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The study was designed to assess the water quality based on physico-chemical parameters and phytoplankton communities of eight lentic water bodies of Haryana which are famous for mass bathing and religious rituals taking place here. To evaluate comparative analysis of composition, diversity and distribution of Phytoplankton and physico-chemical factors, water samples were collected seasonally viz., summer, monsoon, post monsoon and in winters from all the eight sites in triplicate. Total 118 phytoplankton taxa were observed at all sites. Among these cyanophyceae group was found most dominant at sites 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 whereas cholorophyceae at site 6, bacillariophyceae at site 1,3,4,7 whereas xanthophyceae was in abundance at site 5. Population density (nos. L-1) wise phytoplankton trend was Cyanophyceae > Chlorophyceae > Bacillariophyceae >Desmidiaceae and Species diversity wise phytoplankton trend observed was Chlorophyceae > Bacillariophyceae > Cyanophyceae >Desmidiaceae. Correlation of different phytoplankton groups with physicochemical factors revealed a significant negative correlation of Cyanophyceae with pH, whereas a significant positive correlation of ortho-phosphate with Desmids and bacillariophyceae wheareas CO2 showed a positive correlation with Xanthophyceae. Appearance of pollution tolerant taxa of phytoplankton Microcystis aeruginosa, Phormidium sp., Scenedesmus spp., Pediastrum spp., Mougeotia sp., Synedra sp., Pediastrum spp. at most of the sites indicated the sign of the more organic pollution and degradation in the water quality of the selected sites due to religious immersion, mass bathing and by other anthropogenic activities. Suitable remedial actions should be adopted by regulatory bodies and policy makers to maintain the water quality of these aquatic systems.

We performed an analysis of the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wave event on 2022 March 31. The event originated from active region (AR) 12975 located at N13W52 in the field of view of the Atmospheric imaging Assembly (AIA) and exactly at the west limb viewed by the EUV Imager (EUVI) of the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-Ahead (STEREO-A) satellite. The EUV wave was associated with an M9.6 class flare. The event was also well observed by Mauna Loa Solar Observatory and COR1 coronagraphs. We revealed here evident coexistence of two components of EUV waves in AIA as well as in EUVI images, i.e., a fast-mode wave and a nonwave, which was predicted by the EUV wave hybrid model. The speeds of the fast-mode and nonwave EUV wave components in AIA vary from ∼430 to 658 km s ^−1 and ∼157 to 205 km s ^−1 , respectively. The computed speeds in STEREO-A for the fast-mode wave and nonwave components are ∼520 and ∼152 km s ^−1 , respectively. Another wave emanated from the source AR and interacted with ambient coronal loops, showing evident reflection in the EUV images above the solar limb. The speed of the reflected wave in the plane of the sky is ∼175 km s ^−1 . With the precise alignments, we found that the fast-mode EUV wave is just ahead of the coronal mass ejection (CME), and the nonwave component is cospatial with the frontal loop of the accompanied CME. The event also showed stationary fronts.

During their propagation, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and prominences sometimes display a nonradial motion. During the years after the solar minimum, the CME central position angle tended to be offset closer to the equator compared to that of the associated prominence eruptions (PE). No such effect was observed during solar maximum. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the latitudinal offsets of CMEs with respect to their source regions. We study 256 events from SC 24 and SC 25, listed in the Coordinate Data Analysis Workshop Data Center. We analyzed the CMES radial offset from the associated PEs by comparing their latitudes in the plane of the sky. This work is an extension of the previous work by Gopalswamy et al., but with an independent data set. We have confirmed the systematic equatorward offset of CME from the solar source region for the rising phase of Solar Cycle 25. Our analysis of the relation between CME linear speed and PE-CME latitudinal offset indicated that the velocities of the deflected CMEs are mainly in the range of 200 and 800 km s ^−1 . In this study, we compared the nonradial offsets for the rising and decay phases of SC 24 and our analysis has shown that during the decay phase more events deflected toward the pole can be observed. The observed variation is attributed to the presence of a substantial number of low-latitude coronal holes during the decay phase and to the influence from nearby active regions.

In this study, a series of BiVO4/BiOBr composites with varying mole ratios were successfully synthesized using a hydrothermal method. The in-situ synthesis strategy facilitated the formation of a close interfacial contact between BiVO4 and BiOBr at the depletion zone, resulting in improved charge segregation, migration, reduced charge recombination, enhanced solar light absorption capacity, promoting narrow band gap, and large surface area. This study investigates the influence of different mole ratios of BiVO4 and BiOBr in a BiVO4/BiOBr nanocomposite on the photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC), a pharmaceutical pollutant, and photoelectrocatalytic water splitting (PEC) under solar light irradiation. Maximum decomposition efficiency of ~90.4% (with a rate constant of 0.0159 min−1) for TC was achieved with 0.5 g/L of 3:1 BiVO4: BiOBr (31BVBI) photocatalyst within 140 min. The degraded compounds resulting from the TC abatement were analyzed using GC-MS. Furthermore, TC standards exhibited 78.2% and 87.7% removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC), respectively, while TC tablets showed 64.6% COD removal and 73.8% TOC removal. The PEC water splitting experiments demonstrated that the 31BVBI photoanode achieved the highest photocurrent density of approximately 0.2198 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, resulting in the generation of approximately 1.864 mmolcm−2 s−1 of hydrogen, while remaining stable for 21,600 s. The stability of the photocatalyst was confirmed by post-degradation characterizations, which revealed intact crystalline planes, shape, and surface area. Comparisons with existing physicochemical methods used in industries indicate that the reported photocatalyst possesses strong surface catalytic properties and has the potential for application in industrial wastewater treatment and hydrogen generation, offering an advantageous alternative to costly and time-consuming processes.

Abstract Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most common infectious diseases in the world. It is becoming increasingly tough to treat because of emergence of antibiotic resistance. So, there is an exigency to develop novel anti-virulence therapeutics to combat multi-drug resistance pathogenic strains. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) discovery has revolutionized the gene editing technology for targeted approach. The greatest obstacle for CRISPR/Cas9 is cargo delivery systems and both viral and plasmid methods have disadvantages. Here, we report a highly efficient novel CRISPR based gene editing strategy, CRISPR-dots for targeting virulence factor Fimbrial Adhesion (papG gene), the bacterial adhesion molecule. Carbon quantum dots (CQD) were used as a delivery vehicle for Cas9 and gRNA into CFT073, a UPEC strain. CQDs were covalently conjugated to cas9 and papG-targeted guide RNA (gRNA) forming a nanocomplex CRISPR-dots (Cri-dots) as confirmed by DLS and transmission electron microscopy. Cri-dots-papG significantly targeted papG as demonstrated by decrease in the expression of papG.Further papG deficient UPEC had significantly reduced adherence ability and biofilm forming ability as demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Also, papG deficient UPEC had reduced virulence as shown by significantly increased survival of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worms compared to UPEC. Our findings suggest that targeting of papG gene using Cri-dots nanocomplexes significantly reduced the pathogenicity of UPEC. Thus, Cri-dots nanocomplex offer a novel anti-bacterial strategy against multi-drug resistant UPEC.

Abstract Background Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke‐like episodes (MELAS) syndrome is one of the most well‐known mitochondrial diseases, with most cases attributed to m.3243A>G. MELAS syndrome patients typically present in the first two decades of life with a broad, multi‐systemic phenotype that predominantly features neurological manifestations––stroke‐like episodes. However, marked phenotypic variability has been observed among paediatric patients, creating a clinical challenge and delaying diagnoses. Methods A literature review of paediatric MELAS syndrome patients and a retrospective analysis in a UK tertiary paediatric neurology centre were performed. Results Three children were included in this case series. All patients presented with seizures and had MRI changes not confined to a single vascular territory. Blood heteroplasmy varied considerably, and one patient required a muscle biopsy. Based on a literature review of 114 patients, the mean age of presentation is 8.1 years and seizures are the most prevalent manifestation of stroke‐like episodes. Heteroplasmy is higher in a tissue other than blood in most cases. Conclusion The threshold for investigating MELAS syndrome in children with suspicious neurological symptoms should be low. If blood m.3243A>G analysis is negative, yet clinical suspicion remains high, invasive testing or further interrogation of the mitochondrial genome should be considered.

Heterojunction photocatalysts (PC) with controllable compositions and in-built electric fields have attracted extensive research interest for their use in the remediation of environmental pollutants, owing to their supreme photocatalytic activity. Here, a simple hydrothermal route synthesizing different mole ratios of BiVO4/Sb2S3 is reported as the PC. The inclusion of Sb2S3 with BiVO4 in the BiVO4/Sb2S3 composite possesses the ability to harvest a wide spectrum of solar light, an increased surface area, and an effective charge separation of the charge carriers. The efficacy of the synthesized catalyst was gauged by the photocatalytic abatement of a recalcitrant pollutant, tetracycline. The highest decomposition efficacy of 88.7% (rate constant 0.01557 min−1) was achieved with 0.3 g/L of 1:3 BiVO4:Sb2S3 photocatalyst for the tetracycline under sunlight illumination for 120 min. The catalyst was found stable for up to five cycles with a significant retention of its efficacy. The post-degradation characterizations revealed that the photocatalyst is stable due to the intactness of its crystalline planes, morphology, and surface area. Further, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was performed to study the decomposed products formed by the abatement of tetracycline. Moreover, chemical oxygen demand/ total organic carbon (COD/TOC) removals of 80.9% and 85.4%, respectively, were observed for the tetracycline standards, while for real TC pills, it was found to be 78.3% and 82.1%, respectively. This signifies that the photocatalyst has good surface catalytic properties in comparison to the existing expensive and time-consuming physicochemical approaches used in industry.

We present here the kinematics of the EUV wave associated with a GOES M1.0-class solar flare, which originates in NOAA AR 12740. The event is thoroughly observed with Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) with high spatio-temporal resolutions. This event displays many features of EUV waves, which are very decisive for the understanding of the nature of EUV waves. These features include: a fast-mode wave, a pseudo wave, a slow-mode wave and stationary fronts, probably due to mode conversion. One fast-mode wave also propagates towards the coronal hole situated close to the north pole and the wave speed does not change when it encounters the coronal hole. We intend to provide self-consistent interpretations for all these different features.

Wheat is an essential constituent of cereal-based diets, and one of the most significant sources of calories. However, modern wheat varieties are low in proteins and minerals. Biofortification is a method for increasing the availability of essential elements in the edible portions of crops through agronomic or genetic and genomic interventions. Wheat biofortification, as a research topic, has become increasingly prevalent. Recent accomplishments in genomic biofortification could potentially be helpful for the development of biofortified wheat grains, as a sustainable solution to the issue of “hidden hunger”. Genomic interventions mainly include quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection (GS). Developments in the identification of QTL and in the understanding of the physiological and molecular bases of the QTLs controlling the biofortification traits in wheat have revealed new horizons for the improvement of modern wheat varieties. Markers linked with the QTLs of desirable traits can be identified through QTL mapping, which can be employed for MAS. Besides MAS, a powerful tool, GS, also has great potential for crop improvement. We have compiled information from QTL mapping studies on wheat, carried out for the identification of the QTLs associated with biofortification traits, and have discussed the present status of MAS and different prospects of GS for wheat biofortification. Accelerated mapping studies, as well as MAS and GS schemes, are expected to improve wheat breeding efficiency further.

The present study was designed to assess the impact of mass bathing and religious activities on water quality index (WQI) of prominent water bodies (eight) in Haryana, India. Water quality characteristics revealed significant increase in the values of nitrate, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), conductivity, total hardness, total alkalinity, and MPN count after the religious activities. The computed WQI at all the eight selected sites varied from 47.55 to 211.42. The results revealed that there was a significant increase in the value of WQI after mass bathing or any other ritual performed. Out of eight water bodies studied three (sites 3, 4, and 5) were found under good water quality status; four sites (1, 2, 6, and 7) depicted medium water quality but site 8 was found under poor water quality after the religious activities. The good water quality status of water bodies was correlated with larger size of the water bodies and less number of pilgrims; however, the poor WQI values may be attributed to smaller size of the water body and heavy load of pilgrims on such sites. Therefore, water of these religious water bodies needed to be regularly changed after mass bathing to protect the aquatic component from different contaminations.