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The need for Power Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Power MEMS) is growing as microfabrication techniques and microelectronics advance. Conventional chemical batteries have insufficient energy density to use Power MEMS. Hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuel combustion provides a more attractive alternative to traditional batteries. The micro burner has a small combustion chamber, surface area to volume ratio increases, which causes heat losses and instability. Therefore, fuel burns inefficiently, and the flame is unstable because of the short residence time of the premixed fuel/air. Flame instability, short residence time, and poor combustion efficiency are the main issues affecting micro combustion. Therefore, enhancing the fuel's residence time and flame stabilization in micro combustions is essential. To achieve better combustion, the current review articles mainly discuss micro combustion techniques, which have progressed in recent and last decades. Introducing a porous medium could enhance micro combustor performance. Catalytic combustion and integration of porous medium into MTES and MTPVS are recommended. Catalytic combustion aims to accelerate the reaction rate, prolong the time fuels spend in the combustion chamber, and maintain a constant flame. It was suggested that hydrogen be added to the combined gas. It would be ideal if the combined gas's equivalence ratio φ is between 0.9 and 1.1 for better performance. Its recommended bluff body blockage ratio ζ set between 0.4 and 0.5 enhances combustion stability and fuel residence time. This article overviews the micro combustion characteristics, micro combustion techniques, and their mechanism. At the end of this article, we also discussed the best strategies to overcome the issues of micro combustion for designing a new efficient micro combustor in the future. • Techniques used to improve flame stability in micro combustion are explained. • Techniques used to increase fuel residence time in micro combustion are explained. • Future perspectives to improve the performance of micro combustors are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the fundamental component of efficient water resource management. Accurate forecasting of ET is essential for efficient water utilization in agriculture. ET forecasting is a complex process due to the requirements of large meteorological variables. The recommended approach is based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and an ensemble-learning-based approach for meteorological data collection and ET forecasting with limited meteorological conditions. IoT is part of the recommended approach to collect real-time data on meteorological variables. The daily maximum temperature (T), mean humidity (Hm), and maximum wind speed (Ws) are used to forecast evapotranspiration (ET). Long short-term memory (LSTM) and ensemble LSTM with bagged and boosted approaches are implemented and evaluated for their accuracy in forecasting ET values using meteorological data from 2001 to 2023. The results demonstrate that the bagged LSTM approach accurately forecasts ET with limited meteorological conditions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of 0.94 compared to the boosted LSTM and off-the-shelf LSTM with R 2 of 0.91 and 0.77, respectively. The bagged LSTM model is also more efficient with small values of root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean squared error (MSE) of 0.42 and 0.53 compared to the boosted LSTM and off-the-shelf LSTM models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To find out differences in mental health outcomes between parents of children with different disabilities due to COVID‐19 by determining the relationship between preventive practices, fear and stress in parents of disabled children. Methods: A sample of 213 parents, whose children with disabilities (age range 1–16 years) were previously on regular follow‐up before pandemic but did not take therapy for 1 year or more during COVID‐19 lockdown and resumed sessions after a gap period, was surveyed. Perceived stress scale, fear and adherence to preventive measures questionnaire (developed by researchers) were used to measure stress, fear response of parents due to COVID‐19 and preventive measures practiced by disabled children respectively. Results: Parents who had financial difficulties and believed their disabled children had more chance of getting COVID‐19 were more stressed. Parents who received any help from community/government were less stressed. One‐way analysis of variance showed parents of cerebral palsy (CP) children reported more stress of COVID‐19 as compared to parents of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), global developmental delay (GDD) and intellectual disability (ID). Parents of ID children reported more stress than ASD. Parents of CP children had more fear of loss of family members or getting infected with COVID‐19 than GDD parents. ASD, GDD and CP children adhered more to preventive measures than ID children; however, CP children adhered more to preventive measures than GDD children. Conclusion: COVID‐19 lockdown has persisting impact on mental health of parents of disabled children. Those parents experienced increased levels of stress and fear but reported adherence to preventive measures depending on the child's disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive control offers many advantages such as simple design and a systematic way to handle constraints. Model predictive control (MPC) belongs to predictive control, which uses a model of the system for predictions used in predictive control. A major drawback of MPC is the dependence of its performance on the model of the system. Any discrepancy between the system model and actual plant behavior will greatly affect the performance of the MPC. Recently, model-free approaches have been gaining attention because they are not dependent on the system model parameters. To obtain the advantages of both a model-free approach and predictive control, model-free predictive control (MFPC) is being explored and reported in the literature for different applications such as power electronics and electric drives. This paper presents an overview of model-free predictive control. A comprehensive review of the application of MFPC in power converters, electric drives, power systems, and microgrids is presented in this paper. Moreover, challenges, opportunities, and emerging trends in MFPC are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the association of COVID-19-related psychosocial Impact in parents of children with special needs. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Department, University of Child Health Sciences, The Children's Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from August to December 2021. Methodology: A study sample of 213 parents of children (aged 1-16 years) with disabilities was recruited. The Perceived Stress Scale was administered. Results: Most children 133(62.4%) with special needs were males with a mean age of 61.36±29.17 months. 91(42.7%) parents fear that either themselves or their family members could be affected by COVID-19. 75(35.2%) parents reported that their special needs child knew preventive measures for COVID-19. 147(69%) parents were facing social difficulties because of COVID-19. Income was negatively correlated with stress. Stress was more evident in parents who had a fear of the loss of a family member and who thought that disabled children needed more protection than their other children. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on parents of children with special needs due to the restrictions imposed all over the country. One of the few factors that increased stress among parents of special needs children in COVID-19 were financial and social difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus greening/yellow shoot disease/HLB, caused by Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus, showing mosaic/mottling pattern on leaves, stunting of plants, de-shape, pre-mature fruit drop and yellowing of reticulate venation as characteristic symptoms, is the most concerned disease prevailing in citrus groves of Punjab, Pakistan. For the detection of pathogen and downstream studies, a high-quality DNA is required. In citrus, due to the variety of species, different age groups in plants, thick waxy cuticle of leaves, high production of phenolics, polysaccharides and other compounds, it is very difficult to extract good quality DNA from leaves and especially from main midrib where the fastidious bacterium is residing. CTAB and SDS are two devised methods for the extraction of total genomic DNA from citrus leaves while the current research suggests some modified protocols for the detection of DNA from infected/healthy samples. 100mg leaf midrib sample was crushed in liquid nitrogen, homogenized in 500µl CTAB, incubated at 60°C in water bath for 45 minutes, centrifuged at 12000rpm for 5 minutes, supernatant was transferred to new tube and 5µl RNase-A was added, incubated at 37°C for 20 minutes. Equal volume of chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (24:1) was added, vortexed for 5 minutes, centrifuged for 2 minutes at 12000rpm for phase separation and upper phase was transferred to new tube where 500µl of chilling isopropanol was added, kept at -20°C for 15 minutes, centrifuged at 12000rpm, pallet was washed twice with 70% ethanol. CTAB method was modified by increasing the incubation time i.e., 45 minutes for cell lysis in water bath for determination the variation in quality of DNA and the amount of beta mercaptethanol was also doubled from the normal one. Modified protocols have been proved excellent for the extortion of total genomic DNA from citrus. In SDS, addition of TE buffer, RNAase, Isoamylalcohol: Chloroform (24:1) along with 20% SDS and 2M Sodium Acetate gave high quality DNA from citrus leaves. Hence, DNA was extracted by four different ways but the modified CTAB and SDS methods gave improved quality DNA as confirmed by its quantification through nanophotometer. The DNA was quantified by nanophotometer and presence was observed on gel documentation apparatus. Hence, DNA was found suitable for PCR and RFLP analysis and long-term storage on -80 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic classification of Lyme disease rashes on the skin helps clinicians and dermatologists' probe and investigate Lyme skin rashes effectively. This paper proposes a new in‐depth features fusion system to classify Lyme disease rashes. The proposed method consists of two main steps. First, three different deep learning models, Densenet201, InceptionV3, and Exception, were trained independently to extract the deep features from the erythema migrans (EM) images. Second, a deep feature fusion mechanism (meta classifier) is developed to integrate the deep features before the final classification output layer. The meta classifier is a basic deep convolutional neural network trained on original images and features extracted from base level three deep learning models. In the feature fusion mechanism, the last three layers of base models are dropped out and connected to the meta classifier. The proposed deep feature fusion method significantly improved the classification process, where the classification accuracy was 98.97%, which is particularly impressive than the other state‐of‐the‐art models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work manifests a low-cost three phase digital signal processing (DSP) based energy monitoring with online data acquisition (DAQ) system. In this endeavor, multifarious parameters are measured. All these parameters are displayed on the TFT LCD of the microcontroller in the real-time domain. Along with the measurement of miscellaneous parameters from the microcontroller, these parameters are directed over the internet via Wi-Fi module. On the internet, there is a succinct, vivid and pithy data log of these measured parameters which show their respective instantaneous values and accumulates them on the internet. This data log interprets energy monitoring over a period of the day, week, month or year. This energy meter can measure voltage (RMS), current (RMS), apparent power (S), real power (P), frequency, displacement factor, distortion factor and total harmonic distortion (THD) of current and voltage using a STM32F429 microcontroller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-phase inverters with an output LC filter are commonly used to provide sinusoidal voltages with low-harmonic distortion. Constraint on peak filter current is often desirable to protect the components from potential damage. In case of constraints, implicit and explicit model-predictive control (MPC) are some of the feasible controller options. The conventional implicit MPC requires a large number of computations, whereas explicit MPC cannot directly incorporate real-time changes in model parameters, while still being computationally expensive than some of the other control schemes, e.g., hysteresis, dead beat control, etc. In this paper, we propose a new approach to solve the optimization problem in implicit MPC that has a computational complexity approximately five times less than that of explicit MPC. We have been able to achieve lower computational requirements by exploiting the inverter model and the structure of constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia is considered one of the most promising fuels, and mixing ammonia with hydrogen as fuel can achieve zero carbon emissions for engines. In this study, an experimental platform for an ammonia/hydrogen rotary engine was constructed, and successful ignition combustion was performed, demonstrating the possibility of the ammonia/hydrogen rotary engine. A 3-dimensional computational model of the ammonia/hydrogen rotary engine coupled with chemical reaction mechanisms was established, and the dependability of the model was confirmed using experimental data. Using numerical simulations, the impact of hydrogen injection position and time on the distribution of the fuel-air mixture, the propagation of flames, and the emissions of NO X in the cylinder under direct hydrogen injection have been studied. The research shows that the injection position and timing of hydrogen can affect airflow movement by changing the impingement angle and cylinder swirl intensity to alter hydrogen distribution in the cylinder under the guidance of the cylinder wall. Furthermore, with a delay in hydrogen injection timing, the turbulence kinetic energy in the cylinder gradually increases and is consistently more significant than that under premixed conditions, with turbulence kinetic energy in Case B-190 approximately 60% higher than that under premixed conditions. When more hydrogen is around the spark plug, the initial flame kernel is formed faster, resulting in a notable acceleration of the fuel-air mixture's combustion rate within the cylinder. In contrast to alternative hydrogen injection strategies, the injection strategy that employs nozzle A and an injection timing of 230°CA (BTDC) can achieve the highest cylinder pressure and lower NO X emissions. • A CFD computational model of ammonia/hydrogen rotor engine was established and validated. • Hydrogen has a greater impact on the flame development compared to ammonia. • Direct injection of hydrogen enhances the turbulent kinetic energy within the cylinder. • Optimizing the direct injection method of hydrogen can effectively reduce the emission of NOx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to study the detonation re-initiation through multiple reflections upon its entry into a confined space containing liquid fuel within a flow system, which holds significant implications for two-phase pulse detonation engines (PDE) and rotating detonation engines (RDE). Utilizing the Eulerian-Lagrangian method, this study investigates the disparities in the diffraction, quenching, and re-initiation processes of liquid n-heptane/air detonation upstream and downstream. Additionally, it explores the interaction between shock waves and droplets as well as determines the lean flammability limit for re-initiation within a flow system. The findings suggest that the incoming flow significantly contributes to the upstream decoupled detonation re-initiation, as it intensifies the leading shock, thereby expediting droplet fragmentation and evaporation. However, the compressive effect of the incoming flow is insufficient to initiate upstream detonation independently. To achieve re-initiation, it is still necessary for the detonation wave to be reflected by the wall. Moreover, the incoming flow expands the re-initiation boundaries, thereby facilitating the re-initiation of upstream detonation. As the equivalence ratio decreases, a higher inflow Mach number is required to achieve upstream re-initiation. • Upstream and downstream detonation re-initiation are compared. • Interaction between droplets and leading shock upstream and downstream are illustrated. • The detonation re-initiation boundaries beneath an incoming flow are found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeds are the most common and cheap source of propagation. However, several plant species have water-impermeable hard seeds which take a long time to germinate. The hard seed coat can be scarified successfully through acid treatment. Sophora is a beautiful ornamental plant and its seeds have the same issue. In this experiment, seeds of Sophora secondiflora were treated with H2SO4 and then sown at different dates. Both H2SO4 scarification and sowing time had a significant effect on germination and seedling growth. The seeds scarified with sulfuric acid for 135 min gave the maximum plant height (25.42 cm), leaves plant-1 (34.45), leaf area (8.00 cm2), stem thickness (0.47 cm), fresh leaves weight (3.31 g), fresh stem weight (1.95 g), root length (22.10 cm) and winter survival (94.44%). However, the same treatment also gave minimum days to germination (2.96) and seedling emergence (12.96). The seeds scarified for 90 min gave maximum plant emergence percentage (97.78%). The seeds sown on 14th April gave minimum days to germination (9.03) and seedling emergence (18.38), but also gave maximum plant emergence percentage (85.83%), plant height (22.63 cm), number of leaves (28.34), leaf area (7.13 cm2), stem diameter (0.39 cm), fresh leaves weight (2.79 g), stem fresh weight (1.55 g), length of roots (20.99 cm) and winter survival of plants (93.03%). It was concluded from the results that scarification durations of 90 and 135 min and sowing on 4th-14th April were the most effective in improving the germination, growth attributes and winter survival of Sophora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeds are the most common and cheap source of propagation. However, several plant species have water-impermeable hard seeds which take a long time to germinate. The hard seed coat can be scarified successfully through acid treatment. Sophora is a beautiful ornamental plant and its seeds have the same issue. In this experiment, seeds of Sophora secondiflora were treated with H2SO4and then sown at different dates. Both H2SO4 scarification and sowing time had a significant effect on germination and seedling growth. The seeds scarified with sulfuric acid for 135 min gave the maximum plant height (25.42 cm), leaves plant-1 (34.45), leaf area (8.00 cm²), stem thickness (0.47 cm), fresh leaves weight (3.31 g), fresh stem weight (1.95 g), root length (22.10 cm) and winter survival (94.44%). However, the same treatment also gave minimum days to germination (2.96) and seedling emergence (12.96). The seeds scarified for 90 min gave maximum plant emergence percentage (97.78%). The seeds sown on 14th April gave minimum days to germination (9.03) and seedling emergence (18.38), but also gave maximum plant emergence percentage (85.83%), plant height (22.63 cm), number of leaves (28.34), leaf area (7.13 cm²), stem diameter (0.39 cm), fresh leaves weight (2.79 g), stem fresh weight (1.55 g), length of roots (20.99 cm) and winter survival of plants (93.03%). It was concluded from the results that scarification durations of 90 and 135 min and sowing on 4th-14th April were the most effective in improving the germination, growth attributes and winter survival of Sophora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computational model for premixed methane-air flame under the flame-wall interaction was established based on CFD software and experimentally verified. The head-on quenching process of premixed methane-air flame under different hydrogen additions was simulated. The changes in CO emission, quenching distance, and the distribution of CO near the wall under different hydrogen additions were obtained. With the increase of H 2 addition, the mass fraction of HCO and the generation of CO increase. Moreover, the consumption of OH in R79: O H + H 2 = H + H 2 O increases, resulting in the weakening of the oxidation of OH to CO in R94: O H + C O = C O 2 + H , and the EICO increases. With the increase of H 2 addition, the heat release rate increases, the quenching distance decreases, and the Peclet number (Pe) increases. With the increase of hydrogen addition, the mole fraction of CO in Region A gradually decreases, the mole fraction of CO in Region B first increases and then decreases, and the mole fraction of CO in Region C increases. The temperature drops first and then rises. Near the wall (y < 0.3 mm), the convection term and diffusion term dominate, and the heat transfer time is less than the generation time and oxidation time of CO, and the generation branch and oxidation branch of CO move to the low-temperature region. Far from the wall (y ≥ 0.3 mm), the reaction source term dominates, the heat transfer time is greater than the generation time of CO, less than the oxidation time of CO, and the oxidation branch of CO moves to low temperature. With the increase of hydrogen addition, the chemical time scale of CO decreases, and the generation branches and oxidation branches of CO move to higher temperatures. • Establish a computational model for methane/air premixed flames under wall action. • The effects of H 2 addition on emissions and thermochemical states were studied. • The variation of species transport near the wall is studied. • As H 2 addition increases, the quenching distance decreases and Pe increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic anisotropy in strontium iridate (Sr2IrO4) is found to be large because of the strong spin-orbit interactions. In our work, we studied the in-plane magnetic anisotropy of Sr2IrO4 and traced the anisotropic exchange interactions between the isospins in the crystal. The magnetic-field-dependent torque τ(H) showed a prominent transition from the canted antiferromagnetic state to the weak ferromagnetic (WFM) state. A comprehensive analysis was conducted to examine the isotropic and anisotropic regimes and probe the easy magnetization axis along the ab plane. The angle-dependent torque τ(θ) revealed a deviation from the sinusoidal behavior, and small differences in hysteresis were observed around 0° and 90° in the low-magnetic-field regime. This indicates that the orientation of the easy axis of the FM component is along the b axis, where the antiferromagnetic to WFM spin-flop transition occurs. We compared the coefficients of the magnetic susceptibility tensors and captured the anisotropy of the material. The in-plane τ(θ) revealed a tendency toward isotropic behavior for fields with values above the field value of the WFM transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier.The Internet of Things (IoT) is a latest concept of machine-to-machine communication, that also gave birth to several information security problems. Many traditional software solutions fail to address these security issues such as trustworthiness of remote entities. Remote attestation is a technique given by  Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to monitor and verify this trustworthiness. In this regard, various remote validation methods have been proposed. However, static techniques cannot provide resistance to recent attacks e.g. the latest Heartbleed bug, and the recent high profile glibc attack on Linux operating system. In this research, we have designed and implemented a lightweight Linux kernel security module for IoT devices that is  scalable enough to monitor multiple applications in the kernel space. The newly built technique can measure and report multiple application’s static and dynamic behavior simultaneously. Verification of behavior of applications is performed via machine learning techniques. The result shows that deviating behavior can be detected successfully by the verifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the temperature-dependent resistivity ρ ( T ) of chalcogenide NiS 2- x Se x ( x = 0.1) using hydrostatic pressure as a control parameter in the temperature range of 4–300 K. The insulating behavior of ρ ( T ) survives at low temperatures in the pressure regime below 7.5 kbar, whereas a clear insulator-to-metallic transition is observed above 7.5 kbar. Two types of magnetic transitions, from the paramagnetic (PM) to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) state and from the AFM state to the weak ferromagnetic (WF) state, were evaluated and confirmed by magnetization measurement. According to the temperature–pressure phase diagram, the WF phase survives up to 7.5 kbar, and the transition temperature of the WF transition decreases as the pressure increases, whereas the metal–insulator transition temperature increases up to 9.4 kbar. We analyzed the metallic behavior and proposed Fermi-liquid behavior of NiS 1.9 Se 0.1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri, a causative agent of the citrus canker (CC) disease, belongs to one of the essential groups of the bacterial phytopathogen family, Xanthomonadaceae. It has been a potential threat to the globally significant citrus fruit crop, which has remained under investigation for disease management and epidemiology since the 1980s. In Pakistan, the average yield of citrus is 11 t/ha, which is lower than other countries, including China, Brazil, and India, having average productions of 27, 26, and 22 tons/hectare, respectively. Citrus canker is one of the most devastating diseases, posing a significant threat to crop yield and fruit quality. To date, five distinct types (or forms) of the citrus canker have been recognized; the Asiatic (Canker A) form is most destructive and affects most citrus cultivars. Severe infection outcomes include dieback, defoliation, severely blemished fruit, premature fruit drop, and reduced fruit quality. The infection increases under humid, warm, cloudy climate, wind, and heavy rainfall. The analysis of plasmid and chromosomal DNA of X. citri subsp. citri depicted an evolutionary relationship among pathovars of Xanthomonas. The extensive study on the genome of X. citri subsp. citri has contributed to the current knowledge of plant host recognition of pathogens, host specificities, dissemination, and propagation. Regulatory programs, i.e., quarantine or exclusion, continued to be practiced, prohibiting infected citrus plant material into the existing stock. Other measures include removal of inoculums sources, resistant hosts, protective copper-containing sprays, and windbreak systems. In this review, we explored the latest trends in the areas of epidemiology, pathogenome, detection, host–pathogen interaction, biofilm formation, and management of X. citri subsp. citri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigating hydrogen heterogeneous reaction takes place in catalytic combustor with a blunt body. • Introducing the blunt body into the catalytic combustor enhances the hydrogen conversion ratio. • Strengthening heat and mass transfer characteristics is observed as the blockage ratio increases. • By exploring field synergy effects, the optimal performance parameters of the combustor with a blunt body are determined. A numerical investigation has been conducted to explore the effect of an inserted blunt body on the heterogeneous reaction (HTR) characteristics in a micro-catalytic combustor operating with premixed hydrogen/air. The two-dimensional numerical model incorporates a comprehensive heterogeneous reaction mechanism of hydrogen employed by experimental verification. The influences of blockage ratio at various inlet velocities have been investigated to obtain optimized design parameters of the combustor. The findings of this research highlight analysis of the positive influence of an inserted blunt body within the combustor, including enhancement of chemical reaction rate and hydrogen conversion ratio. Numerical results shows that the gaseous mixture between the blunt body and catalytic surface noticed a considerable velocity increase, leading to a greater adsorption–desorption of bulk species on the catalytic surface. At the same inlet velocity, the hydrogen conversion ratio gradually increases with higher blockage ratios. When the blockage ratio is less than or equal to 0.6, the average inner wall temperature is positively affected by the increased blockage ratio. However, the effect becomes negative at higher blockage ratios (0.8). The Pr (Prandtl number) number near the gas–solid interface adjacent to the blunt body initially decreases and then increases, while Nu/Nu0 (Nusselt number) and Pe (Peclet number) exhibit an initial increase followed by a decrease. The presence of the blunt body leads to a reduction in the cross-sectional area of the channel, causing an acceleration in fluid velocity near the blunt body and exerting an impact on the boundary layer near the gas–solid interface. This indicates that the addition of the blunt body reduces the boundary layer thickness and enhances the mass and heat transfer characteristics in the region. The study reveal that as the blockage ratio increases, the overall field synergy of the combustor initially increases and then decreases. The peak field synergy is attained at an optimal blocking ratio of 0.6. The findings of this study have important implications for the design of micro-scale combustors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunnel farming is getting popular in the farmer's community of Pakistan due to the possibility of growing off-season vegetable crops with high yield in a controlled environment. In the current study, the development and validation of IoT system consisting of monitoring and control units were carried out for controlling the environmental factors in tunnel farming. Three tunnels were set for monitoring the environmental factors using temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensors. Two of three tunnels were fit with control units of exhaust fans and air heaters and a water pump for controlling the temperature and soil moisture. During the testing and validation of the system, temperatures recorded through DHT-21 sensor and thermometer in tunnel 1, 2 and 3 had strong correlations of 0.9986, 0.998 and 0.9978 respectively. Similarly, strong correlations of 0.9987, 0.9994 and 0.998 were found for RH (%) measured through DHT-21 sensor and RH meter for tunnel 1, 2 and 3 respectively. For soil moisture measurement, similar correlations were observed for resistive soil moisture sensor and oven dry method. It was explored that an increase in temperature through an air heater decreases the RH in tunnel 1 and 2 compared to tunnel 3 which has higher RH because it was not installed with air heater and exhaust fan. System controlled the temperature and soil moisture within adjusted limits of 22-27 °C, 17-23 % for tunnel 1 and 19-22 °C, and 19-23 % for tunnel 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunnel farming is getting popular in the farmer's community of Pakistan due to the possibility of growing off-season vegetable crops with high yield in a controlled environment. In the current study, the development and validation of IoT system consisting of monitoring and control units were carried out for controlling the environmental factors in tunnel farming. Three tunnels were set for monitoring the environmental factors using temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensors. Two of three tunnels were fit with control units of exhaust fans and air heaters and a water pump for controlling the temperature and soil moisture. During the testing and validation of the system, temperatures recorded through DHT-21 sensor and thermometer in tunnel 1, 2 and 3 had strong correlations of 0.9986, 0.998 and 0.9978 respectively. Similarly, strong correlations of 0.9987, 0.9994 and 0.998 were found for RH (%) measured through DHT-21 sensor and RH meter for tunnel 1, 2 and 3 respectively. For soil moisture measurement, similar correlations were observed for resistive soil moisture sensor and oven dry method. It was explored that an increase in temperature through an air heater decreases the RH in tunnel 1 and 2 compared to tunnel 3 which has higher RH because it was not installed with air heater and exhaust fan. System controlled the temperature and soil moisture within adjusted limits of 22-27 °C, 17-23 % for tunnel 1 and 19-22 °C, and 19-23 % for tunnel 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This article studies Experimental and Numerical Study of an Innovative Twined Tube HX Design. • An innovative twined tube heat exchanger (HX) design is proposed, which is simple, robust, and efficient. • Its thermal–hydraulic performance is also with the straight tube and helical coil HX designs. An innovative twined tube heat exchanger (HX) design is proposed, which is simple, robust, and efficient for use in advanced nuclear reactors. The heat exchanger is designed with two tubes twined around each other. Multiple modules can be assembled within a shell to meet the necessary heat load. Thermal-hydraulic investigations of the novel design are performed through experiments and numerical simulation. The experimental investigations of the twined tube HX are carried out on a laboratory-scale thermal–hydraulic rig commissioned at the Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences (PIEAS). The primary loop contains water at a high temperature and a pressure of 4.0 bar pressure, while the secondary loop operates at atmospheric pressure. Single-phase forced convection heat transfer characteristics of the twined tube HX are investigated experimentally. Pressure drop is measured for mass fluxes ranging from 350 kg/m2s to 1376 kg/m2s. A correlation for the estimation of friction factor is developed based on the experimental studies. Heat transfer measurements are carried out for mass fluxes ranging from 244 kg/m2s to 419 kg/m2s. Based on these experiments, the Nusselt number is evaluated for the mass flux range mentioned above. The numerical simulations of a twined tube HX are performed on a full-scale STAR-CCM + model. The model is validated against the experimental results. The performance factor of the twined tube HX is higher than that of straight tube HX, with a maximum performance enhancement of 60%. The thermal–hydraulic performance of the twined tube HX is comparable with helical coil HX designs. However, the proposed HX design is easier to fabricate and maintain than the helical coiled HX. Overall, the study provides valuable insights into the thermal–hydraulic performance of the twined tube HX, which could be useful in the design of compact and efficient heat exchangers for small modular reactors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabrication of dual-termination Schottky barrier diode (SBD DT ) by using oxygen-/fluorine-terminated diamond (OT-/FT-diamond) has been carried out on P-/P+ diamond. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement was used to determine the chemical composition of OT-/FT-diamond surface treated by ultraviolet ozone and C 4 F 8 plasma, respectively. The barrier heights of Au on OT-/FT-diamond were calculated to be 2.0 ± 0.12 and 2.39 ± 0.12 eV, respectively. Au film was patterned on the OT-/FT-diamond as the schottky electrode, and Ti/Au film were deposited on the backside of substrate as ohmic electrode, then a SBD DT was achieved completely. SBD DT exhibits better forward and reverse I-V characteristics based on the optimum OT-/FT-diamond (W O /W F ) area ratio 0.2, which illustrates that the combination of dual surface termination is an efficient way to optimize the performance of diamond SBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swelling properties of Linseed hydrogel (LSH) were studied in deionized water and different physiological pH values, i.e., 1.2, 6.8 and 7.4. Analysis of the kinetics drawn from swelling data has revealed that swelling of LSH followed second order kinetics. The results indicated that swelling of LSH is greatly affected by different concentration of salts. Stimuli responsive on–off switching of LSH was studied in water/normal saline, water/ethanol and basic/acidic environment and found reversible. LSH swells maximum in water and at pH 7.4 while deswells abruptly in ethanol and at pH 1.2. The elongated porous structures uniformly organized in layers were observed in FE-SEM. LSH was used as a sustained release material for tablet formulation of diclofenac sodium. Drug release study followed non-Fickian diffusion. LSH sustained the release of drug even better than a commercially available formulation of diclofenac sodium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted to estimate heritability, genetic advance, and correlation coefficient in a set of 31 rapeseed genotypes, comprised of 10 parental lines and their 21 F 3 populations. These genotypes were evaluated in a randomized complete block design at The University of Agriculture-Peshawar-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan with three repeats. Significant difference s wer e recorde d fo r day s t o 50% flowering, plant height, primary branches plant-1, main raceme length, pods main raceme-1, pod length, seeds pod-1, 1000-seed weight, seed yield plant-1 among genotypes, parents and F 3 population. Similarly, parents vs. F 3 population also showed significant differences for all the studied traits except primary branches plant-1 and pods main raceme-1, which revealed non-significant differences. Among parents DH4, DH5 performed better for seed yield plant-1(15.2 g), seeds pod-1(23.7), respectively, while DH8 showed better performance for pods main raceme-1(76.6), pod length(7.7 cm) and 1000-seed weight(7.3 g). Cross combinations CA5 × DH6, CA5 × DH7, CA2 × DH7 and CA5 × DH3 showed potential performance for pods main raceme-1(80.9), pod length(8.2 cm), seeds pod-1(25.7), 1000-seed weight(7.8 g) and seed yield plant-1(18.4 g). All the studied traits showed moderate(>30%) to high(>60%) broad sense heritability coupled with maximum genetic advance in F 3 populations, hence indicated that selection could be effective in the early generation for the improvement of these traits. Correlation analysis indicated that flowering(r p =0.45), primary branches plant-1(r p =0.49), main raceme length(r p =0.41), seeds pod-1(r p =0.41) and 1000-seed weight(r p =0.38) had positive and significant association with seed yield plant-1. Genotypes, DH4, DH5, DH8, CA5 × DH6, CA5 × DH7, CA5 × DH3, and CA2 × DH7 displayed well genetic potential for the majority of the traits hence could be used in future rapeseed breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]