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Arsenic, cadmium, and lead are three non-vital heavy metals that are harmful to the environment, food safety, and the health of both humans and animals whenever present in excessive quantities. Poisonous metals and metalloid soil can be found worldwide. In higher amounts, some may cause neurological and behavioral abnormalities, particularly in children, while others are endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, teratogens, and mutagenic. The prevention, control, and remediation of heavy metal contamination have grown to be a top national priority in light of the real situation with soil pollution in our nation. To eliminate this kind of pollution, a variety of procedures have been used, including chemical, physical, biological, and integrative methods. Using plants and associated soil bacteria, phytoremediation lowers pollutant concentrations or their hazardous effects on the environment. It is a relatively new method that has gained widespread appeal for being an affordable, effective, unique and environment-friendly technique. The distribution of heavy metals in the environment, their sources, and the ecotoxicity they have on the environment are thoroughly explained in this review paper. Some of the procedures for creating heavy metal-free soil by using various soil remediation techniques are also described.

Microplastics, originating directly from household and industrial products or from large plastic degradation, are currently of extreme global concern. The coronavirus pandemic also increased the use of microplastics because all the protective equipment like face masks, full face shields and gloves are made up of different plastics such as polyurethane, PET, polyester and polypropylene. The face masks generally contain a lot of polypropylene in it which produces toxicity in ocean beds and great lakes during the weathering process. Actually, weathering processes lead to the fragmentation of plastics into microplastics by affecting their physicochemical properties. Microplastics are pervasive in the environment due to the delayed disposal of plastic wastes, a lack of detection tools and particular removal procedures, and a gradual disposal rate. Due to their small size (ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm) microplastics can easily be ingested. Consequently, living organisms living in the water column as well as those found in benthic zones are threatened by the presence of microplastics. In this paper, we have discussed the effects of microplastics on Daphnia magna. The filter feeder D. magna ingest microplastics and are not able to differentiate between particles of different nature. Microplastics decreased the survival rates, body growth, reproduction and immune responses in Daphnia. Sinking microplastics also decreased the swimming velocity of Daphnia during cruising and vertical swimming trajectories.In conclusion, these findings highlight the health risks of contamination of microplastics in aquatic environments and present Daphnia as a good model animal for research in the field of microplastic toxicity.

Mogi (1963) broadly classified the earthquake sequences in Type 1, 2 and 3. Type 1 earthquake sequences have no foreshocks. However, aftershocks follow. In Type 2 earthquake sequences the main shock is preceded by foreshocks, and the number of aftershocks as well as the duration of the occurrence of aftershocks increases. Type 3 of the earthquake sequence is a swarm kind of activity where the number and magnitude of shocks increases with the passage of time and then decreases after some time. The Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) of India witnessed earthquake sequences belonging Type 1 (Latur earthquake of M 6.2 on 29 September 1993), Type 2 (Koyna earthquake of M 6.3 on 10 December 1967), and Type 3 (Palghar earthquake swarm 2018-2020). It has been proposed that the change in the mechanical properties in the shallow crust due to loading of water reservoir has caused the change from Type 1 to Type 2 earthquake sequence for Koyna. Similarly, intense rain is considered to cause the change to Type 3. However, how these changes occur is not well understood. There is a need for understanding the cause leading to three different characteristics of earthquake foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence for a single geological domain. It is hoped that the detailed near field studies of earthquakes being undertaken at Koyna will provide an explanation., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Underground forums provide useful insights into cybercrime, where researchers analyse underlying economies, key actors, their discussions and interactions, as well as different types of cybercrime. This interdisciplinary topic of study incorporates expertise from diverse areas, including computer science, criminology, economics, psychology, and other social sciences. Historically, there were significant challenges around access to data, but there are now research datasets of millions of messages scraped from underground forums. The problems now stem from the size of these datasets and the technical nature of methods and tools available for data sampling and analysis at scale, which make data exploration difficult for non-technical users. POSTCOG has been developed to solve this problem. We first provide a survey of prior work into underground forums; this was used to understand the requirements and functionalities valued by researchers, and to inform the design of a data exploration tool. We then describe POSTCOG, a web application developed to support users from both technical and non-technical backgrounds in forum analyses, such as search, information extraction and cross-forum comparison. The prototype’s usability is then evalu- ated through two user studies with expert users of the CRIMEBB dataset. POSTCOG is made available for academic research upon signing an agreement with the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre.

BACKGROUND Horseshoe Kidney is the most common congenital developmental anomaly associated with the Kidney. Adding to the rarity is the occurrence of Renal Cell Carcinoma in such a kidney. The incidence of a RCC in a Horseshoe kidney has not been substantially documented and hence makes it a challenge and interesting surgical exercise. We shall be discussing such a case here at length.

BACKGROUND: Although image-guided interventional procedures of the elbow and wrist are routinely performed, there is poor evidence in the literature concerning such treatments. Our aim was to perform a Delphi-based consensus on published evidence on image-guided interventional procedures around the elbow and wrist and provide clinical indications on this topic. METHODS: A board of 45 experts in image-guided interventional musculoskeletal procedures from the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology were involved in this Delphi-based consensus study. All panelists reviewed and scored published papers on image-guided interventional procedures around the elbow and wrist updated to September 2018 according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine levels of evidence. Consensus on statements drafted by the panelists about clinical indications was considered as "strong" when more than 95% of panelists agreed and as "broad" if more than 80% agreed. RESULTS: Eighteen statements were drafted, 12 about tendon procedures and 6 about intra-articular procedures. Only statement #15 reached the highest level of evidence (ultrasound-guided steroid wrist injections result in greater pain reduction and greater likelihood of attaining clinically important improvement). Seventeen statements received strong consensus (94%), while one received broad consensus (6%). CONCLUSIONS: There is still poor evidence in published papers on image-guided interventional procedures around the elbow and wrist. A strong consensus has been achieved in 17/18 (94%) statements provided by the panel on clinical indications. Large prospective randomized trials are needed to better define the role of these procedures in clinical practice. KEY POINTS: The panel provided 18 evidence-based statements on clinical indications of image-guided interventional procedures around the elbow and wrist. Only statement #15 reached the highest level of evidence: ultrasound-guided steroid wrist injections result in greater pain reduction and greater likelihood of attaining clinically important improvement. Seventeen statements received strong consensus (94%), while broad consensus was obtained by 1 statement (6%).

Background Image-guided interventional procedures of the nerves are commonly performed by physicians from different medical specialties, although there is a lack of clinical indications for these types of procedures. This Delphi-based consensus provided a list of indications on image-guided interventional procedures for nerves of the upper limb based on updated published evidence. Methods An expert panel of 45 members of the Ultrasound and Interventional Subcommittees of the ESSR participated in this Delphi-based consensus study. After revision of the published papers on image-guided interventional procedures for nerves of the upper limb updated to September 2018, the experts drafted a list of statements according to the Oxford Centre for evidence-based medicine levels of evidence. Consensus on statements regarding clinical indications was considered as strong when more than 95% of experts agreed, and broad if more than 80% agreed. Results Ten statements were drafted on procedures for nerves of the upper limb. Only two statements reached the highest level of evidence (ultrasound guidance is a safe and effective method for brachial plexus block; ultrasound-guided non-surgical approaches are safe and effective methods to treat carpal tunnel syndrome in the short term, but there is sparse evidence on the mid- and long-term effectiveness of these interventions). Strong consensus was obtained on 6/10 statements (60%), while 4/10 statements reached broad consensus (40%). Conclusions This Delphi-based consensus study reported poor evidence on image-guided interventional procedures for nerves of the upper limb. Sixty percent of statements on clinical indications provided by the expert board reached a strong consensus.

OBJECTIVES: A Retrospective study to review and provide a detailed analysis of percutaneous nephrolithotomy for management of renal calculus disease. PLACE AND DURATION: The retrospective study was conducted by the Dept. of Urology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur. We reviewed the medical records of 1000 patients who underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy for renal calculus disease from March 2010 to March 2015. METHODS: Patients with stones of various sizes and characteristics in the kidney and upper ureter were included in the study. The duration of the procedure, Perioperative analysis and intra and postoperative complications were reviewed. Mean age of inclusion were 2 to 75 years. Size of stones varying from 9mm to 7cms. RESULTS: Total of 1000 cases was included in the study consisting of 657 males and 343 females. Mean age of patient was 32 years (2 - 75 years). Calculus was more common in t he right side than the left side. Mean operating time was 75mins. Complications occurred in 446 cases, but most of them were minor. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is the procedure of choice for management of renal calculus disease, although assoc iated with a marginally higher complication rate but most of them were minor further these can be overcome by establishing a protocol under skilled surgical experience. To decrease lung and pleural injury, we recommend a subcostal approach if possible. To decrease solid organ injury, we recommend using complete prone position

Cocoa and whey protein enriched functional dairy drink was subjected to storage studies at refrigeration temperature 4±1°C in the present study. The samples were studied for microbial and physicochemical tests during storage. The results in this study suggest that the product can be stored upto 18 days at 4±1°C. A decrease in pH from 7.01 to 6.49 for whey protein enriched product and from 6.94 to 6.41 in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product was observed at the end of shelf life. The FFA increased from 0.72 to 1.46 meq./ml at the end of shelf life of 18 days in case of whey protein enriched product and from 1.16 to 2.02 meq./ml in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product. An increase in the HMF content of the functional drink was recorded from 59.84 to 134.56 µmol/l at the end of 18 days of storage in case of whey protein enriched product and from 1.16 to 2.02 µmol/l in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product. The total bacterial counts and yeast and mould counts were increased from 3.14 to 6.48 log cfu/ml and 1.14 to 2.10 log cfu/ml respectively in whey protein enriched functional drink. The coliform count was observed to be nil in both the variants of the functional dairy drink of throughout the storage period.

The functional dairy drink product developed in the present study was packaged in LDPE pouches stored at refrigeration temperature 4±1°C. The results of storage studies depict that the product can be stored upto 18 days at 4±1°C without significantly affecting its sensory qualities. Overall acceptability scores decreased from initial 93.0 to 69.2 after 18 days of storage at 4±1°C for the drink enriched with whey protein; for the drink enriched with whey protein and cocoa, the scores decreased from 93.4 to 72.4. The consistency score of the product decreased from 27.5 to 19.5 for whey protein enhanced drink and from 27.7 to 20.6 in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product after 18 days of storage at 4±1°C in LDPE pouch. The Color and appearance score decreased from 18.6 to 14.1 for the whey protein enriched drink and to 15.3 for the product enriched with cocoa & whey protein. The study clearly depicted that the sensory attributes viz. overall acceptability, flavor, taste, consistency and color & appearance scores between 15th and 18th day of storage of both the products differed significantly; indicating that the products were shelf stable upto 15th day when stored at 4±1°C.

New series representations for odd powers of �� i.e. ��, ��3 and ��5 in terms of Euler numbers and even powers of �� i.e. ��2, ��4 and ��6 in terms of Bernoulli numbers have been obtained empirically.

Modern cataract surgery is fast becoming a refractive surgical procedure. Despite the excellent results obtained with the current technology, perfection is demanded by patients and surgeons alike. Existing procedures, although safe and efficient, are considered to depend greatly on the skill and experience of the surgeon. Femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery has been commercially available since 2011 and has revolutionized the way cataract surgery is performed across the world. But as with the introduction of any new technique and technology, there has been a hesitation in adopting this over the more popular and universal phaco-emulsification technique of cataract surgery. This article would describe the technology available, surgical technique, discuss the potential benefits and challenges involved, and newer developments in this exciting new treatment modality. The femtosecond laser is useful in ocular surgeries due to its ultrafast pulses in the range of 10 seconds15, and its decreased energy requirements for tissue destruction, reducing unintended damage to surrounding tissues. The currently available femtosecond laser devices use a neodymium:glass, near infrared laser with a wavelength of about 1053nm. This highly coherent beam of laser is focused at 3 m spot size with accuracy of within 5 μm in the anterior segment. Unique, ultra-short duration laser pulses (10 seconds)15 allows its use as a “laser blade” in a process called photodisruption or photodissection allowing for reduced unintended destruction of surrounding tissues.1 The Femtosecond laser causes tissue disruption and is not absorbed by optically clear tissues.2 This makes femto-assisted surgery amenable to anterior chamber targeting at various depths, as the anterior chamber provides an optically clear tissue space. The laser is not absorbed by the cornea, and the waves are known to dissipate approximately 100 μm from the lens tissue target. Photodisruption is essentially induced by a state of plasma that is generated by the vaporization of target tissues. The force of cavitation bubble creates separation of tissue. This technology uses property of photodissection to create plane and side ports. The spots are not completely overlapping so blunt dissection is used to make entry.

In the globalization market, it is essential for the fabric manufacturers to produce fabrics with minimum cost of production. It can be achieved by improving the efficiency of the loomshed. For this, inter-loomshed comparison will be an effective way to evaluate the relative performance and assess themselves with the benchmarks. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of loomsheds in Indian weaving industry, using a linear programming based Data Envelopment Analysis technique. The study finds that the overall efficiency of the weaving industry has largely affected due to technical inefficiency in the loomsheds. Scale efficiency scores show that the small-scale loomsheds are less scale efficient than the large-scale category. Most of the small-scale loomsheds exhibit increasing returns to scale indicating requirement in the expansion of scale-size. Furthermore, some large-scale loomsheds are found to have decreasing returns to scale, indicating the downsizing of the existing production capacity. Slack analysis depicts that the loomshed have efficiently utilized the raw material but high amount of slacks are observed in the power & fuel consumption. Keywords: DEA, loomshed, Technical efficiency, Weaving industry.

st and 2 nd branchial arches of each side fuse in the midline. The entrapped tissues then undergo proliferation and cystic transformation. These benign lesions are encountered throughout the body and rarely occur in the head and neck region, 1.6 to 7%. In this case, a 35 year - old- male presented with a painless swelling in the submental region at the right front side of neck. Although various investigations pinpoint to the diagnosis, the final confirmation is obtained after histopathological examination of the excised cyst and the present case was confirmed to be a dermoid cyst.

Throughout its historical development, hydrology as an earth science, but especially as a problem-centred engineering discipline has largely relied (quite successfully) on the assumption of stationarity. This includes assuming time invariance of boundary conditions such as climate, system configurations such as land use, topography and morphology, and dynamics such as flow regimes and flood recurrence at different spatio-temporal aggregation scales. The justification for this assumption was often that when compared with the temporal, spatial, or topical extent ofthe questions posed to hydrology, such conditions could indeed be considered stationary, and therefore the neglect of certain long-term non-stationarities or feedback effects (even if they were known) would not introduce a large error. However, over time two closely related phenomena emerged that have increasingly reduced the general applicability of the stationarity concept: the first is the rapid and extensive global changes in many parts of the hydrological cycle, changing formerly stationary systems to transient ones. The second is that the questions posed to hydrology have become increasingly more complex, requiring the joint consideration of increasingly more (sub-) systems and their interactions across more and longer timescales, which limits the applicability of stationarity assumptions. Therefore, the applicability of hydrological concepts based on stationarity has diminished at the same rate as the complexity of the hydrological problems we are confronted with and the transient nature of the hydrological systems we are dealing with has increased. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss potentially helpful paradigms and theories that should be considered as we seek to better understand complex hydrological systems under change. For the sake of brevity we focus on catchment hydrology. We begin with a discussion of the general nature of explanation in hydrology and briefly review the history of catchment hydrology. We then propose and discuss several perspectives on catchments: as complex dynamical systems, self-organizing systems, co-evolving systems and open dissipative thermodynamic systems. We discuss the benefits of comparative hydrology and of taking an informationtheoretic view of catchments, including the flow of information from data to models to predictions. In summary, we suggest that these perspectives deserve closer attention and that their synergistic combination can advance catchment hydrology to address questions of change.

Three batches of processed cheese (PC) were manufactured by the standard procedure and packed aseptically in polystyrene (Sunpet) pet jars with screw cap of about 200 g capacity and stored at 5, 30 and, 45°C. The PC samples were analysed for proximate composition, selected physico-chemical characteristics and sensory attributes at intervals of 7 days for the product stored at 5°C upto 56 days, 3 days for the product stored at 30°C upto 6 days and 24 days at 45°C till the sample became organoleptically unacceptable. The results revealed that 30°C was conducive for mold growth, due to which the product got spoiled after 8 days of storage and hence the studies were terminated at this temperature. An increasing trend was observed in all the chemical parameters except pH with increase in time of storage at all the temperatures. The reaction rate constants for all the chemical parameters, followed a zero order reaction and were higher at higher temperature of storage as compared to lower temperatures. The least square analysis of variance for the chemical parameters had no significant differences between batches, while there was a significant to highly significant difference between storage period and temperature of storage.

The new Scientific Decade 2013–2022 of IAHS, entitled “Panta Rhei—Everything Flows”, is dedicated to research activities on change in hydrology and society. The purpose of Panta Rhei is to reach an improved interpretation of the processes governing the water cycle by focusing on their changing dynamics in connection with rapidly changing human systems. The practical aim is to improve our capability to make predictions of water resources dynamics to support sustainable societal development in a changing environment. The concept implies a focus on hydrological systems as a changing interface between environment and society, whose dynamics are essential to determine water security, human safety and development, and to set priorities for environmental management. The Scientific Decade 2013–2022 will devise innovative theoretical blueprints for the representation of processes including change and will focus on advanced monitoring and data analysis techniques. Interdisciplinarity will be sought by increased efforts to connect with the socio-economic sciences and geosciences in general. This paper presents a summary of the Science Plan of Panta Rhei, its targets, research questions and expected outcomes.

Melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy (MNTI) is an uncommon melanin-containing mesenchymal tumor of neural crest origin. What make this tumor unique and interesting is its characteristic predilection for anterior maxilla (premaxilla) and the presence of pigment melanin which gives the tumor distinct clinicopathological, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural and imaging features. Although first described almost a century ago, to the authors’ knowledge, only a few hundred cases of MNTI have been reported worldwide in the English medical literature. The pool of documented radiological findings is even more sparse as not more than a dozen cases could be abstracted from an Internet search of the radiology literature. We document a case of MNTI and describe the imaging findings with intent to contribute to its small but accruing radiological data.

This article 'VL Dhan 207 and VL Dhan 208, the new high yielding varieties of spring rice for Uttarakhand hills' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Evaluation of anther culture-derived lines under upland conditions for the north eastern hill of India' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Performance of cold-tolerant rice lines developed through anther culture for mid-altitude areas of Meghalaya, India' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Transferring wild abortive cytoplasmic male sterility through asymmetric fusion of protoplasts' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'RCPL-32 and RCPL-3-6: two promising rice lines for the mid-hills of Sikkim, India' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Transfer of cytoplasmic male sterility in indica rice through protoplast fusion' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'Development of cold-tolerant rice through anther culture' appeared in the International Rice Research Notes series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and rice-based systems. The series is a mechanism to help scientists keep each other informed of current rice research findings. The concise scientific notes are meant to encourage rice scientists to communicate with one another to obtain details on the research reported.

This article 'RCPL 1-1C, a Cold-Tolerant Rice for High-Altitude Areas of Meghalaya, India' appeared in the International Rice Research Newsletter series, created by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The primary objective of this publication was to expedite communication among scientists concerned with the development of improved technology for rice and for rice based cropping systems. This publication will report what scientists are doing to increase the production of rice in as much as this crop feeds the most densely populated and land scarce nations in the world.