Browsing by Author "Kumar, S"

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    Abiotic stress tolerance and antifungal activities of rhizobacteria for the management of soil-borne pathogens
    (14-05) Poria, V; Jhilta, P; Kumar, S; Kumar, P
    Cotton production is negatively affected by both biotic (diseases and insects) and abiotic (high temperature, salinity, water deficit, and extreme pH) factors. Soil-borne diseases, especially wilts and rots, significantly reduce cotton yield. Thus, we aimed to isolate and identify multi-stress tolerant bacterial antagonistic agents (AGAs) against two major soil-borne pathogens, Macrophomina phaseolina and Fusarium oxysporum. A total of 132 isolates with distinct morphologies were recovered from 25 different rhizospheric soil samples of cotton. A dual culture plate and broth assay confirmed the antagonistic activity of the isolates against these phytopathogens. Four selected AGAs thrived in salt stress induced by different NaCl concentrations, up to 1.71 M, except for isolate 62, which survived up to 0.85 M. Under osmotic stress, all the AGAs were tolerant of up to − 1.03 MPa. Similarly, all the AGAs were able to survive over a temperature range of 20–50 ◦C except for isolate 62, which survived up to 45 ◦C and was regarded as thermotolerant. All four AGAs were able to grow at pH values ranging from 5 to 9. AGA 18 and S46-7 survived under highly acidic conditions (pH 4). These multi-stress tolerant AGAs also exhibited different plant growth-promoting activities, such as mineral solubilization, ACC-deaminase production, and IAA production. Molecular identification revealed the following AGAs: Bacillus siamensis SSVP1 (18), Bacillus halotolerans SSVP2 (34), Pseudomonas aeruginosa SSVP3 (62), and Bacillus tequilensis SSVP4 (S46-7). AGAs with multiple stress tolerance traits can serve as potential biocontrol agents in the field to reduce pesticide consumption in cotton-growing areas.
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    Anti-fertility and abortifacient activity of hydroalcoholic fruit pulp extract of Tamarindus indica
    (2023-11) Kaur, M; Rana, A; Kumar, S; Kumari, B
    ABSTRACT Background: Medicinal plants have been widely used for treatment and management of various diseases. There are many different types of commercialized synthetic contraceptives on the market today for controlling fertility, these cannot be utilized since they have serious side effects such weight gain, hormonal alterations, hyperten sion, and cancer . In India, indigenous women from Tripura & Maharashtra have historically utilized the fruit pulp of Tamarindus Indicus to induce abortion. However, there is currently no accessible scientific data sup porting the use of this plant for fertility control. Methods: The current study’s objective was to evaluate the hydroalcoholic extract of Tamarindus indica fruit pulp’s ability to induce abortion in female Wistar rats. In this experimental animal model, contraceptive activity of hydroalcoholic extract of Tamarindus indica (HAETI) was evaluated for anti-implantation, abortifacient, and estrogenic/antiestrogenic action. Female rats having ovariectomies were given HAETI extract (500 mg/kg) for 7 straight days to test to evaluate the estrogenic/anti-estrogenic action. All animals were killed on the eighth day, and the blood serum was then processed to determine the levels of several hormones, including LH, FSH, pro lactin, estrogen, and others, as well as biochemical markers including cholesterol, total protein, glycogen, and alkaline phosphates. In this model, modifications to uterine histoarchitecture were also investigated. The extract was administered from the 1 to7 day of pregnancy. On 10th day, laparotomy was performed to evaluate the no. of implants in female rats. Results: Steroids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and alkaloids were detected during phytochemical analysis of the extract. the HAETI extract demonstrated significant anti-implantation and abortifacient effects. Additionally, the extract demonstrated significant estrogenic activity as evident by uterine histological parameters including in creases in endometrium thickness and height, vaginal cornification. Further, the study found marked increases in glycogen, alkaline phosphate, estrogen, cholesterol levels when given alone or in combination with estradiol valerate. LH, FSH, and a little increase in prolactin levels were suppressed after HAETI administration. Conclusions: Our study’s findings showed that Tamarindus indica fruit pulp hydroalcoholic extract has a potent contraceptive effect, which may be explained by the phytoconstituents of the plant’s capacity to inhibit im plantation and have an estrogenic effect. Further investigation on Tamarindus indica as a potential natural anti implantation agent allow for new abortive drug.
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    A Clinical Insight on New Discovered Molecules and Repurposed Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19
    (2023-02) Banerjee, S; Banerjee, D; Singh, A; Kumar, S
    Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began churning out incred ulous terror in December 2019. Within several months from its first detection in Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 spread to the rest of the world through droplet infection, making it a pandemic situation and a healthcare emergency across the globe. The available treatment of COVID-19 was only symptomatic as the disease was new and no approved drug or vaccine was available. Another challenge with COVID-19 was the continuous mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and remdesivir, received emergency use authorization in various countries, but their clinical use is compromised with either severe and fatal adverse effects or non availability of sufficient clinical data. Molnupiravir was the first molecule approved for the treatment of COVID-19, followed by Paxlovid™, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), and others. New molecules have variable therapeutic efficacy against different variants or strains of SARS-CoV-2, which require further investigations. The aim of this review is to provide in-depth information on new molecules and repurposed drugs with emphasis on their general description, mechanism of action (MOA), correlates of protection, dose and dosage form, route of administration, clinical trials, regulatory approval, and marketing authorizations.
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    A Clinical Insight on New Discovered Molecules and Repurposed Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19
    (2023-02) Banerjee, S; Banerjee, D; Singh, A; Kumar, S; Pooja, D
    Abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began churning out incred ulous terror in December 2019. Within several months from its first detection in Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 spread to the rest of the world through droplet infection, making it a pandemic situation and a healthcare emergency across the globe. The available treatment of COVID-19 was only symptomatic as the disease was new and no approved drug or vaccine was available. Another challenge with COVID-19 was the continuous mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and remdesivir, received emergency use authorization in various countries, but their clinical use is compromised with either severe and fatal adverse effects or non availability of sufficient clinical data. Molnupiravir was the first molecule approved for the treatment of COVID-19, followed by Paxlovid™, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), and others. New molecules have variable therapeutic efficacy against different variants or strains of SARS-CoV-2, which require further investigations. The aim of this review is to provide in-depth information on new molecules and repurposed drugs with emphasis on their general description, mechanism of action (MOA), correlates of protection, dose and dosage form, route of administration, clinical trials, regulatory approval, and marketing authorizations.
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    Combining Forth and Rust: A Robust and Efficient Approach for Low-Level System Programming
    (2023-12) Gupta, P; Rahar, R; Yadav, R; Singh, A; Ramandeep; Kumar, S
    Rust is a modern programming language that addresses the drawbacks of earlier languages by providing features such as memory safety at compilation and high performance. Rust’s memory safety features include ownership and borrowing, which makes it an ideal choice for systems programming, where memory safety is critical. Forth is a stack-based programming language that is widely used for low-level system programming due to its simplicity and ease of use. This research paper aims to explore the combination of Forth and Rust programming languages to create a more robust and efficient solution for low-level system programming. The primary objective is to demonstrate the implementation of essential Forth operations, including addition, subtraction, assignment, comparison, and if-else statements, while demonstrating loops, push operations, and dump operations in Rust. The implementation of these operations in Rust is demonstrated using code from actual implementation. This research paper also discusses the advantages of using Rust for low-level system programming. Rust’s memory safety features, coupled with its high performance, make it an ideal choice for systems programming, where memory safety and performance are critical. The combination of Forth and Rust provides a more efficient and safer solution for low-level system programming, making the implementation more robust. Our implementation tries to leverage these properties of both languages to make a memory-safe and low-level system programming language. This research paper also includes code snippets to provide a practical demonstration of how the Forth operations can be implemented in Rust.
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    Cross-Silo, Privacy-Preserving, and Lightweight Federated Multimodal System for the Identification of Major Depressive Disorder Using Audio and Electroencephalogram
    (2023-12) Gupta, C; Khullar, V; Goyal, N; Saini, K; Baniwal, R; Kumar, S; Rastogi, R
    In this day and age, depression is still one of the biggest problems in the world. If left untreated, it can lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts. There is a need for proper diagnoses of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and evaluation of the early stages to stop the side effects. Early detection is critical to identify a variety of serious conditions. In order to provide safe and effective protection to MDD patients, it is crucial to automate diagnoses and make decision-making tools widely available. Although there are various classification systems for the diagnosis of MDD, no reliable, secure method that meets these requirements has been established to date. In this paper, a federated deep learning based multimodal system for MDD classification using electroencephalography (EEG) and audio datasets is presented while meeting data privacy requirements. The performance of the federated learning (FL) model was tested on independent and identically distributed (IID) and non-IID data. The study began by extracting features from several pre-trained models and ultimately decided to use bidirectional short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) as the base model, as it had the highest validation accuracy of 91% compared to a convolutional neural network and LSTM with 85% and 89% validation accuracy on audio data, respectively. The Bi-LSTM model also achieved a validation accuracy of 98.9% for EEG data. The FL method was then used to perform experiments on IID and non-IID datasets. The FL-based multimodal model achieved an exceptional training and validation accuracy of 99.9% when trained and evaluated on both IID and non-IIID datasets. These results show that the FL multimodal system performs almost as well as the Bi-LSTM multimodal system and emphasize its suitability for processing IID and non-IIID data. Several clients were found to perform better than conventional pre-trained models in a multimodal framework for federated learning using EEG and audio datasets. The proposed framework stands out from other classification techniques for MDD due to its special features, such as multimodality and data privacy for edge machines with limited resources. Due to these additional features, the framework concept is the most suitable alternative approach for the early classification of MDD patients.
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    Elimination of lymphatic filariasis: Where do we stand so far?
    (2023-09) Sinha, A; Kumar, S; Dayal, D; Yadav, V; Chaubey, K
    Lymphatic filariasis (LF), an asymptomatic, acute, and chronic condition in human beings, is the second most common vector-borne disease after malaria. According to the World Health Organization, there are 120 million LF cases detected in 81 tropical and subtropical countries, and one billion people are at risk. Therefore, the Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis was launched in 2000, with the primary objective of stopping LF transmission among all at-risk groups using mass drug administration (MDA), managing morbidities, and preventing LF-related impairments using a minimum treatment package. Additionally, other programs such as epidemiological assessment including National Filaria Control Program and World Health Organization recommended routine and pre-MDA microfilaremia surveys also implemented to stop the LF transmission. The routine filaria surveys were also carried out in around 2 000-4 000 individuals/month throughout the year whereas pre-MDA surveys were also conducted every year in approximately 4 000 individuals in four fixed and four random sites. Furthermore, the Transmission Assessment Survey was also conducted to check the risk of LF among primary school children. Moreover, potential diagnostic methods, systematic surveillance regimes, the Direct Network Report system, and regular trainings and awareness may be also effective in preventing the recurrence of LF. Hence, this review emphasizes the potential advocacy tools and various strategies as well as procedures for monitoring, which could be impactful in eliminating LF.
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    Elimination of lymphatic filariasis: Where do we stand so far?
    (2023-09) Sinha, A; Kumar, S; Dayal, D; Yadav, V; Pramanik, A
    Lymphatic filariasis (LF), an asymptomatic, acute, and chronic condition in human beings, is the second most common vector-borne disease after malaria. According to the World Health Organization, there are 120 million LF cases detected in 81 tropical and subtropical countries, and one billion people are at risk. Therefore, the Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis was launched in 2000, with the primary objective of stopping LF transmission among all at-risk groups using mass drug administration (MDA), managing morbidities, and preventing LF-related impairments using a minimum treatment package. Additionally, other programs such as epidemiological assessment including National Filaria Control Program and World Health Organization recommended routine and pre-MDA microfilaremia surveys also implemented to stop the LF transmission. The routine filaria surveys were also carried out in around 2 000-4 000 individuals/month throughout the year whereas pre-MDA surveys were also conducted every year in approximately 4 000 individuals in four fixed and four random sites. Furthermore, the Transmission Assessment Survey was also conducted to check the risk of LF among primary school children. Moreover, potential diagnostic methods, systematic surveillance regimes, the Direct Network Report system, and regular trainings and awareness may be also effective in preventing the recurrence of LF. Hence, this review emphasizes the potential advocacy tools and various strategies as well as procedures for monitoring, which could be impactful in eliminating LF.
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    Evaluation of nutrients and organoleptic value of novel value added multibran cookies using multivariate approach
    (2022-08) Chakraborty, M; Budhwar, S; Kumar, S
    Cereal and legume flours are intensively being used by food experts to formulate cookies. But their byprod ucts are discarded in spite of being nutrient rich. The study was conducted to determine nutrients, organoleptic proper ties and shelf-life of highly nutritive multibran cookies for mulated with partial replacement of wheat flour along with the milling byproducts i.e., chickpea husk, moong bean husk, rice bran, broken rice, and wheat bran. The percentages of the byproduct flour, taken for the formulation of the product, was determined using central composite design of response surface methodology. According to the obtained data, Multi bran cookies (MBC) possessed rich nutrient composition in comparison with the control sample i.e., the wheat flour cookies (WFC). MBC showed 18% crude protein, 5% crude f iber, higher than the crude protein (7.78%) and crude fiber (2%) of WFC. However, total sugar concentrations of MBC (3.08 g/100 g) was lower than WFC (4.89 g/100 g). Calcium and phosphorus present in MBC were 115.06 mg/100 g and 195.88 mg/100 g respectively, significantly higher (p < 0.05) than WFC. The overall acceptability of MBC as indicated by 9-point hedonic scale (8.13) was satisfactory. On the basis of the obtained data it can be said that the selected milling byproducts can be used as potential plant-based sources to develop significant functional products like cookies without affecting its sensory quality and to improve nutritional status of consumer.
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    A Gene Expression Atlas of the Domestic Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)
    (2019-07) Young, R; Lefevre, L; Bush, S; Joshy, A; Singh, S; Jadhav, S; Dhanikachalam, V; Lisowski, Z; Iamartino, D; Summers, K; Williams, J; Archibald, A; Gokhale, S; Kumar, S; Hume, D
    The domestic water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) makes a major contribution to the global agricultural economy in the form of milk, meat, hides, and draught power. The global water buffalo population is predominantly found in Asia, and per head of population more people depend upon the buffalo than on any other livestock species. Despite its agricultural importance, there are comparatively fewer genomic and transcriptomic resources available for buffalo than for other livestock species. We have generated a large-scale gene expression atlas covering multiple tissue and cell types from all major organ systems collected from three breeds of riverine water buffalo (Mediterranean, Pandharpuri and Bhadawari) and used the network analysis tool Graphia Professional to identify clusters of genes with similar expression profiles. Alongside similar data, we and others have generated for ruminants as part of the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes Consortium; this comprehensive transcriptome supports functional annotation and comparative analysis of the water buffalo genome.
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    Genome-Wide Analysis and Evolutionary Perspective of the Cytokinin Dehydrogenase Gene Family in Wheat
    (2022-08) Jain, P; Singh, A; Iquebal, M; Jaiswal, S; Kumar, S; Kumar, D
    Cytokinin dehydrogenase (CKX; EC.1.5.99.12) regulates the level of cytokinin (CK) in plants and is involved in CK regulatory activities. In different plants, a small gene family encodes CKX proteins with varied numbers of members. The segenes are expanded in the genome mainly due to segmental duplication events. Despite their biological importance, CKX genes in Triticum aestivum have yet to be studied in depth. A total of 11 CKX subfamilies were identified with similar gene structures, motifs, domains, cis-acting elements, and an average signal peptide of 25 amino acid length was found. Introns, ranging from one to four, were present in the coding regions at a similar interval in major CKX genes. Putative cis-elements such as abscisic acid, auxin, salicylic acid, and low temperature-, drought-, and light-responsive cis-regulatory elements were found in the promoter region of majority CKX genes. Variation in the expression pattern of CKX genes were identified across different tissues in Triticum. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the same subfamily of CKX clustered into a similar clade that reflects their evolutionary relationship. We performed a genome-wide identification of CKX family members in the Triticum aestivum genome to get their chromosomal location, gene structure, cis-element, phylogeny, synteny, and tissue- and stage-specific expression along with gene ontology. This study has also elaborately described the tissue- and stage-specific expression and is the resource for further analysis of CKX in the regulation of biotic and abiotic stress resistance, growth, and development in Triticum and other cereals to endeavor for higher production and proper management.
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    Integrated network pharmacology and in-silico approaches to decipher the pharmacological mechanism of Selaginella tamariscina in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer
    (2023-01) Gupta, M; Kumar, S; Kumar, S
    Background and purpose: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a major pathological type of lung cancer and accounts for more than 80% of all cases. In healthcare management, it is challenging to understand the mech anism of NSCLC due to diverse spectra and the limited number of reported data. Selaginella tamariscina is an evergreen perennial plant, hermaphrodite, and used to treat numerous diseases, including NSCLC. In vitro research revealed the therapeutic importance of S. tamariscina in contrast to NSCLC, but the molecular mecha nism is still unclear. In the present study, a network pharmacology technique was employed to uncover the active ingredients, their potential targets, and signaling pathways in S. tamariscina for the treatment of NSCLC. Methods: Putative ingredients of S. tamariscina and significant genes of NSCLC were retrieved from the public database after screening. The overlapped targets among S. tamariscina related compounds and NSCLC were predicted using Venn plot. Following that, a compound-target-disease network was constructed using Cytoscape to decipher the mechanism of S. tamariscina for NSCLC. KEGG pathway and GO enrichment analysis were per formed to investigate the molecular mechanisms and pathways related to S. tamariscina for NSCLC treatments. Lastly, molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation analysis were performed to validate the interaction that exists between compounds and target proteins. Results: The findings of the current analysis explored the compound–target–pathway network and figured out that Hinokiflavone, Heveaflavone, Neocryptomerin, Isocryptomerin, Apigenin, Sotetsuflavone, and Cryptomerin B decisively contributed to the development of NSCLC by affecting AKT1, EGFR, VEGFA, and GCK3B genes. Later, molecular docking and simulation analysis was conducted to validate the successful activity of the active compounds against potential targets. Lastly, it is concluded that predicted multi-target compounds of S. tamariscina will help in improving the body’s sensitivity to NSCLC by regulating the expression of AKT1, EGFR, VEGFA, and GCK3B, which may act as potential therapeutic targets of NSCLC. Conclusion: Integrated network pharmacology and docking analysis revealed that S. tamariscina exerted a promising preventive effect on NSCLC by acting on diabetes-associated signaling pathways. The current findings propose that AKT1, VEGFA, EGFR, and GSK3B genes are promising and viable therapeutic targets to reduce the incidence of NSCLC, thereby exerting potential therapeutic effects in NSCLC. This approach introduces a groundwork for further research on the protective mechanisms of S. tamariscina for NSCLC and applications of network pharmacology in drug discovery.
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    Integrated network pharmacology and in-silico approaches to decipher the pharmacological mechanism of Selaginella tamariscina in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer
    (2023-01) Kumar, S; Abbas, F; Ali, I; Gupta, MK
    Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a major pathological type of lung cancer and accounts for more than 80% of all cases. In healthcare management, it is challenging to understand the mechanism of NSCLC due to diverse spectra and the limited number of reported data. Selaginella tamariscina is an evergreen perennial plant, hermaphrodite, and used to treat numerous diseases, including NSCLC. In vitro research revealed the therapeutic importance of S. tamariscina in contrast to NSCLC, but the molecular mechanism is still unclear. In the present study, a network pharmacology technique was employed to uncover the active ingredients, their potential targets, and signaling pathways in S. tamariscina for the treatment of NSCLC.
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    MEASURING URBAN EXPANSION AND LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGES USING REMOTE SENSING AND LANDSCAPE METRICS: A CASE OF REWARI CITY, INDIA
    (2024-05) Kanav, A; Kumar, S; Sharma, R; Kumar, J
    The industrial and economic development has initiated the rapid growth of small and medium-sized towns in India. Rewari City, a part of the National Capital Region of India, is undergoing rapid urban expansion. This study analyzes the process of urban expansion in Rewari city, its effect on land use & land cover dynamics and landscape spatial patterns. The methodology of the study is reliant on open-source Landsat satellite data, GIS-based unsupervised classification, and spatial metrics analysis. The city expansion has been analyzed for a period of 31 years, from 1989 to 2020, and population growth has been studied since 1901. Within the study period, built-up area increased by 704%, with an annual expansion rate of 12.8 %. The other land cover classes, such as agriculture land, vegetation, barren land, and water bodies shrank in size over the years. Between 1989 and 2020, 69.4 % of the increase in built up area came at the expense of vegetation and agricultural land. It was also found that per capita land consumption rate increased significantly from 0.0024 to 0.0084, hinting towards dispersed and low-density development. Built-up land had a growth rate nearly 5 times higher than population, indicating urban sprawl. An evaluation of different landscape metrics revealed that the landscape of Rewari has lost land use diversity. The findings of this study offer information about the present state of urban growth. It also serves as a valuable resource for formulating comprehensive planning and development policies, ensuring the promotion of sustainable urban development.
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    Molecular characterization of Wdr13 knockout female mice uteri: a model for human endometrial hyperplasia
    (2020) Singh, S; Pavuluri, S; Lakshmi, B; Biswa, B; Venkatachalam, B; Tripura, C; Kumar, S
    Endometrial hyperplasia (EH) is a condition where uterine endometrial glands show excessive proliferation of epithelial cells that may subsequently progress into endometrial cancer (EC). Modern lifestyle disorders such as obesity, hormonal changes and hyperinsulinemia are known risk factors for EH. A mouse strain that mimics most of these risk factors would be an ideal model to study the stage wise progression of EH disease and develop suitable treatment strategies. Wdr13, an X-linked gene, is evolutionarily conserved and expressed in several tissues including uteri. In the present study, Wdr13 knockout female mice developed benign proliferative epithelium that progressed into EH at around one year of age accompanied by an increase in body weight and elevated estradiol levels. Molecular characterization studies revealed increase in ERα, PI3K and a decrease in PAX2 and ERβ proteins in Wdr13 mutant mice uteri. Further, a decrease in the mRNA levels of cell cycle inhibitors, namely; p21 and cyclin G2 was seen. Leukocyte infltration was observed in the uterine tissue of knockout mice at around 12 months of age. These physiological, molecular and pathological patterns were similar to those routinely seen in human EH disease and demonstrated the importance of WDR13 in mice uterine tissue. Thus, the genetic loss of Wdr13 in these mice led to mimicking of the human EH associated metabolic disorders making Wdr13 knockout female mice a potential animal model to study human endometrial hyperplasia.
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    Pre-Trained Deep Neural Network-Based Features Selection Supported Machine Learning for Rice Leaf Disease Classification
    (2023-04) Aggarwal, M; Khullar, V; Goyal, N; Singh, A; Tolba, A; Thompson, EB; Kumar, S
    Rice is a staple food for roughly half of the world’s population. Some farmers prefer rice cultivation to other crops because rice can thrive in a wide range of environments. Several studies have found that about 70% of India’s population relies on agriculture in some way and that agribusiness accounts for about 17% of India’s GDP. In India, rice is one of the most important crops, but it is vulnerable to a number of diseases throughout the growing process. Farmers’ manual identification of these diseases is highly inaccurate due to their lack of medical expertise. Recent advances in deep learning models show that automatic image recognition systems can be extremely useful in such situations. In this paper, we propose a suitable and effective system for predicting diseases in rice leaves using a number of different deep learning techniques. Images of rice leaf diseases were gathered and processed to fulfil the algorithmic requirements. Initially, features were extracted by using 32 pre-trained models, and then we classified the images of rice leaf diseases such as bacterial blight, blast, and brown spot with numerous machine learning and ensemble learning classifiers and compared the results. The proposed procedure works better than other methods that are currently used. It achieves 90–91% identification accuracy and other performance parameters such as precision, Recall Rate, F1-score, Matthews Coefficient, and Kappa Statistics on a normal data set. Even after the segmentation process, the value reaches 93–94% for model EfficientNetV2B3 with ET and HGB classifiers. The proposed model efficiently recognises rice leaf diseases with an accuracy of 94%. The experimental results show that the proposed procedure is valid and effective for identifying rice diseases.
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    Rapid detection of the adulterants in milk using gamma radiation
    (2023-05) Chakraborty, M; Budhwar, S; Kumar, S
    Milk and dairy adulteration practice nowadays is becoming a global concern. The present study discloses the role of gamma irradiation as a cost-effective and rapid-detection approach to detect adulterants in milk instead of using expensive and time-consuming chemical-based methods. In the present study, synthetic milk samples were prepared using different common adulterants (vegetable oil, urea, water) and a comparative analysis has been done with market milk samples along with fresh milk based upon the attenuation property. The obtained linear attenuation coefficient decreases significantly (p < 0.05) with the increasing concentration of adulterants in sample. The recorded attenuation coefficient for fresh milk was 0.379 ± 0.04 and that of adulterated samples found to be in the range of 0.296–0.188. Moreover, different protein coagulation patterns of the heat-processed milk samples were detected. The coagulated protein of adulterated milk shows a granular texture. The attenu ation coefficient of milk samples decreases with the gradual increase of adulterants. The correlation between the attenuation coefficient and adulterants in milk indicated the possible use of gamma radiation as a significant adulterant-detection method.
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    Remediation of toluidine blue O dye from aqueous solution using surface functionalized magnetite nanoparticles
    (2024) Jangra, A; Kumar, R; Singh, D; Kumar, H; Kumar, J; Kumar, P; Kumar, S
    In the current study, tannic acid-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized using a cost-effective co-pre cipitation method and subsequently characterized using various instrumentation techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and thermal gravimetric analysis. Further, these surface-modified magnetite nanoparticles have been used for the adsorption of toluidine dye from an aqueous solution. The adsorption process was accompanied using batch procedure, and influences of several factors such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, temperature, and initial concentration of adsorbate were inspected concurrently. The maximum adsorp tion capacity of tannic acid-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles was found to be 50.68 mg/g. The adsorption process was observed to follow the Temkin isotherm model, whereas the kinetic study was well described by pseudo-second order. The thermodynamic study revealed the adsorption process to be endothermic and spontaneous in nature with a high degree of freedom between adsorbent and adsorbate. Therefore, the study indicated that the tannic acid-functionalized magnetite nano particles have promising adsorption capability and can be used as an excellent adsorbent for the removal of toluidine blue O dye from the aqueous solution.
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    Up-converted white light emission in Er3+ doped MgAl2O4 nanocrystals
    (2024-03) Savita; Upadhyay, M; Bishnoi, P; Kumar, S
    This work presents the influence of host defect centers on the photoluminescence characteristics of Mg1 xErxAl2O4 (x = 0.005, 0.01, and 0.03) nanocrystals under UV and near-infrared (NIR) excitations. The spinel-structured nanocrystals are synthesized through the combus tion method. The Rietveld refinement and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses estimated the Er3þ ion occupancy at octahedral and other random sites of the MgAl2O4 lattice, and the existence of various lattice defects. Diffuse reflectance spectra showed broad bands attributed to oxygen vacancies as well as antisite defects and sharp peaks attributed to f–f transitions of Er3þ ions. The upconversion luminescence spectra consisted of sharp emission lines, ascribed to Er3þ ions, in the green and red wavelength regions, which overlapped over the broad curve attributed to intrinsic defects. Further, the UV excited downconversion luminescence spectra showed two broad emission bands in blue–violet and red-NIR regions with a very weak Er3þ ion emission feature. This up- and downconversion emission revealed energy trans fer between host and Er3þ ions via intrinsic defects. As a result, the emission color changes from bluish purple to white by varying the exci tation wavelength from UV to NIR. This rare earth activated luminescence from MgAl2O4 nanocrystals would exhibit potential applications in display devices and solid-state lighting.