Satellite-based remote sensing has a key role in the monitoring earth features, but due to flaws like cloud penetration capability and selective duration for remote sensing in traditional remote ...sensing methods, now the attention has shifted towards the use of alternative methods such as microwave or radar sensing technology. Microwave remote sensing utilizes synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology for remote sensing and it can operate in all weather conditions. Previous researchers have reported about effects of SAR pre-processing for urban objects detection and mapping. Preparing high accuracy urban maps are critical to disaster planning and response efforts, thus result from this study can help to users on the required pre-processing steps and its effects. Owing to the induced errors (such as calibration, geometric, speckle noise) in the radar images, these images are affected by several distortions, therefore these distortions need to be processed before any applications, as it causes issues in image interpretation and these can destroy valuable information about shapes, size, pattern and tone of various desired objects. The present work aims to utilize the sentinel-1 SAR datasets for urban studies (i.e. urban object detection through simulation of filter properties). The work uses C-band SAR datasets acquired from Sentinel-1A/B sensor, and the Google Earth datasets to validate the recognized objects. It was observed that the Refined-Lee filter performed well to provide detailed information about the various urban objects. It was established that the attempted approach cannot be generalised as one suitable method for sensing or identifying accurate urban objects from the C-band SAR images. Hence some more datasets in different polarisation combinations are required to be attempted.
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The study aims to evaluate the potency of two hundred natural antiviral phytocompounds against the active site of the Severe Acquired Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus − 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Main-Protease ...(M
pro
) using AutoDock 4.2.6. The three- dimensional crystal structure of the M
pro
(PDB Id: 6LU7) was retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the active site was predicted using MetaPocket 2.0. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved viral protease inhibitors were used as standards for comparison of results. The compounds theaflavin-3-3'-digallate, rutin, hypericin, robustaflavone, and (-)-solenolide A with respective binding energy of −12.41 (Ki = 794.96 pM); −11.33 (Ki = 4.98 nM); −11.17 (Ki = 6.54 nM); −10.92 (Ki = 9.85 nM); and −10.82 kcal/mol (Ki = 11.88 nM) were ranked top as Coronavirus Disease − 2019 (COVID-19) M
pro
inhibitors. The interacting amino acid residues were visualized using Discovery Studio 3.5 to elucidate the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional interactions. The study was validated by i) re-docking the N3-peptide inhibitor-M
pro
and superimposing them onto co-crystallized complex and ii) docking decoy ligands to M
pro
. The ligands that showed low binding energy were further predicted for and pharmacokinetic properties and Lipinski's rule of 5 and the results are tabulated and discussed. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed for 50 ns for those compounds using the Desmond package, Schrödinger to assess the conformational stability and fluctuations of protein-ligand complexes during the simulation. Thus, the natural compounds could act as a lead for the COVID-19 regimen after in-vitro and in- vivo clinical trials.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
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Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) fibrilization and deposition as β-amyloid are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. We recently reported Aβ is an innate immune protein that protects against fungal ...and bacterial infections. Fibrilization pathways mediate Aβ antimicrobial activities. Thus, infection can seed and dramatically accelerate β-amyloid deposition. Here, we show Aβ oligomers bind herpesvirus surface glycoproteins, accelerating β-amyloid deposition and leading to protective viral entrapment activity in 5XFAD mouse and 3D human neural cell culture infection models against neurotropic herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) and human herpesvirus 6A and B. Herpesviridae are linked to AD, but it has been unclear how viruses may induce β-amyloidosis in brain. These data support the notion that Aβ might play a protective role in CNS innate immunity, and suggest an AD etiological mechanism in which herpesviridae infection may directly promote Aβ amyloidosis.
•Human Aβ protects against herpesviridae in AD mouse and 3D human neuronal cell cultures•Fibrilization mediates Aβ antiherpetic activities, entrapping viruses in β-amyloid•Herpesviridae infections dramatically accelerate Aβ-amyloidosis in AD models
Eimer et al. report that Aβ traps herpes viruses in insoluble deposits called amyloid. High amyloid accumulation is known to drive Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Hence, this study suggests that active herpes infections in brain may accelerate amyloid deposition and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
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While fulfilling the food demand of an increasing population remains a major global concern, more than one-third of food is lost or wasted in postharvest operations. Reducing the postharvest losses, ...especially in developing countries, could be a sustainable solution to increase food availability, reduce pressure on natural resources, eliminate hunger and improve farmers' livelihoods. Cereal grains are the basis of staple food in most of the developing nations, and account for the maximum postharvest losses on a calorific basis among all agricultural commodities. As much as 50%-60% cereal grains can be lost during the storage stage due only to the lack of technical inefficiency. Use of scientific storage methods can reduce these losses to as low as 1%-2%. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the grain postharvest losses in developing countries, the status and causes of storage losses and discusses the technological interventions to reduce these losses. The basics of hermetic storage, various technology options, and their effectiveness on several crops in different localities are discussed in detail.
The amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) is a key protein in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. We previously reported in vitro evidence suggesting that Aβ is an antimicrobial peptide. We present in vivo data ...showing that Aβ expression protects against fungal and bacterial infections in mouse, nematode, and cell culture models of AD. We show that Aβ oligomerization, a behavior traditionally viewed as intrinsically pathological, may be necessary for the antimicrobial activities of the peptide. Collectively, our data are consistent with a model in which soluble Aβ oligomers first bind to microbial cell wall carbohydrates via a heparin-binding domain. Developing protofibrils inhibited pathogen adhesion to host cells. Propagating β-amyloid fibrils mediate agglutination and eventual entrapment of unatttached microbes. Consistent with our model, Salmonella Typhimurium bacterial infection of the brains of transgenic 5XFAD mice resulted in rapid seeding and accelerated β-amyloid deposition, which closely colocalized with the invading bacteria. Our findings raise the intriguing possibility that β-amyloid may play a protective role in innate immunity and infectious or sterile inflammatory stimuli may drive amyloidosis. These data suggest a dual protective/damaging role for Aβ, as has been described for other antimicrobial peptides.
This volume brings together information on the available and newly emerging technologies related to using plant compounds that have a beneficial role in food production. It is divided into sections ...focusing on phytochemistry of cereals and legumes, phytochemistry of medicinal plants, and technological advances in phytochemical study.
Topics include
the role of anti-nutritional substances of legumes in human health and on the elimination of such through technological processing
sorghum phytochemicals and their processing and use in the development of food products
production of nutraceuticals and functional foods of pharmaceutical importance
T. cordifolia in the development of its therapeutic use in the food, health, and pharmacology industries
polyphenolic compounds of plants, including their biosynthesis process, their classification, function, and role as bioactive compounds
Numerous efforts have been taken to exhibit scientific advancement in solar energy analysis. The current study attempts to demonstrate an approach for the solar resource variability analysis at a ...spatial scale in the southern states of India. This work utilized the satellite-derived modelled solar insolation datasets due to the global unavailability of in-situ meteorological data sets (especially solar radiation data). The visualization of solar insolation components including direct normal irradiance (DNI) and global horizontal irradiance (GHI) provided an opportunity to understand the energy configurations and it's potential. An average DNI variation of 5.21 kWh/m2 and GHI variation of 5.72 kWh/m2 was observed. The ancillary analysis presented a detailed map for southern states of India at a grid resolution of 100 km x 100 km. Thereafter DNI and GHI distribution map for selected random points were estimated. The precise summary statistics stated that maximum and minimum values of DNI range from 3.72 kWh/m2 to 5.59 kWh/m2 with an average value of 5.18 kWh/m2 and likewise maximum and minimum values of GHI ranges from 4.91 kWh/m2 to 5.99 kWh/m2 with an average value of 5.71 kWh/m2. It was observed that the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have a better prospect for further applications. The obtained results provided datasets for further analysis to comprehend the spatial distribution at a regional or national level. These will be very much useful for better energy planning for sound decision making.
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This article attempts to explore the actual citizen participation practices. Scholarly articles on smart cities have investigated different aspects of the smart city paradigm. Despite increased ...scholarships on smart cities examining the citizen-centric claim, the praxis of citizen participation has not received much attention. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore and understand the ‘actual practices’ of citizen participation in smart cities and how can an inclusive and equitable citizen participation can be ensured. Based on an in-depth review and analysis of secondary data, this article argues that enabling “active” involvement of citizenry through a rights-based approach can make citizen participation a worthwhile endeavor in the development process, which is equitable, inclusive and sustainable.
Scientific and industrial development has given rise to a rapidly increasing energy demand. Alternative and augmented energy resources are expected everywhere due to scarcity and depletion of other ...non-renewable resources. During recent years wind and solar had emerged as a promising cleaner energy source to offer a favourable solution with better efficiency. Hence, the attention has now diverted towards scaling up of hybrid system of energy generation. Numerous attempts have been taken to demonstrate the technological development concerning the requirement of the region. Whilst some research has already started to evaluate the working of the prototype, insignificant attention has been paid towards it. The current work also focuses on the simulation with hybrid urban renewable energy systems for techno-economic feasibility analysis. There were earlier attempts to report the advancement occurred in the technological, scientific and industrial sector due to hybrid renewable energy system. In some regard, it was an attempt to showcase the modelling of a typical urban requirement in an hourly load profile to identify in the energy potentials of the urban region. These will help to summarize the past, present and future trends of the hybrid energy system design, development and implementation for the urban region, which can be later on replicated to other parts of the world.
•Sharing economy firms face a complex regulatory environment.•They are tempted to explore alternate strategies that can vitiate stakeholder trust.•We propose and validate a new camouflage strategic ...alternative – Neutralize.•This offers a short-term upside for trust with a limited downside when detected.•Study makes salient contribution to strategy, sharing economy and trust literature.
Sharing economy businesses consider trust as core to their success. However, numerous reports indicate that these organizations are susceptible to malpractices and may adopt alternate deviant strategies such as camouflage. Based on the theoretical perspectives of interpersonal deception theory, stakeholder principle, and transparency theory, this study proposes and validates 'neutralize’ as a new type of camouflage strategy. We compare neutralize strategy with concealment, an adjacent camouflage strategy type, and study their respective impacts on organizational trustworthiness and trust. Our findings indicate that neutralize strategy offers a significant short-term upside potential along with a lower downside when detected. This result contrasts with concealment strategy, which brings no appreciable gain but carries significant downside risk if detected. From a trust perspective, this makes neutralize a dominant strategic choice for organizations. This research makes salient contributions by integrating three distinct literature streams related to organization response strategies, trust dynamics, and the sharing economy.
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