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With the maturation of display devices using liquid crystal (LC) materials, likely, in normally transparent reverse mode polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) devices’ performance and development have been assessed in the present review. The fabrication techniques and various normally transparent reverse mode devices such as polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), polymer network liquid crystal, polymer-stabilized liquid crystal, anisotropic LC gels and nematic emulsions are discussed. Further, the simultaneous effects of external stimuli such as external fields, optical effects, temperature and composition of constituents of PDLC mixture are reported for analysing the technological advancement of normally transparent reverse mode LC devices. The performance parameters discussed in this review are texture formation, transmission, response time, contrast ratio, viewing angle, threshold and operating voltages. The interdependency of these parameters on overall performance of the device is also discussed and analysed. Thus, new areas of application in the realms of 2D/3D and multi-plane display devices, normally transparent shutters/smart windows, augmented/virtual reality devices are interesting technological advancements in basic and applied research using these novel anisotropic LC and polymeric materials.

The structural, electronic, optical, mechanical, magnetic, thermal, and hydrogen storage properties of boron-based hydrides XBH 3 (X = Ba, Sr) are investigated in this work through DFT calculations using the WIEN2K Simulation Package. Their potential for H₂ storage is highlighted, underscoring their importance for energy storage applications. The studied boron-based hydrides, XBH 3 (X = Ba and Sr), crystallize in a cubic phase, according to structural optimizations. For BaBH 3 and SrBH 3 , the calculated lattice constants are 3.71 Å and 3.52 Å, respectively. These compounds are metallic, according to the analysis of their electronic properties. The Pugh index and Cauchy pressure confirmed the brittleness of both hydrides. A thorough examination of the formation energy, elastic characteristics, and phonon dispersion curves has verified that these materials are thermodynamically, mechanically, and dynamically stable. These materials have high dielectric functions in the visible spectrum, according to the optical properties of XBH 3 (X = Ba, Sr). The absorption spectra, on the other hand, show a noticeable peak in the ultraviolet region. The heat capacity curves of these hydrides indicate their capacity to conduct thermal energy effectively. XBH 3 (X = Ba, Sr) shows encouraging hydrogen storage capacities of 1.96 weight% and 2.89 weight%, respectively, according to gravimetric analysis. These findings demonstrate the perovskite hydrides’ significant potential for application in hydrogen storage systems and optoelectronics applications.

Spin-polarized first-principles calculations were performed to investigate the physical properties of K₂NaXI₆ (X = Cr, Fe) halide double perovskites. Accurate electronic band gaps were obtained using the TB-mBJ exchange potential. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations confirm the thermodynamic stability of both compounds. Electronic structure analysis reveals semiconducting behavior in both spin channels for K₂NaCrI₆ and K₂NaFeI₆. The calculated band gaps for K₂NaCrI₆ are 0.8 eV in the spin-up channel and 1.8 eV in the spin-down channel, whereas K₂NaFeI₆ exhibits band gaps of 3.2 eV (spin-up) and 0.4 eV (spin-down). Both materials display ferromagnetic ordering, with total magnetic moments of 3 µB for K₂NaCrI₆ and 5 µB for K₂NaFeI₆. Optical property calculations, including the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function, indicate strong optical absorption spanning the visible to ultraviolet energy regions. Furthermore, thermoelectric analysis predicts n-type conduction behavior for K₂NaCrI₆ and p-type behavior for K₂NaFeI₆, highlighting their potential for multifunctional energy applications.

We recently developed a database for hexaploid wheat QTL (WheatQTLdb; www.wheatqtldb.net ), which included 11,552 QTL affecting various traits of economic importance. However, that database did not include valuable QTL from other wheat species and/or progenitors of hexaploid wheat. Therefore, an updated and improved version of wheat QTL database (WheatQTLdb V2.0) was developed, which now includes information on hexaploid wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) and the following seven other related species: T. durum , T. turgidum , T. dicoccoides , T. dicoccum , T. monococcum , T. boeoticum , and Aegilops tauschii . WheatQTLdb V2.0 includes a much-improved list of QTL, including 27,518 main effect QTL, 202 epistatic QTL, and 1321 metaQTL. This newly released WheatQTLdb V2.0 also has additional valuable options to search and choose the QTL, category-wise, and trait-wise data for their use in research or breeding programs.

A drug’s aqueous solubility is defined as the ability to dissolve in a particular solvent, and it is currently a major hurdle in bringing new drug molecules to the market. According to some estimates, up to 40% of commercialized products and 70–90% of drug candidates in the development stage are poorly soluble, which results in low bioavailability, diminished therapeutic effects, and dosage escalation. Because of this, solubility must be taken into consideration when developing and fabricating pharmaceutical products. To date, a number of approaches have been investigated to address the problem of poor solubility. This review article attempts to summarize several conventional methods utilized to increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs. These methods include the principles of physical and chemical approaches such as particle size reduction, solid dispersion, supercritical fluid technology, cryogenic technology, inclusion complex formation techniques, and floating granules. It includes structural modification (i.e., prodrug, salt formation, co-crystallization, use of co-solvents, hydrotrophy, polymorphs, amorphous solid dispersions, and pH variation). Various nanotechnological approaches such as liposomes, nanoparticles, dendrimers, micelles, metal organic frameworks, nanogels, nanoemulsions, nanosuspension, carbon nanotubes, and so forth have also been widely investigated for solubility enhancement. All these approaches have brought forward the enhancement of the bioavailability of orally administered drugs by improving the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs. However, the solubility issues have not been completely resolved, owing to several challenges associated with current approaches, such as reproducibility in large scale production. Considering that there is no universal approach for solving solubility issues, more research is needed to simplify the existing technologies, which could increase the number of commercially available products employing these techniques.

Magnesium alloys are widely employed in various applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and superior mechanical properties as compared to unalloyed Magnesium. Alloying is considered an important way to enhance the strength of the metal matrix composite but it significantly influences the damping property of pure magnesium, while controlling the rate of corrosion for Mg-based material remains critical in the biological environment. Therefore, it is essential to reinforce the magnesium alloy with a suitable alloying element that improves the mechanical characteristics and resistance to corrosion of Mg-based material. Biocompatibility, biodegradability, lower stress shielding effect, bio-activeness, and non-toxicity are the important parameters for biomedical applications other than mechanical and corrosion properties. The development of various surface modifications is also considered a suitable approach to control the degradation rate of Mg-based materials, making lightweight Mg-based materials highly suitable for biomedical implants. This review article discusses the various binary and ternary Mg alloys, which are mostly composed of Al, Ca, Zn, Mn, and rare earth (RE) elements as well as various non-toxic elements which are Si, Bi, Ag, Ca, Zr, Zn, Mn, Sr, Li, Sn, etc. The effects of these alloying elements on the microstructure, the mechanical characteristics, and the corrosion properties of Mg-based materials were analyzed. The mechanical and corrosion behavior of Mg-based materials depends upon the percentage of elements and the number of alloying elements used in Mg. The outcomes suggested that ZEK100, WE43, and EW62 (Mg-6% Nd-2% Y-0.5% Zr) alloys are effectively used for biomedical applications, having preferable biodegradable, biocompatible, bioactive implant materials with a lower corrosion rate.

Pigeonpea, a tropical photosensitive crop, harbors significant diversity for days to flowering, but little is known about the genes that govern these differences. Our goal in the current study was to use genome wide association strategy to discover the loci that regulate days to flowering in pigeonpea. A single trait as well as a principal component based association study was conducted on a diverse collection of 142 pigeonpea lines for days to first and fifty percent of flowering over 3 years, besides plant height and number of seeds per pod. The analysis used seven association mapping models (GLM, MLM, MLMM, CMLM, EMLM, FarmCPU and SUPER) and further comparison revealed that FarmCPU is more robust in controlling both false positives and negatives as it incorporates multiple markers as covariates to eliminate confounding between testing marker and kinship. Cumulatively, a set of 22 SNPs were found to be associated with either days to first flowering (DOF), days to fifty percent flowering (DFF) or both, of which 15 were unique to trait based, 4 to PC based GWAS while 3 were shared by both. Because PC1 represents DOF, DFF and plant height (PH), four SNPs found associated to PC1 can be inferred as pleiotropic. A window of ± 2 kb of associated SNPs was aligned with available transcriptome data generated for transition from vegetative to reproductive phase in pigeonpea. Annotation analysis of these regions revealed presence of genes which might be involved in floral induction like Cytochrome p450 like Tata box binding protein, Auxin response factors, Pin like genes, F box protein, U box domain protein, chromatin remodelling complex protein, RNA methyltransferase. In summary, it appears that auxin responsive genes could be involved in regulating DOF and DFF as majority of the associated loci contained genes which are component of auxin signaling pathways in their vicinity. Overall, our findings indicates that the use of principal component analysis in GWAS is statistically more robust in terms of identifying genes and FarmCPU is a better choice compared to the other aforementioned models in dealing with both false positive and negative associations and thus can be used for traits with complex inheritance.

In bread wheat, meta-QTL analysis was conducted using 353 QTLs that were available from earlier studies. When projected onto a dense consensus map comprising 76,753 markers, only 184 QTLs with the required information, could be utilized leading to identification of 61 MQTLs spread over 18 of the 21 chromosomes (barring 5D, 6D and 7D). The range for mean R 2 (PVE %) was 1.9% to 48.1%, and that of CI was 0.02 to 11.47 cM; these CIs also carried 37 Yr genes. Using these MQTLs, 385 candidate genes (CGs) were also identified. Out of these CGs, 241 encoded known R proteins and 120 showed differential expression due to stripe rust infection at the seedling stage; the remaining 24 CGs were common in the sense that they encoded R proteins as well as showed differential expression. The proteins encoded by CGs carried the following widely known domains: NBS-LRR domain, WRKY domains, ankyrin repeat domains, sugar transport domains, etc. Thirteen breeders’ MQTLs (PVE > 20%) including four pairs of closely linked MQTLs are recommended for use in wheat molecular breeding, for future studies to understand the molecular mechanism of stripe rust resistance and for gene cloning.

In the present study, we assessed for the first time the performance of our custom-designed low-cost Particulate Matter (PM) monitoring devices (Atmos) in measuring PM10 concentrations. We examined the ambient PM10 levels during an intense measurement campaign at two sites in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), India. In this study, we validated the un-calibrated Atmos for measuring ambient PM10 concentrations at highly polluted monitoring sites. PM10 concentration from Atmos, containing laser scattering-based Plantower PM sensor, was comparable with that measured from research-grade scanning mobility particle sizers (SMPS) in combination with optical particle sizers (OPS) and aerodynamic particle sizers (APS). The un-calibrated sensors often provided accurate PM10 measurements, particularly in capturing real-time hourly concentrations variations. Quantile–Quantile plots (QQ-plots) for data collected during the selected deployment period showed positively skewed PM10 datasets. Strong Spearman’s rank-order correlations (rs = 0.64–0.83) between the studied instruments indicated the utility of low-cost Plantower PM sensors in measuring PM10 in the real-world context. Additionally, the heat map for weekly datasets demonstrated high R2 values, establishing the efficacy of PM sensor in PM10 measurement in highly polluted environmental conditions.