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Aim: The main focus of this study is to evaluate the air quality by comparing the concentration of particulate matter PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone of smart cities of Rajasthan before the lockdown and during the period of lockdown. Background: In India, the first case of the COVID-19 was reported on January 30th, 2020. Indian government declared strict lockdown, i.e., public health emergency in India on March 24th, 2020, which is implemented from March 25th, 2020, to April 14th, 2020, for 21 days. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the air quality by comparing the levels of all parameters of air pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown period with values registered in the pre-lockdown period. Methods: Data were obtained from four automatic monitoring stations under the control of the Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi (https://www.cpcb.nic.in/). Data regarding all the parameters were recorded as 24 hours average period. Results: CO levels showed the highest significant reduction in Udaipur (50.76%) followed by Jaipur (19.96%), Ajmer (17.11%), and Kota (5.51%) due to the ban on transport and driving. The levels of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and SO2 were also decreased substantially for each smart city. Ozone concentrations were recorded greater than before due to decreased nitrogen oxides levels. Conclusion: This study can be useful considering our present role in environmental restoration or environmental destruction. It will also be helpful in updating our present plan toward the assurance and conservation of nature.

This article deals with the experimental and theoretical evaluations of N-pyridoxal-salicylic acid hydrazide (H2pd-sah) 1 and its mixed-ligand copper(II) complex with 2-methylimidazole, [Cu(pd-sah)(MeImdH)] 2. The compounds were characterized based on spectral (UV/Vis. IR) methods, powder-XRD, elemental analysis, and molar conductivity measurements. Both compounds' molecular structure and charge analysis were computed through B3LYP with 6-311 G (d, p) and LANL2DZ basic set using the Gaussian 09 W program package. The time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) approach is used in gas-phase electronic transitions of 2 using the LANL2DZ basis set. Also, the computed UV-Vis based upon TD-DFT results and IR spectra were simulated for comparison with the experimental ones. The molecular structure based on theoretical investigation reveals that compound 2 adopts a distorted square planer N2O2 coordination sphere around the Cu(II). The ONO donor atoms of hydrazone moiety and one nitrogen of 2-methylimidazole constitute the N2O2 basal plane. Moreover, the in-vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH assay in both compounds. In addition, Molecular docking studies were performed to predict the binding interaction between compound 2 and the Human Serum Albumin HSA (PDB ID: 1H9Z). Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

The new IoT architecture helps us to build small devices that can sense, process, and communicate so that sensors, embedded, and other ‘services can be developed to enable us to understand the surroundings. For continuous cardiovascular health surveillance, the IoT-assisted electrocardiogram (ECG) system for safe data transmission has been suggested. The modern paradigm of the Internet of Things enables the creation of small devices with sensing, processing, and communication capabilities that make sensors, embedded devices, and other ‘stuff’ capable of understanding the environment The Internet of Things (IoT) and intelligent medical devices have transformed healthcare systems, allowing patient health conditions to be monitored and screened anywhere and every time. Due to the sudden and enormous increase in patients during a pandemic of corona-virus, it is essential that patients are constantly monitored until any serious illness or infection takes place. According to the transfer of the enormous amount of confidential health information produced by patients who do not wish to disclose their personal medical information, Concerns about IoT data protection are still an extremely serious issue. The advances made in IoT technology in recent years have supported interactions between smart objects – things through the Internet in a transparent fashion. One of the applications in IoT is healthcare and sensors, the processor aggregator, and the data storage platform.

Cryopreservation of pollen is a complementary conservation strategy and can be used for conserve the diversity in the genus Psidium. The present study aims to cryopreserve the pollen of Psidium species to overcome asynchronous flowering. The pollen of different Psidium species were germinated in vitro in an optimized medium of germination. In vitro/in vivo pollen viability assessment and SEM analysis were carried out to determine the changes after cryopreservation. The in vitro pollen viability was determined at monthly intervals starting from fresh pollen until six months of cryopreservation. The in vivo fertility tests were carried out by pollination using both fresh and cryopreserved pollen. The cryopreserved pollen showed in vitro germination ranging from 1.78% (in P. molle) to 81.67% (in “H 12–5”) compared to fresh pollen (2.16% in P. molle to 86.08% in P. guineense). In vivo fertility was tested by controlled pollination using six-month-old cryopreserved pollen and it resulted in fruit setting ranged between 3.33% (P. cattleianum var. cattleianum) and 27.66% (P. chinensis) as compared to fresh pollen between 4.0% (P. cattleianum var. cattleianum) and 30.66% (P. chinensis). Seed set and germination was also recorded in all the crosses attempted using cryopreserved pollen. These in vitro and in vivo results indicated that cryopreservation is an effective technique for breeding and conserving the haploid gene pool in cryo genebank. Scanning Electron Microscopic studies of pollen revealed no significant variation in shape and size after cryopreservation when compared to fresh pollen.

The present study reports the upconversion (UC) based color tuning in Y2O3:Ho3+/Yb3+, Y2O3:Tm3+/Yb3+ and Y2O3:Tm3+/Ho3+/Yb3+ phosphors synthesized through complex based precursor solution method. The Y2O3:Ho3+/Yb3+ phosphor emits intense green and weak red colors whereas the Y2O3:Tm3+/Yb3+ emits NIR and blue colors on excitation with 976 nm. The impact of the enhancement in the concentration of Yb3+ on the color point of codoped as well as tridoped phosphors has been studied in detail. When Y2O3:Tm3+/Ho3+/Yb3+ phosphor is excited by 976 nm laser, the phosphor emits dominant green color. This is due to energy transfer from Tm3+ to Ho3+ ions. The increase in the concentration of Yb3+ ion leads to a color tunability not only in the co-doped but also in the tridoped phosphors. Furthermore, we have incorporated Y2O3:Ho3+,Yb3+ UC phosphor into TiO2 electrode to form an UC based DSSC for converting near IR (NIR) light into visible where DSSCs typically have high sensitivity. The short-circuit current density (Jsc) as well as the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the UC-TiO2 based cell was found to be 8.46% and 5.18% higher which in turn, resulted into a 10.33% enhancement in power conversion efficiency as compared to that of bare TiO2 based DSSC. Thus, the UC based Y2O3:Ho3+/Yb3+ may be useful in color tunability and DSSC applications.

Maximum likelihood and Bayes estimators of the unknown parameters of an extension of the exponential (EE) distribution have been obtained for Progressive Type-II Censored data with Binomial removals. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is used to compute the Bayes estimates of the parameters of interest. The General Entropy Loss Function (GELF) and Squared Error Loss Function (SELF) have been considered for obtaining the Bayes estimators. Comparisons are made between Bayesian and Maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) via Monte Carlo simulation. An example is discussed to illustrate its applicability.