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Virtual Community Mentoring Models for Middle School Underachievers Psychosocial Development and Well-Being During COVID-19
Recent studies highlight the outcomes of COVID-19 on the psychosocial skills of early adolescents. It shows the unavailability of virtual community mentoring models for teenagers' individual and interpersonal growth in the virtual scenario. Hence, there emerges a need to explore and apply the available virtual communication resources by facilitators, families, and other community professionals for teenagers self-development. This article reports the application of virtual resources like WhatsApp, graphic design platforms (CANVA and Adobe), graphic interchange formats (GIPHY App), all-in-one visual content editing forums (InShot App), and memes (Meme Generator App) in engaging and supporting community mentoring capacities leading to psychosocial development and well-being for teenagers during COVID-19. Through this article, contemporary virtual models are explored and executed with community guidance to integrate the personal developmental skills of middle school underachievers. There is also a need to work with community interventions by using virtual mentoring skillsets for positive youth development. 2022, Commonwealth of Learning. All rights reserved. -
Development and validation of middle school under performers checklist in India through virtual platforms post-COVID-19
Education is a holistic development that must be nurtured through hybrid or virtual educational practices. The pandemic brought a sense of psychosocial distress among teenagers that urged the need to understand these psychosocial competencies. Often, our Indian education system is unable to assess the challenging psychosocial competencies of learners in varied learning platforms. Hence, there is a need in todays context to harness adolescents holistic learning to be more flexible, and interactive with innovative instructional methodologies, creative assessment strategies, and virtual resource tools. These psychosocial open learning resources need to be advocated by educators and counsellors for the well-being of teenagers. Thus, this quantitative study aimed to develop a checklist to identify the psychosocial concerns of underperformers in an open learning system. Hence, educators and counsellors must be equipped to recognise their psychosocial concerns to handhold them into becoming autonomous thinkers and contributors in their society. This would further establish the seed of sustainability. Thus, this study aimed to develop and validate a checklist as a psychometric measure to identify middle school underperformers social and personal abilities. The study group comprised 359 school educators and counsellors in Bangalore and Mashed, India (299 educators and 60 counsellors). The checklist was developed using Develop (2016) and Oldenburgs principles of scale development (2021). The Cranach coefficient of the checklist was.924 for 12 items. The statistical results indicated the validation of the checklist as a tool for identifying psychosocial challenges of eighth-grade underperformers as reliable. Exploratory Factor Analysis reduced these items into two distinctive factors. The findings suggest that the checklist can be used as an innovative educational toolkit to identify middle school underperformers personal and social abilities. Further experimentation of this study can be taken up with a larger intergenerational population. 2025 selection and editorial matter, Asma Parveen and Rajesh Verma; individual chapters, the contributors. -
Design, analysis and fabrication of EV with level-1 autonomous vehicle capability
The fact to this day remains true and the same for over a hundred years the Automobile industry and vehicles, in general, have become the pivoting point in our day to day lives. We might as well call it a necessary evil. Although it is very true that they have made our lives more convenient when we speak in terms of transportation; the pollution that conventional IC engine vehicles produce hasn't done much to create a cleaner environment especially with Global warming on the rise as we speak. The simplest remedy would be is to replace IC engine vehicles with Electric one, EV. A Problem common to both conventional IC engine vehicles and EV's alike is the accidents occurring due to collision caused by human error on-road. While safety measures have greatly been taken in order to reduce the damage done to the driver and passengers in the event of a collision it would be far better to avoid the collision altogether. Thus having at least, a Level-1 Autonomous Vehicles capability where the system alerts the driver in the event of a crash or collision and deploy full braking capability. Thanks to increasing urbanization and the advent of modern technology the need of the hour of the 21st century has given rise to high demands for employment in the motorized transport sectors. The authors were successfully able to design, analyze and fabricate an EV with Level-1 Autonomous Vehicles capability. The successful implementation of this project will help in reducing not only pollution and accidents occurring on-road due to vehicle collision but also pave paths in alimenting Level-1 Autonomous Vehicles capability in EV's inexpensively. 2020 Author(s). -
Performance Evaluation of Refractory Bodies Fabricated from Composite Oxide Powders Beneficiated from Black Al-dross
Aluminum Oxide (Corundum, ?-Al2O3) and Magnesium-Aluminum Oxides (Spinel, MgAl2O4) are highly desired refractory materials due to their ability to withstand high-temperature service conditions without corroding and cracking. They are present in composite form in black Aluminum Dross (Al-dross), a hazardous industrial waste. 1 Kg batch of this composite powder was beneficiated from Al-dross to 98+% purity after removing the hazardous Aluminum Nitride (AlN) by aqueous treatment of Al-dross in an environment-friendly manner. The treated slurry was oven dried, ball milled to fine powder, hydraulically pressed, and sintered at 1500 C/6 h into solid cylinders (50 mm diameter 20 mm height). The structural phase analysis of the sintered product (refractory blocks) revealed a highly crystalline XRD pattern with peaks pertaining to only ?-Al2O3 and MgAl2O4. The blocks with Rockwell Hardness values of 4850 HRC, were subjected to thermal shock cycling by following the guidelines of IS 1528 (heat quench between 1000 C and air at ambient) which successfully withstood > 100 shock cycles without failure. SEM was employed to study the fracture surface in an as-sintered state and after thermal shock cycling, to reveal a fine-grained microstructure with clear grain boundaries in the as-sintered state to a glassy matrix with fine cracks at the end of the thermal shock cycle test. The potential for utilization of Al-dross for refractory applications was thus established. 2023 -
Plasma sprayed magnesium aluminate and alumina composite coatings from waste aluminum dross
The absence of structured waste management practices for tons of black aluminum dross (Al-dross) when land-filled affects the ecosystem we live in. Researchers and technologists are now working towards three goals (a) minimization of Al-dross production (b) reducing its toxic effects on the environment and (c) treating the Al-dross to beneficiate useful materials from it in an environmentally friendly manner and to generate useful industrial products. The third aspect has been addressed in this study. Al-dross is an aluminum industry generated waste that mainly contains Al metal (oxidized during processing), Aluminum Nitride (AlN), ?-aluminum oxide (?-Al2O3) and magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4). The oxides are highly suitable for refractory and thermally insulating material applications, but AlN is detrimental for two reasons - (a) thermal conductivity higher than the oxides and (b) carcinogenic gas evolution during processing. Hence AlN must be removed from Al-dross for further processing into refractories. In this work, AlN with minor quantities of halides were removed from Al-dross to extract the major useful refractory oxide constituents in an environmentally friendly manner. The process methodology involved sieving Al-dross to < 600 m particles, aqueous media treatment to remove the nitrides in the form of NH3 gas, oven drying and calcination at 10001150 C for 2 h (in an electrical muffle furnace in ambient air atmosphere) to obtain a mixture of the composite oxide powder of ? 99.0% purity. The calcined compound was mixed with suitable organic binders and sieved to obtain plasma sprayable powder and plasma spray-coated onto bond coated (commercial NiCrAlY) steel substrates. XRD and SEM with EDS facility were used to characterize the powders and coatings. A polished metallographic cross-section was prepared to study the microstructure and interface characteristics. The findings are presented. 2022 -
Sprouting in Seeds Aided by Nitrogen Sourced from Ammonia Fumes Leached from Aluminum Dross
Nitrogen and water are nutrients essential for the sprouting of seeds and healthy growth of plants. The seeds derive nitrogen from ammonia (NH3), found in ammonium hydroxide commonly added as manure to the soil. In a materials synthesis process, NH3 gas was released when Aluminum-dross (Al-dross), a hazardous industrial foundry waste was beneficiated to extract useful materials (metallic Al, oxides of Al and Mg, etc.) from the waste. Chemical tests, SEM with EDS and XRD were used to characterize sieved black Al-dross (starting raw material) before and after the beneficiation process. Al-dross also contained significant quantities of aluminum nitride (AlN). When treated with an aqueous media (plain or carbonated water), the AlN reacted to release NH3 gas fumes. This work explored the potential of using this gas to act as a source of nitrogen to accelerate the sprouting of seeds and plant germination. Vegetable and fruit seeds were sown in the soil that was directly infused with the NH3 released from Al-dross for two hours, followed by several (8 to 12) hours of self-diffusion time for homogeneous distribution of the gas in the soil. Five pairs of soils (untreated regular and NH3 fumes treated soils) were prepared under similar conditions. 5 different vegetable and fruit seedlings were planted in these pairs of soils. The germination patterns and growth of the sprouts with time were observed. The seeds that preferred an alkaline environment for germination (e.g., ridge gourd and watermelon seeds) sprouted early and in good health in the NH3 treated soil. Seeds preferring acidic soils did not germinate well in NH3 fume-infused soils. The experiments confirmed the viability of the novel concept, where the waste ammonia fumes released from Al-dross could be favorably generated and used in a controlled manner to promote sprouting of certain agricultural seedlings. 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Hybrid Deep Learning Based GRU Model for Classifying the Lung Cancer from CT Scan Images
Lung cancer is a potentially fatal condition, posing significant challenges for early detection and treatment within the healthcare domain. Despite extensive efforts, the etiology and cure of cancer remain elusive. However, early detection offers hope for effective treatment. This study explores the application of image processing techniques, including noise reduction, feature extraction, and identification of cancerous regions within the lung, augmented by patient medical history data. Leveraging machine learning and image processing, this research presents a methodology for precise lung cancer categorization and prognosis. While computed tomography (CT) scans are a cornerstone of medical imaging, diagnosing cancer solely through CT scans remains challenging even for seasoned medical professionals. The emergence of computer-assisted diagnostics has revolutionized cancer detection and diagnosis. This study utilizes lung images from the Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC-IDRI) and evaluates various image preprocessing filters such as median, Gaussian, Wiener, Otsu, and rough body area filters. Subsequently, feature extraction employs the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) methodology, followed by lung tumor classification using a hybrid model comprising a One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN) and a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). Experimental findings demonstrate that the proposed model achieves a sensitivity of 99.14%, specificity of 90.00%, F -measure of 95.24%, and accuracy of 95%. 2024 IEEE. -
Sliced Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit with Sparrow Search Optimizer for Detecting the Attacks in IoT Environment
In an era characterized by pervasive interconnectivity facilitated by the widespread adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) devices across diverse domains, novel cybersecurity challenges have emerged, underscoring the imperative for robust intrusion detection systems. Conventional security frameworks, constrained by their closed-system architecture, struggle to adapt to the dynamic threat landscape marked by the continual emergence of unprecedented attacks. This paper presents a methodology aimed at mitigating the open set recognition (OSR) challenge within IoT-specific Network Intrusion Detection Schemes (NIDS). Leveraging image-based representations of data, our approach focuses on extracting geographical traffic patterns. We observe that the Recurrent Neural Network exhibits suboptimal classification accuracy and lacks parallelizability for attack analysis tasks. Our investigation concludes that the Sparrow Search Optimization Algorithm (SSOA) serves as a foundation for constructing an effective assault classification model. This research contributes significantly to the field of network security by emphasizing the importance and ramifications of meticulous hyperparameter tuning. It represents a critical stride toward developing IDSs capable of effectively navigating the evolving cyber threat landscape. In the experimental analysis of proposed model reached the accuracy and 0.963% respectively. 2024 IEEE. -
Regression Test List Sharding in a Distributed Test Environment
One of the major issues during the regression test of the new version of Real Time Operating System (RTOS) is the time involved in test case execution. The main reason being a single embedded system device under test (DUT) is used to execute the test list containing several test cases. This traditional method of regression test also leads to wasted productivity of the other devices at hand that could be otherwise used during this regression test. Hence, in this paper, we propose a technique that aims at reducing the overall regression test cycle time of a newer version of a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) by employing a method known as "test-list sharding"in a distributed test environment. In the proposed work, multiple DUTs are connected to the test server via a communication network. The test server executes the test list containing several test cases and performs the test-list sharding, that is, distributing test cases to different DUTs and executing them in parallel. After the test is executed on the DUT, the test results are sent back to the test server which will summarize all the results. In the proposed work, the sharding is done by distributing the test cases without overloading or under loading any of the DUTs. Test list is sharded in such a way that the same tests are not sent to multiple DUTs. The main advantage of the proposed method is that the test sharding can be easily scalable to accommodate any number of devices that can be connected to the test server. Also, the test list sharding is done in a dynamic way so that the tests are distributed to an idle DUT that has completed a test execution and ready for another test to execute. The comparison study of executing a sample test list sequentially on a single DUT and distributed test system with multiple DUTs is performed. Results obtained showed the performance gain in terms of test cycle time reduction, scalability, equal load distribution and effective resource utilization. 2023 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved. -
FISCAL PERFORMANCE OF PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS (PRIs): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH IN PRE AND POST-BIFURCATION PERIOD
The effectiveness of democratic decentralisation depends on the financial strength and independence of the local bodies. Financial autonomy is vital to reap the full potential benefits of decentralisation as the transfer of funds, functions, and functionaries will enable local bodies to be institutes of self-governance and not just delivery mechanisms. In the context of persistent fiscal distress across the local bodies, an attempt is made to empirically examine the fiscal performance of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in Andhra Pradesh during 2010-11 to 2017-18, i.e. pre- and post-bifurcation periods of the State. The fiscal autonomy and the revenue dependency of PRIs across all three tiers in the State during the same period was also analysed. The study finds that the fiscal autonomy of top tiers, i.e. Mandal Praja Parishads (MPPs) and Zilla Praja Parishads (ZPPs) is negligible in both periods, while Gram Panchayats showed relatively better fiscal autonomy in both periods. 2022 National Institute of Rural Development. All rights reserved. -
Customer Behavior Analysis Using Unsupervised Clustering and Profiling: A Machine Learning Approach
Now-a-days, client conduct models are reliably established on information mining of client information, and each model is supposed to answer one solicitation at one point on schedule. Anticipating client conduct is a problematic and irksome task. Thus, making client conduct models requires the right strategy and approach. Right when an estimate model has been fabricated, it is challenging to restrict it for the motivations driving the advertiser, to pick the very thing displaying moves to make for every client or for the party of clients. Notwithstanding the multifaceted nature of this arrangement, most client models are completely fundamental. As the need might arise, most client conduct investigation models ignore such endless proper factors that the gauges they make are overall not altogether strong. This paper plans to encourage a connection rule mining model to expect client conduct using a typical electronic retail store for data combination and concentrate critical examples from the client conduct data. In this undertaking, a solo grouping of information on the customer's records from a regular food item company's data set will be played out. Customer segmentation is the act of clustering customers into bunches that reflect likenesses among customers in each group. Customers are separated into sections to advance the meaning of every customer to the business. To change items as indicated by unmistakable requirements and practices of the customers. It additionally assists the business with obliging the worries of various kinds of customers. Customers were clustered using a technique known as agglomerative clustering, which is a type of hierarchical clustering. Agglomerative clustering is a method for clustering data in a hierarchical order. It entails merging cases until you reach the appropriate number of clusters. The number of clusters to be produced is determined using the Elbow Method. 2022 IEEE. -
Carbon Dot-Based Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Systems for Biomedical, Sensing, and Imaging Applications
Carbon dots (CDs) emerge as a potential group of photo-luminescent nano-materials due to their excellent optical, electrical, and chemical properties, as well as their competence in a wide range of environmental applications. CDs have unique and appealing properties such as excellent stability, low toxicity, water solubility, and derivability. When coupled with CDs, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) results in the development of highly sensitive ratiometric fluorescence sensor probes with potential applications in bio-imaging, metal sensing, membrane dynamics, and environmental sensing. In this review, the progress and recent developments in CDs based FRET systems utilized for various environmental applications are conferred. An in-depth description is provided regarding the numerous donor/acceptor systems which when integrated with CDs generate efficient FRET systems. The review enables researchers to identify and develop specific systems which can be utilized to generate a FRET pair with potential physicochemical properties that aid the development of the same for various applications. 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. -
Facilitating Faculty Development for Training in Multicultural Competence in Health Service Psychology Graduate Programs Through an International Collaboration
A critical aspect of strengthening graduate-level clinical and counseling psychology training in cultural competence is to build capacity among faculty teaching in these programs to provide effective training. We addressed this need through an international collaboration between a university in India and another in the United States that included faculty travel to another country, peer mentoring groups, and review of curricula. This article describes faculty perceptions of this program and its perceived impact on their professional development and outlines curricular and research outcomes that resulted from the program. Across 4 years, a total of eight faculty visits took place with Indian faculty (n = 13) visiting the United States and US faculty (n = 11) visiting India. After each visit, faculty at both institutions responded to open-ended questions about the usefulness of these visits and completed a rating scale at the end of the program through an online survey. Faculty from both countries indicated that the visits contributed to enhanced cultural awareness and sensitivity by broadening their perspectives and learning about cultural similarities and differences. Indian faculty described learning about new pedagogical methods and enhanced motivation to engage in research and publish, along with new collaborative opportunities. US faculty described incorporating cultural competence more centrally in their teaching and clinical supervision through increased commitment, as well as inclusion of more global and diverse content and assignments aimed to increase students cultural competence. These responses provide preliminary support for the usefulness of cultural immersion experiences for faculty professional development. 2024 American Psychological Association Inc.. All rights reserved. -
Is my culture influencing me?: Client experiences of mental illness and psychotherapy in a transitional Indian culture
The client therapy experience has been the focus of many bodies of literature in psychotherapy, even across cultures. While researchers have emphasized on the use of indigenous approaches in Indian psychotherapy, how much of this is applicable in the present scenario? The experience has become increasingly tricky to understand given the complexities arising from the influence of urbanization and westernization. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the experience of mental illness and psychotherapy in modern day India. Using the integrated, holistic idea of the person and their needs, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with ten cis-gender, urban Indian participants between 21 and 39years of age. Data analysis using thematic analysis uncovered the global theme of Transitional Culture Impacting the Therapeutic Experience. The major organizing themes and basic themes have been elaborated as well. In essence, the study concludes that the increased awareness and acceptance of psychotherapy in urban India, combined with the exposure to Western methodologies, may be related to an increase in the expectations for similar therapeutic services. Implications and recommendations have been discussed. The Author(s) 2023. -
Impact of Celebrity Credibility in Social Advertising: A Systematic Review of Rahul Dravids Anti-tobacco Campaign Endorsement
Tobacco cessation programs have had their share of hits and misses. While state-controlled organizations invest in such programs every year, it is hard to trace their effectiveness. This is a bigger challenge when celebrities are enrolled to endorse such programs. Several studies that track celebrity endorsements for marketing commercial products have validated the influence of celebrities on brand-related outcomes. This study provides a systematic review of a celebrity endorsement of an anti-tobacco advertisement. To conduct a systematic review of a celebrity endorsement, we examined the responses of celebrity fans on source (celebrity) credibility factors and their attitude towards the social cause endorsement. A sample of 258 celebrity fans was surveyed using a questionnaire. The survey instrument contained a 15-item scale to measure celebrity factors of physical attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. Further, demographic details, social media activity and cigarette consumption details were captured along with cognitive and affective responses towards the anti-tobacco endorsement featuring the celebrity. It was found that physical attractiveness and trustworthiness of the celebrity were found to be influencing the attitude of the fan towards social cause. In addition, the study revealed the significant influence of education on attitude towards social cause in contrast to age and gender as evident in previous studies. The study provides very important insights for advertisers of social causes on effective use of celebrities as part of their communication campaigns. 2021, School of Management Sciences. All rights reserved. -
Transformational Impact of COVID-19 on Savings and Spending Patterns of Indian Rural Households
COVID-19 has spread across the globe at a shocking level and significantly affects the world economy. The pandemic has significantly impacted rural households, the primary workforce for industrialized urban areas, in every sector of rural businesses, including agriculture. Furthermore, the dearth of employment in the primary industry has also adversely influenced rural inhabitants livelihood and financial decisions. COVID-19 changed the perception of people regarding their income and expenditure. This study is intended to analyse the transformation of savings and spending of rural households during COVID-19. A questionnaire was developed using a Likert scale to elicit study variables, and the collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that all types of savings had a positive and significant relationship with the savings motive of rural households during COVID-19. Further, customary and spontaneous spending had a positive and significant relationship spending pattern of rural households. Rural inhabitants were interested in compromising their spending and other forms of savings to have more emergency savings. Earlier studies have examined either the savings or the spending pattern of rural households, and studies on both savings and spending by rural households are very few. The present study thus adds to the existing literature in the field. The Author(s) 2022. -
Unraveling connections with artificial sweeteners and their impact on human health: A comprehensive review
There is a recent trend showing an uptick in the artificial sweetener's usage, particularly the nonnourishing variety. The allure of a low-calorie choice that lets people indulge in their sweet tooths while consuming less calories overall is what motivates this. Children's food products often contain a substantial number of artificial sweeteners due to their properties that aid in moisture retention, act as fillers, and serve as bulking agents. This article provides a comprehensive overview of artificial sweeteners and influences in human wealth. Studies have linked the use of artificial sweeteners to premature birth, highlighting the teratogenic potential of these compounds, particularly in beverages. Pregnant women who incorporate nonnutritive sweeteners into their diet during pregnancy are more likely to have children with birth defects, as indicated by studies on the subject. Artificial sweeteners should not be added to food for children because studies show that eating them while a child's body is still developing might disturb the balance of gut microbiota and cause potential problems like heart disease, stroke, and cognitive decline. The ingestion of nonnourishing sweeteners has adverse effects on the fertility of both men and women. Studies indicate that exceeding the recommended daily consumption that the FDA has set for artificial sweeteners can result in conditions of infertility for both genders. Additionally, there is a connection between the onset of cancer and the use of artificial sweeteners. Presently, a considerable amount of research relies on animal models rather than human ones, creating a notable gap in research. The limitation of extensive human model studies represents a drawback in validating results. Furthermore, there is a necessity for increased research focused on advancing techniques that can minimize the adverse effects of artificial sweeteners, making them more suitable for addressing issues related to obesity and various types of diabetes. 2024 The Author(s). eFood published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. on behalf of International Association of Dietetic Nutrition and Safety. -
Toxic Effects of Nanoparticles on Fish Embryos
Nanoparticles are used widely in the in-drug delivery, diagnostics, cosmetics, paints, electronics, fabrics, solar cells, medicines etc. Their wide application is due to their special properties which include minute size, high reaction rate, increased surface area and quantum effect. Despite their multiple applications, nanoparticles have harmful effects too due to their improper disposal causing their entry into the aquatic environment greatly threatening the ecological security as well as our health. Zebra fishes (Danio rerio) are used more commonly for the evaluation of toxicity and are considered a promising animal model. Studies on Salmon and Labeo rohita have also been used for toxicity evaluation. Nanoparticles affect the embryo more easily than the adult since the embryo are more sensitive. Hence it becomes important for us to study the effect of the nanoparticles on the embryo of the fishes. These nanoparticles have the ability to cross the chorion layer and affect the developing embryo. Since the fishes are a part of the food chain, when these organisms get affected they will eventually harm the humans too. This review focuses on the effect of metal nanoparticles (NPs) like gold(Au), silver(Ag), copper(Cu), platinum and metal oxides nanoparticles like titanium dioxide, aluminium oxide, copper oxide, nickel oxide zinc oxide on the embryonic development of fish embryos. When compared to the other nanoparticles (NPs) like silver, copper and platinum, it has been observed that the gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) showed no toxicity to embryos of zebrafish though few studies contradict this. Aluminium nanoparticles showed no toxicity and role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in enhancing the toxicity of nanoparticles have also been discussed. 2021 World Research Association. All rights reserved. -
Bromelain improves the growth, biochemical, and hematological profiles of the fingerlings of Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus
A 6-week-long feeding trial experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of Bromelain, a blend of proteolytic enzymes present in pineapple wastes on growth performance, biochemical, and hematological profiles of the fingerlings of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. For this, 240 Nile tilapia fingerlings (9 0.11 cm) were fed a commercial diet, supplemented with different levels of pineapple peel extract (PPE) at 1:0, 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 ratios. After 45 days of the feeding trial, growth parameters, biochemical constituents, and the level of blood cells were assessed. It was found that the growth parameters such as weight gain, feed efficiency ratio, and specific growth rate were increased (p < 0.05) along with the total protein and amino acid content and few hematological parameters; whereas the feed conversion ratio was found to be reduced significantly (p > 0.05) without changing the white blood cell count with PPE supplementation. Thus, the PPE can be a potential feed supplement in Nile tilapia aquaculture. 2022 Gopal Raaj et al. -
A Comparative Study of Nutrient Composition, Proteolytic Activity, Phytochemical Profiles, Vitamin C Content, and Antioxidant Properties in the Peels of Selected Perennial Fruits
The escalating global demand for fruits has led to a surge in fruit production, resulting in significant fruit waste, particularly peels. The present study aims to investigate the nutrient content, proteolytic activity, phytochemical levels, vitamin C and antioxidant properties of five perennial fruits, namely Carica papaya (papaya), Selenicereus costaricensis (Red dragon fruit), Ananas comosus (Pineapple), Musa acuminata (Cavendish banana), Punica granatum (Pomegranate) peels of varying ripening stages. Accordingly, two ripening stages for pomegranate, papaya and dragon fruit (PoR1 and PoR2; PaR1 and PaR2; DR1 and DR2, respectively) and three stages for banana and pineapple (BR1, BR2 and BR3; PiR1, PiR2 and PiR3, respectively) were identified based on ethylene gas emission. The elemental analysis showed that fruit peels of Pineapple (PiR3), Banana (BR2), Papaya (PaR2), and Dragon fruit (DR2) showed significantly higher content of macro and micro-elements compared to the other ripening stages. Pomegranate peels exhibited the highest proteolytic activity (5.09 0.98unitsg?1), total phenolics (246.09 0.25mgg?1), total flavonoids (158.27 1.72mgg?1), tannins (103.94 0.09mgg?1), DPPH scavenging activity (129.43 1.34%), and antioxidant activity (127.14 1.35mgg?1 by phosphomolybdate assay). A. comosus peels had the greatest vitamin C levels (95.53 3.52mgg?1). Anti-nutrient analysis revealed safe levels of oxalates, phytates, and alkaloids, except for high oxalate levels in pomegranate peels. Notably, all parameters exhibited an increasing trend with ripening stages, with a decline during senescence in Banana (BR3) and Pomegranate peel (PoR2). This knowledge of fruit peel composition can enhance their utilization by humans, pharmaceutical and food industries, while also contributing to more effective waste management. Our study addresses the pressing need for sustainable fruit peel utilization in the context of escalating fruit production and waste. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to National Academy of Agricultural Sciences 2024.