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This study assessed the impact of improved green fodder production activities on technical efficiency (TE) of dairy farmers in climate vulnerable landscapes of central India. We estimated stochastic production frontiers, considering potential self-selection bias stemming from both observable and unobservable factors in adoption of fodder interventions at farm level. The empirical results show that TE for treated group ranges from 0.55 to 0.59 and that for control ranges from 0.41 to 0.48, depending on how biases are controlled. Additionally, the efficiency levels of both adopters and non-adopters would be underestimated if the selectivity bias is not appropriately accounted. As the average TE is consistently higher for adopter farmers than the control group, promoting improved fodder cultivation would increase input use efficiency, especially in resource-deprived small holder dairy farmers in the semi-arid tropics.

In this paper we carried out research on heart disease from data analytics point of view. Prediction of heart disease is a very recanted as the data is becoming available. Other researchers have approached it with deferent techniques and methods. We used data analytics to detect and predict disease's patients. Starting with a pre-processing phase, where we selected the most relevant features by the correlation matrix, then we applied three data analytics techniques (neural networks, SVM and KNN) on data sets of different sizes, in order to study the accuracy and stability of each of them. Found neural networks are easier to conure and obtain much good results (accuracy of 93%).

The behaviour of pesticides applied during cultivation of crops is affected by usage of amendments like farm yard manure (FYM) and vermicompost (VC) during land preparation. Among pesticides, atrazine, a widely used herbicide in many crops, was analysed for its kinetics and sorption behaviour through the addition of FYM and VC in sandy loam soil. The pseudo-second order (PSO) model best fits kinetic results in the recommended dose of FYM and VC mixed soil. Atrazine was more sorbed onto VC mixed soil than FYM mixed soil during adsorption. Both FYM and VC (1, 1.5, and 2%) increased atrazine adsorption, but the effect varied with dosage and type of amendment. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm adequately explained atrazine adsorption in soil/soil+(FYM/VC) mixtures, and adsorption was highly nonlinear. The values of Gibb’s free energy change (ΔG) were negative for both adsorption and desorption, suggesting sorption was exothermic and spontaneous in nature. The results revealed that the application of amendments used by farmers interferes with the availability, mobility, and infiltration of atrazine in the soil. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that amendments like FYM and VC can be effectively used to minimize the residual toxicity of atrazine treated ago-ecosystems in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

This study identified sugarcane press mud (SPM)—a by-product of sugarcane industry—as a possible feedstuff for pig production. Crossbred (Landrace × Desi) piglets (n = 28) were randomly allocated to four similar dietary groups of seven (four females and three males) each. The resulting treatments were: control (T0) diet with no inclusion of sun-dried SPM (SSPM) and diets T1, T2 and T3 contained SSPM at a level of 5, 10 and 15%, respectively, partially replacing maize, de-oiled soya bean meal and wheat bran. Performance traits such as feed intake, nutrient digestibility, immune response and economics of feeding were recorded until attaining marketable body weight (BW) of 80 ± 5 kg. Isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated for three different stages of pigs based on BW like weaner (10–20 kg; 60–75 days), grower (20–50 kg; 76–135 days) and finisher (50–80 kg; 136–195 days). A 7-day digestion trial was conducted during the grower stage. Results demonstrated that intake and total tract digestibilities of all major nutrients did not differ across treatments, except crude fibre intake, which was greater (P

The recent second wave and the latest third wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in India caused havoc on health infrastructure. However, there is a scarcity of studies from India and abroad that compare the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the factors like age, sex, and death comparison among diagnostically proven COVID-19 patients of the Meerut district in both waves.A total of 297554 samples during the second wave (1The RT-PCR positivity of 8.24% for COVID-19 in the second wave while 5.66% of patients in the third wave have been reported. The proportion of positive cases in children ≤10 years in the second and third wave were quite similar i.e., 3.59% and 3.40% respectively, whereas the proportion of positive cases in adolescents (10-20 years) was significantly higher (12.96%) in the third wave in contrast to the second wave (10.15%), while age group (41-60 years) is significantly less (26.65%) in proportion during the third wave in comparison to the second wave (29.50%). The proportion of positivity in young males has significantly increased in the third wave as compared to the second wave. The mortality also decreased significantly by 1/3The third wave showed low overall positivity (5.66%) as compared to the second wave (8.24%), while the brunt on young children was comparable to the second wave which was assumed to be higher. The mortality and hospitalization also decreased significantly in the second wave. Regular surveillance and analysis should continue to combat this pandemic.

Ossicular discontinuity is one of the most common causes of conductive hearing loss. Ossicular chain reconstruction improves conductive hearing loss. With no additional cost, cartilage ossiculoplasty is easy to perform, and also the cartilage is well tolerated being an autograft. In this study we compared the audiological outcome in ossiculoplasty done by cartilage umbrella, cartilage boomerang and alloplastic TORP. 75 patients of age group 10–50 years clinically diagnosed with chronic otitis media with conductive hearing loss and an air bone gap (ABG) of at least 20 dB posted for surgery were included. Ossiculoplasty was done in three groups with autologous cartilage boomerang, cartilage umbrella and alloplastic TORP. In mucosal disease hearing gain was better in umbrella technique (17.66 ± 1.1) dB than Boomerang (16.9 ± 0.8) dB and TORP (10.68 ± 0.9) dB. ABG closure was higher in Boomerang and TORP. Hearing improvement in patients with squamosal disease managed by canal wall up surgery was 25.01 ± 1.1 dB, 27.73 ± 3.1 dB and 20.12 ± 1.8 dB in Boomerang, Umbrella and TORP group respectively showing that umbrella method gave maximum improvement. ABG closure was better in TORP group. In canal wall down surgery patient’s maximum improvement was seen in Boomerang (29.51 ± 0.9) dB followed by Umbrella (26.67 ± 1.2) dB and TORP (25.27 ± 0.8) dB group. ABG closure was higher in Boomerang group. Cartilage ossiculoplasty is a reliable and effective method of ossicular chain reconstruction for both mucosal and squamosal disease. Cartilage ossiculoplasty has the added advantage of reduced chances of prosthesis extrusion as compared to TORP.

In the survey paper we defined all the topics related to the Internet of Things. All the components related to the internet of things in Details. You will get detailed knowledge about the Internet of things ecosystem, Internet of things Elements, Internet of things Architecture. Also, we will cover all the internet of things protocols and brief about protocols. In this we will provide the details of attack based on Protocols and at the end we justify why RPL is useful over 6Low-PAN in the internet on things network layer.

Epistaxis is one of the most common emergencies. Topical agents such as silver nitrate, is known to be a strong oxidizing agent and have been widely used, especially in recurrent and refractory cases. The extent of depth of coagulative necrosis is dependent on time of exposure and concentration. 2 mm wide bar of nasal septum from 30 patients was taken and AgNO3 was applied for 10, 20, 40 s. H&E staining was then performed to see depth of penetration and intensity of stain deposits. It was observed that with increase time of application, depth of penetration and density of deposits were increased for both 75% and 100% concentration of solution. Distribution in depth of penetration was significant when 75% concentration was applied for more than 20 s. But when 100% concentration was used, similar findings were found even after 10 s in young age group. Our study shows that when silver nitrate is used for chemical cauterization in different concentrations and for different times, their penetration is different. Moreover, the depth of penetration depends more on the time of contact than concentration of silver nitrate. We would recommend using 75% solution for use with a contact time not more than 20 s in adults and 10 s in children.

Here we address the challenging problem of pressure induced hydrogen sublattice disordering in layered hydroxides using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and first-principles calculations...

Fe-based metallic glasses are known for their high corrosion resistance. Also, the corrosion resistance of metallic glasses are greatly influenced by the alloying elements. In the present study, the bio-corrosion resistance of two Fe-based metallic glasses (Fe32Ni36Cr14P12B6 and Fe67Co18B14Si1) has been studied. The bio-compatibility of these metallic glasses are studied in four simulated body fluids (SBFs), namely artificial saliva solution (ASS), phosphate-buffered saline solution (PBS), artificial blood plasma solution (ABP), and Hank’s balanced saline solution (HBSS). Potentiodynamic polarization studies are performed on both the metallic glasses, for understanding their bio-compatibility.

The palladium (Pd) based delafossites unique class of layered conducting oxides with noticeable electronic properties, are enhancing the interest of material scientists to explore this noble material. In this article, the structural, electronic and optical properties of PdBiS2 (PBS) chalcopyrite are studied using state-of-the-art density functional theory (DFT). The structural geometry of PBS is similar to the delafossite type oxides. The phonon dispersion curves (PDC) of PBS indicate its dynamical stability. The electronic band structure and density of states (DOS) reveal that the PBS compound is metallic in nature. The partial density of states (PDOS) indicates the major contribution of the Pd 3d and S 2p orbitals near the valence band maximum (VBM). The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant further confirm its metallic nature.

Dodecahydrotriphenylene, a higher homologue of trindane chemoselectively undergoes unidirectional benzylic sp3 C–H oxidation and the central benzene ring remains intact unlike that in trindane under similar reaction conditions. RuO4 which generally attacks sp2 C–H to form oxidative products is found to give benzylic ketones via sp3 C–H oxidation. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have also been performed to analyse the potential energy, energy barrier and HOMO–LUMO energy gap of the products.

For efficient hydrogen and oxygen production, design and synthesis of cost-effective, stable and active materials are inevitable. In this work, the catalytic activity of 2D CoOOH towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been investigated using first principles calculations based on density functional theory. The adatom induced structural rearrangement have been investigated from structural parameters as well as charge redistribution in 2D CoOOH. The preferred site for hydrogen and oxygen adsorption were found to be the top site of oxygen atom of 2D CoOOH. The catalytic activity of HER and OER towards 2D CoOOH was studied by calculating the Gibbs free energy. Our study revealed that the 2D CoOOH serve better as a catalyst for HER than OER with adsorption energy of −0.45 and −3.68 eV respectively suggesting its efficient use for hydrogen production. We further investigated the changes in electronic properties of 2D CoOOH on adsorption of hydrogen and oxygen atom.

Chronic otitis media is a middle ear cleft disease presenting with tympanic membrane perforation and discharge. Wet ear after tympanoplasty and discharging mastoid cavity are problematic in clinical practice.1050 patients of age 10 to 50 years presenting with active ear discharge and clinically diagnosed with unilateral chronic suppurative otitis media were included in the study. The patients were equally divided into two equal groups, Group ET, and AT. All patients were prescribed topical ciprofloxacin, oral levocetirizine 5 mg and n-acetyl cysteine 600 mg BD for one week. Swabs of ear discharge were collected in ET groups for antibiogram. Both groups were evaluated on next visit and treatment changed in AT groups and result observed in next visit. Surgical outcome was evaluated at end of 2 yrs.A total of 1158 organisms were isolated in culture out of which, 69.94 % were aerobes, 13.47 % anaerobes and 16.58 % were fungi. On the second visit in group AT, treatment of 85.14 % patients was changed in accordance with culture sensitivity report. In patients with mucosal disease, only 46.87 % patients of group ET had a favorable outcome in comparison to 90.28 % patients of group AT while in patients with squamosal disease, 17.56 % patients of group ET and 28.99 % patients in group AT had a dry ear. Surgeries in AT group were found to have statistically significant higher success rate as compared to ET group.

Elevation and land use/ land cover (LULC) plays an important role in the diversity of lichens in the Himalayas. The elevation gradients and LULC can be remotely assessed using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS). The current study was done in the Chopta-Tungnath landscape in the Kedarnath wildlife sanctuary, western Himalaya, India. Digital elevation modelling of the study area was done using shuttle radar topography mission data (SRTM-DEM) processed in Esri ArcGIS® ArcMAPTM 10.5, to assess the elevation gradient of the study area and selection of four lichen sampling sites. The LULC maps of the study area were prepared using Landsat 8 and Google Earth Pro 7.3.2.5776 imagery processed using LeicaTM ERDAS IMAGINE® 9.2. An elevation gradient of 2750 m to 3703m was recorded by SRTM-DEM. The LULC analysis resulted in five LULC classes of which the four sampling sites fall in the 3 LULC classes. The principal component analysis (PCA), used to analyse the lichen communities along the RS-GIS recognized LULC classes. The study found lichen communities to be a proxy to the LULC classes in the Himalayas with clear gradients of growth forms and habitat subsets along the increasing elevation gradient.

To the chain of development of 2D materials, recently synthesized ultrathin cobalt oxy-hydroxide (CoOOH) nano sheets gain potential interest due to its structural, electronic and other properties. We have studied the interaction mechanism of two toxic gases hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ammonia (NH3) adsorbed over 2D CoOOH to understand the role of 2D CoOOH as a toxic gas sensor. We employ first principles based dispersion corrected density functional calculations to study the sensing behavior of 2D CoOOH towards H2O2 and NH3 by calculating adsorption energy, electronic band structure, density of states (DOS) and work function. The electronic band structure, DOS and work function of 2D CoOOH are modulated after adsorption of H2O2 and NH3 molecules. Adsorption of gas molecules confirms the sensing behavior of 2D CoOOH towards these molecules and depicts its use in a sensing device. The full phonon dispersion curves and phonon density of states reveal the dynamical stability of 2D CoOOH. The calculated adsorption energy of H2O2 and NH3 molecules is −0.532 and −0.460 eV respectively which indicates the strong physisorption of these gases over 2D CoOOH. The ultrafast recovery time of 1239 and 1203 ns respectively were found for H2O2 and NH3 on 2D CoOOH. The work function which is 6.29 eV found for 2D CoOOH, decreases to 5.63 eV for H2O2 as it follows the reduction process on 2D CoOOH, and increases to 6.44 eV for NH3 molecules as it acts as oxidation gas on CoOOH. Our study reveals that the 2D CoOOH can be a better sensor for the H2O2 and NH3 gases than some traditional two-dimensional materials.

Dodecahydrotriphenylene, a higher homologue of trindane chemoselectively undergoes unidirectional benzylic sp