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Climate change effects, including temperature extremes and water stress, cause abiotic stress in plants. These changes directly affect flowering and the flower reward system for pollinators, influencing plant–pollinator interactions and ultimately seed production in flowering plants. Here, we tested the effects of water deprivation on the behavior of various pollinator species, plant–pollinator interactions, and the seed yield of sunflower, Helianthus annuus L. (Asteraceae). Sunflower was sown during four different months (January–April) and subjected to two different water availability levels (well-watered and water-deprived). Pollinator abundance was recorded five times a day (8:00 am, 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 4:00 pm) from flower heads and the florets. In addition, foraging behavior was also recorded. We found that lowest abundance, visit duration, and visitation rate occurred in April-sown sunflower. The European honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was the most abundant visitor to sunflower, the hover fly Eristalinus aeneus (Diptera: Syrphidae) exhibited the longest visit duration, while Xylocopa sp. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) exhibited the highest visitation rate. The visitation rate of bees was significantly affected by water stress, with more bee visits occurring under well-watered conditions. Additionally, plant parameters, including flower head diameter, head weight, seed number, and seed weight, were significantly lower in the water-deprived treatments in April-sown sunflower. Open flowers without the pollination exclusion cages showed a higher yield, indicating the pollination dependence of sunflower. In conclusion, the plant modifications induced by sowing months and water-deprived conditions may alter pollinator behavior and may ultimately affect sunflower yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For technological applications, a noteworthy attention has been gain by Janus layered materials for their distinctive structure and properties. A comprehensive investigation is performed to calculate the electronic, optical and thermoelectric response, using density functional theory, for monolayer SMoSiN2 and SeMoSiN2. Indirect band gap semiconducting nature is evidenced in these monolayers. Variations in band values are observed with application strain. Studying optical properties, blue and red shift are observed with the applications of compressive and tensile strain. Thermoelectric properties expose the productivity of SMoSiN2 monolayer over SeMoSiN2 in strain free condition. Biaxial tensile and compressional strain is applied to modify the thermoelectric properties of the understudy monolayers. The higher power factor of SMoSiN2 and SeMoSiN2 with compressional strain confirms that the thermoelectric efficiency of these materials can be affectively improved by applying strain. This work deepens the understanding of strain effects on Janus materials by providing detailed insights into their electronic, optical, and thermoelectric properties. These findings offer a foundation for designing next-generation materials with tailored properties for applications in thermoelectric devices, and optoelectronic technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthcare sector has changed dramatically in recent years due to depending more and more on big data to improve patient care, enhance or improve operational effectiveness, and forward medical research. Protecting patient privacy in the era of digital health records is a major challenge, as there could be a chance of privacy leakage during the process of collecting patient data. To overcome this issue, we propose a secure, privacy-preserving scheme for healthcare data to ensure maximum privacy of an individual while also maintaining their utility and allowing for the performance of queries based on sensitive attributes under differential privacy. We implemented differential privacy on two publicly available healthcare datasets, the Breast Cancer Prediction Dataset and the Nursing Home COVID-19 Dataset. Moreover, we examined the impact of varying privacy parameter (ε) values on both the privacy and utility of the data. A significant part of this study involved the selection of ε , which determines the degree of privacy protection. We also conducted a computational time comparison by performing multiple complex queries on these datasets to analyse the computational overhead introduced by differential privacy. The outcomes demonstrate that, despite a slight increase in query processing time, it remains within reasonable bounds, ensuring the practicality of differential privacy for real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For technological applications, a noteworthy attention has been gain by Janus layered materials for their distinctive structure and properties. A comprehensive investigation is performed to calculate the electronic, optical and thermoelectric response, using density functional theory, for monolayer SMoSiN2 and SeMoSiN2. Indirect band gap semiconducting nature is evidenced in these monolayers. Variations in band values are observed with application strain. Studying optical properties, blue and red shift are observed with the applications of compressive and tensile strain. Thermoelectric properties expose the productivity of SMoSiN2 monolayer over SeMoSiN2 in strain free condition. Biaxial tensile and compressional strain is applied to modify the thermoelectric properties of the understudy monolayers. The higher power factor of SMoSiN2 and SeMoSiN2 with compressional strain confirms that the thermoelectric efficiency of these materials can be affectively improved by applying strain. This work deepens the understanding of strain effects on Janus materials by providing detailed insights into their electronic, optical, and thermoelectric properties. These findings offer a foundation for designing next-generation materials with tailored properties for applications in thermoelectric devices, and optoelectronic technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]