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Fruits and vegetables have nutritional value, but they can also be source of toxic contaminants such as pesticide residues. The aim of this study was to estimate the contamination level of pesticide residues in summer season fruits and vegetables. The constant use of pesticides contaminated fruits and vegetables pose a major risk to community health. An electron capture detector was used in Gas chromatography analysis to monitor 20 organochlorine pesticides including α-chlordane, γ-chlordane, isomers of benzene hexachloride (α-BHC, β-BHC, γ-BHC, δ-BHC), 4,4’-DDT, 4,4’-DDE, 4,4’-DDD, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, endrin aldehyde, endrin ketone, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, endosulfan-I, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate and methoxychlor in six types of fruits and vegetables (bottle gourd, sponge gourd, brinjal, plum, kiwi and pineapple) of summer season. It was found that plum and pineapple were found contaminated with 4,4’-DDD and other fruits and vegetables were found contaminated with more than one pesticides. During the tracing it was noticed that the estimated pesticides concentrations were lower than the (MRL) values but constant eating of infected pesticide fruits and vegetables may produce severe health complications. The findings of the present research showed that the existence of strict rules and observance of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables is a basic need.

Export sector has a huge role in any economy of the world because it is called a growth engine. After 1982 in India, Export Import Bank is doing good work to fulfil various dimensions related to export sector. Financial institutions play a major role in export related finance in international trade. EXIM Bank provide various types of financial facilities on behalf of the financial institutions to survive in the international competitions and for the growth of the word market share. This study focuses on the Export Import (EXIM) Bank of India's export financing and credit facilities and analyses their effects on the nation's export performance. The Bank works to increase the international competitiveness of Indian export enterprises by supporting, enabling, and promoting India's international trade and investment. The Bank is extremely important for exporting. To encourage exports, it offers Trade Finance, which comprises Export Credit Insurance, various financial instruments, and guarantees. This study concentrates on financial aid because it is crucial for exporters in various countries to increase their market share globally. The study comes to the conclusion that export financing facilities are quite important. &nbsp

Defects play an important role in determining the type of carriers as well as on tuning the physical properties of layered materials. In this study, we have demonstrated that by varying the growth kinetics one can control the defects and can achieve electrons or holes dominated Bi2Te3 single crystals using modified Bridgman method. The correlation between structural defects and the type of dominant charge carriers in crystals are discussed using X-Ray diffraction and Hall resistivity. Electrons are found to be originating from Te vacancy type defects, while holes are manifested from predominant structural defects viz. Bi_Te antisite defects or interstitial Te atoms. We observe that the alteration of charger carriers from electrons to holes have enhanced magnetoresistance (MR) from 103% to 224%. The enhancement in MR emerges from 2D multichannel quantum coherent conduction mechanism., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

INTRODUCTION: Children with parental history of diabetes have inherited susceptibility to develop diabetes. It has been shown that patients with Diabetes Mellitus exhibit altered autonomic activity of cardiovascular system. The present study aimed to determine the early changes in cardiac autonomic modulation by measuring the frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability among healthy subjects with parental history of type 2 diabetes and to compare it with the age and sex matched controls. The study of Cardiovascular Autonomic FunctionsMETHODOLOGY: was carried out in 50 healthy offsprings of Type 2 Diabetic Parents (Case group) and 50 healthy offsprings of Nondiabetic Parents (Control group) in the age range of 18 - 25 years randomly selected among MBBS students of J.L.N. Medical College Ajmer. Statistical Analysis is done by student t-test. Probability P value

Bhekal, bhekali, bekoi is the vernacular term given to a moderate-sized underutilized deciduous shrub known as Prinsepia utilis Royle, widely distributed in the Himalayas at 1000-3000 msl., occurring frequently in open, sunny, dry places, rocky talus slopes, roadsides and in degraded hills. The genus belongs to Family Rosaceae comprising four species all over the world, among only P. utilis occur in India.

Albinism in plants is characterized by partial or complete loss of chlorophyll pigments and incomplete differentiation of chloroplast membranes. This is a very common problem encountered in interspecific crosses and tissue culture experiments including anther culture and generation of doubled haploids. This impairs photosynthesis and the plants eventually die at a young stage without reaching maturity. Environmental conditions such as light, temperature, media composition and culture conditions may key factors in determining the frequency of albino plant formation. This short communication reports the first instance of albinism recorded in Prinsepia utilis Royle. An albino seedling was observed during the standardization of nursery techniques.

Loss of alveolar bone is a great entity to be worried about after loss of natural teeth. Overdenture is a treatment modality in means of alveolar bone preservation retention and stability of prosthesis by preserving the roots of the remaining teeth thereby increase the patients perception, acceptance and quality of life. It is the most commonly treatment modality for elderly patient with two or more teeth remaining in the either arch. The use of copings and precision attachments on the remaining teeth enhances the retention of the denture. Dentists have a responsibility to prevent tooth loss whenever possible and everything should be done to keep the patient away from an edentulous state. Preventive prosthodontics emphasizes upon the importance of procedures that can delay or rectify the future problems in prosthesis and the overdentures are the optimum method to achieve this requirement. In this present case report described the rehabilitation of a patient with few natural teeth present using tooth supported overdenture which restored the function and evades the social stigma, thereby improving the quality of life of the patient. &nbsp

Additional file 7: Supplemental Figure 4. qPCR determination of hepatic mRNA expression in adult female HNF4α heterozygote (HET) and wildtype (WT) mice fed a high-fat-high-sugar diet for 15 d. N=6 per group.

Additional file 6: Supplemental Figure 3. Hepatic levels of triglycerides and cholesterol in adult female HNF4α heterozygote (HET) and wildtype (WT) mice fed a high-fat-highsugar diet for 15 d. N=6 per group.

Additional file 3: Supplemental Table S2. Primers used for real-time PCR determination of mRNA expression.

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) is an important soil characteristic that controls water moves through the soil. On the other hand, its measurement is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive; hence Pedotransfer Functions (PTFs) are commonly used for its estimation. Despite significant development over the years, the PTFs showed poor performance in predicting Ks. Using Genetic Algorithm (GA), two hybrid Machine Learning based PTFs (ML-PTF), i.e. a combination of GA with Multilayer Perceptron (MLP-GA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM-GA), were proposed in this study. We compared the performances of four machine learning algorithms for different sets of predictors. The predictor combination containing sand, clay, Field Capacity, and Wilting Point showed the highest accuracy for all the ML-PTFs. Among the ML-PTFs, the SVM-GA algorithm outperformed the rest of the PTFs. It was noticed that the SVM-GA PTF demonstrated higher efficiency than the MLP-GA algorithm. The reference model for hydraulic conductivity prediction was selected as the SVM-GA PTF paired with the K-5 predictor variables. The proposed PTFs were compared with 160 models from past literature. It was found that the algorithms advocated were an improvement over these PTFs. The current model would help in efficient spatio-temporal measurement of hydraulic conductivity using pre-available databases. Validerad;2022;Nivå 2;2022-05-11 (sofila)

Additional file 2: Supplemental Table S1. Primers used for PCR cloning of promoter/intron fragments in the pGL3-basic reporter vectors.

Additional file 1: Supplemental Figure 1. Pathways of bile acid synthesis and metabolism in mice.

In this paper, a new probability density function with bounded domain is presented. The new distribution arises from the Lindley distribution proposed in 1958. It presents the advantage of not including any special function in its formulation. The new transformed model, called the reflected-shifted-truncated Lindley distribution can be used to model left-skewed data. We provide a comprehensive treatment of general mathematical and statistical properties of this distribution. We estimate the model parameters by maximum likelihood methods based on complete and right-censored data. To assess the performance and consistency of the maximum likelihood estimators, we conduct a simulation study with varying sample sizes. Finally, we use the distribution to model left-skewed survival and failure data from two real data sets. For the real data sets containing complete data and right-censored data, this distribution is superior in its ability to sufficiently model the data as compared to the power Lindley, exponentiated power Lindley, generalized inverse Lindley, generalized weighted Lindley and the well-known Gompertz distributions.

Mangroves were reported as a source of bioactive compounds that include subgroups of polyphenols with various therapeutic activities. A new, sensitive and selective ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography – electrospray ionization – tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of phenolic acids and flavonoids in fourteen mangrove species. Furthermore, anti-Candida activities were evaluated for the mangroves and selected compounds. The selectivity and sensitivity provided by multiple reactions monitoring mode allowed the separation of analytes within 14 minutes using the optimized conditions. The method exhibited excellent linearity for all analytes with correlation coefficient (R2) values of at least 0.991. The limits of detection and quantification were between 0.24 and 15.62 ng/ml and 0.48 and 31.25 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision values characterized by the relative standard deviation were from 3.27 to 8.05% and 3.02 to 8.83%. The corresponding accuracy values were from -6.81 to 9.49% and −4.07 to 7.99%, respectively. Among the selected polyphenols, chlorogenic acid was the dominant compound at concentrations between 8.13 ng/mg and 5690 ng/mg. The phenolic acid (p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid and ferulic acid), flavonol (quercetin, rutin, myricetin), flavanone (naringenin), and flavone (apigenin) concentrations varied as per the mangrove species. The mean recoveries of selected analytes were from 88.8% to 101.9%. Additionally, among the selected mangroves, the Sonneratia species showed potent anti-Candida effects while the flavonoids showed higher anti-Candida activity than the phenolic acids. The selected polyphenols were successfully identified and quantified by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS in mangroves and this method can be used for the analysis of other biological extracts.

We have synthesized the single phase polycrystalline sample of silver doped disordered Sm0.55Sr0.45−xAgxMnO3 using the conventional solid state method. They have been investigated by X-ray diffraction for phase evolution and their Rietveld refined X-ray diffraction pattern indicates an increase in lattice parameters and unit cell volume with Ag doping. The magnetization analysis shows the presence of a first order paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition; the transition temperature and amount of thermal hysteresis decreases on Ag doping. The transport, magneto-transport results indicates decrease in metal to insulator transition, drastic increase in resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR %) with nearly unaffected colossal magnetoresistance effect which indicates that at least a part of silver is incorporated in the lattice. Scanning electron micrographs indicate that silver has also increased the grain growth sharpness and thus decrease the effect of grain boundary scattering. The significant value of TCR of ∼43% of our samples indicates their applied nature for bolometric application.

Supplemental material, PIL893387 Supplemental Material for Phase, microstructure, and wear behavior of Al2O3-reinforced Fe–Si alloy-based metal matrix nanocomposites by Akash Saxena, Neera Singh, Bhupendra Singh, Devendra Kumar, Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni and Pallav Gupta in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part L: Journal of Materials: Design and Applications

The saturated solutions of chiral amino acids as soft template have been shown to function as a platform for induction of optical activity through free radical polymerization reaction. The conductivity of optically active polyaniline changes with the variation in acidity of reaction medium and morphology of the material. Ultraviolet-visible and circular dichroism spectra along with scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy micrographs evaluate discrete morphologies of polymers at different pH with phase segregation between unprotonated and fully protonated domains. Four probe method shows that the branched structure caused by the presence of phenazine units in polymer chain stabilizes different charge states in polymer with higher conductivity having higher dissymmetric g-factor. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

The potential of polyamide nanofibers towards improving the mechanical properties of syntactic foams is demonstrated. Nylon nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning, and the operating parameters, namely solution concentration and flow rate varied to obtain fibers of requisite dimensions. The fibrous mats were employed for reinforcing cenosphere-epoxy syntactic foams. The introduction of nanofibers (0.25% v/v), when placed perpendicularly to the direction of loading led to a marginal improvement (∼7%) in the compressive strength. In comparison, the flexural properties of the reinforced foam was significantly higher, with 75% and 62% enhancement in the flexural strength and elongation respectively.

We report the observation of quantum Hall effect (QHE) in a Bi$_2$Se$_3$ single crystal having carrier concentration ($n$) $\sim1.13\times10^{19}$cm$^{-3}$, three dimensional Fermi surface and bulk transport characteristics. The plateaus in Hall resistivity coincide with minima of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations in resistivity. Our results demonstrate that the presence of perfect two dimensional transport is not an essential condition for QHE in Bi$_2$Se$_3$. The results of high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and residual resistivity measurements show the presence of enhanced crystalline defects and microstrain. We propose that the formation of localized state at the edge of each Landau level due to resonance between the bulk and defect band of Bi$_2$Se$_3$ causes the quantum Hall effect., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

The three dimensional (3D) topological insulators are predicted to exhibit a 3D Dirac semimetal state in critical regime of topological to trivial phase transition. Here we demonstrate the first experimental evidence of 3D Dirac semimetal state in topological insulator Bi2Se3 with bulk carrier concentration of ~ 10^19 cm^{-3}, using magneto-transport measurements. At low temperatures, the resistivity of our Bi2Se3 crystal exhibits clear Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations above 6T. The analysis of these oscillations through Lifshitz-Onsanger and Lifshitz-Kosevich theory reveals a non-trivial pi Berry phase coming from 3D bands, which is a decisive signature of 3D Dirac semimetal state. The large value of Dingle temperature and natural selenium vacancies in our crystal suggest that the observed 3D Dirac semimetal state is an outcome of enhanced strain field and weaker effective spin-orbit coupling., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, This work has been presented at 8th India Singapore Symposium in Condensed Matter Physics Feb 25-Feb 27, 2015 at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

The effect of exposure to hypoxia on macrophage activity, lymphocyte function and oxidative stress was investigated. Hypoxia enhanced peritoneal macrophage activity as revealed by enhanced phagocytosis and free radical production. There was no significant change in antibody titres to sheep red blood cells in either serum or spleen during hypoxia. However, there was a considerable reduction in the delayed-type hypersensitivity response to sheep red blood cells, indicating the impairment of T-cell activity. Hypoxia decreased the blood glutathione (reduced) level and increased plasma malondialdehyde by a factor of about 2. It is therefore speculated that hypoxia imposes an oxidative stress leading to decreased T-cell acivity.

First-order phase transition in a highly correlated electron system can manifest as a dynamic phenomenon. The presence of multiple domains of the coexisting phases average out the dynamical effects making it nearly impossible to predict the exact nature of phase transition dynamics. Here we report the metal-insulator transition in samples of sub-micrometer size NdNiO3 where the effect of averaging is minimized by restricting the number of domains under study. We observe the presence of supercooled metallic phases with supercooling of 40 K or more. The transformation from supercooled metallic to insulating state is a stochastic process that happens at different temperature and time in different experimental runs. The experimental results are understood without incorporating material specific properties suggesting their universal nature. The size of the sample needed to observe individual switching of supercooled domains, the degree of supercooling, and the time-temperature window of switching is expected to depend on the parameters such as quenched disorder, strain, magnetic field etc., Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures

We report detailed dc magnetization, linear and non-linear ac susceptibility measurements on the hole doped disordered cobaltite La$_{0.5}$Ba$_{0.5}$CoO$_3$. Our results show that the magnetically ordered state of the system consists of coexisting non-ferromagnetic phases along with percolating ferromagnetic-clusters. The percolating ferromagnetic-clusters possibly undergo a 3D Hisenberg like magnetic ordering at the Curie temperature of 202(3) K. In between 202 and 220 K, the linear and non-linear ac susceptibility measurements show the presence of magnetic correlations even when the spontaneous magnetization is zero which indicates the presence of preformed short range magnetic-clusters. The characteristics of these short range magnetic-clusters that exist above Curie temperature are quite distinct than that of Griffiths phase e.g the inverse dc susceptibility exhibits an field independent upward deviation, and the second harmonic of ac susceptibility is non-negative. Below Curie temperature the system exhibit spin-glass like features such as irreversibility in the field cooled and zero field cooled magnetization and frequency dependence in the peak of ac susceptibility. The presence of a spin or cluster -glass like state is ruled out by the absence of field divergence in third harmonic of ac susceptibility and zero field cooled memory. This indicates that the observed spin-glass like features are possibility due to progressive thermal blocking of ferromagnetic-clusters which is further confirmed by the Wohlfarth's model of superparamagnetism. The frequency dependence of the peak of ac susceptibility obeys the Vogel-Fulcher law with $\tau_0\approx 10^{-9}$ s. This together with the existence of an AT line in H-T space indicates the existence of significant inter-cluster interaction among these ferromagnetic-clusters., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

Pseudoexstrophy is a rare exstrophy variant that has musculoskeletal stigmata of the exstrophy complex without any associated defect in the urinary system. The authors report a case of pseudoexstrophy with scaphoid megalourethra, and anorectal malformation. Kidneys and ureters were normal. Preliminary surgery consisted of a divided high sigmoid colostomy. The rare combination of pseudoexstrophy and megalourethra is discussed. J Pediatr Surg 37:E26. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

The authors report a rare case of asymmetric conjoined twins in which the incomplete parasitic twin was attached to the lumbar area of the autosite. The parasitic twin had well-formed bony pelvis, both lower limbs, partial genitourinary, and gastrointestinal tracts. The parasitic twin was excised, and the exomphalos was repaired. J Pediatr Surg 37:E33. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Efficacy of NIM-76, a spermicidal fraction from neem oil, was investigated for its antimicrobial action against certain bacteria, fungi and Polio virus as compared to whole neem oil. The NIM-76 preparation showed stronger anti-microbial activity than the whole neem oil. It inhibited growth of various pathogens tested including Escherichia coli and Kleibsiella pneumoniae which were not affected by the whole neem oil. NIM-76 also exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans and antiviral activity against Polio virus replication in vero cell lines. It also protected mice from systemic candidiasis as revealed by enhanced % survival and reduced colony forming units of C. albicans in various tissues. This shows that NIM-76 has a potent broad spectrum anti-microbial activity.

The present study was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of spermicidal action of NIM-76, a fraction isolated from neem oil. The spermicidal activity of NIM-76 was confirmed using a fluorescent staining technique. NIM-76 was found to affect the motility of the sperm in a dose-dependent manner. Supplementation of pentoxifylline, which is known to enhance the motility of the sperm, could not prevent the spermicidal action of NIM-76. There was a gradual leakage of cytosolic LDH from the sperm in the presence of NIM-76. Electron microscopic studies revealed the formation of pores and vesicles over the sperm head, indicating the damage to the cell membrane. Membrane fluidization studies did not reveal any significant change in the fluidity of sperm cell membrane structure.Neem oil, an extract of a native plant of India, has been demonstrated to have anti-fertility, anti-implantation, and abortifacient properties. An active fraction, termed NIM-76, was extracted that eliminates its abortifacient properties while retaining spermicidal activity. This fraction kills all human sperm in vitro in under 20 seconds at a concentration of 25 mg/ml. With increases in NIM-76 concentrations from 10 to 1000 mcg/ml, there was a linear decrease in percentages of motile as well as progressively motile sperm with time; also recorded were decreases in percentages of rapid, medium, and slow moving sperm, mean track speed, progressive velocity, mean linearity, and lateral head displacement and an increase in the percentage of static sperm. Electron microscopy revealed the formation of pores and vesicles over the sperm head, indicating damage to the cell membrane. Membrane fluidization studies did not reveal any significant change in the fluidity of sperm cell membrane structure. Since calcium supplementation did not relieve the sperm from the spermicidal action, it was determined that NIM-76 does not cause any depletion of intracellular calcium. The capability of NIM-76 to selectively kill sperm without affecting normal cells makes it a highly desirable potential vaginal contraceptive agent.

A retrospective analysis of 29 cases of pituitary tumours with suprasellar extension that had undergone surgery by transsphenoidal or transcranial route, was done. The correlation between age, duration of symptoms, pre- and post-operative visual acuity, visual field and suprasellar height of the tumour were analyzed. The age and duration of visual loss were found to have a bearing on the final postoperative visual outcome.