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AbstractA series of new 2-amino-7-hydroxy-8-methyl-4-aryl-4H-chromene-3-carbonitrile derivatives (4a-4g) have been synthesized by a one-pot multicomponent reaction of 2-methylresorcinol (1) and malononitrile (2) with various aldehydes (3). All the synthesised compounds (4a-4g) have been characterised using FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HR-MS and evaluated for swarming behaviour, biofilm formation, biofilm disruption and urease activity against P. mirabilis(MTCC-425). Among all the synthesized compounds, compounds 4a, 4b and 4g showed slightly inhibited swarming behaviour and compounds 4f and 4g inhibited biofilm formation with increasing concentration. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) imaging shows that compound 4e effectively disrupts the preformed biofilm. Also, compounds 4d and 4e showed 40% reduction in urease activity. The SAR studies of synthesized compounds are elaborated in detail to provide key structural features. Furthermore, molecular docking studies against urease could provide a mechanistic basis for the inhibition. The per-residue interaction analysis suggested the involvement of non-bonded and bonded interactions with the active site of urease. Hence, the aim of the below study was to synthesize new chromene derivatives and study their biological activities.

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a novel image watermarking scheme with the following two processes. In the embedding process, the cover image is subjected to NSCT to obtain the properties of multi-scale and directional characteristics and fed to DWT which decomposes the contourlet image into various sub-bands. The wavelet decomposition image is subjected to a region selection step, where the regions are selected based on the DL strategy for selecting the region from the contourlet of the cover image where the features, including LOOP feature, mean feature, Canny features, and ResNet features are extracted and subjected to the DNN classifier. Conversely, the watermark image performs NSCT and DWT as the cover image and is fed into further steps to eliminate the correlation of pixels. For that, it proposes the FTTS approach to scramble the contourlet of watermark images, in which tent map and dyadic transformation are employed to eliminate the correlation among pixels. Then the resultants of region selection and FTTS are embedded to obtain the watermarked image. On the other hand, the extraction process takes place, which extracts the embedded watermarked image and applies inverse scrambling and inverse an NSCT approach to recover the watermark image against any malicious attack.

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) usually manifests as an indolent cancer with good prognosis. However, rarely uncommon sites of metastatic involvement can worsen the prognosis and require aggressive therapeutic approach. Here in, we describe 5 patients (3 women and 2 men) harboring rare sites of metastatic involvement from DTC including the adrenals, colon, kidneys, urinary bladder, brachial plexus, and superior vena cava with contiguous right atrial involvement. The awareness of such rare sites of involvement from DTC is imperative for treating clinicians to plan individualistic approach in management including multiprong therapies for better patient care.

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Pollution by textile dyes on waterbodies is an issue for both human health and the environment. To remove/degrade dyes, many approaches (coagulation, membrane separation, and adsorption) have been investigated. However, the use of semiconductor-assisted materials in conjunction with sustainable solar energy has emerged as a possible solution to the problem. Although single component photocatalysts have been tested, composites of semiconductor materials are being employed owing to their low efficiency and stability due to the high recombination rate electron-hole pair and inefficient visible light absorption. By combining two or more semiconductor components, semiconductor heterojunction systems are created. Overall stability is increased by the synergistic impact of their features, such as adsorption and better charge carrier movement. This paper discusses current advances in advanced nanocomposite materials utilized as photocatalysts, as well as the utilization of heterojunctions, crystallinity, and doping to improve photocatalytic characteristics. The conclusion includes a summary, research gaps, and a forecast for the future. This study will aid in the development of efficient heterostructure photodegradation systems by providing a comprehensive appraisal of recent advances in demonstrating effective nanocomposites for photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye under ideal circumstances.

Application and analysis of novel heuristic bio-inspired or computational intelligence algorithms to resolve WSN problems is one of active research area. LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) being one of most prominent hierarchical clustering routing algorithm in WSN entails with certain excuses. The proposed work also tries to offer solution in this direction for LEACH. Firefly relies on attractive issues of firefly for energy-efficient routing in WSN applied in formation on clusters. Wolf Search is applied to enhance performance of LEACH algorithm with identification of two relay nodes: (i) intra relay node and (ii) inter relay node. Cross entropy principles will be applied to set soft and hard threshold to take decisions on either to retain existing cluster or to re-cluster. The Spyder-py3 tool is used to simulate the proposed work is compared with LEACH, power-efficient gathering in sensor information systems (PEGASIS), Ant Cuckoo optimized using energy-efficient data aggregation (ACEED), and Genetic Algorithm data Aggregation (GADA) LEACH protocols. The results confirm that proposed LEACH-PWO out performs other algorithms in terms of prolonging the lifetime of network in addition to increasing throughput.

Stored rice suffers major quantitative and qualitative losses due to insect pests. Studies were conducted to assess 10 different cultivars of rice for resistance to grain insects: lesser grain borer, Angoumois grain moth, and red flour beetle as well as the influence of physicochemical traits of the grains that are responsible for susceptibility or resistance to insects at Post Harvest Technology Centre, Bapatla during 2020–2021. There were significant differences in the population buildup of lesser grain borer, Angoumois grain moth in rough rice, and red flour beetle in milled rice of test cultivars. BPT 2411 recorded the least emergence of lesser grain borers under no-choice (16.33 adults/100 g) and free-choice (13.0 adults/100 g) conditions. The emergence of Angoumois grain moth was the least in BPT 2411 compared to the other cultivars under free-choice conditions. On the other hand, BPT 2411 recorded a substantial decline in the population of red flour beetles in milled rice both under free-choice (23.33 adults) and no-choice (13.33 adults) conditions. The results indicated that BPT 2411 was the least preferred grain of the stored product insects. The highest kernel hardness was observed in BPT 2411 (7.28 kgf) while proteins and phenols were found at the lowest levels in BPT 2411 (5.14% and 28.0 mg GAE/100 g, respectively). Ash percent was highest in the husk of BPT 5204 (19.82%) followed by BPT 3111 (19.73%). Though significant correlations could not be drawn with grain characteristics in the case of BPT 2411, the grain hardness and low protein content could be the main factors responsible for its least suitability for progeny emergence of insects.

Dump waste generated by open cast coal mining industry is a significant global source of environmental pollution, land degradation and possesses threats to the environmental sustainability. After conducting pilot study, experimental investigations were conducted to study the reuse of waste rocks coming from mining as fine aggregates as a possible replacement of river sand. Physical, chemical and mechanical tests have been carried out in order to analyze in detail the interaction whether extracted sand is suitable in construction sector or not. The present study focuses on utilizing the overburden of the Sasti open cast coal mine of Western Coal Limited in the Chandrapur District of Maharashtra state, India for extraction of sand. Extracted sand contains minerals mainly quartz, alumina, and satisfies the prescribed permissible limit as per the Indian coal provisions for its use in construction work and observed to be equivalent to river sand. The compressive strength obtained with extracted OB sand after 28 days of curing was 29.294 MPa as compared to 33.153 MPa for the river sand for M25 grade of concrete. The focus of the study is on the reclaimed sand and its possible usages and not on the other components like clay of dump waste.

There have been no recommendations for management of Low Risk Chest Pain in Emergency Departments across India. This is despite the fact that chest pain continues to be one of the most common presenting complaints in Emergency Departments. Risk stratification of patients utilizing an Accelerated Diagnostic Protocol has been shown to decrease hospitalizations by approximately 40% with a low 30 day risk of Major Adverse Cardiac Events. The Experts Group of Academic Leaders from the Indian College of Cardiology and Academic College of Emergency Experts in India partnered with Academic Experts in Emergency Medicine and Cardiology from leading Institutions in the UK and USA collaborated to study the scientific evidence and make recommendations to guide emergency physicians working in Emergency Departments across India.

Objectives: To (1) describe micronutrient intakes among women of reproductive age living in Mumbai slums; (2) assess the adequacy of these intakes compared with reference values; (3) identify important dietary sources of micronutrients. Subjects/methods: Participants were 6426 non-pregnant women aged 16–39 years, registered in a randomised controlled trial of a food-based intervention set in the Bandra, Khar and Andheri areas of Mumbai, India. Cross-sectional quantified food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) data were collected. Vitamin (n?=?9) and mineral (n?=?6) intakes were calculated and analysed in relation to dietary reference values (DRVs). Important dietary sources were identified for each micronutrient. Results: Median intakes of all micronutrients, except vitamin E, were below the FAO/WHO reference nutrient intake (RNI). Intakes of calcium, iron, vitamin A and folate were furthest from the RNI. For seven of the micronutrients, over half of the women had intakes below the lower reference nutrient intake (LRNI); this figure was over 75% for calcium and riboflavin. The majority of women (93%) had intakes below the EAR for 5 or more micronutrients, and 64% for 10 or more. Adolescents had lower intakes than women aged >19 years. Less than 1% of adult women and no adolescents met the EAR for all micronutrients. Animal source foods and micronutrient-rich fruit and vegetables were consumed infrequently. Conclusions: These women had low intakes of multiple micronutrients, increasing their risk of insufficiency. There is a need to determine the factors causing poor intakes, to direct interventions that improve diet quality and nutritional sufficiency.

Background: Diets in rural India are cereal based with low intakes of micronutrient-rich foods. The value chains for nutrition approach aims to study supply and demand of such foods. This may aid in development of interventions to improve diets and livelihoods.Objectives: (1) To identify how fruit and vegetables are accessed, (2) to describe and map the structure of value chains for exemplar foods, (3) to understand how foods are priced, and (4) to explore factors that affect decisions about which crops are grown, marketed, and sold.Methods: After stakeholder consultation, we identified 2 fruits (mango and guava) and 2 vegetables (shepu and spinach) as exemplar foods. Criteria for these exemplar foods were that they should be known to participants and there should be variability in intakes. We held 24 interviews with value chain actors including farmers, wholesalers, and vendors of the exemplar foods. Data collection was stopped when no new information emerged. We used inductive thematic coding for our analysis.Results: The value chains for each of the exemplar foods were relatively simple and involved farmers, middlemen, and vendors at either city or village level. The main themes identified as being factors considered when making decisions about which foods to grow and sell were (1) farming resources and assets, (2) quality of produce, (3) environmental conditions, (4) financial factors, (5) transport availability, and (6) consumer demand.Conclusions: There are opportunities to intervene within fruit and vegetable value chains to increase availability, affordability, and access to produce in rural India. Future research is required to determine which interventions will be feasible, effective, and acceptable to the community and other stakeholders.

Conglutinin, a high molecular weight protein detected in bovine serum, belongs to the family of innate immunity markers called collectins. It plays a key role as antimicrobial agent against all kinds of micro-organisms by binding to sugar moieties present on them. In the present study, partial recombinant conglutinin consisting neck and carbohydrate recognition domain of buffalo and nilgai was expressed in prokaryotic system and found to be of 27 kDa through SDS-PAGE and western blotting using antiserum raised against buffalo conglutinin. In the presence of calcium, protein showed high binding activity towards mannan coated to microtitre plate but in contrast, binding activity towards lipopolysaccharide was calcium independent, which needs to be explored further. The partial protein was unable to inhibit haemagglutination by Newcastle disease virus; this could be attributed to lack of complete protein, as complete protein forms tetramer which can cross link the virus. The protein was also found to reduce bovine herpes virus-1 titre propagated in MDBK cells. This paves path to check the effect of complete conglutinin protein on different enveloped viruses, which will provide insight into protein’s importance in innate immunity. Since the concentration of serum conglutinin is found to be hereditary dependent, this could be also helpful in better parentage selection.

The present paper gives a new construction of a quotient BF-algebra $$ {\raise0.5ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle X$} \kern-0.1em/\kern-0.15em \lower0.25ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle I$}} $$X/Iby an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy ideal I in BF-algebra X, we show that if I is a interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy ideal of BF-algebra X, then $$ {\raise0.5ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle X$} \kern-0.1em/\kern-0.15em \lower0.25ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle I$}} $$X/Iis a BF-algebra if and only if I is an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy ideal of BF-algebra X and investigate some of its properties.

Background: Micronutrient deficiencies have been a serious public health problem among women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries including India, adversely affecting maternal and child health and human capital outcomes. Fruit and vegetables are important sources of micronutrients, and consumption of these foods is less than recommendations.Objective: The objective of this study was to identify perceived barriers and facilitators to fruit and vegetable consumption among women of reproductive age living in rural communities in the State of Maharashtra, India.Methods: Women aged 18 to 40 years were recruited from 8 villages surrounding the city of Wardha, Maharashtra, India. We used qualitative methods and held 9 focus group discussions and 12 one-to-one interviews. The data collection was stopped when no new information emerged. We used inductive thematic coding to analyze the data.Results: Women knew that fruit and vegetables were beneficial to health and expressed that they wanted to increase the intake of these foods for themselves and their children. Seven main themes were identified as being barriers or facilitators to fruit and vegetable consumption: (1) personal factors, (2) household dynamics, (3) social and cultural norms, (4) workload, (5) time pressures, (6) environmental factors, and (7) cost.Conclusions: Rural Indian women consumed fruit and vegetables infrequently and said they would like to consume more. Several potentially modifiable factors affecting the intake of fruit and vegetables were identified. Value chain analyses of fruit and vegetables in these communities will be important to identify opportunities to intervene and increase consumption.

The oblique‐thrust Kaikoura earthquake of Mw7.8 that struck New Zealand on 13 November 2016 at 11:02:56 UTC (local time at 00:02:56 a.m. on 14 November 2016) was one of the most geometrically and tectonically complex earthquakes recorded onshore in modern seismology. The event ruptured in the region of multisegmented faults and propagated unilaterally northeastward for more than 170 km from the epicenter. The GPS derived coseismic surface displacements reveal a larger widespread horizontal and vertical coseismic surface offsets of ~6 m and ~2 m, respectively, with two distinct tectonic thrust zones. We study the characteristics of coseismic ionospheric perturbations based on tectonic and nontectonic forcing mechanisms and demonstrate that these perturbations are linked to two distinct surface thrust zones with rotating horizontal reinforcement trending the rupture, rather than merely to the displacements oriented along the rupture propagation direction. In general, the Earth crust uplift during any earthquake produces compressional waves in the overlying atmosphere. These waves propagate upward in the region of exponentially decreasing atmospheric neutral density, and thus, its amplitudes increase with atmospheric heights. On arrival at ionospheric heights, the waves redistribute ionospheric electron density and produce electron density perturbations known as coseismic ionospheric perturbations. The thrust earthquakes induce significant crustal uplift, while the strike‐slip event mostly deforms the crust horizontally. The massive Mw7.8 Kaikoura earthquake occurred in the complex multisegmented fault system between the Australia‐Pacific plate boundary with a combination of vertical and differently oriented horizontal crust movements. This study reports that the two distinct thrust zones over the rupture area resulted from the uplift with reinforcement of rotating horizontal motion from the epicenter act as key tectonic sources for the peculiar distribution of coseismic ionospheric perturbations around the epicenter. Coseismic deformation reveals the complex mechanism of the Kaikoura earthquake reinforced by differently oriented horizontal displacementsWe demarcate two varying thrust zones resulting from the multislip distributions over the rupture areaThe near‐field coseismic ionospheric perturbations are mainly linked to these two surface thrust orientations

The presence of ionospheric disturbances associated with Sumatra 2004 tsunami that propagated ahead of tsunami itself has previously been identified. However, their origin remains unresolved till date. Focusing on their origin mechanism, we document these ionospheric disturbances referred as Ahead of tsunami Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (ATIDs). Using total electron content (TEC) data from GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation GPS receivers located near the Indian east coast, we first confirm the ATIDs presence in TEC that appear ~90 min ahead of the arrival of tsunami at the Indian east coast. We propose here a simulation study based on tsunami‐atmospheric‐ionospheric coupling that considers tsunamigenic acoustic gravity waves (AGWs) to excite these disturbances. We explain the ATIDs generation based on the dissipation of transverse mode of the primary AGWs. The simulation corroborates the excitation of ATIDs with characteristics similar to the observations. Therefore, we offer an alternative theoretical tool to monitor the offshore ATIDs where observations are either rare or not available and could be potentially important for the tsunami early warning. Traveling ionospheric disturbances appeared at Indian east coast before ~90 min of the arrival of 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunamiIdentification of the generation mechanism of tsunami traveling ionospheric disturbances that propagated ahead of Sumatra tsunamiProposing an alternative tool to monitor the offshore ahead of tsunami traveling ionospheric disturbances

The amplitude asymmetry and initial polarity of seismic induced ionospheric perturbations around the epicenter are considered to be important in providing information about the rupture propagation and related vertical surface deformation. To comprehend this, we study ionospheric perturbations related to the 12 May 2015, Mw7.3 Nepal earthquake. We model the coseismic slip associated with the event using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar derived surface deformation data. The ionospheric perturbations associated with the obtained surface deformation are explained in terms of rupture propagation, favorable geomagnetic field‐wave coupling, and satellite geometry effects. We discuss the effects of phase cancelation on the perturbation evolution for various receiver satellite line‐of‐sight configurations invoking an elementary version of satellite geometry factor. The present study thus elucidates further the role of nontectonic forcing mechanisms while identifying ground source pattern using the associated ionospheric perturbations. InSAR derived surface deformation map and the modeled coseismic slip associated with the Mw7.3 May Nepal 2015 earthquake are presentedPhase cancelation effects on the seismic induced ionospheric perturbations for various receiver satellite line‐of‐sight configurationsRole of nontectonic forcing mechanisms while identifying ground source pattern using associated ionospheric perturbations