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A biostimulant is an organic material that, when applied in small quantities, enhances plant growth and development such that the response cannot be attributed to the application of traditional plant nutrients. This review is aimed at highlighting developments in the processing of macroalgae for agricultural biostimulants (AB), summarising the biologically active components of brown macroalgae and examining the factors supporting the use of macroalgal AB for managing abiotic and biotic stresses in crop plants. The policy drivers supporting the use of macroalgal-derived ABs in agriculture are also emphasised. We examine the use of macroalgal ABs in crop production and evaluated the benefits of seed priming, foliar application, soil drenches and hydroponic treatments. The use of macroalgal ABs on crop plants can generate multiple benefits with reported effects including enhanced rooting, higher crop and fruit yields, freezing, drought and salt tolerance, enhanced photosynthetic activity and resistance to fungi, bacteria and virus. ABs can be applied as an alternative, or used in conjunction with synthetic crop protection products and plant growth regulators, and may have a role in maintaining crop production levels, health and quality in the future when many active ingredients will be lost to the industry due to changes in European Union regulations. Worldwide, macroalgae remain largely unexploited, we highlight some of the future research and development priorities.

Two different procedures were compared for the preparation of cellulose nanofibres from flax and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). The first involved a combination of high energy ball milling, acid hydrolysis and ultrasound, whilst the second employed a high pressure homogenisation technique, with and without various pre-treatments of the fibrous feedstock. The geometry and microstructure of the cellulose nanofibres were observed by SEM and TEM and their particle size measured using image analysis and dynamic light scattering. Aspect ratios of nanofibres made by microfluidisation were orders of magnitude greater than those achieved by acid hydrolysis. FTIR, XRD and TGA were used to characterise changes to chemical functionality, cellulose crystallinity and thermal stability resulting from the approaches used for preparing the cellulose nanofibres. Hydrolysis using sulphuric acid gave rise to esterification of the cellulose nanofibres, a decrease in crystallinity with MCC, but an increase with flax, together with an overall reduction in thermal stability. Increased shear history of flax subjected to multiple passes through the microfluidiser, raised both cellulose nanofibril crystallinity and thermal stability, the latter being strongly influenced by acid, alkaline and, most markedly, silane pretreatment.

Understanding how different physical and chemical atmospheric processes affect the formation of fine particles has been a persistent challenge. Inferring causal relations between the various measured features affecting the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles is complicated since correlations between variables do not necessarily imply causality. Here, we apply a state-of-the-art information transfer measure coupled with the Koopman operator framework to infer causal relations between isoprene epoxydiol SOA (IEPOX-SOA) and different chemistry and meteorological variables derived from detailed regional model predictions over the Amazon rainforest. IEPOX-SOA represents one of the most complex SOA formation pathways and is formed by the interactions between natural biogenic isoprene emissions and anthropogenic emissions affecting sulfate, acidity and particle water. Since the regional model captures the known relations of IEPOX-SOA with different chemistry and meteorological features, their simulated time series implicitly include their causal relations. We show that our causal model successfully infers the known major causal relations between total particle phase 2-methyl tetrols (the dominant component of IEPOX-SOA over the Amazon) and input features. We provide the first proof of concept that the application of our causal model better identifies causal relations compared to correlation and random forest analyses performed over the same dataset. Our work has tremendous implications, as our methodology of causal discovery could be used to identify unknown processes and features affecting fine particles and atmospheric chemistry in the Earth’s atmosphere.

To measure the transverse distribution of the velocity is very important as it is associated with riverine flow processes like distribution of shear stress, sediment concentration distribution, diffusion coefficients, secondary current’s distribution, etc. Many formulations were proposed for transverse distribution of velocity with each being somehow complex in its application. In present study Kumaraswamy’s distribution was utilized to propose a transverse velocity distribution which uses mean velocity and Kumaraswamy’s parameters a and b. It was observed in the study that skewness in the velocity distribution is a function of both a and b. Kumaraswamy’s distribution have been observed to predict the velocity profile in a satisfactory manner and when utilized to predict the transverse concentration profile along-with a method developed by Ahmad, predicted it satisfactorily.

Tubers are important sources of carbohydrates as an energy source and are used as staple foods in tropical and subtropical countries. They are generally processed into various forms before consumption. Processing makes them digestible and palatable, extends the shelf life and reduces post-harvest losses. Taro ( Colocasia esculenta ) is a tropical tuber crop largely produced for its underground corms contain 70–80 % starch and the corms of Colocasia antiquorum contain anthocyanins such as cyanidin-3-glucoside, pelargonidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-chemnoside which were reported to have antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. Taro consumption has been affected by the presence of acridity factors, which cause sharp irritation and burning sensation in the throat and mouth on ingestion. Taro is rich in gums (mucilage) and small sizes of starch granules makes it a highly digestible which is used for the preparation of various foods. The present paper deals with reviewing the nutritional, antinutritional and utilization of Taro into the various food products.

Pure and gadolinium(Gd)-doped bismuth ferrite(BiFeO 3 , BFO) thin films were successfully fabricated via sol–gel processing technique onto the corning glass substrate using a programmable spin coating unit. The effect of thickness of the multilayered films coated and the influence of Gd doping on the structure, surface morphology, chemical composition and optical parameters of the thin films were systematically investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis of the annealed thin films confirmed the existence of rhombohedral distortion perovskite with preferred orientation along (101) plane. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Field Emission Scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images demonstrated that the average grain size decreased with Gd incorporation in the BFO lattice. Bi-site substitution by Gd in BFO lattice was confirmed by the Raman spectra analysis measured at room temperature. Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) further confirmed the elemental composition with the presence of Gd element in Gd-doped BFO thin films. Various optical parameters including extinction coefficient, optical bandgap energy, near-edge absorption ratio, and Urbach energy were determined from Ultraviolet–Visible spectra of the multilayered bismuth ferrite (BFO) thin films of different thickness and Gd-doped bismuth ferrite (Bi 0.95 Gd 0.05 FeO 3 , BGFO) thin films. The increase in film thickness (or the number of layers coated) leads to a reduction in the optical bandgap of the material, from 2.65 eV to 2.44 eV, which may be useful for applications in thin film solar cells and optoelectronic devices. The transmittance and the optical bandgap decreased with Gd doping and a reduced bandgap of 2.51 eV was observed in BGFO thin film.

Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes of water-soluble intrastromal natamycin (IS-NTM) as an adjunct therapy for recalcitrant fungal keratitis. Methods: This was a prospective interventional pilot study in the setting of a tertiary eye-care center. Twenty eyes of 20 consecutive patients with microbiologically proven recalcitrant fungal keratitis (ulcer size >2 mm, depth >50%, and not responding to topical NTM for 2 weeks) were recruited. The selected patients were injected with a novel composition of IS-NTM (10 ug/0.1 mL, soluble natamycin) prepared aseptically in the ocular pharmacology department. All the patients continued using topical NTM suspension 5% 4-hourly until the ulcer healed. Repeat injections were undertaken after 72 h depending on the clinical response and all the patients were followed till 6 months. Results: The mean age of the patients was 40.42 ± 10.09 years. The mean duration of the presentation was 20.8 ± 5.1 days. The most commonly isolated organisms were Aspergillus sp. (12/20, 60%) and Fusarium sp. (8/20, 40%). No patient had iatrogenic perforation or precipitate formation after IS-NTM injection. The overall cure rate with IS-NTM was 95% (19/20 patients). The number of patients who healed with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd injection was 13, 5, and 1, respectively. One (5%) had no response to treatment and was subjected to penetrating keratoplasty. The average time taken for the resolution of the epithelial defect, stromal infiltrates, and hypopyon was 34 ± 5.2 days, 35.3 ± 6.4 days, and 15 ± 2.5 days. Healing with deep vascularization and cataract was noted in 6/19 eyes (31%) and 13/19 eyes (68.42%), respectively. Conclusion: Intrastromal injection of a novel formulation of NTM holds a promising role as adjunctive therapy to topical NTM in the management of recalcitrant filamentous fungal keratitis. The preliminary results are encouraging and further studies are required to validate the results.

In today's world when biomedical science is experiencing continuous threats from various sources, publication of research articles in predatory journals has created a major havoc. These predatory journals are publishing worthless biomedical science which will haunt genuine researchers and keen readers of authentic biomedical journals for several decades. Hence, researchers of various disciplines and academic experience should be continuously made aware of these predatory publishers and potential ways to recognize them. The main aim of this article is to discuss the issues related to predatory publishing, techniques and strategies used by these publishers to prey young inexperienced researchers, and disadvantages of publishing in predatory journals.

Suppression of colorectal cancer by means of chemoprevention is gaining great attention owing to promising outcomes with less adverse effects in preclinical and clinical trials. The present study aims to explore the mechanism of chemoprevention by p -coumaric acid ( p -CA) in a short-term preclinical model of colon cancer. 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-administered rats supplemented with p -CA showed downregulation of the expression of colonic proteins, namely, cyclin B1, cdc2 and mdm2, which regulate cell cycle, and immediate early response genes, namely, c-fos , c-jun and c-myc , which regulate cell proliferation. Apoptosis induction was also observed in the colon of p -CA-supplemented rats as assessed by the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that supplementation of p -CA improved the in-vivo detoxification potential by modulating the cytoplasmic-to-nuclear ratio of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2, favouring the induction of genes responsible for cytoprotection and detoxification. The outcome of these findings suggests that p -CA inhibited polyp formation by improving the process of detoxification and apoptosis in the colon of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-administered rats.

Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis) commonly known as amla is one of the important fruit of Ayurveda. Nutritional and medicinal properties of amla make it a well known fruit. It is an excellent source of vitamin C, phytochemicals and minerals. Several cultivars of amla are grown throughout different parts of India. Physical characteristics are imperative for designing the equipments for processing, handling and storage. Processing of fruit into value added products is governed by chemical composition of fruit. The current work was aimed to examine the various physical and chemical characteristics of fruits of six cultivars viz. NA-7, NA-9, NA-10, Chakaiya, Balwant and Hathijhool. Characteristics namely height, diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, aspect ratio, volume, density, rolling resistance, color, textural characteristics, proximate composition, ascorbic acid and polyphenol content was studied. Results showed that the highest fruit size was obtained in NA-7 and the lowest in Hathijhool cultivars while the highest density in Hathijhool and lowest in NA-10 cultivar. The fruit volume of different cultivars varied from 15.00 to 44.93 cm3. Moisture content was highest in Chakaiya followed by NA-7 cultivar. No significant difference was observed in surface hardness and moisture content of the fruit of different cultivars. The highest ascorbic acid and polyphenols content were found in Chakaiya cultivar. In the different cultivars, ash content ranged between 2.08 and 2.97% and NA-10 cultivar had the highest value followed by Chakaiya cultivar.