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Transition metal oxide–based pseudocapacitors with various valence states are of particular interest in the field of energy storage due to their increased specific capacitance values. In particular, Copper cobaltite nanomaterials have attracted more research focus due to their multiple oxidation states in comparison to other transition metals. Spinel structures of metal oxides are of tremendous interest for energy storage applications. Mixed valence metal cations in spinel cobaltites (MCo2O4) offer more electronic conductivity and electrochemical activity than single–component oxides. Natural abundance, good electrical and thermal stability, environment–friendly nature, and low cost motivates researchers for carrying out an extensive study of such materials. In this study, binary composite CuCo2O4@Co3O4 was synthesized by facile hydrothermal method. FT–IR, XRD, FEG–SEM and XPS studies have established the successful formation of all the nanocomposites were used to primarily characterize the sample. XRD showed the existence of all the synthesized materials in crystalline form. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), Galvanostatic Charge–Discharge (GCD) and Electrochemical Impedance (EIS) measurements were recorded to examine the electrochemical characteristics. The comparative specific capacitance of the synthesized CuCo2O4@Co3O4 nanocomposite displayed 542.77 Fg−1 using Glassy Carbon (GCE) as the working electrode whereas it exhibited 683.72 Fg−1 at the same current density of 1 Ag−1 using Nickel foam as the electrode substrate. The composite electrode exhibited an excellent pseudocapacitive behaviour using 1 M Na2SO4 and 1 M KOH as electrolytes respectively for electrochemical measurements. Impedance analysis reveals capacitive nature of the synthesized materials. Furthermore, cyclic stability for CuCo2O4@Co3O4 nanocomposite was found to be 76% (GCE) upto 1000 cycles at 5 Ag−1 and 78% (Nickel foam) upto 3000 cycles at 5 Ag−1. Based on the study of the electrochemical performance, the synthesized transition metal oxide nanocomposite holds potency as an efficient electrode material for energy storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world of virtual and connected networks, the study of network's computing capabilities through graph embedding has grown in prominence. In order to implement algorithms created for the guest graph in the host graph, embedding involves simulating one architecture, called the guest, into another, called the host. In this paper, we have obtained the optimal wirelength of embedding (K 9 - C 9) n into Mesh M (3 n , 3 n) , generalized book graph GB [ 9 , 3 n - 1 , 3 n - 1 ] and extended firecracker tree EF 9 n . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that lack significant protein coding potential and have been shown to regulate various biological processes. This study was designed to identify lncRNAs in coconut and their role in the process of somatic embryogenesis in coconut, a crop with high recalcitrance to in vitro culture. RNA-Seq data of coconut embryogenic calli of the West Coast Tall cultivar was exploited for in silico prediction of lncRNA. From a total of 6328 transcripts, which were annotated as uncharacterised or with no homology hits with the existing database, 5110 putative lncRNAs are identified. We also studied the relationship between lncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs and found that some of the lncRNAs act as miRNA precursors, some as potential miRNA targets and some function as endogenous target mimics (eTMs) for miRNAs. Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that 10 selected lncRNAs showed significant differences in the expression pattern in different stages of coconut somatic embryogenesis. Our results suggest the existence of diverse lncRNAs in coconut embryogenic calli, some of which are differentially expressed. The information generated in this study could be of great value in understanding the molecular mechanisms governing somatic embryogenesis in coconut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: DNA methylation, one of the most stable forms of epigenetic modification is associated with the development and progression of coronary artery disease (CAD). Our previously reported study on epigenome-wide microarray analysis showed significantly methylated CpG sites. Top 5 significant CpGs from HLA gene were selected and analysed by Pyrosequencing (PSQ) to determine their association with severity of CAD. Methods: Blood samples of 50-age matched angiographically CAD positive male cases with 50 angiographically CAD negative male controls were subjected to lipid profile estimation and PSQ for methylation level analysis. Findings and subgroup analysis were evaluated by Mann–Whitney U; Kruskal–Wallis' rank test and two-way ANOVA by MedCalc (v19.6). Results: Methylation levels in HLA-DQA1 for cg10217052 was 78.5 (37–85) and 76.5 (24–84); cg09411910 was 81 (72.0 to 93.0) and 81.5 (50.0 to 89.0) in cases and controls respectively. Levels in HLA-DQB1-cg03344051, were 28.88 + 9.41 for cases and 30.36 + 9.37 in controls. For HLA-DRB1-cg07889003, levels in cases and controls were 15.5 (5.00–39.00) and 10.5 (5.00–29.0); while in cg08269402 were 52 (16–65) and 42.5 (17–61) respectively. No association was observed between methylation levels and lipid profile. cg03344051, cg07889003 and cg08269402 were significantly differentiated in double or triple vessel disease (DVD or TVD) as compared to single vessel disease (SVD) suggesting an increase in the extent of methylation with the increase in CAD severity. Conclusion: The present study shows significant increase in the extent of methylation in 3 CpG sites in DVD/TVD cases as compared to SVD cases. Additionally, a novel site, cg07889003 identified in our discovery phase has shown association with the severity of CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical and optical properties of sol–gel deposited nickel oxide (NiO) films are studied as a function of the annealing temperature. NiOX films are successfully obtained by spin coating process on glass and silicon substrates, and their transparency and conductivity have been improved using sol–gel technology. Further, the vibrational, optical, and electrical properties of NiOX film are investigated concerning annealing temperatures between 150 and 450 °C. From the investigation, annealing at 350 °C results in the formation of NiO, and through X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), it evidences the existence of Ni3 + which is confirmed along with Ni2+ state. Furthermore, when the NiOX samples are treated at 150 °C, their optical transparency in the visible region reaches 90%, and when the temperature is increased to 450 °C, the optical transparency drops to 75–78%. Through investigation, it is also identified that the optical band gaps get reduced to the region of 3.93–3.67 eV through thermal treatments. From the investigation, it is identified that thin films are excellent p-type electrical conductors having a specific resistivity of around 4.8 × 103 Ω/cm. Hence, they can be used in the manufacturing of transparent solar cells such as Hole Transport Layers (HTLs) and wideband semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports that most patients with NSCLC had a significant increase in the nAb response to the currently circulating Omicron variants after bivalent booster vaccination and had Ab titers comparable to healthy participants. Interestingly, though the durability of the nAb response persisted in most of the healthy participants, patients with NSCLC had significantly reduced nAb titers after 4–6 months of vaccination. Our data highlight the importance of COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccination as the standard of care for patients with NSCLC given the evolution of new variants of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arecanut is an important commercial plantation crop in India, and many farm families depend solely on the arecanut industry. In July 2018, immature nuts were shed heavily due to fruit rot disease in the Western-Ghats region. Though the symptoms were suggestive of common fruit rot disease, they appeared to be unusual. The associated pathogen was isolated from the infected tissue using the standard isolation technique, and an oomycete fungus was consistently isolated from infected nuts. Based on the colony and spore morphology, the pathogen was identified as Phytophthora sp. and by multi-gene sequencing (ITS, β-tub, TEF-1α, and Cox-II) confirmed it as Phytophthora parsiana. The pathogenicity of the isolate (P25) was established by inoculating healthy arecanut fruits with the pin-prick method. To our knowledge, this is the pioneering work that represents the first report of Phytophthora parsiana infecting arecanut in Western-Ghats of Southern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the differences among three species of palm white grubs at morphological, ethological, ecological and molecular levels to develop a tool to aid in distinguishing the three species. A comprehensive survey was conducted in palm gardens in southern India. Third-instar larvae and adults of Leucopholis spp. were collected and brought into the laboratory for species-level identification using morphological traits. DNA was extracted and PCR-based amplification of cytochrome oxidase I (CO1) gene of the three Leucopholis spp. was undertaken, and the amplicons were sequenced. High-resolution melt (HRM) curve analysis was then attempted to differentiate the three Leucopholis spp. The survey indicated the predominance of Leucopholis lepidophora Blanchard in high ranges of Karnataka and Kerala States, Leucopholis burmeisteri Brenske in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka State and Leucopholis coneophora Burmeister along the West coast of Kerala State in India. The three species exhibited morphological differences in respect of chaetotaxy in the rastor of third instar larva and ethological differences with respect to flight behavior and congregation patterns. Multiple sequence alignment of the CO1 sequences revealed the presence of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) between the three species. High-resolution melt (HRM) curve analysis was used to differentiate the three Leucopholis spp. utilizing primers designed based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in the CO1 sequences between the three species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedding deals with simulating one architecture called guest into another called host, as it helps in modifying algorithms designed for the guest graph to be implemented in the host graph. In this paper, we have obtained the optimal wirelength of embedding (K 9 - C 9) n into P 9 n and certain trees, where (K 9 - C 9) n is the Cartesian product of complete graph on 9 vertices with a deletion of a cycle on 9 vertices and P 9 n is a path on 9 n vertices. Furthermore, we have also obtained the wirelength of embedding the Cartesian product graph (K 9 - C 9) n into Banana trees and Firecracker trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensorless speed control technique for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drive using flux observer Adaptive Current Control Prediction (ACCP) method is presented in this paper. The conventional Predictive Current Control (PCC) method depends on the stator resistance of PMSM, which will be created a problem in that it varies with temperature. A discrete stator resistance estimation method is proposed in this paper to enhance the performance of the drive. The major advantages of the proposed method are reduced fluctuations in the flux, smooth starting, and robust operation against a load of a PMSM drive. The superiority of the proposed sensorless method cannot only perform in MATLAB/Simulink but experimentally validated under various operating conditions at steady-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple and effective framework to combine various data-driven machine learning (ML) algorithms for short-range reservoir inflow forecasting, including the large-scale climate phenomenon indices addressing forecasting uncertainty. Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR), K-Nearest Neighbors Regressor (KNN), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) were employed for predicting daily reservoir inflows considering various climate phenomenon indices (e.g., Arctic Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Southern Oscillation Index) and hydroclimatic variables (e.g., precipitation), accounting for time-lag effects. After training the individual ML algorithm, a framework was developed to create an ensemble model using a robust weighted voting regressor (VR) method to quantify forecasting uncertainty and to improve model performances. The results of the study reveal that, for 2-day forecasts, the LSTM approach has the greatest influence on prediction accuracy, followed comparably by each model. However, none of the four models seem to be noticeably superior to the VR method, regardless of the prediction lead time. The developed framework was examined on a tropical reservoir, Bhadra reservoir Tunga-Bhadra River, located in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-coding RNA (ncRNA)-based SSR markers are highly useful in molecular breeding as ncRNAs play a significant role in gene regulation. In the present study, for the first time in coconut, we have identified 597 ncRNA-derived SSR markers, including 509 long non-coding RNASSRs (lncRNASSRs) and 88 micro RNASSRs (miRNASSRs). Of these, 20 primers (10 each from lncRNA-SSR and miRNA-SSR) were selected, screened on 6 coconut accessions, and 50% produced polymorphic fragments. These 10 polymorphic primers were used for genotyping 96 palms of 16 coconut accessions, comprising eight tall and dwarf accessions each. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 9 per SSR marker, with an average of 4.6 alleles per locus. The average heterozygosity and Shannon index were 0.5 and 1.1, respectively, suggesting that ncRNA-SSRs show high polymorphism level. Distance-based cluster analyses revealed that all the tall and dwarf accessions were differentiated and grouped in different clusters. The study demonstrates the usefulness of ncRNA-based SSR markers for assessing genetic diversity and genetic improvement in coconut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mucormycosis is a very morbid and potentially life threatening fungal infection. Sudden emergence and rapidly increasing numbers, of an otherwise rare infection in active Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or recently recovered patients has made us question the cause for this epidemic in India. This retrospective cohort study was done at Government Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) hospital, Hyderabad, a designated nodal centre for mucormycosis for the state of Telangana, between April 2021 and June 2021. This study included patients with mucormycosis who had a recent history of COVID-19 infection. Potential predisposing factors (diabetes mellitus, history of oxygen and corticosteroids usage) and inflammatory marker values, predominantly deranged in COVID-19 infection (D-dimer and Serum Ferritin) were evaluated. A correlation between the marker values and susceptibility factors was also studied. Majority of these subjects showed elevated serum markers and had one or more of the predisposing factors for COVID-19 associated mucormycosis (CAM). A significant association was found between elevated marker values and susceptibility factors (diabetes, use of oxygen). Contrary to the popular belief, that the inadvertent use of steroids, use of industrial oxygen or elevated blood sugars caused this epidemic, our study concludes that their role is limited to affecting the extent of morbidity/mortality. B.1.1.7 and B.6.117 variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2), predominant during the second wave in India, facilitated the fungal invasion and spread by altering the gene expression and inducing inflammatory and immunomodulatory changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we have synthesized four indolo[2,3-b]quinoxalin-2-yl)(phenyl)methanone derivatives by cyclocondensation. The photophysical studies of dyes in various solvents and neat solid film exhibit typical electronic spectra with inbuilt intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) (λmax: 397–490 nm) confirming donor–acceptor architecture. Herein, dyes fluoresce in the blue-orange region (λEmax: 435–614) on excitation at their ICT maxima in toluene, ethyl acetate, chloroform, DMSO, and neat solid film. Two dyes, which exhibit good emission intensity in all mediums, were studied for aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. Electrochemical studies indicate the dyes possess relatively low lying LUMO (− 3.65 to − 3.98 eV) comparable to reported n-type/electron-transporting materials. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels were evaluated by DFT and TD-DFT calculations. TGA analysis shows the dyes exhibit good thermal stability. The characteristic optoelectronic properties and thermal stability signify these dyes are potential candidates for their application in optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical image fusion is a synthesis of visual information present in any number of medical imaging inputs into a single fused image without any distortion or loss of detail. It enhances image quality by retaining specific features to improve the clinical applicability of medical imaging for treatment and evaluation of medical conditions. A big challenge in the processing of medical images is to incorporate the pathological features of the complement into one image. The fused image presents various challenges, such as existence of fusion artifacts, hardness of the base, comparison of medical image input, and computational cost. The techniques of hybrid multimodal medical image fusion (HMMIF) have been designed for pathologic studies, such as neurocysticercosis, degenerative and neoplastic diseases. Two domain algorithms based on HMMIF techniques have been developed in this research for various medical image fusion applications for MRI-SPECT, MRI-PET, and MRI-CT. NSCT is initially used in the proposed method to decompose the input images which give components of low and high frequency. The average fusion rule applies to NSCT components with low frequency. The NSCT high frequency components are fused by the law of full fusion. NSCTs high frequency is handled with directed image filtration scheme. The fused picture is obtained by taking inverse transformations from all frequency bands with the coefficients obtained from them. The methods suggested are contrasted with traditional approaches in the state of the art. Experimentation proves that the methods suggested are superior in terms of both qualitative and quantitative assessment. The fused images using proposed algorithms provide information useful for visualizing and understanding the diseases to the best of both sources' modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The removal of arsenite [As(III)] from drinking water was investigated in a column at flow rates of 2.0 and 5.0 mL/min (up-flow direction) using bark-based magnetic iron oxide particles (BMIOP) prepared by coating (Fe(NO3)3.9H2O) over Tamarindus Indica bark. The BMIOP was compared with regenerated BMIOP, commercial activated carbon, commercial activated alumina (Al2O3). At 2.0 mL/min, empty bed contact time (EBCT), breakthrough time (BT), the volume of treated water and breakthrough capacity (BC) on fresh BMIOP were found to be 6.8 min, 33.15 h, 4.380 L and 0.742 mg/g, respectively, and at 5.0 mL/min, were found to be 4.1 min, 13 h, 3.675 L and 0.453 mg/g respectively. EBCT, BT and BC were increased by 65.85%, 155% and 63.79%, respectively, as the flow rate was reduced from 5.0 to 2.0 mL/min. After regeneration of BMIOP, EBCT, BT, saturated time, BC and saturation capacity (SC) were reduced by 21.95%, 15.38%, 55.15%, 16.78% and 29.71%, respectively. The BC of fresh BMIOP was increased by factors 4.15, 3.60 and 1.20 and SC by factors 9.51, 7.88 and 1.42 compared to commercial activated carbon, commercial activated Al2O3 and regenerated BMIOP, respectively. Logit model could be used for the design of the adsorption column. Thomas model and artificial neural network (ANN) were applied to predict the characteristic column parameters useful for process design. Quality of treated water meets BIS requirements. Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and semi-dynamic tests show that the exhausted BMIOP is safe for disposal in a secure landfill; hence, BMIOP has been proved to separate As(III) from water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate change on the oxygen saturation content of the world's surface waters is a significant topic for future water quality in a warming environment. While increasing river water temperatures (RWTs) with climate change signals have been the subject of several recent research, how climate change affects Dissolved Oxygen (DO) saturation levels have not been intensively studied. This study examined the direct effect of rising RWTs on saturated DO concentrations. For this, a hybrid deep learning model using Long Short-Term Memory integrated with k-nearest neighbor bootstrap resampling algorithm is developed for RWT prediction addressing sparse spatiotemporal RWT data for seven major polluted river catchments of India at a monthly scale. The summer RWT increase for Tunga-Bhadra, Sabarmati, Musi, Ganga, and Narmada basins are predicted as 3.1, 3.8, 5.8, 7.3, 7.8 °C, respectively, for 2071–2100 with ensemble of NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections of air temperature with Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario. The RWT increases up to7 °C for summer, reaching close to 35 °C, and decreases DO saturation capacity by 2–12% for 2071–2100. Overall, for every 1 °C RWT increase, there will be about 2.3% decrease in DO saturation level concentrations over Indian catchments under climate signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency with mobility support plays an important role in Wireless Sensor Networks. Duty cycling mechanism is used to reduce energy consumption of idle listening and coordinates sleep and wake-up period of nodes to prolong the network life time. The delay sensitive applications require the duty cycle adjustment with network traffic conditions to accomplish energy efficiency and low latency. The proposed Energy Efficient and Mobility Aware Hybrid MAC (EMH-MAC) protocol with adaptive duty cycle reduce the delay for prioritized services. In this approach, the duty cycle is dynamically adjusted with mobility and queue length of priority packets. The proposed protocol offers better data transmission rates in high traffic load conditions and also saves energy in low traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel and generic framework for the recognition of emotions using human body expression like head, hand and leg movements. Whole body movements are among the main visual stimulus categories that are naturally associated with faces and the neuro scientific investigation of how body expressions are processed has entered the research agenda this last decade. The database was composed of 254 whole body expressions from 46 actors expressing four emotions (anger, fear, happiness, and sadness). In all pictures the face of the actor was blurred and participants were asked to categorize the emotions expressed in the stimuli in a four alternative-forced-choice task. Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN), the input images are trained and modeled. Then the model can be tested by test images for recognizing human emotion from non-verbal communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, five 3,6,11-trisubstituted-dibenzo[a,c]phenazine (2–6) derivatives were synthesized by employing Palladium-catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura 'C–C bond' coupling reaction and characterized. Absorption spectra of 2–6 show the formation of charge-transfer complexes. Dyes exhibit blue-green fluorescence with emission maxima 434–506 nm in various solvents and neat solid film. To elucidate AIE phenomenon, photophysical properties of dye 2 and 3 in different THF/water mixture were studied. The HOMO and LUMO energy level were found in the range of − 6.38 to − 6.82 eV and − 3.67 to − 3.75 eV with an electrochemical bandgap of 2.71–3.08 eV. The HOMO and LUMO distribution in molecules were further studied by DFT/TD–DFT calculations. Herein, characteristic blue emission, comparable energy levels with n-type materials, and good thermal stability of derivatives make them a potential candidate for their application in optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has commissioned a low frequency (<100 MHz) spectrograph at its Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KSO) for coordinated observations of transients in the solar atmosphere with other existing optical observing facilities there. The hardware set-up and initial observations are presented. The availability of different instruments in the same observatory helps to quickly plan and jointly observe the energetic phenomena and their signatures in all the three major atmospheric regions of the Sun, i.e. photosphere, chromosphere and corona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent mobile telecommunication systems are using multiple-input multiple-output system (MIMO) collective with the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which is well-known as MIMO-OFDM, to offer robustness and higher spectrum efficiency. The most important challenge in this scenario is to achieve an accurate channel estimation to identify the information symbols once the receiver must have the channel state information to balance and process the received signal. Hence, an effective technique is introduced by proposing the Taylor-least square error algorithm (TLSE) to improve the performance of the MIMO-OFDM system in multimedia applications. In addition, the user admission control is done in multi user-MIMO (MU-MIMO) system using the priority-based scheduling based on Dolphin-rider optimization (DRO) algorithm that is integrated within the space–time block code (STBC) STBC-MIMO-OFDM system for efficient power allocation to ensure the energy efficiency. The DRO is the integration of rider optimization algorithm (ROA) and Dolphin Echolocation (DE). Here, channel estimation is done using the novel optimization algorithm, termed TLSE, which is designed by modifying LSE with the Taylor series. Moreover, the fitness parameters, such as power, priority, throughput, and Proportionally Fair, are computed. The experimentation is conducted in different fading environments with three modulation schemes, binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with the performance metrics, namely bit error rate (BER) and throughput. The developed TLSE + DRO (QAM) outperformed other methods with minimal BER of 0.0001 based on channel-2 and maximal throughput of 0.9965 with respect to channel-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this present study, untreated and (5 % NaOH) treated banana and sisal fiber was chosen as the reinforcement along with the various proportionate of polyurethane (PU) loading into vinyl ester (VER) as interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) laminate. In this study, banana/sisal (untreated/treated) fiber reinforced IPN laminate was fabricated with the following variant of 0 %, 20 %, 40 % PU loading by using the compressing molding process. Mechanical tests such as tensile, flexural, impact, hardness and water absorption tests were performed and compared in accordance with ASTM standards, to determine their inter-laminar strength of the IPN laminate. In addition, interfacial analysis was also carried out with the help of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) on the broken specimens in order to thoroughly understand the fractured specimen's micro-structural behavior. Among all tests, the sisal fiber reinforced IPN laminate showed significant surge in all physical tests expects moisture absorption characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insulin-like growth factor signalling system comprises insulin-like growth factors, insulin-like growth factor receptors and insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins. Along with the growth hormones, insulin-like growth factor signalling is very pivotal in the growth and development of all vertebrates. In fishes, insulin-like growth factors play an important role in osmoregulation, besides the neuroendocrine regulation of growth. Insulin-like growth factor concentration in plasma can assess the growth in fishes and shellfishes and therefore widely applied in nutritional research as an indicator to evaluate the performance of selected nutrients. The present review summarizes the role of insulin-like growth factor signalling in fishes and shellfishes, its significance in aquaculture and in evaluating growth, reproduction and development, and discusses the utility of this system as biomarkers for early indication of growth in aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attributable to the modernization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) procedures in healthcare services, various developments including Support Vector Machine (SVM), and profound learning. For example, Convolutional Neural systems (CNN) have prevalently engaged in a significant job of various classificational investigation in lung malignant growth, and different infections. In this paper, Parallel based SVM (P-SVM) and IoT has been utilized to examine the ideal order of lung infections caused by genomic sequence. The proposed method develops a new methodology to locate the ideal characterization of lung sicknesses and determine its growth in its early stages, to control the growth and prevent lung sickness. Further, in the investigation, the P-SVM calculation has been created for arranging high-dimensional distinctive lung ailment datasets. The data used in the assessment has been fetched from real-time data through cloud and IoT. The acquired outcome demonstrates that the developed P-SVM calculation has 83% higher accuracy and 88% precision in characterization with ideal informational collections when contrasted with other learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic improvement in coconut relies on exploiting the vast existing diversity among coconut accessions. Robust molecular markers are a pre-requisite for efficient characterization of genetic diversity. Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), mined from expressed sequence tags (ESTs), constitute an important resource for analysis of genetic diversity as they are abundant, polymorphic and represent function regions of the genome. We have identified a total of 318,528 putative EST-SSRs from 130,942 unigenes utilizing a leaf transcriptome dataset of coconut. Among the EST-SSRs, dinucleotide repeats were abundant (219,912; 69.04%) followed by trinucleotide (70,722; 22.2%) and tetra-nucleotide repeats (6281; 1.9%). Among the dinucleotide repeat motifs, the dominant repeat was AG/CT (35.87%), followed by AT/AT (18.59%), while the dominant trinucleotide repeat was AAG/CTT (4.59%). One hundred and twenty EST-SSR primer pairs were designed and utilized to amplify six DNA samples of coconut accessions. Fifty primers (41.7%) produced reproducible polymorphic fragments of expected sizes, from which a total of 10 primers were selected for the diversity assessment in 186 palms of 50 coconut accessions, comprising of 25 each of tall and dwarf accessions. A total of 137 alleles were detected with an average of 13.7 alleles per SSR locus. The number of alleles observed at each locus in the data set ranged from 7 to 22. All the loci showed 100% polymorphism with respect to the samples screened. The average observed heterozygosity was 0.46. The PIC values ranged from 0.79 (CnKGDEST129 and CnKGDEST100) to 0.91 (CnKGDEST117 and CnKGDEST122) with a mean value of 0.85, indicating the capacity of the EST-SSR markers to detect high levels of polymorphism. The cluster analysis revealed that accessions were generally clustered based on their relative similarity and irrespective of their geographic origins. The present study demonstrates the usefulness of transcriptome sequencing as a rapid and cost-effective methodology for the development of molecular markers. The EST-SSR markers generated through this study constitute useful and reliable tools for assessment of genetic diversity and marker-assisted selection in coconut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administration request in cellular radio networks is for the most part heterogeneous and non-uniform, prompting lopsided topologies. This many-sided quality along with the various radio access advances, the radio channel and down to earth imperatives, make the radio network arranging process a testing job that generally rules out instinctive arrangements. In this paper, we define the structure that takes into account radio network arranging investigation to be performed with regards to a developmental large-scale smaller scale transfer blend approach, or wide region microcell arrangements. Scope, limit and cost prerequisites and in addition diverse down to earth imperatives, for example, reuse of existing 2G and 3G destinations, are considered along with a multi-target improvement calculation adjusted to the radio network arranging issue for 4G frameworks. In addition to other things, the created comes about feature two key issues: (a) the route towards high limit radio networks is to supplant large scale cells with various microcells that is in excess of one request of size higher, (b) advancing the radio network arrangement can diminish the cost/Mbps/km2 by elements of 4–20, contrasted with proportional macro cellular reference situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, pyridopyrazino[2,3-b]indole based D–A assembly was designed and synthesized with modulation of various electron-donating/withdrawing substituent and characterized by various spectroscopic methods. Pyridopyrazino[2,3-b]indole derivatives show inbuilt intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) transition which established D–A building in molecules and induces blue-green emission in the solution state. However, solid-state emission characteristics explore the emission property of some molecules towards aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect which leads to the formation of emissive nano aggregates in THF/H2O mixture. Alteration of substituent on pyridopyrazino[2,3-b]indole segment effectively tune electrochemical property and resulting LUMO energy level was found to be comparable with reported electron transporting/n-type materials. These properties and good thermal stability indicate that molecules have the potential to be used as solid-state emitter and n-type materials in optoelectronic devices. Pyridopyrazino[2,3-b]indole derivatives possess inbuilt intramolecular charge-transfer to reveal donor-acceptor assembly within a molecule. Opto-electrochemical properties of it greatly influenced by an inductive and mesomeric effect caused by a substituted group. Strong solid-state emission owned by some molecule display AIE phenomenon. Additionally, LUMO value of derivatives exhibits electron-transporting ability hence could be used in organic electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes are associated with a survival benefit in several tumour types and with the response to immunotherapy1–8. However, the reason some tumours have high CD8 T cell infiltration while others do not remains unclear. Here we investigate the requirements for maintaining a CD8 T cell response against human cancer. We find that CD8 T cells within tumours consist of distinct populations of terminally differentiated and stem-like cells. On proliferation, stem-like CD8 T cells give rise to more terminally differentiated, effector-molecule-expressing daughter cells. For many T cells to infiltrate the tumour, it is critical that this effector differentiation process occur. In addition, we show that these stem-like T cells reside in dense antigen-presenting-cell niches within the tumour, and that tumours that fail to form these structures are not extensively infiltrated by T cells. Patients with progressive disease lack these immune niches, suggesting that niche breakdown may be a key mechanism of immune escape. The authors examine the immune cell infiltrates of human tumours and provide evidence for a population of CD8 T cells with stem-cell characteristics and proliferative capacity that reside in an antigen-presenting niche within tumours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interleukin 33 (IL-33) is an alarmin with multiple roles in immunity and cell homeostasis, highly expressed in barrier sites, acting via the suppression of tumorigenicity 2 receptor (ST2). Production of IL-33 and soluble ST2 (sST2), a decoy receptor for IL-33, has been implicated in several pulmonary diseases, but both have been scarcely investigated in pleural diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of IL-33 and sST2 in transudative (TrPEs), malignant (MPEs), and parapneumonic (PPEs) pleural effusions (PEs) and investigate the effect of PE fluids from each group with low and high IL-33/sST2 levels on MeT-5A cell adhesion and migration. IL-33 and sST2 pleural fluid levels were similar among TrPEs, MPEs, and PPEs. However, a significant correlation was found between IL-33 and LDH and in sST2 levels with lymphocyte counts in TrPEs. Additionally, in MPEs the levels of IL-33 correlated with the levels of sST2 and with the red blood cell counts. Furthermore, incubation of MeT-5A cells with MPEs and PPEs bearing low or high levels of IL-33/sST2 yielded significant differential effects on MeT-5A cell adhesion and migration. In MPEs, high IL-33/sST2 levels led to increased adhesion and migration of MeT-5A cells, while in PPEs the effect was the opposite, while no effect in both cell phenotypes was determined for TrPEs. These results reveal a clinical context dependent effect of the IL-33/sST2 axis in PEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years several of endeavors have been conducted in various papers to improve capacity and bit error rate performance of multiuser MIMO system. Every effort tried to increase gain of the individual stream between base station and users' antennas while reducing the interference among multiple users and interference between streams of single user itself. All these papers adopted precoding techniques for beam forming of individual stream. Various papers have compared precoding techniques such as DPC, BD-ZF, BD-MMSE, BD-QR-MRL, and BD-QR-LRL. Block diagonalization technique is capable to reduce multiuser interference, but not able to combat interference between antennas of single user itself. BD combines with other techniques to overcome this problem. This paper also proposes a precoding technique called modified maximum ratio transmission, which is able to deal with the problem without much complexity. Simulation is done to compare all precoding technique with MRT. The paper tests the precoding techniques on the parameters of BER and capacity, to achieve optimum receiver performance. BER curve and capacity curve are plotted to conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keyword spotting in a continuous speech is a challenging problem and has relevance in applications like audio indexing and music retrieval. In this work, the problem of keyword spotting is addressed by utilizing the complementary information present in spectral and prosodic features of the speech signal. A thorough analysis of the complementary information is performed on a large Hindi language database developed for this purpose. Phonetic and prosodic distribution analysis is performed toward this end, using canonical correlation and Student T-distance function. Motivated by these analyses, novel methods for spectral and prosodic information fusion that optimize a combined error function is proposed. The fusion methods are developed both at the feature and the model level. Improved syllable sequence prediction and keyword spotting performance are obtained using these methods when compared to conventional methods of keyword spotting. Additionally, in order to enable comparison with the state-of-the-art deep learning-based methods, a novel method for improved syllable sequence prediction using deep denoising autoencoders is proposed. The performance of the methods proposed in this work is evaluated for keyword spotting using a syllable sliding protocol over a large Hindi database. Reasonable performance improvements are noted from the experimental results on syllable sequence prediction, keyword spotting, and audio retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion: Analysis of stress-associated miRNAs of Glycine max (L.) Merrill reveals wider ramifications of small RNA-mediated (conserved and legume-specific miRNAs) gene regulatory foot prints in molecular adaptive responses. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are indispensable components of gene regulatory mechanism of plants. Soybean is a crop of immense commercial potential grown worldwide for its edible oil and soy meal. Intensive research efforts, using the next generation sequencing and bioinformatics techniques, have led to the identification and characterization of numerous small RNAs, especially microRNAs (miRNAs), in soybean. Furthermore, studies have unequivocally demonstrated the significance of miRNAs during the developmental processes and various stresses in soybean. In this review, we summarize the current state of understanding of miRNA-based abiotic and biotic stress responses in soybean. In addition, the molecular insights gained from the stress-related soybean miRNAs have been compared to the miRNAs of other crops, especially legumes, and the core commonalities have been highlighted, though differences among them were not ignored. Nature of response of soybean-derived conserved miRNAs during various stresses was also analyzed to gain deeper insights regarding sRNAome-based defense responses. This review further provides way forward in legume small RNA transcriptomics based on the adaptive responses of soybean and other legume-derived miRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemiological studies have revealed that coronary artery disease (CAD) is highly heritable. However, genetic studies have not been able to fully elucidate its etiology. Accumulating evidences suggest that epigenetic alterations like DNA methylation may provide an alternative and additional explanation of its pathophysiology. DNA methylation regulates hypomethylation and hypermethylation of various genes which are involved in the development of CAD. Our aim was to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in genome of CAD patients by using the microarray chip having a coverage of > 4,50,000 CpG sites (Illumina's Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip). In this pilot study, an epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation from whole blood was performed in six angiographically positive male cases, who were age and gender matched with six angiographically negative controls. All subjects were non-smokers, non-diabetic, non-alcoholic, with no previous history of cardiac ailment. Illumina's GenomeStudio (v 2011.1) software was used to identify DMRs and pathway analysis, gene ontology was carried out using DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualisation and Integrated Discovery). 429 DMRs were found to be significant of which 222 were hypomethylated and 207 were hypermethylated. Antigen processing and presentation was identified to be the most significant biological function with a statistical significance of p = 4.35 × 10− 5. HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQB1 along with non-classical HLA molecules HLA-G, HLA-C are responsible for triggering the inflammatory pathway which have been identified in our study. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify a panel of DMRs using a high coverage microarray chip in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the molecular basis of host-pathogen interactions is imperative for devising disease management strategies. The root (wilt) disease is the foremost debilitating disease threatening coconut production in India. To explore the molecular mechanisms involved in compatible and incompatible interactions, global transcriptome profiling of leaves of healthy and diseased Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) palms was conducted. RNA-Seq analysis generated more than 190 million 100 bp reads from both healthy and diseased samples. Assembled transcriptome yielded 59,282 transcripts with a median length of 987 bp. BLASTX annotation of transcriptome resulted in 39,665 transcripts getting annotated from Uniprot and date palm proteome database. Differential gene expression profiling analysis revealed 2718 transcripts to be up- or down- regulated in the diseased palms in comparison to healthy control at a fold change of 2 and above with a p value <=0.05. The differentially expressed transcripts could be categorized into pathways which included cell wall biogenesis, primary and secondary metabolism, plant-pathogen interaction, cellular transport, hormone biosynthesis and signaling. Validation by quantitative real time PCR (RT-qPCR) of a set of arbitrarily selected genes, both up-regulated and down-regulated, established a comparable pattern as observed by RNA-Seq analysis. Overall, the resources generated in this study provide an in-depth analysis and new insights into the interaction of coconut palms with the root (wilt) disease pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores the use of phoneme level information in cohort selection to improve the performance of a speaker verification system. In speaker verification, cohort is used in score normalization to get a better performance. Score normalization is a technique to reduce the undesirable variation arising from acoustically mismatched conditions. Proper selection of cohort significantly improves speaker verification performance. In this paper, we investigate cohort selection based on a speaker model cluster under the i-vector framework that we call the i-vector model cluster (IMC). Two approaches for cohort selection are proposed. First approach utilizes speaker specific properties and called speaker specific cohort selection (SSCS). In this approach, speaker level information is used for cohort selection. The second approach is phoneme specific cohort selection (PSCS). This method improves cohort set selection by using phoneme level information. Phoneme level information is further employed in a late fusion approach that uses a majority voting method on normalized scores to improve the performance of the speaker verification system. Speaker verification experiments were conducted using the TIMIT, HINDI and YOHO databases. An equal error rate improvement of 19.01%, 14.61% and 19.4%is obtained for the proposed method compared to the standard ZT-Norm method for TIMIT, HINDI and YOHO datasets. Reasonable improvements in performance are also obtained in terms of minimum decision cost function (min DCF) and detection error trade-off (DET) curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless ad hoc networks are going to be an emerged multi-hop communication exploit among mobiles to deliver data packets. The special characteristics of Wireless network make the communication link between mobiles to be unreliable. To handle high mobility and environmental obstacles, most of physical routing protocols do not consider stable links during packet transmission which lead to higher delay and packet dropping in network. In this paper, we propose path observation based physical routing protocol named POPR for WANET. The proposed routing protocol incorporates relative distance, direction and mid-range forwarder node with traffic density to forward the data toward destination in order to improve physical forwarding between and at the intersection. Simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol performs better as compared to existing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel intra-ply woven fabric polyester composite with glass fibre yarns in one direction and natural fibre yarns in another direction of basket-type woven fabric has been investigated for mechanical and dynamic mechanical characteristics. Individual glass fibre woven fabric, natural fibres woven fabric and intra-ply natural fibres woven fabric composites are also investigated for the comparison purpose. Results reveal that the intra-ply woven fabric hybridization enhances impact and damping properties of the composite significantly than the tensile and flexural properties. Intra-ply woven fabrics with glass fibre yarns in warp direction and jute fibre yarns in weft direction (WGWJ) exhibit better impact properties compared with woven fabric with other combinations. Dynamic mechanical analysis results reveal that intra-ply woven fabric composite with glass fibre yarns in warp direction and jute and banana fibre yarns in weft direction (WGWJAB) gives higher damping characteristics due to the multi-level interaction between fibre-fibre and fibre-matrix interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, for the first time, the visible fluorescence properties, resonance energy transfer mechanism responsible for non-radiative decay rates of D → F transition and also quenching of fluorescence intensity of the D → F transition of various concentrations of Tb ions in LBZLFB glasses are reported. Optical absorption, fluorescence spectra and quantum efficiencies are measured and analysed. Green fluorescence related to D → F (548 nm) transition is registered under excitation of 378 nm of Tb ions. Based on excitation and fluorescence measurements, several spectroscopic parameters for Tb ions are examined as a function of concentration by Judd-Ofelt theory to judge the suitability of studied glasses for display devices and fibre lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production and supply of quality planting material is significant to coconut cultivation but is one of the major constraints in coconut productivity. Rapid multiplication of coconut through in vitro techniques, therefore, is of paramount importance. Although somatic embryogenesis in coconut is a promising technique that will allow for the mass production of high quality palms, coconut is highly recalcitrant to in vitro culture. In order to overcome the bottlenecks in coconut somatic embryogenesis and to develop a repeatable protocol, it is imperative to understand, identify, and characterize molecular events involved in coconut somatic embryogenesis pathway. Transcriptome analysis (RNA-Seq) of coconut embryogenic calli, derived from plumular explants of West Coast Tall cultivar, was undertaken on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. After de novo transcriptome assembly and functional annotation, we have obtained 40,367 transcripts which showed significant BLASTx matches with similarity greater than 40 % and E value of ≤10. Fourteen genes known to be involved in somatic embryogenesis were identified. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses of these 14 genes were carried in six developmental stages. The result showed that CLV was upregulated in the initial stage of callogenesis. Transcripts GLP, GST, PKL, WUS, and WRKY were expressed more in somatic embryo stage. The expression of SERK, MAPK, AP2, SAUR, ECP, AGP, LEA, and ANT were higher in the embryogenic callus stage compared to initial culture and somatic embryo stages. This study provides the first insights into the gene expression patterns during somatic embryogenesis in coconut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coconut ( Cocos nucifera L.) is one of the important palms grown both as a homestead and plantation crop in countries and most island territories of tropical regions. Different DNA-based marker systems have been utilized to assess the extent of genetic diversity in coconut. Advances in genomics research have resulted in the development of novel gene-targeted markers. In the present study, we have used a simple and novel marker system, start codon targeted polymorphism (SCoT), for its evaluation as a potential marker system in coconut. SCoT markers were utilized for assessment of genetic diversity in 23 coconut accessions (10 talls and 13 dwarfs), representing different geographical regions. Out of 25 SCoT primers screened, 15 primers were selected for this study based on their consistent amplification patterns. A total of 102 scorable bands were produced by the 15 primers, 88 % of which were polymorphic. The scored data were used to construct a similarity matrix. The similarity coefficient values ranged between 0.37 and 0.91. These coefficients were utilized to construct a dendrogram using the unweighted pair group of arithmetic means (UPGMA). The extent of genetic diversity observed based on SCoT analysis of coconut accessions was comparable to earlier findings using other marker systems. Tall and dwarf coconut accessions were clearly demarcated, and in general, coconut accessions from the same geographical region clustered together. The results indicate the potential of SCoT markers to be utilized as molecular markers to detect DNA polymorphism in coconut accessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]