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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. -
A Representation-Based Query Strategy to Derive Qualitative Features for Improved Churn Prediction
The effectiveness of any Machine Learning process depends on the accuracy of annotated data that is used to train a learner. However, manual annotation is expensive. Hence, researchers adopt a semi-supervised approach called active learning that aims to achieve state-of-the-art performance using minimal number of samples. Although it boosts classifier performance, the underlying query strategies are unable to eliminate redundancy in selected samples. Redundant samples lead to increased cost and sub-optimal performance of learner. Inspired by this challenge, the study proposes a new representation-based query strategy that selects highly informative and representative subsets of samples for manual annotation. Data comprises messages of a set of customers sent to a service provider. Series of experiments are conducted to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed query strategy, called 'Entropy-based Min Max Similarity' (E-MMSIM), in the context of topic classification for churn prediction. The foundation of E-MMSIM is an algorithm that is popularly used to sequence proteins in protein databases. The algorithm is modified and utilized to select the most representative and informative samples. The performance is evaluated using F1-score, AUC and accuracy. It is observed that 'E-MMSIM' outperforms popular query strategies, and improves performance of topic classifiers for each of the 4 topics of churn prediction. The trained topic classifiers are used to derive qualitative features. These features are further integrated with structured variables for the same group of customers to predict churn. Experiments provide evidence that inclusion of qualitative features derived using E-MMSIM, enhance the performance of churn classifiers by 5%. 2013 IEEE. -
A Hybrid AES with a Chaotic Map-Based Biometric Authentication Framework for IoT and Industry 4.0
The Internet of Things (IoT) is being applied in multiple domains, including smart homes and energy management. This work aims to tighten security in IoTs using fingerprint authentications and avoid unauthorized access to systems for safeguarding user privacy. Captured fingerprints can jeopardize the security and privacy of personal information. To solve privacy- and security-related problems in IoT-based environments, Biometric Authentication Frameworks (BAFs) are proposed to enable authentications in IoTs coupled with fingerprint authentications on edge consumer devices and to ensure biometric security in transmissions and databases. The Honeywell Advanced Encryption Security-Cryptography Measure (HAES-CM) scheme combined with Hybrid Advanced Encryption Standards with Chaotic Map Encryptions is proposed. BAFs enable private and secure communications between Industry 4.0s edge devices and IoT. This works suggested schemes evaluations with other encryption methods reveal that the suggested HAES-CM encryption strategy outperforms others in terms of processing speeds. 2023 by the authors. -
Toxic heavy metal ion detection by fluorescent nanocarbon sensor derived from a medicinal plant
In the twenty-first century, the importance of environmental pollution sensing cannot be overstated. Cadmium is a well-known poisonous heavy metal that seriously endangers human health. In terms of screening for poisons and diagnosing illnesses, the sensitive and focused detection of cadmium in cells is crucial. In this work, we developed Green fluorescent Carbon nanomaterial (Carbon nanomaterial) synthesized from a novel precursor, Justicia Wynaadensis, by the most eco-friendly, cost-effective hydrothermal method, which acts as a fluorescent probe for Cadmium fluorescence sensing technique with the concentration range of 1 nM1 M. The sensor displays remarkable linear detection with a 5.235 nM detection limit. 2022 The Author(s) -
Modelling of critical success factors for blockchain technology adoption readiness in the context of agri-food supply chain
The agri-food supply chain is continuously facing several challenges; the most severe are food quality and safety issues. These issues debilitate the performance of the supply chain and often harm the consumer's health. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address food quality and safety assurance in the supply chain. Blockchain technology (BCT) holds the potential to resolve these issues by enhancing security and transparency. The present study explores the critical success factors (CSFs) of BCT adoption readiness in the AFSC. Initially, CSFs are identified through a literature survey and finalised by experts' opinion. The finalised factors are prioritised using the fuzzy best-worst method, followed by sensitivity analysis. The results reflect that 'food quality control', 'provenance tracking and traceability', and 'partnership and trust' as the top three success factors. The study's findings will assist policymakers, managers, and practitioners in strategising the decision-making process while BCT dissemination. Copyright 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
An in-silico pharmacophore-based molecular docking study to evaluate the inhibitory potentials of novel fungal triterpenoid Astrakurkurone analogues against a hypothetical mutated main protease of SARS-CoV-2 virus
Background: The main protease is an important structural protein of SARS-CoV-2, essential for its survivability inside a human host. Considering current vaccines' limitations and the absence of approved therapeutic targets, Mpro may be regarded as the potential candidate drug target. Novel fungal phytocompound Astrakurkurone may be studied as the potential Mpro inhibitor, considering its medicinal properties reported elsewhere. Methods: In silico molecular docking was performed with Astrakurkurone and its twenty pharmacophore-based analogues against the native Mpro protein. A hypothetical Mpro was also constructed with seven mutations and targeted by Astrakurkurone and its analogues. Furthermore, multiple parameters such as statistical analysis (Principal Component Analysis), pharmacophore alignment, and drug likeness evaluation were performed to understand the mechanism of protein-ligand molecular interaction. Finally, molecular dynamic simulation was done for the top-ranking ligands to validate the result. Result: We identified twenty Astrakurkurone analogues through pharmacophore screening methodology. Among these twenty compounds, two analogues namely, ZINC89341287 and ZINC12128321 showed the highest inhibitory potentials against native and our hypothetical mutant Mpro, respectively (?7.7 and ?7.3 kcal mol?1) when compared with the control drug Telaprevir (?5.9 and ?6.0 kcal mol?1). Finally, we observed that functional groups of ligands namely two aromatic and one acceptor groups were responsible for the residual interaction with the target proteins. The molecular dynamic simulation further revealed that these compounds could make a stable complex with their respective protein targets in the near-native physiological condition. Conclusion: To conclude, Astrakurkurone analogues ZINC89341287 and ZINC12128321 can be potential therapeutic agents against the highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus. 2022 Elsevier Ltd -
Exploring the effect of Covid-19 on herding in Asian financial markets
We examine herding behavior before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic in eight prominent Asian stock markets. Daily stock returns for the period Jan- 2018 to July- 2022 in the markets were investigated using the models prescribed by Chang et al., (2000) and Chiang and Zheng (2010). The empirical results provide strong support to earlier studies by providing robust evidence of herding in Vietnam, Indonesia, India, South Korea, and Singapore when the market is bullish and Indonesia and Vietnam also exhibit herding when the market is bearish. Herding tendency is dominant for Vietnam, India, and Indonesia during the pandemic with the post-pandemic time being more potent for China and Vietnam. Notably, an anti-herding tendency is found in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. As a policy measure, efficient information dissemination, deterrence of insider trading, and regulation of mispricing can be undertaken. 2022 -
Improved Security of the Data Communication in VANET Environment Using ASCII-ECC Algorithm
Now-a-days, with the augmenting accident statistics, the Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET) are turning out to be more popular, helping in prevention of accidents in addition to damage to the vehicles together with populace. In VANET, message can well be transmitted within a pre-stated region to attain systems safety and also improveits efficacy. Ensuring authenticity of messages is a challenge in such dynamic environment. Though few researchers worked on this, security level is very less. Hence enhanced communicationsecurity on the VANET environment utilizing the American Standard Code for Information Interchange centred Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ASCII-ECC) is proposedin this paper. The network design is definedinitially. Subsequently, the entire vehicles get registered to the Trusted Authority (TA); similarly, all vehicle users areregistered with their On-Board Unit (OBU). This is followed byMedian-centred K-Means (MKM) performs the cluster formation together with Cluster Head Selection (CHS). Next, TA takes care of the verification procedure. Modified Cockroach Swarm Optimization (MCSO) calculates the shortest path and the ASCII-ECC carries out the secure data communication if the vehicle is an authorized one. If not, TA sends the alert message for discarding the request. The system renders better performance when it was weighed against the top-notch methods. 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. -
Synthesis of 4H-3,1-Benzothiazin-4-Ones via C-N/C-S Bond Forming Reactions
A Phosphine-free and effective process has been expressed for the formulation of N,S-heterocycles following a C-N/C-S bond forming reactions. The described process operates through EDC-HCl-mediated heterocyclization of diverse isothiocyanates and bis-nucleophiles to deliver 1,3-thiazinone derivatives, which eliminates the use of hazardous reagents. The developed protocol was found applicable over a wide range of substrates in delivering N,S-heterocycles in excellent yields at room temperature and short reaction time. 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. -
Education suffering within structural inequalities: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a policy framework
Education acts as an important catalyst for socioeconomic and democratic evolution in society and is a critical tool for building an equitable system. In our paper, we have historicized one of the most important educational policies, viz. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SAMSA) in India that carries large expectations to minimize the educational divide. We have studied the policy through the lens of Political Economy and have further critiqued it through the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. We find in our paper that the budget allocated to SAMSA was revised in 2022, from its preceding years with a 28 per cent slash. We critically reflect on the principles mentioned in the policy and find that although there has been an attempt to mitigate the hazards of banking education the Public-Private Partnership initiative reinforces struggles for equitable education, and further, the privatization sets the government free from any accountability. Moreover, a constitutional right like the Right to Education (RTE) is not sufficient enough to meet the goals of universalisation of education. Besides, we analyse the principles such as Education for All, Equity, Equal Opportunity, Access, Gender Concern, Centrality of teacher, Moral Compulsion, and Convergent and integrated system of education management, and argue that although some of the facets of societal structural inequalities are addressed, however, there exists hardly a proper roadmap that could be monitoring the process of creating an inclusive educational paradigm. 2023, Institute for Education Policy Studies. All rights reserved. -
Tanishq: Brand Activism Gone Wrong?
Mansoor Khan, 45, brand manager, Tanishq Jewellery for Media and Communications, was facing lots of backlashes for Tanishqs advertisement on interfaith marriage advertisement aired to promote unity and harmony amongst different communities. In contrast to its stated objective of promoting unity and oneness, this interfaith marriage advertisement created a huge controversy in social media dividing its consumers and netizens into two opposing camps supporting and some even boycotting the advertisement. The brand Tanishq was trolled because of its alleged insensitivity and blindness towards the recent spate of killings in interfaith love affairs and marriages across different parts of India. This controversial advertisement of interfaith marriage and its resultant controversy has left the brand manager pondering should brands rely on more mainstream work rather than any edgy or controversial messaging? Should brands add their business voice to the societal and cultural debates or just stick to conventional advertisement? Or should Tanishq take a moral high stand and continue to promote the advertisement or should it withdraw the controversial advertisement? Whether the reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, who they try to impress? Therefore, this case intends to teach the postgraduate students of marketing about concepts and theories of brand activism, celebrity endorsement, brand management and brand crisis management. 2023 MDI. -
Enhanced dielectric and supercapacitive properties of spherical like Sr doped Sm2O3@CoO triple oxide nanostructures
Integrating the hybrid nanostructures exhibiting enhanced storage and electrical properties requires tuning of composition of constituents. To address this issue, we prepared Sr2+ nanoparticles (NPs) decorated over Sm2O3@CoO nanostructures (NS) by chemical precipitation. The structure integrity of the composite was determined by analytical tools. Based on the strongest peak of X-ray diffraction (XRD), crystallite size of the nanoparticles was determined to be 26.14 nm, indicating a mixed phase of monoclinic and tetragonal crystal formation. FESEM revealed a spherical-like morphology with a homogeneous distribution of microstructures with average sizes ranging from 68 nm to 60 nm. The optical absorptivity revealed a redshift in absorption bands centred at 337.0 nm, 343.9 nm, and 353.0 nm in UV-region. The optical band gap of NS was found to be in the range of 3.38 eV to 3.15 eV, and the BET surface area of Sr15%:Sm2O3@CoO was found to be 458469 cm2/g with a corresponding pore size of 13.17 nm. All Sr-doped Sm2O3@CoO NS exhibited higher ionic conductivity and dielectric constant than undoped material. In an aqueous KOH electrolyte, the NS showed a specific capacity of 234.2C/g (65.1mAh/g) demonstrating the material as potential candidate in energy storage and dielectrics. 2022 Elsevier Ltd -
In-phase, out-of-phase, bottom-wall two-frequency boundary temperature modulations on the onset of Rayleigh-Bard convection
The onset of convection in a Newtonian liquid-containing system is investigated using a two-frequency boundary temperature. The consequences of three types of two-frequency boundary temperature modulations have been thoroughly investigated: (i) in-phase, (ii) out-of-phase, and(iii) bottom-wall. The combined effect of two frequencies with sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal wave types is also documented under these various types of boundary temperature modulations. To facilitate the study, the Venezian method is approvedand the critical Rayleigh number and its correction are calculated. The parameters resulting from the study's two frequencies of modulation are the mixing angle, (Formula presented.), the amplitudes, (Formula presented.), and the set of coprime integers, (Formula presented.). The system's thermodynamics determines the range of these parameters. The research discovered that out-of-phase two-frequency boundary temperature modulation is the most stable, while in-phase is the least stable. Besides that, any combination of wave type with square wave type yields the most excellent stability. Furthermore, the two-frequency boundary temperature modulation is more stable than the single-frequency and no-modulation cases. 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC. -
Spoofing Face Detection Using Novel Edge-Net Autoencoder for Security
Recent security applications in mobile technologies and computer systems use face recognition for high-end security. Despite numerous security tech-niques, face recognition is considered a high-security control. Developers fuse and carry out face identification as an access authority into these applications. Still, face identification authentication is sensitive to attacks with a 2-D photo image or captured video to access the system as an authorized user. In the existing spoofing detection algorithm, there was some loss in the recreation of images. This research proposes an unobtrusive technique to detect face spoofing attacks that apply a single frame of the sequenced set of frames to overcome the above-said problems. This research offers a novel Edge-Net autoencoder to select convoluted and dominant features of the input diffused structure. First, this pro-posedmethodistestedwiththeCross-ethnicityFaceAnti-spoofing (CASIA), Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) dataset. This database has three models of attacks: distorted photographs in printed form, photographs with removed eyes portion, and video attacks. The images are taken with three different quality cameras: low, average, and high-quality real and spoofed images. An extensive experimental study was performed with CASIA-FASD, 3 Diagnostic Machine Aid-Digital (DMAD) dataset that proved higher results when compared to existing algorithms. 2023, Tech Science Press. All rights reserved. -
Pyrazole Derivative Containing Naphthalene Moiety: Cytotoxocity (Breast and Cervical Cancer), Antibacterial and Antifungal Studies Using Experimental and Theoretical Tools
In the present study, the title compound is named 4-((5-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)(6-methoxynaphthalen-1-yl)methyl)-5-methyl-2-phenyl-1,2-dihydropyrazol-3-one was synthesized, and its antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxic activity was studied by both experimental and in silico methods. The molecular structure was optimized using DFT/B3LYP method with cc-pVDZ as a besis set, and frontier molecular orbital (FMO) studies was used to explain the physiochemical properties of that molecule by the energy of interacting orbitals. NBO describes the intra delocalization of electrons in the molecule, which support the stability of that molecule. Noncovalent interaction (NCI) explains the nonbond interactions present in the molecule. Drug-likeness property of 405 C have been checked by absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) assay, result shown all the drug-likeness properties in red color region, so we have confirmed this molecule as a drug. 405 C undergoes antibiotic activity against P. aeruginosa organism, antifungal activity against B. cinerea and cytotoxicity activity against MCF-7 and HeLa cell when compared to standard drugs. 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. -
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 -
Dynamical analysis of fractional yellow fever virus model with efficient numerical approach
In this paper, we have projected the theoretical and numerical investigation of the mathematical model representing the yellow fever virus transmission from infected mosquitoes to humans or vise-versa through mosquito bites in the framework of the Caputo derivative. Theoretical aspects of the dynamics of susceptible individuals, exposed individuals, infected individuals, toxic infected individuals, recovered and immune individuals, and susceptible mosquitoes and infected mosquitoes have been analyzed by using the theory of fractional calculus such as boundedness, uniqueness and existence of the solutions. Sufficient conditions for the global stability of the virus-free point of equilibrium are inspected. T validate the theoretical results numerical analysis is performed using the generalized Adams-Bashforth-Moultan method. 2023, Eudoxus Press, LLC. All rights reserved. -
Surface-engineering of carbon fibre paper electrode through molecular imprinting technique towards electrochemical sensing of food additive in shrimps
Excessive usage of food additives needs to be extensively examined and regulated. Herein, we report the development of an exceptionally proficient and practical electrochemical sensor for the quantitative determination of 4-hexylresorcinol (4-HR) in shrimps using a molecularly imprinted conducting polymer. By electropolymerizing 2-aminothiazole (AT) on the surface of a carbon fibre paper electrode (CFP) in the presence of 4-HR imprinted polymer films were developed. Bulk-electrolysis was used to produce definite imprinting sites and regulate the release of 4-hexylresorcinol templates. Voltammetric study reveals that the synthesized conducting polymer has outstanding electroactivity towards 4-HR and enables quick electron transfer kinetics. This MIP sensor has a detection limit of 6.03 nM for 4-HR. The modified CFP electrode has been found to be extremely selective to 4-HR due to its intensive contact via intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The modified electrodes were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, Optical profilometry, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. 2022 Elsevier B.V. -
Detrimental effects of microplastics in aquatic fauna on marine and freshwater environments A comprehensive review
The world is ever evolving and new technologies are popping up everywhere. New inventions and discoveries have created a better world, but not a sustainable one. The whole earth is drowning in various pollutants and garbage. Plastic pollution has garnered sufficient attention and there are various teams and organizations working toward cleaning our beaches, parks, and environment. However, all these actions will not suffice as plastics have trickled down into microplastics, which are posing a greater threat to our water systems and aquatic fauna. Several ongoing researches focus on marine microplastics, while only 13% of studies are on freshwater. Research on microplastics is now on the rise, with new strategies and restrictions being put into place to curb its accumulation in our marine and freshwater environments. In a recent study, microplastics were found to be present in human blood with. Out of 22 people tested, 17 test subjects had microplastics present in their blood. This review focuses on the adverse effects of microplastics in marine and freshwater ecosystems, with special focus on aquatic fauna. 2023 Jaikumar, et al. -
Effective and Efficient Video Compression by the Deep Learning Techniques
Deep learning has reached many successes in Video Processing. Video has become a growing important part of our daily digital interactions. The advancement of better resolution content and the large volume offers serious challenges to the goal of receiving, distributing, compressing and revealing highquality video content. In this paper we propose a novel Effective and Efficient video compression by the Deep Learning framework based on the flask, which creatively combines the Deep Learning Techniques on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). The video compression method involves the layers are divided into different groups for data processing, using CNN to remove the duplicate frames, repeating the single image instead of the duplicate images by recognizing and detecting minute changes using GAN and recorded with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). Instead of the complete image, the small changes generated using GAN are substituted, which helps with frame-level compression. Pixel wise comparison is performed using K-nearest Neighbours (KNN) over the frame, clustered with K-means and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is applied for every frame in the video for all three colour channels [Red, Green, Blue] to decrease the dimension of the utility matrix [R, G, B] by extracting its latent factors. Video frames are packed with parameters with the aid of a codec and converted to video format and the results are compared with the original video. Repeated experiments on several videos with different sizes, duration, Frames per second (FPS), and quality results demonstrated a significant resampling rate. On normal, the outcome delivered had around a 10% deviation in quality and over half in size when contrasted, and the original video. 2023 CRL Publishing. All rights reserved.