of product's components reviews is done with other existing algorithms-TF, TF-IDF and Naïve Bayes to demonstrate that the proposed FBA is coherent and auspicious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Origin of the coronavirus was the seafood market of Wuhan city, Hubei province in China. The cases of someone suffering from COVID-19 can be traced back to the end of December 2019 in China. This is the most infectious disease and spread worldwide within three months after the first case reported. The World Health Organization renames Coronavirus as COVID-19. COVID-19 is the ß-Coronavirus family virus, effect on the lung of human and common symptoms are cough, fever, fatigue, respiratory problem, and cold. The full name of the coronavirus is severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV. It spread on humans as well as animals and infected more than 183 countries with 2959927 confirm cases and 202733 deaths till 28 April 2020. 84 days data is used to predict confirmed and death cases for the next 10 days by using prophet and daily average based algorithm. Predicted confirmed cases are 2886183 and death cases 190540 till 25 April 2020. This study introduces the spreading pattern of COVID-19 in the top ten infected countries. After China, European countries are the most infected ones. In this study, data was analyzed on the attributes confirmed, active, recovered and death cases, and next ten days outbreak prediction. Some countries state-wise data confirmed active and death cases also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of new coumarin derivatives coupled with benzamides have been synthesized and screened for their antimicrobial properties. Some compounds displayed promising antibacterial activity (MIC ranging within 5 – 150 μg/mL) and moderate antifungal activity as compared to the respective standards. Compounds 6p, 6l and 6m displayed promising antibacterial activity comparable with the standard drug ciprofloxacin, and compound 6m exhibited better antifungal activity in comparison to other synthesized compounds. In silico docking studies of the active compounds were carried out against the gyrase enzyme, and it was concluded that compound 6p exhibited significant hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions which could be the plausible reason for its superior activity as compared to the other synthesized compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]