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Synthetically produced pigments have great demand in various industries; however, the toxic effects of synthetic pigments make their use in industries burdensome. This has led to the production of alternate eco-friendly methods. Pigments produced from microbes play a significant role as safe pigments are needed for sensitive industries like food, dyeing, and the textile industry. Potential bacterial pigments have attracted attention as they have better prospects, are eco-friendly, and are non-toxic. The current work was aimed at the isolation and characterization of pigment-producing halotolerant bacterial strains from saline environments. Their growth parameters such as pH, temperature, NaCl concentrations, and carbon and nitrogen sources for effective pigment production were optimized. The extracted bio-pigment was purified and characterized by FTIR, GC-MS, and HPLC analysis. GC-MS data of the pigment revealed three possible structures – 5-oxo-N-phenyl-3-(o-toluidinyl) 3-pyrrolidine Carboxamide (A), dibenzoate ester of phenyl 1,4-dihydroxylamine (B), and 9-acetyl phenanthrene (C). FTIR spectrum of the pigment showed characteristic bands for nitrogen, indicating the pigment structure to be either (A) or (B). Furthermore, the extracted pigment was applied to cotton fabric as a dye to study its effect. The pigment was found to bind well with cotton fabric at 40 °C in the presence of thiourea. The wash performance of the pigment was also found to be superior in the presence of thiourea. The halotolerant bacterial strain was identified by 16s RNA sequencing as Bacillus cereus. Hence, the pigment produced by Bacillus cereus indicates that the pigment has an affinity to cellulose that could possibly be used for textile coloring in a range of clothing in various materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment on pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. Methods: The study protocol received approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee under reference number 3010/IEC/2021. Pediatric patients (252) aged from 7 to 12 years, who reported to the dental department were randomized pre-operatively and presented either with brainwave entrainment (experimental), delivered using a "David delight plus device" or a standard behavior management protocol (control). Baseline and post-assessment of anxiety and fear levels were done using the Visual Facial Anxiety Scale and Frankl's behavior rating scale with Wright's modification. Vitals such as blood pressure and pulse rate were also measured. Results: The study sample (n = 252) comprised 118 females and 134 males. The non-significant differences for values of (VFAS1, FRS1, HR1, and BP1) indicated similar baseline characteristics. In the brainwave entrainment group, the p values of the Mann–Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test (p < 0.01) between the two-timepoints indicated a statistical difference for the values of (VFAS1, FBRS1, HR1, BP1) and (VFAS2, FBRS2, HR2, BP2). Conclusions: Brainwave entrainment effectively reduces pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. Therefore, they can be a non-pharmacological and non-invasive behavior management aid. Trial Registration: Clinical Trial Registry of India database CTRI/2023/03/051066. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nano-sized amorphous Iron (III) oxides have been a fascinating material for the scientific community owing to their widespread promising application in photocatalysis of water decontamination, due to high specific surface area and variable valency. Malachite green dye is a non-biodegradable organic pollutant known for its toxic effects on humans and aquatic organisms. In the present work, Fe2O3 was synthesized through Citrate–Nitrate Sol–Gel route and Syzygium cumini leaf extract mediated green method. The composition and physical nature of the synthesized iron oxides were confirmed using p-XRD, SEM-EDAX, XPS techniques. A comparative investigation of visible light degradation of malachite green dye was done using differently synthesized Fe2O3 at pH 8. The LCMS study exposed that the sol–gel Fe2O3 was highly efficient in transforming Malachite green (MG) into a no. of intermediates of low molecular weights, whereas green Fe2O3 revealed formation of both high and low molecular weight metabolites. In the light of the evidence derived from LCMS, a pathway has been proposed to highlight the absolute and sequential transformation of the dye to environmentally benign compounds. The study also disclosed the key role played by Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), in the total mineralization of the dye to carbonates and nitrates that can be assimilated by plants and the decontaminated water can be engaged in agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security and privacy of healthcare data are crucial aspects within the healthcare industry, as accurate diagnoses rely on medical professionals accessing patient healthcare data. Similarly, patients often require access to their data. However, ensuring that sensitive health data is shared securely while prioritizing privacy is essential. This paper proposes an innovative solution called the quaternion based neural network, Advanced Data Security Architecture in Healthcare Environment (ADSAH), which combines Elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) with a blockchain mechanism and a Deep Fuzzy Based Neural Network (DFBNN) to safeguard cloud-stored health data. The proposed approach begins by encoding the input medical data using an encoder and then encrypting the encoded data using ECC techniques. The secret key for encrypting the data is securely stored within a blockchain framework. The key is divided into blocks to enhance security, and the SHA algorithm is employed to identify key events within these blocks. These key events are subsequently stored in a cloud storage system. A modified genetic algorithm is utilized to generate the encryption and decryption key. This algorithm is explicitly tailored to secure healthcare data. Authorized patients or physicians can access medical data using the secret key to decrypt and retrieve the necessary information. The performance of the proposed network is evaluated by considering factors such as time and cost and is compared against existing studies. The evaluation demonstrates notable improvements, including a reduction in the time required for the encryption and decryption process, as well as a decrease in transaction and execution costs when compared to previous research. By incorporating ECC with a blockchain mechanism and DNN, the ADSAH approach offers an advanced solution for ensuring the security and privacy of cloud-stored health data. It provides robust encryption and facilitates efficient and cost-effective access to authorized individuals while safeguarding sensitive health information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a kind of eye disorder that injures retinal blood vessels and finally leads to complete visual impairment. The severity of eye conditions can be avoided by taking preventive measures like proper screening, early detection, and timely diagnosis. Nowadays, automated diagnostic systems are developed by researchers to monitor the progression of eye disease. The automated systems use machine learning techniques to discriminate retinal fundus images based on the severity grading. The methodologies currently being used in this domain, however, have several limitations on DR grading tasks, including redundant training time, the use of data annotation, and reduced sensitivity performance. Therefore, we proposed a novel automated diagnostic system using the Komodo Mlipir Algorithm-optimized Attention Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (KMA-optimized ABiLSTM) approach to detect the symptoms of DR in the early stage from the retinal fundus images. The retinal fundus images used to evaluate the proposed method were obtained from the MESSIDOR and IDRiD databases. The proposed KMA-optimized ABiLSTM technique detects and categorizes DR abnormalities in datasets as non-DR, mild non-proliferative DR (NPDR), moderate NPDR, severe NPDR, and proliferative DR (PDR). The effectiveness of the proposed KMA-optimized ABiLSTM approach is examined by comparing its performance with other state-of-the-art approaches in terms of diverse performance measures. The experimental analysis inherits that the proposed KMA-optimized ABiLSTM approach achieves a high accuracy rate of about 98.5% with less computation time (50 s) than other state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goal of this research was to evaluate the phytochemicals, including bioactive components of Ocimum americanum extracts and assess their larvicidal potential against 3rd and 4th instar larvae of Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi, and Culex quinquefasciatus. The aqueous extraction process on O. americanum provides higher yield (9.61 ± 0.11%) and a significant volume of phytochemicals (tannins, saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, protein, and carbohydrate) than other solvents (methanol, ethanol, acetone, petroleum ether, and chloroform) extracts. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses revealed about eight predominant phytochemicals/functional groups in O. americanum aqueous extract. Surprisingly, in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis, about 30 bioactive components were found in the aqueous extract of O. americanum, the majority of which had previously been identified as medicinally valuable bioactive components. Furthermore, these bioactive components containing aqueous extract demonstrated significant larvicidal activity against 3rd and 4th instar larvae of A. aegypti, An. stephensi, and C. quinquefasciatus after 24 h of treatment at concentrations ranging from 35 to 50 mg mL−1. Thus, their outstanding larvicidal potential on 3rd and 4th instar larvae, the phytochemicals present in the aqueous extract of O. americanum could be used to control mosquito duplication and vector-borne diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supercapacitor has drawn more attention because of its enhanced electrochemical properties, including a long life cycle, high specific capacitance, and power density. The supercapacitor has been suggested as a potential energy storage system for high-potential applications. In this work, the nanocomposite fibers of NiCo2O4/polyaniline(PANI)/graphene were prepared by low cost and simple electrospinning method, and prepared materials were studied by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). SEM and HR-TEM analyses of morphology have shown the clear formation of nanofibers with decreasing diameter and size of the composite NiCo2O4/PANI/graphene. Using galvanostatic charge–discharge, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques, the supercapacitance behaviour of NiCo2O4/PANI/graphene nanofibers was investigated. The NiCo2O4/PANI/graphene nanofiber achieved the maximum specific capacitance value of 1410 F/g at 1 A/g at 6 M KOH. The NiCo2O4/PANI/graphene nanofiber was found to be highly stable for 8000 cycles at 1 A/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the phytochemicals (qualitatively) and extract the saponins compound from the root of Curcuma angustifolia and evaluate the antioxidant and anticancer potential of the extracted crude saponins. According to qualitative phytochemical analysis, the aqueous and ethanol root extracts contained numerous phytochemicals such as alkaloid, flavonoid, triterpenoid, phenolic compound, carbohydrates, saponins, steroids, glycosides, tannin, and chlorogenic compounds. Saponins were suspected to be the major compound, so they were extracted from the root using a cold-ethanol extraction method and confirmed by a foam test. On -2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and nitric oxide (NO) assays, the extracted crude saponins demonstrated excellent antioxidant activity in a dose-dependent manner. At 100 µg mL−1 concentrations, the maximum antioxidant percentages for DPPH, H2O2, and nitric oxide were found to be 83.05 2.0%, 65.93 1.0%, and 85.16 1.3%, respectively. In addition, the IC50 values for these assays were discovered to be 62.65, 77.27, and 55.30 µg mL−1, respectively. These scavenging percentages and IC50 values were almost identical to the positive control's antioxidant activity. Furthermore, these crude saponins exhibited significant anticancer activity against MCF-7 cell line as 79.20% at a concentration of 320 g mL−1, with an IC50 value of 166.66 g mL−1. These findings suggest that crude saponins extracted from the root of C. angustifolia have excellent pharmaceutical potential and should be purified and tested in vivo for further confirmation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess the phytochemical profile and antibacterial competence of Curcuma amada rhizome extract against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains (MRSA). Furthermore, the phytochemicals extracted from C. amada methanolic extract were analyzed using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis revealed that the methanolic extract contained a significant amount of phytochemicals, such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, phenolics, carbohydrates, protein, and fibre, that were not present in other solvent extracts. The fluorescence study results also confirmed the presence of these phytochemicals. Furthermore, about 70% of methanolic extract showed 6 major peaks at the wavelength of 218 nm. Similarly, the FTIR results declared stretching vibrations (O–H, C–H, — C=C, C–C, C–N, O–H and C–H) related to significant functional groups corresponding to alcohols, phenols, alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, aliphatic amines and carboxylic acids. The antibacterial activity results showed that the methanolic extract could act against MRSA S1, followed by MRSA S2 and MRSA S4 strains at the concentration of 500 mg mL−1. These findings indicate that the methanolic rhizome extract of C. amada contains a significant amount of various biologically active phytochemicals with anti-MRSA activities, and thus could serve as a potential source of therapeutic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data reveal that by 2025, the number of elderly population will have surpassed 1.4 billion. The percent of the elderly desire a healthy and private environment. They might be homebound without even any external help or nursing due to the heavy pricing of elderly treatment centres. The activities of the elderly must be continuously monitored in order to detect indications and symptoms of any sickness. Despite the fact that some elderly people live in shelters, their behaviour is heavily controlled by handheld sensors and webcams. In addition, practically all surveillance activities intrude on the privacy of the elderly. As a result, a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) model has been proposed as a means of ensuring perfect anonymity while also monitoring activities. This model was built using the Aruba data set. It was created by collecting inputs from numerous binary sensors throughout the test house and predicting the most likely sequence of activities that the monitored individual would carry out in the least period of time possible. The obtained image data are then processed into information and sent into the Deep Convolution Neural Network model that has been recommended as an input. Twelve basic everyday activities are taken into account when analysing the DCNN. Finally, with an F1 score of 0.82, the proposed Deep Convolution Neural Network model outperforms the present model in all twelve activities, as well as all other key assessment parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar active ternary NiO/CuTiO3/ZnO semiconductor heterojunction were developed by alcoholic dispersion technique. As prepared ternary system and parent photocatalysts were analyze crystalline phase, surface morphology, light absorbance property, electron hole accusation parting and significant functional groups by means of specific physicochemical feature measurements. From the results, enhanced visible light photo mineralization, superior efficiency of charge carriers separation and better photocatalytic degradation of reactive orange 30 were confirmed for ternary NiO/CuTiO3/ZnO semiconductor heterojunction. Hydroxyl radical in the radical trapping experiments confirmed the photocatalytic degradation, which plays an important role in removal of hazardous dye from industrial effluents. This work demonstrates that synergetic effect of CuTiO3 and NiO in which it proves to be a good option for recovering the consumption of visible light of ZnO-based materials in the ternary hybrid conduction bands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video event recognition plays an important role in the various research fields particularly in surveillance detection system. In the existing system it is done by deep hierarchical context model which utilizes several contextual data which contains various context information at level of feature, semantic and priority for the video recognition process. However, this research method might perform low with increased volume of videos and might be failed to predict the events accurately with less interrelation contextual features. The standstill challenges are solved via improved hybridized deep structured model. The three primary features of contextual data are to discriminate resultant neighborhood. Here hybrid textual perceptual descriptor and concept-based attribute extraction is performed for accurate recognition of video events. These extracted interaction context features are grouped by using improved K means algorithm. In addition, improved deep structured model that combines convolutional neural networks and conditional random fields are developed for learning middle level representations and mingle the bottom feature level, mid-semantic and top-level meanings for the identification of incidents. This proposed research method is evaluated by using VIRAT data set whose simulation analysis is performed using Matlab simulation toolkit. The overall evaluation of the proposed research method proves that the suggested method can provide better output in terms of accurate recognition of events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) is a medicinal mushroom, which is rich in flavonoids as well as polyphenols and contains triterpenes, ganoderic acid. Thus, this research examined the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) using G. lucidum fruit body and their cytotoxicity, cell morphology and apoptosis detection against HT-29 colon cancer cell line. The study results revealed the occurrence of GNPs, as evidenced by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis spectroscopy; 520 nm). The X-ray diffraction results show that the synthesized Au-NPs are crystalline. According to field-emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscope, the synthesized GNPS exhibited shapes such as spherical, oval and irregular in shape and the size ranges in between 1 and 100 nm. G. lucidum biofabricated GNPs showed inhibited HT-29 colon cancer cell line with an efficacy IC50 of 84.58 µg ml–1. The results indicated that the apoptotic effects were increased on cells based on the dose-dependent concentration of GNPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than a decade, a numerous experimental and theoretical studies of thermophysical properties of nanofluids are conducted to reveal its heat transfer characteristics. Due to nanofluid unique thermal properties, it is broadly used in various applications from automobile applications to biomedical applications. Despite that various experimental and theoretical studies of nanofluids are developed, the accordance between them is very little and also it is tiresome and expensive. To predict the thermal properties in an easy way, soft computing tools are utilized. In this research work, dynamic viscosity ratio of Al2O3/H2O is predicted using machine learning techniques like multilayer perceptron and Gaussian process regression. In the proposed multilayer perceptron—artificial neural network model, varying a range of neurons in the hidden layer and using Levenberg–Marquardt as training function, it is found that 6 neurons in the hidden layer give less root mean square error value of 0.01118. Different kernel functions are opted to train the proposed Gaussian process regression model, and it is found that Matern kernel function shows the best performance with less root mean square error value of 0.018, and regression coefficient value of both the models is 0.99. This research work will reduce the experimental test run cost, and the models are accurate in prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice varietal identification is a crucial aspect in breeding, seed production and trade in order to protect the interests of the farmers and consumers. As the number of varieties released is rising every year, the need to identify them unambiguously also increases. Here, we developed a novel barcode system to identify 62 rice genotypes using agro-morphological descriptors and molecular markers. In all, 62 rice genotypes, for 22 agro-morphological traits were recorded. In addition, 19 molecular markers were used for developing genotype-specific DNA fingerprints. The descriptor notes of 10 essential agro-morphological traits and allele codes of the polymorphic markers were used to generate two-dimensional (2-D) barcodes for the rice genotypes. Using agro-morphological traits, 31 rice genotypes were unambiguously distinguished while, with the polymorphic markers we were able to distinguish all rice genotypes except BPT2295 and Jaya. However, using both agro-morphological descriptors and molecular markers in combination, it was possible to distinguish all the rice genotypes used in the present study. These agro-morphological notes and allele codes from the molecular marker data together were used to develop QR (Quick Response) codes for rapid identification of rice genotypes as they facilitate storage of more data. In the present investigation, we have demonstrated the potentiality of agro-morphological traits and molecular markers in distinguishing rice genotypes. The novel QR code system proposed in the present study can also be extended to other crops not only for varietal identification but also for germplasm management and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content, be it any form text, image or video, which needs to be sent from one place to another is vulnerable to third party attacks if it is sent without proper encryption. Therefore, each encryption should be extremely sensitive to change, that is a small change in the key should drastically change the cipher text. In this paper we propose such an image encryption algorithm which is extremely sensitive to such changes. A novel encryption algorithm for quantum images based on chaotic maps is designed. The image is converted into a scrambled state using quantum circuits using the principle of Quantum Hilbert Image Scrambling algorithm. The scrambled image is encrypted using the quantum XOR gate using the chaotic maps algorithm. Numerical and simulation analyses show that the proposed quantum image encryption approach is robust, realizable, and has high efficiency compared to its classical counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic metal structure that can host size-tunable optical properties and tailored catalytic surface active sites elicits peculiar functionalities upon integrating with semiconductors. In the case of metal–semiconductor composites, formation of Schottky barrier height and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect stimulated by the metallic dispersion cooperatively separates the charge carriers and alters the optical response to longer wavelength region, respectively, which are of paramount importance in the light-induced redox reactions. From the view point of attaining maximum synergy, bimetallic deposition over the titania support has impelled interest due to the supportive interactions arising from metal–metal and metal–TiO2 heterojunctions. In this review article, bimetallic systems constituting mainly Cu, Ni, Au, Ag, Pd and Pt over the titania surface are discussed under the light of preparative methods, their distribution, electronic interactions between the metals and with the titania support, charge carrier transfer pathways, structural stability and optimized content towards achieving maximum efficiency in various applications such as pollutant degradation, CO2 reduction, H2 evolution reaction (HER) and in the functional group conversion of few organic compounds. The role of each metal in the bimetallic system and the effects arising from structure–morphology features of titania are considered to furnish insightful discussion into this exquisite heterojunction. The bimetallic deposition over the other emerged semiconductors are briefly surmised to attest the versatility of this strategy and its reliability from several prospects are brought to the fore to provide the room for developing efficient bimetallic–semiconductor heterostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network constitutes a set of distributed senor nodes with no definite infrastructure for transferring and routing the packet. The effective packet transmission through wireless senor networks is a quite challenging task as the malicious nodes might often lead to packet loss or corruption which should be avoided by the reliable method of packet transmission. Hence the present research focuses on employing a novel method for secured transmission of data packets. By proposing the communication and threshold based cryptographic mechanism (CTCM), the insider attackers present in the cluster nodes can be considered for enhancing the security of the wireless sensor network. The behavior of malicious node is first located by keeping some monitoring nodes in the communication environment. The monitoring nodes will communicate the information on malicious node to as much nodes as possible for secured data transmission. The secret keys are also shared to other set of sensor nodes. This ensures that the data can be accessed by the node only when it possesses the specific shares unless which the nodes are refrained from sharing their secret key as it is considered malicious. The evaluation of the experimental results are performed in MATLAB simulation environment and compared with the existing approaches in terms of various performance metrics. The simulation results have proved that the proposed CTCM mechanism shows higher performance compared to other available methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, a big data analytics is a significant technology which is employed in various business areas including welfare medical field. The ultimate objective of proposed work has been given a secure healthcare private data in the cloud by using fog computing technology. Additionally, a tri-party one-round authenticated key-agreement protocol can be modeled based on bilinear pairing cryptography that can generate a session key among participants and communicate securely. Finally, private healthcare data are accessed and stored securely via implementation process of using decoy technique. In decoy files, when an attacker is detected accessing the system data, proposed method offers, decoy files are retrieved from starting to ensure data security. Moreover, furnishing double security by encrypting the original file when attacker recognizes attacker and him/her dealing with decoy gallery; they must figure out how to decode original gallery data. Hence, it is able to provide and ensures that patients MBD are 100% secure and shortens the process. There is no need to afraid about if the user is an attacker, since it provides decoy big data gallery to any user while keeping original data hidden, only made available to a legitimate authenticated user by successful verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile software development is an iterative and incremental methodology, where solutions evolve from self-organizing, cross-functional teams. Pair programming is a type of agile software development technique where two programmers work together with one computer for developing software. This paper reports the results of the pair programming exercise which was carried out among fifty six post graduate students of Master of Computer Applications (MCA) who are engaged in developing small applications as a part of their Visual Programming laboratory course at Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT) during the academic year 2012-2013. The basic intent of the study is to explore the possibilities of adopting pair programming as a pedagogical tool in higher educational setting. The study investigates the possibilities of deploying purposeful pair programming modules to facilitate knowledge sharing in regular laboratory sessions. The research findings suggest that pair programming can be a useful approach to teach computer programming in higher education to facilitate effective knowledge sharing among the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater and surface water quality is an important factor that determines its usage for drinking and irrigational use. This study was carried out along a major irrigation water source -Uyyakondan channel in Tiruchirappalli, south India. Fourteen surface water samples along the channel and fifteen groundwater samples close to the surface water sampling locations were collected to determine its suitability for drinking and irrigational purposes. Electrical conductivity, pH and concentrations of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, sulphate, fluoride and nitrate were determined in the water samples. The chemical composition of the water samples were compared with the drinking water standards of World Health Organisation and Bureau of Indian Standards. Groundwater from this area was suitable for drinking based on magnesium, sulphate, bicarbonate, fluoride and nitrate, while the concentration of calcium, sodium, potassium and chloride exceeded the maximum permissible limits at few locations. Surface water was within the permissible limits for magnesium, potassium, bicarbonate, sulphate, fluoride and nitrate, while calcium, sodium and chloride exceeded the highest desirable limits. Sodium chloride was the dominant groundwater and surface water type. Irrigation water quality was assessed based on magnesium hazard, residual sodium carbonate, sodium percentage, sodium adsorption ratio, permeability index and salinity hazard. Water was suitable for irrigation based on magnesium hazard and residual sodium carbonate. Most water samples were doubtful for irrigation use based on sodium percentage and good for irrigation depending on sodium adsorption ratio. Though 60 % of groundwater and 29 % of surface water samples were suitable for drinking based on water quality index, majority of the water samples were not suitable for irrigation. The water quality in this area needs to be monitored regularly and it is crucial to treat the water before consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study design:This study was designed as a comparative cross-sectional cross-over trial on children performing clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) with reused catheters for 1 or 3 weeks.Objectives:To determine the incidence of symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI) and bacteriuria (defined as colony count of ⩾105 colony forming units per ml of a single strain of organism) in these two different frequencies of catheter change.Setting:Multidisciplinary children's neurogenic bladder clinics at two tertiary care hospitals in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.Methods:Forty children aged between 2 and 16 years performing CIC for at last 3 years were recruited. Medical and social data were obtained from case files. Baseline urine cultures were taken. All children changed CIC catheters once in 3 week for the first 9 weeks followed by once a week for the next 9 weeks. Three-weekly urine cultures were obtained throughout the study. Standardization of specimen collection, retrieval and culture was ensured between the two centers.Results:At baseline, 65% of children had bacteriuria. This prevalence rose to 74% during the 3-weekly catheter change and dropped to 34% during the weekly catheter change (Z-score 6.218; P<0.001). Persistence of bacteriuria (all three specimens in each 9-week period) changed significantly from 60 to 12.5%, respectively (P<0.005). There was no episode of UTI during the 18-week study period.Conclusion:Reuse of CIC catheters for up to 3 weeks in children with neurogenic bladders appears to increase the prevalence of bacteriuria but does not increase the incidence of symptomatic UTI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make more effective use of available marine resources, acid soluble collagen (ASC) was isolated from body and foot of wedge clam Donax cuneatus Linnaeus, 1758 with acetic acid and was characterized for their potential and commercial applications. The yield of ASC was 17% and 23% respectively. SDS PAGE, UV and FTIR spectroscopy showed that both were type I mainly with slight differences. HPLC was used for identifying the presence of different types of amino acids, where glycine was more or less 20% in both the samples and takes the lead amino acid position and presence of imino acids (11.8 and 12.6%) has been the characteristic feature of type I collagen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a great demand for artificial materials for biomedical applications, especially to bone growth. In the present study, the in vitro bioactivity of chitosan-acetylated jute blended film was investigated through biomimitic growth of bone-like apatite layer formation in simulated body fluid (SBF) on the surface of the film. Chitosan was prepared from crab shells and the blended film was prepared by solvent casting method using 10 % formic acid aqueous solution of in-house chitosan and mercerized, acetylated jute fiber. Water absorption characteristics (swelling test) and tensile strength (Universal testing machine) of the films were determined. Thermal behavior of the films were examined by TGA analysis. The biocompatibility of the chitosan-acetylated jute (CAJ) film was indicated by the formation of hydroxy apatite (HAp) bone-like layer formed on the surface when soaked in SBF solution for 14 days. The topography of the film was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Ca/P ratio of the apatite layer was confirmed to be 50:50 by EDX analysis. The results showed that the CAJ film will be a promising bone substituting material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several 1-benzhydryl-sulfonyl-4-(3-(piperidin-4-yl)propyl)piperidine derivatives 8(a–j) were prepared by the treatment of substituted benzhydryl chlorides with 4-(3-(piperidin-4-yl)propyl)piperidine followed by N-sulfonation with sulfonyl chlorides in the presence of dry methylene dichloride and triethyl amine. The synthesized compounds were characterized by 1H-NMR, IR, and elemental analysis. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated in vitro for their efficacy as antimicrobial agents by artificial inoculation technique against standard strains of two important bacterial viz., Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria and Ralstonia solanacearum as well as and two fungal pathogens namely Alternaria solani and Fusarium solani of tomato plants. We have briefly investigated the structure-activity relation studies and reveal that the nature of substitutions on benzhydryl ring and sulfonamide ring influences the antibacterial activity. Among the synthesized new compounds 8b, 8d, 8g, 8h, 8i, and 8j were showed significant potent antimicrobial activities compared to the standard drugs Chloramphenicol, Mancozeb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty tomato ( Solanum lycopersicon) cultivars were screened for resistance against bacterial spot disease incited by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria under field conditions with and without pathogen infection. Screening was done by artificially inoculating a X. axonopodis pv. vesicatoria suspension to 4-week-old tomato seedlings and observing them for typical symptoms of the disease. Seedlings were categorized into highly resistant, resistant, susceptible and highly susceptible cultivars on the basis of disease incidence. Tomato cultivars were screened for defense-related enzymes, total phenols and lignin contents. The temporal patterns of all these enzymes were estimated with a moderately susceptible tomato cultivar. Native PAGE analysis of both peroxidase (POX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was carried out for the time course of enzyme activities and also by selecting three different tomato cultivars, following infection with the pathogen. Based on the inducible amounts of these enzymes upon pathogen infection, the tomato cultivars were correlated with the disease incidence under field conditions. A significant ( P≤0.05) correlation was observed between the degree of host resistance and the enzyme levels. In highly resistant tomato cultivars the enzyme levels, total phenols and lignin contents were increased in comparison with highly susceptible tomato cultivars. Isoform analysis of POX and PPO enzymes indicated a clear difference between resistant and susceptible tomato cultivars in the number of isoforms and also in the intensity of each isoform in the presence of pathogen infection. The possible regulation of defense-related enzymes in imparting host resistance is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MgO-doped ZnO films, metastable in nature, are deposited by combustion flame pyrolysis, as this is one of the suitable methods for fabricating such nonequilibrium films. Experiments to alloy ZnO with MgO have been carried out, aiming to expand the band-gap to the ultraviolet region. Structural and optical studies show that Zn1-xMgxO films with various x values (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.33, and 0.4) could be obtained and the band-gap of ZnO could be tuned from 3.26 eV to 3.76 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strain of Bacillus produced an amylase with properties characteristically different from known bacterial amylases. The purified 80 kDa protein of pI 5.1 dextrinized starch, glycogen and pullulan. The temperature and pH optima of the enzyme were 60 °C and 6.6 respectively. In the presence of 0.05 M CaCl2, the enzyme retained stability for 15 min at 80 °C. Antibodies raised to the amylase protein showed no reaction with α-amylases of Bacillus sp. and B. licheniformis. In culture, proteolytic degradation of the enzyme was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big Data and cloud computing are two essential issues in the recent years, empowers computing resources to be given as Information Technology services with high efficiency and effectiveness. So as to protect the security of data holders, data are regularly stored in the cloud in an encrypted form. In any case, encrypted data introduce new challenges for cloud data deduplication, which becomes crucial for big data storage and processing in the cloud along with access control. In this paper dissected the medical big data security utilizing encryption with access control process. Big database reduce process Map-Reduce framework with Optimal Fuzzy C means (OFCM) to Clustered data are accumulated in the cloud and furthermore using classification approach to classify sensitive and non-sensitive data in the cloud to encryption. This security process Triple DES (TDES) to encrypted and stored in the cloud and propose practical optimization techniques that further enhance the scheme's performance, at long last authentication phase with attribute-based access control is used to authenticate data in cloud sim. From the proposed method the clustering, classification and encryption results are compared to existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, a gram-negative aerobic bacillus of the family Parvobacteriaceae which is a normal inhabitant of the oral flora, is a rare cause of human infection. We report a case of septic arthritis caused by this organism in an uncompromised child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]