Search

Background: Appropriate medications are the backbone for effective control of infections and diseases. Objective of the study was to analyse the prescriptions relating to national list of essential medicines (NLEM) of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Data was collected from 525 case sheets of the surgical in-patients for a period of 1 year which included total number of drugs prescribed, single (NLEM/non-NLEM) drugs, fixed dose combinations (NLEM/non-NLEM) drugs, most common drugs (NLEM/non-NLEM), route of administration, ADR/ADE and herbal drugs. Descriptive statistics was used for analysis of the data. Results: The total number of drugs observed in the case sheets was 2575. Out of the total drugs, 1942 drugs (75.4%) were from the list of NLEM (2022) while 633(24.6%) drugs were of non-NLEM. 266 drugs (10.33%) were generic drugs and 2309 drugs (89.67%) were proprietary drugs. The total number of single drug was 1839 (NLEM, 1805 + non-NLEM, 34) and that of the total FDC was 736 (NLEM, 137 + non-NLEM, 599). The most common drugs which were prescribed were analgesics: paracetamol 517 (NLEM); diclofenac supp.14 (non-NLEM), antibiotics: ceftriaxone 258 (NLEM, 14.5%), cefpodoxime proxetil 3 (non-NLEM, 8.9%), antihypertensive: telmisartan 13 (NLEM, 0.7%), non-NLEM nil, anti-diabetics: metformin 15 (NLEM, 0.8%), dapagliflozin 6 (non-NLEM, 16.7%), and gastroprotective drugs: pantoprazole 493 (NLEM, 27%), non-NLEM nil. Conclusions: Non-NLEM drugs should be prescribed only when there is definite advantages of the same over the NLEM drugs. Prescription of proprietary FDC drugs, factors for non-availability and under-prescription of NLEM drugs should be highlighted through CME coupled with awareness about the aim and objectives of the NLEM during clinical practice to the prescribers.

Aims To characterize the polysaccharide hydrolyzing potential of macroalgae-associated bacteria (MABs) for the enzymatic production of oligosaccharides and determining their prebiotic potential. Methods and Results Approximately 400 MABs were qualitatively characterized for polysaccharide hydrolyzing activity. Only about 5%–15% of the isolates were found to have the potential for producing porphyranase, alginate lyase and ulvan lyase enzymes, which were quantified in specific substrate broths. One potential MAB, Bacillus subtilis, NIOA181, isolated from green macroalgae, showed the highest ulvan lyase activity. This enzyme was partially purified and used to hydrolyse ulvan into ulvan oligosaccharides. Structural characterization of ulvan oligosaccharides showed that they are predominantly composed of di-, tri- and tetrasaccharide units. Results showed that the enzymatically produced ulvan oligosaccharides exhibited prebiotic activity by promoting the growth of probiotic bacteria and suppressing the enteric pathogens, which were higher than the ulvan polysaccharide and equivalent to commercial fructooligosaccharides. Conclusions A potential MAB, NIOA181, producing ulvan lyase was isolated and used for the production of ulvan oligosaccharides with prebiotic activity. Significance and Impact of the Study Rarely studied ulvan oligosaccharides with prebiotic activity can be widely used as an active pharmaceutical ingredient in nutraceutical and other healthcare applications.

Paliperidone is a BCS-II drug. It means paliperidone is poorly water soluble and hence shows problem in absorption as well as permeation through GIT which together contributes for its lower oral bioavailability. Paliperidone as drug, oil oleic acid, surfactant labrasol and co surfactant labrafil m 1944 were taken and formulation were done. From the emulsification time study as the concentration of Smix increases emulsification time decreases. Further emulsification time study I found that F3 has the lowest emulsification time. From the dissolution study it was observed that Q30 is above 85% obtained for formulation F3 and F6 that is 93.75 & 91.25. This can be due to the higher concentration of Smix present in formulation F3 & F6 since mean cumulative % drug release at 30min (Q30) is highest for F3 formulation and it was selected for optimized formulation. As in the DSC study thecrystalline property of Paliperidone is lost and it becomes amorphous. In the FT-IR study there is no significance sifting of characteristic peak. Hence there is no incompatibility between drug and excipient.

The present work was hypothesized to synthesize Benzothiazole substituted diethyl amino Quinazolinone derivatives and evaluate their antimicrobial activity. Quinazolinones were synthesized from condensation of 2-amino benzothiazole, anthranilic acid and acetic anhydride further followed by condensation with formaldehyde and diethyl amine. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated by agar disc diffusion using organisms and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activies were studied using albumin denaturation and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging methods. The structures of the synthesized Quinazolinone derivatives were confirmed by spectral analysis, such as IR, H-NMR and among the derivatives screened, the compounds 4d, 4f 4g, 4h have appreciable antimicrobial activity compared to standards. The compounds (4a-4h) have least anti-inflammatory activity while compound 4g have significant antioxidant activity as that of positive control.

Seed size is not only a yield-related trait but also an important measure to determine the commercial value of groundnut in the international market. For instance, small size is preferred in oil production, whereas large-sized seeds are preferred in confectioneries. In order to identify the genomic regions associated with 100-seed weight (HSW) and shelling percentage (SHP), the recombinant inbred line (RIL) population (Chico × ICGV 02251) of 352 individuals was phenotyped for three seasons and genotyped with an Axiom_Arachis array containing 58K SNPs. A genetic map with 4199 SNP loci was constructed, spanning a map distance of 2708.36 cM. QTL analysis identified six QTLs for SHP, with three consistent QTLs on chromosomes A05, A08, and B10. Similarly, for HSW, seven QTLs located on chromosomes A01, A02, A04, A10, B05, B06, and B09 were identified. BIG SEED locus and spermidine synthase candidate genes associated with seed weight were identified in the QTL region on chromosome B09. Laccase, fibre protein, lipid transfer protein, senescence-associated protein, and disease-resistant NBS-LRR proteins were identified in the QTL regions associated with shelling percentage. The associated markers for major-effect QTLs for both traits successfully distinguished between the small- and large-seeded RILs. QTLs identified for HSW and SHP can be used for developing potential selectable markers to improve the cultivars with desired seed size and shelling percentage to meet the demands of confectionery industries.

Malware attacks on the Android platform are rapidly increasing due to the high consumer adoption of Android smartphones. Advanced technologies have motivated cyber-criminals to actively create and disseminate a wide range of malware on Android smartphones. The researchers have conducted numerous studies on the detection of Android malware, but the majority of the works are based on the detection of generic Android malware. The detection based on malware categories will provide more insights about the malicious patterns of the malware. Therefore, this paper presents a detection solution for different Android malware categories, including adware, banking, SMS malware, and riskware. In this paper, a novel Huffman encoding-based feature vector generation technique is proposed. The experiments have proved that this novel approach significantly improves the efficiency of the detection model. This method makes use of system call frequencies as features to extract malware’s dynamic behavior patterns. The proposed model was evaluated using machine learning and deep learning methods. The results show that the proposed model with the Random Forest classifier outperforms some existing methodologies with a detection accuracy of 98.70%.

Clinical measurements on breast cancer patients were performed with a three-dimensional tomographic photoacoustic prototype imager (PAM 2). Patients with a suspicious lesion, visiting the center for breast care of a local hospital, were included in the study. The acquired photoacoustic images were compared to conventional clinical images. Of 30 scanned patients, 19 were diagnosed with one or more malignancies, of which a subset of four patients was selected for detailed analysis. Reconstructed images were processed to enhance image quality and the visibility of blood vessels. Processed photoacoustic images were compared to contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images where available, which aided in localizing the expected tumoral region. In two cases, spotty high-intensity photoacoustic signals could be seen in the tumoral region, attributable to the tumor. One of these cases also displayed a relatively high image entropy at the tumor site, likely related to the chaotic vascular networks associated with malignancies. For the other two cases, it was not possible to identify features indicative of malignancy, because of limitations in the illumination scheme and difficulties in locating the region of interest in the photoacoustic image.

Today's and tomorrow's secret data exchange relies heavily on cryptography. Cryptographic applications offer a secure communication channel for safely transferring data. It provides individuals, groups, and organizations with greater privacy and access to communication and other information, as well as the opportunity to restore personal privacy. Nowadays, online users desire to create an account in order to get access to certain websites, such as online tutorials, online purchases, online resource access, hosting services, social networking sites, and so on. However, unless the service provider or authority person ensures that the registration and login processes are genuine, there is a potential that the account might be hacked by a third party using the ordinary user access method. With the growing usage of cloud emails and frequent reports of large-scale leakage occurrences, a security attribute known as forward secrecy becomes desired and necessary for both users and cloud service providers to improve the security of cloud email systems.

Agriculture improvement is a global economic issue and ongoing challenge in this covid-19 pandemic that is highly dependent on effectiveness. The recognition of the diseases in plant leaf performs a major role in the agriculture industry and city-side greenhouse farms approximate analysis of the leaf disease this article intends to integrate image processing techniques with the “convolutional neural network”, which is one of the deep learning approaches, to classify and detect plant leaf disease and publicly available plant the late data to help treat the leaf as early as possible, which controls the economic loss. This paper has a set that was used which consists of 10 classes of disease and three classes of a plant leaf, this research offers an effective method for detecting different diseases in plant leaf variations. The model was created to detect and recognize healthy plant kinds, such as tomato and potato, and pepper these three leaves will perform under the algorithm called a convolutional neural network. By modifying the parameters and changing the pulling combination, models that have been used to train and test these types of leaf sample images can be created. leaf disease recognition was based on these 10 different types of classes in three different species tomato, potato, and pepper the classification of sample images has reached diseases identification accuracy.

A simple, rapid, and sensitive fluorimetric method was developed and validated to quantify quassia in polymeric nanocapsule suspensions and non polymeric suspensions, using acetonitrile as a solvent. The excitation and emission wavelengths were set at 397 nm and 465 nm, respectively. The calibration graph was linear from 0.05 to 0.25 µg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.9892. The detection and quantitation limits were 2.4 and 0.8 µg/mL, respectively. The validation results confirmed that the developed method is specific, linear, accurate, and precise for its intended use. The current method was successfully applied to the evaluation of curcumin content in lipid and polymeric nanocapsule suspensions during the early stage of formulation development.

Sweet corn fibres of about 15 gm were extracted with methanol for 5 hours in heating mantle at 40C and filtered and allowed to dry. The dried gel was further analyzed for estimation of Retinyl palmitate by spectrophotometrically by laboratory method and found to be 140 mg/kg. The dried extract gel was further estimated for ascorbic acid both by UV and HPTLC and found to be linear in the range of 1-5 ug/ml and 5-10ug/ml, correlation coefficient was found to be 0.997 and 0.998 and the amount of ascorbic acid was found to be 338 ng/ml and 9.9 ng/ml by UV and HPTLC respectively. The method was found to be linear.

Lip balm was prepared and its antioxidant activity was determined by PFRAP, CUPRAC, Flourimetry methods and results of emission spectra was examined and fournd to possess almost same concentration of 0.3 ug/ml. And the ascorbic acid was determined by HPTLC method and the Rvalue of the lip balm was found to be 0.98 and is near to the abscorbic acid sample. And hence proved that beetroot lip balm was found to possess antioxidant activityThe anti oxidant activity was determined and was found to be simple, novel and economical.

The present aim to formulate microspheres of diclofenac sodium loaded into micro emulsions, to attain sustained release of drugs in oral route of administration and minimize dosing frequency through site specific or pH Dependent drug delivery system. The method of proposed work performed in two steps. In first step, the production of microspheres by emulsification method using eudragit RS100 polymer as a coating material in presence of methanol as a solvent and then performed the evaluation studies like particle size and entrapment efficiency to select the Optimize microspheres. In the second step followed the phase titration method in which the optimized Microspheres loaded into aqueous phase in presence of emulsifying agent (tragacanth) to get micro emulsion then carried out in-vitro evaluation, viscosity and stability studies. The results found to be microspheres shows good entrapment efficiency and proper size distribution. On the basis of Invitro dissolution data found that, all formulations (F1-F6) were showed the drug release after defines the lag period made possible. The study revealed that entrapment efficiency and in-vitro release was best in F4 formulation was concluded. It will recommend as novel approach for future research.

Aim: The study's main objective was to assess patients' adherence towards treatment and daily practices among Hypertension (HT), Diabetes Mellitus (DM) Type II and hypothyroid participants in South India before and after providing counseling and education based on WHO standards. Study Design: The present study is a prospective open-labeled observational study. Place and Duration of the Study: The present study was conducted in Vijayawada, South India for six months. Methodology: A total of 490 participants with Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus (Type II) and Hypothyroidism were assessed for adherence based on the Morisky medication adherence scale containing 8 points at the starting of the study and 6 months after providing counseling and education. Results: At the initial point of study, only 12% of the Hypertensive group, 17% of Diabetes Mellitus (Type II) and 15% Hypothyroid group have high adherence. Towards the completion of the study, around 41% in the Hypertensive group, 50% of Diabetes Mellitus (Type II) and 60% Hypothyroid group had high adherence. Conclusion: The adherence was low at the initial point of the study among all the three groups. After counseling and education provided through the World Health Organization (WHO) specified criteria, we have seen a good increase in the adherence, measured with the MMAS-8 scale. Greater efforts should be made in educating and counseling the patients suffering from such chronic illnesses to improve their quality of life.

The objective of this study was to determine drought tolerance, kernel (KY) and fodder yield and quality amongst diverse groundnut genotypes for direct production or breeding. Hundred genotypes were evaluated at ICRISAT, India during 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 under drought-stressed (DS) and non stressed (NS) conditions. Data were collected on KY; oil content (OC); oil yield (OY); protein content; palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acid contents; haulm yield (HY); and fodder quality parameters such as the contents of dry matter, ash, nitrogen (NC), neutral detergent fiber (NDFDM), acid detergent fiber (ADFDM), acid detergent lignin (ADLDM), in vitro digestibility, and metabolizable energy. Data were subjected to parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses. Combined analysis of variance revealed significant (P < .05) genotype differences for all assessed traits. Genotype × water regime interaction effects were significant for KY, OC, ash, NC, NDFDM, and ADLDM. Kernel yield positively and significantly (P < .05) correlated with OY (r = .99), LAC (r = .13), ash (r = .32), and NDFDM (r = .54) under DS condition. Haulm yield was positively and significantly (P < .05) correlated with OC (r = .24),NDFDM(r = .19), ADFDM (r = .18), and ADLDM (r = .17) under DS condition. The study identified four genotypes with high kernel and haulm yields, and six genotypes with high oleic acid content. Further, 10 genotypes were selected with relatively better drought tolerance. The selected genotypes are recommended for further breeding and variety release adapted to drought conditions.

Identifying the targets for improving antimicrobial prescription and development of antimicrobial stewardship interventions can better serve to combat the situation of antimicrobial resistance. The primary objective was to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial use at tertiary care teaching hospital with both acute and long-term care patients. A periodical point prevalence survey was done in a tertiary care hospital of South India during 2019 using manual and webbased GLOBAL-PPS tool. Of 945 patients eligible for the study, 645 (69.5 %) received at least one antibiotic, with highest rates in the adult surgical ward and pediatrics. Of 645 therapeutic antibiotic prescriptions, 58.6% prescriptions have an infectious indication of them, 62.6% are community-acquired infections. Third-generation cephalosporins were the most prescribed antibiotics. The prevalence of antibiotic use is very high, and our study evidence that the country needs a robust antimicrobial stewardship intervention program.

Now-a-days the demand for mouth dissolving tablets has been rapidly increasing, especially for gediatric and pediatric patients who have swallowing difficulties. Esomeprazole is a Proton Pump Inhibitor used in the treatment of certain stomach and esophagus problems such as acid reflux, ulcers. In the present work, the Oro-dispersible tablets of esomeprazole by Direct Compression method using Superdisintegrants approach and effervescent approach. Bulk density, Tapped density, Compressibility index and Hauser’s ratio are the powder flow properties evaluated for the final blend of drug and excipients. All the formulations were evaluated for thickness , weight variation , disintegration time , hardness , friability , drug content , water absorption ratio , and In-vitro dissolution studies. The lowest disintegration time and maximum in -vitro dissolution profile is performed by F6 formulation. Keywords: Proton pump inhibitor, Oro-dispersible, Esomeprazole, Super disintegrates.

Seed weight in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) has direct impact on yield as well as market price because of preference for bold seeds by consumers and industry, thereby making seed-size improvement as one of the most important objectives of groundnut breeding programs globally. Marker-based early generation selection can accelerate the process of breeding for developing large-seeded varieties. In this context, we deployed the quantitative trait locus-sequencing (QTL-seq) approach on a biparental mapping population (Chico × ICGV 02251) to identify candidate genes and develop markers for seed weight in groundnut. A total of 289.4-389.4 million reads sequencing data were generated from three libraries (ICGV 02251 and two extreme bulks) achieving 93.9-95.1% genome coverage and 8.34-9.29× average read depth. The analysis of sequencing data using QTL-seq pipeline identified five genomic regions (three on chromosome B06 and one each on chromosomes B08 and B09) for seed weight. Detailed analysis of above associated genomic regions detected 182 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genic and intergenic regions, and 11 of these SNPs were nonsynonymous in the genomic regions of 10 candidate genes including Ulp proteases and BIG SEED locus genes. Kompetitive allele specific polymerase chain reaction (KASP) markers for 14 SNPs were developed, and four of these markers (snpAH0031, snpAH0033, snpAH0037, and snpAH0038) were successfully validated for deployment in breeding for large-seeded groundnut varieties.

Land-use and land-cover changes are the main cause of soil degradation and associated human and environmental problems. The study was conducted in Mai Mahiu ecosystem, Kenya whose aim was to assess long-term (1985 to 2015) impacts of land-use and land-cover changes on soil health with disturbance-induced vegetation distribution. Landsat archive was utilized to detect land-use change for 30 years at an interval of 15 years and analysed based on supervised image classification. Four land-use practices (undisturbed forest, disturbed forest, cropland and grassland) were selected and soil sampled to 15 cm depth for soil analyses. In this period, cropland increased by 135% at the expense of natural forest while built-up areas increased by three times. Soil bulk density increased significantly (p

Neurological manifestations of blast-induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) extend long after the initial injury indicating lasting changes in brain function. In this study, we characterized brain injury, changes in neurogenesis and oligodendrogenesis in an adult murine blast model following a short (5 days) and long (21 days) post-blast recovery. Acoustic blasts led to an initial, activation of microglia and astrogliosis and a widespread cortical and subcortical apoptosis. The loss of myelinated cortical axons at 5 days was followed by the reappearance of abnormal misdirected fibers at 21 days. At 21 days post-blast, we observed increases in doublecortin-positive (DCX+ ) neuroblasts in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and hippocampal subgranular zone (SGZ) indicating increased neurogenesis. No changes in DCX+ cells were found in the brain cortex. In the cortex, the early disappearance of myelinated neuronal fibers was accompanied by a loss of O4+ oligodendrocytes and their Ki67-expreasing (Ki67+ ) oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC). However, at 5 days we observed a robust appearance of cells expressing Olig2 (O2+ ), an early determinant of oligodendrocyte lineage. At 21 days post-blast, the population of OPC increased and the mature O4+ oligodendrocytes were restored to control levels. In contrast, in the SVZ and SGZ, O4+ cells were not affected by the blast suggesting a local cortical origin for cortical oligodendrogenesis. These results suggest that blast-induced activation of SVZ and SGZ neurogenesis and cortical oligodendrogenesis could have long-lasting impact on brain function including memory disorders observed in both animal models and human’s PTSD.

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was identified in human for the first time in the history. This is a zoonotic pathogen which was appeared first in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. According to WHO report, 858 deaths out of 27 countries were reported Between April 2012 and December 2019.The substrate at position P1 in glutamine is important for the protease of corona virus which is similar to that of 3Cprotease in entero viruses. In the development of viral drugs, the best target is proteases having specificity and plays an important role in the processing of viral polyprotein. Based on the structure. Peptidomimetic ketoamides designed as potent, broad spectrum inhibitor of 3c proteases against corona viruses. The present review is focused on the symptoms, transmission, target and prevention of the virus.

Foliar fungal diseases (rust and late leaf spot) incur large yield losses, in addition to the deterioration of fodder quality in groundnut worldwide. High oleic acid has emerged as a key market trait in groundnut, as it increases the shelf life of the produce/products in addition to providing health benefits to consumers. Marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) is the most successful approach to introgressing or pyramiding one or more traits using trait-linked markers. We used MABC to improve three popular Indian cultivars (GJG 9, GG 20, and GJGHPS 1) for foliar disease resistance (FDR) and high oleic acid content. A total of 22 BC3F4 and 30 BC2F4 introgression lines (ILs) for FDR and 46 BC3F4 and 41 BC2F4 ILs for high oleic acid were developed. Recurrent parent genome analysis using the 58 K Axiom_Arachis array identified several lines showing upto 94% of genome recovery among second and third backcross progenies. Phenotyping of these ILs revealed FDR scores comparable to the resistant parent, GPBD 4, and ILs with high (~80%) oleic acid in addition to high genome recovery. These ILs provide further opportunities for pyramiding FDR and high oleic acid in all three genetic backgrounds as well as for conducting multi-location yield trials for further evaluation and release for cultivation in target regions of India. Keywords: Foliar disease resistance, High oleic acid, Late leaf spot, Marker-assisted backcrossing, SNP array, Background genome recovery

In this study, the effect of Carica papayaagainst various microorganisms is evaluated using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) assay for antioxidant activity. The focus is on employing the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of papaya milk as a natural antimicrobial by preparing hand sanitizer.Papaya (Carica papaya Linn), a nutraceutical fruit well known for its nutritional values and potent medicinal properties such as antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-helminthic, anti-fungal, anti-hypertensive and anti-fertility, free radical scavenging activity [1-10]. The study includesextraction of C.papaya milk from C. papaya fruit and identification of phytochemical constituents by performing chemical tests. Preparation of sanitizer with 5ml and 7ml of C. Papaya Milk for 10 ml sanitizer.Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of prepared sanitizer on cultures from hand using spread plate method.Determination of sanitizing ability was done by calculating percent reduction in colony forming units (CFU) before and after sanitization. Evaluation of antioxidant activity by in vitro DPPH Scavenging method.The standard sanitizer had shown 75% effectiveness, isopropyl alcohol shows90% effectiveness, and finally sanitizer which is prepared from papaya milk was found to be 58% effective against micro-organisms. &nbsp

Genetic advancement and gains in yield and related traits are dependent on the selection of best combiner parents and progenies under the prevailing growing conditions. This study was conducted to determine the combining ability effects of eight selected drought-tolerant groundnut parental lines and their F2 progenies under drought-stressed (DS) and non-stressed (NS) conditions to determine the gene actions involved in the inheritance of the studied traits and identify the best parents and progenies for further improvement of the crop for moisture stress tolerance. Experiments were conducted at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India during 2020 cropping season. Data on some of the important physiological, yield and yield component traits were collected. The general combining ability (GCA) effects of parents were significant (P

Marine macroalgae have a very high carbohydrate content due to complex algal polysaccharides (APS) like agar, alginate, and ulvan in their cell wall. Despite numerous reports on their biomedical properties, their hydrocolloid nature limits their applications. Algal oligosaccharides (AOS), which are hydrolyzed forms of complex APS, are gaining importance due to their low molecular weight, biocompatibility, bioactivities, safety, and solubility in water that makes it a lucrative alternative. The AOS produced through enzymatic hydrolysis using microbial enzymes have far-reaching applications because of its stereospecific nature. Identification and characterization of novel microorganisms producing APS hydrolyzing enzymes are the major bottlenecks for the efficient production of AOS. This review will discuss the marine microbial enzymes identified for AOS production and the bioactive potential of enzymatically produced AOS. This can improve our understanding of the biotechnological potential of microbial enzymes for the production of AOS and facilitate the sustainable utilization of algal biomass. Enzymatically produced AOS are shown to have bioactivities such as antioxidant, antiglycemic, prebiotic, immunomodulation, antiobesity or antihypercholesterolemia, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial activity. The myriad of health benefits provided by the AOS is the need of the hour as there is an alarming increase in physiological disorders among a wide range of the global population.

Dielectric elastomer composites are used as actuators and sensors. They convert electrical energy directly into mechanical energy and vice versa. Conductive and dielectric fillers are added to elastomers in order to improve its permittivity, thereby altering its mechanical properties. This study investigates the effect of conductive filler and processing parameters on the mechanical properties of dielectric elastomer composites fabricated using solid silicone rubber as matrix and ketjenblack as conductive filler using compression moulding process. The processing parameters such as amount of curing agent, mixing time and curing temperature also influence the mechanical properties. Maximum values of Young’s modulus, density and shore A hardness recorded were 25.2 MPa, 1210 kg/m3 and 86 for the present study.

This paper deals with the development of silicone rubber particulate composites filled with strontium titanate to improve dielectric properties of neat silicone rubber. The composite material is prepared by a solution casting method with three different volume percentages of the filler. The composite samples prepared are tested for dielectric properties as per standards. The influence of filler on dielectric properties of composite material is studied by testing for dielectric permittivity, loss tangent, and ac conductivity. The dielectric permittivity experimentally obtained is compared with the available empirical models. The dielectric permittivity, loss tangent, and ac conductivity of silicone rubber composite increased with the increase of volume percentage of strontium titanate. Compared to neat silicone rubber the dielectric permittivity, loss tangent, and ac conductivity of the silicone rubber composite filled with 10% volume of strontium titanate is increased by 66%, 117%, and 267% respectively. Further, the empirical models confirmed that dielectric permittivity obtained is within the limit. The microscopic study reveals that the improved dielectric properties attributed to the stronger bond between the silicone rubber and the strontium titanate particles.

Parents and 318 F8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross, TAG 24 × ICGV 86031 were evaluated for peanut bud necrosis disease (PBND) resistance and agronomic traits under natural infestation of thrips at a disease hotspot location for 2 years. Significant genotype, environment and genotype × environment interaction effects suggested role of environment in development and spread of the disease. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis using QTL Cartographer identified a total of 14 QTL for six traits of which five QTL were for disease incidence. One quantitative trait locus q60DI located on LG_AhII was identified using both QTL Cartographer and QTL Network. Another QTL q90DI was detected with a high PVE of 12.57 using QTL Cartographer. A total of nine significant additive × additive (AA) interactions were detected for PBND disease incidence and yield traits with two and seven interactions displaying effects in favour of the parental and recombinant genotype combinations, respectively. This is the first attempt on QTL discovery associated with PBND resistance in peanut. Superior RILs identified in the study can be recycled or released as variety following further evaluations.