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Background: Grain size is an essential factor of grain quality and yield in rice. The genetic studies have substantially contributed to enhancing yield and maintaining a good quality of rice. The two major genes GS3 (a negative regulator of grain length) and GW2 (a negative regulator of grain width) with functional mutation play a significant role in controlling the grain size of rice. Methods and Results: In the study, 17 different widely grown Pakistani landraces of various genetic and geographic backgrounds were evaluated for grain phenotypic traits (1000-grain weight, length, width, and thickness) and also screened for genotypic mutation in GS3 and GW2 genes. Phenotypic data revealed the range for grain weight from 16.86 g (Lateefy) to 26.91 g (PS2), grain length ranged from 7.27 mm (JP-5) to 12.18 mm (PS2), grain width ranged from 2.01 mm (Lateefy) to 3.51 mm (JP5), and grain thickness ranged from 1.79 mm to 2.19. Correlation revealed a negative and significant correlation between grain width and length. There was no significant correlation between grain length and 1000-grain weight and grain width. LSD test displayed that the means of three variables grain length, grain width, and 1000-grain weight were statistically different from one another except grain width and grain breadth. Fifteen accessions carried the domesticated allele of GS3 while JP5 and Fakhr-e-Malakand carried the dominant allele. Similarly, fifteen accessions carried the dominant allele of GW2 while JP-5 and Fakhr-e-Malakand carried the mutant allele. Conclusions: The study shows that the mutant alleles of both genes are of significance to pyramid them in any breeding program. However, just incorporating favorable alleles is not the sole solution for improving the grain size. Therefore, further elucidation of GS3 and GW2 genes regulatory network, their interaction, trade-off, and pathways will better coordinate their marker-assisted selection in the future breeding program. Additionally, the study concluded that the selection of grain size was not dependent on 1000-grain weight in the selected germplasm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the thin-film nanomaterial movement in three dimensions over a stretchable rotating inclined surface. Similarity variables are used to transform fundamental systems of equations into a set of first-order differential equations. The Runge–Kutta Fourth Order approach is utilized for numerical computations. The impact of embedded parameters (variable thickness, unsteadiness, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, Brownian-motion, and thermophoretic) is examined carefully. Physically and statistically, the indispensable terms namely Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are also investigated. Results indicated that, as the dimensionless parameter S raises, the temperature field decreases. In reality, as the values of S increases, heat transmission rate from the disc to the flowing fluid reduces. Internal collisions of liquid particles are physically hampered at a low rate. The momentum boundary layer is cooled when the parameter S is increased, as a consequence local Nusselt number rises. Sherwood number decreases as the parameter S increases because of inter collision of the microscopic fluid particles. Enhancing in the apparent viscosity and concentrations of the chemical reactions, a higher Schmidt number, Sc, lowers the Sherwood number. With increasing values of Prandtl number the Nusselt number decreases. For validation purpose, the RK4 method is also compared with homotopy analysis method (HAM). The results are further verified by establishing an excellent agreement with published data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart grid networks demand reliable, efficient and real-time energy management by exchanging information. Transmitting and receiving information needs a two-way, secure, reliable and high-speed communication infrastructure, which should be capable to handle impulse noise present in power system. Power division non-orthogonal multiple access scheme can fulfill this requirement through its high spectral efficiency. In this paper, we proposed a composite multiple access model based on orthogonal beamforming (OBF) and non-orthogonal multiple access scheme for exchanging information between smart grid, smart meters (SMs) and other communication units in the presence of impulse noise. We divide a cell in sectors and implement OBF between sectors to reduce inter beams interference using orthogonalization. Within the sectors, we implement power division multiple access to utilize maximum bandwidth with the help of successive interference cancelation scheme. Furthermore, to find the effect of impulse noise on performance of proposed model we consider Gaussian and Laplacian models with Bernoulli arrival rate. Simulation and numerical findings show that the proposed method does not cause interference between SMs and offers 3 Mbit / s higher data rate than the traditional OFDMA systems leading to better system capacity in case of four SMs in a sector of a cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mg-loaded activated carbons were prepared by adding various amounts of Mg (1 to 20 wt%) via ultrasonic-assisted impregnation to investigate the effects on the adsorption and desorption characteristics of ammonia. Mg-loaded activated carbons were characterized by TGA, BET, SEM, EDS mapping, and NH3-TPD analysis. Mg was homogeneously dispersed on the activated carbon and NH3-TPD analysis confirmed improved desorption and thermal stability for the 10 wt% Mg sample, named AC-Mg(10). AC-Mg(10) retained the highest desorption for five cycles and showed average desorption amount of 0.788 mmol NH3/g. During the breakthrough analysis, the AC-Mg(10) showed an initial ammonia adsorption capacity of 0.81 mmol NH3/g and average adsorption capacity of 0.69 mmol NH3/g over 30 adsorption and desorption cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer flow during wire coating in a pressure-type casting die has been simulated under non-isothermal conditions. The flow is dependent on the wire velocity, geometry of the die, and the viscosity of the polymer. In the present study, the constitutive equation of an Oldroyd 8-constant fluid is used to characterize the rheology of the polymer melt. The equation describing the flow of polymer melt inside the die is solved (1) analytically by applying optimal homotopy asymptotic method (OHAM) and (2) numerically by the shooting method with Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg algorithm. The convergence of the series solution is established. The effect of physical characteristics of the problem has been discussed in detail through graphs by assigning numerical values for several parameters of interest. At the end, the present study is also compared with published work as a particular case and good agreement is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have proposed two backfill scheduling optimizations, i.e., Shortest Width First Backfill (SWFBF) and Shortest Area First Backfill (SAFBF). A near optimal simple, but effective job packing algorithm called the Select-Replace algorithm has also been presented to minimize external fragmentation. Proof of the concept has been given with the help of a simulation study. Five workloads which were derived from a clean version of the parallel workload archive (CTC, LANL, and SDSC. NASA) have been used to evaluate and compare proposed heuristics with previous techniques. With the simple but effective optimizations, significant (56.1%) performance improvement has been achieved as compared to EASY scheduler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiomic features based classifiers and neural networks have shown promising results in tumor classification. The classification performance can be further improved greatly by exploring and incorporating the discriminative features towards cancer into mathematical models. In this research work, we have developed two radiomics driven likelihood models in Computed Tomography(CT) images to classify lung, colon, head and neck cancer. Initially, two diagnostic radiomic signatures were derived by extracting 105 3-D features from 200 lung nodules and by selecting the features with higher average scores from several supervised as well as unsupervised feature ranking algorithms. The signatures obtained from both the ranking approaches were integrated into two mathematical likelihood functions for tumor classification. Validation of the likelihood functions was performed on 265 public data sets of lung, colon, head and neck cancer with high classification rate. The achieved results show robustness of the models and suggest that diagnostic mathematical functions using general tumor phenotype can be successfully developed for cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer flow during wire coating dragged from a bath of viscoelastic incompreesible and laminar fluid inside pressure type die is carried out numerically. In wire coating the flow depends on the velcocity of the wire, geometry of the die and viscosity of the fluid. The governing equations expressing the heat transfer and flow solved numerically by Runge-Kutta fourth order method with shooting technique. Reynolds model and Vogel’s models are encountered for temperature dependent viscosity. The umerical solutions are obtained for velocity field and temperature distribution. It is seen that the non-Newtonian parameter of the fluid accelerates the velcoty profile in the absence of porous and magnetic parameters. For large value of magnetic parameter the reverse effect is observed. It is observed that the temperature profiles decreases with increasing psedoplastic parameter in the presence and absence of porous matrix as well as magnetic parameter. The Brinkman number contributes to increase the temperature for both Reynolds and Vogel’smmodels. With the increasing of pressure gradient parameter of both Reynolds and Vogel’s models, the velocity and temperature profile increases significantly in the presence of non-Newtonian parameter. The solutions are computed for different physical parameters. Furthermore, the present result is also compared with published results as a particular case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]