Plant species represent the hierarchical expression of vegetation as it is affected by various environmental gradients. We explored the plant species composition, distribution pattern, communities ...formation and their respective indicators under the influence of various environmental factors in the Dhirkot region, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It was hypothesized that different environmental factors were responsible for the formation of various plant communities each with a distinct indicator. Quantitative ecological techniques were used for the sampling of vegetation. A total of 114 quadrats were established in 13 selected sampling sites. Phytosociological attributes were calculated for each plant species at each quadrat. Soil samples were collected and analyzed using different standard protocols. All the collected data were analyzed using Cluster Analysis, Indicator Species Analysis and Canonical Correspondence Analysis of PCORD and CANOCO software, respectively. A total of 145 plant species were recorded belong to 62 different families. Asteraceae and Lamiaceae were the dominant families, represented by 12 species each (8.27%). Cluster Analysis classify all the stations and plants into four major plant communities as 1) Olea-Desmodium-Prunilla community. 2) Abies-Zanthoxylum-Pteracanthus community 3) Cedrus-Elaeagnus-Hypericum community 4) Alnus-Myrsine-Ranunculus community. Soil pH, electrical conductivity, soil saturation, organic matter and altitude were the significant environmental factors that play its essential role in the plant species distribution, composition, formation of major plant communities and their respective indicators in the region. It is recommended that the identified indicator and rare plant species of the investigated area can further be grown for conservation and management purposes in in-situ environment.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The engine oil signifies key importance in the automobile industry. The thermal capataince of engine oil is quite necessary to retained the peak performances. The aim of current research is to ...enhance the thermal mechanism of engine oil base fluid with applications of hybrid-nanofluid. The graphene oxide and molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles are used to justify the thermal mechanism of hybrid nanofluid. The contribution of magnetic force and buoyancy forces are consdeired. The equations of velocity and temperature are transformed into non-dimensional forms with dimensionless parameters. The problem is transformed to fractional form by employing the Atangana-Baleanu fractional approach and generalized Fourier’s law. These equations are solved with the Laplace transform. Disparities in momentum and energy are exposed to several fractional and material parameters. It has been observed that temperature profile increases due to nanoparticles volume fraction and fractional parameter. The increasing impact of Grashof number is observed on velocity field.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In present investigation, the axisymmetric analysis for the Casson nano-material has been analyzed due to two parallel stretchable disks. The novel thermophoresis and Brownian aspects of nanofluid ...are studied by using Buongiorno nanofluid model. Similarity transformations are applied on the system of governing equations that renovate it into the problem into proper dimensionless form. The homotopic procedure is suggested for the determination of solution. The role of numerous parameters on dimensionless velocity and temperature are observed in very effective way. To study the effect of Brownian motion and thermophoresis diffusion parameter, Buongiorno model is adopted. Radial and axial velocity profile has increasing behavior for stretching ratio and Casson parameter. As the value of Biot number and thermophoresis parameter enhanced, the concentration profile also enhances and concentration profile declines due to increase in value of Brownian motion parameter. Temperature profile decreases as the value of Reynolds number and Prandtl number increased. The values of Sherwood number, Nusselt number and Skin friction are calculated at upper and lower disk to understand the behavior of stretching disks.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
After discovering a new class of two-dimensional (2D) material, i.e., MXene, a further new scope, came into existence for researchers. Due to their remarkable physical, chemical, and biological ...properties, MXenes find their role in almost every research discipline. They have been used in biosensors, bioimaging, tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and other areas. The MXenes can be functionalized with a wide range of atoms/molecules, making them diverse materials. Therefore, the potential of using MXenes in nanofibers can be much more than expected. In this review, we will understand the structure, synthesis, and general properties of MXenes. We will explain using MXenes while encasing them into nanofibers, providing their specific properties. For instance, MXenes-incorporated nanofibers are used in biomedical applications, including soft and hard-tissue engineering and delivery of antimicrobials. Furthermore, MXenes, when incorporated into nanofibers, are used in promoting cellular differentiation, wound healing, and neural tissue restoration, which are briefly discussed in this communication.
MXenes can be used as potential two-dimensional (2D) material for enhancing the biomedical application of nanofibers. Display omitted
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study investigates the impact of radiative heat flux phenomena and magnetized Casson nanofluid flow on boundary layer flow along a non-linear stretching surface. Brownian motion and ...thermophoresis effects are used to highlight the properties of the nanofluid, including electrical conductivity. The flow curves and fluid behavior of particle suspensions in lithographic coatings used to make printing paints are well-described by the nonlinear Casson framework. Suction, chemical reaction, and a homogeneous magnetic field are all considered. An effective Levenberg-Marquardt Methodology (LMM) for artificial neural networks (ANNs) method is presented in this article. The LMM is one of the back-propagation algorithms with the lowest nonlinear latency. The required changes are necessary to convert a quasi-network of partial differential equations (PDEs) expressing the chemical reaction of the Casson nanofluid and radiative heat flux into a set of standards. The couple system regarding the model are facilitated via numerical shooting algorithm The compared to prior findings, the current ones have a very high degree of accuracy. The effects of different factors on the rate of heat transfer, the skin friction coefficient, the concentration of nanoparticles, the Sherwood number, the velocity, and the temperature profiles are illustrated in a tabular and visual form. The temperature and concentration fields exhibit the opposite effect on velocity as magnetic parameters change. The fluid's velocity is slowed down by a Lorentz force that is stronger at greater values of the magnetic field. Due to the suction parameter, the thickness of the momentum, temperature, and concentration boundary layers decreases. In physical terms, pressure forces are generated in the flow when the suction parameter is positive, and the opposite occurs when the suction parameter is negative. It is revealed that enhancement in thermal and concentration phenomenon is predicted by increasing Casson fluid parameter. For ANN analysis, the gradient numerical values reduced upon enhancing the number of epoch.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Phosphate (P) and zinc (Zn) are essential plant nutrients required for nodulation, nitrogen-fixation, plant growth and yield. Mostly applied P and Zn nutrients in the soil are converted into ...unavailable form. A small number of soil microbes have the ability to transform unsolvable forms of P and Zn to an available form. P-Zn-solubilizing rhizobacteria are potential alternates for P and Zn supplement. In the present study, the effect of two P-Zn-solubilizing bacterial strains (Bacillus sp. strain AZ17 and Pseudomonas sp. strain AZ5) was evaluated on the growth of chickpea plant.
Both strains were purified from the rhizospheric soil of chickpea plant grown-up in sandy soil and rain-fed area (Thal desert). In vitro, both strains solubilize P and Zn as well both strain produce IAA and organic acids. In the field experiments, conducted in the rain-fed area, the positive influence of inoculation with both bacterial isolates AZ5 and AZ17 on chickpea growth was observed.
The application of inoculum (strains AZ5 and AZ17) resulted in up to 17.47% and 17.34% increase in grain yield of both types of chickpea grown in fertilized and non-fertilized soil, respectively over non-inoculated control. Strain AZ5 was the most effective inoculum, increasing up to 17.47%, 16.04%, 26.32%, 22.53%, 26.12% and 22.59% in grain yield, straw weight, nodules number, dry weight of nodules, Zn uptake and P uptake respectively, over control.
These results indicated that Pseudomonas sp. strain AZ5 and Bacillus sp. strain AZ17 can serve as effective microbial inocula for chickpea, particularly in the rain-fed area.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Due to the increased demand for clothes by the growing population, the dye-based sectors have seen fast growth in the recent decade. Among all the dyes, methylene blue dye is the most commonly used ...in textiles, resulting in dye effluent contamination. It is carcinogenic, which raises the stakes for the environment. The numerous sources of methylene blue dye and their effective treatment procedures are addressed in the current review. Even among nanoparticles, photocatalytic materials, such as TiO2, ZnO, and Fe3O4, have shown greater potential for photocatalytic methylene blue degradation. Such nano-sized metal oxides are the most ideal materials for the removal of water pollutants, as these materials are related to the qualities of flexibility, simplicity, efficiency, versatility, and high surface reactivity. The use of nanoparticles generated from waste materials to remediate methylene blue is highlighted in the present review.
Entropy optimization in convective viscous fluids flow due to a rotating cone is explored. Heat expression with heat source/sink and dissipation is considered. Irreversibility with binary chemical ...reaction is also deliberated. Nonlinear system is reduced to ODEs by suitable variables. Newton built in shooting procedure is adopted for numerical solution. Salient features velocity filed, Bejan number, entropy rate, concentration and temperature are deliberated. Numerical outcomes for velocity gradient and mass and heat transfer rates are displayed through tables. Assessments between the current and previous published outcomes are in an excellent agreement. It is noted that velocity and temperature show contrasting behavior for larger variable viscosity parameter. Entropy rate and Bejan number have reverse effect against viscosity variable. For rising values of thermal conductivity variable both Bejan number and entropy optimization have similar effect.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In recent decades, an interest has been developed towards the thermal consequences of nanofluid because of utilization of nano-materials to improve the thermal conductivity of traditional liquid and ...subsequently enhance the heat transportation phenomenon. Following this primarily concept, this current work investigates the thermal developed flow of third-grade nanofluid configured by a stretched surface with additional features of activation energy, viscous dissipation and second-order slip. Buongiorno’s nanofluid model is used to explore the thermophoresis and Brownian motion features based on symmetry fundamentals. It is further assumed that the nanoparticles contain gyrotactic microorganisms, which are associated with the most fascination bioconvection phenomenon. The flow problem owing to the partial differential equations is renovated into dimensional form, which is numerically simulated with the help of bvp4c, by using MATLAB software. The aspects of various physical parameters associated to the current analysis are graphically examined against nanoparticles’ velocity, temperature, concentration and gyrotactic microorganisms’ density distributions. Further, the objective of local Nusselt number, local Sherwood number and motile density number are achieved numerically with variation of various parameters. The results presented here may find valuable engineering applications, like cooling liquid metals, solar systems, power production, solar energy, thermal extrusion systems cooling of machine equipment, transformer oil and microelectronics. Further, flow of nanoparticles containing gyrotactic microorganisms has interesting applications in microbial fuel cells, microfluidic devices, bio-technology and enzyme biosensors.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
One of the essential anthropogenic influences on urban climate is land-use/land-cover (LULC) change due to urbanization, which has a direct impact on land surface temperature (LST). However, LULC ...changes affect LST, and further, urban heat island (UHI) still needs to be investigated. In this study, we estimated changes in LULC from 1993 to 2018, its warming (positive) and cooling (negative) effect, and their contribution to relative LST (RLST) in the city of Islamabad using satellite remote-sensing data. The LULC was classified using a random forest (RF) classifier, and LST was retrieved by a standardized radiative transfer equation (RTE). Our results reveal that the impervious surfaces has increased by 11.9% on the cost of declining barren land, forest land, grass/agriculture land, and water bodies in the last 26 years. LULC conversion contributed warming effects such as forest land, water bodies, and grass/agriculture land transformed into impervious surfaces, inducing a warming contribution of 1.52 °C. In contrast, the replacement of barren land and impervious surfaces by forest land and water bodies may have a cooling contribution of −0.85 °C to RLST. Furthermore, based on the standardized scale (10%) of LULC changes, the conversion of forest land into impervious surfaces contributed 1% compared to back conversion by −0.2%. The positive contribution to UHI due to the transformation of a natural surface to the human-made surface was found higher than the negative (cooler) contribution due to continued anthropogenic activities. The information will be useful for urban managers and decision makers in land-use planning to control the soaring surface temperature for a comfortable living environment and sustainable cities.