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Multifarious Potential of Biopolymer-Producing Bacillus subtilis NJ14 for Plant Growth Promotion and Stress Tolerance in Solanum lycopercicum L. and Cicer arietinum L: A Way Toward Sustainable Agriculture
Diverse practices implementing biopolymer-producing bacteria have been examined in various domains lately. PHAs are among the major biopolymers whose relevance of PHA-producing bacteria in the field of crop improvement is one of the radical unexplored aspects in the field of agriculture. Prolonging shelf life is one serious issue hindering the establishment of biofertilizers. Studies support that PHA can help bacteria survive stressed conditions by providing energy. Therefore, PHA-producing bacteria with Plant Growth-Promoting ability can alter the existing problem of short shelf life in biofertilizers. In the present study, Bacillus subtilis NJ14 was isolated from the soil. It was explored to understand the ability of the strain to produce PHA and augment growth in Solanum lycopersicum and Cicer arietinum. NJ14 strain improved the root and shoot length of both plants significantly. The root and shoot length of S. lycopersicum was increased by 3.49 and 0.41cm, respectively. Similarly, C. arietinum showed a 9.55 and 8.24cm increase in root and shoot length, respectively. The strain also exhibited halotolerant activity (up to 10%), metal tolerance to lead (up to 1000?g/mL) and mercury (up to 100?g/mL), indicating that the NJ14 strain can be an ideal candidate for a potent biofertilizer. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.) The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023. -
Unravelling the potential plant growth activity of halotolerant Bacillus licheniformis NJ04 isolated from soil and its possible use as a green bioinoculant on Solanum lycopersicum L.
Immensely expanding world population and narrowing arable land for agriculture is a mighty concern faced by the planet at present. One of the major reasons for decline in arable lands is the increased soil salinity, making it unfavourable for crop cultivation. Utilisation of these saline land for agriculture is possible with suitable invention for improving the soil quality. Biofertizers manufactured out of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria is one such innovation. In the present study, Bacillus licheniformis NJ04 strain was isolated and studied for its halotolerance and other effective plant growth promoting traits. The NJ04 strain was able to tolerate salt up to 10% and highlighted remarkable antifungal activity against common fungal phytopathogens. The preliminary seed germination test in Solanum lycopersicum seeds revealed a significant increase in root length (16.29 0.91 cm) and shoot length (9.66 0.11 cm) of treated plants as compared with the control plants and thereby shows its possible use as a green bioinoculant in agriculture and an ideal candidate to compete with salt stress. 2022 Elsevier Inc. -
The Problem of Perception in Sandor Mais Embers: An Advaitic Study
This article attempts to study the problem of perception in Sandor Mais celebrated novel Embers from the standpoint of the pramana (a method of knowledge) of Advaita Vedanta. An epistemic problem, the problem of perception, concerns the overwhelming questions of life, culminating in an enigmatic amalgamation of dilemmas and paradoxes. Genuine dilemmas and paradoxes problematize human relationships, which is evident in the complex narrative of Embers. Our contention in this article is to show how, even though enacted within the periphery of the purely fictional, Embers bears testimony to the complexities of life that are quickened by the limits of human perception, which keeps one from seeing how things really are by creating a shadow or reflected consciousness. Set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the novel opens up a dialogic space at the intersection of a triangular relationship enacted on the threshold of perception and its multidimensional problems. 2024 Management Centre for Human Values. -
Constructing South Asian reproductive risk
[No abstract available] -
Sociocultural aspects of the medicalisation of infertility: A comparative reading of two illness narratives
This paper is a comparative reading of variations in the medicalisation of infertility caused by sociocultural aspects, in two illness narratives by patients: Elizabeth Katkin's Conceivability (2018), a story of navigating a fertility industry with polycystic ovarian syndrome and antiphospholipid syndrome in America and Rohini Rajagopal's What's a Lemon Squeezer Doing in My Vagina (2021), a discussion from India of a growing awareness of medicalisation in treatment of unexplained infertility. For this purpose, it first charts scholarship on illness narratives and medicalisation, noting a historical association. Following this, it shows how infertility, a physiological symptom of reproductive incapacity or failure to show clinical pregnancy, is generally medicalised. This paper reads the texts as showing hitherto unaddressed sociocultural aspects of infertility's medicalisation. At the same time, drawing from existing sociological and anthropological scholarship, it shows how a reading of sociocultural aspects in medicalised infertility nuances understanding of it's medicalisation. This comparative reading attends to sociocultural values and norms within the texts, including pronatalism, fetal personhood, kinship organisation, purity/pollution, individual reliance, sacred duty and so forth. It draws from scholarship on embodiment, rhetorical strategies and the language of medicine. It also shows how a patient's non-medicalised, affective history of 'deep' sickness caused by the biographical disruption of infertility is not that of a 'poor historian'. In laying out the particularisation of such sociocultural values and norms across America and India, medicalisation's migration from its origins to the margins reveals subjectivised, stratified reproduction in infertility illness narratives. This paper is part of a turn in scholarship away from understanding the medicalisation of infertility as naturalised and decontextualised. Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group. -
Gender and Ontological Friction in Endometriosis Diagnosis
Endometriosis often struggles to consolidate as a recognizable condition during biomedical encounters; in India, this unfolds at the interstice of biomedicine and gender-caste-class persistence. We contribute to contemporary endometriosis discourse by considering how, given the ontological politics of Indian womens reproductive health care, symptoms move across porous configurations without consolidating as disease. Through reflexive thematic analysis, informed by feminist new materialism, of interviews with nine cisgender women in urban India, we trace ontological friction and its influence on patient care practices. We identify this friction as the condition through which diagnostic delay continually emerges. 2026 Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. -
Personality Traits and Financial Literacy: Impact on Equity Investment Intention among Planters in India
This paper examines the relationship of personality and financial aspects toward investment intentions among Indian planters, including long-term and short-term investment decisions. This quantitative study is based on a random survey of 568 planters for the role of Openness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, financial knowledge, financial skills, and financial attitudes. The findings indicate that Extraversion and financial knowledge are significant predictors of risk perception, mediating their influence on investment intentions. Planters with a higher level of financial literacy and an extroverted personality are more likely to perceive risk appropriately, making better investment decisions. Agreeableness was insignificant concerning risk perception, while Openness positively correlated with short-term investment decisions. The findings demonstrate that risk perception acts as a meaningful force towards LTI and STII since planters with the capability to perceive risk appropriately tend to make better decisions in investment. In addition, these results support the idea of financial education's importance in influencing investment behaviour. Such financial literacy programs, targeted towards improving the ability of farmers to assess risk and investment strategies, will be the initiative of the highest priority to bring about better financial outcomes in the Indian agricultural context. In this regard, this research will add knowledge of psychological and financial factors that impact investment decisions in India, and it will provide valuable insights into building an effective financial literacy program to target the enhancement of the investment strategies of planters in the Indian market. 2025, Iquz Galaxy Publisher. All rights reserved. -
Student-centered accountability: Bridging the gap between expectations and outcomes
In order to better meet the needs, experiences, and holistic results of their students, higher education institutions (HEIs) may alter standard accountability frameworks, as this chapter examines. Conventional metrics tend to ignore the growth, wellbeing, and career readiness of individual students while placing a strong emphasis on institutional performance indicators such as employment opportunities, rate of graduation, and financial viability. It explores methods for modifying institutional procedures in response to changing student populations, technological advancements, and a range of learning requirements, with a focus on integrating technology, analytics of data, and stakeholder involvement to improve equality and transparency. A thorough framework for student-centered accountability is also presented in this chapter, along with information on its application, difficulties, and potential to promote a more inclusive and responsive system in higher education. 2025, IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved. -
Sustaining Tomorrow: Strategies for Long-Term Environmental Governance
Long-term environmental governance (EG) is crucial for addressing global environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion. This chapter explores the principles, challenges, and emerging trends in EG, emphasizing the necessity of sustainability-focused policies that transcend short-term interests. It discusses key governance frameworks, including the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), highlighting their successes and limitations. The study underscores the role of corporate responsibility, technological innovations, and collaborative governance in promoting sustainable environmental management. It also identifies political, economic, and global disparities as significant barriers to effective governance. This chapter concludes with policy recommendations advocating adaptive governance structures, enhanced international cooperation, and localized sustainability initiatives. By integrating scientific advancements, stakeholder engagement, and long-term policy planning, EG can ensure a balanced approach to development and ecological preservation, securing a sustainable future for coming generations. 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Improving the Accuracy of Cardiovascular Disease Classification Using CardioAugmentNet Technique
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and mortality worldwide. Thus, early diagnosis of CVDs is crucial since the disease can be managed with optimal care. In the current study, we consider CardioAugmentNet, which is a CNN model augmented with data augmentation strategies for the classification of several cardiovascular pathologies in ECG images. A proposed method was designed to provide a robust algorithm for the detection of irregular heart rhythms, myocardial infarction and other cardiac diseases. The model is trained and tested on the dataset of ECG images from individuals with various prevalent cardiovascular diseases as well as normal hearts. Therefore, the CardioAugmentNet state-of-the-art model classifies different cardiac abnormalities with high accuracy, suggesting that it can be used in clinical practice. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2026. -
DeepRetina: Transformer-Enhanced EfficientNet for Retinal Disease Classification
Retinal diseases are a major cause of visual impairment in India, which requires precise and automated diagnosis tools.This paper, introduce a two-phase deep learning architecture for classifying five common retinal ailments: Glaucoma, Normal Fundus, Pathological Myopia, Hypertensive Retinopathy, and Cataract. A Swin Transformer (Swin-T) was fine-tuned on augmented retinal fundus images in the first phase to extract domain-adapted feature representations. The transformer utilize such embeddings for learning a regularized EfficientNet-inspired classifier in the second phase, with mixup augmentation and label smoothing for improving generalizability. Comprehensive experiments conducted on a carefully curated dataset of 643 test images validate that our method attains a test accuracy of 93.93%, with high precision as well as recall across all categories. The suggested pipeline strikes a suitable balance between feature abundance with transformer-based adaptation and resilient classification with EfficientNet, providing a viable tool for automated diagnosis of retinal ailments in practical clinical scenarios. 2026 IEEE. -
Improved tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) growth and reduction of fungal pathogens utilising the plant growth-promoting and antifungal Bacillus albus NJ01 as a bioinoculant
Rhizobacteria that promote plant growth are crucial for improving the health, growth, and yield of plants. In this study, 14 isolates were obtained and the significance of Bacillus albus NJ01 as PGPR for the improvement of growth in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was assessed, as it showed plant growth-promoting traits like IAA, siderophores and ammonia production, phosphate and zinc solubilization, etc. Its role in increasing crop root and shoot length while avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers was also studied. The root length of tomato control plants and plants treated with bioinoculant was found to be 5.58 0.15 and 7.98 0.24 cm, respectively. The shoot length of control plants and plants treated with bioinoculant was found to be 8.25 0.82 and 10.24 0.11 cm, respectively, therefore confirming the potentiality of Bacillus albus NJ01 bioinoculant as an able PGPR for improving the growth of tomato. 2025, Society for Advancement of Horticulture. All rights reserved. -
Improved tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) growth and reduction of fungal pathogens utilising the plant growth-promoting and antifungal Bacillus albus NJ01 as a bioinoculant
Rhizobacteria that promote plant growth are crucial for improving the health, growth, and yield of plants. In this study, 14 isolates were obtained and the significance of Bacillus albus NJ01 as PGPR for the improvement of growth in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was assessed, as it showed plant growth-promoting traits like IAA, siderophores and ammonia production, phosphate and zinc solubilization, etc. Its role in increasing crop root and shoot length while avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers was also studied. The root length of tomato control plants and plants treated with bioinoculant was found to be 5.58 0.15 and 7.98 0.24 cm, respectively. The shoot length of control plants and plants treated with bioinoculant was found to be 8.25 0.82 and 10.24 0.11 cm, respectively, therefore confirming the potentiality of Bacillus albus NJ01 bioinoculant as an able PGPR for improving the growth of tomato. 2025, Society for Advancement of Horticulture. All rights reserved. -
Enhancing the electrochemical performance of rGO-based ternary composite for next generation supercapacitors
This work explores the rational design and synthesis of a high-performance ternary nanocomposite rGO/CeO2/PPy, by incorporating cerium oxide and polypyrrole into the rGO matrix, through a hybrid approach of combining hydrothermal synthesis with in situ oxidative polymerization. Comprehensive structural characterization of the rGO/CeO2/PPy composite confirms the successful integration of components, revealing a hierarchically porous architecture that optimizes both charge transport and ion diffusion kinetics. The ternary composite exhibits exceptional interfacial interactions, including ?-? conjugation between rGO and PPy, coupled with electrostatic stabilization from CeO2, resulting in enhanced mechanical integrity and improved electrolyte accessibility. Electrochemical characterization reveals remarkable performance metrics, with a specific capacitance of 874 F g?1 and outstanding cyclic durability of 94% capacity retention after 5000 charge-discharge cycles at 1 A g?1. The configured rGO/CeO2/PPy//AC system exhibits exceptional energy storage performance, yielding an energy density of 39.6 Wh kg?1 while sustaining a power density of 2859 W kg?1. These outstanding characteristics underscore the material's suitability as a cutting-edge electrode for sophisticated energy storage systems, showcasing the benefits of strategic component integration in hybrid nanocomposite design. 2025 The Royal Society of Chemistry. -
Cobalt oxide intercalated graphitic carbon nitride- polyaniline hybrid architecture for supercapacitors
In this study, a graphitic carbon nitride/Cobalt oxide/Polyaniline (g-C3N4/Co3O4/PANI) ternary nanocomposite was synthesized through an integrated approach combining a simple hydrothermal method with in-situ oxidative polymerization. The binary g-C3N4/Co3O4 and g-C3N4/PANI hybrid composites were also synthesized to elucidate the synergistic effects of the individual components. The structural and morphological analysis confirms the successful formation of binary and ternary composites. The porous architecture of g-C3N4/Co3O4/PANI nanocomposite synergistically combines the pseudocapacitive contributions of Co3O4, the conductive pathways of PANI, and the stabilizing role of g-C3N4, resulting in enhanced surface accessibility and improved electrolyte wettability. Strong interfacial interactions, including ?-? conjugation between g-C3N4 and PANI with Co3O4 induced electrostatic stabilization, ensuring considerable mechanical robustness. Electrochemical assessments reveal that the g-C3N4/Co3O4/PANI composite showcased a remarkable specific capacitance of 1152 F g?1 and 93 % capacitance retention over 5000 galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles. The configured asymmetric supercapacitor (g-C3N4/Co3O4/PANI//activated carbon) delivers superior energy and power densities of 59.1 Wh kg?1 and 2693 W kg?1, respectively. The developed nanocomposite represents a significant advancement in hybrid electrode materials, offering substantial potential for next-generation high-performance energy storage systems. 2025 Elsevier Ltd -
Graphene-metal oxide composite materials for supercapacitor applications
Recently, supercapacitors have emerged as one of the potential candidates for electrochemical energy storage applications owing to their excellent capacity properties, high power density, appreciable cyclic stability, and environmentally benign nature. Graphene has paved the way as a supercapacitor electrode because of its exceptional attributes, including its conductivity, and mechanical and electrical properties. The efficiency of supercapacitors has been significantly impeded by the aggregation of graphene layers brought on by the considerable van der Waals attractions. Numerous methods have been developed to get over the limitations and make graphene a prime choice for supercapacitors. It is anticipated that combining graphene with metal oxides will improve its capacitive properties due to the mutual contribution of the individual components. In this chapter, various synthetic methods for graphene-metal oxide-based binary and ternary composites, as well as their application as supercapacitor electrodes, are explained in detail. The current research directions and future scope of graphene-metal oxide-based composites for supercapacitor application are also included. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2025. -
The Problem of Perception in Sandor Mais Embers: An Advaitic Study
This article attempts to study the problem of perception in Sandor Mais celebrated novel Embers from the standpoint of the pramana (a method of knowledge) of Advaita Vedanta. An epistemic problem, the problem of perception, concerns the overwhelming questions of life, culminating in an enigmatic amalgamation of dilemmas and paradoxes. Genuine dilemmas and paradoxes problematize human relationships, which is evident in the complex narrative of Embers. Our contention in this article is to show how, even though enacted within the periphery of the purely fictional, Embers bears testimony to the complexities of life that are quickened by the limits of human perception, which keeps one from seeing how things really are by creating a shadow or reflected consciousness. Set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the novel opens up a dialogic space at the intersection of a triangular relationship enacted on the threshold of perception and its multidimensional problems. 2024 Management Centre for Human Values. -
Parallelization of frequent itemset mining methods with fp-tree: An experiment with prepost+ algorithm
Parallel processing has turn to be a common programming practice because of its efficiency and thus becomes an interesting field for researchers. With the introduction of multi-core processors as well as general purpose graphics processing units, parallel programming has become affordable. This leads to the parallelization of many of the complex data processing algorithms including algorithms in data mining. In this paper, a study on parallel PrePost+ is presented. PrePost+ is an efficient frequent itemset mining algorithm. The algorithm has been modified as a parallel algorithm and the obtained result is compared with the result of sequential PrePost+ algorithm. 2021, Zarka Private University. All rights reserved. -
An improved frequent pattern tree: the child structured frequent pattern tree CSFP-tree
Frequent itemsets are itemsets that occur frequently in a dataset. Frequent itemset mining extracts specific itemsets with supports higher than or equal to a minimum support threshold. Many mining methods have been proposed but Apriori and FP-growth are still regarded as two prominent algorithms. The performance of the frequent itemset mining depends on many factors; one of them is searching the nodes while constructing the tree. This paper introduces a new prefix-tree structure called child structured frequent pattern tree (CSFP-tree), an FP-tree attached with a child search subtree to each node. The experimental results reveal that the CSFP-tree is superior to the FP-tree and its new variations for any kind of datasets. 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature. -
SR-Mine: Adaptive Transaction Compression Method for Frequent Itemsets Mining
Extraction of frequent itemsets is a key step in association rule mining. Frequent Pattern (FP) mining from a very large dataset is still a challenging research problem. The basic frequent itemset algorithms are Apriori and FP-growth. FP-growth uses Frequent Pattern Tree (FP-tree) to store the database information in a compressed form. A large number of research papers have been proposed as an improvement of the basic frequent itemset mining algorithms. Several researchers have proposed modifications to existing data structures as well as new data structures to improve the mining process. A new method, Size Reduced Mining (SR-Mine), is proposed to speed up the FP-tree creation. The proposed work is implemented with the basic FP-growth algorithm and with the other two recent algorithms based on FP-tree. The three modified algorithms have been tested with standard datasets and compared with the original algorithms. The proposed method can be applied with the frequent itemset mining algorithms which consider each transaction one by one to construct a data structure for mining. The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the performance of the mining. 2021, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.