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In the present era of data-driven architectures like 5G, Internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc, the requirement of fast-switchable memory storage is more than ever. Oxide resistive switches are considered to be a primary choice in the non-volatile memory design. In this work, we have engineered the conventional metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure of an oxide memristor (Ag/ZnO/ITO) by inducing an additional oxide layer La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) at the interface between the active layer (ZnO) and Ag electrode. The presence of LSMO acts as a reservoir for the oxygen vacancies, easing the conducting filament formation process in ZnO, thereby enabling drastic improvement of the switching performance and offering reliable endurance over multiple switching cycles. First-principles-based calculations suggested the role of Oxygen vacancies in controlling the electronic state of ZnO and formation of vacancies in the resistive switching process, which is in agreement with the experimental observation. The current results pave ways for improving the switching performance of resistive memory circuits through simple structural engineering incorporation, which lies at the heart of oxide electronics.

The present study is a part of hard rock aquifer of Telangana, South India, where the groundwater is withdrawn heavily for drinking, irrigation, and small-scale industrial purposes. Geochemical characteristics explain the chemical processes, which control the groundwater chemistry and consequently the groundwater quality, while the chemical quality of groundwater is adversely affected by anthropogenic activities, which damage the water environment. The focus of the present study was, thus, to know the origin of geochemical characteristics and also to evaluate the quality of groundwater for various purposes for taking the suitable remedial measures to provide safe water to the local community. Geochemical relations (GR) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used to assess the geochemical characteristics. Entropy weighted groundwater quality index (EWGQI), United States Soil Salinity Laboratory Staff (USSLS)’s diagram, and groundwater quality criteria for water supply pipes (GQCW) were used to evaluate the groundwater quality for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes, respectively. The study found that the water-rock interactions associated with ion exchange and evaporation were the prime geochemical factors controlling the geochemical characteristics and the anthropogenic activities as the secondary factor. These observations were further supported by HCA. According to the EWGQI, 34.97% of the spatial area was found to have the poor and very poor groundwater quality zones for drinking purpose, because of the dominance of TDS, Na+, Cl−, $$ {\mathrm{SO}}_4^{2-} $$ , $$ {\mathrm{NO}}_3^{-} $$ , and F− contents in the groundwater system. Based on the USSLS’s diagram, 79.55% of the present study area was observed to be poor and very poor water quality type for irrigation utilization due to salinity hazard. The GQCW demonstrated that the 7.91% and 8.82% of the areas were not suitable for industrial purpose due to influence of incrustation based on $$ {\mathrm{HCO}}_3^{-} $$ and $$ {\mathrm{SO}}_4^{2-} $$ , respectively, and 1.85%, 12.32%, and 1.25 of the areas are unfit due to influence of corrosion based on pH, TDS, and Cl−, respectively. Therefore, boiling, activated carbon filter, rainwater harvesting, suitable coatings on metal surfaces of water supply pipes, etc. are the important suggested effective strategic measures to provide safe water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes.

Evaluation of seasonal and spatial variations in vulnerable zones for poor groundwater quality is essential for the protection of human health and to maintain the crop yields. With this objective, groundwater samples were collected seasonally (i.e., pre- and post-monsoon) from the Yellareddygudem watershed of Telangana, India. These samples were analysed for major chemical parameters (pH, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, [Formula: see text], Cl-, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and F-). Geographical information system (GIS) tools were used to delineate the seasonal and spatial variations for vulnerable zones related to the drinking groundwater quality index (DGQI) and irrigation groundwater quality index (IGQI). Geochemical facies and relations, Piper diagrams, and principal component analysis indicated that the weathering, dissolution, leaching, ion exchange, and evaporation were the primary processes controlling the groundwater quality seasonally. Human influences were the secondary factors. The TDS, Na+, K+, Cl-, [Formula: see text], and F- parameters were observed to be within the drinking water quality standard limits in most post-monsoon groundwater samples. However, the DGQI showed an increase in the number of samples with unsuitable quality for drinking in the post-monsoon period compared with the pre-monsoon period. The IGQI demonstrated that the number of samples with unsuitable quality for irrigation increased in the post-monsoon period compared to the pre-monsoon period. The differences in the vulnerable zones between the pre- and post-monsoon periods were due to variations in groundwater recharge, following the topography. Thus, the present study will help decision makers to plan groundwater treatment measures within vulnerable zones.

Background Researchers have struggled to understand the natural history of lesions presenting with both lichenoid features and epithelial dysplasia. Thus the present study was designed to differentiate between OLP, OLP with dysplasia, epithelial dysplasia and epithelial dysplasia with lichenoid features based on the expressions of ki-67, p53, COX-2, and α-SMA. Materials and methods Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded archival specimens of OLP, OLP with dysplasia, epithelial dysplasia and epithelial dysplasia with lichenoid features were subjected to immunohistochemical staining with ki-67, p53, COX-2, and α-SMA. Results Ki-67 exhibited strong positivity in 100% (6/6) of epithelial dysplasia cases, 71.4% (5/7) of lichenoid dysplasia cases, 57.1% (4/7) of OLP cases and 60% (3/5) of OLP with dysplasia cases. Strong p53 staining was evident in more cases of lichenoid dysplasia [42.8% (3/7)], while moderate staining was more frequent in OLP cases [42.8% (3/7)] and OLP with dysplasia cases [42.8% (3/7)] and mild intensity was more frequent in epithelial dysplasia cases [50% (3/6)] followed by lichenoid dysplasia cases [42.8% (3/7)], OLP cases [28.5 (2/7)] and OLP with dysplasia cases [40% (2/5)]. COX-2 strong positivity was more frequent in cases of epithelial dysplasia cases [57.1% (4/7)] and OLP [50% (3/6)]. Strong α- SMA staining was noted more frequently in lichenoid dysplasia cases [71.4 (5/7)], followed by OLP cases [42.8% (3/7)] and OLP with dysplasia cases [60% (3/5)]. Conclusions Ki-67, p53, α-SMA and COX-2 expression do not differentiate between OLP, LP with dysplasia and epithelial dysplasia with lichenoid features.

Extraction of roads from high-resolution aerial images with a high degree of accuracy is a prerequisite in various applications. In aerial images, road pixels and background pixels are generally in the ratio of ones-to-tens, which implies a class imbalance problem. Existing semantic segmentation architectures generally do well in road-dominated cases but fail in background-dominated scenarios. This paper proposes a dense refinement residual network (DRR Net) for semantic segmentation of aerial imagery data. The proposed semantic segmentation architecture is composed of multiple DRR modules for the extraction of diversified roads alleviating the class imbalance problem. Each module of the proposed architecture utilizes dense convolutions at various scales only in the encoder for feature learning. Residual connections in each module of the proposed architecture provide the guided learning path by propagating the combined features to subsequent DRR modules. Segmentation maps undergo various levels of refinement based on the number of DRR modules utilized in the architecture. To emphasize more on small object instances, the proposed architecture has been trained with a composite loss function. The qualitative and quantitative results are reported by utilizing the Massachusetts roads dataset. The experimental results report that the proposed architecture provides better results as compared to other recent architectures.

(1) Objective: To review the criteria proposed by Cerero-Lapiedra et al. and to retrospectively identify the under-diagnosed disease in patients diagnosed with proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. (2) Materials and methods: In this study, we included patients who were diagnosed with leukoplakia (histological label consistent with the clinical diagnosis, n = 95), and cases with a final diagnosis within the spectrum of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (n = 110) as defined by Batsakis et al. We applied the criteria proposed by Cerero-Lepiedra et al. to screen for the possible cases of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. (3) Results: Although many of our patients satisfied specific isolated criteria, only 11 cases satisfied specific combinations of the guidelines to satisfy a diagnosis of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. However, due to the lack of follow-up data, the disease is not confirmed in these 11 cases. (4) Conclusion: A limited number of cases of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia were diagnosed using the criteria given by Cerero-Lapiedra et al. The true natural history of the disease could not be studied due to the lack of follow-up data. (5) Clinical relevance: Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia presenting as hyperkeratosis or mild epithelial dysplasia are often not followed up, and they subsequently transform into carcinoma. Thus, clinicians must be vigilant whenever they encounter leukoplakia, especially with multifocal presentations. In such cases, the follow-up data are the key to understanding the true nature of the disease entity.

The present study is a part of hard rock aquifer of Telangana, South India, where the groundwater is withdrawn heavily for drinking, irrigation, and small-scale industrial purposes. Geochemical characteristics explain the chemical processes, which control the groundwater chemistry and consequently the groundwater quality, while the chemical quality of groundwater is adversely affected by anthropogenic activities, which damage the water environment. The focus of the present study was, thus, to know the origin of geochemical characteristics and also to evaluate the quality of groundwater for various purposes for taking the suitable remedial measures to provide safe water to the local community. Geochemical relations (GR) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used to assess the geochemical characteristics. Entropy weighted groundwater quality index (EWGQI), United States Soil Salinity Laboratory Staff (USSLS)'s diagram, and groundwater quality criteria for water supply pipes (GQCW) were used to evaluate the groundwater quality for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes, respectively. The study found that the water-rock interactions associated with ion exchange and evaporation were the prime geochemical factors controlling the geochemical characteristics and the anthropogenic activities as the secondary factor. These observations were further supported by HCA. According to the EWGQI, 34.97% of the spatial area was found to have the poor and very poor groundwater quality zones for drinking purpose, because of the dominance of TDS, Na

Evaluation of seasonal and spatial variations in vulnerable zones for poor groundwater quality is essential for the protection of human health and to maintain the crop yields. With this objective, groundwater samples were collected seasonally (i.e., pre- and post-monsoon) from the Yellareddygudem watershed of Telangana, India. These samples were analysed for major chemical parameters (pH, TDS, Ca

Phosphorene has a unique set of characteristics such as a semiconducting nature, good carrier mobility and low-spin orbit coupling aspects which makes it a highly prospective two dimensional material for cross-hybrid architectures in nanoelectronics, spintronics, and optoelectronics. In the spintronic context, the creation of a stable magnetic order in phosphorene can be immensely beneficial for designing phosphorene spin circuits. In this work, we present high efficiency spin filtering behaviour in magnetically rendered phosphorene. First, we calculate the effect of doping various 3d block elements in phosphorene to introduce a stable magnetic order. Next, by varying doping concentrations in distinct doping configurations, an extensive phase diagram has been obtained depicting the presence of various electronic and magnetic states. This allows us to achieve a high magnetisation in the presence of various transition metal atoms, with a spin polarisation of ∼100% in half-metallic regimes. The transport behaviour reveals a map of the spin injection efficiency showing enhancement with doping concentration and reaching a perfect spin filtering capacity of ∼100% in the presence of Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, and Fe atoms. The present results offer new insights into engineered designs of multi-functional phosphorene spintronic circuits.

We investigate the magnetic and thermoelectric properties of α-MnO2 synthesized using the hydrothermal route. The nanorod structure having an aspect ratio of ∼10 is recorded using FESEM image. The magnetization vs temperature curves reveals the ferromagnetic like ordering below a magnetic transition temperature (∼28 K) which is also confirmed from the hysteresis curve at 10 K. The coercivity in the sample was observed to be 2.9 kOe and remnant magnetization was observed as 0.34 emu/g. Thermoelectric measurements reveal the n-type conduction in the system with a Seebeck coefficient of ∼160 µV/K, the electrical conductivity of ∼42 S/m and the thermal conductivity of 0.65 W/m-K at 300 K.

LaCoO3 shows interesting thermoelectric properties due to the existence of different charge states along with different spin states of cobalt in the system. Substitution at La and Co site leads to tune the electrical conductivity and hence Seebeck coefficient. We show that spark plasma sintered (SPS) La0.7Sr0.3Mn0.5Co0.5O3 sample shows an increase in the value of electrical conductivity at higher temperature with nominal decrease in the Seebeck coefficient. This improves the figure of merit for La0.7Sr0.3Mn0.5Co0.5O3 polycrystalline sample at 800 K. The maximum figure of merit for SPS La0.7Sr0.3Mn0.5Co0.5O3 is 0.006 at 800 K.

This paper proposes a robust framework for quality restoration of remotely sensed aerial images. Proposed framework works in three steps: (1) Efficient color balancing and saturation adjustment, (2) Efficient color restoration, (3) Modified contrast enhancement using particle swarm optimization (PSO). In order to show the robustness, step-wise results of proposed framework is illustrated. Several aerial images from two publically available datasets are tested to support the robustness of the proposed framework over existing image quality restoration methods. The experimental results of proposed framework and other existing quality restoration methods are compared in terms of NIQMC, BIQME, MICHELSON, DE, EME and PIXDIST along with visual experimental results. Based on experimental results conducted on several aerial images suggest that the proposed framework is outperform over existing quality restoration methods.

Aim The aim of the study was to report a unique case of glandular odontogenic cyst (GOC) in an unusual location of anterior maxilla. Materials and methods Considering the age, sex, and location of the lesion, a minimally invasive surgical procedure was opted considering esthetics, such as decompression followed by enucleation and fresh frozen bone (FFB) grafting. To arrive at the diagnosis, cytokeratin (CK)-19 was employed to differentiate from suspected intraosseous mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Results With the evidence of pre- and post treatment histopathological changes, the lesion appeared less aggressive justifying the treatment executed. Conclusion Glandular odontogenic cyst is a locally aggressive jaw cyst, which has a high rate of cortical perforation and recurrence that poses both diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Clinical significance Treatment of decompression, followed by enucleation may be considered as an effective option in comparison to aggressive surgical intervention. How to cite this article Kumari K, Sowmya SV, Vineeth K, Rao RS, Lalitha RM, Augustine D, Haragannavar VC, Nambiar S, Abraham M. Staged Minimally Invasive Surgical Approach in the Management of Glandular Odontogenic Cyst. World J Dent 2018;9(1):48-52.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the gastropod diversity is high, due to the majority of shores are rocky. The wet rocky shore promotes algal growth, which is ultimate for feeding ground for gastropod growth and development leading to more diversity. The global warming, anthropogenic activities, industrial and domestic pollution, etc., have accelerated the loss of coastal and marine biodiversity components over the last few decades which has been of great concern. However, except global warming, the other factors were of least concern with reference to Andaman and Nicobar Islands biodiversity due to a pristine environment. Therefore, exploration of biodiversity in these islands is essential to create a baseline data for record and future research. Four locations of south to north Andaman Islands which represented Carbyns Cove from south Andaman, Rangat and Mayabunder from the Middle Andaman and Diglipur from the North Andaman were selected for this study. Gastropoda species were collected for a period of one year in three prevailing seasons of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They are South West Monsoon (SW monsoon), North East Monsoon (NE Monsoon) and Non Rainy Seasons (NR Seasons). The present study of gastropods distribution in the South, Middle and North Andaman groups of Islands suggested that there are 71 species belonging to 52 genus and 33 families. At any one of the time and any one of the locations, only one occurrence was noticed for 38 species and remaining 33 species were overlapping with respect to stations and seasons. Evaluation of the cluster suggested that Cluster A (NR season in Carbyns Cove) and Cluster B (NE and SW Monsoon in Mayabunder) as a separate entity among the 12 combinations of stations and seasons due to their species representation. It was also concluded that out of 71 studied species, 3 species were not reported till date in these Island environment and 2 species from any other parts of India.

In this work, we report the temperature-dependent transport and resistive switching behaviour of a promising hybrid structure made of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The current-voltage (IV) characteristics are non-linear across the studied temperature range of 100 K–300 K, which is also temperature-dependent. The memristive effect is most prominent at 200 K, while the reduction of hysteresis in the IV-curve with decrease in temperature is ascribed to the low thermal energy of the charge carriers. The charge transport in the SET and RESET process at different temperatures can be explained using trap-controlled space charge limited conduction mechanism for temperature > 200 K and Poole-Frenkel emission at temperatures below that.

In this study, we reported the presence of robust, reversible unipolar electric pulse-induced resistance switching effects in copper iodide and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 nanocomposites. The properties of the resistive switching and change in the I–V pattern was analyzed over 100 cycles by hysteretic pulse current–voltage measurement (pulse width = 0.01 s and pulse period = 0.02 s). The charge transport analysis of various regions of the 1st cycle pointed towards Schottky emission and Poole–Frenkel effect to be the dominant mechanisms in lower bias region and higher bias region respectively. On the other hand, resistive switching turned out to be stable over 1000 cycles of square electrical pulse train measurement where frequency of 125 Hz (pulse period 2 ms and pulse width 100 μ s ) and 250 Hz (pulse period 1 ms and pulse width 50 μ s ) were used.

The present investigation carried out from a rural part of Nalgonda district, Telangana, India was to know the general groundwater quality and also to measure the vulnerable zones of non-cancer-causing health risks with respect to infants, children, and adults due to the consumption of nitrate and fluoride contaminated groundwater. Groundwater samples were collected from the study area and analyzed for the major physicochemical parameters. Nitrate and fluoride contents ranged from 2 to 700 mg/L and 0.3 to 4.7 mg/L, in which 59.09% and 31.82% of the groundwater samples exceed the safe drinking water limits of 45 mg/L and 1.5 mg/L, which spread over an area of 77.59% and 25.41%, respectively. Domestic wastes, septic tank spillages, animal wastes, and nitrate composts are the prime sources of nitrate, while the fluoride-bearing minerals and phosphate fertilizers are the main sources of fluoride in the aquifer regime. Individual non-cancer-causing health index obviously suggested the nitrate as the higher health risk than fluoride. The total non-cancer-causing health index was observed to be more than the acceptable limit of 1.0 in 95.5% of the total groundwater samples concerning infants, children, and adults. The vulnerable intensity of this index appeared to be higher in infants than in children and adults due to the differences in their body weights. The spatial coverage area of very health risk is more in infants (37.45%) than that of children (36.78%) and adults (30.34%). Thus, the present study suggested suitable measures for the improvement of groundwater quality and consequently the health conditions of the locals.

With the recent surge of emerging memory technologies, the demand for storage capacities in various applications is more than ever. Oxide material based memory elements are promising candidates for designing future non-volatile storage architectures. In this work, we investigated the structural, transport and resistive switching (RS) behaviour of a novel hybrid structure made of calcium doped LaMnO3 (LCMO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Very stable and robust bipolar RS behaviour was observed with additional tunability obtained through the variation in the rGO concentration in the structure. The presence of a metal to insulator transition is clearly observed with a lowering of the transition temperature on increase in the rGO content. Both the effects can be attributed to the oxygen vacancy generation and filament formation as confirmed from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) measurements. The combined attributes of easy fabrication route, robust switching behaviour and environmental stability of the present system makes it a superior candidate for future non-volatile memory design and oxide electronics.