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For having an in-depth study and analysis of various network’s structural properties such as interconnection, extensibility, availability, centralization, vulnerability and reliability, we require distance based graph theoretic parameters. Numerous parameters like distance based dimensions help in designing queuing models in restaurants, public health and service facilities and production lines. Likewise, allocations of robots in several production units are indebted to these. Moreover, chemists and druggists use these parameters in finding out new drug type and structural formula of a chemical compound. In this article, we are finding out the extremal values of local fractional metric dimension of a class of network bearing convex as well as symmetric properties known by the name of convex polytopes. Also we have related the significance of our findings towards the end of the manuscript in the form of fire exit plan. The same will serve as a guide for future architects in planning a floor with a conducive fire exit plan.

This investigation aims to present the unsteady motion of second grade fluid in an oscillating duct induced by rectified sine pulses. Some of the most dominant means for solving problems in engineering, mathematics and physics are transform methods. The objective is to modify the domain of the present problem to a new domain which is easier for evaluation. Such modifications can be done by different ways, one such way is by using transforms. In present work Fourier sine transform and Laplace transform techniques are used. The solution thus obtained is in form of steady state, with combination of transient solution which fulfills all required initial and boundary conditions. The influence of various parameters of interest for both developing and retarding flows on the flow characteristics will also be sketched and discussed. Also, the problem is reduced to the flow model where side walls are absent by bringing the aspect ratio parameter (ratio of length to width) to zero.

Abstract Background Melatonin played an essential role in numerous vital life processes of animals and captured the interests of plant biologists because of its potent role in plants as well. As far as its possible contribution to photoperiodic processes, melatonin is believed to act as a growth regulator and a direct free radical scavenger/indirect antioxidant. The objective of this study to identify a precise melatonin concentration for a particular application method to improve plant growth requires identification and clarification. Methods This work establishes unique findings by optimizing melatonin concentration in alleviating the detrimental effects of drought stress in maize. Maize plants were subjected to drought stress (40–45% FC) after treatments of melatonin soil drenching at different concentrations (50, 100, and 150 µM) to consider the changes of growth attribute, chlorophyll contents, photosynthetic rate, relative water content (RWC), chloroplast ultrastructure, endogenous hormonal mechanism, and grain yield. Results Our results showed that the application of melatonin treatments remarkably improved the plant growth attributes, chlorophyll contents, photosynthetic rate, RWC, hormonal mechanism, and grain yield plant−1 under drought conditions at a variable rate. Conclusion Our current findings hereby confirmed the mitigating potential of melatonin application 100 µM for drought stress by maintaining plant growth, hormone content, and grain yield of maize. We conclude that the application of melatonin to maize is effective in reducing drought stress tolerance. Graphical Abstract

With the rapid increase in the world’s population, the global electricity demand has increased drastically. Therefore, it is required to adopt efficient energy management mechanisms. Since the energy consumption trends are rather dynamic. Therefore, precise energy demand estimation and short and/or long-term forecasting results with higher accuracy are required to develop the optimization and control mechanism. Consequently, the machine learning (ML) techniques along with distributed demand response programs are being adopted to predict the future energy demand requirement with satisfactory results. In this paper, different state-of-the-art ML algorithms such as logistic regression (LR), support vector machines (SVM), naive Bayes (NB), decision tree classifier (DTC), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and neural networks (NNs), have been implemented to analyze their performance. The main objective of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of ML algorithms for short-term load forecasting (STLF) regarding accuracy and forecast error. Based on the implementation and analysis, we have identified that, among other algorithms, the DTC provides comparatively better results. Therefore, we devised the enhanced DTC (EDTC) by integrating fitting function, loss function, and gradient boosting in DTC mathematical model for fine-tuning the control variables. The implementation results show that the proposed EDTC algorithm provides better forecast results (i.e., 99.9 % recall, 100% F1, 100% precision, 99.21 % training accuracy, and 99.70% testing accuracy.)

Wikification is the process of linking the entities found in a sample text to their individual Wikipedia or Wikidata pages. Many natural language processing applications, including question-answering systems, information retrieval, fraud detection, and recommendation systems(RS), can benefit from this information extraction technique. There has been a great deal of effort put towards entity-linking(EL) for both Asian and Western languages, with several datasets and numerous proposed methodologies. Despite millions of Urdu language users globally, relatively little entity-linking research has been done for Urdu. This work proposes an Urdu EL pipeline to identify named entities in text and link them to Wikidata. Secondly, a dataset of 550 Urdu news titles relating to their respective Wiki-ids has been prepared for the examination. Third, utilizing the proposed EL pipeline, 16738 news articles from the first-ever Urdu news RS dataset of 100 users are annotated. Fourthly, a sub Knowledge graph (KG) of 8439 entities and 23080 relationship tuples is retrieved from Wikidata. The Trans-E algorithm is then used to create KG embeddings so that the extracted KG may be used in an Urdu news RS. The final accuracy of Urdu news RS is 60.8%.

Today, Android is one of the most used operating systems in smartphone technology. This is the main reason, Android has become the favorite target for hackers and attackers. Malicious codes are being embedded in Android applications in such a sophisticated manner that detecting and identifying an application as a malware has become the toughest job for security providers. In terms of ingenuity and cognition, Android malware has progressed to the point where they’re more impervious to conventional detection techniques. Approaches based on machine learning have emerged as a much more effective way to tackle the intricacy and originality of developing Android threats. They function by first identifying current patterns of malware activity and then using this information to distinguish between identified threats and unidentified threats with unknown behavior. This research paper uses Reverse Engineered Android applications’ features and Machine Learning algorithms to find vulnerabilities present in Smartphone applications. Our contribution is twofold. Firstly, we propose a model that incorporates more innovative static feature sets with the largest current datasets of malware samples than conventional methods. Secondly, we have used ensemble learning with machine learning algorithms i.e., AdaBoost, Support Vector Machine (SVM), etc. to improve our model’s performance. Our experimental results and findings exhibit 96.24% accuracy to detect extracted malware from Android applications, with a 0.3 False Positive Rate (FPR). The proposed model incorporates ignored detrimental features such as permissions, intents, Application Programming Interface (API) calls, and so on, trained by feeding a solitary arbitrary feature, extracted by reverse engineering as an input to the machine.

Background: Trans-femoral amputation (TFA) is an undesirable transaction of lower limb at the femoral level necessitating the use of a prosthetic device essentially requiring prolonged rehabilitation to ensure ambulation of the patient and integration into daily routine Objectives: The objective of the study was to find the association of quality of life with body mass index in patients using trans femoral prosthesis after amputation Methodology: Current Cross-Sectional study using convenience sampling recruited N=400 trans-femoral prosthesis users from PIPOS. Sample included both genders with age range of 12-60 years, using prosthesis > 1 year while orthosis users were excluded. SF-36 Health Survey tool & Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) were utilized for collection of data & analyzed utilizing SPSS Version 21. Results: LEFS items revealed association (p

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of students and physicians regarding tissue and organ donation at a teaching hospital. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, in 2019, and comprised physicians and students of ether gender. Data was collected using a 43-item self-administered questionnaire. Dichotomous questions were scored as 1 or 0, while multiple-option questions were scored as 2, 1 or 0. Data was analysed using SPSS 25. Results: Of the 859 subjects, 761(88.6%) were students with a mean age of 20.3±1.5 years and 98(11.4%) were physicians with a mean age of 30.6±9.4. Among the students, 630(82.8%) were medical students, while 131(17.2%) were dental. The largest group among the students was of those in the second year of their studies 271(35.6%). Besides, 531(69.8%) and 64(65.3%) physician were females. Compared to males, female students reported better mean scores in terms of attitude, while higher practice scores were obtained by both male students and physicians (p=0.021). Muslim subjects scored comparatively lower in knowledge, attitude and practice terms than non-Muslims (p

The stock market is the barometer of the economy that reflects the overall health and direction of the economic development and is affected by different factors including social, environmental and political. It is important to investigate the effect of the political instability on the stock market performance, especially on emerging economies. Therefore, we aim to study the relationship between political instability and stock market performance in Pakistan. To meet our objectives, we used past data from 1996 to 2021. Data are collected from the DataStream data base. MSCI indices are used as the proxy for the Stock market performance of the selected country. World governance six indicators are used in the study as the explanatory variable concentrating the political instability index as the main explanatory variable. Regression analysis is used but two-way robustness analysis was done for the accuracy of the findings through GMM methods and taking GDP as another endogenous variable. Our findings shows that the political stability has significant positive impact on the stock market performance while, political instability has negative impact on stock market performance. Moreover, other governance indicators has a significant positive impact on performance. However, political instability disrupts the operations and economical activities that leads to decrease the investor confidence and also decrease the foreign investment with the increment of the risk in the country. Moreover, our study has some implications for investors to develop the diversified portfolio to minimize the risk and policy makers can increase their foreign direct investment within the economy by controlling the political instability.

Humanity has always benefited from an intercapillary study in the quantification of natural occurrences in mathematics and other pure scientific fields. Graph theory was extremely helpful to other studies, particularly in the applied sciences. Specifically, in chemistry, graph theory made a significant contribution. For this, a transformation is required to create a graph representing a chemical network or structure, where the vertices of the graph represent the atoms in the chemical compound and the edges represent the bonds between the atoms. The quantity of edges that are incident to a vertex determines its valency (or degree) in a graph. The degree of uncertainty in a system is measured by the entropy of a probability. This idea is heavily grounded in statistical reasoning. It is primarily utilized for graphs that correspond to chemical structures. The development of some novel edge-weighted based entropies that correspond to valency-based topological indices is made possible by this research. Then these compositions are applied to clay mineral tetrahedral sheets. Since they have been in use for so long, corresponding indices are thought to be the most effective methods for quantifying chemical graphs. This article develops multiple edge degree-based entropies that correlate to the indices and determines how to modify them in order to assess the significance of each type.

Cataracts are the problems associated with the crystallins proteins of the eye lens. Any perturbation in the conformity of these proteins results in a cataract. Age-related cataract is the most common type among all cataracts as it accounts for almost 80% of cases of senile blindness worldwide. This research study was performed to predict the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the GJA8 gene with age-related cataracts in 718 subjects (400 age-related cataract patients and 318 healthy individuals). A comparison of supervised machine learning classification algorithm including logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) were presented to predict the age-related cataracts. The results indicated that LR is the best for predicting age-related cataracts. This successfully developed model after accounting different genetic and demographic factors to predict cataracts will help in effective disease management and decision-making medical practitioner and experts.

Chemical graph theory is currently expanding the use of topological indices to numerically encode chemical structure. The prediction of the characteristics provided by the chemical structure of the molecule is a key feature of these topological indices. The concepts from graph theory are presented in a brief discussion of one of its many applications to chemistry, namely, the use of topological indices in quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies and quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) studies. This study uses the M-polynomial approach, a newly discovered technique, to determine the topological indices of the medication fenofibrate. With the use of degree-based topological indices, we additionally construct a few novel degree based topological descriptors of fenofibrate structure using M-polynomial. When using M-polynomials in place of degree-based indices, the computation of the topological indices can be completed relatively quickly. The topological indices are also plotted. Using M-polynomial, we compute novel formulas for the modified first Zagreb index, modified second Zagreb index, first and second hyper Zagreb indices, SK index, SK1 index, SK2 index, modified Albertson index, redefined first Zagreb index, and degree-based topological indices.

IntroductionBreeding for tick resistance is a sustainable alternative to control cattle ticks due to widespread resistance to acaricidal drugs and the lack of a protective vaccine. The most accurate method used to characterise the phenotype for tick resistance in field studies is the standard tick count, but this is labour-intensive and can be hazardous to the operator. Efficient genetic selection requires reliable phenotyping or biomarker(s) for accurately identifying tick-resistant cattle. Although breed-specific genes associated with tick resistance have been identified, the mechanisms behind tick resistance have not yet been fully characterised.MethodsThis study applied quantitative proteomics to examine the differential abundance of serum and skin proteins using samples from naïve tick-resistant and -susceptible Brangus cattle at two-time points following tick exposure. The proteins were digested into peptides, followed by identification and quantification using sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectrometry.ResultsResistant naïve cattle had a suite of proteins associated with immune response, blood coagulation and wound healing that were significantly (adjusted P < 10- 5) more abundant compared with susceptible naïve cattle. These proteins included complement factors (C3, C4, C4a), alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), beta-2-glycoprotein-1, keratins (KRT1 & KRT3) and fibrinogens (alpha & beta). The mass spectrometry findings were validated by identifying differences in the relative abundance of selected serum proteins with ELISA. The proteins showing a significantly different abundance in resistant cattle following early and prolonged tick exposures (compared to resistant naïve) were associated with immune response, blood coagulation, homeostasis, and wound healing. In contrast, susceptible cattle developed some of these responses only after prolonged tick exposure.DiscussionResistant cattle were able to transmigrate immune-response related proteins towards the tick bite sites, which may prevent tick feeding. Significantly differentially abundant proteins identified in this research in resistant naïve cattle may provide a rapid and efficient protective response to tick infestation. Physical barrier (skin integrity and wound healing) mechanisms and systemic immune responses were key contributors to resistance. Immune response-related proteins such as C4, C4a, AGP and CGN1 (naïve samples), CD14, GC and AGP (post-infestation) should be further investigated as potential biomarkers for tick resistance.

Grazing on cultivated grassland is a green agricultural model. However, in China's Loess Plateau, the type of cultivated grassland suitable for grazing and the amount of nitrogen application is still unclear, which has led to the failure of this model to be widely implemented. In this context, we set up an experiment using three grass planting types, including monoculture of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), monoculture of brome (Bromus inermis L.), and mixed planting of the two forages. Under each planting type, there were six management measures: grazing and no nitrogen application (GN1), grazing and 80 kg ha-1 nitrogen application (GN2), grazing and 160 kg ha-1 nitrogen application (GN3), cutting and no nitrogen application (MN1), cutting and 80 kg ha-1 nitrogen application (MN2), and cutting and 160 kg ha-1 nitrogen application (MN3). To explore the impacts of these treatments on pastures, we studied the effects on the yield, quality, and water use efficiency of the three cultivated grasslands. Results showed that alfalfa monoculture and alfalfa-brome mixed sowing grassland resulted in significantly higher hay yield, crude protein yield, water use efficiency (WUE), precipitation use efficiency (PUE), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and agronomic efficiency of nitrogen (AEN) as compared to brome monoculture grassland. In addition, the crude protein, ether extract, and crude ash content of alfalfa monoculture and alfalfa-brome mixture were increased significantly while the contents of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were reduced, thereby increasing the relative feed value (RFV) during the two years. The forage hay yield, crude protein yield, ether extract, crude ash content, RFV, PUE, and WUE were significantly higher with GN1, GN2, and GN3 treatments than that with MN1 treatment. In contrast, the NDF and acid detergent fiber (ADF) content was significantly lower than the MN1 treatment. Furthermore, the fresh forage yield, crude protein yield, PUE, and WUE of GN3 treatment were significantly higher than that of GN1 and GN2 treatments in both years, while the NUE and AEN were significantly higher in GN2 and GN3 treatments than that of MN3 treatment. Based on these results, alfalfa-brome mixed cropping with the application of 160 kg ha-1 nitrogen under grazing conditions is an appropriate management practice for improving the forage yield, quality, and water- and nitrogen utilization efficiency of cultivated grassland in the Loess Plateau of China. This integrated management model is applicable to the cultivation and utilization of mixed grassland on nutrient-poor land in the Loess Plateau.

Optimizing the dose and foliar application frequency of growth regulators such as gibberellic acid (GA3) may play an important role in ensuring food security under changing climate scenarios by boosting grain yield of food legumes such as mungbean. A trial was conducted to evaluate the growth promoting effect of foliage applied gibberellic acid (GA3) at various spraying frequencies for mungbean crop. The employed treatments included four gibberellic acid levels (0, 100, 200, and 300 ppm) and two application frequencies (single spray at 30 days after sowing DAS, and two sprays at 30 and 40 DAS). Water relations, yield contributing characteristics and mungbean grain yield were among the response variables investigated. The research findings revealed that GA3 (200 ppm applied twice at pre-flowering and post-flowering stages) significantly improved the water relations, morphological and yield attributes of mungbean. This treatment combination remained unmatched by producing the highest relative water content in the stem (85.52), water retention capacity in the stem (17.24), and water uptake capacity in the stem and leaf (2.35). Furthermore, the same treatment combination resulted in the maximum plant height (50.04 cm), pods per plant (11.07), pod length (6.62 cm), grains number per pod (11.00), 100-grains weight (3.78 g), grain yield per plant (4.57 g), and a minimum water saturation deficit. Thus, GA3 foliage application at 200 ppm at 30 and 60 DAS has the potential to stimulate growth and increase the yield attributes and grain yield of mungbean. However, additional in-depth field trials with various doses of GA3 sprayed at a higher frequency may be required before recommending GA3 for general adoption to mungbean growers.

Renewable energy sources tied to a utility grid require non-linear control algorithms to provide an efficient and stable output under different operating conditions. The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) approach is necessary for power generation due to non-linear behavior of photovoltaic (PV) power plants. In changing environmental and partial shading conditions, the standard MPPT methods may lead to abnormal results. In this paper, a backstepping based real twisting sliding mode MPPT control is proposed for the PV-battery system where maximum available power is extracted by tracking PV voltage. Moreover, a direct sliding mode control is proposed for battery-integrated buck boost converter for voltage regulation. Reference sliding surface is generated through linear interpolation based on the predicted maximum power point PV voltage. The proposed MPPT strategy is tested against variations of irradiance, temperature, and load. Simulation results highlight superior tracking performance, reduced chattering, and oscillations of this technique over existing models.

Haematobia irritans exigua, commonly known as buffalo fly, is the major hematophagous ectoparasite of north Australian cattle herds. Lesions associated with buffalo fly infestation are generally alopecic, hyperkeratotic, or scab encrusted wounds with variable hemorrhagic ulceration. Buffalo flies can transmit a filarial nematode, Stephanofilaria sp., which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of buffalo fly lesions, but Stephanofilaria infection has not been detected in all lesions suggesting that other causal factors may be involved. This study characterized the pathology of buffalo fly lesions to identify the role of Stephanofilaria in lesion development, as well as to identify other potential agents. Lesion biopsies were collected from north and south Queensland and tested for the presence of Stephanofilaria by qPCR. Each lesion was scored grossly (0–4) for hemorrhage, ulceration, exudation, and alopecia. Lesions were also scored microscopically (0–4) for epidermal and dermal damage and inflammatory characters. Stephanofilaria infection was detected in 31% of lesion biopsies. Grossly, Stephanofilaria-infected lesions had significantly larger lesion area and higher scores for alopecia and hyperkeratosis than lesions where no nematodes were found (P < 0.05). Histologically, epidermal, dermal, and adnexal damage was significantly higher in Stephanofilaria infected lesions than lesions without nematodes. Eosinophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes were significantly more abundant in Stephanofilaria positive lesions as compared to negative lesions. This study also noted bacterial infection with colonies of coccoid bacteria, observed in skin sections from 19 lesions. Grossly, lesions with bacterial infection had significantly higher ulceration scores compared to Stephanofilaria positive lesions, and histologically epidermal disruption was significantly greater in bacteria-infected lesions. We found no evidence of bacteria or Stephanofilaria infection in 49% of the lesions assessed and tissue damage patterns and eosinophilic inflammation suggested hypersensitivity to buffalo fly feeding as a possible cause of these lesions. These findings suggest that although the presence of Stephanofilaria infection may increase the severity of lesion pathology, it is not essential for lesion development. These outcomes also suggest a potential role of bacteria and hypersensitivity in pathogenesis of some lesion. A better understanding of buffalo fly lesion etiology will contribute to the optimal treatment and control programmes.

Objectives: This study aims to determine the association of ambulatory and social performance status of transfemoral prosthetic users with their age, gender, and marital status. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 transfemoral prosthesis users. A sample was recruited from both genders aged 10-60 years using the prosthesis for at least one year. They were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling method from the Pakistan Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Sciences from July 2019 to December 2019. Lower extremity functional scale and short form-36 health survey questionnaire (SF-36) were used for data collection, followed by statistical analysis. Results: Ambulatory status (as measured by the total lower extremity functional scale) revealed significant association (P

OBJECTIVE: To compare the findings of cell blocks and smear examination with fine needle aspirates (FNA) in the diagnosis of superficial palpable head and neck lesions taking histopathology as the gold standard. METHODS: This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad and Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar. Eighty patients of all age groups, having superficial clinically palpable lesions of head and neck region were recruited in the study from August 2014 to August 2015. FNA cytology, cell block and open biopsy were performed in all cases and compared with the histopathological examination. The data was recorded in a proforma and analyzed through SPSS Version-23. RESULTS: Out of 80 patients, 44 (55%) were males and 36 (45%) females. The age of patients ranged from 01-81 years with a mean age of 45.68±20.43 years. Lesions involving lymph nodes (n=31; 38.8%) and salivary gland (n=24; 30%) were common in head and neck region. Tuberculosis (n=15: 48.38%) and pleomorphic adenoma (n=13; 54.16%) were the common lesions involving lymph nodes and salivary glands respectively. Overall, 49 (61.2%) cases were benign/reactive and 31 (38.8%) cases were malignant on histopathology. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value was 74.2%, 95.9%, 92% & 85.5% for FNA smears and 83.9%, 98%, 96.3% and 90.6% for Cell Block respectively in diagnosing head and neck lesions. CONCLUSION: Cell block with better diagnostic accuracy can be used as adjunct to FNA smears in diagnosis of superficial palpable head and neck lesions.

Abstract This article aims to investigate the heat and mass transfer of MHD Oldroyd-B fluid with ramped conditions. The Oldroyd-B fluid is taken as a base fluid (Blood) with a suspension of gold nano-particles, to make the solution of non-Newtonian bio-magnetic nanofluid. The surface medium is taken porous. The well-known equation of Oldroyd-B nano-fluid of integer order derivative has been generalized to a non-integer order derivative. Three different types of definitions of fractional differential operators, like Caputo, Caputo-Fabrizio, Atangana-Baleanu (will be called later as $$C,CF,AB$$ C , C F , A B ) are used to develop the resulting fractional nano-fluid model. The solution for temperature, concentration, and velocity profiles is obtained via Laplace transform and for inverse two different numerical algorithms like Zakian’s, Stehfest’s are utilized. The solutions are also shown in tabular form. To see the physical meaning of various parameters like thermal Grashof number, Radiation factor, mass Grashof number, Schmidt number, Prandtl number etc. are explained graphically and theoretically. The velocity and temperature of nanofluid decrease with increasing the value of gold nanoparticles, while increase with increasing the value of both thermal Grashof number and mass Grashof number. The Prandtl number shows opposite behavior for both temperature and velocity field. It will decelerate both the profile. Also, a comparative analysis is also presented between ours and the existing findings.

Background: Chronic low backache is a commonly affecting problem in our population; it has an economic impact due to the consumption of health expenses in its treatment and rehabilitation. Backache interferes with daily activities of life without discriminating age, gender or race, etc. Our study aimed to determine the role of vitamin B-12 in relieving chronic low backache. Methodology: A comparative study was conducted at Baqai University and Fatima Hospital, Karachi, from May 2019 to April 2020. A total of 496 patients were enrolled and divided into two groups; group I was treated with vitamin B-12 (n=256), and group II (n=240) did not receive vitamin B-12 treatment. Pre-treatment Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores were evaluated. Group II was given calcium supplements and Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) for one month, while group I was given intramuscular injections of vitamin B-12 (500 mcg) on an alternate day for a month along with calcium supplements and NSAIDs. Results: Pre-treatment mean VAS and ODI scores were 6.68 ± 1.45 and 30.11 ± 12.7, while post-treatment VAS and ODI scores were subsequently 3.50 ± 2.07 and 17.73 ± 12.7, respectively. At the end of treatment, a remarkable decrease in ODI and VAS scores was observed after treatment with vitamin B-12 (p

A comprehensive taxonomic assessment of the most agriculturally important and highly diverse spider mite genus, Oligonychus Berlese (Acari: Tetranychidae) was performed. The sub-generic division, species groups, doubtful species, species complexes and the interpretation of a key generic character are discussed. Based on the orientation of the male aedeagus, only two subgenera, namely Oligonychus Berlese (aedeagus downturned) and Reckiella Tuttle & Baker (aedeagus upturned), are valid in the genus Oligonychus. The subgenera Homonychus Wainstein, Metatetranychoides Wainstein, and Wainsteiniella Tuttle & Baker are considered to be synonyms of the subgenus Oligonychus, whereas the subgenus Pritchardinychus Wainstein is proposed as a synonym of the subgenus Reckiella. Moreover, based on female morphological characters, four species groups (coffeae, exsiccator, iseilemae, and peruvianus) and 11 species subgroups (aceris, biharensis, coffeae, comptus, exsiccator, gossypii, iseilemae, peruvianus, pritchardi, smithi, and subnudus) are suggested in the subgenera Oligonychus and Reckiella. Fourteen Oligonychus species are proposed as species inquirendae, and potential cryptic species complexes in the genus Oligonychus are briefly highlighted. It is agreed that the clunal seta h1 is always absent, while the para-anal setae h2 and h3 are always present in the genus Oligonychus. A key to subgenera, species groups, and species subgroups of the genus Oligonychus is provided.

In a graph G, the distance between two vertices is the length of the shortest path between them. The maximum distance between a vertex to any other vertex is considered as the eccentricity of the vertex. In this paper, we introduce the first general Zagreb eccentricity index and found upper and lower bounds on this index in terms of order, size and diameter. Moreover, we characterize the extremal graphs in the class of trees, trees with pendant vertices and bipartite graphs. Results on some famous topological indices can be presented as the corollaries of our main results.

Objective: To investigate the outcomes of energy drink on renal tubules of albino rats. Study Design: Laboratory-based experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: King Edward Medical University, Lahore from Aug 2018 to Dec 2019. Methodology: Group A and B were experimental groups received 1.5ml/kg and 2.2ml/kg body weight of energy drink, respectively. Group C received 1ml/kg body weight of distilled water. Comparison among groups was made by applying One-Way ANOVA for quantitative variables. Tukey’ test was used for post hoc analysis. For qualitative variables, chi-square test was applied to make comparison among groups Results: The mean initial and final weight of animals was around 152.7 ± 5.3g and 171.9 ± 5.1g, respectively. The mean paired kidney weight, relative tissue weight index, length and width of kidneys for all three groups were found insignificant. Microscopic examination showed tubular vacuolization in groups A and B showing p-value of 0.027. Conclusion: Consumption of energy drinks results in histopathological injury of epithelial cells of renal tubules.

Objective: To determine the effect of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) in patients with foot and/or ankle injury compared with conventional dressing techniques. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial (Trial No: NCT04569305). Place and Duration of Study: Department of Plastic Surgery, Dr Ruth K.M. Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi Pakistan, from Dec 2019 to Oct 2020. Methodology: All patients with foot and ankle injury resulting in soft tissue injury with or without bones and tendons exposed were included. Thirty-five patients were randomized into the NPTW-Group and 35 into the Conventional Treatment Group using the lottery method. NPTW was applied to an injured foot and ankle area after debridement and cleaning the necrosed tissue. The effect of the technique was assessed by measuring the wound surface area covered with healthy granulation tissue measured in a centimetre square on follow-up. Results: Mean wound grade at the start of treatment was estimated as 3.20±0.71 in the NPWT-Group and 3.14±0.73 in the Control-Group, and at the end of treatment as 1.20±0.53 in the NPWT-Group and 1.71±0.78 in the Control Group. The mean wound size at the start of treatment was estimated as 52.74±21.92 cm2 in the NPWT-Group and 54.08±23.28 cm2 in Controls.At the end of treatment, an average wound size was estimated as 21.61±13.46 in NPTW and 30.40±16.50 in controls. NPTW significantly reduced wound grade and size more effectively than the conventional technique (p

Epoxy composite coatings are used to reduce friction in mechanical components. The epoxy composites at high temperatures cause serious frictional effects due to poor surface characteristics. Hence, there is a need to find a substitute to improve their frictional behaviour in high-temperature conditions. Adding fillers and lubrication are key solutions to improve tribological properties. In this research work, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin was coated on steel, and silica powder (5% by weight) was used as filler. The experiments were conducted under dry and lubricated conditions with and without filler. The coefficient of friction (COF) was examined at different temperatures. The results show that the COF increases with an increase in temperature. In addition, the minimum average COF was observed in the case of epoxy coating with the filler under lubrication conditions. For that case, up to 94.4% decrease in COF was observed as compared to epoxy coating without filler under dry conditions, a 48.33% decrease in COF to epoxy coating without filler under lubricated conditions and a 17.98% decrease in COF than epoxy coating with the filler under dry condition was perceived. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and surface roughness analyses were also conducted to examine the surface of the specimen after the experiment. A worn and rougher surface was observed in the case of epoxy without filler under dry conditions. The more coefficient of friction at high temperatures is due to the thermal degradation of the epoxy matrix at high temperatures, which results in a rougher surface.

Many developed countries like the USA, UK, Canada and European countries have diverse communities, including Muslim community outreach, as a result of immigration turning the world into a global village for all religions. Persecuting any one religion can lead to unrest and damage the calm of the society at large. This study critically examines the trends and research findings on Islamophobic discourse from 2001 to 2022 by investigating how linguistic strategies have been employed to present Muslims and Islam, the racialization of Muslims, the sense of identity crisis, and the way Muslims encounter and resist Islamophobia. An empirical study is also conducted to analyze the media discourse on recent incidents in Canada and New Zealand. For this purpose, 56 research articles are retrieved from the databases of four publishers: Taylor & Francis, Sage Publication, Pluto Journals, and Science Direct. A systematic review methodology and content analysis of the elected articles reveals that qualitative methodology was used in most articles and the UK and the US are the focal countries where most of the Islamophobia studies are carried out. Interviews and print media are found to be the preferred data samples for Islamophobia research. The most common theme in the articles is how anti-Muslim ideology was constructed by painting negative images of Muslims and Islam and subsequently presenting them as 'others.' The multiple effects of Islamophobia was paid considerable attention by the researchers of the reviewed articles. Themes receiving less attention are Islamophobia for political gain, identity crises, and the racialization of Muslims, whereas the factors behind Islamophobia received scant attention. The development of Islamophobia as a topic within the field of critical discourse analysis has been understudied. A critical discourse analysis of two recent incidents in Canada (2021) and New Zealand (2019) shows how various linguistic strategies are employed to construct negative images of Muslims and Islam.

Sombor index and their types are introduced pertaining to Euclidean geometry. In graph-theoretical terminology, it is the sum of all pairs of adjacent vertices di2+dj2 given di is the degree of ith vertex. Using geometrical interpretation, new types of Sombor indices are introduced. In this article, we discussed newly developed Sombor indices for the supramolecular chain of different complexes. Particularly, the first Sombor index was introduced in terms of area in Euclidean geometry. The second, fourth, and sixth versions of Sombor indices are defined in the form of angular orientation, while the third and fifth Sombor indices are formulated via perimeter.

A chemical graph represents a chemical or molecular compound in the form of a graph. The vertex set of the chemical graph contains the atoms or molecules of the compound while the edge set comprises of the bonding between the molecules or atoms. In this paper, we compute various connectivity indices based on degrees of vertices of chemical graph of Indium Phosphide (InP) including general Randić, hyper Zagreb and redefined Zagreb indices etc. Afterwards, we calculate the physical measures such as entropy and heat of formation of InP. We fit curves between different indices and the thermodynamical properties namely heat of formation and entropy by using MATLAB through different methods based on linearity and non-linearity. The performance of the method is tested using root mean square error, the sum of squared errors or R2. Furthermore, we give graphical representations of these indices. These mathematical frameworks might provide a way to study the thermodynamical properties of the chemical structure of InP at different conditions which will assist to comprehend the relationship between system dimension and these measures.

Not Applicable

The rockburst phenomenon is the major source of the high number of casualties and fatalities during the construction of deep underground projects. Rockburst poses a severe hazard to the safety of employees and equipment in subsurface mining operations. It is a hot topic in recent years to examine and overcome rockburst risks for the safe installation of deep urban engineering designs. Therefore, for a cost-effective and safe underground environment, it is crucial to determine and predict rockburst intensity prior to its occurrence. A novel model is presented in this study that combines unsupervised and supervised machine learning approaches in order to predict rockburst risk. The database for this study was built using authentic microseismic monitoring occurrences from the Jinping-II hydropower project in China, which consists of 93 short-term rockburst occurrences with six influential features. The prediction process was succeeded in three steps. Firstly, the original rockburst database's magnification was reduced using a state-of-the-art method called isometric mapping (ISOMAP) algorithm. Secondly, the dataset acquired from ISOMAP was categorized using the fuzzy c-means algorithm (FCM) to reduce the minor spectral heterogeneity impact in homogenous areas. Thirdly, K-Nearest neighbor (KNN) was employed to anticipate different levels of short-term rockburst datasets. The KNN's classification performance was examined using several performance metrics. The proposed model correctly classified about 96% of the rockbursts events in the testing datasets. Hence, the suggested model is a realistic and effective tool for evaluating rockburst intensity. Therefore, the proposed model can be employed to forecast the rockburst risk in the early stages of underground projects that will help to minimize casualties from rockburst.

Nutrient deficiency in wild plant species, including quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd), can be overcome by applying mineral-solubilizing bacteria. Quinoa is a gluten-free, nutritious food crop with unique protein content. The present study aimed to characterize mineral-solubilizing rhizobacterial strains and to evaluate their plant growth-promoting potential in quinoa seedlings. More than sixty rhizobacterial strains were isolated from the quinoa rhizosphere and found eighteen strains to be strong phosphate solubilizers. Most of these bacterial strains showed zinc solubilization, and more than 80% of strains could solubilize manganese. The selected strains were identified as Bacillus altitudinis Cq-3, Pseudomonas flexibilis Cq-32, Bacillus pumilus Cq-35, Pseudomonas furukawaii Cq-40, Pontibacter lucknowensis Cq-48, and Ensifer sp. Cq-51 through 16S rRNA partial gene sequencing. Mainly, these strains showed the production of organic acids, including malic, gluconic, tartaric, ascorbic, lactic, and oxalic acids in insoluble phosphorus amended broth. All strains showed production of gluconic acids, while half of the strains could produce malic, ascorbic, lactic, and oxalic acids. These strains demonstrated the production of indole-3-acetic acid in the presence as well as in the absence of L-tryptophan. The bacterial strains also demonstrated their ability to promote growth and yield attributes, including shoot length, root length, leave numbers, root and shoot dry biomass, spike length, and spikes numbers of quinoa in pots and field trials. Increased physiological attributes, including relative humidity, quantum flux, diffusive resistance, and transpiration rate, were observed due to inoculation with mineral solubilizing bacterial strains under field conditions. P. lucknowensis Cq-48, followed by P. flexibilis Cq-32, and P. furukawaii Cq-40 showed promising results to promote growth, yield, and physiological attributes. The multi-traits characteristics and plant growth-promoting ability in the tested bacterial strains could provide an opportunity for formulating biofertilizers that could promote wild quinoa growth and physiology.

Copper (Cu2+) toxicity can inhibit plant growth and development. It has been shown that silicon (Si) can relieve Cu2+ stress. However, it is unclear how Si-nanoparticles (SiNPs) relieve Cu2+ stress in wheat seedlings. Therefore, the current study was conducted by setting up four treatments: CK, SiNP: (2.5 mM), Cu2+: (500 µM), and SiNP+Cu2+: (2.5 mM SiNP+500 µM Cu2+) to explore whether SiNPs can alleviate Cu2+ toxicity in wheat seedlings. The results showed that Cu2+ stress hampered root and shoot growth and accumulated high Cu2+ concentrations in roots (45.35 mg/kg) and shoots (25.70 mg/kg) of wheat as compared to control treatment. Moreover, Cu2+ treatment inhibited photosynthetic traits and chlorophyll contents as well as disturbed the antioxidant defense system by accumulating malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxidase (H2O2) contents. However, SiNPs treatment increased root length and shoot height by 15.1% and 22%, respectively, under Cu2+ toxicity. Moreover, SiNPs application decreased MDA and H2O2 contents by 31.25% and 19.25%, respectively. SiNPs increased non-enzymatic compounds such as ascorbic acid-glutathione (AsA-GSH) and enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbic peroxidase (APX) activities by 77.5%, 141.7%, 68%, and 80%, respectively. Furthermore, SiNPs decreased Cu2+ concentrations in shoots by 26.2%, as compared to Cu2+ treatment alone. The results concluded that SiNPs could alleviate Cu2+ stress in wheat seedlings. The present investigation may help to increase wheat production in Cu2+ contaminated soils.

It has been observed from many pieces of research and through applications that robotic movements using human interaction are considered dangerous, tiresome and require extraordinary precision and smooth control. Specifically, medical and healthcare applications have been the highest priority in recent years. The concept of rehabilitation using robotics was introduced during the 1980s with the motive of freeing therapists from repetitive work while treating an increasing elderly population requiring physiotherapy. Furthermore, the consistency of the robot’s operation and the volume of repetitions has increased. They can assist therapists in performing tedious tasks and let them concentrate on several patients simultaneously. Several types of rehabilitation robot devices have been produced in recent years with different modes of training and control strategies using various control algorithms. In this research paper, a comprehensive overview of rehabilitation in relation to robotics is presented. The main aim is to determine robust controlling optimization for the smooth control of robotic movement, as these movements require a lot of precision and accuracy. The analysis showed that M-PSO was found to be very effective and robust in finding the best optimal values, as the Modified PSO achieved the minimum root mean square value and a best fit of 98.7.

With the expansion of Information and Communication Technology, it is important to develop a communication network that can provide high-capacity ubiquitous connectivity. This work proposes an energy-efficient passive optical network (PON) using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to facilitate the dense deployment of radio units (RUs) in a beyond 5G (B5G) communication network. High-speed connectivity is ensured by employing a hybrid PON architecture that includes a combination of free space optics (FSO) links and optical fiber (OF) media to carry OFDM and WDM multiplexed traffic. Furthermore, an optical frequency comb generator (OFCG) is utilized at the transmitter module to generate and leverage the spectrum for transmitting information from baseband units (BBUs) to the RUs situated near the end users. The proposed system is analyzed through (i) simulation analysis using Optisystem for transmission capacity computations and (ii) mathematical analysis to determine the total savings in energy. The simulation analysis shows that the given architecture can carry data across 3 km of FSO medium using 512 subcarriers per BBU transmitting at 10 Gbps of data with QPSK-modulated bit sequence. Additionally, energy efficiency shows that the use of an OFCG cuts the total energy usage by 22% at the transmitter module without negatively impacting the system’s high cardinality and transmission capacity.

Taeniasis is a neglected zoonotic disease responsible for serious health disorders, such as seizures, and may even cause death. Humans are the definitive host for the three species Taenia solium (pork tapeworm), T. saginata (beef tapeworm), and T. asiatica, harboring the adult tapeworm in the small intestine. In this study, a structured questionnaire was circulated to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) regarding taeniasis among the rural and urban communities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. A total of 770 individuals participated in the study. Of the total respondents, 44.4% had little knowledge about the disease and its impact, while the majority (70%) of respondents showed a willingness to participate in elimination campaigns by providing fecal samples. Most respondents kept raw meat separated from clean utensils (81.6%) and checked the internal temperature of meat when cooking it (75.1%). Regression analysis showed a significant association between age and knowledge, especially in the 20–30 years (p < 0.05; OR 0.574) and 30 to 40 years (p < 0.05; OR 0.553) age groups, and being a resident in Rawalpindi (p < 0.05; OR 0.68) and other cities (p < 0.05; OR 2.43), except Islamabad. Income ranges of 31,000–50,000 PKR (p < 0.05; OR: 0.574), 51,000–70,000 PKR (p < 0.05; OR 0.531), and above 70,000 PKR (p < 0.05; OR 0.42) were significantly related to attitude, compared with individuals with incomes of 10,000–30,000 PKR. Income above 70,000 PKR (p < 0.05; OR 0.87) and living in an urban area (p < 0.05; OR 0.616) compared to a rural area were significant with practices. A positive attitude was observed regarding awareness and prevention of the disease. Awareness campaigns and providing health education could be key approaches to manage this disease in the general population of developing countries.

A comprehensive model for micro-powered piezoelectric generator (PG), analysis of operation, and control of voltage doubler joule thief (VDJT) circuit to find the piezoelectric devices (PD’s) optimum functioning points are discussed in the present article. The proposed model demonstrates the power dependence of the PG on mechanical excitation, frequency, and acceleration, as well as outlines the load behaviour for optimal operation. The proposed VDJT circuit integrates the combination of voltage doubler (VD) and joule thief circuit, whereas the VD circuit works in Stage 1 for AC (alternating current)–DC (direct current) conversion, while a joule thief circuit works in Stage 2 for DC–DC conversion. The proposed circuit functions as an efficient power converter, which converts power from AC–DC and boosts the voltage from low to high without employing any additional electronic components and generating duty cycles. The electrical nature of the input (i.e., PD) of a VDJT circuit is in perfect arrangement with the investigated optimisation needs when using the proposed control circuit. The effectiveness of the proposed VDJT circuit is examined in terms of both simulation and experiment, and the results are presented. The proposed circuit’s performance was validated with available results of power electronics interfaces in the literature. The proposed circuit’s flexibility and controllability can be used for various applications, including mobile battery charging and power harvesting.

The aim of this study is to provide an examination of the factors that have a bearing on KSB, based upon attitudes amongst academics in developing countries, using a particular focus upon academics within the University of Baghdad. With the research study, structural equation modelling was undertaken by using a questionnaire survey for examination of attitudes to microfoundations with regard to KSB amongst a total of 326 academics based at the University of Baghdad. With regard to KSB, it was found that three of the hypothesised factors (anticipation of extrinsic rewards, anticipation of reciprocal relationships and perception of reciprocal benefits) were significantly and positively related. No significant relationship, however, was found to exist between KSB and interpersonal interactions. Based upon the results, a refined, valid model succeeds in exhibiting good explanatory power for the prediction of the intentions for the KSB of academics. Furthermore, it was suggested by the results that academics who were less educated had a greater willingness for knowledge sharing than those who were more highly educated. Based upon the unprecedented data, the paper makes a contribution to growing KSB-theory-related research, particularly with respect to the planned model of behaviour, and puts forward empirical evidence in support of the relationship between attitude and the KSB of academics.

This research was planned to study the heritability (broad sense), correlation, genetic advance and behavior of different characters in segregating population of upland cotton. The material consists of segregating population of fourteen crosses along with their seven parents. Parental varieties and segregating population show significant difference for all traits under the study. Plant height, ginning out turn (GOT), bolls per plant and yield per plant showed heritability ranging from 78.9 to 27.3. Significant genotypic correlation of yield with plant height was 0.698, bolls per plant was 0.930, GOT was 0.692, fiber strength was 0.548 and with fiber fineness was 0.435. Phenotypic correlation of yield per plant with plant height was 0.520, boll per plant was 0.894 and GOT was 0.476. It can be suggested that plant height, GOT and bolls per plant are important yield contributing traits as they are positively correlated with seed cotton yield per plant. High value for bolls per plant, GOT and yield per plant was recorded in BH-167 × V4 and CIM-534 × V4, which can be utilized in future breeding program.

This research was performed to evaluate the potential of carvone, cuminaldehyde, cineole, and linalool for the control of root-knot of tomato. The tested control agents were evaluated for their ability to stimulate systemic resistance to Meloidogyne incognita in tomato by monitoring the transcription levels of defense-related genes. Moreover, the ability of the tested agents to induce nematicidal activity concerning second-stage juveniles (J2) hatching and mortality was evaluated. Furthermore, the effect of the tested agents on certain tomato growth and yield parameters was assessed. The tested monoterpenes showed high nematicidal activity against M. incognita concerning J2 hatching inhibition and mortality. Carvone, cuminaldhyde, linalool, and cineole had LC50 values of 123.5, 172.2, 354.9, 466.4, and 952.3 μg/mL, respectively. Carvone was found to be the most efficient hatching inhibitor. The tested monoterpenes showed a high potential against root-knot under greenhouse and field conditions with respect to root-galling, egg masses, and the number of J2. Carvone was the most effective treatment. The growth and yield characters of treated tomato were significantly increased in monoterpenes treatments compared to untreated control. Treated tomato plants showed expression of defense-related genes (PR1 and PAL) 5-8 folds higher than the control. The results also showed that cuminaldhyde, followed by carvone, linalool, and cineole, had the greatest levels of expression in tomato plants. Taken together, the selected monoterpenes could be used as alternatives to control the root-knot of tomato.

For nutritional security, the availability of nutrients from food sources is a crucial factor. Global consumption of edible seeds including cereals, pulses, and legumes makes it a valuable source of nutrients particularly vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The presence of anti-nutritional factors forms complexes with nutrients, this complexity of the nutritional profile and the presence of anti-nutritional factors in edible seeds lead to reduced bioavailability of nutrients. By overcoming these issues, the germination process may help improve the nutrient profile and make them more bioavailable. Physical, physiological, and biological methods of seed invigoration can be used to reduce germination restraints, promote germination, enhance early crop development, to increase yields and nutrient levels through sprouting. During sprouting early start of metabolic activities through hydrolytic enzymes and resource mobilization causes a reduction in emergence time which leads to a better nutritional profile. The use of physical stimulating methods to increase the sprouting rate gives several advantages compared to conventional chemical-based methods. The advantages of physical seed treatments include environment-friendly, high germination rate, early seedling emergence, uniform seedling vigor, protection from chemical hazards, and improved yield. Different physical methods are available for seed invigoration viz. gamma irradiation, laser irradiation, microwaves, magnetic field, plasma, sound waves, and ultrasonic waves. Still, further research is needed to apply each technique to different seeds to identify the best physical method and factors for seed species along with different environmental parameters. The present review will describe the use and effects of physical processing techniques for seed invigoration.

Local government innovation support (LGIS) is an exogenous pulling force for high-quality economic development. Accurately identifying the mechanism by which LGIS affects green development remains practically and theoretically significant for building a long-term framework for driving green development. Based on provincial panel data (2010–2019), this paper uses the Super-SBM model to measure the green development efficiency (GDE) of different provinces in China. A dynamic panel GMM model is constructed to evaluate the significant relationship between LGIS and GDE and to explore the potential impact mechanism of other key factors such as fixed asset investment (FAI), environmental regulation (ER), industrial structure (IS), and foreign direct investment (FDI) on GDE. The estimation showed that LGIS had a positive impact on GDE. The data analysis indicated that GDE in the lag period significantly affected the GDE in the current period. More so, as per the results, the promoting effect of GDE in the second lag period gradually weakened due to the decline of LGIS and ER restrictions. The current model also revealed that FAI and ER inhibited the GDE progress, while IS and FAI had improved the state of GDE in the region. The research findings imply that China should further increase the government innovation expenditure, FDI utilization, and IS upgrade to promote high-quality economic development.

China has been upgrading the industrial structure (ISU) at the regional level through innovation to achieve socioeconomic progress, but there is less known about the complex intermediary mechanisms regulating the government’s green innovation preference (GGIP)-ISU nexus from a regional perspective in China. Experts agree that varying environmental regulations (ER) intensity alters the relationship dynamics between innovation and ISU. Thus, using regional panel data (2005–2019), the paper develops an ER-based threshold regression model to assess the GGIP-ISU nexus under various ER levels in China. Following the statistically acceptable stationarity test outcomes, the regression corroborated the GGIP had disrupted ISU in China. Second, the ER-threshold model depicted that GGIP flexibility and ER rigidity were found interconnected, while the GGIP-ISU connection was characterized by a U-shaped relationship in which ER acted as a threshold variable. Third, the region-based heterogeneity test reflected that there was significant disparity in the inhibitory effect of GGIP on ISU between resource and non-resource-based regions, i.e., GGIP had a more significant inhibitory influence on the ISU in the non-resource-based regions than in the resource-based regions. The paper recommends critical policy implications for the enhancement of ISU in China.

A pervasive melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) reveals a crucial role in stress tolerance and plant development. Melatonin (MT) is a unique molecule with multiple phenotypic expressions and numerous actions within the plants. It has been extensively studied in crop plants under different abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, heat, cold, and heavy metals. Mainly, MT role is appraised as an antioxidant molecule that deals with oxidative stress by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and modulating stress related genes. It improves the contents of different antioxidant enzyme activities and thus, regulates the redox hemostasis in crop plants. In this comprehensive review, regulatory effects of melatonin in plants as melatonin biosynthesis, signaling pathway, modulation of stress related genes and physiological role of melatonin under different heavy metal stress have been reviewed in detail. Further, this review has discussed how MT regulates different genes/enzymes to mediate defense responses and overviewed the context of transcriptomics and phenomics followed by the metabolomics pathways in crop plants.

Development of an efficient and eco-friendly technique to break tuber dormancy in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is highly demanded due to the production of two or more crops annually. Several physiological and hormonal changes have been found to be related to the breaking of tuber dormancy; however, their consistency with genotypes and different protocols have not been well clarified. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of four dormancy-breaking methods, that is, plant growth regulator (PGR) dipping in 30, 60, or 90 mgL−1 benzyl amino purine (BAP) and 10, 20, or 30 mgL−1 gibberellic acids (GA3) alone and in the combination of optimized concentrations; electric current application at 20, 40, 60, or 80 Vs; cold pre-treatment at 2, 4, or 6 °C; irradiation at 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, or 3.5 kGy. In addition, changes in endogenous levels of abscisic acid (ABA), zeatin (ZT), and gibberellin A1 (GA1) in six potato genotypes after subjecting to these methods were investigated. Overall, the highest effective method for dormancy duration was the PGR application which shortened the duration by 18 days, followed by electric current (13 days), cold pre-treatment (9 days), and then irradiation (7 days). The solution of 60 mgL−1 BAP significantly reduced the dormancy duration in all genotypes but did not have a significant effect on the sprout length. While 20 mgL−1 GA3 produced maximum sprout length with a non-significant effect on dormancy duration. The genotype × PGR interaction for dormancy duration was more pronounced in short- and medium-term dormancy genotypes than in long-term dormancy genotypes. The genotypes displayed a significant positive correlation between dormancy duration and ABA levels but exhibited a negative correlation between dormancy duration and ZT as well as GA1 levels. From the first to the third week of storage, ABA was decreased in tubers while, however, ZT and GA1 were increased. The obtained results could be useful for the postharvest storage of potato tuber and the related field of physiological investigation in future.

The grassland ecosystem plays an important role in maintaining ecological security. This study intends to better understand the effects of climate-soil interaction on the alpine grassland ecosystem and to further deepen the understanding of plant diversity and its influencing factors in the alpine meadow, alpine steppe, and desert steppe of the Qilian Mountains of China. Therefore, the soil nutrient contents such as soil organic carbon, nitrogen, available phosphorus, ammonium nitrogen, and nitrate-nitrogen were measured from the uppermost 0–40 cm soil layer. In addition, the regional vegetation characteristics were also investigated and plant diversity index values were determined. The three grassland types showed obvious variations in soil nutrient content and plant diversity index values. Alpine meadow and alpine steppe showed the highest plant diversity and soil nutrients, evident by greater soil organic carbon and nitrogen contents compared to the desert steppe. With the increase in precipitation amounts, the plant height and number of typical plants increased, but no significant impact of elevation was found. Plant diversity was positively correlated with annual precipitation and soil organic carbon, which were the primary factors determining plant diversity in the Qilian Mountains. Compared to other grassland types, alpine meadows showed the most complex network, indicating the greatest ecological stability and strong resistance to environmental changes. These findings revealed a close link between the species diversity, soil nutrients, and major climatic factors in the Qilian Mountains, which are critical for predicting plant diversity in the context of climate change.

Travel and tourism have glimpsed a significant and promising implication for economic development. Despite the commendatory implication of tourism, it levies a stringent environmental cost such as environmental degeneration. Hence, this study will incorporate the 18 countries out of the top 20 travel and tourism contributors to economic growth to assess the progressive correlation between tourist arrival, economic growth, energy consumption, and oil consumption on carbon emission by applying panel ARDL spanning from 1995 to 2019. The outcome of the panel ARDL reveals that both periods have witnessed that the endogenous variables have a substantial and positive impact on environmental degradation except for tourism as it indicates −0.22 and −0.48% in the long and short run, having a rate of adjustment as −0.52 toward the equilibrium. The simultaneous quantile regression reveals that in the 50 and 75 percentiles, the effect of tourism has a negative impact, which contradicts the PMG findings. These determinations suggest that the policymakers look for more manageable and environmentally sound tourism and economic growth procedures to safeguard the sustainable environment in the studied countries.

Abstract: Neutrosophic set (NS) is a framework used when the imprecision and uncertainty of an event are described based on three possible aspects, i.e., the membership degree, neutral membership degree and non-membership degree. On the other hand, neutrosophic graphs (NG) are applicable to deal with bulk information events. Furthermore, the incidence graph concept in neutrosophic sets contains a handful of problems like decision-making as well as, social and communication networks. This paper aims to propose the interval-valued neutrosophic sets to incidence graph and represent a new concept, namely interval-valued neutrosophic incidence graph (IVNIG). An IVNIG is a generalization of the concept of single-valued neutrosophic incidence graph (SVNIG). Moreover, some properties related to IVNIG, such as strong edge, strong pair, strong cut pair and neutrosophic incidence cut pair, are also discussed using suitable examples. The defined new concept of IVNIG is applied and investigated on a practical problem of safe root travelling.