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Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) plays a vital role in dealing with the challenging tasks of information management in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Current research has shown that the ever growing number of vehicles on the roads is making congestion worse, and many safety concerns are being addressed comprehensively by the WSN-based ITS. However, the energy consumed by sensor nodes, their operational period, and `security compromise' are ever growing concerns. Cluster-based routing strategies have potentially contributed in reducing the energy expenditure of sensor nodes, besides the selection of energy-efficient and secure Cluster Head (CH) is still seeking an optimized approach for acquiring the proliferated performance of WSN. To address these concerns, we propose an Intelligent Clustering approach for ITS (ICITS) which selects CHs based on a hybrid optimization method called GABAT that integrates the strengths of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and BAT Algorithm (BA). The proposed framework (ICITS) is targeted primarily to road transport in military areas due to their stringent requirements in terms of security and reliability while collecting the data from the deployed sensor nodes. The simulation results obtained with ICITS demonstrate that it performs well for various performance metrics that include stability period, network survival period and `number of packets sent', which are improved by 54.7%, 19.6%, and 40.5%, respectively as compared to recently proposed Cluster-based Intelligent Routing Protocol (CIRP).

Several bioceramics are used to enhance the bioactivity of NiTi, but the porous structure of these bioceramics simultaneously degrades the mechanical characteristics of implants. Therefore, NiTiMD composites were successfully synthesised with 0–10 wt.% reinforcement of waste marble dust (MD). Further, the effects of marble dust reinforcement on the physical, mechanical, and bioactive properties of NiTiMD composites were analysed. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images and X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the development of the primary NiTi and few secondary (e.g., NiTi2, Ni4Ti3, and Ni3Ti) phases. The porosity of NiTiMD composites increased from 8.74 to 20.83 % with the increase of marble dust reinforcement. Mechanical characterisation exhibited a two times increment in micro-hardness and bone-like Young’s modulus (3.10–6.93 GPa) and compressive strength (77.57–94.36 MPa). It was observed that the marble dust reinforcement enhanced the bioactivity of NiTiMD composites, and a uniform calcium phosphate (Ca-P) layer was formed on the NiTiMD6 and NiTiMD10 composites. Hence, the NiTiMD6 composite with balanced mechanical characteristics and enhanced bioactivity can be used as a novel material for orthopaedic implants.

PURPOSE The outcomes of patients with myeloma from developing countries are often lacking because of poor record maintenance. Publications from such settings are also limited because of the retrospective nature of the data collection. Information technology can bridge these gaps in developing countries with real-time data maintenance. We present the real-time survival data of the patients with myeloma from a tertiary care center in North India using one such indigenously built software. PATIENTS AND METHODS These are real-time data of all patients with myeloma presenting to a tertiary care center from North India. The patient characteristics (demographics, baseline disease characteristics, risk stratification, and outcomes) were recorded contemporaneously. The survival of the study population was analyzed and grouped based on various disease characteristics at diagnosis. RESULTS The median age of the study population (N = 696) was 65.9 (34.9-94.9) years with male predominance (65%). The median follow-up was 3.7 years (0-18.6 years) with the median overall survival (OS) not achieved. The OS of the study population at 1, 3, and 5 years was 94% (n = 558), 87.5% (n = 394), and 83.1% (n = 267), respectively. Most of the patients presented in advanced stages based on International Staging System (III:70%). On Kaplan-Meier analysis, the presence of weight loss ( P = .01), renal dysfunction ( P = .047), and anemia at diagnosis ( P = .004) had a significant impact on survival. On Cox proportional model univariate analysis, the presence of renal dysfunction, anemia, and weight loss had the significant hazard ratio of 1.68 (1-2.82, P = .049), 3.18 (1.39-7.29, P = .0063), and 2.81 (1.22-6.42, P = .014), respectively, whereas on multivariate analysis of hypercalcemia, renal disease, anemia, and bone disease (CRAB) features, only anemia was found to have a significant hazard ratio of 2.56 (1.01-6.47, P = .046). CONCLUSION The real-world data show OS comparable with the published western literature. Only anemia was found to have significant impact on survival. The use of such software can aid in better data-keeping in resource-constrained settings.

Efficient ethanol production using dilute acid pretreated rice straw was investigated in multiple-fed simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (mf-SSCF) for producing high titer ethanol at a low cost. The mf-SSCF was performed at very high solid loading (29.5% w/v) by multiple feeding of dilute acid pretreated rice straw without any detoxification, solid-liquid separation, and sterilization. After 72 h, an ethanol titer of 68.72 g L−1 was attained with higher ethanol yield (0.42 g g−1) and productivity (0.95 g L−1 h−1). Only magnesium sulfate (6 g L−1) was added as nutrient component and aqueous ammonia was used for pH adjustment of pretreated slurry to 5, which also provides ammonium ions as a nitrogen source for yeast during ethanol fermentation. Almost no water was added in the mf-SSCF process; therefore, higher ethanol titer (8.7 % v/v) was achieved, which further reduce distillation, water input, and treatment cost. These results suggest that the mf-SSCF process has great potential for the production of high titer ethanol on a commercial scale due to the consolidation and simplification of the process at a low cost.

We report the occurrence of the ant-mimicking jumping spider Myrmarachne melanocephala MacLeay, 1839 for the first time from Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary, Jharkhand, India. Digital illustrations and descriptions of the spider, the female’s exuviae, and video records of a live male are also presented. The distribution pattern of M. melanocephala has not been studied in detail across India whereas its ant model, Tetraponera rufonigra Jerdon, 1851 is known to have a wide distribution. Co-occurrence of the mimic and the model implies a wider range of biogeographical distribution of these species in India.

The boundedness of the difference of composition operators acting from the analytic Besov spaces to the Bloch type spaces is characterized. Some upper and lower bounds for the essential norm of the operator are also given.

Electron beam welding was used to fabricate dissimilar butt weld joints of AISI 321 and AISI 409 stainless steel 18-mm-thick plates. On both sides, i.e., fusion boundary of AISI 321 and fusion boundary of AISI 409 and along the thickness of the joint, the microstructure evolutions were studied using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results revealed that martensite was the major phase formed in the WM. The thickness of HAZ was more on side of AISI 409 as compared to AISI 321. In comparison with the WM, the HAZ was softer. The mechanical testing revealed that the root region was more ductile in comparison with the weld’s top region. The brittle fracture was demonstrated when the notch was formed at the HAZ of AISI 409 SS and the impact toughness reduces to 2 J. However, when the notch was formed in the HAZ of AISI 321 SS, the impact toughness improved to 32 J.

Studies on the nonlinear dynamics of a modified Van der Pol oscillator based electronic circuit has been reported. It has been found that inclusion of an active RC section (or filter) in the Van der Pol oscillator is able to generate rich nonlinear behavior. Effect of a low pass filter as well as an all pass filter has been reported. The behavior of the proposed system has been explained analytically and numerically with respect to its parameters by exploiting standard nonlinear analysis tools such as bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponent, phase portraits, Poincare sections, and basins of attraction. Occurrence of some fascinating features like antimonotonicity, hysteresis and coexisting attractors have been found in the modified system. The analytical and numerical studies has been verified experimentally with a prototype experiment.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as one of the non-negligible components of the Internet of Things (IoT) have proven to be a pillar of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The tasks of collecting, processing and fusing the information related to traffic, accidents, congestion and also the detection of pavement distress on roads, are efficiently handled and monitored by WSN-based IoT. However, the energy constraints of the sensor nodes deployed along the roadside, create a perturbing concern for their realization in architecture. Therefore, to address this concern, in this paper, we have proposed an optimized sensing technique that employs two sinks. We term it as Dual sink-based Optimized Clustering Architecture employing Tunicate Swarm Algorithm (TSA), i.e., DOCAT in short. The fitness function of DOCAT integrates the novel fitness parameters for Cluster Head (CH) selection. The parameters are: 1) Residual and initial Energy, 2) Distance of the node from sink, 3) Intra-Cluster Average Distance (ICAD), 4) Network’s average energy, and 5) Energy threshold. DOCAT is anticipated to be employed for accident prone roads, from where the critical accidental information is transmitted to healthcare venues through the IoT platform. The simulation results reveal that DOCAT acquires the proliferated performance compared to several similar algorithms in terms of the network reliability, network lifetime, throughput, and energy efficiency.

Background: An information gathering is a typical and important task in agriculture monitoring and military surveillance. In these applications, minimization of energy consumption and maximization of network lifetime have prime importance for green computing. As wireless sensor networks comprise of a large number of sensors with limited battery power and deployed at remote geographical locations for monitoring physical events, therefore it is imperative to have minimum consumption of energy during network coverage. The WSNs help in accurate monitoring of remote environment by collecting data intelligently from the individual sensors. Objective: The paper is motivated from green computing aspect of wireless sensor network and an Energy-efficient Weight-based Coverage Enhancing protocol using Genetic Algorithm (WCEGA) is presented. The WCEGA is designed to achieve continuously monitoring of remote areas for a longer time with least power consumption. Methods: The cluster-based algorithm consists two phases: cluster formation and data transmission. In cluster formation, selection of cluster heads and cluster members areas based on energy and coverage efficient parameters. The governing parameters are residual energy, overlapping degree, node density and neighbor’s degree. The data transmission between CHs and sink is based on well-known evolution search algorithm i.e. Genetic Algorithm. Results: The results of WCEGA are compared with other established protocols and shows significant improvement of full coverage and lifetime approximately 40% and 45% respectively. Conclusion: This paper proposes an evolutionary method to improve an energy-efficient clustering protocol for longer full coverage.

Background: The green Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have brought a revolution in uplifting the technology efficiently to facilitate human sector in the best possible way. Green Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) tactically focuses on improving the survival period of deployed nodes (as they have limited battery) in any target area. Objectives: To address this concern, the main objective is to improve the routing in WSN. The cluster- based routing helps in acquiring the same with the appropriate Cluster Head (CH) selection. The use of energy heterogeneous nodes that normally comprise of high energy nodes, puts a lot of financial burden on the users as they incur a huge cost, thus becoming a bottleneck for the growth of green WSN. Therefore , another objective of the study is to reduce this cost involved in the network. Method: A cost-effective routing protocol is proposed that introduces energy-efficient CH selection by incorporating parameters namely, node density, residual energy, the total energy of network and distance factor. Thus, the proposed protocol is termed as Cost-Effective Cluster-based Routing Protocol (CECRP) as it performs remarkably better with only two energy level nodes as compared to state-of-the-art protocols with three levels nodes. Results: It can be encapsulated from the simulation results that CECRP outperforms state-of-theprotocols on different performance metrics. Conclusion: Furthermore, it is comprehended from the simulation results that CECRP proves to be 33.33% more cost-effective as compared to the competent protocols, hence CECRP favors the green WSN.

In this study, an angular interrogation technique has been used for modeling a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR)based biosensor. The large surface area of the heterostructure of the blue phosphorene (BP/MoS2) layer facilitates the biomolecules absorption. A four-layer Kretschmann model of the SPR biosensor containing the BP/MoS2 heterostructure with a gold layer is proposed. Compared to the traditional gold filmbased SPR biosensors, the sensitivity of the proposed SPR biosensor has been significantly improved. An enhanced sensitivity 224.57°/RIU has been achieved by optimizing the proposed structure with 50 nm thick gold layer and a monolayer of heterostructure BP/MoS2 with a thickness of 0.75 nm. Moreover, the proposed BP/MoS2 heterostructure offers extremely small FWHM, high detection accuracy, and highquality factor parameters. The highest sensitivity of 252°/RIU was found with two-layers of BP/MoS2 heterostructure configuration. It is observed that, compared to previously reported sensitivity, the proposed SPR biosensor shows better results.

This is a review paper of some writings or literatures which presents the edible mushroom cultivation and processing including types, production and its scenario. Mushroom is a fungus considered to be edible due to its high nutrition facts. It is a great source of vitamin D, some minerals and protein. In addition, due to short or quick growing, good prices and health benefits, it is popular amongst farmers and new entrepreneurs. Their spawns are produced carefully in healthy conditions and sown on a well prepared compost bed containing required nutrition for spawn. Harvesting starts 50 to 55 days after sowing and mushrooms are twisted in opposite directions for harvest. Their fleshy nature leads to deterioration if not consumed within some hours or refrigerated or not utilized for canning, pickling, drying etc. which are post harvesting processes.

The Electron Beam welding (EBW) process was employed to fabricate 18 mm thick fully penetrated butt welds of AISI 321 stainless steel. Nail shaped weld wide at the top and narrow at the bottom was obtained. Characterization of the weld joint was carried out using optical microscopy, scan electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, microhardness, impact toughness test and tensile strength test. The microstructure of the weld metal was found to be free from defects like cracks porosity etc. The weld metal consisted of the primarily austenitic matrix with skeletal and vermicular morphology of δ-ferrite by the side of the grain boundaries. Carbides of Cr and Ti were found in the weld metal after the thermal aging treatment of 750°C for 24 hours as reveled by the XRD analysis. The tensile strength study revealed a maximum strength of 575 MPa at the root of the weld joint in the as-welded state. The maximum impact toughness of 129.3 J was obtained in the top section of the weld in the as-welded condition. The results in terms of structure-property correlaterelationship. This study recommends the effectiveness of EBW for joining 18 mm thick AISI 321.

Injudicious and ever-increasing use of pesticides has made consumers more aware and critical about quality control and quality assurance in fruits and vegetables. Presence of pesticide residues in food commodities is one of the most indispensable parameters in quality control and quality assurance. To meet out the demand of acceptable or no residues in crops, different agencies viz. Codex Alimentarius Commission, European Union, FSSAI etc. have assigned maximum residue limits for different pesticides on different crops. As these residues are present in very small quantities, their extraction and quantification involve the use of very effective and sensitive analytical methods and instruments. Different accreditation bodies have fixed analytical parameters to be met out by the pesticide residue laboratories so as to detect the pesticide residues with high precision and accuracy. Some of these parameters are linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and specificity etc. Validation of analytical methods is one such essential parameter in establishing the analytical quality control for detection of pesticide residues and also an essential component to meet out the requirements of different accreditation bodies. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to make an overview of the validation of analytical methods employed in pesticide residue analysis globally. The present review focuses on methods validated by different workers for residue detection along with each analytical parameter covered for validating the analytical methods. This compilation will be a useful tool to the analysts working on pesticide residue analysis in fruits and vegetables.

The intention in this research work is to investigate the effect of welding speed in electron beam (EB) welded 18mm thick plates of AISI 321. In this work, an attempt is made to study the effect of two different welding speeds on the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the welded joints. The results in the study show that bead width, reinforcement area, dendritic length and inert dendritic spacing vary for the different heat inputs. The microstructure conducted using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows the presence of lathy and vermicular ferrites in the weld bead. In addition, the ferrite measurements and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies indicate the difference in the ferrite content of the two beads. The fusion boundary has the highest microhardness of about 171.9 HV. The maximum toughness of 129.3J was found at the top region of the weld. The percentage elongation in the tensile test had shown increase in the root region of the welds. The rate of intergranular corrosion in mm per year was calculated and was found to be 13% more in the in the welds with more heat input.

Purpose Extracellular matrix remodeling is essential for extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cell migration and invasion during placental development and regulated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteases (TIMPs). Sphingosine kinases (SPHK1 and SPHK2) synthesize sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), which works either intracellularly or extracellularly via its receptors S1PR1-5 in an autocrine or paracrine manner. The role of SPHKs/S1P in regulating the expression of MMPs and TIMPs in EVT is mostly unknown and forms the primary objective of the study. Methods HTR-8/SVneo cells were used as a model of EVT. To inhibit the expression of SPHKs, cells were treated with specific inhibitors, SK1-I and SKI-II, or gene-specific siRNAs. The expressions of MMPs and TIMPs were estimated by qPCR. Results We demonstrated that SPHK1, MMP1-3, and TIMP1-3 were highly expressed in HTR-8/SVneo cells. We found that treatment of cells with SK1-I, SKI-II, and knockdown of SPHK1 or SPHK2 increased the expression of MMP1, MMP3, and TIMP3. The addition of extracellular S1P inhibits the upregulation of MMPs and TIMPs in treated cells. Conclusions SPHKs negatively regulate the expression of MMP1, MMP3, and TIMP3. The level of intracellular S1P acts as a negative feedback switch for MMP1, MMP3, and TIMP3 expression in EVT cells.

Giant cell myocarditis is a rare, often rapidly progressive and potentially fatal, disease due to T-cell lymphocyte-mediated inflammation of the myocardium that typically affects young and middle-aged adults. Frequently, the disease course is marked by acute heart failure, cardiogenic shock, intractable ventricular arrhythmias, and/or heart block. Diagnosis is often difficult due to its varied clinical presentation and overlap with other cardiovascular conditions. Although cardiac biomarkers and multimodality imaging are often used as initial diagnostic tests, endomyocardial biopsy is required for definitive diagnosis. Combination immunosuppressive therapy, along with guideline-directed medical therapy, has led to a paradigm shift in the management of giant cell myocarditis resulting in an improvement in overall and transplant-free survival. Early diagnosis and prompt management can decrease the risk of transplantation or death, which remain common in patients who present with cardiogenic shock.

Electron beam welding produces very narrow and deep penetration therefore it finds application where welding of thick materials is required. AISI 321 is susceptible to intergranular corrosion when it is used in high temperature and harsh conditions, owing to the Titanium depletion in the weld zone. However, the heat affected zone formed in electron beam welding extends to a narrow region across the weld pool. In the present study electron beam welding of austenitic 321 stainless steel is done to examine the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the joints. Microhardness tests along and across the weld bead were carried out. Tensile and impact tests were performed to analyze mechanical properties. The microstructures of the weld zone, fusion zone and base metals were also captured. Skeletal ferrites were seen in the weld metal. The aging treatment of 700°C for 24 hours which resulted in a change in morphology of the grains from skeletal to vermicular and promoted the formation of Ti-rich carbides on the grain boundaries. The maximum impact toughness at sub-zero temperature i.e. -40°C was recorded as 129.3 J in as-welded samples and it got reduced to 119.5 J after aging treatment. The average ultimate tensile strength was 582 N/mm2 and it got decreased to 481 N/mm2 after aging treatment.