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Salinity has deleterious effects on both crops and livestock. The present study evaluated the impact of salinity on livestock-based farming systems by comparing the economics in saline and normal areas of West Bengal. The study also identified the factors affecting gross revenue in production function framework using CD function and resource use efficiency of different livestock-based farming systems. This will help the policy makers to frame policies enhancing livelihood in saline areas and help the farmers to adapt the ideal farming system. In saline area, S2 (1.116) and S3 (1.399) had increasing return to sale. In case of S2 farming system, both concentrate and veterinary services and for S3 concentrate, veterinary services and seed were under used and increasing their level to a optional level will raise the gross revenue. In normal areas, N1 (1.4045) farming system showed increasing return to scale and also there is a scope for further use of fodder, veterinary services and fertilizer efficiently. Based on both resource use efficiency and return to scale S2 should be recommended for landless farmers and S3 for land holders in saline areas and N1 farming system should be recommended for the farmers in normal areas.

This research focuses on the construction and analysis of a one-dimensional (1D) Bragg mirror (BM) with a micro-cavity at the centre to identify the Plasmodium falciparumparasite, which is the primary cause of malaria. In biomedical applications, early malaria identification is essential. Humans are bitten by female Anopheles mosquitoes, which release the pathogen Plasmodium falciparuminto the body. Initially invading RBCs, this parasite grows and reproduces inside human red blood cells. P. falciparumgoes through a number of erythrocytic phases in the infected RBC cells. Using the appropriate diagnostic techniques, it is essential to find these infected RBC stages. Malignant cell detections can be effectively done by using 1D photonic crystal-based biosensors. A BM structure with multilayers that has been made and studied to identify the P. falciparumparasite in all of its life phases in the test sample. To increase the Qfactor, the suggested structure starts with N= 3 and concludes with N= 6 layers. The center cavity length is altered to select the ideal defect length that improves sensitivity of the sensor. The resulted structure gives sensitivity of 4010 nm/RIU with a Qfactor of 1800. Based on the simulation findings that were achieved, the suggested sensor can legitimately be employed for the early stage detection of malaria.

Radiotherapy remains a cornerstone treatment of brain metastases. With new treatment advances, patients with brain metastases are living longer, and finding solutions for mitigating treatment-related neurotoxicity and improving quality of life is important. Historically, whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) was widely used but treatment options such as hippocampal sparing WBRT and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) have emerged as promising alternatives. Herein, we discuss the recent advances in radiotherapy for brain metastases including the sparing of critical structures that may improve long-term neurocognitive outcomes (eg, hippocampus, fornix) that may improve long-term neurocognitive outcome, evidence supporting preoperative and fractionated-SRS, and treatment strategies for managing radiation necrosis.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of visual loss and with timely diagnosis, this condition can be prevented. This research proposes a transfer learning-based model that is trained using retinal fundus images of patients whose severity is graded by trained ophthalmologists into five different classifications. The research uses transfer learning based on a pre-trained model that is ResNet 50, thus it is possible to train the model with the limited amount of labeled training data. The model has been trained and its accuracy has been analyzed using different metrics namely accuracy score, loss graph and confusion matrix. Such deep learning models need to be transparent for approval by the regulatory authorities for clinical use. The clinical practitioner also needs to have information about the working of the classification method to make sure that he/she understands the decision making process of the model.

In the proposed work, a mosquito born disease called chikungunya is detected by using one-dimensional Optical Bragg Reflector (OBR) with cavity defect. Chikungunya disease is caused by an RNA virus, CHIKV, with the bites of mosquitoes typically during day times. Infection of CHIKV causes severe arthralgias in the human body especially in hands and feet. The disease severity in the later stages can be reduced with the early detection of this virus. The virus infected blood components show a remarkable variance in the Refractive-Index (RI) as compared to normal blood components. The resonating cavity mode of the proposed structure mainly depends on the RI of the central cavity defect. When this defect cavity is infiltrated with the blood sample, there is a detectable shift in the resonant cavity mode between normal and infected blood components. Thus, the presence of CHIKV in the blood sample is sensed. The effect of incidence angle (θ), number of layers (N), cavity defect length (lD) and on the Q factor and sensitivity of sensor is studied. The proposed sensor is designed and analysed using MATLAB. By rightly choosing these design parameters, a better structure is designed which enhances sensor performance. A higher Q factor of 7633 and sensitivity of 7680 nm/RIU is achieved for N = 8, lD= 8 μm with θ = 50°. The proposed sensor can be suitably used in the medical application domain for the detection of chikungunya virus.

Objective:Guduchi [Tinospora cordifolia(Willd.) f. and Thoms.], a rasayana (rejuvenator) in the traditional system of Indian medicine (Ayurveda), is known for its diverse bioactivities. The aim of this study was to isolate the immunomodulatory protein (ImP) from commercial guduchi churna (stem powder) and characterize it.Methods:Guduchi churna extract following 80% ammonium sulfate precipitation was chromatographed on Q-Sepharose. Purified guduchi ImP was evaluated for its lymphoproliferative and macrophage activation properties, structural relatedness to certain plant lectins, amino acid composition, stability to trypsin, and N-terminal sequencing.Results:The purified protein, obtained in a yield of 140mg/100g guduchi churna, showed a molecular mass of ∼28kDa by SDS-PAGE. Guduchi ImP (10 μg) showed seven-fold increase over control in mitogenic activity of murine splenocytes, and a four-fold increase over control in nitric oxide (NO) release from murine peritoneal exudates cells (PECs). These activities were abolished in pronase-treated guduchi ImP. Guduchi ImP does not agglutinate rabbit erythrocytes. Rabbit antiserum to guduchi stem ImP strongly reacted with purified guduchi ImP, and did not recognize common plant lectins (concanavalin A (Con A), poke weed mitogen (PWM) and garlic lectin). Amino acid composition of guduchi ImP shows high content of acidic amino acids, serine (12.4%) and cysteine (10.2%); guduchi ImP is highly stable to trypsin and has a blocked N-terminus.Conclusion:Guduchi ImP is an acidic, non-lectin ImP with a high content of serine and cysteine, and appears to have an immense potential for future structural, immunological, and therapeutic studies.

Hygienic drinking water is limited, not only in India, but also worldwide. Groundwater is a major source for domestic and irrigation use in the area of the Mandvi River basin, Andhra Pradesh, India. Therefore, this paper is mainly focused on it. In this study, 55 groundwater samples were collected and various geochemical parameters were analyzed, such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides, sulfates, hardness, alkalinity, fluoride, magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, and nitrate. From the analysis, results are interpreted with various geochemical indices such as sodium absorption ratio (SAR), potential salinity (Ps), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), non-carbonate hardness (NCH), permeability index (PI), Kelly’s ratio (KR), magnesium ratio (MR) and percent sodium (PS). From Chadha’s geochemical classification, most of the sample’s hydrochemical facies were Na–Cl (66%) and Ca–Mg–Cl (20%). The results of the study showed that 12.5% and 51.7% of the groundwater samples exceeded the permissible limits for fluoride and nitrate, respectively. Hence, all these interpretations indicated that most of the groundwater samples are not suitable for domestic and irrigation use. Rainwater harvesting, water quality improvement plans, regular monitoring of water quality, and multidisciplinary water research programs are recommended as measures for sustainable groundwater management in the study area.

Ion adsorption and transfer at charged interfaces play key roles in various industrial and environmental processes. Molecular scale details of ion–ion, ion–water, and ion–surface interactions are still debated. Complex ions, such as SCN–and SeCN–, are particularly interesting due to their unexpected adsorption trends. Here, we combine vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy and surface-sensitive synchrotron X-ray studies to provide a detailed description of SeCN–adsorption at a floating charged monolayer. Polarimetry studies show that the average orientation of SeCN–anions with respect to the surface normal decreases from 45° to 22° with the increasing KSeCN concentration. Interfacial SeCN–coverage saturates at very low bulk concentrations, but their orientational organization, distribution between Stern and diffuse layers, and effects on the hydrogen-bonding network of the interfacial water continue to change with increasing bulk KSeCN concentration. These results show that the increasing chemical potential may lead to further reorganization of the adsorbed ions, even though the total interfacial ion population does not change. The reorganization of the interfacial ions and the water may be very important in chemical separations of heavy metals, where metal–anion complexes drive the selective ion transfer at aqueous interfaces.

Heterocycles are the main structural motif of DNA and RNA and play a crucial role in various chemical reactions of metabolisms. Therefore, heterocyclic compounds show good physiological and pharmacological properties. Coumarin and pyrazole scaffolds are present in many commercial drug molecules and natural products. This review overviews the progress made in the synthesis and functionalization of the coumarin- pyrazole hybrid heterocycle. It also includes discussion on the possible reactive sites of heterocycles, functionalization, and mechanistic pathways to incorporate pyrazole pharmacophore unit in synthesis. Several synthesis and biological studies reveal that the combination of the coumarin-pyrazole moiety is a prominent structural motif to find lead compounds in drug discovery.

Effective and energy-efficient separation of precious and rare metals is very important for a variety of advanced technologies. Liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) is a relatively less energy intensive separation technique, widely used in separation of lanthanides, actinides, and platinum group metals (PGMs). In LLE, the distribution of an ion between an aqueous phase and an organic phase is determined by enthalpic (coordination interactions) and entropic (fluid reorganization) contributions. The molecular scale details of these contributions are not well understood. Preferential extraction of an ion from the aqueous phase is usually correlated with the resulting fluid organization in the organic phase, as the longer-range organization increases with metal loading. However, it is difficult to determine the extent to which organic phase fluid organization causes, or is caused by, metal loading. In this study, we demonstrate that two systems with the same metal loading may impart very different organic phase organizations and investigate the underlying molecular scale mechanism. Small-angle X-ray scattering shows that the structure of a quaternary ammonium extractant solution in toluene is affected differently by the extraction of two metalates (octahedral PtCl62–and square-planar PdCl42–), although both are completely transferred into the organic phase. The aggregates formed by the metalate–extractant complexes (approximated as reverse micelles) exhibit a more long-range order (clustering) with PtCl62–compared to that with PdCl42–. Vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy and complementary atomistic molecular dynamics simulations on model Langmuir monolayers indicate that the two metalates affect the interfacial hydration structures differently. Furthermore, the interfacial hydration is correlated with water extraction into the organic phase. These results support a strong relationship between the organic phase organizational structure and the different local hydration present within the aggregates of metalate–extractant complexes, which is independent of metalate concentration.

Aluminium-based metal matrix composite (AMCs) reinforced with coconut shell ash particles (CSA) is prepared with a stir casting route. A face centred composite design (CCF) is employed for design of tribological experiments. The tribological effects on Al-CSA composites such as wear rate (Wr - mm3/m) and coefficient of friction (CF) are analysed with operating variables such as normal pressure (A-kg/cm2), percent of CSA (B - vol. %), sliding-distance (C - m) and sliding velocity (D-m/s). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals that normal pressure has a significant influence on wear rate and coefficient of friction. Interaction plots showed that the wear rate of composite has increased, due to extreme plastic deformation, delamination and particle cohesion, and an increased pressure and sliding distance. Regression analysis reveals the effect of variables on tribological responses. Confirmatory tests are conducted and found that the regression model is acceptable and error lies within the range, i.e., 5%.

Whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) was frequently used to treat brain metastases in the past. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is now generally preferred to WBRT for patients with limited brain metastases. SRS can also be used to treat extensive brain metastases (>10–15 metastases), and clinical trials are currently comparing WBRT with SRS for extensive disease. SRS may allow for an increased risk of radiation necrosis or leptomeningeal disease dissemination after treatment. Preoperative SRS and multifraction radiotherapy decrease the risk of these side effects and may soon become standard of care. Combining SRS with immune checkpoint inhibitors may improve patient outcomes.

Presented here is an overview of nonvolatile particulate matter (nvPM) emissions, i.e., “soot”, as assessed by TEM analyses of samples collected after the exhaust of a J-85 turbojet fueled with Jet-A as well as with blends of Jet-A and Camelina biofuel. A unifying explanation is provided to illustrate the combustion dynamics of biofuel and Jet-A fuel. The variations of primary particle size, aggregate size, and nanostructure are analyzed as a function of biofuel blend across a range of engine thrust levels. The postulate is based on where fuels start along the soot formation pathway. Increasing biofuel content lowers aromatic concentration while placing increasing dependence upon fuel pyrolysis reactions to form the requisite concentration of aromatics for particle inception and growth. The required “kinetic” time for pyrolysis reactions to produce benzene and multiring PAHs allows increased fuel–air mixing by turbulence, diluting the fuel-rich soot-forming regions, effectively lowering their equivalence ratio. With a lower precursor concentration, particle inception is slowed, the resulting concentration of primary particles is lowered, and smaller aggregates were measured. The lower equivalence ratio also results in smaller primary particles because of the lower concentration of growth species.

Identification of groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in a crystalline rock terrain is a crucial task for sustainable groundwater resource management, through scientific knowledge and modern geospatial techniques. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) plays a key role in evaluating, conserving and monitoring various groundwater-related development programs. The present study integrates RS, GIS and multi influence factor (MIF) techniques for evaluating GWPZ in Mandavi River basin. In this connection IRS-R2 LISS IV satellite imagery, the Survey Of India (SOI) toposheets and various auxiliary data sets from different sources have been used in preparing thematic maps like drainage density, lineament density, geology, soil, geomorphology, slope, rainfall, soil texture, land use/land cover and groundwater levels. Then the thematic layers were changed into raster format in Arc GIS 10.4 environment. Weights and ratings have been statistically calculated and assigned to raster maps based on the technique named multi-influence factor. Finally, it is found that the GWPZ were classified into four type's viz. very poor, poor, good, and very good with spatial extents of 533 sq. km (36%), 510 sq. km (35%), 319 sq. km (21%) and 103 sq. km (7%) respectively. The end results were validated with the observation of well data. The overall accuracy and kappa coefficients were 72.8% and 0.63 respectively, which shows a good correlation between groundwater potential zones and the observed well data. These results will help hydrogeologists, decision-makers, planners and local authorities to formulate better groundwater resource planning in the Mandavi River Basin.

Increasing urbanization and the population’s demand for water shortages in urban and rural regions prompts a decrease in groundwater resources, to the need to plan sustainable development and watershed management. Remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS) and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) are useful approaches for distinguishing possible groundwater areas of India. A total of eight sets of thematic layers have been selected to influence the storage of groundwater potential in the region concerned and a suitable weight is assigned to each factor based on the Saaty’s nine points and the weights are normalized by AHP. The groundwater potential zone (GWPZ) of the study region was prepared by integrating the different thematic layers with the support of ArcGIS software. The present study results indicates that 5.36 km2has a very good GWP, 193.45 km2has a good GWP, while 184.09 km2and 12.27 km2are under moderate and poor GWPZs respectively. The study found that a simple GIS-based AHP approach is reasonable for making precise and dependable estimates, especially if the order of the criteria used for expectation is consistent. The present study results showed the effect of consistency criteria that the ability of the method to give an accurate prediction depends on many criteria’s that are used. The study found that the basic GIS based AHP approaches is capable of producing accurate and reliable for better planning and managing the resources in an effective way.

Increasing urbanization and the population's demand for water shortages in urban and rural areas leads to a decline in groundwater resources, to the need to plan artificial groundwater recharge. This study shows the ability of three decision-making approaches, namely fuzzy logic (FL), analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and integrated Fuzzy-AHP techniques in groundwater potentiality mapping. A total eight parameters such as geology, geomorphology (GM) landuse/landcover (LULC), soil types, drainage density (DD), water level fluctuations (WLF) in the pre and post monsoon, vadose zone (VZ), and slope are assessed through satellite and conventional data sources. All these parameters and their sub-parameters are assigned weights to implement FL, AHP and integrated Fuzzy-AHP models based on existing knowledge. Three result maps have been prepared up that integrate all these parameters and their respective weights into the GIS software. Accuracy results show that the map made with the integrated Fuzzy-AHP model is more efficient (78% validation) than AHP (76% validation) and FL approaches (72% validation). This study concludes that the integrated AHP-Fuzzy model is more reliable for estimating the groundwater potential. However, the impact of the study on the impact of knowledge of the criteria has shown that the ability of the technique to accurately predict depends on the integrity of the classification of the criteria used. The study found that a simple GIS-based integrated approach is suitable for making accurate and reliable predictions, especially if the order of the criteria used for expectation is consistent. Such findings have shown that planners in regions with a lack of data have an accurate knowledge of groundwater sources through the integrated methodology based on an analysis of geospatial data. In this manner, advancement for the inescapable plan of groundwater research can be created in a compelling manner.

A fundamental understanding of the factors that determine the interactions with and transport of small molecules through phospholipid membranes is crucial in developing liposome-based drug delivery systems. Here we combine time-dependent second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements with molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the events associated with adsorption and transport of the small molecular cation, malachite green isothiocyanate (MGITC), in colloidal liposomes of different compositions. The molecular transport of MGITC through the liposome bilayer is found to be more rapid in 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1′-rac-glycerol) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-l-serine (DOPG and DOPS, respectively) liposomes, while the molecular transport is slower in 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) liposomes. Interestingly, MGITC is observed to neither adsorb nor transport in trimethyl quinone-1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (QPADOPE) liposomes due to shielding by the quinone group. The modified Langmuir adsorption isotherm model is used to determine the free energy of adsorption for MGITC, which is found to be less negative in DOPC than in DOPG and DOPS, caused by lower electrostatic interactions between the positively charged dye and the zwitterionic DOPC liposome surface. The results are compared to our previous investigations, which showed that malachite green (MG) adsorbs and transports in DOPG and DOPS liposomes but not in DOPC and QPADOPE liposomes. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the adsorption and transport properties of MG and MGITC in DOPC and DOPG liposomes using umbrella sampling to determine the free energy profiles and interfacial molecular orientations. Together, these time-resolved SHG studies and corresponding molecular dynamics simulations characterize the complicated chemical interactions at different lipid membranes to provide key molecular-level insights for potential drug delivery applications. The results also point toward understanding the role of chemical functional groups, in this case isothiocyanate, in controlling molecular adsorption at and transport through lipid bilayers.

Amphibolites and Abukuma-type low-grade and low-pressure meta-sedimentary rocks (MSR) host mineralised rare metal (Nb–Ta, Be and Li)- and Sn-bearing granite pegmatites and their parental, fertile S-type granites in the Bastar–Malkangiri Pegmatite Belt (BMPB) in the SE part of the Bastar craton in parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha, India. Amphibolites, based on their field relationship (as sills in MSR), mineral assemblage and textural features, are broadly classified into three types: (i) tremolite-, (ii) hornblende–actinolite-, and (iii) hornblende-bearing amphibolites. Petrochemically, amphibolite types (i–iii) show a regular decrease in their Mg content and related trace elements such as Cr (81–1731 ppm), Ni (135–379 ppm) and Co (23–68 ppm) and, hence, are designated, respectively, as high-, intermediate- and low-Mg amphibolites. All the three types show slight enrichment in Si, Fe and P, reflected in their normative quartz, hypersthene and lesser diopside, magnetite, ilmenite and apatite, but noolivine. They are relatively enriched in incompatible elements such as Rb (16–526 ppm), Ba (15–538 ppm), Zr (56–147 ppm) and Nb (3–44 ppm), with relatively a higher concentration of these elements in those near to the contacts with pegmatites, thereby demonstrating some influence of the pegmatites on the chemistry of the host amphibolites. In spite of these, the three types of amphibolites show regular differentiation trends, reflected by their systematic decrease of Ni, Cr and Co with a decrease of Mg, and also show Fe-enrichment in their alkalies $$(\hbox {Na}_2\hbox {O} + \hbox {K}_2\hbox {O})-(\hbox {FeO} + \hbox {Fe}_2\hbox {O}_3)-\hbox {MgO}$$ (Na2O+K2O)-(FeO+Fe2O3)-MgO (AFM) plot. The field, petrography and major–minor trace elements petrochemistry, including rare earth elements with slight negative to no Eu-anomaly, and their chemical patterns cumulatively point out that these amphibolites are ortho-typeand sub-alkalinein nature, with quartz tholeiiticmagmatic affinity, and the formation due to more of fractional crystallisation and less of 5–25% partial melting of an enriched primordial mantle magma (enriched mid-oceanic ridge basalt – E-MORB), emplaced at a deduced shallow depth of 10–25 km, with the main controlling phases being olivine, plagioclase, clinopyroxene and apatite.

In this paper, the densities and speeds of sound were measured for five binary mixtures of 1, 2-dichlorobenzene (1, 2-DCB) with methylacetate (MA), ethylacetate (EA), propylacetate (PA), butylacetate (BA) and amylacetate (AA) over the entire composition range at different temperatures T = (303.15–318.15) K and 0.1 MPa atmospheric pressure. The thermodynamic properties, namely, isentropic compressibilities κS, intermolecular free lengths (Lf), specific acoustic impedance (Z), excess molar volume (VmE), excess isentropic compressibility (κSE), excess inter molecular free length (LfE), excess acoustic impedance (ZE) and excess speeds of sound (uE)were calculated to understand the nature of the interactions present in the binary mixtures. Further, the partial properties have also been computed to understand the structural effects of the molecules. The excess properties were correlated with polynomial equations. Furthermore, the measured data were also analyzed with FTIR spectroscopy to support the thermodynamic findings.

In situsecond harmonic generation (SHG) coupled with extinction spectroscopy is used for real-time monitoring of seed-mediated growth dynamics of colloidal citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles in water. The time-dependent in situSHG results capture an early stage of the growth process where a large enhancement in the SHG signal is observed, which is attributed to the formation of plasmonic hot spots from a rough and uneven nanoparticle surface. The temporal peak in the SHG signal is followed by a decay that is fit to an exponential function to characterize the size-dependent nanoparticle growth lifetime, which varies from 0.45 to 1.7 min for final nanoparticle sizes of 66 and 94 nm, respectively. This early growth stage also corresponds to a broadening of the plasmon spectra, as monitored using time-dependent in situextinction spectroscopy. Over the course of the seed-mediated growth reaction, the nanoparticle becomes more thermodynamically stable through surface reconstruction resulting in a smoother, more uniform surface, corresponding to lower, stable SHG signals and narrower plasmon spectra. With real-time monitoring of nanoparticle formation, in situSHG spectroscopy combined with in situextinction spectroscopy provides an important insight for controlling nanoparticle synthesis and surface morphology for potential nanoscale engineering of different colloidal nanomaterials.