Cadmium (Cd) uptake and accumulation in crop plants, especially in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the main concerns for food security worldwide. A field experiment was ...done to investigate the effects of limestone, lignite, and biochar on growth, physiology and Cd uptake in wheat and rice under rotation irrigated with raw effluents. Initially, each treatment was applied alone at 0.1% and combined at 0.05% each and wheat was grown in the field and then, after wheat harvesting, rice was grown in the same field without additional application of amendments. Results showed that the amendments applied increased the grain and straw yields as well as gas exchange attributes compared to the control. In both crops, highest Cd concentrations in straw and grains and total uptake were observed in control treatments while lowest Cd concentrations was observed in limestone + biochar treatment. No Cd concentrations were detected in wheat grains with the application of amendments except limestone (0.1%). The lowest Cd harvest index was observed in limestone + biochar and lignite + biochar treatments for wheat and rice respectively. Application of amendments decreased the AB-DTPA extractable Cd in the soil while increasing the Cd immobilization index after each crop harvest. The benefit-cost ratio and Cd contents in plants revealed that limestone + biochar treatment might be an effective amendment for increasing plant growth with lower Cd concentrations.
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•Limestone, lignite and biochar increased straw and grain yield of both wheat and rice.•All amendments reduced the cadmium (Cd) uptake in wheat and rice.•Lowest Cd in straw and grains was observed with the limestone + biochar application.•All amendments increased the Cd immobilization index after wheat and rice harvest.•The limestone + lignite had the highest benefit-cost ratio compared to other amendments.
Field application of amendments reduced the Cd concentrations in wheat and rice.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
This study aims to address the effects of different concentrations (0, 0.1, 1.0, 10, 100 or 1000 mg L−1) of engineered zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (34 nm in size) on growth parameters, steviol ...glycosides (rebaudioside A and stevioside) production and antioxidant activities in the tissue culture grown shoots of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. The highest percentage of shoot formation (89.6%) at 1 mg L−1 of ZnO nanoparticles concentration suggests a positive influence of ZnO nanoparticles on S. rebaudiana growth as compared to other treatments with or without ZnO nanoparticles. Additionally, HPLC results illustrate a significant enhancement of steviol glycosides (almost doubled as compared to the control) in micropropagated shoots grown under an oxidative stress of 1 mg L−1 of ZnO nanoparticles. This finding is further affirmed by an increased 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, total anti-oxidant capacity, total reducing power, total flavonoid content and total phenolic content, with an ascending oxidative pressure and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, the antioxidant activities, formation of secondary metabolites and the physiological parameters showed a sudden decline after crossing a threshold of 1 mg L−1 concentration of ZnO nanoparticles and falls to a minimum at 1000 mg L−1, elucidating maximum phytotoxic effect of ZnO nanoparticles at this concentration. This is the first study evaluating both the favorable and adverse effects of ZnO nanoparticles employed to a highly valuable medicinal plant, S. rebaudiana.
•Maximum rebaudioside-A and stevioside at 1 mg/L concentration of ZnO nanoparticles.•ZnO nanoparticles affects physiological parameters and steviol glycoside content.•ROS as a key factor for physiology and biochemical aspects of Stevia rebaudiana.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of flavonoids luteolin (L) and quercetin + luteolin (Q + L) in combination with commonly used antibacterial agents against methicillin-resistant
...(MRSA) clinical isolates and
(ATCC 43300). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of L and Q + L, as well as the MICs of flavonoids in combination with antibiotics were determined and results showed an increased activity of flavonoids with antibiotics. The synergistic, additive, or antagonistic relationships between flavonoids (L and Q + L) and antibiotics were also evaluated, and additive and synergistic effects were observed for some antibiotic + flavonoid combinations. In addition, some combinations were also found to damage the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, as assessed through potassium leakage assay. The effects of flavonoids and flavonoids + antibiotics on
gene mutations were also tested, and no functional variation was detected in the coding region.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
We consider the one-dimensional Schrödinger operator with properly connecting general point interaction at the origin. We derive a trace formula for trace of difference of resolvents of perturbed and ...unperturbed Schrödinger operators in terms of a Wronskian which results in an explicit expression for perturbation determinant. Using the estimate for large-time real argument on the trace norm of the resolvent difference of the perturbed and unperturbed Schrödinger operators we express the spectral shift function in terms of perturbation determinant. Under certain integrability conditions on the potential function, we calculate low-energy asymptotics for the perturbation determinant and prove an analog of Levinson’s formula
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Traditionally, many natural medicinal plants have been used to treat a variety of diseases since ancient times and are considered a potential source of phytochemicals for the development of new ...drugs. One of these is curcumin, which is an easily accessible, inexpensive, and nontoxic bioactive compound. Curcumin is a very important, naturally occurring, and highly lipophilic and phenolic substance derived from the rhizomes of plant Curcuma longa, a member of the Zingiberaceae (ginger) family, which is mostly used as a curry spice, flavoring agent, insect repellent, coloring agent in food, traditional drug, and ingredient in cosmetics. Modern scientific research has demonstrated that it has wide range of pharmacological activities and medicinal properties against various types of diseases, disorders, and syndromes. Because it has been known for many years to have excellent therapeutic potential against various diseases, much research has been devoted to this natural product. This review briefly summarizes the scope, therapeutic potential and clinical applications of curcumin.
Due to excessive heating, various physical mechanisms are less effective in engineering and modern technologies. The aligned electromagnetic field performs as insulation that absorbs the heat from ...the surroundings, which is an essential feature in contemporary technologies, to decrease high temperatures. The major goal of the present investigation is to use magnetism perpendicular to the surface to address this issue. Numerical simulations have been made of the MHD convective heat and amplitude problem of electrical fluid flow down a horizontally non-magnetized circular heated cylinder with reduced gravity and thermal stratification. The associated non-linear PDEs that control fluid motion can be conveniently represented using the finite-difference algorithm and primitive element substitution. The FORTRAN application was used to compute the quantitative outcomes, which are then displayed in diagrams and table formats. The physical features, including the phase angle, skin friction, transfer of heat, and electrical density for velocity description, the magnetic characteristics, and the temperature distribution, coupled by their gradients, have an impact on each of the variables in the flow simulation. In the domains of MRI resonant patterns, prosthetic heartvalves, interior heart cavities, and nanoburning devices, the existing magneto-hydrodynamics and thermodynamic scenario are significant. The main findings of the current work are that the dimensionless velocity of the fluid increases as the gravity factor Rg decreases. The prominent change in the phase angle of current density αm and heat flux αt is examined for each value of the buoyancy parameter at both α=π/6 and π angles. The transitory skin friction and heat transfer rate shows a prominent magnitude of oscillation at both α=π/6 and π/2 positions, but current density increases with a higher magnitude of oscillation.
Light-weight and accurate mapping is made possible by high-level feature extraction from sensor readings. In this paper, the high-level B-spline features from a 2D LIDAR are extracted with a faster ...method as a solution to the mapping problem, making it possible for the robot to interact with its environment while navigating. The computation time of feature extraction is very crucial when mobile robots perform real-time tasks. In addition to the existing assessment measures of B-spline feature extraction methods, the paper also includes a new benchmark time metric for evaluating how well the extracted features perform. For point-to-point association, the most reliable vertex control points of the spline features generated from the hints of low-level point feature FALKO were chosen. The standard three indoor and one outdoor data sets were used for the experiment. The experimental results based on benchmark performance metrics, specifically computation time, show that the presented approach achieves better results than the state-of-the-art methods for extracting B-spline features. The classification of the methods implemented in the B-spline features detection and the algorithms are also presented in the paper.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder develops due to the overproduction of free radicals where oxidative stress could contribute it. Possible factors are defective ...insulin signals, glucose oxidation, and degradation of glycated proteins as well as alteration in glutathione metabolism which induced hyperglycemia. Previous studies revealed a link between T2DM with oxidative stress, inflammation and insulin resistance which are assumed to be regulated by numerous cellular networks such as NF-κB, PI3K/Akt, MAPK, GSK3 and PPARγ. Flavonoids are ubiquitously present in the nature and classified according to their chemical structures for example, flavonols, flavones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanidins, flavanones, and isoflavones. Flavonoids indicate poor bioavailability which could be improved by employing various nano-delivery systems against the occurrences of T2DM. These bioactive compounds exert versatile anti-diabetic activities via modulating targeted cellular signaling networks, thereby, improving glucose metabolism, α -glycosidase, and glucose transport or aldose reductase by carbohydrate metabolic pathway in pancreatic β-cells, hepatocytes, adipocytes and skeletal myofibres. Moreover, anti-diabetic properties of flavonoids also encounter diabetic related complications. This review article has designed to shed light on the anti-diabetic potential of flavonoids, contribution of oxidative stress, evidence of efficacy in clinical, cellular and animal studies and nano-delivery approaches to enhance their therapeutic efficacy. This article might give some new insights for therapeutic intervention against T2DM in near future.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The cadmium (Cd) uptake and accumulation in the cereal crops like wheat and rice are a serious concern in recent years. Application of various organic amendments in Cd-contaminated soil is an ...effective technique in management of crop growth and health as organic amendments not only promote plant’s growth but also check Cd translocation in plants. For this purpose, 3 organic amendments (wheat straw biochar (WSB), cotton stick biochar (CSB), and compost comp) were applied @ 0.5% (under randomized complete block design with 4 replicates) in sewage water fed Cd-contaminated soil for effective locking of Cd in soil being cultivated with wheat and rice. The experiment was completed in almost 1 year (December 2014 to November 2015). Our results revealed that all amendments can enhance plant growth and physiology and decrease soil bioavailable Cd contents, but WSB was most prominent among 3 applied. Our results conclude that WSB can enhance straw yield (29.20 and 26.78% for wheat and rice) and grain yield (22.69% and 26.70%) and boast all physiological attributes (chlorophyll contents, stomatal/substomatal conductance, photosynthetic and transpiration rate). Application of WSB decreased post-harvest bioavailable soil Cd contents after wheat and rice crops to 56.37, 48.99% and 7.63, 26.78% in 0–15-cm and 15–30-cm soil depths, respectively. The WSB also decreased Cd translocation in grain, thus helping in decreasing the health risk index (HRI) associated with Cd-contaminated grain consumptions. For economics, amendment application in wheat crops increases its cost, so the benefit–cost ratio was observed to be less than 1. But for upcoming cropping seasons, residues of amendments will still be actively influencing plant growth and yield, so we expect a net higher benefit–cost ratio proving long-lasting use of amendments (especially WSB) a net beneficial approach.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Background There is a paucity of data on the feasibility of same-day discharge (SDD) following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) at a national level. Methods and Results This study used ...data from the Nationwide Readmission Database from the fourth quarter of 2015 through 2019 and identified patients undergoing TAVI using the claim code 02RF3. A total of 158 591 weighted hospitalizations for TAVI were included in the analysis. Of the patients undergoing TAVI, 961 (0.6%) experienced SDD. Non-SDDs included 65 814 (41.5%) patients who underwent TAVI who were discharged the next day, and 91 816 (57.9%) discharged on the second or third day. The 30-day readmission rate for SDD after TAVI was similar to non-SDD TAVI (9.8% versus 8.9%,
=0.31). The cumulative incidence of 30-day readmissions for SDD was higher compared with next-day discharge (log-rank
=0.01) but comparable to second- or third-day discharge (log-rank
=0.66). At 30 days, no differences were observed in major or minor vascular complications, heart failure, or ischemic stroke for SDD compared with non-SDD. Acute kidney injury, pacemaker implantation, and bleeding complications were lower with SDD. Predictors associated with SDD included age <85 years, male sex, and prior pacemaker placement, whereas left bundle-branch block, right bundle-branch block, second-degree heart block, heart failure, prior percutaneous coronary intervention, and atrial fibrillation were negatively associated with SDD. Conclusions SDD following TAVI is associated with similar 30-day readmission and complication rates compared with non-SDD. Further prospective studies are needed to assess the safety and feasibility of SDD after TAVI.
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