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A new one-dimensional antiferromagnetic and semiconducting quaternary sulfide Ba4FeAgS6 has been synthesized and its physical properties have been investigated in detail.

Single crystals and a polycrystalline sample of BaCeCuS3 were synthesized and characterized. The semiconducting BaCeCuS3 shows ultralow thermal conductivity (0.32 W m−1 K−1 at 773 K) and is promising for thermoelectric and photovoltaic applications.

Single crystals of a new semiconducting layered quaternary sulfide, Ba3Zr2Cu4S9, are synthesized by the elemental reactions at high temperatures. This phase is the first member of the Ba–Zr–Cu–S system and represents an unprecedented structure type.

A new structure type Ba4Mn2Si2Te9 containing unique MnTe5 units is synthesized. The structure comprises two independent Mn atoms, each with 50% occupancy. It is a narrow bandgap semiconductor (Eg = 0.6(1) eV) consistent with the DFT studies.

Two new metal ternary chalcogenides, NaScSe2 and NaScTe2, have been synthesized via high-temperature reaction.

The single crystals of a quaternary sulfide, Ba

Suicidal attempts and suicides among children & teenagers are on rise in past few years. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among those aged 10–24 years. Modern era has witnessed that the children have the ability to plan and execute a suicidal act. Considering such valuable loss of lives by suicide, it is of serious public health concern. Suicide by a child causes significant grief and depression for siblings, parents, and near ones exposed to suicide. Mental health and social distress among children must be paid great attention to reduce suicidal behaviour.

Learning environment in nursing has been defined as everything that is happening in the classroom and clinical. The quality of an educational environment is indicative of the effectiveness of an educational programme on student learning, motivation and learning outcomes. The present study aimed to determine the perception of baccalaureate nursing students towards their educational environment. In this descriptive study 105 undergraduate nursing students at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, Uttarakhand were enrolled using simple random sampling technique. The perceptions of nursing students to their educational environment were measured by using Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) and Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI). Appropriate descriptive & inferential statistics was applied to compute the results. The DREEM mean score (127±28.75) indicated more positive perception of students towards their academic environment. Students’ perception of teachers (p= 0.014), academic self-perception (p=0.001), and perception of atmosphere (p=0.003) was found to be significantly associated with year of study. Similarly, year of study was found significantly associated with personalisation (p= 0.007), task orientation (p=0.013), innovation (p=0.002), individualisation (p=0.007) and student satisfaction (p=0.007) to clinical environment and learning. Work place assessment is crucial in improving the clinical teaching among nursing students.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is usually caused due to the alteration of the beta-globin subunit in the primary adult haemoglobin (HbA). When both the beta-globin subunits get mutated, i.e., in the heterozygous condition, the HbS polymerizes upon deoxygenation, resulting in the erythrocytes acquiring sickle or crescent shape, known as sickling. During the initial process, the acquired erythrocytes often sway between the circular and sickle shapes when oxygen pressure is lower. However, the situation becomes critical if the change becomes irreversible resulting in permanent sickling of the erythrocytes, worsening the threat of hemolysis and vascular damage. The most common form of the disease is sickle cell anemia, where the patient is susceptible to hemolysis. Every year, thousands of cases are being reported, the majority being from Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the genetic similarity at the site of mutation, not all patients get equally affected. If the sickle cell disease is left untreated for long, it causes neurological complications, pulmonary hypertension, cardiac disease, renal complications etc. Various methods have been developed for the treatment of the disease. This review briefly discusses sickle cell disease, its pathophysiological aspects, its causes, effects and treatment.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is the most common endocrinological disorder in women of reproductive age and has a considerable metabolic, reproductive, and cardiovascular consequences. This study was designed to provide an overview of the presentation of he clinical profile and hormonal presentation of the patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome attending a tertiary care hospital.A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between September 14, 2019 to October 16, 2019 on patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital, after obtaining ethical clearance from Institutional Review Committee (Dated 03/09/2019) and informed consent from the patient or patient relatives. Data entry and analysis were done in Microsoft Excel 10. The data was statistically analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.The study included 100 PCOS patients. The mean age of the patients was 24.9±4.52 years and the most common group was 26-34 years. The most common presenting symptom was menstrual irregularity which was seen in 86 (86%) of the patients, followed by weight gain in 55 (55%) of the patients. Thirty percent (30 in number) of the patients were overweight, while eleven (11%) of the patients had grade I obesity. LH/FSH ratio was more than or equal to 2 in eighty-three percent 83 (83%) of the patients.Polycystic ovarian syndrome has varying clinical manifestations, most commonly affecting the young women of reproductive age group. The commonest presenting complaint in the current study was menstrual abnormality. Majority of the patients had deranged hormonal profile which can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 DM. Thus, awareness regarding PCOS is important for early diagnosis and to prevent its sequalae to various complications.

In today’s business environment the number of customers buying products online have increased, it is difficult for the firm to determine customer lifetime value (CLV) of every customer. In this paper, customer segmentation is used to find the customer lifetime value for a UK based registered company that sells unique gifts. Firstly, customer segmentation is done based on three characteristics of purchase variables: “Recency”, “Frequency”, and “Monetary”. Next, weight or priority is given to the variables, which are attained using Fuzzy AHP technique. Lastly, analysis of the results is done by dividing the dataset into eights clusters and ranking those clusters on the basis of CLV values which helps the marketers in making selling and marketing decisions use these CLV values. Decision maker of the company consider technique of this paper in the future for calculating customers lifetime value (CLV) and gives more attention of that group which have highest CLV value.

The article provides a comprehensive review of the current situation of micronutrient deficiencies (MND) among children in India. It provides information of common MND with its prevalence and geographical distribution. The review includes a nationally representative survey, nutritional reports and studies conducted in the different regions of India. Iron deficiency anaemia, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and iodine deficiency disorder are found to be the most prevalent MND among children. The prevalence of anaemia ranging from 21% to 59.2%, VAD reported as a maximum of 10.2% in one of the recent Indian studies while the total goitre rate of highest as 21.9%. With the implementation of various nutritional programs for children, these deficiencies are found to be significant mainly among pre-school children. The recommendation on strengthening existing nutritional health programmes with some new intervention strategies to improve the micronutrient status among children and to reduce the economic burden to MND in the coming years.

The interest in microbial production of butanol is based on the awareness that biobutanol is one of the most promising biofuels, with the potential to meet the demand of sustainable and green energy systems. The high cost of petroleum oil and recent reports on increase in the glycerol generation during the biodiesel production has created a need to convert large quantities of glycerol into value-added products. In the present investigation, twenty anaerobic bacteria were screened for butanol production, among which Clostridium acetobutylicum KF158795 was found to be a potent butanol producer. Results showed that the strain was able to utilize glycerol as a sole carbon source to produce 1.4 g/L of butanol in 96 h. Optimization of the parameters resulted in 9.7 fold increase in the production and 13.57 g/L of butanol was obtained in 96 h of incubation. The process was also scaled up to 17 L in a 30 L bioreactor with similar titres. The present study suggests that the selected strain could be used as a promising agent to fulfil the worldwide demand of butanol as biofuel.

Shikimic acid is the promising candidate as a building block for the industrial synthesis of drug Tamiflu used for the treatment of Swine flu. The fermentative production process using microbes present an excellent and even more sustainable alternative to the traditional plants based extraction methods. In the present study, the fermentative production of shikimic acid by Citrobacter freundii GR-21 (KC466031) was optimized by process engineering using a statistical modeling approach and a maximum amount of 16.78 g L(-1) was achieved. The process was also scaled up to 14L bioreactor to validate the production of shikimic acid. Further, the potential of anti-enzymatic nature of purified shikimic acid was evaluated for different lipases wherein, shikimic acid inhibited the hydrolysis of triglycerides by 55-60%. Shikimic acid also profoundly inhibited pancreatic lipase activity by 66%, thus providing another valuable therapeutic aspect for treating diet induced obesity in humans.

Different physiological and nutritional parameters affect the fermentative production of shikimic acid. In our study, Citrobacter freundii initially produced 0.62 g/L of shikimic acid in 72 h. However, when process optimization was employed, 5.11 g/L of shikimic acid was produced in the production medium consisting of glucose (5.0 %), asparagine (4.5 %), CaCO3 (2.0 %), at pH 6.0, when inoculated with 6 % inoculum and incubated at 30 ± 1 °C, 200 rpm for 60 h. Preliminary fed-batch studies have resulted in the production of 9.11 g/L of shikimic acid on feeding the production medium by 20 g/L of glucose at 24 h of the fermentation run. Production of similar amount of shikimic acid was observed when the optimized conditions were employed in a 10-L bioreactor as obtained in shake flask conditions. A total of 9.11 g/L of shikimic acid was produced in 60 h. This is approximately 14.69-fold increase in shikimic acid production when compared to the initial un-optimized production conditions. This has also resulted in the reduction of the production time. The present study provides useful information to the industrialists seeking environmentally benign technology for the production of bulk biomolecules through manipulation of various chemical parameters.

The sudden outbreak of swine flu has increased the global demand of shikimic acid which is an industrially interesting compound, as it is used as a key starting material for the synthesis of a neuraminidase inhibitor Tamiflu(®), for the treatment of antiviral infections such as swine flu. Statistical optimization and evaluation of medium components for the production of shikimic acid by Citrobacter freundii is addressed in the present investigation. Plackett-Burman design was applied for the screening of the most significant variables affecting shikimic acid production, where glucose, asparagine, KH2PO4, CaCO3 and agitation rate were the most significant factors. Response surface methodology was also employed to study the interaction among the most significant variables through which shikimic acid production increased to 12.76 g/L. Further, fed-batch studies resulted in the production of 22.32 g/L of shikimic acid. The scalability of the process was also confirmed by running 14 L bioreactor (7.5 L production medium) where 20.12 g/L of shikimic acid was produced. In addition the antibacterial activity of the shikimic acid produced was analysed against four Gram positive and four Gram negative bacteria and it was found to have a greater inhibition effect against the Gram negative bacteria.

The industrial utilization of native starches is limited because of their inherit nature, with characteristics such as water insolubility and their tendency to form unstable pastes and gels. In this investigation, a lipase produced from Rhizopus oryzae was used for modification of maize starch with palmitic acid at a reaction temperature of 45°C for 18 hr in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The synthesis of maize starch palmitate was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra with a higher degree of substitution (DS) of 1.68. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the maize starch palmitate is more stable even up to 496°C as compared to unmodified maize starch (231.4°C). Maize starch palmitate possesses high degree of substitution and thermal properties and thus can be widely used in food and pharmaceutical industry.

The atomic vapor generated by electron beam heating is partially ionized due to atom–atom collisions (Saha ionization) and electron impact ionization, which depend upon the source temperature and area of evaporation as compared to the area of electron beam bombardment on the target. When electron beam evaporation is carried out by inserting the target inside an insulating liner to reduce conductive heat loss, it is expected that the area of evaporation becomes significantly more than the area of electron beam bombardment on the target, resulting in reduced electron impact ionization. To assess this effect and to quantify the parameters of evaporation, such as temperature and area of evaporation, we have carried out experiments using zirconium, tin and aluminum as a target. By measuring the ion content using a Langmuir probe, in addition to measuring the atomic vapor flux at a specific height, and by combining the experimental data with theoretical expressions, we have established a method for simultaneously inferring the source temperature, evaporation area and ion fraction. This assumes significance because the temperature cannot be reliably measured by an optical pyrometer due to the wavelength dependent source emissivity and reflectivity of thin film mirrors. In addition, it also cannot be inferred from only the atomic flux data at a certain height as the area of evaporation is unknown (it can be much more than the area of electron bombardment, especially when the target is placed in a liner). Finally, the reason for the lower observed electron temperatures of the plasma for all the three cases is found to be the energy loss due to electron impact excitation of the atomic vapor during its expansion from the source.

An experiment was conducted to examine the extent of low-temperature stress during early seed germination and to investigate the mitigating effects of brassinosteroids. Sterilized Cicer arietinum seeds were soaked in distilled water for 24 h then placed in three sets of cotton-lined petri dishes. These three sets of seeds were exposed to different temperatures: 25°C (control), 0°C and -10°C. Another experiment was conducted using the same set of conditions but included a 24 h soaking step in 28-homobrassinolide (HBL) under controlled conditions. The seedlings were evaluated after 72 h. The results clearly indicated that seed germination, the activities of nitrate reductase and carbonic anhydrase, the accumulated levels of proline and protein decreased in response to low-temperature stress. HBL partially ameliorated the stress at 0°C but failed to overcome the -10°C stress. Based on our observations, it could be concluded that brassinosteroids could partially overcome the stress generated by 0°C during the seed germination stage but could not overcome the stress generated by -10°C.

In contrast to the debate on nuclear power and genetically altered food, the public doesn't yet view the manufacturing strategies of biodiesel as a noteworthy hazard. For every 100 gallons of biodiesel produced, 5–10 gallons of the less glamorous crude glycerol are left behind with a sparking debate about the best uses of this waste. This impure form of glycerol must either be disposed off or sold off to market for a minimal amount due to the free fatty acids, water, methanol, and salt content. At present, most of it is simply incinerated. Well that doesn't make biodiesel a clean alternative energy anymore. The utilization of a crude glycerol to produce value–added products provides areas of opportunity where it would be possible to capitalize on the surplus of waste glycerol. In this context, glycerol which promises to be a good substrate for microbial production of 1,3-propanediol, changes the perception of glycerol as being an industrial waste. The present work necessitates to evaluate the possibility of capitalizing on the surplus glycerol by converting it into 1,3-propanediol. In this respect, more then 200 bacterial strains were screened out, to identify their ability to convert glycerol to 1,3-propanediol anaerobically. One of the potent strain which produces 1,3-propanediol was identified as Citrobacter freundii. Various raw and pretreated glycerol types were obtained from biodiesel production processes, used as a substrate to produce 1,3-propanediol in batch fermentation. Production and growth inhibition of C. freundii using different grades of glycerol were evaluated. In order to optimize the production, parametric optimization was carried out to fetch out the best parametric combination. Further, the process was scaled up to 30 L fermentor in which the final yield of 1,3-propanediol reached to maximum of 28.0g/l under anaerobic condition.