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Notwithstanding decades of progress since Yukawa first developed a description of the force between nucleons in terms of meson exchange, a full understanding of the strong interaction remains a major challenge in modern science. One remaining difficulty arises from the non-perturbative nature of the strong force, which leads to the phenomenon of quark confinement at distances on the order of the size of the proton. Here we show that in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where quarks and gluons are set free over an extended volume, two species of produced vector (spin-1) mesons, namely $\phi$ and $K^{*0}$, emerge with a surprising pattern of global spin alignment. In particular, the global spin alignment for $\phi$ is unexpectedly large, while that for $K^{*0}$ is consistent with zero. The observed spin-alignment pattern and magnitude for the $\phi$ cannot be explained by conventional mechanisms, while a model with a connection to strong force fields, i.e. an effective proxy description within the Standard Model and Quantum Chromodynamics, accommodates the current data. This connection, if fully established, will open a potential new avenue for studying the behaviour of strong force fields.

Rapid changes in land use, pollution inputs, and climate are altering the quantity, timing, and form of materials delivered from watersheds to estuaries. To better characterize these alterations simultaneous measurements of biogeochemical conditions in watersheds and estuaries over a range of times scales are needed. We examined the strength of watershed-estuarine biogeochemical coupling using in situ measurements of nitrate, terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chloride collected over a 7-month period in a nitrogen-impaired estuary in northeastern US. The watershed exerted strong control over concentrations of terrestrially derived DOC in the estuary, attributable to relative homogeneity of watershed sources from forested land combined with relatively conservative behavior in estuarine waters. Estuarine nitrate patterns were more complex, suggesting the influence of heterogeneous watershed distribution of non-point and point sources and high reactivity of nitrate in the estuary. Understanding estuarine biogeochemical patterns will be advanced through greater use of simultaneous sub-hourly measurements of inflows, salinity, and water quality in estuaries and their upstream watersheds.

Nowadays, digital data is an important asset for every organization. With the advent of cloud computing, cloud service providers (CSPs) offer the required infrastructure to end-users for storage and provide flexibility in accessing data. Since the users access the data from the cloud through the Internet, the data stored in the cloud are exposed to various intrusions. Intrusion detection is considered to be a significant issue in the cloud. The existing techniques are capable to detect well-known attacks but fall short in detecting low frequent attacks. To address this issue, we propose a novel intrusion detection system (IDS) in the cloud using a combination of kernel fuzzy c-means clustering (KFCM) and an optimal type-2 fuzzy neural network (OT2FNN). To achieve this, we optimally select the parameters of T2FNN using the lion optimization algorithm (LOA) for weight optimization. The proposed IDS detects the intrusion and allow only normal data to be stored in the cloud. Simulation results on the NSL-KDD dataset show that the proposed IDS system gives better results than the existing IDS systems in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure.

Scholars have often criticized Hinduism for being an ecologically unfriendly religion, due to being too “other worldly” and “indifferent” toward the natural world. According to Hindus, they argue that the natural world is simply māyā—“ephemeral,” “illusory,” and “unreal.” The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for example, features over 60 passages that reduce the material world to nothing more than a passing dream (svapna). (For an extensive discussion on this topic, please refer to my book, Māyā in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Human Suffering and Divine Play (Oxford University Press, 2020)). Meanwhile, other scholars have tried to correct this image by pointing to passages in Indian sacred literature that highlight the divinity of nature, as well as Hindu rituals that involve worshiping the earth, plants, animals, trees, water, sun, and sky. This paper will argue, however, that both the scholarly criticisms and responses are problematic for two reasons. First, these discussions often assume that a religious practitioner’s beliefs concerning the world and environment directly correspond to her attitude toward, and treatment of, the environment. Second, the scholarly criticisms and responses are based on a narrow interpretation and understanding of the concept of māyā. The word “māyā” has held a variety of meanings in Indian sacred literature. This paper focuses on conceptions of māyā found within the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and explores resources in the Bhāgavata that may be useful for developing a Vaiṣṇava ecotheology.

Clitoria ternatea (L.) is a medicinal leguminous plant and is cultivated to cater the need of herbal industries and asthetic purposes. The unavailability of steady molecular marker impedes the genetic improvement of C. ternatea. In the present study, transferability of 98 pairs of Cajanus spp. specific SSR primers were assessed among 14 genotypes of C. ternatea, varied for their flower color, floral architecture and bio-metabolite (taraxerol and delphinidin) content, and out of them 43 had successfully amplified the fragments. Among them, 36 pairs of primers showed 100% transferability, whereas rest seven varied from 42.86 to 92.85% transferability. The transferable 43 pairs of SSR primers generated 196 alleles across the 14 genotypes and the AMOVA analysis showed moderate genetic variation (55.1%) among the genotypes of C. ternatea, which was also reinforced by Nei’s genetic distance and gene identity estimates derived haplotype matrix. Similarly, both the principal coordinate analysis and dendrogram grouped these 14 genotypes of C. ternatea into two major clusters based on SSR allele distribution and frequency, and the clustering pattern is in accordance with petal color but in contrast to floral architecture. MCheza based outlier analysis revealed 16 alleles for balancing selection, which are putatively involved in the maintenance of genetic polymorphism in C. ternatea. Moreover, the estimates of molecular diversity and bio-metabolite content revealed the possible use of these genotypes in future breeding programme of this species.

The present study attempted to demonstrate the potential application of Kraft lignin (KL) from sugarcane baggasse biomass in the bio-therapeutic areas. Novel conjugate materials (Dex-ald–KL and BSA–KL) were synthesized incorporating KL into dextran aldehyde (Dex-ald) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) via a free radical reaction involving reactive oxygen species induced by ascorbic acid/H2O2 redox pair and studied using various physico-chemical techniques. UV–Visible spectral analysis of the resulting conjugates proved the enhanced conjugation (matrix formation) between constituent biopolymers due to formation of intermolecular linkages. Visual changes were observed in the X-ray diffractogram (XRD) peaks of the conjugates in comparison to free components. Cell viability of the novel conjugate materials was found to decrease by ~ 55–61% against colon cancerous cells (SW480) proving its efficacy as anti-cancer agent while the quantity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) level markedly increased on treatment with conjugate material in comparison to Dex-ald, KL and BSA alone. The above evidences indicated that the conjugates with even low amounts of lignin incorporation exhibited remarkable cytotoxicity suggesting their practical use in the treatment of certain type of cancers.

The Northeast India and its adjacent areas converge among the three different plates, viz. Eurasia, India and Sunda plates. The tectonic interaction of Northeast India and underlying dynamics of the Himalayas as well as the Indo-Burma Ranges might cause the Assam Syntaxis. The area of study is located between latitude 23°–28°N and longitude 88°–96°E and situated in one of the most seismically active tectonic provinces in the world with seismic zone-V. This area had demonstrated several thrust faults activities and tectonic evident accomplishments during the recent past. The complicated geotectonic setups inspirits various smaller magnitude earthquakes, and the current seismicity shows seismic activities are still enduring in the Shillong Plateau, Arakan-Yoma fold belt, Bengal Basin, Naga Hills, Mikir Hills, Upper–Lower Brahmaputra Valley and Mismi Hills of Himalayan foothills. It is imperative to obtain wide-ranging learning tectonic configuration, thrust faults delineation for improved geoscientific study. Parts of the areas are extremely unreachable, and very limited thrust faults were marked by studying GIS map received from the various agencies and field geological study. During the past studies, most of the prominent lineaments/thrusts are marked; however, many active and hidden thrust faults are still unidentified. Seismic data can provide better information about the thrust faults locations, but due to small number of seismic data, the information is not adequate. In this paper, attempt has been made to study and reinterpret the available ground gravity data of northeastern parts of India for understanding thrust fault locations using various applications of gravity derivatives like analytical signal, horizontal gravity gradient, tilt derivative, horizontal tilt angle derivative and Cos(θ) analysis. Source edge detection technique has also been premeditated to categorize thrust fault locations. It is understandable that the low gravity is observed at Assam Valley which contributed sediment accumulations and higher gravity anomaly observed at Shillong Plateau and Bengal Basin containing denser formations. Bouguer gravity data is used after isostatic correction assuming Airy’s isostasy root depth model and first-order trend removal using least square technique. The derived thrust fault locations from the present study are superimposed with the existing thrust-fault locations for correlation. Some additional thrust faults are narrated which are not previously mapped. It is also suggested that Brahmaputra Thrust, Dauki Fault, Naga Thrust, Disang Thrust and Kopili Fault have key responsibility for high seismicity and tectonic movement causing upliftment and depression that encouraged some anticlockwise rotation in the area.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Renewable energy based off-grid projects have played a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s universal electrification effort. The paper in this context unravels two crucial and quite interrelated aspects of decentralised off-grid energy development in the country; i) to critically analyse the off-grid electricity sector development and assess its contribution to the universal electrification in the country, and ii) to examine the current challenges associated with the off-grid sector in the larger context of massive grid expansion. A mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods is employed as an analytical tool. The paper brings out several policy relevant findings. Strategic policy interventions coupled with targeted policy goals, robust community centric interventions, well designed credit systems, and well-structured capacity building initiatives are identified to be key leveraging points for success of off-grid micro-hydro projects. The techno-economic analysis of existing micro-hydro project reveals there exist opportunity for more productive use of such projects. Grid interconnection of off-grid energy projects is a major emerging challenge involving a whole gamut of technical, legal, regulatory, financial and social issues. Interestingly, the intensity of these challenges differs across ownership types.

To examine the association of muscle-strengthening activities (MSA) and cancer mortality. We pooled data from the 1998 to 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which were linked to records in the National Death Index. Mortality follow-up was through 31 December 2011. Based on U.S. federal guidelines for physical activity, we dichotomized MSA and compared those who performed MSA twice a week or more to others with lower MSA. We also examined dose–response relationship of MSA frequency with cancer mortality. Hazard ratios (HR) from Cox regression were computed to estimate the association of MSA with the risk of cancer mortality. Mean follow-up was 7.9 years and the analysis sample size was 310,282. Covariate-adjusted results showed that meeting the MSA guideline was associated with a 19% lower risk of cancer mortality (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.73, 0.90). We found no evidence of a dose–response relationship between the frequency of performing MSA and cancer mortality. Adhering to the U.S. federal guideline for MSA is associated with lower cancer mortality. Public health programs and policy for cancer prevention and control should promote MSA to further reduce cancer mortality.

This Paper proposes a Bayesian approach to find out the optimum stopping rule of software testing. We consider a discrete periodic debugging framework so that software can be released for market once the criteria are fulfilled. Simplification of stopping rules were obtained by using some specific prior distributions of the number of remaining bugs. We also develop necessary and sufficient conditions for stopping the software testing. Some illustrative examples are presented.

Various bioactive agrowastes derived phenolic compounds (APCs) obtained from agrowastes lignin hydrolyzed methods and evaluated for their potential antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-quorum activities with special reference to food borne pathogens. Half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of isolated phenolic compounds against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals have been found in the range of 53–84 µg/mL, whereas samples obtained by hydrolysis in absence of acid have shown the (IC50) values of ~ 120 µg/mL. The APCs have shown significant antimicrobial activity against Gram positive (Bacillus subtilis) as compared to Gram negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. The bacterial killing as well as anti-quorum sensing activity (inhibiting the violacein production) has been observed against Chromobacterium violaceum. Flow cytometric analysis has been also confirmed the cell death occurs in Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The present study suggests that APCs derived from agro-wastes can serve as an important source of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents. The natural ingredients will be considered as emerging materials for food packaging.

This paper develops a new identification result for the causal ordering of observation units in a recursive network or directed acyclic graph. Inferences are developed for an unknown spatial weights matrix in a spatial lag model under the assumption of recursive ordering. The performance of the methods in finite sample settings is very good. Application to data on portfolio returns produces interesting new evidences on the contemporaneous lead–lag relationships between the portfolios and generates superior predictions.

Rifabutin (RFB) is prescribed for the treatment of tuberculosis infections as well as Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection in immunocompromised individuals and HIV patients. With a view to develop a sustained release oral solid lipid nanoformulation (SLN), RFB was encapsulated in glyceryl monostearate (GMS) nanoparticles. The rifabutin solid lipid nanoparticles (RFB-SLNs), prepared by the solvent diffusion evaporation method, had a size of 345 ± 17.96 nm and PDI of 0.321 ± 0.09. The stability of RFB-SLNs was investigated in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) pH 2.0, simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) pH 6.8 and physiological buffer (PBS) pH 7.4. The gastric medium did not affect the SLNs and were found to be stable, while a sustained release was observed in SIF up to 48 h and in PBS up to 7 days. The pharmacokinetic profile of a single oral administration of RFB-SLNs in mice showed maintenance of therapeutic drug concentrations in plasma for 4 days and in the tissues (lungs, liver and spleen) for 7 days. Oral administration of free RFB showed clearance from plasma within 24 h. The relative bioavailability of RFB from SLNs was five fold higher as compared to administration with free RFB. The intent of using lipid nanocarriers is primarily to enhance the oral bioavailability of rifabutin and eventually decrease the dose and dosing frequency for successful management of MAC infection.

Plants in response to different environmental cues need to modulate the expression of nuclear and chloroplast genomes that are in constant communication. To understand the signals that are responsible for inter-organellar communication, levulinic acid (LA), an inhibitor of 5-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase, was used to suppress the synthesis of pyrrole-derived tetrapyrroles chlorophylls. Although, it does not specifically inhibit carotenoid biosynthesis enzymes, LA reduced the carotenoid contents during photomorphogenesis of etiolated Arabidopsis seedlings. The expression of nuclear genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis, i.e., geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase, phytoene synthase, and phytoene desaturase, was downregulated in LA-treated seedlings. Similarly, the transcript abundance of nuclear genes, i.e., Lhcb1, PsbO, and RcbS, coding for chloroplastic proteins was severely attenuated in LA-treated samples. In contrast, LA treatment did not affect the transcript abundance of chalcone synthase, a marker gene for cytoplasm, and β-ATP synthase, a marker gene for mitochondria. This demonstrates the retrograde signaling from chloroplast to nucleus to suppress chloroplastic proteins during impaired chloroplast development. However, under identical conditions in LA-treated tetrapyrrole-deficient gun5 mutant, retrograde signal continued. The tetrapyrrole biosynthesis inhibitor LA suppressed formation of all tetrapyrroles both in WT and gun5. This rules out the role of tetrapyrroles as signaling molecules in WT and gun5. The removal of LA from the Arabidopsis seedlings restored the chlorophyll and carotenoid contents and expression of nuclear genes coding for chloroplastic proteins involved in chloroplast biogenesis. Therefore, LA could be used to modulate chloroplast biogenesis at a desired phase of chloroplast development.

Sepsis is a complex inflammatory disorder believed to originate from an infection by any types of microbes and/or their products. It is the leading cause of death in intensive care units (ICUs) throughout the globe. The mortality rates depend both on the severity of infection and the host’s response to infection. Literature survey on pathobiology of sepsis in general and failure of more than hundred clinical trials conducted so far in search of a possible cure for sepsis resulted in the preparation of this manuscript. Sepsis lacks a suitable animal model that mimics human sepsis. However, based on the results obtained in animal models of sepsis, clinical trials conducted so far have been disappointing. Although involvement of multiple mediators and pathways in sepsis has been recognized, only few components are being targeted and this could be the major reason behind the failure of clinical trials. Inability to recognize a single critical mediator of sepsis may be the underlying cause for the poor therapeutic intervention of sepsis. Therefore, sepsis is still considered as a disease—in search of cure.

Diet is a major determinant of obesity; however, findings from the studies examining how dieting to lose weight affects weight gain have been inconclusive. Our aim was to examine the longitudinal association of frequency of dieting for weight loss with (a) obesity status and (b) body mass index (BMI) change. We used data from Waves 9 (2009) and 10 (2010) of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Binominal logistic regression estimated the association of frequency of dieting in 2009 on probability of obesity in 2010. Multinomial logistic regression estimated the association of frequency of dieting in 2009 on the probability of BMI gain versus BMI maintenance and BMI loss between 2009 and 2010. The analysis sample size was 8824. Compared to those who were never on a diet in the previous year, the odds of obesity were 1.9, 2.9, and 3.2 times higher among those who were on a diet once, more than once, and always, respectively. Similarly, the odds of BMI gain versus BMI maintenance and also versus BMI loss were higher among those who dieted than those who did not. Dieting to lose weight can contribute to the risk of future obesity and weight gain. Losing weight requires a commitment to change one’s lifestyle and a sustained effort to maintain a healthy diet and engage in physical activity.

This paper analyzes an augmented political business cycle model taking into account the effect of employment creation decisions by the ruling party jointly on inflation and growth. The objective is to maximize voter support in the next election that depends on the rate of unemployment as well as that of growth and inflation. We allow for stochasticity in the New Keynesian Phillips Curve model for the relationship between inflation and unemployment as well as in a benchmark labour productivity function for analyzing the growth rate. We provide explicit solution paths of the affine Markov control problem that results from our formulation. We also provide numerical illustrations with plausible parametric configurations to generate more insight into our model. Our results are broadly in line with the conventional wisdom of Phillips curve, with inflation and unemployment being roughly negatively related. The growth rate is, as expected, negatively related to the unemployment. We observe that, in the sequel, it is the lowering of the rate of inflation that provides support for the ruling party. Thus, electoral pressures drive the government to engage in cost control rather than productive investment (e.g., boosting employment or output growth).

An efficient one-pot synthesis of fused thiazolopyridinone derivatives (5-amino-6,7-diphenyl-4,7-dihydro-3H-thiazolo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-ones) by four-component reaction of aldehyde, benzylcyanide, ammonium acetate and thiazolidine-2,4-dione in ionic liquid is reported. This protocol has the advantages of environmental friendliness, higher yields, less reaction time, and convenient operation. Also, optimization of the synthesized compounds has been done using Hyperchem 8.0.

In this paper we show that the continuous version of the self-normalized process Yn,p(t) = Sn(t)/Vn,p + (nt − [nt])X[nt] + 1/Vn,p,0 0 where \(S_n(t)=\sum_{i=1}^{[nt]} X_i\) and \(V_{(n,p)}=(\sum_{i=1}^{n}|X_i|^p)^{1/p}\) and Xi i.i.d. random variables belong to DA(α), has a non-trivial distribution iff p = α = 2. The case for 2 > p > α and p ≤ α < 2 is systematically eliminated by showing that either of tightness or finite dimensional convergence to a non-degenerate limiting distribution does not hold. This work is an extension of the work by Csorgő et al. who showed Donsker’s theorem for Yn,2(·), i.e., for p = 2, holds iff α = 2 and identified the limiting process as a standard Brownian motion in sup norm.

We analyzed international patterns and socioeconomic and rural-urban disparities in all-cause mortality and mortality from homicide, suicide, unintentional injuries, and HIV/AIDS among US youth aged 15-24 years. A county-level socioeconomic deprivation index and rural-urban continuum measure were linked to the 1999-2007 US mortality data. Mortality rates were calculated for each socioeconomic and rural-urban group. Poisson regression was used to derive adjusted relative risks of youth mortality by deprivation level and rural-urban residence. The USA has the highest youth homicide rate and 6th highest overall youth mortality rate in the industrialized world. Substantial socioeconomic and rural-urban gradients in youth mortality were observed within the USA. Compared to their most affluent counterparts, youth in the most deprived group had 1.9 times higher all-cause mortality, 8.0 times higher homicide mortality, 1.5 times higher unintentional-injury mortality, and 8.8 times higher HIV/AIDS mortality. Youth in rural areas had significantly higher mortality rates than their urban counterparts regardless of deprivation levels, with suicide and unintentional-injury mortality risks being 1.8 and 2.3 times larger in rural than in urban areas. However, youth in the most urbanized areas had at least 5.6 times higher risks of homicide and HIV/AIDS mortality than their rural counterparts. Disparities in mortality differed by race and sex. Socioeconomic deprivation and rural-urban continuum were independently related to disparities in youth mortality among all sex and racial/ethnic groups, although the impact of deprivation was considerably greater. The USA ranks poorly in all-cause mortality, youth homicide, and unintentional-injury mortality rates when compared with other industrialized countries.