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Abstract Objectives Purple blotch, caused by the necrotrophic pathogen Alternaria porri, is one of the most economically significant diseases of onion and allied crops. While the virulent nature of many Alternaria spp. has been identified, the pathogenic repertoire of A. porri is still unknown. The objective of this work was to sequence the genome of A. porri using the PacBio SMRT sequencing strategy and analyse the repertoire of CAZymes, secondary metabolites, secretome and effectors in A. porri. Our research group is working to identify onion germplasm with purple blotch resistance and to understand the genetics of the pathogen. The reported de-novo assembly will contribute to the analysis of potential variants and the gene repertoire contributing to the virulence and pathogenicity of the purple blotch pathogen. Data description Long-read sequencing on a PacBio Sequel II system resulted in a 32.98 Mb (20 contigs) assembly with an N50 of 2, 657, 264 bp, the longest contig length of 5.05 Mb, and a GC content of 51.06%. The Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) analysis resulted in 99.7% genome completeness at the Dothideomycetes lineage, representing a high-quality genome assembly. AUGUSTUS ab initio analysis resulted in 9875 protein-coding genes. Of the 6776 pathogenicity-related genes, 537 genes with effector functions were identified. Likewise, the glycoside hydrolases (434) were the most dominant group of the total 837 predicted CAZymes. The assembled genome of A. porri showed distinctive similarities to the genomes of A. alternata and A. brassicicola, the causal agents of leaf blight of onion and leaf spot of Brassica crops, respectively.

The rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) provides the world’s population with staple foods, and it is crucial to maintain global food demand and security. Food systems are a complex ecosystem and sustain many feedback mechanisms. Crop residue management is one of those feedback mechanisms that was assessed under conservation agriculture, and a decomposition study was analyzed for the rice-wheat cropping system using rice, wheat, and maize crop residue for decomposition rate and nutrients release under agricultural practices (zero till, raised beds). Different zero tillage techniques in Samastipur demonstrated an accelerated decomposition trend, which was especially noticeable in the straw from wheat and rice. At the same time, permanent bed systems showed a relatively larger residue mass, especially in the case of wheat and maize straw. Permanent bed systems (wheat-maize system), particularly those using wheat straw, held the largest amounts of residue mass when the total residue mass throughout the sites was taken into account. Samastipur showed higher nutrient release for all the rice residue in wheat, rice residue in maize, and wheat residue in rice except maize residue in rice as compared to the Karnal sites. Decomposition kinetics, modeled via a first-order exponential decay function, showed high correlations (R2: 0.941 to 0.996) across treatment methods. The research underscores the significant effect of agroecological factors on residue decomposition and nutrient release, irrespective of residue type, highlighting the importance of tailored residue management practices for enhanced nutrient cycling and sustainability. These findings contribute to the optimization of residue management strategies in RWCS, promoting sustainable agriculture practices in the face of climate change and increasing food security demands.

This study evaluates the impact of conservation agriculture (CA) on soil carbon sequestration and crop productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, focusing on short-term effects over 3 and 5 years. Conducted at two distinct sites, Karnal and Samastipur, the research compares zero tillage, permanent raised beds, and conventional tillage systems across diverse cropping patterns. Initial findings after 3 years showed no significant differences in carbon and nitrogen stocks at Karnal, while Samastipur’s maize-mustard-mungbean rotation on permanent raised beds showed increased carbon stocks. Notably, after 5 years, significant differences in soil carbon stocks emerged at both sites, with improved organic matter input indicated by coarse particulate organic matter (cPOM) formation. The study confirms the potential of POXC and POC as early indicators for carbon sequestration in CA systems, highlighting the role of CA practices in enhancing soil health and crop productivity sustainably.

The performance enhancement of an inverter-based grid-connected system necessitates a fast and accurate dynamic response in terms of estimating three-phase grid voltage attributes. The synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (PLL) and/or the frequency-locking (i.e., frequency-locked loop) approaches are widely used in practical applications. However, due to the phase/frequency feedback loops, the aforementioned parameter estimation schemes may experience instability and provide a slow dynamic response. This work presents a PLL-less grid synchronization solution for three-phase applications to counter the slower dynamic response and demonstrate better immunity against the nonideality of a three-phase grid. In order to remove even and odd-order harmonics and extract the fundamental frequency positive sequence (FFPS), the proposed method employs a combination of band pass filters (CBPFs). Additionally, a novel frequency estimation algorithm is developed, which accurately estimates the angular three-phase grid frequency. Furthermore, the phase angle and amplitude are adaptively estimated using an off-line error-resolving approach, which is derived from the transfer function of the proposed prefiltering solution. Finally, the experimental findings validate the robustness of the current proposal.

In recent years, an increase in weed infestation, which is adversely affecting crop growth and productivity has been a major challenge facing the farmers of South Asia. The adoption of a permanent bed in combination with residue retention-based crop management practices may reduce weed abundance and increase crop productivity. In a two-year field study, we evaluated the responses of different organic weed management practices with contrasting tillage and residue (R) management strategies to weed dynamics and crop productivity under rice-maize rotation. The main plot treatments consisted of zero-tillage direct seeded rice and zero-tillage maize (ZTR fb ZTM); ZTDSR and maize both on permanent raised beds with residue (PBDSR + R fb PBDSM + R); PBDSR and PBM without residue (PBDSR-R fb PBDSM-R) and conventional tillage puddled transplanted rice and conventional tillage maize (CTR fb CTM). The subplots comprised unweeded control; vermicompost mulch; P- enriched vermicompost mulch; live mulch with Sesbania spp. in rice and Pisum sativum in maize and weed-free. Total weed density and biomass in rice and maize at 30 days after sowing (DAS) were minimum for PBDSR + R fb PBDSM + R compared to remaining tillage and residue management practices in both years. Apart from weed-free treatment, the highest weed control index was found with live mulch. Yield of rice and maize were found higher in permanent beds along with residue retention-based practices. In rice, the weed-free treatment showed the highest grain yield and live mulch reported 9.8 and 6.8 % higher grain yield than vermicompost mulch and P-enriched vermicompost mulch respectively. Our study shows that conservation agriculture practices under rice-maize rotation is one of the ways to reduce weed density and improve crop productivity in South Asia and other similar agro-ecologies.

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are short non-coding regulatory RNA sequences that silence the complementary expressive transcripts through an endogenous RNA mediated interference mechanism (RNAi). These sRNAs typically move through plasmodesmata and phloem in plants to support disease resistance, and also through septal pores and vesicles in fungi to act as effector of pathogenicity. Notably, recent reports have shown the occurrence of a bidirectional trafficking of these sRNAs between the host plants and the attacking fungal phytopathogen which have significant implication in the nature of the infection. While the trans-species sRNAs from the pathogen can silence the host mRNAs and inhibit the host immunity genes, the sRNA modules from the host plants can silence the mRNA in the pathogen by impeding the expression of the pathogenicity-related genes. In the present review, we discuss the current state of sRNA trafficking between the plant and the pathogen with special emphasis on the mechanism of cross-kingdom communication which could contribute to the development of pathogen and pest control in future agriculture.

INTRODUCTION: Repeated clinical use of arch wires requires sterilization and may result in alteration of the properties of the wires as they get subjected to corrosion and cold working. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the effects of different clinical recycling methods on the load-deflection properties of super-elastic and thermal nickel–titanium orthodontic arch wires. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50 0.014” round nickel–titanium orthodontic wires [Group I: super-elastic nickel–titanium (n = 25) and Group II: thermal nickel–titanium wires (n = 25)] were tested for changes in their load deflection properties after three different recycling methods, that is, dry heat sterilization, autoclave, and cold sterilization. For each group, five wires as received from the manufacturer were taken as control (T0), and the rest of the 20 wires were placed intra-orally for a duration of one cycle of clinical use (T1). Five wires out of these were subjected to 3-point bending tests, and the rest of the wires were subjected to different recycling methods. Load deflection properties of recycled wires were measured with an Instron universal testing machine. The results were tabulated, and the data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Tukey post hoc test. RESULTS: Statistically, no significant difference was found in the super-elastic group between samples recycled by dry heat, autoclave, and cold sterilization when compared with as-received super-elastic NiTi up to 2.5 mm of deflection. A highly significant difference was found between as-received thermal NiTi group (83.51 ± 6.49 N/mm) and samples recycled by dry heat (53.73 ± 4.72 N/mm), autoclave (45.38 ± 4.37 N/mm), and cold sterilization (48.44 ± 3.12 N/mm) at 0.5 mm of deflection. CONCLUSION: Among thermal NiTi, any of the sterilization methods could opt at all deflections. For super-elastic NiTi, at higher deflections or in cases of crowding of more than 2.5 mm, cold sterilization should be the method of choice, whereas any sterilization method can be used at deflections less than 2.5 mm.

A heterogeneous CoOCN composite was synthesized via a one-pot reaction of [Co(NO3)2] and urea at 500 °C in a muffle furnace. The composite was fully characterized by FTIR, Raman, powder XRD, and XPS techniques. The catalyst was found to be efficient for the hydrations of aryl alkynes and nitriles under aerobic conditions. In addition, the catalyst exhibits high catalytic performance for the reduction of nitroarenes under inert gas-free conditions. This multitasking CoOCN composite was found to be highly suitable for all derivatives of nitrobenzene, alkynes, and nitriles because good to excellent yields were obtained. The catalyst was recovered quantitatively from the reaction mixture by simple filtration and consequently reused for seven consecutive cycles in all reactions without significant loss of catalytic activity. Hence, the synthesized CN-doped CoOCN composite worked as a multitasking catalyst for various value-added organic transformations, and it is highly economical and reusable for up to seven catalytic cycles without any activation, with even the last cycle producing reasonable yields of up to 48–50%.

An experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) seasons of 2019–20 and 2020–21 at the research farm of Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University College, of Agriculture, Jobner, Rajasthan to study the effect of micronutrients and organics on performance of sprouting broccoli (Brassica oleracea L.). A trial having 25 treatments was conducted in Factorial Randomized Blocks Design (F-RBD) with 3 replications. The treatments grouped into categories consisting 5 micronutrients (control, borax @15 kg/ha, Znso4 @25 kg/ha, (NH4)2MoO @1.5 kg/ha and Mnso4 @10 kg/ha) and another category consisted 5 organics (control, cowurine @10%, panchagavya @5%, vermiwash @10% and azotobacter). The results indicated that soil application of Znso4 as well as foliar application of 5% panchagavya to the sprouting broccoli significantly increased most of the plant attributes i.e. plant hight (71.88 cm and 71.95 cm), no. of leaves/plant (31.38 and 31.12), leaf area (3055 cm2 and 3068 cm2), chl-a (2.90 mg/g and 3.09 mg/g), total curd yield per ha (28.81 Mt/ha and 29.41 Mt/ha), NR (224848 `/ha and 230256 `/ha) and BCR (3.55 and 3.60), respectively in comparison to the control. Application of ZnSO4 and panchagavya contributed 24.72 and 26.49%, respectively more in total curd yield per hectare as compared to control. Thus, findings of experiment were in conclusion that application of ZnSO4 @25 kg/ha in soil and application of panchagavya @5% as foliar spray have the prospective effect to enhance all attributes in sprouting broccoli not only in comparison to control but also to rest of other treatments.

Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) is a gram-negative, broad host range bacterial pathogen which causes soft rot disease in potatoes as well as other vegetables worldwide. While Pectobacterium infection relies on the production of major cell wall degrading enzymes, other virulence factors and the mechanism of genetic adaptation of this pathogen is not yet clear. In the present study, we have performed an in-depth genome-wide characterization of Pcc strain ICMP5702 isolated from potato and compared it with other pathogenic bacteria from the Pectobacterium genus to identify key virulent determinants. The draft genome of Pcc ICMP5702 contains 4,774,457 bp with a G + C content of 51.90% and 4,520 open reading frames. Genome annotation revealed prominent genes encoding key virulence factors such as plant cell wall degrading enzymes, flagella-based motility, phage proteins, cell membrane structures, and secretion systems. Whereas, a majority of determinants were conserved among the Pectobacterium strains, few notable genes encoding AvrE-family type III secretion system effectors, pectate lyase and metalloprotease in addition to the CRISPR-Cas based adaptive immune system were uniquely represented. Overall, the information generated through this study will contribute to decipher the mechanism of infection and adaptive immunity in Pcc.

Introduction: Aesthetic improvement happens to be one of the main reasons for seeking orthodontic treatment in patients with Angle’s Class II malocclusion. Prognathic maxilla, retrognathic mandible or a combination of both are the main aetiological factors for this malocclusion. Growth modification treatment with different methods can be performed in order to correct skeletal class II malocclusion. Appliance therapy to correct similar malocclusions should immaculately be directed towards addressing the dentoskeletal discord, in order to gain a favourable facial aesthetic result. Aim: To assess the effects of twin block on mandibular length, soft tissue profile and Oropharyngeal Airway (OAW) dimensions in skeletal class II malocclusion patients. Materials and Methods: An in-vitro study was carried out in the Department of Paedodontics at Sardar Patel Postgraduate Institute of Dental and Medical Sciences, Lucknow from June 2018 to March 2021. Study was done on lateral cephalograms of 15 growing children with Angle’s Class II Division 1 malocclusion in the age group of 9-12 years, who had undergone functional appliance therapy with twin block appliance. Standardised lateral cephalograms were evaluated at pretreatment (0 month) and postactive phase of twin-block therapy (9-12 months). Selected hard tissue, soft tissue and airway landmarks were marked and traced to evaluate hard tissue, soft tissue and airway changes. The data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in effective mandibular length (Condyle-Gnathion) and mandibular base length Gonion-Pogonion (Go-Pog) values (p

The study was aimed at identifying the potential energy saving for groundwater pumping through enhanced efficiency of the pump sets. A total of 65 electrically powered tube wells were selected in the Sonipat district of the north Indian State of Haryana to study the energy use efficiency for groundwater pumping. The existing efficiency as well as the minimum expected overall efficiency of the tubewells were determined based on field survey, measurements, and applicable standard code of the Bureau of India Standards. The overall efficiencies of selected tube wells, computed based on actual measured power consumption, varied from 10.1% to 56.6% in the Sonipat block and 15.3% to 52.8% in the Rai block. The average energy requirement, for the selected tube wells, at the current efficiency level was 4,364.0 and 13,100.4 kWh for wheat and paddy crops, respectively, in the Sonipat block, while it was 3,424.8 and 10,280.9 kWh for wheat and paddy crops, respectively, in the Rai block. Analysis revealed that improving overall efficiency from the current level to the minimum expected level can lead to energy savings of 48.3% and 35.9% for tube wells in the Sonipat and Rai block, respectively. In the Rai block, where the groundwater level has declined significantly, the replacement of inefficient pumps should be done in tandem with crop diversification, improving water application efficiency and groundwater status by employing improved irrigation management practices and adopting groundwater recharge techniques.

The emerging pests and phytopathogens have reduced the crop yield and quality, which has threatened the global food security. Traditional breeding methods, molecular marker-based breeding approaches and use of genetically modified crops have played a crucial role in strengthening the food security worldwide. However, their usages in crop improvement have been highly limited due to multiple caveats. Genome editing tools like transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated endonuclease Cas9 (CRISPR/Cas9) have effectively overcome limitations of the conventional breeding methods and are being widely accepted for improvement of crops. Among the genome editing tools, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has emerged as the most powerful tool of genome editing because of its efficiency, amicability, flexibility, low cost and adaptability. Accumulated evidences indicate that genome editing has great potential in improving the disease resistance in crop plants. In this review, we offered a brief introduction to the mechanisms of different genome editing systems and then discussed recent developments in CRISPR/Cas9 system-based genome editing towards enhancement of rice disease resistance by different strategies. This review also discussed the possible applications of recently developed genome editing approaches like CRISPR/Cas12a (formerly known as Cpf1) and base editors for enhancement of rice disease resistance.

Abstract Background The co-morbidity of cardiometabolic diseases in patients with Tuberculosis adds a significant burden in current health systems in developing countries including Nepal. The main objective of this study was to explore cardiometabolic risk factors among patients with Tuberculosis. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted among patients with tuberculosis in 12 tuberculosis treatment centers from eight districts of Nepal between May and July 2017. Interviews with participants were conducted using a structured questionnaire and were supplemented by anthropometric measurements and on-site blood glucose tests. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results Among 221 study participants, 138 (62.4%) had new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis, 24 (10.9%) had new smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis and 34 (15.4%) had new extra- pulmonary tuberculosis. Overall, 43.1% of the patients with tuberculosis had at least one cardiometabolic risk factor. The prevalence of at least one cardiometabolic risk factor was more in male than female (47.8% versus 33.8%). Prevalence of tobacco (18.9% versus 4.8%), and alcohol (12.6% versus 6.5%) use was proportionately higher in male compared to female. The prevalence of hypertension (17% vs. 21%) and obesity (11.9% vs. 12.9%) was lower in male compared to females. Female (AOR = 0.47; CI: 0.23–0.94), those from Gandaki Province (AOR = 0.32; CI: 0.13–0.79) and literate (AOR = 0.49; CI: 0.25–0.96) had reduced risk of cardiometabolic disease risk factors. Conclusions This study highlights the role of gender and socio-demographic characteristics associated with the risk of cardiometabolic diseases in patients with Tuberculosis. The findings from this study can guide medical practitioners and policy makers to consider clinical suspicion, diagnosis and treatment. National treatment guideline can benefit by integrating the management of non-communicable diseases in Tuberculosis treatment centers.

With the recent development of metal oxide in various fields of science and technology, immensely nanotechnology has been contributing huge applications in the last decade, in various fields of synthetic chemistry, catalysis, and pharmaceutical industries. The utilization of metal oxide nanoparticles is superior for catalysis due to their ease of synthesis, high surface area for the reactants to react, recyclability, and eco-friendly. A large number of nanoparticles exhibit a significant role in various chemical transformations having highly expensive and biotic hazardous properties. The use of copper oxide nanoparticles as catalysts in reaction media facilitates a non-toxic, easily available. A large number of researchers have reported copper oxide nanoparticles as excellent, sustainable, and greener catalysts for the fabrication of many coupling reactions. This review (2015-till present) provides the copper oxide nanoparticles assisted CC coupling reactions with greater catalytic performance and effective catalysis.

Postlarval stages of Penaeus monodon were exposed to cadmium, copper, lead and zinc concentrations under chronic toxicity test (static renewal-30 days) to study the alterations in the growth pattern. Heavy metal exposures produced significant (P<0.01) effect on weight and length. The difference in the relation between the condition factor and geometric increase in the concentration was significant (P<0.01, 0.001). Lower concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead and zinc were enough to produce a significant effect of decreased growth in P.monodon. Significant (P<0.001) reduced growth was observed in 13, 21, 34 and 54 μg/l copper concentrations. P.monodon exposed to lead in 21, 34 and 54 μg/l showed a significant (P<0.05) reduction in growth. High significance (P<0.001) was found in P.monodon exposed to 76 μg/l of zinc concentration. Significance (P<0.05 and P<0.01) was also found for 34 and 51 μg/l Zn in relation to growth. Hence, lower concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead and zinc are enough to produce a significant effect on the growth pattern of Penaeus monodon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purple blotch, caused by Alternaria porri (Ellis) Cifferi, is a serious disease incurring heavy yield losses in the bulb and seed crop of onion and garlic worldwide. There is an immediate need for identification of effective resistance sources for use in host resistance breeding. A total of 43 Allium genotypes were screened for purple blotch resistance under field conditions. Allium cepa accession ‘CBT-Ac77’ and cultivar ‘Arka Kalyan’ were observed to be highly resistant. In vitro inoculation of a selected set of genotypes with A. porri, revealed that 7 days after inoculation was suitable to observe the disease severity. In vitro screening of 43 genotypes for resistance to A. porri revealed two resistant lines. An additional 14 genotypes showed consistent moderate resistance in the field as well as in vitro evaluations. Among the related Allium species, A. schoenoprasum and A. roylei showed the least disease index and can be used for interspecific hybridization with cultivated onion. Differential reaction analysis of three A. porri isolates (Apo-Chiplima, Apn-Nasik, Apg-Guntur) in 43 genotypes revealed significant variation among the evaluated Allium species (P = 0.001). All together, the present study suggest that, the newly identified resistance sources can be used as potential donors for ongoing purple blotch resistance breeding program in India.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the major food source for more than three billion people of the world. In the last few decades, the classical, mutational, and molecular breeding approaches have brought about tremendous increase in rice productivity with the development of novel rice varieties. However, stagnation in rice yield has been reported in recent decade owing to several factors including the emergence of pests and phyto pathogens, climate change, and other environmental issues posing great threat to global food security. There is an urgent need to produce more rice and associated cereals to satisfy the mammoth task of feeding a still growing population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Advances in genomics and emergence of multiple genome-editing technologies through use of engineered site-specific nucleases (SSNs) have revolutionized the field of plant science and agriculture. Among them, the CRISPR/Cas9 system is the most advanced and widely accepted because of its simplicity, robustness, and high efficiency. The availability of huge genomic resources together with a small genome size makes rice more suitable and feasible for genetic manipulation. As such, rice has been increasingly used to test the efficiency of different types of genome editing technologies to study the functions of various genes and demonstrate their potential in genetic improvement. Recently developed approaches including CRISPR/Cpf1 system and base editors have evolved as more efficient and accurate genome editing tools which might accelerate the pace of crop improvement. In the present review, we focus on the genome editing strategies for rice improvement, thereby highlighting the applications and advancements of CRISPR/Cas9 system. This review also sheds light on the role of CRISPR/Cpf1 and base editors in the field of genome editing highlighting major challenges and future implications of these tools in rice improvement.

Introduction: Oxytetracycline and its derivatives are routinely used to treat various ailments have also been shown to inhibit embryonic bone formation, mineralization in pregnant female rats and parathyroid hormone induced demineralization of bones. Oxytetracycline has also been routinely used as bone fluorochrome to study bone metabolism. However, despite the above observations, its mechanism of action is not clearly understood. Some studies tend to suggest that it acts by inhibiting collagen biosynthesis while others indicate that it acts without influencing collagen metabolism. Aim: To study the mechanism by which oxytetracycline influences the mineralization and demineralization reactions. Materials and Methods: Homogeneous and heterogeneous systems of in vitro mineralization under physiological conditions of temperature, pH and ionic strength were used to investigate the effect of oxytetracycline not only on initial mineral phase formation but also on its subsequent growth or demineralization. In the Homogenous system, supersaturated conditions with respect to calcium and phosphate ions were employed to study their precipitation as mineral phase resembling hydroxyapatite in nature. However, in the heterogeneous system, collagen isolated from sheep tendons was used to induce identical mineral phases under saturated conditions with respect to calcium and phosphate ions prevailing in the body fluids. Results: The study demonstrated that in the homogeneous reaction system (mineralization in the absence of collagen) oxytetracycline inhibited both the initial mineral phase formation and its subsequent growth without influencing its demineralization. However, in the heterogeneous system, oxytetracycline was found to inhibit not only the initial mineralization but also its subsequent growth or demineralization. Conclusion: Oxytetracycline acted like crystal poisons to inhibit the mineralization and demineralization reactions by tightly associating with the mineral phase.

Barium titanate (BT) has attained research focus in recent past owing to considering its high dielectric constant and stealth capabilities in microwave region. Shape effects of BT viz. powder, micron size flakes, nanoparticles and nanotubes have been studied vastly for its stealth capabilities. Present study aims at the preparation of millimetric size barium titanate flakes (BTFs) via controlled sol-gel process followed by tape casting. BTFs were mixed in varied weight ratio (50–90 wt.%) with polyurethane resin to fabricate composite laminates. Electromagnetic properties measurement in X and Ku band revealed high values of real and imaginary permittivity. Reflection loss measurements demonstrated more than 20 dB loss in wide frequency range (11.4–13.6 GHz). For single layer microwave absorber, reflection loss values have been calculated and it is observed that calculated and measured reflection loss values are in good agreement to each other. Developed material can find applications in broadband radar signature reduction.

Background: Researchers have generally focused on tissue reactions occurring within the periodontal ligament and bone to find possible explanation for various clinical phenomena, with less attention being paid to the inherent bone density. Recently, regional differences in jaw anatomy and bone structure including bone density have become important issue to explain some of the variation in clinical practice with respect to tooth movement, implant success rate, anchorage loss etc. Materials and methods: The intent of this review is to discuss various methods and classification proposed to determine bone density in particular area and its importance in field of orthodontia. Various clinical studies and research done in relation to bone density were searched using PubMed. Results and conclusion: This review endeavours to compile the research of bone density in maxilla and mandible. Many clinical studies have demonstrated relation between bone density and various clinical phenomena in dentistry. Knowledge of bone density in particular area of oral cavity may help the clinician to plan proper site for implant placement and various anchorage augmentation techniques in order to increase success rate of the treatment.

The drug yielding potential of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is largely due to the presence of phyto-constituent ‘curcumin’. Curcumin has been found to possess a myriad of therapeutic activities ranging from anti-inflammatory to neuroprotective. Lack of requisite high curcumin containing genotypes and variation in the curcumin content of turmeric at different agro climatic regions are the major stumbling blocks in commercial production of turmeric. Curcumin content of turmeric is greatly influenced by environmental factors. Hence, a prediction model based on artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to map genome environment interaction basing on curcumin content, soli and climatic factors from different agroclimatic regions for prediction of maximum curcumin content at various sites to facilitate the selection of suitable region for commercial cultivation of turmeric. The ANN model was developed and tested using a data set of 119 generated by collecting samples from 8 different agroclimatic regions of Odisha. The curcumin content from these samples was measured that varied from 7.2% to 0.4%. The ANN model was trained with 11 parameters of soil and climatic factors as input and curcumin content as output. The results showed that feed-forward ANN model with 8 nodes (MLFN-8) was the most suitable one with R2 value of 0.91. Sensitivity analysis revealed that minimum relative humidity, altitude, soil nitrogen content and soil pH had greater effect on curcumin content. This ANN model has shown proven efficiency for predicting and optimizing the curcumin content at a specific site.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of post transcriptional regulators that negatively regulate gene expression through target mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition and play important roles in plant development and stress response. In the present study, 6 conserved miRNAs from garlic (Allium sativum L.) were analysed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in response to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae (FOC) infection. Stem-loop RT-PCR revealed that miR394 is significantly induced in garlic seedlings post treatment with FOC for 72 h. The induction of miR394 expression during FOC infection was restricted to the basal stem plate tissue, the primary site of infection. Garlic miR394 was also upregulated by exogenous application of jasmonic acid. Two putative targets of miR394 encoding F-box domain and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family proteins were predicted and verified using 5’ RLM-RACE (RNA ligase mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends) assay. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that the transcript levels of the predicted targets were significantly reduced in garlic plants exposed to FOC. When garlic cultivars with variable sensitivity to FOC were exposed to the pathogen, an upregulation of miR394 and down regulation of the targets were observed in both varieties. However, the expression pattern was delayed in the resistant genotypes. These results suggest that miR394 functions in negative modulation of FOC resistance and the difference in timing and levels of expression in variable genotypes could be examined as markers for selection of FOC resistant garlic cultivars.

Sclerotinia stem rot caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum affects canola production worldwide. Emerging evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of gene expression in plants, in response to both abiotic and biotic stress. So far, identification of lncRNAs has been limited to a few model plant species, and their roles in mediating responses to biotic stresses are yet to be characterized in Brassica napus. The present study reports the identification of novel lncRNAs responsive to S. sclerotiorum infection in B. napus at two time points after infection (24 hpi and 48 hpi) using a stranded RNA-Sequencing technique and a detection pipeline for lncRNAs. Of the total 3,181 lncRNA candidates, 2,821 lncRNAs were intergenic, 111 were natural antisense transcripts, 76 possessed exonic overlap with the reference coding transcripts while the remaining 173 represented novel lnc- isoforms. Forty one lncRNAs were identified as the precursors for microRNAs (miRNAs) including miR156, miR169 and miR394, with significant roles in mediating plant responses to fungal phytopathogens. A total of 931 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified in response to S. sclerotiorum infection and the expression of 12 such lncRNAs was further validated using qRT-PCR. B. napus antisense lncRNA, TCONS_00000966, having 90% overlap with a plant defensin gene, showed significant induction at both infection stages, suggesting its involvement in the transcriptional regulation of defense responsive genes under S. sclerotiorum infection. Additionally, nine lncRNAs showed overlap with cis-regulatory regions of differentially expressed genes of B. napus. Quantitative RT-PCR verification of a set of S. sclerotiorum responsive sense/antisense transcript pairs revealed contrasting expression patterns, supporting the hypothesis that steric clashes of transcriptional machinery may lead to inactivation of sense promoter. Our findings highlight the potential contributions of lncRNAs in regulating expression of plant genes that respond to biotic stress.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.), a well-known member of family Zingiberaceae, is bestowed with number of medicinal properties which is because of the secondary metabolites, essential oil and oleoresin, it contains in its rhizome. The drug yielding potential is known to depend on agro-climatic conditions prevailing at the place cultivation. Present study deals with comparative transcriptome analysis of two sample of elite ginger variety Suprabha collected from two different agro-climatic zones of Odisha. Transcriptome assembly for both the samples was done using next generation sequencing methodology. The raw data of size 10.8 and 11.8 GB obtained from analysis of two rhizomes S1Z4 and S2Z5 collected from Bhubaneswar and Koraput and are available in NCBI accession number SAMN03761169 and SAMN03761176 respectively. We identified 60,452 and 54,748 transcripts using trinity tool respectively from ginger rhizome of S1Z4 and S2Z5. The transcript length varied from 300 bp to 15,213 bp and 8988 bp and N50 value of 1415 bp and 1334 bp respectively for S1Z4 and S2Z5. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparative transcriptome analysis of elite ginger cultivars Suprabha from two different agro-climatic conditions of Odisha, India which will help to understand the effect of agro-climatic conditions on differential expression of secondary metabolites.

MicroRNAs are a class of approximately 20-24 nucleotides (nt) endogenous small RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression and play vital roles in multiple biological processes, including plant growth, development and responses to environmental stresses. Onion (Allium cepa L.), also called as “queen of kitchen” is a bulbous vegetable crop cultivated in almost all parts of the world. However, the miRNA repertoire of onion is highly ambiguous. In the present study, we report the computational identification of miRNAs and their targets from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and genome survey sequences (GSSs) of Allium cepa L as well as functionally annotated the target genes. By following a stringent pipeline, we used 20225 ESTs and 10725 GSS from onion to identify 9 new potential miRNA belonging to 8 different miRNA families (miR172, miR1134, miR1223, miR6219, miR7725, miR8570, miR8703 and miR8752). Under a stringent condition, 26 potential targets were identified for the 8 miRNAs with distinct functions related to growth and development, signal transduction, metabolism, defense and stress responses. Overall, the present finding will make the pathway for understanding of molecular mechanisms of miRNA in onion and understanding their involvement in post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism towards regulation of stress responses in this economically important plant.

Angiosperms exhibits diversified sexual systems encompassing bisexual, monoecious and dioecious conditions. Dioecy offers opportunities to explore separately, the male and female systems giving an insight into the evolutionary, developmental and molecular processes of sex expression in plants. Coccinia grandis (Family: Cucurbitaceae) with small genome size and heteromorphic sex chromosomes is often considered a model dioecious plant for sex evolution. However, the information relating to its genetic orientation, physical state and sex determining factors is highly ambiguous and limited. In the present study we have attempted to identify the molecular basis of sex determination in C. grandis through genome wide transcriptome profiling of the floral buds. About 75 million clean reads were generated resulting in 72,479 unigenes for male library and 63,308 unigenes for female library with a mean length of 736 bp. 1410 unigenes were differentially expressed (DEGs) between the male and female buds as identified from the RNA-Seq pattern and qRT-PCR validation. Functional annotation using BLAST2GO and KEGG revealed high enrichment of DEGs in phytohormone biosynthesis, hormone signaling and transduction, transcriptional regulation and methyl transferase activity. Manifold up-regulation of genes phytohormone responsive genes such as ARF6, ACC synthase1, SNRK2 and BRI1-associated receptor kinase 1 (BAK1) suggest that a signaling crosstalk is implicated in the sex determination of this species. Besides, a wide range of transcription factors including zinc fingers, homeodomain leucine zippers and MYBs were recognized as major determinants of male specific expression in the dioecious plant. Additionally, C. grandis transcriptome revealed 48 target genes for many miRNAs sequences with established role in floral development and sex determination. Overall, our study resulted in the identification of a large amount of molecular resources that could be critical to the mechanism of sexual dimorphism in dioecious plants in general and C. grandis in particular.

Meralgia Paraesthetica (MP) is a rare condition, in which the patient experiences a burning sensation along the distribution of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve of the thigh, due to entrapment neuropathy at the lateral end of the inguinal ligament as it exits the pelvis. There are several causes of this condition including laparoscopic inguinal hernioplasty. Diagnosed clinically, intervention is indicated for failed conservative measures. We herewith report a patient with MP and symptomatic cholelithiasis, treated for both laparoscopically. This is the third reported case in the literature that has been treated laparoscopically.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of intentional replantation among postgraduate students and endodontists in India, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. Materials and methods The sample size was estimated using G*Power. Based on the pilot study done before with 60 participants, a sample size of 928 was obtained. The survey consisted of 22 questions, which were finalized after content validation by two endodontic experts. It was circulated through multiple online social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other online dental communities/channels. The respondents were questioned about the case selection, extraction methods, antibiotic therapy, patient acceptance level, operator preference, prognostic indicator, and various other steps in the intentional replantation treatment modality. The data for this KAP survey were organized in an Excel sheet, and statistical analysis was done using the Chi-squared test. Analysis of descriptive and inferential statistics was conducted using SPSS version 20.0 (IBM Inc., Armonk, New York). A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results A strong statistical difference was found in the KAP of the practitioners in different countries. The vast majority (72.7%) considered intentional replantation as an adjunct treatment modality rather than a last resort. A total of 76.5% of the respondents preferred replantation of the tooth into the socket within 15 minutes, and 86.4% of the participants regarded replantation as the most cost-effective treatment modality. Ultrasonics (76.8%) was most commonly chosen for retrograde preparation, and Biodentine (60.1%; Septodont, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France) as root-end filling material. Conclusion It can be concluded that a broad majority of practitioners in different countries view intentional replantation as an adjunct treatment modality rather than a last resort. Thus, intentional replantation seems to be a promising option for preserving the natural dentition of teeth with high survival rates and better outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Praveen Kumar et al.)