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Festivals depict the heritage, culture, and traditions of a particular region. They create a state of exhilaration and enthusiasm. Kerala is a state in southwest India with its own distinct culture and traditions. The state is also known for its religious pluralism. This study attempts to understand the perceived impact of religious festivals on the local community livelihoods in Palakkad, a district in central Kerala. Twelve temples in which religious festivals are held annually, with attendance in the range of thousands, were selected. The selected temples are famous for hosting specific religious festivals which attract a large number of visitors, from within and beyond the region. Using a sample of 420 community members living around these temples, this study examined how the socio-cultural and economic impacts of these religious festivals are perceived by the community. The findings show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the perceived socio-cultural and economic impacts of festivals on local communities. The celebration of local values and distinctiveness were evident in these religious festivals. The local community considers these festivals as part of their community identity and as offering impetus for annual family and community reunions.

Background: Aspergillus niger and A. flavus cause rotting, damping-off, loss in germination and toxification of oil seeds. Aspergillus is a common mold in tropical and Sub-tropical countries and causes aflatoxin contamination. A. flavus and A. niger were responsible for storage rot of groundnut. In addition to storage rot, aflatoxin contamination also leads to adverse effects on consumer health. Therefore, present study was conducted to estimate the impact of both A. niger and A. flavus on seed quality parameters of groundnut. Methods: Effect of major seed borne fungi A. niger and A. flavus on seed quality characters of thirteen different genotypes of groundnut was observed in the present study. All the seedling quality characters were measured as per ISTA guidelines. Result: On an average A. niger caused 25.14, 25.18, 43.99, 26.20 and 44.75 per cent reduction in seed germination, seedling length, seedling vigour index I, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index II, respectively, over the control whereas A. flavus caused average per cent reduction of 22.38, 24.23, 41.18, 23.92 and 40.95 in seed germination, seedling length, seedling vigour index I, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index II, respectively, over the control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is a key enzyme involved in the formation of pro-inflammatory mediators like eicosanoids. Inhibition of PLA2 is regarded as one of the effective methods of controlling inflammation. The present study investigated the binding potentials of three natural compounds, rosmarinic acid (RA), capsaicin (CAP), and curcumin (CUR) by means of in silico and in vitro methods. Our study revealed that RA has relatively better binding affinity and inhibition potentials when compared to the other two molecules. Our ITC experiments were also suggested a slightly better binding energy for the RA. The stoichiometry of the protein ligand complex obtained from one of the ITC experiments suggested the possibilities of binding of a small molecule MCW (degraded product of CUR) on PLA2. Overall study demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory activity of RA, CUR and CAP may be partly due to the inhibition of PLA2. [Display omitted] • Anti-inflammatory activity of Rosmarinic acid, Curcumin and Capsaicin may be partly due to the inhibition of sPLA2. • Rosmarinic acid possess has slightly better binding affinity than the other selected compounds. • These molecules could be used as health supplement that act as protective agent/immune booster/anti-inflammatory agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The turbo pump is the propulsion machinery used in liquid rocket engine. The fault caused due to the bearing and rotating components in the turbo pump would lead to a great damage to the pump or to the whole rocket engine and thus creates failure to the mission. For diagnosing the faults in the turbo pump, a technique based on the Fast Fourier Transform and time domain features is proposed in this study. The vibration produced in the turbo pump during dry run test gives the information about the condition of the turbo pump rotating components. The vibration of turbo pump is analysed by the extraction of statistical time domain features such as Mean, Standard Deviation, Root Mean Square, Kurtosis Factor, Crest Factor and Skew Factor. The faults present in the turbo pump are detected using support vector machine classifier, and the data are classified either as Normal or Abnormal data. The historical data-set obtained from Indian Space Research Organization is used for validation of this method. The obtained results indicate that this method diagnoses the fault effectively with 100% accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carcasses of pigs belonging to dilTcrcnt age groups were brought from three farms in Thrissur district to the Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy for post mortem examination. Classical swine fever (CSF) was suspected based on history, clinical symptoms narrated by the owners and lesions noted on post mortem examination. In all the cases, owners reported heavy morality among the piglets. The post mortem lesions such as haemorrhages in lymph nodes, diffuse white focal areas in kidneys, haemorrhagic gastritis, diphtheritic membrane formation in intestine, degenerated and necrotic areas on liver and pulmonary emphysema with marbled appearance of lungs of varying degrees were noticed. In the fourth case, owner reported a heavy mortality and production loss among pigs in his farm and brought a live piglet of about two-month-old to the Department of Veterinary Microbiology for disease investigation. Erythematous patches was observed on the skin of affected piglet which is indicative of CSF. The piglet showed enlarged lymph nodes, pneumonic changes in lungs, hepatosis and cardiac hypertrophy on post-mortem inspection. All four cases were diagnosed as CSF by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the E2gene of CSF virus which revealed an amplicon size of 308 bp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study describes the identification of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in a flock of Japanese quails from a private farm in North Kerala. Heavy mortality was reported among the birds aged four to five weeks. Post mortem examination revealed lesions, suggestive of chronic respiratory disease (CRD). The tissue samples were subjected to cultural examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting Mycoplasma gallisepticum. No bacterial organism of pathogenic significance could be isolated on culture. But, the tissue samples were found to be positive for Mycoplasma gallisepticum species specific PCR, which revealed a product size of about 186 bp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Nile virus (WNV) is currently a significant reemerging virus of the 21st century. It belongs to the family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus. Although it is primarily transmitted by the Culex spp of mosquitoes, other routes of transmission are also well defined. Of eight lineages described, Lineage 1a has been reported from many parts of South India and is known to cause neuroinvasive illness. Many tests and serological techniques have been described to diagnose WNV infection such as complement fixation, neutralization, heamagglutination inhibition, ELISA, and PCR for molecular confirmation. The latter far outweighs the limitations inherent in the other tests. WNV infection is being reported from Vellore for the first time after 1968. This paper aims to describe four cases of WNV infection causing central nervous system manifestations with its molecular characterization. West Nile virus infection was diagnosed with the available molecular techniques such as PCR and sequencing, which emphasizes the need for considering West Nile virus in the differential diagnosis of acute meningoencephalitis and the wider availability of molecular diagnostic tests.

Three ailing broilers of age 3 weeks, 5 weeks and 9 weeks respectively were presented to the Department of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy from three different private farms in Thrissur district for disease investigation. Owners reported a high mortality rate among the flocks and the birds were showing symptoms such as anorexia, depression, ruffled feathers, white watery diarrhoea and death. On post mortem examination, enlargement of bursa suggestive of infectious bursal disease (IBD) was noticed. The further confirmation of the cases were done with a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting the VP2 gene of Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), which revealed an amplicon size of 480 bp, specific for VP2 gene.

In the centrosymmetric binuclear title compound, [Cu2Br2(C12H10N5S)2]·2CH3OH, the CuII ion adopts a slightly distorted square-pyramidal coordination geometry. The hydrazine carbothioamide moiety and one of the pyridyl rings together adopt an almost planar arrangement, with a maximum deviation of 0.052 (4) Å for the C atom of the thiourea moiety. There are two molecules of methanol solvent per complex in the asymmetric unit. The nonconventional intramolecular C—H...Br hydrogen bonds make the molecule more rigid, whereas the conventional N—H...N and O—H...Br intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions, supported with N—H...π interactions, establish a supramolecular linkage among the molecules in the crystal. An intermolecular C—H...O interaction is also present.

Biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater conventionally involves multiple processing steps to satisfy the differing oxygen requirements of the microbial species involved. In this work, simultaneous nitrification, denitrification, and phosphorous removal from synthetic wastewater were achieved by the fungus Neurospora discreta in a single-step, biofilm-based, aerobic process. The concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous in the synthetic wastewater were systematically varied to investigate their effects on nutrient removal rates and biofilm properties. Biofilm growth was significantly (p < 0.05) affected by carbon and nitrogen, but not by phosphorous concentration. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the effects of nutrients on biofilm microstructure, which in turn correlated with nutrient removal efficiencies. The carbohydrate and protein content in the biofilm matrix decreased with increasing carbon and nitrogen concentrations but increased with increasing phosphorous concentration in the wastewater. High removal efficiencies of carbon (96%), ammonium (86%), nitrate (100%), and phosphorus (82%) were achieved under varying nutrient conditions. Interestingly, decreasing the phosphorus concentration increased the nitrification and denitrification rates, and decreasing the nitrogen concentration increased the phosphorus removal rates significantly (p < 0.05). Correlations between biofilm properties and nutrient removal rates were also evaluated in this study., 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 © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

COVID-19, the current global pandemic has caused immense damage to human lives and the global economy. It is instigated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and there is an immediate need for the identification of effective drugs against this deadly virus. SARS-CoV-2 genome codes for four structural proteins, sixteen non-structural proteins (NSPs) and several accessory proteins for its survival inside the host cells. In the present study, through in silico approaches, we aim to identify compounds that are effective against the four NSPs namely, NSP1, NSP4, NSP6 and NSP13 of SARS-CoV-2. The selection criteria of these four NSP proteins are they are least explored and potential targets. First, we have modeled the 3D structures of these proteins using homology modeling methods. Further, through molecular docking studies, we have screened the FDA-approved compounds against these modeled proteins and reported their docking scores. To gain dynamic insights, molecular dynamics studies have also been carried out for the best scored ligand against the NSPs. This study can further pave way for exposing more number of compounds against these proteins and enhance COVID-19 treatment., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42485-021-00067-w., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestAll the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.)

In the title compound, C13H10BrN3O2·H2O, the conformation about the azomethine double bond is E. The mol-ecule exists in the amido form with a C=O bond length of 1.229 (2) Å. There is an intra-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bond forming an S(6) ring motif. The whole mol-ecule is almost planar, with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.021 Å for all non-H atoms, and the dihedral angle between the planes of the pyridine and benzene rings is 0.74 (12)°. In the crystal, the water mol-ecule of crystallization links the organic mol-ecules via Ow-H⋯O, Ow-H⋯N and N-H⋯Ow hydrogen bonds and short C-H⋯Ow contacts, forming sheets lying parallel to (100). Within the sheets there is a weak π-π inter-action involving the pyridine and benzene rings [centroid-to-centroid distance = 3.8473 (15) Å]. The sheets are linked via C-H⋯Br inter-actions, forming a three-dimensional network.

The title compound, C14H12FN3O, adopts an E conformation with respect to the azomethine bond. The pyridyl and fluoro-benzene rings make dihedral angles of 38.58 (6) and 41.61 (5)° respectively with the central C(=O)N2CC unit, resulting in a non-planar mol-ecule. The inter-molecular inter-actions comprise two classical N-H⋯O and N-H⋯N hydrogen bonds and four non-classical C-H⋯O and C-H⋯F hydrogen bonds. These inter-actions are augmented by a weak π-π inter-action between the benzene and pyridyl rings of neighbouring mol-ecules, with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.9226 (10) Å. This leads to a three-dimensional supra-molecular assembly in the crystal system. The F atom is disordered over two sites in a 0.559 (3): 0.441 (3) ratio, through a 180° rotation of the fluoro-benzene ring.

The title compound, C14H12FN3O, adopts an E conformation with respect to the azomethine double bond whereas the N and methyl C atoms are in a Z conformation with respect to the same bond. The ketonic O and azomethine N atoms are cis to each other. The non-planar mol-ecule [the dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 7.44 (11)°] exists in an amido form with a C=O bond length of 1.221 (2) Å. In the crystal, a bifurcated N-H⋯(O,N) hydrogen bond is formed between the amide H atom and the keto O and imine N atoms of an adjacent mol-ecule, leading to the formation of chains propagating along the b-axis direction. Through a 180° rotation of the fluoro-phenyl ring, the F atom is disordered over two sites with an occupancy ratio of 0.632 (4):0.368 (4).

The title compound, [CuCl2(C19H16N4O)], contains a Cu(II) atom N,N',O-chelated by a neutral N-phenyl-hy-dra-zine-car-box-amide ligand and additionally coordinated by two Cl atoms, resulting in a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. The ligating atoms in the basal square plane of the complex comprise the azomethine N, the pyridine N, the amide O and one of the Cl atoms, whereas the other Cl atom occupies an apical position. The apical Cl atoms in adjacent layers function as hydrogen-bond acceptors to both NH groups. Intermolecular C-H⋯Cl and C-H⋯O interactions are also observed.

The Ni(II) atom in the title salt, [Ni(C₁₉H₁₆N₄O)₂](NO₃)₂, is N,N',O-chelated by two neutral Schiff base ligands in a distorted octa-hedral geometry. One nitrate ion inter-acts with the metal atom indirectly, in an outer-sphere type of coordination, through N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds; the other nitrate ion does not engage in any inter-actions and is equally disordered over two positions in the crystal.