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Host–pathogens interactions are sensitive to changes in temperature and even a slight increase in temperature significantly influences the distribution of insects, including fruit flies. African fig fly, known as Zaprionus indianus (Gupta) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is one of the invasive, secondary insect pests of fruits. The current article explores the effect of temperature and fungal infection on Z. indianus life history traits. Development of Z. indianus was observed on locally isolated fungus Pichia kudriavzevii (Boidin, Pignal and Besson, 1965) (Saccharomycetales: Pichiaceae) in treated and untreated medium. Pre- adult and adult life stages of treated and untreated individuals at different temperatures showed significant difference in physiological trait values. At extreme temperatures (i.e. 17 and 31 °C) the life history traits (egg hatchability, larval viability, adult emergence, and fecundity) in fungal treated food showed significant reduction in trait values except in development period (egg to adult stage) at 17 °C. Independently, high temperatures (28 and 31 °C) favour shorter fungal growth and Z. indianus development cycle, while longer growth and developmental period at lower temperatures (17 and 21 °C).The current work illustrates the consequences of temperature and fungal infection on the developmental stages and physiological traits of Z. indianus. The combination of the biotic and abiotic factors aids in understanding of the response of pest species of Drosophila to differential temperature ranges and fungal infection; hence, the present study could assist in predicting the driving ecological factors that mediate the containment of Z. indianus, an invasive secondary pest of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The removal of organophosphorus pesticides is the growing concern. The pesticides are biomagnified in food chain, causing greater health hazards to humans and animals. Adsorption is one of the most efficient approaches for removal of organophosphorus compounds. The current study describes the adsorptive removal of phosmet by silylated graphene oxide (sGO). The adsorption study was performed by batch adsorption method by varying pH, temperature, dosage, contact time, etc. The isotherm studies were also performed to reveal the nature of adsorption. The mechanism of adsorption of phosmet was studied on synthesized and well-characterized sGO. The functionalized derivative of graphene oxide, sGO, has improved biocompatibility and removal efficiency against phosmet. The phenomenon of adsorption is dominantly chemi-physiosorption as suggested from Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics. The thermodynamics studies further showed that the negative enthalpy and negative Gibb's free energy is indicative of feasibility of adsorption by chemisorption mechanism. The pH studies indicated that the adsorption of sGO on phosmet was highest at neutral as well as basic pH. Finally, the regeneration studies showed that the adsorbent can be utilized till five cycles, where the efficiency is reduced to 50%. Thus, the complete study gives an account of effective removal of phosmet using sGO as an adsorbent by chemisorption involving pi–pi interaction, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic forces as major interactive forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae), the primary pest of guava (Psidium guajava), damages numerous horticulture fruits in tropical and subtropical regions. The use of insecticides for the management of this pest adversely affect agro-ecosystem and has environmental consequences. The repellent activity of Salix alba (Willow) bark extract and a Guava oil-based formulation was investigated to protect guava fruit from infestation by the fruit fly, B. dorsalis. In the laboratory experiments, the efficacy of these natural repellents was assessed. Bactrocera dorsalis significantly deterred guava fruit treated with S. alba formulation as compared to the extract alone, which exhibited significant anti-feeding activity, and caused a decline in fecundity rate by 60% and larval mortality rate by 90%. When females were allowed to oviposit on guava fruits in laboratory and field after mating, these flies preferred fruits for oviposition that were not sprayed with S. alba-guava oil formulation. GC-MS analysis showed esters and terpenes as the main components for exhibiting repellent property in S. alba-based formulation. Hence, guava oil formulation of S. alba showed a complete protection of guava fruits against B. dorsalis in the laboratory conditions to control infestation by B. dorsalis. Further research and field trials are warranted to optimize the application methods and assess the long-term effects on crop yield and overall fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WHO (World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and it is still ongoing, thereby severely affecting the whole world. "WHO" recommends wearing "facial masks" to manage the pandemic. In such situations, it's difficult and unsafe to manually monitor everyone. In order to prevent the outbreak, an autonomous real-time face mask monitoring system with the use of deep learning algorithm is essential. Advancement in the domain of face mask detection is motivated by exciting and challenging datasets, and in this modern world, it is more difficult for a face mask detection system to identify a face mask as people not only prefer to wear medical face masks but also use masks with a variety of designs, patterns, and colors. So, due to the unavailability of such a versatile dataset, building a novel dataset was necessary. The proposed novel dataset includes different types of masks, masked faces in different weather conditions and crowded environments, masked and non-masked faces at different angles, and various boundary conditions. And, to determine the effectuality of our dataset, we have trained five variants of YOLO, a prominent real-time one-stage detector, in which the latest YOLOv5 has achieved the highest mAP value of 80.80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on analysing the bit error rate (BER) of single-input single-output and multiple-input multiple-output Radio-over free space optics system under atmospheric turbulence conditions employing binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation. The system performance has been investigated for weak to strong scintillation conditions considering uncoded and Reed Solomon coded BPSK signals. The performance of the proposed system has also been analysed under strong turbulence effects considering varying signal to noise ratio, responsivity, Eb/No and different scattering conditions. Further, different machine learning techniques namely, artificial neural network (ANN), decision tree, and gradient boosting regression have been employed for estimation of received signal quality in terms of BER. Highest (0.98) and lowest (0.0155) values of R-squared (R2) and root mean square error respectively have been obtained in case of ANN model resulting in the best fit model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing scientific research advancement is indispensable for structuring future goals and rationalizations. We carried out a literature review in the Scopus database using vos-viewer (version 1.6.16.) and Biblioshiny 2.0. The purpose was to analyse data on the use of essential oils with Drosophila species, and observe research trends on this topic. Between 2001 and 2022, 110 articles were published, with the Industrial Crops and Products as the most outstanding journal. The country with the greatest number of publications on the topic in the analysed period was Brazil (n=22), followed by United States (n=15) and the China (n=11). Keywords that stood out the most were essential oil, animals, Drosophila melanogaster, non-human, controlled study, unclassified drug, insecticidal activity and chemical composition. The current paper delineates the scientific information regarding essential oils and Drosophila species all over the world. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric survey which aimed to visualize the scientific progress, spatial distribution of the researches, key word analysis and addresses research gaps associated with the work on essential oils and Drosophila. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is one of the important pests of great economic significance causing serious fruit and vegetable damage in tropical and subtropical areas of the world occurs. This study aimed to investigate the effect of high fat diet on various physiological traits of females and a shift of sex ratios in favour of males to benefit biological control of this pest species. B. dorsalis individuals were collected from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, Punjab and the effect of coconut oil-based artificial diets differing in their relative levels of fat (5%, 10% and 20%) on stage-specific development, survival, hatchability were analysed at 21 °C, 65% Relative Humidity. The male: female (M/F) sex-ratios from individuals emerging from each of these diets were also scored. The findings of the study showed that B. dorsalis larvae and adults were able to survive on all three diets, although the stage-specific development and survival varied with High Fat Diet (HFD) concentration. Diet with 20% fat concentration showed most delayed development relatively to 10% and 5% concentration diet. The laboratory test showed that ingestion of fat significantly increased the development time (egg-larvae-pupae to adult) and caused increased mortality in pre-adult stages. A decrease in percentage pupation and adult emergence was also observed. Moreover, the data showed a significant shift in M/F ratios for regular food, HFD 5%, and HFD 10% with 46.7%, 45.7%, and 45.9% respectively and all female biased. Only HFD 20% produced male biased ratio of 74.4%. Adults fed on 20% HFD produced significantly fewer eggs as well as reversed the male: female sex ratio from 1:1.28 to 2.9: 1. The HFD diet elicited a higher adult lipid content, lower pupal production, adult emergence, and longer development, significantly affecting physiology of fruit flies. Field efficacy trials showed significant results with bait trap method and significantly increased the fruit yield by 51.09 Kg/tree as compared to the control. Hence, the present study illustrated the potential of HFD which can be exploited in integrated pest management strategies for capturing fruit fly pests of economic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) was declared as a pandemic by WHO (World Health Organization) on 11 March 2020, and it is still currently going on, thereby impacting tremendously the whole world. As of September 2021, more than 220 million cases and 4.56 million deaths have been confirmed, which is a vast number and a significant threat to humanity. Although, As of 6 September 2021, a total of 5,352,927,296 vaccine doses have been administered, still many people worldwide are not fully vaccinated yet. As stated by WHO, "Masks" should be used as one of the measures to restrain the transmission of this virus. So, to reduce the infection, one has to cover their face, and to detect whether a person's face is covered with a mask or not, a "Face mask detection system" is needed. Face Mask Detection falls under the category of "Object Detection," which is one of the sub-domains of Computer Vision and Image Processing. Object Detection consists of both "Image Classification" and "Image Localization". Deep learning is a subset of Machine learning which, in turn, is a subset of Artificial intelligence that is widely being used to detect face masks; even some people are using hybrid approaches to make the most use of it and to build an efficient "Face mask detection system". In this paper, the main aim is to review all the research that has been done till now on this topic, various datasets and Techniques used, and their performances followed by limitations and improvements. As a result, the purpose of this study is to give a broader perspective to a researcher to identify patterns and trends in Face mask detection (Object Detection) within the framework of covid-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although epidemiological studies indicate that sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) such as obstructive sleep apnea is a strong risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the mechanisms of the risk remain unclear. Here we developed a method of modeling SDB in mice that replicates key features of the human condition: altered breathing during sleep, sleep disruption, moderate hypoxemia, and cognitive impairment. When we induced SDB in a familial AD model, the mice displayed exacerbation of cognitive impairment and the pathological features of AD, including increased levels of amyloid-beta and inflammatory markers, as well as selective degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain neurons. These pathological features were not induced by chronic hypoxia or sleep disruption alone. Our results also revealed that the cholinergic neurodegeneration was mediated by the accumulation of nuclear hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha. Furthermore, restoring blood oxygen levels during sleep to prevent hypoxia prevented the pathological changes induced by the SDB. These findings suggest a signaling mechanism whereby SDB induces cholinergic basal forebrain degeneration. Sleep-disordered breathing is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Here the authors use mesopontine tegmentum lesion to model sleep disordered breathing in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, and find that some features of the Alzheimer's disease-like phenotype are exacerbated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free space optics (FSO) is considered as one of the emerging technologies in wireless communication system. In this work, real time data analysis of fog weather condition has been performed for hilly regions of north west region (Nainital, Uttarakhand) and north east region (Imphal, Manipur) of India. Different models have been considered for calculation of fog attenuation considering two specific months (January and February) for six consecutive years from 2016 to 2021. Quality of received signal has been analysed in terms of internal system parameters of an FSO link by incorporating amplitude shift keying, phase shift keying and duobinary return-to-zero modulation techniques at a data rate and transmission wavelength of 40 Gbps and 1550 nm respectively. It has been studied that PSK modulation scheme performs better as compared to other modulation techniques and received signal quality deteriorates below an unacceptable value in case of fog beyond the propagation range of 9000 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed significant growth of optical communication systems due to low attenuation offered for longer distances with high capacities. Optical wireless communication such as Free space Optical (FSO) systems provide license free secure transmission with lower deployment cost to make it attractive solution for providing communication services in remote areas. However atmospheric turbulences can become major challenges for deploying the FSO systems as it affects its performance. In this work, we propose a 320 Gbps, 32 channel's hybrid fiber + FSO system using cost efficient On OFF Key modulation by incorporating hybrid dense wavelength division multiplexing scheme. Each channel carries 10 Gbps data segregated by 100 GHz channel spacing. Also, the effect of variant climatic turbulence analyzed for non-return to zero and Return to zero system considering clear sky, light fog, moderate fog and dense fog conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) refurbishes the infected erythrocytes by exporting a myriad of parasite proteins to the host cell. A novel exported protein family 'Plasmodium Helical Interspersed Subtelomeric' (PHIST) has gained attention for its significant roles in parasite biology. Here, we have collected and analysed available information on PHIST members to enhance understanding of their functions, varied localization and structure-function correlation. Functional diversity of PHIST proteins is highlighted by their involvement in PfEMP1 (Pf erythrocyte membrane protein 1) expression, trafficking and switching. This family also contributes to cytoadherence, gametocytogenesis, host cell modification and generation of extracellular vesicles. While the PHIST domain forms the hallmark of this family, existence and functions of additional domains (LyMP, TIGR01639) and the MEC motif underscores its diversity further. Since specific PHIST proteins seem to form pairs with PfEMP1 members, we have used in silico tools to predict such potential partners in Pf. This information and our analysis of structural data on a PHIST member provide important insights into their functioning. This review overall enables readers to view the PHIST family comprehensively, while highlighting key knowledge gaps in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of plastic debris produced worldwide and its detrimental impacts on the environment and human health have led to rising demand for bio-plastic, or polyhydroxyalkanoate, as a replacement to synthetic plastic manufactured from petroleum. The usefulness of agricultural waste as a prime source of carbon for Polyhydroxyalkanoate production and aids in the valorization of the waste. The study optimizes sulfuric acid pre-treated wheat straw (SAPWS) along with inoculum size, temperature, and incubation period using Box-Behnken design (BBD). The maximum Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) yield (0.250 g/L) and productivity (0.521%) by Bacillus paranthracis RSKS-3. were found at 10 g/L SAPWS, 5% inoculum size, 7.4 pH, and 48 h of the incubation period. The observed estimations were in statistical accord with the anticipated values of 0.247 g/L and 0.508%. Based on PHA production using SAPWS as a carbon source, 1.2 g/L was produced with was 5.29-fold increment as compared to standard glucose (10 g/L) that produced 0.34 g/L PHA. The characteristic properties of extracted PHA were similar to the standard PHA. Conclusively, agricultural waste possibly will be utilized as an alternative and a renewable feedstock for green synthesis of PHA production.Graphical Abstract: The increasing number of plastic debris produced worldwide and its detrimental impacts on the environment and human health have led to rising demand for bio-plastic, or polyhydroxyalkanoate, as a replacement to synthetic plastic manufactured from petroleum. The usefulness of agricultural waste as a prime source of carbon for Polyhydroxyalkanoate production and aids in the valorization of the waste. The study optimizes sulfuric acid pre-treated wheat straw (SAPWS) along with inoculum size, temperature, and incubation period using Box-Behnken design (BBD). The maximum Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) yield (0.250 g/L) and productivity (0.521%) by Bacillus paranthracis RSKS-3. were found at 10 g/L SAPWS, 5% inoculum size, 7.4 pH, and 48 h of the incubation period. The observed estimations were in statistical accord with the anticipated values of 0.247 g/L and 0.508%. Based on PHA production using SAPWS as a carbon source, 1.2 g/L was produced with was 5.29-fold increment as compared to standard glucose (10 g/L) that produced 0.34 g/L PHA. The characteristic properties of extracted PHA were similar to the standard PHA. Conclusively, agricultural waste possibly will be utilized as an alternative and a renewable feedstock for green synthesis of PHA production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]