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Composites materials like jute/epoxy exhibit high hardness and are considered as difficult-to-machine materials. As a result, alternatives to conventional machining become essential to post-process the composites. Accordingly, due to its non-thermal nature, abrasive water jet machining has recently come to be seen as one of the most promising machining methods for composite materials. In the current study, the impact of machining parameters such as traverse speed (TS), standoff distance (SOD) and abrasive mass flow rate (MFR) on machined surface roughness (Ra) has been investigated. In addition, the optimum combination of process parameters to machine a jute fiber-reinforced polymer composite with minimum Ra is predicted. The experimental results are analyzed using Taguchi and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) approaches to determine the optimum set of process parameters to achieve the lowest roughness values. Without making any changes in the machining conditions, the optimum set of values is determined for two conditions by reinforcing the fiber with 45° inclination and 90° inclination. The results reflect the different optimum combinations for each fiber inclination. For 45° fiber inclination, to achieve the minimum Ra value, the predicted combination is TS = 30 mm/min, SOD = 2 mm and MFR = 0.35 kg/min. When the fiber inclination is 90°, the predicted optimum combination is TS = 25 mm/min, SOD = 2 mm, and MFR = 0.35 kg/min. It is evident from the results that the optimum combination will be changed according to the machining conditions as well as material properties. The results confirm the effect of fiber orientation on surface roughness. The specimen with 45° fiber inclination produces a lower Ra with an average of 4.116 µm, and the specimen with 90° fiber inclination generates a higher Ra with an average of 4.961 µm.

The machinability of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced with zirconia (ZrO 2 )-coated MWCNTs via Abresive Waterjet Machining (AWJM) was investigated in this study. The composite was fabricated with 3 wt% ZrO 2 -MWCNTs to enhance mechanical and thermal properties. A Taguchi L 9 orthogonal array was employed to evaluate the effects of waterjet pressure, traverse speed, and stand-off distance on surface roughness (Ra), kerf taper (KT), and material removal rate (MRR). Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) was applied for multi-objective optimization, integrating the individual responses into a single Grey Relational Grade (GRG). Results indicated that lower traverse speed (100 mm/min) minimized R a (4.286 μm), while higher pressure (200 MPa) and intermediate speed (150 mm/min) reduced kerf taper (0.04727 radians). The optimal parameter combination yielded the highest GRG (0.7361), balancing superior surface finish, dimensional accuracy, and machining efficiency. This study provides critical insights into precision AWJM of polymer nanocomposites for high-performance engineering applications.

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) can treat wastewater and saline water simultaneously and generate power. The aim of the present research work was to identify the critical factors influencing COD reduction and power generation from the MDC reactor and to optimize the control parameters. The experimental study was conducted by using medium to high-strength wastewater from distillery and brewery industry in batch-wise operation. The maximum voltage of 702 mV and current of 2.16 mA were observed for the carbon brush electrode. The mediated aeration process with the presence of potassium ferricyanide was reported in 87% COD reduction and 992 mV voltage generation. The presence of the microbial culture provided 82% COD reduction and 51% TDS reduction. The maximum current density (CD) of 0.04 mA/cm2 was observed for carbon brush, and a maximum power density (PD) of 15.56 mW/cm2 was found with aeration and potassium ferricyanide mediator. This study provided insight towards the impact of the electrode materials and the effects of mediator, aeration, and microbial culture on MDC performance.

Oxidative stress and inflammation are two important pathological mechanisms involved in cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury. In pathological conditions such as cerebral infarction, the free radical production is greater than that of elimination by endogenous anti-oxidant system, by this undesirable effect brain is highly injured. Resveratrol is reported to have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory, athero-protective activities. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the therapeutic potential of resveratrol against cerebral infarction induced by ischemia and reperfusion injury in Wistar rats. Bi-common carotid occlusion followed by 4 h reperfusion model was used to induce cerebral infarction. Percent infarction, oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde, catalase, superoxide dismutase) and inflammatory markers (myeloperoxidase, TNF-α, IL-6, ICAM-1 and IL-10) were measured. TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, and intracellular adhesive molecule-I (ICAM-1) levels were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Resveratrol produced significant dose-dependent reduction in percent cerebral infarct volume. At resveratrol 20 mg/kg dose, there was a significant reduction in oxidative stress and inflammatory markers like malondialdehyde, TNF-α, IL-6, myeloperoxidase and ICAM-I and in contrast there was a significant increase in anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory markers like superoxide dismutase, catalase and IL-10 levels. Resveratrol showed significant cerebroprotective action mediated by anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.

The quality of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) machining during wet drilling is strongly influenced by the moisture content and cutting tool geometry. The current investigation aims to determine the optimum drilling process parameters for machining CFRPs by combining the grey relational coefficient with the combined compromise solution (Grey-CoCoSo). A distance correlation-based criterion importance through intercriteria correlation (D-CRITIC) method was used to ascertain the weights of decision-making to manage the responses from multiple-measure decision-making. Several multiresponse outputs—the material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (Ra), and delamination factor (DF)—were taken into consideration during the analysis of the input factors—the spindle speed (N), drill diameter (D), and feed rate (F). An enhanced MRR and reduced Ra and DF were achieved due to the optimal parametric conditions of D, F, and N when the D-CRITIC weight was set to 6 mm, 0.1 mm/rev, and 7500 rpm, respectively. As a result, the Ki value would have improved by 17.684%. Thus, N was found to be a pivotal parameter influencing MRR, DF, and Ra. The outcomes indicate that the proposed synergistic approach is beneficial for solving situations in which multicriteria decision-making is applicable to CFRPs. Compared with other conventional multicriteria decision-making approaches, the proposed newer approach is versatile and efficient in excluding variation. Thus, the grey-CoCoSo approach can be a promising way of optimizing process parameters for machining CFRPs.

In this growing era, a massive amount of digital electronic health records (EHRs) are transferred through the open network. EHRs are at risk of a myriad of security threats, to overcome such threats, encryption is a reliable technique to secure data. This paper addresses an encryption algorithm based on integer wavelet transform (IWT) blended with deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) and chaos to secure the digital medical images. The proposed work comprises of two phases, i.e. a two-stage shuffling phase and diffusion phase. The first stage of shuffling starts with initial block confusion followed by row and column shuffling of pixels as the second stage. The pixels of the shuffled image are circularly shifted bitwise at the first stage of diffusion to enhance the security of the system against differential attack. The second stage of diffusion operation is based on DNA coding and DNA XOR operations. The experimental analyses have been carried out with 100 DICOM test images of 16-bit depth to evaluate the strength of the algorithm against statistical and differential attacks. By the results, the maximum entropy has been obtained an average of 15.79, NPCR of 99.99, UACI of 33.31, and larger keyspace of 10140, which infer that our technique overwhelms various other state-of-the-art techniques.

Health insurance schemes, like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), should provide financial protection against catastrophic health costs by reducing out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) for hospitalizations. We estimated and compared the proportion and extent of OOPE among below poverty line (BPL) families beneficiaries and not beneficiaries by RSBY during hospitalizations in district Solan, H.P., India, 2013. We conducted a cross sectional survey among hospitalized BPL families in the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries groups. We compared proportion incurring OOPE and its extent during hospitalization, pre/post-hospitalization periods in different domains. Overall, proportion of non-beneficiaries who incurred OOPE was higher than the beneficiaries but it was not statistically significant (87.2% vs. 80.9%). The median overall OOPE was $39 (Rs 2567) in the non-beneficiaries group as compared to $11 (Rs 713) in the beneficiaries group (p<0.01). Median expenditure on in house and out house drugs and consumables was $23 (Rs 1500) in the non beneficiaries group as compared to nil in the beneficiaries group (p<0.01). Non-beneficiary status was significantly associated [OR: 2.4 (1.3-4.3)] with OOPE above median independently and also after adjusting for various covariates. RSBY has decreased the extent of OOPE among the beneficiaries; however OOPE was incurred mainly due to purchase of drugs from outside the health facility. The treatment seeking behaviour in beneficiaries group has improved among comparatively older group with chronic conditions. RSBY has enabled beneficiaries to get more facilities such as drugs, consumables and diagnostics from the health facility.

In the present work, a metal–matrix composite was casted using the LM13 aluminum alloy, which is most widely used for casting automotive components. Such applications require materials to withstand high operating temperatures and perform reliably without compromising their properties. In this regard, particulate-reinforced composites have gained widespread adaptability. The particulate reinforcements used comprise of one of the widely available industrial by-products. which is fly ash, along with the abundantly available quartz. Hybrid composites are fabricated through the economical liquid route that is widely used in mass production. Though there are numerous published research articles investigating the mechanical properties of metal–matrix composites, very few investigated the thermal properties of the composites. In the present work, thermal properties such as thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of cast hybrid composites were evaluated. The particulate reinforcements were added in varied weight percentages to the molten LM13 alloy and were dispersed uniformly using a power-driven stirrer. The melt with the dispersed particulate reinforcements was then poured into a thoroughly dried sand mold, and the melt was allowed to solidify. The quality of the castings was ascertained through density evaluation followed by a microstructural examination. It was found that the composites with only the fly ash particles as a reinforcement were less dense in comparison to the composites cast with the quartz particulate reinforcement. However, the hybrid composite, with both particulate reinforcements were dense. The microstructure revealed a refined grain structure. The thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity values were lower for the composites cast with only the fly ash reinforcement. On the other hand, the composites cast with only quartz as the particulate reinforcement exhibited higher thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity. The specific heat capacity was found to be lower for the fly ash-reinforced composites and higher for the quartz-reinforced composites in comparison to the LM13 base matrix alloy. However, the highest value of thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity were reported for the hybrid composites with a 10 wt.% inclusion of both fly ash and quartz particulate reinforcements.

The genetic diversity of 25 pomegranate genotypes, including widespread genotypes, mutants, clonal selections and wild forms, was assessed using 23 pomegranate microsatellite markers in this study. A total of 117 alleles were found, with 5.09 ± 0.47 alleles per locus on average. The number of alleles per marker (Na) ranged from 2 to 10, demonstrating that these microsatellites are highly informative. The predicted and actual heterozygosity mean values were 0.55 and 0.34, respectively. The polymorphic information content of selected SSR loci ranged from 0.08 to 0.80, with an average of 0.51, showing its usefulness in distinguishing the genotypes under study. Based on the PIC value, the locus PGKVR 153 was discovered to have the highest polymorphism levels (0.80). The 25 genotypes were divided into two main clusters and multiple sub and sub-sub clusters within the main clusters using the un-weighted pair-group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA) approach. Principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) clustering of genotypes was also consistent with UPGMA clustering. The findings confirm that the genotypes have a high genetic diversity and a broad genetic background, indicating that their inclusion into future crop breeding programmes would be successful.

Mercury cycling in coastal metropolitan areas on the west coast of India becomes complex due to the combined effects of both intensive domestic anthropogenic emissions and marine air masses. The present study is based on yearlong data of continuous measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) concentration concurrent with meteorological parameters and some air pollutants at a coastal urban site in Mumbai, on the west coast of India, for the first time. The concentration of GEM was found in a range between 2.2 and 12.3 ng/m 3 , with a mean of 3.1 ± 1.1 ng/m 3 , which was significantly higher than the continental background values in the Northern Hemisphere (~ 1.5 ng/m 3 ). Unlike particulates, GEM starts increasing post-winter to peak during the monsoon and decrease towards winter. July had the highest concentration of GEM followed by October, and a minimum in January. GEM exhibited a distinct diurnal cycle, mainly with a broad peak in the early morning, a narrow one by nightfall, and a minimum in the afternoon. The peaks and their timing suggest the origin of urban mobility and the start of local activities. A positive correlation between SO 2 , PM 2.5 , temperature, relative humidity, and GEM indicates that emissions from local industrial plants in the Mumbai coastal area. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) confirm this fact. Monthly back trajectory analysis showed that air mass flows are predominantly from the Arabian Sea and local human activities. Assessment of human health risks by USEPA model reveals that the hazardous quotient, HQ < 1, implies negligible carcinogenic risk. GEM observations in Mumbai during the study period are below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe limit (200 ng/m 3 ) for long-term inhalation.