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India has experienced an increase in violent murder cases in recent years. In 2021, there were over 29 thousand murders reported across India. Furthermore, more than 55 thousand attempted murder cases were filed in the country that year. A consistent increase in attempted murder cases was seen over the years till 2017. The reasons for death have been elucidated using necrophagous fly data in recent years. Forensic entomology focuses on the close bond between insects and corpses in addition to the use of insects in medicolegal investigations and as well as necrophagous flies play a crucial role in the decay of corpses. A checklist of necrophagous flies from India is hence provided. A total of 349 species belonging to 56 genera under 16 families are documented in this list along with their details of distribution. This is the first checklist of necrophagous flies from India which gives the complete scenario of the diversity of such flies from this megadiverse country. This checklist might serve as a new source of data on criminal cases and wildlife poaching in India.

The occurrence of a product recall can have a disastrous effect on the firm responsible for the recall. Any major recall by a firm can negatively affect the goodwill of the firm. Consequently, the firm incurs a substantial indirect cost due to decline in sales and loss in profit. Moreover, a competitor’s opportunistic reaction can intensify the recalling firm’s damages. Strategic use of advertising recovers lost goodwill and mitigates the damages made by a product recall. In this paper, using a goodwill based model under a differential game framework, we analyze the equilibrium strategies of two competing manufacturers when either one firm or both can issue a product recall at a random time, and investigate (i) the firms’ equilibrium advertising strategies (ii) analyze the impact of the recall on a firm’s profit (iii) introduce and investigate the effect of “hazard myopia” (a firm’s inability to foresee the crisis likelihood) on a firm’s advertising decisions and profit. Our study finds that the equilibrium advertising strategies of competing firms depend on the impact and likelihood of the recall. Notably, we find that when both the firms are focal firms without the prior knowledge of who will recall first in a planning horizon, adjusting optimal advertising at an appropriate time is essential. Surprisingly, a product-recall with a minor impact can increase the focal firm’s long-term expected profit. On the other hand, hazard myopia can be profitable if the long-term effect of the recall is small. Our findings suggest that advertising levels of firms should differ in pre-recall and post-recall regimes depending on the impact and likelihood of the recall.

Leishmaniasis is an enigmatic disease that has very restricted options for chemotherapy and none for prophylaxis. As a result, deriving therapeutic principles for curing the disease has been a major objective in Leishmania research for a long time. Leishmania is a protozoan parasite that lives within macrophages by subverting or switching cell signaling to the pathways that ensure its intracellular survival. Therefore, three groups of molecules aimed at blocking or eliminating the parasite, at least, in principle, include blockers of macrophage receptor- Leishmania ligand interaction, macrophage-activating small molecules, peptides and cytokines, and signaling inhibitors or activators. Macrophages also act as an antigen-presenting cell, presenting antigen to the antigen-specific T cells to induce activation and differentiation of the effector T cell subsets that either execute or suppress anti-leishmanial functions. Three groups of therapeutic principles targeting this sphere of Leishmania-macrophage interaction include antibodies that block pro-leishmanial response of T cells, ligands that activate anti-leishmanial T cells and the antigens for therapeutic vaccines. Besides these, prophylactic vaccines have been in clinical trials but none has succeeded so far. Herein, we have attempted to encompass all these principles and compose a comprehensive review to analyze the feasibility and adoptability of different therapeutics for leishmaniasis.

Atmospheric turbulence causes severe impairment of FSO communication link. Existing model underestimates the beam wander effect in high turbulence regime. In this paper, we model each turbulent eddy as a thin dielectric lens with Gaussian shaped refractive index profile and assume there are several sheets of eddies throughout the propagation path. We consider uniformly distributed eddy positions in a laminar sheet with Gamma distributed eddy sizes and refractive index fluctuations. We calculate mean beam wander and link availability for a given aperture size in high turbulence regime. Our simulation results show good concordance with the analytical results.

Here, we demonstrated a self-powered broadband photodetector using thermal CVD-grown in situ monolayer MoS2 flakes embedded below a solution-coated copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) layer. Lateral heterojunction with type-II staggered band-alignment between MoS2 and CuPc produces an interfacial built-in potential, enabling self-powered operation. Interestingly, a distinct phenomenon, which can be termed as spontaneous photogating, is identified that looks different from standard one based on charge trapping at defects and dielectric-interface. Mostly, exciton dissociated electrons were confined in MoS2 and form charged-puddles below CuPc layer as evidenced with Raman scattering results, which strongly modulates the optoelectronic property of MoS2/CuPc lateral-heterojunctions device. Eventually, CuPc itself is doped heavily with photo-generated holes under favourable energy-band alignment, which enhances overall photoconductivity. Hence, MoS2/CuPc photodetectors depict superior UV–Vis-NIR broadband photoresponse with 90% EQE at 1100 nm. We also achieved a responsivity and detectivity of about 0.7 A/W and ~ 1011 Jones, respectively, with a response speed of about 50 ms. This faster device response with self-powered operation is the main advantage compared with usual photogating based devices. Finally, the strategy proposed here will broaden the utilization of various TMDs without using sophisticated tools that significantly reduces the fabrication cost, processing time, and overall environmental hazards.

We report a facile growth of 2D layered nanohybrid (LNH) of liquid-phase exfoliated MoS2 flakes and Rose Bengal (RB) molecules as charge-transfer complex, evidenced with several methods including UV–vis absorption and photoluminescence. Raman line-broadening and red-shift to lower-wavenumber side of A1g peak of MoS2 in nanohybrid confirms adsorption of p-type RB as n-type dopant including lattice-strain modulation. Nanohybrid also shows better stability in solution than its constituent components as evidenced by Zeta potential results. The crystal phase invariance of MoS2 after forming nanohybrid has been confirmed from TEM and Raman studies. The resulting 2D-0D nanohybrid is found to suppress the intrinsic n-type nature of MoS2, which reflects as reduction of rectification ratio from 3.1 to 2.6, as observed in STM I-V measurements. The band edges are identified by measuring the local density-of-states (LDOS) as differential tunnel conductance (dI/dV) at room-temperature on an UHV-STM system, which strongly emphasizes the formation of type-II heterojunction of 2D MoS2 as acceptor and 0D RB as donor. The strategy explored here is the facile growth of 2D-0D nanohybrid by assembling organic molecules on 2D MoS2 flakes to achieve a distinct electronic structure and provide unprecedented capabilities to engineer the band structure of 2D layered materials.

In this paper, we discuss and analyze the heuristics existing to solve the K-Center problem. The K-Center problem is used in various practical scenarios such as facility location, load-balancing, ATM mapping, Cloud Server Selection, or even data clustering and image classification. Specifically, we examine a standard Greedy algorithm with an approximation factor of 2, the clustering algorithm introduced by Gonzales in 1985, and the Dominating Set Algorithm(commonly referred to as the elimination heuristic) devised by Jurij Mihelič and Borut Robič. We also propose a new heuristic to solve the specified problem using Tree-Independent Dual-Trees devised by Ryan R. Curtin.

A framework is developed for modeling the resonance Raman (RR) intensities of metalloporphyrins, with a view toward rationalizing the enhancement patterns observed in the spectra of heme proteins. The geometry of the S2 excited state of nickel(II) porphine is computed using INDO/1s methods, and the structural changes resulting from S0−S2 photoexcitation are projected onto the ground-state normal modes to calculate the intensity of each Raman-active vibration. The RR intensities derive mainly from expansion of the CαCm and CβCβ bonds in the excited state, with the relative intensities strongly influenced by the phasing between CαCm and CβCβ stretching coordinates. Analysis of the ν8 overtone shows the INDO predicted geometry changes to be about 25% too large. Results are compared at successive levels of approximation, demonstrating that inclusion of displacements along bending coordinates in the excited state are essential, as are frequency-dependent scaling factors which are determined from the absorption...

Resonance Raman (RR) spectra are reported for the S{sub 1} excited states of zinc(II) complexes of octaethylporphyrin (OEP) and protoporphyrin-IX-dimethyl ester (PPDME). Skeletal stretching modes exhibit large downshifts in the S{sub 1} state of ZnOEP relative to the ground state, indicating an overall expansion of the macrocycle upon photoexcitation. Vibrational modes are assigned using {sup 15}N and meso-d{sub 4} isotopomers of OEP: the isotopic sensitivity is observed to be similar in the S{sub 0} and S{sub 1} states, implying that the ground-state normal mode structure is preserved in the singlet excited state. Excited-state bond orders are calculated using INDO1/S methods. The frequency shift patterns for skeletal vibrational modes of ZnPPDME in the S{sub 1} excited state closely resemble those of ZnOEP, implying a similar electronic configuration; the vinyl C=C stretching mode appears to be only slightly perturbed in the excited states, although the exact position cannot be accurately determined. The results of these studies support the description of metalloporphyrin singlet excited states provided by Gouterman`s four-orbital model. 69 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.

Pelvic fractures are a major cause of trauma patient mortality. Detection and management of pelvic injuries is challenging due to myriad injury patterns and associated complications such as hemorrhage and infection. In this paper, we propose an automated method of pelvic fracture detection from volumetric CT images. A coarse-to-fine strategy is adopted where a potential region containing the fracture is identified first using intensity and curvature information. The above region is modeled as a weighted graph and a fracture is modeled as a minimum cut in this graph. A second localizing algorithm models the same fracture as a valley, based on the signs of the mean and Gaussian curvature. The minimum cuts as well as the spatial consistent valleys, in isolation, generate a small number of false positives in addition to the true fracture. A joint decision process based on the volumetric graph cuts and the spatially consistent valleys eliminates the false positives. Experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Traumatic injury of the pelvis is common and potentially devastating, with pelvic fractures being a major cause of trauma patient mortality. Detection and management of pelvic injuries is challenging due to varying injury patterns and resulting complications such as hemorrhage and infection. In this paper, we investigate the application of computer-aided detection (CAD) techniques for pelvic fracture detection. We propose a fast semi-automated method of pelvic fracture detection using a combination of i) graph cuts and ii) mean and Gaussian curvatures. A fracture is modeled as a minimum cut in a weighted graph. The same fracture is alternatively modeled as a valley based on the signs of mean and Gaussian curvatures. Each of these methods, in isolation, generates false positives in addition to the true fracture. We then combine the two methods and perform a neighborhood analysis to eliminate the false positives. Experimental results indicate that proposed method is very promising.

Resonance Raman (RR) and FT-IR spectra are reported for nickel(II) 1,5-dihydroxy-1,5-dimethyloctaethylbacteriochlorin [Ni(HOEBC)] and its meso-d[sub 4] isotopomer. All the in-plane skeletal RR-active modes and most IR-active modes are assigned with the aid of a normal mode analysis by using a force field developed for nickel(II) octaethylporphyrin and by scaling the bond stretch force constants to bond lengths revealed in the crystal structure of nickel(II) octaethylbacteriochlorin. The calculated eigenvectors provide insight into the essential vibrational characteristics of metallobacteriochlorins. The RR spectra of Ni(HOEBC) were acquired with a variety of excitation wavelengths, near resonance with the B[sub x], Q[sub x], and Q[sub y] transitions. The enhancement pattern of the observed RR intensities reveals that the B[sub x]- and near-Q[sub y]-resonant spectra are dominated by Franck-Condon-active modes while the Q[sub x]-resonant spectrum is dominated by vibronically active modes. The B[sub x]-resonant spectrum also shows significant vibronic scattering, via coupling between the B[sub x]- and B[sub y]-excited states. Frequencies correlate well among Ni(II) complexes of octaethylporphine (OEP) and hydroporphyrins for modes containing similar local mode contributions, when allowance is made for C[sub beta]-C[sub beta] bond order reduction and the effects of symmetry lowering. Assignments are proposed for the existing RR data on bacteriochlorophyll a.more » 32 refs., 14 figs., 6 tabs.« less