Differential Physio-Biochemical and Metabolic Responses of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under Multiple Abiotic Stress Conditions

The frequency and severity of extreme climatic conditions such as drought, salinity, cold, and heat are increasing due to climate change. Moreover, in the field, plants are affected by multiple abiotic stresses simultaneously or sequentially. Thus, it is imperative to compare the effects of stress combinations on crop plants relative to individual stresses. This study investigated the differential regulation of physio-biochemical and metabolomics parameters in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under individual (salt, drought, cold, and heat) and combined stress treatments using multivariate correlation analysis. The results showed that combined heat, salt, and drought stress compounds the stress effect of individual stresses. Combined stresses that included heat had the highest electrolyte leakage and lowest relative water content. Lipid peroxidation and chlorophyll contents did not significantly change under combined stresses. Biochemical parameters, such as free amino acids, polyphenol, starch, and sugars, significantly changed under combined stresses compared to individual stresses. Free amino acids increased under combined stresses that included heat; starch, sugars, and polyphenols increased under combined stresses that included drought; proline concentration increased under combined stresses that included salt. Metabolomics data that were obtained under different individual and combined stresses can be used to identify molecular phenotypes that are involved in the acclimation response of plants under changing abiotic stress conditions. Peanut metabolomics identified 160 metabolites, including amino acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, organic acids, fatty acids, sugar acids, and other organic compounds. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that abiotic stresses significantly affected amino acid, amino sugar, and sugar metabolism. The stress treatments affected the metabolites that were associated with the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) and urea cycles and associated amino acid biosynthesis pathway intermediates. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and heatmap analysis identified potential marker metabolites (pinitol, malic acid, and xylopyranose) that were associated with abiotic stress combinations, which could be used in breeding efforts to develop peanut cultivars that are resilient to climate change. The study will also facilitate researchers to explore different stress indicators to identify resistant cultivars for future crop improvement programs.     

Water absorption and antimicrobial behavior of physically cross linked poly (vinyl alcohol)/carrageenan films loaded with minocycline

In the present study, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/Carrageenan(Car) composite films have been prepared by ionic cross-linking of the two polymers with Borax (Bx) and K⁺ ions, respectively, in aqueous medium at room temperature. The films were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TGA, and AFM analysis. The equilibrium percent swelling (EPS) of PVA/Carr films, so produced, exhibited negative dependence on the amount of cross-linkers. A detailed investigation of their water absorption and moisture permeation behavior has been carried out. The films showed non-thrombogenic and non-cytotoxic behaviors. Finally, drug minocycline-loaded films showed excellent antimicrobial behavior.     

Novel design to improve band to band tunneling and gate induced drain leakages (GIDL) in cylindrical gate all around (GAA) MOSFET

Microsystem Technologies - In this paper a cylindrical Dual Metal (DM) Dielectric Engineered (DE) Gate All Around (GAA) MOSFET has been proposed to resolve a big issue of Gate Inducted Drain...     

Towards automated mapping and monitoring of potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Bhutan Himalaya using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar data

The majority of glacial lakes around the world are located in remote and hardly accessible regions. The use of remote sensing data is therefore of high importance to identify and assess their potential hazards. However, the persistence of cloud cover, particularly in high mountain areas such as the Himalayas, limits the temporal resolution of optical satellite data with which we can monitor potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs). The ability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites to collect data, irrespective of weather and at day or night, facilitates monitoring of PDGLs by without compromising temporal resolution. In this study, we present a semi-automated approach, based on a radar signal intensity threshold between water and non-water feature classes followed by post-processing including elevations, slopes, vegetation and size thresholds, to delineate glacial lakes in Sentinel-1 SAR images in Bhutan Himalaya. We show the capability of our method to be used for delineating and monitoring glacial lakes in Bhutan Himalaya by comparing our results to 10 m resolution Sentinel-2 multispectral data, field survey data, meteorological data, and a time series of monthly images from January to December 2016 of two lakes. Sentinel-1 SAR data can, moreover, be used for detecting lake surface area changes and open water area variations, at temporal resolution of six days, providing substantial advantages over optical satellite data to continuously monitor PDGLs.     

Use of median-based estimator to construct Phase II exponential chart

The Shewhart-type exponential control chart is a popular and extensively used among all time-between-events control charts for its simplicity. When the parameter is unknown, Phase II control limits are constructed, and the success of its implementation depends to an extent on the estimated value of the parameter, obtained from Phase I dataset. However, when the Phase I data are contaminated with spurious observations/outliers, the performance of the chart is suspected to deviate from what is normally expected. Traditionally, maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and minimum variance unbiased estimator (MVUE) are used to estimate the unknown process parameter. Both of estimators are the functions of sample mean. In this paper, the median-based estimator (MBE) that is a function of sample median is used to construct Phase II control limits. Moreover, performance of the proposed chart is examined when Phase I sample consists of contaminated observations/outliers. It is found that the proposed chart outperforms the existing charts whether the sample is contaminated or not.     

High-K Spacer Dual-Metal Gate Stack Underlap Junctionless Gate All Around (HK-DMGS-JGAA) MOSFET for high frequency applications

High-K Spacer based Dual-Metal Gate Stack Junctionless Gate All Around (HK-DMGS-JGAA) MOSFET has been proposed and analyzed in this paper for high frequency analog ad RF applications. It has been done by comparing it with the existing Junctionless devices in particular, Junctionless-Gate All Around, Junctionless Gate All Around Underlap and Dual-Metal Junctionless Gate All Around Underlap MOSFET. It is so found that HK-DMGS-JGAA MOSFET shows higher I_ds, g_m, g_d and f_T over existing Junctionless device architectures making it a suitable device for high frequency analog applications. It has also been established that HK-DMGS-JGAA MOSFET has better I_ON/I_OFF ratio, Subthreshold Slope (SS) most close to the ideal values, lower Channel Resistance, R_ch, higher Early Voltage (V_EA), higher Frequency Transconductance Product, superior Transconductance Generation Factor, Maximum gains in terms of current gain, Maximum Transducer Power Gain and Unilateral Power Gain, superior noise performance in terms of the Noise Conductivity and Noise Figure. All these improved figure of merits warrant HK-DMGS-JGAA MOSFET as the best suited device design for various analog and digital applications along with high frequency applications.

     

Dual concepts in fuzzy theory: Entropy and knowledge measure

Entropy in a fuzzy set measures the amount of ambiguity/imprecision present in the fuzzy set. In this paper, we introduce a knowledge measure of a fuzzy set and its generalization (accuracy measure). The knowledge measure may be considered as a dual measure of fuzzy entropy. We also investigate the effectiveness and application of the proposed knowledge measure in multiple attribute decision making. Furthermore, we provide a result for obtaining a class of knowledge measure. We also prove a general method for obtaining a knowledge measure using accuracy measure. Among some suggested implications of the proposed fuzzy accuracy measure, we demonstrate the application of fuzzy accuracy measure in image thresholding.     

Controllable nonlinear effects in a hybrid optomechanical semiconductor microcavity containing a quantum dot and Kerr medium

We theoretically investigate the nonlinear effects in a hybrid quantum optomechanical system consisting of two optically coupled semiconductor microcavities containing a quantum dot and a Kerr nonlinear substrate.The steady-state behaviour of the mean intracavity optical field demonstrates that the system can be used as an all optical switch. We further investigate the spectrum of small fluctuations in the mechanical displacement of the movable distributed Bragg reflectors and observe that normal mode splitting takes place for high Kerr nonlinearity and pump power. In addition, we have shown that steady state of the system exhibits two possible bipartite entanglements by proper tuning of the system parameters. The entanglement results suggest that the proposed system has the potential to be used in quantum communication platform. Our work demonstrates that the Kerr-nonlinearity can effectively control the optical properties of the hybrid system, which can be used to design efficient optical devices.     

Compositional Control as the Key for Achieving Highly Efficient OER Electrocatalysis with Cobalt Phosphates Decorated Nanocarbon Florets

Compositional interplay of two different cobalt phosphates (Co(H₂PO₄)₂; Co‐DP and Co(PO₃)₂; Co‐MP) loaded on morphologically engineered high surface area nanocarbon leads to an increased electrocatalytic efficiency for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in near neutral conditions. This is reflected as significant reduction in the onset overpotential (301 mV) and enhanced current density (30 mA cm^?2 @ 577 mV). In order to achieve uniform surface loading, organic‐soluble thermolabile cobalt‐bis(di‐tert‐butylphosphate) is synthesized in situ inside the nanocarbon matrix and subsequently pyrolyzed at 150 °C to produce Co(H₂PO₄)₂/Co(PO₃)₂ (80:20 wt%). Annealing this sample at 200 or 250 °C results in the redistribution of the two phosphate systems to 55:45 or 20:80 (wt%), respectively. Detailed electrochemical measurements clearly establish that the 55:45 (wt%) sample prepared at 200 °C performs the best as a catalyst, owing to a relay mechanism that enhances the kinetics of the 4e^? transfer OER process, which is substantiated by micro‐Raman spectroscopic studies. It is also unraveled that the engineered nanocarbon support simultaneously enhances the interfacial charge‐transfer pathway, resulting in the reduction of onset overpotential, compared to earlier investigated cobalt phosphate systems.