Molecular interactions of pesticides at the soil-water interface

High-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) NMR spectroscopy combined with saturation-transfer double difference (STDD) NMR can be used to analyze the molecular-level interactions of pesticides and whole soils occurring at the soil-water interface. Here 1H HR-MAS STDD NMR has been applied to some common pesticides (trifluralin, acifluorfen, and (4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl) phenol) and a pesticide degradation product (1-naphthol). Results indicate that dipolar interactions, H-bonding, hydrophobic associations, and potentially pi-pi interactions are the predominant sorption mechanisms for these molecules at the soil-aqueous interface. It is evident that the physical and chemical characteristics of soil are highly influential in determining the mechanisms of pesticide sorption, as they significantly affect soil conformation. In particular, different binding mechanisms were observed for 1-naphthol in soil swollen using a buffer versus D2O, indicating that the K(oc) alone may not be enough to accurately predict the behavior of a molecule in a real soil environment. Preliminary kinetic-based studies suggest that both the swelling solvent and soil moisture content significantly influence the sequestration of trifluralin. These studies demonstrate that HR-MAS and STDD NMR are powerful and versatile tools which can be applied to expand our knowledge of the mechanistic interactions of agrochemicals at the molecular level.     

Physicochemical characterization of alkali treated fractions from corncob and wheat straw and the production of nanofibres

Raw cereal materials (CM) (corncob and wheat straw) were alkaline treated to produce insoluble fibrous residues (IF) and soluble fibrous residues (SF). Physicochemical properties of each portion were evaluated. CM contained high amounts of dietary fibre (DF; 49.87–68.65%), while IF and SF mainly contained insoluble and soluble DF, respectively. CM and IF contained essential minerals (calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus) while SF was free from heavy metals. CM and IF also exhibited DPPH radical scavenging ability (54.25 to 77.24%), good emulsification ability (3.73–5.29%) and emulsion stability (75.00–86.94%), mineral binding capacity (calcium, copper, iron, zinc), water holding capacity (2.82–6.01 g_water/g_sample) and oil holding capacity (2.61–4.00 g_oil/g_sample). IF and SF could be potentially developed into new functional food materials. The successful production of SF into nanofibres by electrospinning showed potential applications as delivery systems for bioactive and functional ingredients.     

Non-blind Arnold scrambled hybrid image watermarking in YCbCr color space

Microsystem Technologies - Due to fast technological development, human beings generally depend upon computer and other digital equipments in different areas of concern/applications. Therefore,...     

Structurally Diverse Histone Deacetylase Photoreactive Probes: Design,Synthesis, and Photolabeling Studies in Live Cells and Tissue

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity is modulated in vivo by post-translational modifications and formation of multiprotein complexes. Novel chemical tools to study how these factors affect engagement of HDAC isoforms by HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) in cells and tissues are needed. In this study, a synthetic strategy to access chemically diverse photoreactive probes (PRPs) was developed and used to prepare seven novel HDAC PRPs 9 – 15 . The class I HDAC isoform engagement by PRPs was determined in biochemical assays and photolabeling experiments in live SET-2, HepG2, HuH7, and HEK293T cell lines and in mouse liver tissue. Unlike the HDAC protein abundance and biochemical activity against recombinant HDACs, the chemotype of the PRPs and the type of cells were key in defining the engagement of HDAC isoforms in live cells. Our findings suggest that engagement of HDAC isoforms by HDACi in vivo may be substantially modulated in a cell- and tissue-type-dependent manner.     

A Unified Decision-Making Technique for Analysing Treatments inPandemicContext

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global humanitarian disaster that has never been seen before. Medical experts, on the other hand, are undecided on the most valuable treatments of therapy because people ill with this infection exhibit a wide range of illness indications at different phases of infection. Further, this project aims to undertake an experimental investigation to determine which treatments for COVID-19 disease is the most effective and preferable. The research analysis is based on vast data gathered from professionals and research journals, making this study a comprehensive reference. To solve this challenging task, the researchers used the HF AHP-TOPSIS Methodology, which is a well-known and highly effective Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique. The technique assesses the many treatment options identified through various research papers and guidelines proposed by various countries, based on the recommendations of medical practitioners and professionals. The review process begins with a ranking of different treatments based on their effectiveness using the HF-AHP approach and then evaluates the results in five different hospitals chosen by the authors as alternatives. We also perform robustness analysis to validate the conclusions of our analysis. As a result, we obtained highly corroborative results that can be used as a reference. The results suggest that convalescent plasma has the greatest rank and priority in terms of effectiveness and demand, implying that convalescent plasma is the most effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2 in our opinion. Peepli also has the lowest priority in the estimation.     

Information technology and the search for organizational agility: A systematic review with future research possibilities

Organizations are increasingly turning to information technology (IT) to help them respond to unanticipated environmental threats and opportunities. In this paper, we introduce a systematic review of the literature on IT-enabled agility, helping to establish the boundary between what we know and what we don’t know. We base our review on a wide body of literature drawn from the AIS Basket of Eight IT journals, a cross-section of non-Basket journals, IT practitioner outlets, and premier international IS conferences. We review the use of different theoretical lenses used to investigate the relationship between IT and organizational agility and how the literature has conceptualized agility, its antecedents, and consequences. We also map the evolution of the literature through a series of stages that highlight how researchers have built on previous work. Lastly, we discuss opportunities for future research in an effort to close important gaps in our understanding.     

Full-duplex wireless information and power transfer in two-way relaying networks with self-energy recycling

Wireless Networks - In this paper, we consider full-duplex (FD) two-way relaying networks, where wireless power transfers from hybrid power access-point, H to user and wireless information...     

An Adaptive Prediction Strategy with Clustering in Wireless Sensor Network

In Wireless Sensor Network, sensed data reflects two types of correlations of physical attributes: spatial and temporal. In this paper, a scheme named, Adaptive Prediction Strategy with ClusTering (APSCT) is proposed. In APSCT, a data-driven clustering and grey prediction model is used to exploit both the correlations. APSCT minimizes the transmission of messages in the network. However, the use of prediction includes additional computation overhead. There is a trade-off between prediction accuracy and energy consumption in computation and communication in wireless networks. This paper also gives an approach to calculate the upper and lower bound of the prediction interval which is used to evaluate different confidence levels and provides an energy-efficient sensor environment. Simulation is carried out on real-world data collected by Intel Berkeley Lab and results are compared with existing approaches.