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Probiotic properties of enterococcus faecium isolated from gallus gallus domesticus and its antimicrobial, antibiofilm and growth enhancing potential in danio rerio
This study focused on isolation and characterisation of potential probiotic bacteria from a non aquatic source (Gallus gallus domesticus). Enterococcus sp. was isolated from the midgut of G. gallus domesticus and was characterised for its ability to survive in artificial gastric juice, trypsin, varying pH and temperature, different concentrations of organic solvents, and was evaluated for its ammonia reduction potential. Notable inhibition of biofilm against Vibrio harveyi (41.03.2 %), Escherichia coli (33.04.0 %), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (37.84.0 %) and Staphylococcus aureus (41.72.0 %) was observed. The study showed that the isolate improved the survival rate of Danio rerio against V. harveyi and E. coli in challenge studies using survival analysis. The weight and length gains observed were 4.90.1 % and 0.30.2 % (p>0.05), respectively. The use of probiotics from nonaquatic sources can increase the diversity of available probiotics for aquaculture practices. 2021, Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University. All rights reserved. -
Palliative care in duchenne muscular dystrophy: A study on parents' understanding
Introduction: Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a neuromuscular disease of childhood, which has clear progression. The international standardized care guidelines for DMD suggest that palliative care is essential for the affected children. Objective: To explore the parent's understanding of palliative care services available for children with DMD and the challenges faced by them in utilizing the same. Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative exploratory study was conducted among six families of boys diagnosed with DMD. A semi-structured interview guide with prompts was used to conduct in-depth interviews which lasted for an average of 1 h. Thematic analysis was done to identify the pattern or themes. Results: The major themes identified were 'palliative care, living with DMD, awareness about palliative care services and challenges.' Awareness about palliative care services is the dominant theme identified as influencing rest of the experiences narrated by the parents of children with DMD. Discussion: Integration of palliative care services from an early stage of the illness can help the child to make transition from one stage to another stage of the illness. To ensure the utilization of the available palliative care services, there is a need to create awareness about it among the general public. Conclusion: Introducing the concept of palliation of symptoms and ensuring quality of life of the child with DMD by accessing the available services can aid the parents to reach out for help for their child. 2021 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved. -
Mediating Effect of Brand Relationship Quality on Relational Bonds and Online Grocery Retailer Loyalty
The current study aims to identify how brand relationship quality mediates the relationship between different online relational bonds, and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. A total of 316 valid questionnaires from respondents aged 2035 were collected using quota sampling from five different clusters in Bangalore, India. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. This study finds that convenience bonds and structural bond have no impact on brand trust and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. All five relational bonds namely, convenience, structural, financial, empathy, and social bonds are seen to influence their sense of community and attitudinal attachment. Sense of community is the primary influencer of brand loyalty. This study reveals that brand dimensions of brand quality relationship mediate the effect of financial, empathy, and social bonds on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. It also illustrates the role of different relational bonds as a stimulus, and relationship quality dimensions as an organism that lead to improved customer loyalty in online grocery retailing. Managers of online grocery stores can consider these new relational bonds, along with the traditional bonds, to develop positive emotions and achieve competitive advantage. 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. -
Bt cotton and the voices of the widows in the face of farmer-suicides
This article deploys the culture-centered approach to foreground the everyday constructions of farmer-suicides amid the agrarian epidemic among the farmer-widows to attend to the everyday structures that constitute the meanings of the suicides. The depictions of the patriarchal structures of decision-making in agriculture are intertwined with the broader erasure of the interplays of inequality in farmers experiences from the discursive sites of neoliberal agriculture. Furthermore, the voices of the widows disrupt the monolithic construction of agricultural technologies as tools of modernization and progress dominant in the development communication scholarship, instead, depicting the ways in which new technologies (such as Bt cotton) are constituted within, and reproduce, the overarching inequalities. 2020 National Communication Association. -
Powerlessness in the moral self: a social cognitive perspective on drug users
Powerlessness resides in devalued self-images of drug users. This study, drawing on social and moral psychology, examined the moral functioning of drug users compared to non-drug users. Self-reported data concerning moral identity and moral judgment on drug use were assessed and compared between groups. Drug users appeared to have significantly weaker moral identity centrality and pro-drug moral judgment than non-drug users. They also showed dissociation in the relationship between moral identity and moral judgment. As a result, the study proposed a moral identity model of drug use to better approach social cognitive powerlessness in drug users moral self. 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. -
Parle Products: The Journey of Budget Brand Toward Premiumization
Parle Products has been one of the foremost pioneers of the biscuit and confectionery industry in India. Since its inception in 1929, Parle has been synonymous with quality, nutrition, taste, and affordability in India. Having more than 40 brands across different product categories in its portfolio, Parle Products has come a long way. Due to the enormous success of brand Parle-G, the mother brand Parle has been associated with values of affordability and quality. Parle has always been a strong player in the value segment and thus customers associate all brands of the company as being the affordable brand with quality. While the industry peers such as Britannia and Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) have positioned themselves as a champion of premium segments, Parle Products is still known as an affordable or budget brand among Indian masses. Considering the increasing demand for premium biscuits among the new generation of consumers, Parle Products has introduced the new division Parle Platina in 2017. But the transformation of value or budget brand into the luxury and premium brands is not easy, as the legacy of value brand among the masses is not easy to shake off. This becomes more difficult and challenging in a highly fragmented, competitive, and price-sensitive biscuit market like India. Another problem for the Parle Products is to hit the sweet spot between the mass market and the premium demographic which the brand is currently missing out in a highly fragmented and competitive Indian biscuit market. 2020 K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management. -
Carrying capacity assessment for religious crowd management - An application to sabarimala mass gathering pilgrimage, India
Crowd Management is always a challenging task when people gather in large numbers. Crowd disasters in India, including recurring incidents at religious venues, demands a crowd management system developed on the characteristics of the place, event, and participants. Assessment of carrying capacity is the prime process to design crowd management protocols and regulations. Carrying capacity assessment of religious gathering venues in India is often an overlooked process. The present study assessed the crowd carrying capacity of Sabarimala pilgrimage, Kerala, India. Physical carrying capacity assessment methods used for tourism venues have been applied and contextualised for crowd carrying capacity assessment. Characteristics of the venue, pilgrimage and pilgrims were studied to map the active crowd area and space utilisation zones. The physical carrying capacity was estimated based on the comfortable crowd density and threshold crowd density assessments. The study identified two factors influencing pilgrim movement within the venue viz. service level at the holy step and capacity of the darshan facility. Service level at the holy step is the prime factor that regulates the flow of the pilgrim within the venue including the pilgrim movement for deity darshan and hence the comfortable capacity of the holy step was distinguished as the effective carrying capacity of the venue. Physical carrying capacity at the comfortable crowd density has to be maintained throughout the event to avoid the triggering of crowd crushes. The crowd carrying capacity assessment (CCCA) method applied in this study is a simple process. Considering the crowd density and crowd regulation factors, the CCCA method can be applied to design crowd management protocols of other religious pilgrimage destinations in India. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage -
Properties of alkali-activated concrete (AAC) incorporating demolished building waste (DBW) as aggregates
This study was undertaken to evaluate the potential of demolished building waste (DBW) as aggregates in alkali-activated concrete (AAC). A recent road-widening activity led to the demolition of commercial buildings along National Highway 275, Bangalore-Bantwal, India. DBW was collected from these sites and processed manually at the laboratory facility of CHRIST (Deemed to be University). Processing of DBW was done to obtain both waste coarse and fine aggregates from demolished concrete and brick waste units, respectively. AAC was synthesized by fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, along with waste aggregate replacement rates of 0, 25, 50, and 75% by weight of natural aggregates. Fresh and hardened properties of developed concrete mixtures were experimentally determined. Results of the study indicate that 28-day compressive strength of 30.4 and 21 MPa was obtained for AAC with 25 and 50% DBW aggregates, which was 8.6 and 36.9% lower than control mix, respectively. Further, there was an increase in the water absorption and a reduction to acid resistance for all the AAC mixes with DBW aggregates. Based on the results obtained, it was observed that AAC with 25 and 50% DBW aggregates find great potential in civil engineering applications. 2021 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. -
Origin and diversification of Indian Ceropegieae (Apocynaceae) and its possible relation to the Indian monsoon
The Indian subcontinent has experienced a major shift in climatic regime from a wet tropical regime to increased seasonal rainfall, since the late Miocene. This shift has been attributed to the intensification of monsoons, which led to opening up of dry habitats in humid forests and formation of deciduous forests. We explored the role of this climatic shift in the origin and diversification of dry-adapted plant genera Ceropegia and Brachystelma (Ceropegiae, Asclepiadoideae, Apocynaceae). We sampled Ceropegia and Brachystelma from across India and used five markers (two nuclear and three plastid regions) to reconstruct a global phylogeny of this group. Indian members of the tribe Ceropegiae were derived from Africa through at least four independent dispersal events. All dispersal events occurred in late Miocene after establishment of a monsoon climate. One of these early dispersing lineages underwent rapid radiation in peninsular India, giving rise to around 50 species. Thus, both dispersal and diversification events coincided with the intensification of monsoons and concomitant aridification. The role of environment in the evolution of floral characteristics and root type in the Indian radiation is also discussed. This is one of the first reports on a dry-adapted endemic radiation of plants in India. 2020 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences -
Friction and wear behaviour of HVOF sprayed Cr2O3-TiO2 coatings on aluminium alloy
This study investigates the tribological behaviour of Cr2O3-TiO2 composite coatings deposited on aluminium 6061 alloy. Cr2O3-TiO2 composite coatings were deposited by high velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) technique. Developed coatings were subjected to microstructure studies, microhardness test (ASTM E92), friction and wear test (ASTM G99). Pin-on-disc machine was used to evaluate friction and wear characteristics of Cr2O3-TiO2 coatings. Effect of sliding velocity (0.314 m/s-1.26 m/s) and load (20 N-100 N) on friction and wear characteristics of Cr2O3-TiO2 coatings were studied and compared with uncoated aluminium alloy. Results showed 54% improvement in hardness of Cr2O3-TiO2 coatings in comparison with aluminium alloy. Coefficient of friction and wear rate decreases by 12% and 48% respectively when evaluated with uncoated aluminium alloy. Coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate increases with increase in load and sliding velocity for both coatings and substrate. However, Cr2O3-TiO2 coatings showed lower wear rate and COF at all the loads and sliding velocities studied when compared with uncoated aluminium alloy. Worn out surfaces of uncoated and Cr2O3-TiO2 coated surfaces were subjected to SEM analysis to understand the wear mechanisms in composite coatings. 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.. All rights reserved. -
Significance of Joule heating and viscous heating on heat transport of MoS2Ag hybrid nanofluid past an isothermal wedge
The problem of flow and heat transport of magneto-composite nanofluid over an isothermal wedge has not been addressed in the literature up to yet. Thus, this article features the laminar transport of Newtonian composite nanomaterial (C2H6O2H2O hybrid base liquid + MoS2Ag hybrid nanoparticles) in the presence of exponential space- and temperature-dependent heat source past an isothermal wedge. An incompressible and electrically conducting fluid is assumed. The effects of Joule heating and viscous heating are also accounted. Single-phase nanofluid model and boundary layer approximation are utilized to govern the equations of flow and heat transport phenomena. The solution of the simplified coupled system of dimensionless constraints is obtained by using the RungeKuttaFehlberg method based on the shooting technique. Detailed analysis of active quantities of interest has been presented and discussed. The interesting physical quantities (friction factors and Nusselt number) are estimated. Also, the slope of the data point is calculated in order to estimate the amount of decrease/increase in physical quantities. 2020, Akadiai Kiad Budapest, Hungary. -
Biotransformation of bovine tannery fleshing into utilizable product with multifunctionalities
Leather industries aim at the transformation of putrescible animal raw hides and skins into a stable non-putrescible material (leather), ultimately resulting in solid wastes generation. Storage of limed bovine fleshing, a predominant proteinaceous solid waste material from pre-tanning processes is highly discouraged due to their putrescible nature. Diversely, bio-conversion of solid waste into a saleable product could be achieved by bacterial fermentation process. Lactic acid (LA) fermentation with Delimed Bovine Tannery Fleshing (DBTF) by Lactobacillus plantarum was experimented; incubation time, tapioca flour and lactose were the three prime independent variables studied. Maximum LA production in steam cooked DBTF medium was achieved with pH 6; inoculum 12.5% (v/w); lactose 8.81% (w/w) and tapioca flour 8.9% (w/w) at 96 hours of fermentation. Initial yield of about 4.56 g/L of LA (p <.05), upon statistical manipulation of the medium composition marked up to 12.36 g/L, enabling 2.7-fold increase in the LA production with DBTF as a relatively cut-rate substrate. Fermentation resulted in Fermented Fleshing Flour (FFF) with marked protein level of 76.32% and lower fibre content. Formation of protein hydrolysates and new acid groups in FFF were authenticated via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopic (FE-SEM) and Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopic (FTIR) analyses respectively. In situ acid (LA) generation and formation of protein hydrolysates/free amino acids during LA fermentation points to the antibacterial (against Gram-negative bacteria, followed by Gram-positive bacteria) and invitro antioxidative properties with dose dependency, of FFF, favouring its possible utilization in aqua feed industries as a superior grade proteinaceous feed ingredient with inbuilt bio-functionalities.. 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Redefined families and subsystems: Reading kinship and hierarchical structures in select Hijra autobiographies
Hijras or transwomen in India are gendered identities, but their identities cannot be reduced to the conceptual framework and analysis of sex, gender and sexuality. Being the minority in India, transgender lives intersect with caste, class, kinship and hierarchy. The study locates these intersections within the scope of the select hijra autobiographies; The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi and I am Vidya by Vidya. The study looks at the notions of family which are traditionally woven in heteronormative and patriarchal setups. It examines the gharanas system or subsystems in hijra communities that redefines the structures and hierarchies of the family, and designating the fellow elder hijras with the relation of mata (mother) and cela (disciple), thus forming a kinship which is located beyond the caste, class and religious structures. The emphasis is to study how families are inserted in heteronormative perspectives and argues a redefining of the notion of family,and to establish and recognize the newer perspectives on family which lies outside the traditional setup. AesthetixMS 2020. -
Effect of background music and the cultural preference to music on adolescents task performance
There is a plethora of research assessesing the effect of background music on task performance; however, these results have largely been inconclusive and divided. Music is a powerful medium that possesses a lot of positive benefits. This paper addresses the gaps in the existing literature and attempts to explore the effect of background music on adolescents performance in a reading comprehension task. It also examines the role of culture in the said effect of performance, by assessing whether ones own culture leads to a better performance when compared to both silence and music from a different culture. To this end, an experimental study was conducted on 34 adolescents between the ages of 1314 (M = 13.50, SD = 0.50). The results indicate that a strong positive effect is achieved on task performance when background music is present, especially one that identifies with the participants cultural background. 2020, 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Pink floyd's time: An aural metanarrative exploring time through form, lyric, and musical arrangement
The inability of language to capture the essence of time is a crisis that has been expressed by philosophers starting from St. Augustine to Paul Ricoeur. Appearing on their seminal album, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's Time is a profound artistic attempt which transcends this language barrier by using music to bring the listeners to a more direct confrontation with time; doing so by juxtaposing time as calibrated and as experienced through the music and the lyrics, and by making the reader experience time-based affects such as impatience, expectation, monotony, and such. As a direct function of song, time is experienced as musical time in the song, thereby ensuring that the listener's confrontation with time is immersive, with lyrics that describe the nature of experienced and calibrated time working synchronously with the music to complete the image. In the context of its release in 1974, the 6:52 minute song was in engagement with the concept of time as well, in that it was among the pioneering ones which redefined radio broadcast time beyond the standard 3 minutes afforded to popular music tracks, with the commercially preferred listener span in mind. The matter of time thus becomes a multi-layered formal engagement in the song, at the level of lyric, recording, music and listening, thereby making possible an image of time that is polished and rounded. These aural, lyrical and production-based concepts will be addressed and expanded upon to show how Pink Floyd's Time functions as a metanarrative in how it uses and invokes the elements of time to talk about time. AesthetixMS 2020. -
Collaborative intrusion detection system in cognitive smart city network (CSC-Net)
Smart environment is about incorporating smart thinking in the environment and implementing the technical intervention that improvise the city's environment. Artificial intelligence (AI) provides solutions in huge technological issues in various aspects of day-to-day life such as autonomous transportation, governance, healthcare, agriculture, maintenance, logistics, and education that are automated, managed, controlled, and accessed remotely with the aid of smart devices. Cognitive computing is denoted as a next-generation AI-dependent method that gives human-computer interactions with personalized services that replicate manual behavior. Simultaneously, massive data is generated from the applications of the smart city like smart transportation, retail industry, healthcare, and governance. It is necessary to obtain a reliable, sustainable, continuous, and secure framework in the cloud centralized infrastructure. In this research article, the authors proposed the architecture of cognitive smart city network (CSC-Net) that defines how data are collected from applications of smart city and scrutinized by cognitive computing. This research article predicts the mobile edge computing solution (MEC) that permits node collaboration between internet of things (IoT) devices for providing secure and reliable communication among smart devices and fog layer, conversely fog layer and cloud layer. This proposed work helps to reduce the excessive traffic flow in smart environment with the support of node to node communication protocols. Collaborative-dependent intrusion detection system (C-IDS) is proposed to solve the data security issues in fog and cloud layers. Copyright 2021, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. -
Significance of quadratic thermal radiation and quadratic convection on boundary layer two-phase flow of a dusty nanoliquid past a vertical plate
Boundary layer two-phase flow of particulate Al2O3-H2O nanoliquid over a vertical flat plate is studied numerically subjected to the aspects of quadratic thermal convection and quadratic thermal radiation. The Khanafer-Vafai-Lightstone monophasic nanofluid model (KVL model) and Saffman's dusty fluid model are used for the equations governing the flow of dusty nanoliquids. The quadratic Boussinesq approximation is used together with the Prandtl's boundary layer approximation. The non-linear problem is treated with the finite difference method. Surface plots and streamlines are presented to visualize the results. A comparison of linear thermal radiation, quadratic thermal radiation, and nonlinear thermal radiation is performed. Among the three types of radiation, the greatest heat transfer is observed in nonlinear thermal radiation followed by quadratic thermal radiation and linear thermal radiation. Also, in the presence of quadratic convection, the heat transport, and velocity field get enhanced. It is found that the presence of Al2O3 nanoparticles of 3% volume concentration in particulate water effectively advances the heat transport of the system. However, heat transport gets reduced by increasing the mass fraction of dust particles. Furthermore, in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, the velocity of the dusty nanoliquid gets reduced. 2020 -
Strength Development of Geopolymer Composites Made from Red Mud-Fly Ash as a Subgrade Material in Road Construction
The application of industrial waste in construction reduces the dependency on natural resources. The materials, including red mud (RM) and fly ash (FA), proved to be favorable materials. However, the materials potential together as a geopolymer composite for road applications has rarely been explored. This study will examine the possibility of the replacement of natural materials in subgrade applications. To achieve this, the geopolymer compositions will be prepared by replacing RM with FA at replacement rates of 10%, 20%, and 30% by dry weight basis. The alkaline activator solution of 8 M will be prepared using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate to develop geopolymer composites. The strength properties will be studied using the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and unconfined compression strength (UCS) and validated with microstructural analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results reveal that geopolymer composites could achieve a maximum CBR value of 12% and UCS of 2,700 kPa. The microstructural analysis revealed that the formation of dense calcium aluminate hydrate (C-A-H) and calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) are the reason for strength improvement. The leaching studies show that the toxic elements were within the permissible limits. Overall, the test results confirmed that the geopolymer composites meet the required strength and could be used as a subgrade material in road construction. 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers. -
Auto-diagnosis of covid-19 using lung ct images with semi-supervised shallow learning network
In the current world pandemic situation, the contagious Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has raised a real threat to human lives owing to infection on lung cells and human respiratory systems. It is a daunting task for the researchers to find suitable infection patterns on lung CT images for automated diagnosis of COVID-19. A novel integrated semi-supervised shallow neural network framework comprising a Parallel Quantum-Inspired Self-supervised Network (PQIS-Net) for automatic segmentation of lung CT images followed by Fully Connected (FC) layers, is proposed in this article. The proposed PQIS-Net model is aimed at providing fully automated segmentation of lung CT slices without incorporating pre-trained convolutional neural network based models. A parallel trinity of layered structure of quantum bits are interconnected using an N -connected second order neighborhood-based topology in the suggested PQIS-Net architecture for segmentation of lung CT slices with wide variations of local intensities. A random patch-based classification on PQIS-Net segmented slices is incorporated at the classification layers of the suggested semi-supervised shallow neural network framework. Intensive experiments have been conducted using three publicly available data sets, one for purely segmentation task and the other two for classification (COVID-19 diagnosis). The experimental outcome on segmentation of CT slices using self-supervised PQIS-Net and the diagnosis efficiency (Accuracy, Precision and AUC) of the integrated semi-supervised shallow framework is found to be promising. The proposed model is also found to be superior than the best state-of-the-art techniques and pre-trained convolutional neural network-based models, specially in COVID-19 and Mycoplasma Pneumonia (MP) screening. 2013 IEEE. -
Analysis of unsteady flow of blood conveying iron oxide nanoparticles on melting surface due to free convection using Casson model
Iron oxide nanoparticles have great importance in future biomedical applications because of their intrinsic properties, such as low toxicity, colloidal stability, and surface engineering capability. So, blood containing iron oxide nanoparticles are used in biomedical sciences as contrast agents following intravenous administration. The current problem deals with an analysis of the melting heat transfer of blood consisting iron nanoparticles in the existence of free convection. The principal equations of the problem are extremely nonlinear partial differential equations which transmute into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by applying proper similarity transformations. The acquired similarity equalities are then solved numerically by Runge-Kutta Felhsberg 45th-order method. The results acquired are on the same level with past available results. Some noteworthy findings of the study are: the rate of heat transfer increases as the Casson parameter increases and also found that the temperature of the blood can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the Prandtl number. Hence, we conclude that flow and heat transfer of blood have significant clinical importance during the stages where the blood flow needs to be checked (surgery) and the heat transfer rate must be controlled (therapy). 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC