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Storage pests, particularly bruchids, are major biotic constraints causing significant storage losses in pulses. Conventional control methods relying on insecticides and fumigants often lead to food contamination due to toxic pesticide residues and a rapid decline in seed germination. In this investigation, through green nano-technological application, a promising and sustainable alternative for pest management is developed. Silver and copper nanoparticles were synthesized through ocimum leaf extract. The characterization of silver and copper nanoparticles was carried out by UV-spectroscopy, particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared. Both the nanoparticles were spherical and crystalline in nature. Greengram seeds were primed with standardized silver and copper nanoparticles at different concentrations (1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm) and compared with castor-treated, deltamethrin-treated, and untreated control seeds for seed quality, growth, and yield. After one month of storage, all the pulse beetles released in different treatments exhibited 100 % mortality, whereas in control, the insects multiplied. At the end of nine months, the control seeds had shown 72 % damage and 39.67 % germination. In contrast, silver nanoparticles at 1000 ppm showed no seed damage and achieved 81.67 % germination, which was on par with copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm with 79.33 % germination. Seed priming of silver and copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm also demonstrated superior performance in all the seed quality and biochemical parameters (alpha amylase and catalase) throughout the storage period. Whereas, in the greenhouse experiment, enhanced growth (35.96 cm, 46.48 cm, and 53.00 cm at 30, 60 DAS, and at harvest, respectively) and yield per plant (3.75 g) were significantly higher in plants that were given foliar application with silver nanoparticles at 1000 ppm. Furthermore, foliar application of these nanoparticles at all concentrations (1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm) did not exhibit any adverse effects on soil microbial organisms, as assessed by dehydrogenase enzyme activity. Hence, this research highlights the potential use of silver and copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm as effective tools for storage pest management and contributing to improved agricultural productivity and sustainability.

In the present study, Lactobacillus plantarum-HDS27 strain isolated from bovine milk was used for the enhanced production of riboflavin. Production medium was optimized by one factor at a time with different parameters. Statistical optimization by Response surface methodology (RSM), central composite design was used to optimize variables such as pH, temperature, glucose, and yeast extract. The present study reveals the maximum riboflavin production by one factor at a time was obtained under the culture conditions; glucose, yeast extract, pH 6, the temperature at 40°C, and 3% of inoculum size. In RSM, analysis of variance for the responses was calculated. Among the tested variables, pH, yeast extract, and temperature showed significant impact on riboflavin production. Maximum amount of yeast extract in production medium resulted in increased riboflavin production. The riboflavin production after 24 h with the optimal condition was found to be 12.33 mg/L. It was found proximate to the expected value (12.29 mg/L) achieved by the RSM model. The yield of riboflavin was increased to 3.66-fold after 24 h with the optimized parameters. The current research, emphasizes that the Lactobacillus plantarum–HDS27 could be an excellent strain for the large-scale industrial production of riboflavin.

A study was under taken during January, 2022-March, 2023 at the Agricultural Research Station, Perumallapalle, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, India to evaluate fifteen sugarcane clones including early and mid-late to identify clones with higher shelf life and tolerance to postharvest deterioration and delayed crop harvests. Juice quality parameters determined at 10th, 11th, 12th and 13thmonths of harvest/age and at different time lag intervals of staling (0, 24, 48, and 72 hours showed a linear increase in cane weight reduction regardless of crop age at harvest and staling periods after harvest. Juice extraction (%) also decreased over staling period and delayed crop harvests. Increase in cane weight loss and reduction in juice extraction was significant with increase in staling period. A progressive increase in brix (%), sucrose, purity and CCS in juice was observed up to 11th in early clones and up to 12th months of crop age in mid-late clones and thereafter decreased. Per cent brix (%) showed a linear trend at all time lag intervals of staling regardless of the clones studied. Brix (%) in juice progressively increased from 0 to 72 hours of staling. Sucrose, purity and CCS per cent declined at 48 hrs in early group and at 72 hrs in mid-late clones after harvest. Reduction in sucrose, purity and CCS was significant with increased staling periods. Among the clones 2003V46 (TC), 2016T 7, COA14328, COA20324, COA19322 and 2009V89 were found to be relatively more tolerant to delayed harvest and post-harvest deterioration compared to the popular standard CO86032 and other test clones studied. All these clones have also recorded higher cane yield and CCS yield at harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focused on the production and optimization of riboflavin from Bacillus cereus, a strain isolated from Agaricus bisporus. Seven different strains were isolated from Agaricus bisporus and screened for riboflavin production. Among the 7 strains, only 4 strains were identified as riboflavin producers by riboflavin assay medium (RAM). To determine the potency of the strains, selected strains were exposed to roseoflavin - an analogue of riboflavin. The potent strain was identified through morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterization and the strain name was designated as HDS07. Estimation of riboflavin was done by UV Spectrophotometry. Riboflavin production was done in Chemically Defined Medium (CDM) and De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe agar (MRS) using a strain Bacillus cereus HDS07. To enhance riboflavin production, the medium was optimized with different parameters like carbon, nitrogen sources, pH, temperature, and inoculum size. The potent strain HDS07 was identified as Bacillus cereus by 16S rDNA sequencing and NCBI-Gen Bank accession number - MK177597 was obtained. Riboflavin production from Bacillus cereus-HDS07 was more in the MRS medium than that of CDM. It was found to be 2.97 mg/L and 1.8 mg/L correspondingly. The maximum riboflavin (3.48 mg/L) was obtained from Bacillus cereus-HDS07 under the culture conditions; glucose, glycine, pH-6, 30°C, and 3% inoculum size. The current study emphasizes that the isolated potent strain Bacillus cereus-HDS07 from Agaricus bisporus could be used as a starter for the industrial production of riboflavin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study we have undertaken the scientometric analysis to map research publications from 19 different animal science research institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), for a period of two decades (1998 to 2020), using the Web of Science (WoS) platform of Clarivate Analytics. We analyzed different scientometric parameters like year-wise citation records, institute-wise publication output, authorship pattern, publication types, top collaborating countries, research areas and journals, and relative growth rate and doubling time. Current analysis revealed that the maximum number of research articles were published in 2017 and ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute contributed to the highest number of research papers and citations during the study period. Multi-authorship papers were significantly higher than single and double-authored papers. The study showed that in the field of animal sciences, the USA is the top collaborator with India resulting in 417 collaborative research papers. The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences carried the maximum number of research papers published by researchers from ICAR-Animal Science Research Institutes (ASRI) during 1998-2020. Relative Growth Rate (RGR) showed a decreasing trend in research publications while the doubling time increased during this period. The paper provides a comprehensive account of the research trends in animal sciences research and also insights for strengthening research focus in India.

Riboflavin is an essential, water-soluble vitamin (B2) and a component of basic cellular metabolism. The aim of the present study is to isolate and characterize riboflavin producing bacteria from different food sources. Ten different riboflavin enriched food sources were collected from Vellore district. Totally 72 bacterial strains were isolated and cultured on nutrient agar plates. Out of these, 43 strains were identified as riboflavin producers. Isolated bacterial strains HDS27, HDS07, HDS14, HDS18, HDS38 and HDS54 isolated from milk, mushroom, spinach, lamb kidney, beef liver and mackerel fish were found to be potent riboflavin producers. Based on morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization, the potent strains were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum (HDS27), Bacillus cereus (HDS07), Delftia tsuruhatensis (HDS14), Citrobacter freundii (HDS18), Enterobacter cloacae (HDS38) and Bacillus cereus (HDS54). The selected potent isolates HDS27 from milk and HDS07 from mushroom showed a maximum riboflavin production of 3.69 mg/L and 2.9mg/L respectively. The present study explores the riboflavin producing novel bacteria from different food sources. This is the first report that the Enterobacter cloacae isolated from beef liver, Delftia tsuruhatensis from spinach and Citrobacter freundii from lamb kidney has the ability to produce riboflavin. These potent strains could be a better starter for substituting the conventional bacteria for large scale production of riboflavin in industry.

Storage pests, particularly bruchids, are major biotic constraints causing significant storage losses in pulses. Conventional control methods relying on insecticides and fumigants often lead to food contamination due to toxic pesticide residues and a rapid decline in seed germination. In this investigation, through green nano-technological application, a promising and sustainable alternative for pest management is developed. Silver and copper nanoparticles were synthesized through ocimum leaf extract. The characterization of silver and copper nanoparticles was carried out by UV-spectroscopy, particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared. Both the nanoparticles were spherical and crystalline in nature. Greengram seeds were primed with standardized silver and copper nanoparticles at different concentrations (1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm) and compared with castor-treated, deltamethrin-treated, and untreated control seeds for seed quality, growth, and yield. After one month of storage, all the pulse beetles released in different treatments exhibited 100 % mortality, whereas in control, the insects multiplied. At the end of nine months, the control seeds had shown 72 % damage and 39.67 % germination. In contrast, silver nanoparticles at 1000 ppm showed no seed damage and achieved 81.67 % germination, which was on par with copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm with 79.33 % germination. Seed priming of silver and copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm also demonstrated superior performance in all the seed quality and biochemical parameters (alpha amylase and catalase) throughout the storage period. Whereas, in the greenhouse experiment, enhanced growth (35.96 cm, 46.48 cm, and 53.00 cm at 30, 60 DAS, and at harvest, respectively) and yield per plant (3.75 g) were significantly higher in plants that were given foliar application with silver nanoparticles at 1000 ppm. Furthermore, foliar application of these nanoparticles at all concentrations (1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm) did not exhibit any adverse effects on soil microbial organisms, as assessed by dehydrogenase enzyme activity. Hence, this research highlights the potential use of silver and copper nanoparticles at 1000 ppm as effective tools for storage pest management and contributing to improved agricultural productivity and sustainability., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Decentralized handlooms are being traditionally practised throughout India. Siripuram village known for traditional Pochampally/Ikat work was considered as a case study for detailed investigation towards providing a sustainable solution. Nearly 65% of village population solely depend on weaving and dyeing works as primary occupation based on the household survey and generated wash water of 127 KLD on an average from the dyeing operations. Initially, a topographical survey (Aerial drone; PHANTOM 4 RTK UAV) was carried out to understand the drainage pattern, elevations, contours and interlinked with domestic and dyeing functions. The characteristics of combined wastewater and dye wash water were studied at lab scale using sequential batch (SBR) operation under aerobic (SBRAe) and aerobic-anoxic (SBRAex) microenvironments. SBRAex microenvironment showed effective organic and nutrients removal due to infused anoxic microenvironment. Treatment studies depicted 76.2% of organic fraction, 73.3% of phosphate, and 81.6% of nitrate removal. Based on the lab scale studies a closed-loop decentralized effluent treatment system was designed to ensure zero-liquid discharge (ZLD)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Drug repurposing is a strategy to identify new therapeutic uses for marketed drugs, discontinued or shelved drugs, and drug candidates in clinical development. Drug repurposing has gained momentum over the past few years. A slow rate of new drug discovery and higher cost of new drug development attracted the attention for repurposing and repositioning of old medications . A deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of depression encourages novel discoveries through drug repurposing to treat depression. In this study, indole- and isatin-containing drugs are going to be repurposed using computational methods for the treatment of depression., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that mostly affects patients' respiratory systems, and the only way to protect oneself against the virus at present moment is to diagnose the illness, isolate the patient, and provide immunization. In the present situation, the testing used to predict COVID-19 is inefficient and results in more false positives. This difficulty can be solved by developing a remote medical decision support system that detects illness using CT scans or X-ray images with less manual interaction and is less prone to errors. The state-of-art techniques mainly used complex deep learning architectures which are not quite effective when deployed in resource-constrained edge devices. To overcome this problem, a multi-objective Modified Heat Transfer Search (MOMHTS) optimized hybrid Random Forest Deep learning (HRFDL) classifier is proposed in this paper. The MOMHTS algorithm mainly optimizes the deep learning model in the HRFDL architecture by optimizing the hyperparameters associated with it to support the resource-constrained edge devices. To evaluate the efficiency of this technique, extensive experimentation is conducted on two real-time datasets namely the COVID19 lung CT scan dataset and the Chest X-ray images (Pneumonia) datasets. The proposed methodology mainly offers increased speed for communication between the IoT devices and COVID-19 detection via the MOMHTS optimized HRFDL classifier is modified to support the resources which can only support minimal computation and handle minimum storage. The proposed methodology offers an accuracy of 99% for both the COVID19 lung CT scan dataset and the Chest X-ray images (Pneumonia) datasets with minimal computational time, cost, and storage. Based on the simulation outcomes, we can conclude that the proposed methodology is an appropriate fit for edge computing detection to identify the COVID19 and pneumonia with higher detection accuracy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the present study, Lactobacillus plantarum -HDS27 strain isolated from bovine milk was used for the enhanced production of riboflavin. Production medium was optimized by one factor at a time with different parameters. Statistical optimization by Response surface methodology (RSM), central composite design was used to optimize variables such as pH, temperature, glucose, and yeast extract. The present study reveals the maximum riboflavin production by one factor at a time was obtained under the culture conditions; glucose, yeast extract, pH 6, the temperature at 40°C, and 3% of inoculum size. In RSM, analysis of variance for the responses was calculated. Among the tested variables, pH, yeast extract, and temperature showed significant impact on riboflavin production. Maximum amount of yeast extract in production medium resulted in increased riboflavin production. The riboflavin production after 24 h with the optimal condition was found to be 12.33 mg/L. It was found proximate to the expected value (12.29 mg/L) achieved by the RSM model. The yield of riboflavin was increased to 3.66-fold after 24 h with the optimized parameters. The current research, emphasizes that the Lactobacillus plantarum -HDS27 could be an excellent strain for the large-scale industrial production of riboflavin., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Hemalatha and Subathra Devi.)