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Photovoltaic (PV) materials, especially organic and perovskite solar cells are effective candidates for meeting the rising global energy demand. Herein, we have designed indolo[3,2- b ]indole-based six molecules (IDF1-IDF6) as hole-transporting materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and donor materials for organic solar cells (OSCs). The results demonstrated that IDF1-IDF6 molecules have tight π-π stacking, more negative HOMO levels (-5.50 to -5.31 eV), low bandgaps (1.91 to 2.41 eV), high absorption coefficients, large Stokes shifts, high open-circuit photovoltages (1.31 to 1.50 V), and superior solubility with comparable stability compared with the reference (IDFR) and Spiro-OMeTAD molecules. The high light-harvesting efficiency and low exciton binding energy indicated that IDF1-IDF6 molecules have a higher photocurrent flow ability. The electronic excitation analyses of studied molecules showed that the IDF1-IDF6 molecules show stronger exciton dissociation, low charge coupling, and high intrinsic charge transfer with sharper charge flow than IDFR and Spiro-OMeTAD. Moreover, the high hole hopping rate, high total amount of charge transfer, and low reorganization energy with comparable charge transfer integral demonstrated that the designed molecules have effective hole transport ability for solar cells. Our remarkable results demonstrated that IDF1-IDF6 are advantageous molecules for the manufacturing of efficient PSCs and OSCs, and may have future commercial applications in the solar industry., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this study, four hole-transporting materials (JY-M1, JY-M2, JY-M3, and JY-M4) are designed by modifying benzothiadiazole-based core with diphenylamine-based carbazole via acceptors through thiophene linkers. The designed molecules exhibited deeper HOMO energy with smaller energy gaps than the reference JY molecule which enhance their hole mobility. The absorption spectra of the JY-M1, JY-M2, JY-M3, and JY-M4 molecules are located at 380 nm to 407 nm in the gaseous phase and 397 nm to 433 nm in the solvent phase, which is red-shifted and higher than the reference molecule, demonstrating that designed molecules possess improved light absorption properties and enhanced effective hole transfer. The dipole moments of the designed molecules (14.74 D to 26.12 D) indicate a greater ability for charge separation, solubility and will be beneficial to produce multilayer films. Moreover, the results of hole reorganization energy (0.38198 eV to 0.45304 eV) and charge transfer integral (0.14315 eV to 0.14665 eV) of designing molecules show improved hole mobility and lower recombination losses compared to the JY molecule. Overall, we suggested that the structural modifications in the designed molecules contributed to their enhanced efficiency in converting light energy into electrical energy and have the potential for utilization in solar devices, paving the way for future advancements in the field of photovoltaics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Developing a sustainable environment requires addressing primitive water scarcity and water contamination. Antibiotics such as oxytetracycline (OTC) may accumulate in the environment and in the human body, increasing the risks to the ecosystem. The treatment of polluted water and the production of potable water can be achieved in a variety of ways, including photodegradation, solar distillation, and filtration. Freshwater supplies can be increased by implementing energy-efficient technologies for the production of clean water. Solar water evaporation combined with photocatalytic degradation and sterilization offers a promising avenue for integration into the clean water and energy production fields. The present study reports the synthesis of a 3D solar steam generator comprised of BiVO 4 and carbon nanotubes (CNT) nanocomposite decorated over a cigarette filter as the light-to-heat conversion layer for solar steam generation. The BiVO 4 @CNT-based 3D solar evaporator over the hydrophilic cellulosic fibers of the cigarette filter endowed excellent evaporation rates (2.36 kg m -2 h -1 ) under 1 kW m -2 solar irradiation, owing to its superior hydrophilicity and broadband solar absorption (96%) equipped with localized heating at microscale thermal confinement optimized by the minimum thermal conductivity of the overall system. Furthermore, the BiVO 4 @CNT composite exhibited a heightened photo activity up to 83% of the photodegradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) antibiotic due to the inhibition of charge recombination from the industrial effluents. This approach transforms the water-energy nexus into a synergistic bond that offers opportunities to meet expected demand, rather than being competitive.

In this study, a series of highly efficient organic hole-transporting materials (HTMs) were designed using Schiff base chemistry by modifying a phenothiazine-based core with triphenylamine through end-capped acceptor engineering via thiophene linkers. The designed HTMs (AZO1-AZO5) exhibited superior planarity and greater attractive forces, making them ideal for accelerated hole mobility. They also showed deeper HOMO energy levels (-5.41 eV to -5.28 eV) and smaller energy band gaps (2.22 eV to 2.72 eV), which improved charge transport behavior, open-circuit current, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The dipole moments and solvation energies of the HTMs revealed their high solubility, making them suitable for the fabrication of multilayered films. The designed HTMs showed tremendous enhancements in power conversion efficiency (26.19 % to 28.76 %) and open-circuit voltage (1.43 V to 1.56 V), with higher absorption wavelength than the reference molecule (14.43 %). Overall, the Schiff base chemistry-driven design of thiophene-bridged end-capped acceptor HTMs is highly effective in enhancing the optical and electronic properties of perovskite solar cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This research aims to investigate the ballistic resistance of base material (BM)and "Friction Stir Welded (FSW)", AA5083 aluminum alloy. The primary objective was to build a finite element model to predict kinetic energy absorption and target deformation under single and multiple projectile impact conditions. This study employed 7.62mm Hard Steel Core (HSC) projectiles produced from Steel 4340. The target was analyzed using commercially available Abaqus Explicit software for Finite Element Analysis. It was noticed that the generation of kinetic energy and surface residual velocity increases as the number of projectile strikes increases. In addition, the experimental ballistic test was conducted to validate the numerical results. Using the analytical Recht-Ipson model, each target's experimental residual velocity was determined. It was determined that weldments perform less well (30%) as compared to BM targets. Occurrence of plastic deformation during welding causes reduction in ballistic performance of weldments. For both the computational and experimental approaches, a correlation between residual velocities was found. The plastic deformations with ductile hole formation were observed in all the cases., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Balaji et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study focuses on the creation of 5 small donor molecules (A102W1-A102W5) by substituting the one-sided methoxy group of model (A102R) with different thiophene bridged acceptor moieties. B3LYP/6-31**G (d,p) model has been employed for computational analysis. The best miscibility was found for A102W3 in dichloromethane (DCM) solvent, where its λ max was also found to be at 753 nm, its E g was found to be 1.55 eV as well as dipole moment in DCM was 21.47 D. The percentage of PCE among all the variants was greatest for A102W2 (25.31%). The electron reorganization energy shown by A102W4 was 0.00470 eV, whereas the hole reorganization energy investigated in A102W2 was 0.00586 eV representing their maximum electron and hole mobility respectively amongst all. Results validate the value of specified techniques, opening a new door to create efficient small donors for OSCs and HTMs for PSCs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are capturing huge interest because of their numerous benefits, which include transparency, flexibility, and solution processability. In current project, five new donor molecules (J1-J5) were designed by employing the strategy of end capped alteration of the acceptor moieties on the two sides of the reference molecule. The Methoxy Triphenylamine hexaazatrinaphthylene (MeO-TPA-HATNA) have been used as a reference molecule in this study. DFT and TD-DFT methods employing B3LYP/6-31G (d, p) functional has been applied to perform different analysis. Geometrical, and opto-electronic features of all tailored chromophores were investigated, and comparison was made with the reference J. Among all tailored molecules, J5 shows highest λ max (862 nm) with the least band gap of 1.28 eV. TDM and DOS analysis revealed the high rate of charge transfer. Further, reorganization energy calculations are also executed to examine the charge transfer features of the designed molecules. The results shows that J5 among all these molecules has the highest rate of charge carrier (electron and hole) mobility with least RE values and this molecule can be used as a promising donor material for OSCs with remarkable charge transferring properties. Furthermore, the designed materials showed a suitable HOMO along with higher LUMO energy levels with respect to PC61BM molecule and coupling the PC 61 BM acceptor with investigated donor molecules gives highly increased V oc (0.66-0.76 V) than reference molecule (0.49 V) and also the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is elevated to 15.09%. The outcomes of current theoretical research have demonstrated that the end capped alteration of different acceptor groups is an excellent strategy to get OSCs with desirable photovoltaic performance. As, all the newly created molecules (J1-J5) have exhibited outstanding electronic and optical properties therefore, these can be expectedly prove excellent material for creating high efficiency future organic photovoltaic devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

At high pressure, the pressure dependencies of the structural, electronic, optical, and thermoelectric properties of Fe 2 HfSi Heusler were calculated using the FP-LAPW method within the framework of the density functional theory. The calculations were carried out using the modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) scheme. Our calculations showed that the Born mechanical stability criteria confirmed the mechanical stability in the cubic phase. Further, through Poisson and Pugh's ratios critical limits, the findings of the ductile strength were computed. At a pressure of 0 GPa, the indirect nature of the material may be deduced from the electronic band structures of Fe 2 HfSi as well as the estimations for its density of states. Under pressure, the real and imaginary dielectric function responses, optical conductivity, absorption coefficient, energy loss function, refractive index, reflectivity, and extinction coefficient were computed in the 0-12 eV range. Using semi-classical Boltzmann theory, a thermal response is also studied. As the pressure rises, the Seebeck coefficient decreases, while the electrical conductivity rises. The figure of merit ( ZT ) and Seebeck coefficients were determined at temperatures of 300 K, 600 K, 900 K, and 1200 K in order to better understand the thermoelectric properties of a material at these different temperatures. Despite the fact that the ideal Seebeck coefficient for Fe 2 HfSi was discovered at 300 K and was determined to be superior to that reported previously. Materials with a thermoelectric reaction has been shown to be suitable for reusing waste heat in systems. As a result, Fe 2 HfSi functional material may aid in the development of new energy harvesting and optoelectronic technologies., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this communication irreversibility minimization in bio convective Walter's-B nanofluid flow by stretching sheet is studied. Suspended nanoparticles in Walter's-B fluid are stabilized by utilizing microorganisms. Total irreversibility is obtained via thermodynamics second law. The influences of applied magnetic field, radiation, Joule heating and activation energy are accounted in momentum, temperature and concentration equations. Furthermore thermophoresis and Brownian movement impacts are also accounted in concentration and temperature expressions. The flow governing dimensional equations are altered into dimensionless ones adopting transformation procedure. Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) code in Mathematica is implemented to get the convergent series solution. The influences of important flow variables on temperature, velocity, motile density, irreversibility, mass concentration, Bejan number and physical quantities are analyzed graphically. The obtained results revel that the velocity profile decreases for escalating magnetic parameter and Forchheimer number. Entropy generation is increased for higher Brinkman variable while Bejan number declines versus Brinkman variable. The important observations are given at the end., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Background: This study, for the first time, reports a simultaneous determination of flavonoids; rutin (RT), quercetin (QT), luteolin (LT), and kaempferol (KF) in different origins of fenugreek seeds samples (N = 45) using a green UHPLC-DAD analysis METHODOLOGY: Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) was employed to extract fenugreek flavonoids using different polarity solvents of n-hexane (n-hex), dichloromethane (DCM), and methanol (MeOH) RESULTS: The extract yield on an individual basis was observed in the range of 1.03-17.29 mg, with the highest yield (mg/sample) for the Egyptian sample (17.29 mg). The highest total extract yield (mg/origin) was observed for the Iranian sample (82.28 ± 5.38). The solvent with the highest extract yield (mg) was n-hex 169.35 ± 13.47, followed by MeOH 114.39 ± 12.27. The validated green UHPLC-DAD method resulted in a short runtime (9 min) with an accuracy of 97.86(±12.32)-101.37(±5.91), r 2 -values = 0.993-0.999, LOD = 2.09-4.48 ppm, and LOQ = 6.33-13.57 ppm for flavonoids analysis within the linearity range of 1-500 ppm. The general yield for flavonoids exhibited a descending order (ppm): RT (2924.55 ± 143.84) > QT (457.05 ± 34.07) > LT (82.37 ± 3.27) > KF (4.54 ± 0.00). The yield (ppm) for the flavonoids was more in MeOH solvent (3424.81 ± 235.44) constructing a descending order of MeOH > n-hex > DCM. For an individual flavonoid yield; MeOH was seen with an order of RT > QT > LT, n-hex (LT > QT), and DCM (RT > LT > QT). The statistical analysis of PCA (principle component analysis) revealed a widespread distribution of flavonoids in fenugreek seeds with a variance of 35.93% (PC1). Moreover, flavonoids extraction was prone to the nature and specificity of the solvent used (PC2: 33.34%) rather than the amount of the extract yield (P = 0.00). The K-mean cluster analysis showed the origins with higher flavonoids yield in appropriate solvent as I3M (Indian accession # 3 MeOH extract) with more QT amount, IR2M (Iranian accession # 2 MeOH extract) with more LT amount along with I2M (Indian accession # 2 MeOH extract) and Q2M (Qassim Saudi Arabia accession # 2 MeOH extract) containing high amount of RT. The outcomes are supported by KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) and Bartlett's test value of 0.56 with X 2 -value of 191.87 (P = 0.00) CONCLUSION: The samples were effectively evaluated and standardized in terms of flavonoid amount suggesting a significant variation in fenugreek quality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this article, the adsorption of NO x ( x = 1, 2) gas molecules on the (001) surface of CoFeMnSi quaternary Heusler alloys has been investigated theoretically with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The adsorption strength was estimated with adsorption energy ( E a ), magnitude of charge transfer (Δ Q ), charge density difference (CDD), minimum distance between molecule and surface ( d ), and adsorption mechanism was analyzed with density of states. The results showed that unlike half-metallic nature of the bulk phase, the pristine CoFeMnSi(001) surface exhibited metallic character caused by the emergence of electronic states of the atoms in the top-most layer of the surface. It was found that both NO and NO 2 molecules undergo chemical adsorption and strongly interact with the surface evidenced by the large value of E a and Δ Q . In particular, the NO x molecule dissociates into N and O atoms for some adsorption configurations. Bader charge analysis reveals that NO x molecules act as charge acceptors by drawing charge from the surface atoms through p-d hybridization. Such findings might be useful in the development of Heusler alloys based gas sensors., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

More than the half of the global population consume rice as their primary energy source. Therefore, this work focused on the development of a prediction model to minimize agricultural loss in the paddy field. Initially, rice plant diseases, along with their images, were captured. Then, a big data framework was used to encounter a large dataset. In this work, at first, feature extraction process is applied on the data and after that feature selection is also applied to obtain the reduced data with important features which is used as the input to the classification model. For the rice disease datasets, features based on color, shape, position, and texture are extracted from the infected rice plant images and a rough set theory-based feature selection method is used for the feature selection job. For the classification task, ensemble classification methods have been implemented in a map reduce framework for the development of the efficient disease prediction model. The results on the collected disease data show the efficiency of the proposed model.

Mesoporous silicon (mSi) obtained by the magnesiothermic reduction of mesoporous silica was used to deposit polyaniline (PANI) in its pores, the composite was tested for its charge storage application for high performance supercapacitor electrodes. The mesoporous silica as confirmed by Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 724 m 2 g -1 and mean pore size of 5 nm. After magnesiothermic reduction to mSi, the BET surface area is reduced to 348 m 2 g -1 but the mesoporousity is retained with a mean pore size of 10 nm. The BET surface area of mesoporous silicon is among the highest for porous silicon prepared/reduced from silica. In situ polymerization of PANI inside the pores of mSi was achieved by controlling the polymerization conditions. As a supercapacitor electrode, the mSi-PANI composite exhibits better charge storage performance as compared to pure PANI and mesoporous silica-PANI composite electrodes. Enhanced electrochemical performance of the mSi-PANI composite is attributed to the high surface mesoporous morphology of mSi with a network structure containing abundant mesopores enwrapped by an electrochemically permeable polyaniline matrix., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In the scheme of density functional theory (DFT), Structural, elastic, electronic, and optical properties calculations of GaBeCl 3 and InBeCl 3 are carried out using Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson exchange potential approximation (TB-mBJ) installed in Wein2k software. Structurally the compounds of interest are found to be stable. Both compounds possess elastic stability, anisotropy, and ductility determined by the elastic studies. The electronic-band structure analysis shows the semiconductor nature of GaBeCl 3 and InBeCl 3 compounds with indirect band gaps of ∼3.08 eV for GaBeCl 3 and ∼2.04 eV for InBeCl 3 along with the symmetrical points from ( X - Γ ). The calculated total density of states (TDOS) and partial density of states (PDOS) of these compounds reveal that for the GaBeCl 3 compound, the contribution of Ga (4p) and Cl (3p) orbital states in the valence, as well as the conduction band, is dominant. While for InBeCl 3 , the contribution of Cl (3p) states as well as In (5s) is large in the valence band and in that of Cl (3p-states) states in the conduction band. The type of chemical bonding is found to be ionic in both compounds. The optical properties i.e. , the real ( ε 1 ( ω )) and imaginary ( ε 2 ( ω )) parts of dielectric function, refractive index n ( ω ), optical reflectivity R ( ω ), optical conductivity σ ( ω ), absorption coefficient α ( ω ), energy loss L ( ω ) and electron extinction coefficient k ( ω ) are also discussed in terms of optical spectra. It is reported that n ( ω ) and k ( ω ) exhibit the same characteristics as ε 1 ( ω ) and ε 2 ( ω ) respectively. Efficient application of these materials can be seen in semiconducting industries and many modern electronic devices., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The purpose of current work of is to organize stabilized tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO 2 ) nano-particles with microwave abetted sol-gel technique. To increase the stability and shrink the crystal size, both microwave (MW) and gelatin components are used as structure guiding methods. Gelatin was used with the aim of bone implantations, as raw materials used in gelatin production are cattle bones. It contains purified collagen protein (a main protein that in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues) that also helps in implantations and repairing. Moreover, MW heating provides a uniform heating and control of microstructures. Zirconium oxychloride was used as precursor of zirconium Effect of gelatin contents (1g, 2g, 3g, 4g and 5g) was observed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis attributes the presence of phase pure t-ZrO 2 at low gelatin content 3g with crystallite size ∼6.68296 nm. Formation of phase pure t-ZrO 2 without post heat treatment is due to sufficient amount of gelatin to coat the zirconia crystals. Relatively higher x-ray density has been observed in case of phase pure t-ZrO 2 at 5g of gelatin content. Value of the hardness is increasing from 1263 to 1443 HV with gelatin content due to phase strengthening. Raman shift presents characteristic peak at 148 cm -1 of tetragonal zirconia. Phase fraction calculated from Raman spectra is in good agreement with XRD data. At 3g of gelatin content porous structure has been observed in scanning electron microscope images. This porosity decreases with gelatin content and the distribution of particles is more uniform, and dispersion is better. The porosity of the samples decreases and reaching a minimum value at 5g of gelatin content, at which the sample was the densest. The size of nanoparticles is in the range of 500-600 nm. Optimized t-ZrO 2 is soaked in stimulated body fluid (SBF) for 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 weeks. Slight variation in weight and hardness has been observed even after 24 weeks of soaking., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Global agriculture production is under serious threat from rapidly increasing population and adverse climate changes. Food security is currently a huge challenge to feed 10 billion people by 2050. Crop domestication through conventional approaches is not good enough to meet the food demands and unable to fast-track the crop yields. Also, intensive breeding and rigorous selection of superior traits causes genetic erosion and eliminates stress-responsive genes, which makes crops more prone to abiotic stresses. Salt stress is one of the most prevailing abiotic stresses that poses severe damages to crop yield around the globe. Recent innovations in state-of-the-art genomics and transcriptomics technologies have paved the way to develop salinity tolerant crops. De novo domestication is one of the promising strategies to produce superior new crop genotypes through exploiting the genetic diversity of crop wild relatives (CWRs). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies open new avenues to identifying the unique salt-tolerant genes from the CWRs. It has also led to the assembly of highly annotated crop pan-genomes to snapshot the full landscape of genetic diversity and recapture the huge gene repertoire of a species. The identification of novel genes alongside the emergence of cutting-edge genome editing tools for targeted manipulation renders de novo domestication a way forward for developing salt-tolerance crops. However, some risk associated with gene-edited crops causes hurdles for its adoption worldwide. Halophytes-led breeding for salinity tolerance provides an alternative strategy to identify extremely salt tolerant varieties that can be used to develop new crops to mitigate salinity stress., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Razzaq, Saleem, Wani, Abdelmohsen, Alyousef, Abdelbacki, Alkallas, Tamam and Elansary.)

Brassinosteroids (BRs) have emerged as pleiotropic phytohormone owing to their wide function in crop growth and metabolism. Homobrassinolide (HBR) being an analogue of BRs is known to improve the growth, yield and quality parameters in many crop plants. Thus, an evaluation study was conducted for two years (2018 and 2019) to elucidate the performance of tomato plants ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) to a novel group of phytohormone,HBR. The field experiment comprised of seven treatments with homobrassinolide 0.04% (Emulsifiable Concentrate) EC at four different concentrations (0.06, 0.08, 0.10 and 0.12 g active ingredient (a.i.) ha -1 ) and two well-known growth promoters viz., Gibberellic acid (GA), Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) along with the untreated control. Plant height and chlorophyll concentration were found significantly different in both years of experiment as well as among the different treatments. HBR at 0.12 g a.i. ha -1 was found better with maximum number of fruits (77.36 plant -1 ), fruit length (6.72 cm), fruit breadth (6.45 cm) and fruit weight (80.52 g) over other concentrations and treatments. Fruit yield was more pronounced in the plots treated with plant growth regulators compared to untreated control. However, significantly higher fruit yield of 91.07 t ha -1 (62.58 t ha -1 with untreated control) along with improved quality traits viz., fruit firmness (4.11 kg cm -2 ), ascorbic acid content (24.09 mg 100 g -1 ), total soluble solids (4.43°Brix) and keeping quality (12.50 days) was recorded in 0.12 g a.i. ha -1 HBR treated plots. Thus, it can be inferred that HBRapplication would be a better option to enhance growth, yield as well as quality traits in tomato., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Crop growth largely depends on radiation. Radiation is the main impetus for photosynthesis and movement of photosynthates from source to sink. Therefore, identification of the optimum sowing windows and suitable cultivars for efficient utilization of radiation is of prime importance. A field study was conducted in red clay soil during 2014 and 2015 Kharif season and the treatments consisted of three genotypes and three sowing windows by using randomized complete block design with three replications. The effect of genotypes and sowing windows was found significant with respect to number of trifoliate leaves, leaf area ratio, dry matter production, grain numbers, pod length, test weight, grain yield, and stover yield of guar during 2014 as compared to 2015 sown crop. Statistically significant plant height, number of trifoliate leaves, number of branches, leaf area ratio, absolute growth rate, leaf area index, dry matter, grain number, pod length, grain yield, stover yield and a higher cumulative radiation interception were recorded with 15th August sown crop as compared to other sowing windows. The plant height, number of trifoliate leaves, number of branches, leaf area ratio, absolute growth rate, leaf area index, dry matter, grain number, pod length, grain yield, stover yield and maximum cumulative interception of radiation were significant with RGC-1003 as compared to RGC-936 and HG-365. It is observed that the incident PAR to dry matter accumulation conversion efficiency was varied with cultivars and different sowing windows which ranges from 0.74 g MJ -1 to 0.79 g MJ -1 ., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Agriculture in a water-limited environment is critically important for today and for the future. This research evaluates the impact of deficit irrigation in different planting methods on the physio-morphological traits, grain yield and WUE of maize ( Zea mays L.). The experiment was carried out in 2015 and 2016, consisting of three planting methods (i.e., BBF, SNF, and DWF) and four irrigation levels (i.e., I 10D : irrigation once in ten days, I 40 : irrigation at 40% DASM, I 50 : irrigation at 50% DASM, and I 60 : irrigation at 60% DASM). The results reveal that varying degrees of water stress due to planting methods and irrigation levels greatly influenced the maize physio-morphological traits and yield attributes. The combined effect of DWF + I 50 benefited the maize in terms of higher leaf area, RWC, SPAD values, CGR, and LAD, followed by the SNF method at 60 DAS. As a result, DWF + I 50 and SNF + I 50 had higher 100 grain weight (30.5 to 31.8 g), cob weight (181.4 to 189.6 g cob -1 ) and grain yield (35.3% to 36.4%) compared to other treatments. However, the reduction in the number of irrigations (24.0%) under SNF + I 50 resulted in a 34% water saving. Thus, under a water-limited situation in semi-arid tropics, the practice of the SNF method + I 50 could be an alternative way to explore the physio-morphological benefits in maize.

From time immemorial, humans have exploited plants as a source of food and medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 21,000 plants with medicinal value out of 300,000 species available worldwide. The promising modern "multi-omics" platforms and tools have been proven as functional platforms able to endow us with comprehensive knowledge of the proteome, genome, transcriptome, and metabolome of medicinal plant systems so as to reveal the novel connected genetic (gene) pathways, proteins, regulator sequences and secondary metabolite (molecule) biosynthetic pathways of various drug and protein molecules from a variety of plants with therapeutic significance. This review paper endeavors to abridge the contemporary advancements in research areas of multi-omics and the information involved in decoding its prospective relevance to the utilization of plants with medicinal value in the present global scenario. The crosstalk of medicinal plants with genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics approaches will be discussed.

The role of Pythium oligandrum as a biocontrol agent against Pythium aphanidermatum was investigated to avoid the harmful impacts of fungicides. Three isolates of P. oligandrum (MS15, MS19, and MS31) were assessed facing the plant pathogenic P. aphanidermatum the causal agent of Glycine max damping-off. The tested Pythium species were recognized according to their cultural and microscopic characterizations. The identification was confirmed through sequencing of rDNA-ITS regions including the 5.8 S rDNA. The biocontrol agent, P. oligandrum , isolates decreased the mycelial growth of the pathogenic P. aphanidermatum with 71.3%, 67.1%, and 68.7% through mycoparasitism on CMA plates. While the half-strength millipore sterilized filtrates of P. oligandrum isolates degrade the pathogenic mycelial linear growth by 34.1%, 32.5%, and 31.7%, and reduce the mycelial dry weight of the pathogenic P. aphanidermatum by 40.1%, 37.4%, and 36.8%, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the most effective antagonistic P. oligandrum isolate (MS15) interaction showed coiling, haustorial parts of P. oligandrum to P. aphanidermatum hyphae. Furthermore, P. oligandrum isolates were proven to enhance the germination of Glycine max seedling to 93.3% in damping-off infection using agar pots and promote germination of up to 80% during soil pot assay. On the other hand, P. oligandrum isolates increase the shoot, root lengths, and the number of lateral roots.

Vegetable soybean production is dependent on the development of vegetable type varieties that would be achieved by the use of germplasm to evolve new agronomically superior yielding vegetable type with beneficial biochemical traits. This can be accomplished by a better understanding of genetics, which is why the research was conducted to reveal the quantitative genetics of vegetable soybean genotypes. Genetic variability of main morphological traits in vegetable soybean genotypes and their divergence was estimated, as a result of the magnitude of genotypic variation (GV), and phenotypic variation (PV) of traits varied among the genotypes. All traits showed high heritability ( h 2 ) associated with high genetic advance percentage mean (GAM). Therefore, these variable traits are potential for genetic improvement of vegetable type soybean. Genetic diversity is the prime need for breeding, and the magnitude of genetic diversity values were maximized among specific genotypes. Eight clusters were found for all genotypes; cluster VIII and cluster I were considered to have the most diversity. Cluster VIII consisted of two genotypes (GM-6 and GM-27), based on the mean outcomes of the high yield attributing traits. Hence, these two (GM-6, GM-27) genotypes can be advanced for commercial cultivation; furthermore, other genotypes can be used as source of breeding lines for genetic improvement of vegetable soybean.

Comparative estimations of the antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts from biomasses of different types of in vitro cultures of Cistus × incanus, Verbena officinalis, Scutellaria lateriflora , and S. baicalensis and also from plant raw materials were performed. The antioxidant measurements were based on the modern assays-cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) and quick, easy, new, cheap, and reproducible CUPRAC (QUENCHER-CUPRAC). The total extractable antioxidants (CUPRAC assay) ranged from 10.4 to 49.7 mmol (100 g) -1 of dry weight (DW) expressed as Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), and the global antioxidant response (QUENCHER-CUPRAC assay) ranged from 16.0 to 79.1 mmol (100 g) -1 DW for in vitro cultures, whereas for plant raw materials the total extractable antioxidants ranged from 20.9 to 69.5 mmol (100 g) -1 DW, and the global antioxidant response ranged from 67.2 to 97.8 mmol (100 g) -1 DW. Finally, the in vitro cultures could be regarded as an antioxidant-rich alternative resource for the pharmaceutical, health food and cosmetics industries.

Climate change has increasing effects on horticultural crops. To investigate the impact of CO2 and temperature at elevated levels on tomato production and quality of fruits an experiment was conducted by growing plants in open top chambers. The tomato plants were raised at EC 550 (elevated CO 2 at 550 ppm) and EC 700 (elevated CO 2 at 700 ppm) alone and in combination with elevated temperature (ET) + 2 °C in the open top chambers. These elevate CO 2 and temperature treatment effects were compared with plants grown under ambient conditions. Outcome of the experiment indicated that growth parameters namely plant stature in terms of height (152.20 cm), leaf number (158.67), canopy spread (6127.70 cm 2 ), leaf area (9110.68 cm 2 ) and total dry matter (223.0 g/plant) were found to be high at EC 700 compared to plants grown at ambient conditions in open field. The plants grown at EC 700 also exhibited significantly higher number of flowers (273.80) and fruits (261.13), more fruit weight (90.46 g) and yield (5.09 kg plant -1 ) compared to plants grown at ambient conditions in open field. The percent increase in fruit yield due to EC varied from 18.37 (EC 550 ) to 21.41 (EC 700 ) percent respectively compared to open field and the ET by 2 °C has reduced the fruit yield by 20.01 percent. Quality traits like Total Soluble Solids (3.67 °Brix), reducing sugars (2.48%), total sugars (4.41%) and ascorbic acid (18.18 mg/100 g) were found maximum in EC 700 treated tomato than other elevated conditions. Keeping quality was also improved in tomato cultivated under EC 700 (25.60 days) than the open field (17.80 days). These findings reveal that CO 2 at 700 ppm would be a better option to improve both quantitative as well as qualitative traits in tomato. Among the combinations, EC 550 + 2 °C proved better than EC 700 + 2 °C with respect to yield as well as for the quality traits. The tomato grown under ET (+2 °C) alone recorded lowest growth and yield attributes compared to open field conditions and rest of the treatments. The positive influence of EC 700 is negated to an extent of 14.35 % when the EC 700 combined with elevated temperature of + 2 °C. The present study clearly demonstrates that the climate change in terms of increased temperature and CO 2 will have a positive effect on tomato by way of increase in production and quality of fruits. Meanwhile the increase in EC beyond 700 ppm along with ET may reduce the positive effects on yield and quality of tomato.