Diligent monitoring of inequalities in the coverage of essential reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health related (RMNCH) services becomes imperative to smoothen the journey towards ...Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we aim to measure the magnitude of inequalities in the coverage of RMNCH services. We also made an attempt to divulge the relationship between the various themes of governance and RMNCH indices. We used National Family Health Survey dataset (2015-16) and Public Affairs Index (PAI), 2016 for the analysis. Two summative indices, namely Composite Coverage Index (CCI) and Co-Coverage (Co-Cov) indicator were constructed to measure the RMNCH coverage. Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and Relative Index of Inequality (RII) were employed to measure inequality in the distribution of coverage of RMNCH. In addition, we have used Spearman's rank correlation matrix to glean the association between governance indicator and coverage indices. Our study indicates an erratic distribution in the coverage of CCI and Co-Cov across wealth quintiles and state groups. We found that the distribution of RII values for Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal hovered around 1. Whereas, RII values for Haryana was 2.01 indicating maximum inequality across wealth quintiles. Furthermore, the essential interventions like adequate antenatal care services (ANC4) and skilled birth attendants (SBA) were the most inequitable interventions, while tetanus toxoid and Bacilli Calmette- Guerin (BCG) were least inequitable. The Spearman's rank correlation matrix demonstrated a strong and positive correlation between governance indicators and coverage indices.
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The study explores biogenic nitrogen doped carbon microspheres derived from resorcinol, formaldehyde (BNCMs), for battery application. Ureolytic bacteria were used to produce biogenic ...ammonia in the form of ammonium carbonate and ammonium bicarbonate. Copolymerization of resorcinol, formaldehyde and biogenic ammonia at 60–80 °C produces BNCMs. Elemental analysis evidences that the nitrogen-enriched carbon microspheres contain about 8% of nitrogen. The BNCMs anode exhibits appreciable reversible capacity and excellent rate performance in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium ion batteries (SIBs). In the case of LIBs, BNCMs anode exhibits an excellent stable specific capacity of 580 mAh g−1 with 97% of capacity retention even after 100 cycles without any significant capacity fading. Similarly, the observed capacity is as 102 mAh g−1 for 1000 cycles at a high rate current density of 1 A g−1 without any considerable capacity fade. In SIBs, BNCMs anode delivers a specific discharge and charge capacity of 405 and 195 mAh g−1 respectively. Further, prolonged cycles BNCMs anode exhibits a steady state progressive capacity of 170 mAh g−1 even after 100 cycles with steady state capacity. BNCMs thus evidence its suitability as high performance anode material for both LIBs and SIBs.
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•Zn, Mn and C sources have been extracted from spent primary batteries.•Extracted materials have been used as anode in rechargeable lithium ion batteries.•C-ZnMn2O4 shows high ...capacity of 600 mAhg−1 at a current density of 50 mAg−1.
In an attempt to develop low cost, energy efficient and advanced electrode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), waste-to-wealth derived as well as value added spent battery materials as potential alternatives assume paramount importance. By combining the low lithiation potential advantages, one can arrive at energy efficient electrodes bestowed with cost effective and eco-friendly benefits required for practical LIB applications. In the present study, Zn and Mn-salts along with C were successfully extracted from the spent zinc carbon batteries through a simple and efficient hydrometallurgy approach and decomposed thermally to obtain ZnMn2O4 at 350 °C for 12 h and 450 °C for 3 h. Further, C-ZnMn2O4 nanocomposites were prepared and demonstrated for appreciable electrochemical performance in LIB assembly. Our results show that C-ZnMn2O4 composites prepared at 350 °C and 450 °C demonstrate better performance than pristine ZnMn2O4 anode due to the improved electronic conductivity rendered by the added carbon obtained from spent primary battery. In particular, C-ZnMn2O4 at 350 °C @12 h exhibits appreciable electrochemical performance by showing a stable and higher capacity of 600 mAhg−1 at a current density of 50 mAg−1 in the voltage range of 0.01–3.0 V and qualifies it as a better performing cost-effective anode for LIBs.
Highly luminescent carbon dots (CDs) are obtained from mint leaves adopting a simple and cost effective route devoid of additional chemical reagents and functionalization. The as-synthesized CDs are ...characterized by TEM, FE-SEM, XRD analysis, FTIR, Raman, UV-visible and photoluminescence spectral studies. The results reveal that the CDs have an average diameter of 4 nm with a hydroxyl-rich surface. The luminescence of the dots was excitation dependent and was stable towards variation in the medium. The system could perform as a promising on-off-on fluorescent sensor for the selective and sensitive dual analyte recognition of Fe
3+
and AA with a detection limit of 374 nM and 79 nM, respectively. The mechanism of ascorbic acid sensing by the CD-Fe
3+
unit is established by identifying the binding sites of the biomolecule with the metal ion by examining the behaviour of the sensor in the presence of ascorbic acid derivatives.
Highly luminescent carbon dots (CDs) are obtained from mint leaves adopting a simple and cost effective route devoid of additional chemical reagents and functionalization.
In modern networks, a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) is a critical security device for detecting unauthorized activity. The categorization effectiveness for minority classes is limited by ...the imbalanced class issues connected with the dataset. We propose an Imbalanced Generative Adversarial Network (IGAN) to address the problem of class imbalance by increasing the detection rate of minority classes while maintaining efficiency. To limit the effect of the minimum or maximum value on the overall features, the original data was normalized and one-hot encoded using data preprocessing. To address the issue of the low detection rate of minority attacks caused by the imbalance in the training data, we enrich the minority samples with IGAN. The ensemble of Lenet 5 and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) is used to classify occurrences that are considered abnormal into various attack categories. The investigational findings demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the other deep learning approaches, achieving the best accuracy, precision, recall, TPR, FPR, and F1-score. The findings indicate that IGAN oversampling can enhance the detection rate of minority samples, hence improving overall accuracy. According to the data, the recommended technique valued performance measures far more than alternative approaches. The proposed method is found to achieve above 98% accuracy and classifies various attacks significantly well as compared to other classifiers.
The use of microorganisms for the synthesis of nanoparticles is in the limelight of modern nanotechnology. Using the bacterium
Bacillus licheniformis, the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles was ...investigated. These silver nanoparticles were characterized by means of UV–vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron diffraction spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The nanoparticles exhibited maximum absorbance at 440
nm in UV–vis spectroscopy. The XRD spectrum of silver nanoparticles exhibited 2
θ values corresponding to the silver nanocrystal. SEM micrographs revealed the formation of well-dispersed silver nanoparticles of 50
nm, and the presence of silver was confirmed by EDX analysis.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are widely known for their record storage capacities of small gas molecules (H2, CO2, and CH4). Assembly of such porous materials onto well‐known chemiresistive gas ...sensing elements such as SnO2 could be an attractive prospect to achieve novel sensing properties as this affects the surface chemistry of SnO2. Cobalt‐imidazole based ZIF‐67 MOF was grown onto preformed SnO2 nanoparticles to realize core–shell like architecture and explored for greenhouse gas CO2 sensing. CO2 sensing over SnO2 is a challenge because its interaction with SnO2 surface is minimal. The ZIF‐67 coating over SnO2 improved the response of SnO2 up to 12‐fold (for 50 % CO2). The SnO2@ZIF‐67 also showed a response of 16.5±2.1 % for 5000 ppm CO2 (threshold limit value (TLV)) at 205 °C, one of the best values reported for a SnO2‐based sensor. The observed novel CO2 sensing characteristics are assigned to electronic structure changes at the interface of ZIF‐67 and SnO2.
A chemiresistive‐based CO2 gas sensor has been developed by assembling ZIF‐67 MOF onto the surface of as‐prepared SnO2 nanoparticles, which enhanced the surface properties of SnO2 and improved the response by up to 12‐fold for 50 % CO2 and of 16.5±2.1 % for 5000 ppm CO2 (threshold limit value; see figure) at 205 °C.
Understanding the stability of mRNA loaded lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) is imperative for their clinical development. Herein, we propose the use of size-exclusion chromatography coupled with ...dual-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS) as a new approach to assessing mRNA-LNP stability in pure human serum and plasma. By applying a dual-column configuration to attenuate interference from plasma components, SEC-MALS was able to elucidate the degradation kinetics and physical property changes of mRNA-LNPs, which have not been observed accurately by conventional dynamic light scattering techniques. Interestingly, both serum and plasma had significantly different impacts on the molecular weight and radius of gyration of mRNA-LNPs, suggesting the involvement of clotting factors in desorption of lipids from mRNA-LNPs. We also discovered that a trace impurity (~1 %) in ALC-0315, identified as its O-tert-butyloxycarbonyl-protected form, greatly diminished mRNA-LNP stability in serum. These results demonstrated the potential utility of SEC-MALS for optimization and quality control of LNP formulations.
Size-exclusion chromatography coupled with dual-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS) was used as a new methodology for the characterization of mRNA-LNP stability in undiluted human plasma and serum. The degradation process of mRNA-LNPs in plasma followed first-order kinetics with a half-life of around 85 min, accompanied by a displacement of the lipid components by plasma proteins. Surprisingly, trace contaminants (~1%) in the ionizable lipid significantly affected the stability of mRNA-LNPs in serum. Display omitted
•The first study demonstrating use of SEC-MALS for quantitative stability analysis of mRNA-LNPs in pure human serum and plasma•mRNA-LNPs degrade with first-order kinetics (half-life: 85 min), and lipid components displaced by plasma proteins.•Even trace amounts (~1 %) of impurity in the ionizable lipid can potentially compromise mRNA-LNP stability in serum
•FMO nanorods is prepared by facile one‐pot hydrothermal method.•FMO/G anode delivers capacity of 294 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1 after 100 cycles.•FMO/G demonstrates stable cycling behaviour with almost ...100% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 0.5 A g−1.•Mechanical and structural integrity of the FMO/G electrode are encouraging.
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Metal molybdate nanostructures hold great promise as better performing electrode material for sodium ion batteries. In this work, graphene encapsulated FeMoO4 nanorods have been prepared using a simple, facile, scalable and low-cost technique. The uniform distribution of homogeneous and well-defined FeMoO4 nanorods over graphene sheets is apparently evidenced by HR-TEM. The exclusively designed architecture effectively mitigates the severe volume changes associated with the conversion mechanism driven prolonged cycling along with the improved electronic conductivity of the electrode. As a result, FeMoO4/graphene composite anode exploited for the first time as an anode for SIBs exhibits excellent electrochemical performance in terms of high specific capacity (294 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1 after 100 cycles), good cycling stability (83% after 100 cycles) and an acceptable rate capability (110 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1). More importantly, FeMoO4/Graphene composite anode demonstrates stable cycling behavior with almost 100% capacity retention even after 1000 cycles at 0.5 A g−1, which implies that the FeMoO4/G composite anode qualifies itself as a high performing anode material for sodium ion battery applications.
Arctic regions are extremely sensitive to global warming. Aerosols are one of the most important short-lived climate-forcing agents affecting the Arctic climate. The present study examines the ...summertime chemical characteristics and potential sources of various organic and inorganic aerosols at a Norwegian Arctic site, Ny-Ålesund (79°N). The results show that organic matter (OM) accounts for 60 % of the total PM10 mass, followed by sulfate (SO42−). Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) contributes 62 % of OC. Photochemical processes involving diverse anthropogenic and biogenic precursor compounds are identified as the major sources of WSOC, while water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) aerosols are predominantly linked to primary marine emissions. Despite being a remote pristine site, the aerosols show a sign of chemical aging, evidenced by a significant chloride depletion, which was about 82 % on average during the study period. Nitrogen-containing aerosols are likely stemming from migratory seabird colonies and local dust sources around the sampling site. While biogenic, crustal, and sea salt-derived SO42- account for 37%, 8%, and 5% respectively, the remaining 50% is attributed to anthropogenic SO42-. Through chemical tracers, Pearson correlation coefficient matrix, and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), the present study identifies soil biota (terrestrial biogenic) and marine emissions, along with their photochemical oxidation processes, as potential sources of Arctic aerosols during summer, while biomass burning and combustion-related sources have a minor contribution. The chemical closure of hygroscopicity highlights that while organics predominantly control aerosol hygroscopicity in the Arctic summer, specific inorganic components like (NH4)2SO4 can significantly increase it on certain days, affecting aerosol-cloud interactions and climate processes over the Arctic during summer. The present study highlights the high abundance of organics and their vital role in the Arctic climate during summer when natural aerosols are conquered.
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•The study investigates the chemical characteristics of summertime PM10 at Ny-Ålesund (79°N).•Organic matter (OM) comprises 60% of PM10 mass followed by SO42- (17%)•PM10 exhibits significant N content, likely from migratory seabird colonies + local dust.•Marine and terrestrial biogenic emissions and their photochemical oxidations are major sources of OAs in summer.•The hygroscopicity of organics (κOrg) accounts for 84±19% of the κTotal.
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