A hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) active solar still and a conventional passive solar still with single slope were designed, fabricated and experimented at three different water depths (0.05m, ...0.10m, and 0.15m). For the higher production of distillate water, a nickel-chromium (NiCr) heater powered by solar photovoltaic (PV) was incorporated in the proposed hybrid active still. Solar PV module was cooled by the saline water which increases the efficiency of the solar PV as well as the distillate water production. The daily yield from the proposed hybrid active (PV/T) solar still is 6 times more than the conventional passive still. This new system of renewable energy based power and distillate water production is highly self-sustainable in the remote areas. From the experimental study it is clear that, the proposed hybrid active (PV/T) solar still gives an enhanced overall thermal and electrical efficiency, that is nearly 25% higher than the conventional passive one.
•Nickel-Chromium (NiCr) heater is incorporated in the still powered by solar PV for the higher production of distillate water.•Water to the basin still is preheated by the solar PV that makes the solar PV cool and effective.•The yield from the proposed still is improved about 6 times the passive still.•Cooling the solar PV enhances its efficiency to 37.5% more than the conventional system.
The present study reports the genetic damage and the concentrations of trace metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons prevailing in natural populations of an edible fish, Arius arius in different ...seasons along the coast of Goa, India as an indicator of the pollution status of coastal water. Fish were collected from a suspected polluted site and a reference site in the pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Physico-chemical parameters as well as the concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and trace metals in the water and sediment as well as the tissues of fish collected from these sites were recorded. The genotoxicity status of the fish was assessed employing the micronucleus test and comet assay. A positive correlation (p<0.001) was observed between the tail DNA and micronuclei in all the fish collected. Multiple regression analysis revealed that tissue and environmental pollutant concentrations and genotoxicity were positively associated and higher in the tissues of the fish collected from the polluted site. Pollution indicators and genotoxicity tests, combined with other physiological or biochemical parameters represent an essential integrated approach for efficient monitoring of aquatic ecosystems in Goa.
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•Genotoxicity assessment in Arius arius at polluted and unpolluted sites in Goa.•Trace metals and TPHs exhibit bioaccumulation in A. arius.•Environmental and tissue levels of pollutants are positively associated.•Pollutant concentrations are positively correlated with genotoxicity.•A. arius is a suitable bioindicator species.
Ten days old seedlings of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L var. HC-1) were foliar sprayed with 1.5 or 10 ppm aqueous solution of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and effects were compared with corresponding ...concentration of zinc sulphate and ZnO of normal size. Maximum promontory response with respect to shoot dry weight was observed in seedlings treated with 1.5 ppm ZnO nanoparticles while at 10 ppm the nanoparticles exerted adverse effects on root growth. However, overall biomass accumulation improved in the ZnO nanoparticle treated seedlings. This response may be attributed to low reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels which resulted in less lipid peroxidation as evident from lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content. This was associated with lower activity of prominent antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase ZnO nanoparticle treated seedling compared to control. The study indicates importance in precise application of zinc, more so in deficient system, where plant response varies with concentration and is important in understanding the mechanism of action of specific nanomaterials.
The enormous popularity of the internet across all spheres of human life has introduced various risks of malicious attacks in the network. The activities performed over the network could be ...effortlessly proliferated, which has led to the emergence of intrusion detection systems. The patterns of the attacks are also dynamic, which necessitates efficient classification and prediction of cyber attacks. In this paper we propose a hybrid principal component analysis (PCA)-firefly based machine learning model to classify intrusion detection system (IDS) datasets. The dataset used in the study is collected from Kaggle. The model first performs One-Hot encoding for the transformation of the IDS datasets. The hybrid PCA-firefly algorithm is then used for dimensionality reduction. The XGBoost algorithm is implemented on the reduced dataset for classification. A comprehensive evaluation of the model is conducted with the state of the art machine learning approaches to justify the superiority of our proposed approach. The experimental results confirm the fact that the proposed model performs better than the existing machine learning models.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a wide spectrum of manifestations ranging from nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis and eventually ...cirrhosis. The prevalence of NAFLD has been shown to be increasing over time; however, the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and advanced fibrosis over time has not been well studied. Estimate the changes in prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis among adults in the United States.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data obtained during the periods from 1999-2002 and 2009-2012 were analyzed to estimate the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis in subjects aged ≥18 years at the time of enrollment. We excluded patients with viral hepatitis, excessive alcohol consumption, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) >500 and patients who were pregnant. Cirrhosis was defined by AST to platelet ratio index (APRI) >2 and abnormal liver function tests. NASH cirrhosis was defined as cirrhosis that presented with at least one of the following: obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR≥3), and metabolic syndrome. Advanced fibrosis was defined by using well-established cutoff values for APRI, fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS). Population weighted prevalence was calculated separately for two groups to account for complex sampling method of NHANES.
A total of 7034 NHANES participants from 1999-2002 and 2009-2012 group were included with mean age of 46.2±0.59 and 47.3±0.51 years, respectively, at the time of screening. The prevalence of NASH cirrhosis was significantly higher in 2009-2012 group (0.178% with an estimated 417,524 American adults with NASH-associated cirrhosis) compared to 1999-2002 group (0.072%); P value<0.05. The prevalence of NAFLD with advanced fibrosis also increased from 0.84 to 1.75% during the same time period (P value<0.001) corresponding to 4,104,871 American adults. During these time periods, there were also significant increases in obesity (29.8 vs. 36.6%), diabetes (8.3 vs. 11.9%), and insulin resistance (34.7 vs. 42.1%); P value <0.005 for all of them.
There has been a 2.5-fold and 2-fold increases in the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis, respectively, in 2009-2012 compared to 1999-2002. Extrapolation of NHANES data suggests that in 2010, 417,524 in the US had NASH cirrhosis, and 4,104,871 had NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis. This represents a major disease burden and suggests the need for widespread programs to identify and treat those affected, and public health efforts aimed at controlling the burden of NAFLD and its complications.
In the next few years, smart farming will reach each and every nook of the world. The prospects of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for smart farming are immense. However, the cost and the ease ...in controlling UAVs for smart farming might play an important role for motivating farmers to use UAVs in farming. Mostly, UAVs are controlled by remote controllers using radio waves. There are several technologies such as Wi-Fi or ZigBee that are also used for controlling UAVs. However, Smart Bluetooth (also referred to as Bluetooth Low Energy) is a wireless technology used to transfer data over short distances. Smart Bluetooth is cheaper than other technologies and has the advantage of being available on every smart phone. Farmers can use any smart phone to operate their respective UAVs along with Bluetooth Smart enabled agricultural sensors in the future. However, certain requirements and challenges need to be addressed before UAVs can be operated for smart agriculture-related applications. Hence, in this article, an attempt has been made to explore the types of sensors suitable for smart farming, potential requirements and challenges for operating UAVs in smart agriculture. We have also identified the future applications of using UAVs in smart farming.
Monocrotophos (MCP) is a highly toxic and broad-spectrum pesticide extensively used for agricultural and household purposes. The present study was aimed to evaluate the genotoxicity and alterations ...in the biochemical and physiological conditions induced by monocrotophos in a non-target organism, an estuarine bivalve,
Donax incarnatus
. The bivalves were exposed to three sub-lethal concentrations (6.8, 13.7, and 27.45 ppm) of MCP for a period of 72 h. DNA damage was assessed using the comet assay. Oxidative stress was analyzed using catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase. Neurotoxicity was evaluated using the acetylcholinesterase assay (AChE) and the physiological condition was assessed using the condition index (CI). A significant concentration-dependent increase of DNA damage was observed as well as a decline in the activities of the antioxidant enzymes. However, a decrease in DNA damage was observed with advancing time. A significant decrease of AChE activity and CI was observed in the bivalves exposed to MCP. Positive correlations were also observed between DNA damage and the antioxidant enzymes whereas negative correlations were observed between AChE and the antioxidant enzymes indicating MCP toxicity mediated by oxidative stress.
In this paper, we evaluate several timely, daily air-sea heat flux products (NCEP, NCEP2, ERA-Interim and OAFlux/ISCCP) against observations and present the newly developed TropFlux product. This new ...product uses bias-corrected ERA-interim and ISCCP data as input parameters to compute air-sea fluxes from the COARE v3.0 algorithm. Wind speed is corrected for mesoscale gustiness. Surface net shortwave radiation is based on corrected ISCCP data. We extend the shortwave radiation time series by using “near real-time” SWR estimated from outgoing longwave radiation. All products reproduce consistent intraseasonal surface net heat flux variations associated with the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Indian Ocean, but display more disparate interannual heat flux variations associated with El Niño in the eastern Pacific. They also exhibit marked differences in mean values and seasonal cycle. Comparison with global tropical moored buoy array data, I-COADS and fully independent mooring data sets shows that the two NCEP products display lowest correlation to mooring turbulent fluxes and significant biases. ERA-interim data captures well temporal variability, but with significant biases. OAFlux and TropFlux perform best. All products have issues in reproducing observed longwave radiation. Shortwave flux is much better captured by ISCCP data than by any of the re-analyses. Our “near real-time” shortwave radiation performs better than most re-analyses, but tends to underestimate variability over the cold tongues of the Atlantic and Pacific. Compared to independent mooring data, NCEP and NCEP2 net heat fluxes display ~0.78 correlation and >65 W m
−2
rms-difference, ERA-I performs better (~0.86 correlation and ~48 W m
−2
) while OAFlux and TropFlux perform best (~0.9 correlation and ~43 W m
−2
). TropFlux hence provides a useful option for studying flux variability associated with ocean–atmosphere interactions, oceanic heat budgets and climate fluctuations in the tropics.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women globally. Despite advances, there is considerable variation in clinical outcomes for ...patients with non-luminal A tumors, classified as difficult-to-treat breast cancers (DTBC). This study aims to delineate the proteogenomic landscape of DTBC tumors compared to luminal A (LumA) tumors.
We retrospectively collected a total of 117 untreated primary breast tumor specimens, focusing on DTBC subtypes. Breast tumors were processed by laser microdissection (LMD) to enrich tumor cells. DNA, RNA, and protein were simultaneously extracted from each tumor preparation, followed by whole genome sequencing, paired-end RNA sequencing, global proteomics and phosphoproteomics. Differential feature analysis, pathway analysis and survival analysis were performed to better understand DTBC and investigate biomarkers.
We observed distinct variations in gene mutations, structural variations, and chromosomal alterations between DTBC and LumA breast tumors. DTBC tumors predominantly had more mutations in TP53, PLXNB3, Zinc finger genes, and fewer mutations in SDC2, CDH1, PIK3CA, SVIL, and PTEN. Notably, Cytoband 1q21, which contains numerous cell proliferation-related genes, was significantly amplified in the DTBC tumors. LMD successfully minimized stromal components and increased RNA-protein concordance, as evidenced by stromal score comparisons and proteomic analysis. Distinct DTBC and LumA-enriched clusters were observed by proteomic and phosphoproteomic clustering analysis, some with survival differences. Phosphoproteomics identified two distinct phosphoproteomic profiles for high relapse-risk and low relapse-risk basal-like tumors, involving several genes known to be associated with breast cancer oncogenesis and progression, including KIAA1522, DCK, FOXO3, MYO9B, ARID1A, EPRS, ZC3HAV1, and RBM14. Lastly, an integrated pathway analysis of multi-omics data highlighted a robust enrichment of proliferation pathways in DTBC tumors.
This study provides an integrated proteogenomic characterization of DTBC vs LumA with tumor cells enriched through laser microdissection. We identified many common features of DTBC tumors and the phosphopeptides that could serve as potential biomarkers for high/low relapse-risk basal-like BC and possibly guide treatment selections.
In the present work, Inconel 718 (IN718) blocks were fabricated for initial screening using a wide range of volumetric energy density (VED) varying between 29 and 177 J/mm
3
within the machine ...specifications. The VED ranges from 66 to 111 J/mm
3
revealed to have maximum relative density (RD), i.e., above 99% with a minimum fractional porosity between 0.01% and 0.08%. Higher VED in the range from 128 to 177 J/mm
3
exhibited significant layer delamination. Based on the initial screening results, the samples were further fabricated within the identified process window of VED ranging between 38 and 111 J/mm
3
to ensure repeatability and to analyze the microstructural changes and residual stress (RS) formation. The as-fabricated microstructures exhibited columnar growth of grains along the build direction with varying Nb Wt.% between dendritic and interdendritic regions. The Nb segregation in the interdendritic regions was found to decreased by 17.09% while increasing the VED. The results showed that increasing VED changes the shape of the melt pool boundaries from shallow to deeper. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) results showed the evolution of a strong texture in direction with an increase in grain size from 14.77 to 63 µm as the VED increased. The tensile RS magnitude was found to be increased as the VED increased due to the high thermal gradient. The main challenge in the L-PBF process is the simultaneous control of defects, microstructure, texture, and RS formation. The findings of current research deliver a better VED window to fabricate defect less IN718 parts for aerospace applications.
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