Antimicrobial efficiency against fish pathogens on the green synthesized silver nanoparticles.

Fish-borne pathogens such as A. hydrophila and F. aquidurense are the most resistant strains in pisciculture farming. Removing the aforementioned pathogens without antibiotics presents a formidable challenge. To overcome this problem, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are synthesized using silver nitrate, water medium, and as an AzadirachtaIndica leaf extract via the green synthesis route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern results authenticate the synthesized material is the face-centered cubic structure of silver. The optical absorption edge of the synthesized product was found at the wavelength of 440 nm from the UV-visible spectra, which is confirmed to relate to the Surface Plasmon Resonance peaks of silver particles. In addition, the optical band gap value of the synthesized Ag sample is measured to be 2.81 eV from the obtained optical absorption spectra. EDX spectrum of the synthesized product also supports confirming the silver particle formation. The FT-IR spectra of the neem extract and silver nanoparticles showed their characteristic functional groups, respectively. The presence of bands between 1000 cm-1 to 500 cm-1 indicates to the formation of silver particles. Spherical particles appeared in the synthesized Ag using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The particle size of Ag NPs was measured as 40 nm and 62 ± 10 nm by TEM and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The zeta potential was also measured as -12 mV showing the synthesized sample's stable nature. Using the DPPH assay, synthesized AgNPs were taken along with the various concentrations of ascorbic acid (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 µg/mL) to examine the free radical scavenging activity (RSA). RSA value is higher (84 ± 2 %) for synthesized AgNPs at higher concentration (100 µg/mL) than 21 ± 2 % at low concentration (100 µg/mL). The antimicrobial efficacy of the AgNPs against A. hydrophila and F. aquidurense was performed through the agar diffusion method and its results showed the inhibitory zones of the F.aquidurense and A. hydrophila were measured as 25 ± 3 mm, and 28 ± 4 mm respectively. The synthesized Ag particles showed excellent antimicrobial and antioxidant properties confirmed by antimicrobial and DPPH experiments. It implies that the green synthesized silver nanoparticles could be a good alternative for antibiotics in aquaculture farms. The exposure of low concentrations of silver nanoparticles to zebrafish and brine shrimp does not affect the viability and morphology. The exposure of silver nanoparticles in the fisheries in optimized concentration and time could control the fish-borne pathogens without antibiotics.

Eggshells & Eggshell Membranes- A Sustainable Resource for energy storage and energy conversion applications: A critical review.

As the world strives to achieve a sustainable future, the exploration of alternative and renewable raw materials for energy storage and energy conversion has gained significant attention. A growing trend on "Waste to Energy" approach has attained prominence. Accordingly, chicken eggshells, a residual from poultry industry, have emerged as a promising candidate due to their abundant availability, low cost, and unique physical and chemical properties. This review article presents an overview of recent advancements in utilizing eggshell waste for energy storage and energy conversion applications. It discusses the transformation of eggshells usage into functional materials, along with their performance in various energy-related applications. The potential of eggshell-based materials in improving energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact is highlighted, providing insights into the future prospects of this sustainable resource.

Introgression of bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistant gene, Xa7 into MARDI elite variety, MR219 by marker assisted backcrossing (MABC) approach / Introdução do gene resistente à ferragem da folha bacteriana (BLB), xa7 na variedade MARDI elite, MR219 por abordagem de backcrossing assistida por marcador (MABC)

Abstract Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is one of the major rice diseases in Malaysia. This disease causes substantial yield loss as high as 70%. Development of rice varieties which inherited BLB resistant traits is a crucial approach to promote and sustain rice industry in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims were to enhance BLB disease resistant characters of high yielding commercial variety MR219 through backcross breeding approach with supporting tool of marker-assisted selection (MAS). Broad spectrum BLB resistance gene, Xa7 from donor parent IRBB7 were introgressed into the susceptible MR219 (recurrent parent) using two flanking markers ID7 and ID15. At BC3F4, we managed to generate 19 introgressed lines with homozygous Xa7 gene and showed resistant characteristics as donor parent when it was challenged with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae through artificial inoculation. Recurrent parent MR219 and control variety, MR263 were found to be severely infected by the disease. The improved lines exhibited similar morphological and yield performance characters as to the elite variety, MR219. Two lines, PB-2-107 and PB-2-34 were chosen to be potential lines because of their outstanding performances compared to parent, MR219. This study demonstrates a success story of MAS application in development of improved disease resistance lines of rice against BLB disease.

Resumo A mancha bacteriana das folhas (BLB) é uma das principais doenças do arroz na Malásia. Essa doença causa perdas substanciais de rendimento de até 70%. O desenvolvimento de variedades de arroz que herdaram características de resistência ao BLB é uma abordagem crucial para promover e sustentar a indústria do arroz na Malásia. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi aumentar os caracteres BLB resistentes a doenças da variedade comercial MR219 de alto rendimento por meio de uma abordagem de cruzamento retrocruzamento com ferramenta de apoio de seleção assistida por marcador (MAS). O gene de resistência a BLB de amplo espectro, Xa7 do pai doador IRBB7, foi introgressado no MR219 suscetível (pai recorrente) usando dois marcadores flanqueadores ID7 e ID15. No BC3F4, conseguimos gerar 19 linhagens introgressadas com o gene Xa7 homozigoto e apresentamos características de resistência como genitor doador quando desafiado com Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae por inoculação artificial. O pai recorrente MR219 e a variedade controle, MR263, estavam gravemente infectados pela doença. As linhas melhoradas exibiram características morfológicas e de desempenho de rendimento semelhantes às da variedade elite, MR219. Duas linhas, PB-2-107 e PB-2-34, foram escolhidas como linhas potenciais por causa de seus desempenhos excelentes em comparação com a mãe, MR219. Este estudo demonstra uma história de sucesso de aplicação de MAS no desenvolvimento de linhas de arroz melhoradas com resistência a doenças contra a doença BLB.

Introgression of bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistant gene, Xa7 into MARDI elite variety, MR219 by marker assisted backcrossing (MABC) approach

Abstract Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is one of the major rice diseases in Malaysia. This disease causes substantial yield loss as high as 70%. Development of rice varieties which inherited BLB resistant traits is a crucial approach to promote and sustain rice industry in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims were to enhance BLB disease resistant characters of high yielding commercial variety MR219 through backcross breeding approach with supporting tool of marker-assisted selection (MAS). Broad spectrum BLB resistance gene, Xa7 from donor parent IRBB7 were introgressed into the susceptible MR219 (recurrent parent) using two flanking markers ID7 and ID15. At BC3F4, we managed to generate 19 introgressed lines with homozygous Xa7 gene and showed resistant characteristics as donor parent when it was challenged with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae through artificial inoculation. Recurrent parent MR219 and control variety, MR263 were found to be severely infected by the disease. The improved lines exhibited similar morphological and yield performance characters as to the elite variety, MR219. Two lines, PB-2-107 and PB-2-34 were chosen to be potential lines because of their outstanding performances compared to parent, MR219. This study demonstrates a success story of MAS application in development of improved disease resistance lines of rice against BLB disease.

Resumo A mancha bacteriana das folhas (BLB) é uma das principais doenças do arroz na Malásia. Essa doença causa perdas substanciais de rendimento de até 70%. O desenvolvimento de variedades de arroz que herdaram características de resistência ao BLB é uma abordagem crucial para promover e sustentar a indústria do arroz na Malásia. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi aumentar os caracteres BLB resistentes a doenças da variedade comercial MR219 de alto rendimento por meio de uma abordagem de cruzamento retrocruzamento com ferramenta de apoio de seleção assistida por marcador (MAS). O gene de resistência a BLB de amplo espectro, Xa7 do pai doador IRBB7, foi introgressado no MR219 suscetível (pai recorrente) usando dois marcadores flanqueadores ID7 e ID15. No BC3F4, conseguimos gerar 19 linhagens introgressadas com o gene Xa7 homozigoto e apresentamos características de resistência como genitor doador quando desafiado com Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae por inoculação artificial. O pai recorrente MR219 e a variedade controle, MR263, estavam gravemente infectados pela doença. As linhas melhoradas exibiram características morfológicas e de desempenho de rendimento semelhantes às da variedade elite, MR219. Duas linhas, PB-2-107 e PB-2-34, foram escolhidas como linhas potenciais por causa de seus desempenhos excelentes em comparação com a mãe, MR219. Este estudo demonstra uma história de sucesso de aplicação de MAS no desenvolvimento de linhas de arroz melhoradas com resistência a doenças contra a doença BLB.

In-situ and airborne hyperspectral data for detecting agricultural activities in a dense forest landscape.

Maintaining rich biodiversity and being a habitat and resource for humans, tropical forests are one of the most important global biomes. These forest ecosystems have been experiencing a host of unregulated anthropogenic activities including illegal tourism, and shifting cultivation. The presence of human-habitats in the restricted zones of forest ecosystems is a direct indicator of the human activities that may accelerate deterioration of forest quality by area and tree species composition. Remote sensing data have been extensively used for mapping forest types, and biophysical characterization at various spatial scales. Several remote sensing datasets from multispectral, hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors are available for developing and validating a host of methodologies for remote sensing application in forestry. However, quantifying the quality of forest stands and detecting potential threats from the sporadic and small-scale human activities requires sub-pixel level remote sensing data analysis methods such as, spectral mixture modelling. Generally, most of the studies employ pixel-level supervised learning-based analysis techniques to detect infrastructure and settlements. However, if the settlements are smaller than the ground sampling distance and are under the canopy, pixel-based techniques are not suitable. Reinvigorated with progressive availability of hyperspectral imagery, spectral mixture modelling based sub-pixel image analysis is gaining prominence in the contemporary remote sensing application development. However, there is a paucity of high-resolution hyperspectral imagery and associated ground truth spectral measurements for assessing various methodological approaches on studies related to anthropogenic activities and forest disturbance. Most of the studies have relied upon simulating and synthesising the hyperspectral imagery and its associated ground truth spectra for implementation of methods and algorithms. This article presents a distinct dataset of high-resolution hyperspectral imagery and associated ground truth spectra of various vegetable crops acquired over a tropical forest ecosystem. The dataset is valuable for research on developing new discrimination models of forest and cultivated vegetation, classification methods, spectral matching analysis techniques, and sub-pixel target detection methods.

Regulating Oxygen Configuration in Hierarchically Porous Carbon Nanosheets for High-Rate and Durable Na+ Storage.

Surface oxygen functionalities (particularly C-O configuration) in carbon materials have negative influence on their electrical conductivity and Na+ storage performance. Herein, we propose a concept from surface chemistry to regulate the oxygen configuration in hierarchically porous carbon nanosheets (HPCNS). It is demonstrated that the C-O/C=O ratio in HPCNS reduces from 1.49 to 0.43 and its graphitization degree increases by increasing the carbonization temperature under a reduction atmosphere. Remarkably, such high graphitization degree and low C-O content of the HPCNS-800 are favorable for promoting its electron/ion transfer kinetics, thus endowing it with high-rate (323.6 mAh g-1 at 0.05 A g-1 and 138.5 mAh g-1 at 20.0 A g-1 ) and durable (96 % capacity retention over 5700 cycles at 10.0 A g-1 ) Na+ storage performance. This work permits the optimization of heteroatom configurations in carbon for superior Na+ storage.

Mass Equilibration and Fluctuations in the Angular Momentum Dependent Dynamics of Heavy Element Synthesis Reactions.

Mass and angle distributions for the ^{52}Cr+^{198}Pt and ^{54}Cr+^{196}Pt reactions (both forming ^{250}No) were measured and subtracted, giving new information on fast quasifission mass evolution, and the first direct determination of the dependence of sticking times on angular momentum. TDHF calculations showed good agreement with average experimental values, but experimental mass distributions unexpectedly extended to symmetric splits while the peak yield remained close to the initial masses. This implies a strong role of fluctuations in mass division early in the collision, giving insights into the transition from fast energy dissipative deep-inelastic collisions to quasifission.

Introgression of bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistant gene, Xa7 into MARDI elite variety, MR219 by marker assisted backcrossing (MABC) approach.

Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is one of the major rice diseases in Malaysia. This disease causes substantial yield loss as high as 70%. Development of rice varieties which inherited BLB resistant traits is a crucial approach to promote and sustain rice industry in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims were to enhance BLB disease resistant characters of high yielding commercial variety MR219 through backcross breeding approach with supporting tool of marker-assisted selection (MAS). Broad spectrum BLB resistance gene, Xa7 from donor parent IRBB7 were introgressed into the susceptible MR219 (recurrent parent) using two flanking markers ID7 and ID15. At BC3F4, we managed to generate 19 introgressed lines with homozygous Xa7 gene and showed resistant characteristics as donor parent when it was challenged with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae through artificial inoculation. Recurrent parent MR219 and control variety, MR263 were found to be severely infected by the disease. The improved lines exhibited similar morphological and yield performance characters as to the elite variety, MR219. Two lines, PB-2-107 and PB-2-34 were chosen to be potential lines because of their outstanding performances compared to parent, MR219. This study demonstrates a success story of MAS application in development of improved disease resistance lines of rice against BLB disease.

Study of photo induced charge transfer mechanism of PEDOT with nitro groups of RDX, HMX and TNT explosives using anti-stokes and stokes Raman lines ratios.

The paper reports the charge transfer mechanism between poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and high energy materials such as RDX, HMX and TNT, respectively in terms of ratios of anti-stokes (AS) and stokes(S) Raman lines of NO2 bands. Generally it works as an effective sensing medium for the detection of explosives when mixed in an equal proportion and are subjected to 532 nm wavelength without any chemical treatment [1]. The pristine PEDOT is less sensitive to 532 nm wavelength (2.33 eV) but influences the Raman S and AS lines of explosives in the mixture. The study also reveals that a small quantity (one milligram) of PEDOT is sufficient to initiate the positive charge transfer mechanism between its oxidized state to the lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atoms of the nitro group of the explosive molecules. Consequently, the intensity of the Raman spectra of RDX, HMX and TNT is dropped by an order of 22.5, 11.45 and 17.2 times, respectively along with the shift of the NO2 vibrational modes. It is also attributed to Photon-electron-phonon interaction. Finally, we have estimated the reduced mass of the functional group to ascertain the force constant and the intensity ratios of AS /S lines to confirm the charge transfer mechanism. The effect of charge transfer mechanism is also reflected in drastic change in transmission /absorption characteristics of FTIR spectra of same PEDOT and explosive mixtures.

Evolution of Hair Transplant Surgery in India: A Plastic Surgeon's Perspective.

This article is mainly aimed to delve into the history of hair transplant and its evolution in India. As a plastic surgeon in practice for the past 35 years, I have seen hair transplant surgery undergoing various transformations starting with initial use of plugs and flaps. Scalp reduction surgery also played an important role. Plugs slowly gave way to mini- and micrografts. With the incorporation of the microscope and popularizing of strip surgery and improved slivering techniques, mega sessions came to the fore thereby covering large areas. Follicular unit extraction and use of body hair have also been discussed.

Atypical PRES with diffusion restriction or neurotoxicity- ? part of same spectrum-after oxaliplatin (FOLFOX-4 regimen) for colonic cancer.

Atypical features of Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) (diffusion restriction, involvement of corpus callosum & white matter tracts along posterior limbs of internal capsule) were seen in a patient after oxaliplatin administration (FOLFOX- 4 regimen). Findings were most obvious on diffusion weighted images, similar to acute methotrexate neurotoxicity, and resolved completely on follow up.

Extraction of foetal ECG from abdominal ECG by nonlinear transformation and estimations.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: This paper proposes a simple yet effective method for the extraction of foetal ECG from abdominal ECG which is necessary due to similar spatial and temporal content of mother and foetal ECG. METHODS: The proposed algorithm for extraction of foetal ECG (fECG) from abdominal signal uses single channel. Pre-processing of abdominal ECG (abdECG) has been done to eliminate noise and condition the signal. The maternal ECG R-peaks have been detected based on thresholding, first order Gaussian differentiation and zero cross detection on pre-processed signal. Having identified R-peaks and pre-processed signal as base, using Maximum Likelihood Estimation, one beat including QRS complex morphology of maternal ECG (mECG) has been constructed. Extraction of maternal ECG from abdECG is done based on the constructed beat, R-peak locations and its corresponding QRS complex of abdECG. Extracted mECG has been cancelled from abdECG. This results in foetal ECG with residual noise. The noise has been reduced by Polynomial Approximation and Total Variation (PATV) to improve SNR. This approach ensures no loss of partially or completely overlapped fECG signals due to mECG removal. The algorithm is tested on three database namely daISy (DBI), Physiobank challenge 2013 (DBII) and abdominal and direct foetal ECG database (adfecgdb) of Physiobank (DBIII). RESULTS: The algorithm detected no false positives or false negatives with certain channel for DBI, DBII and DBIII which shows that the proposed algorithm can achieve good performance. Overall accuracy and sensitivity of the system is 98.53% and 100% for DBI. Best accuracy and sensitivity of 97.77% and 98.63% are obtained for DBII. Best accuracy of 92.41% and sensitivity of 93.8% are obtained for DBIII. Correlation coefficient between actual foetal heart rate (fHR) and estimated fHR of 0.66 for DBII and 0.59 for DBIII is obtained. The method has obtained overall F1 score of 99.25% for DBI, 96.04% for DBII and 94.25% for DBIII. It has obtained a best MSE of fHR and overall MSE of R-R interval which is 10.8bpm2 and 2.2 ms for DBII, 12bpm2 and 2.14 ms for DBIII. CONCLUSION: The results for different public databases show that the proposed method is capable of providing good results. The foetal QRS, R-peaks and R-R intervals have also been obtained in this method. Thus, it gives a significant contribution in the required area of research.

Ultrafine Pt Nanoparticles Stabilized by MoS2/N-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide as a Durable Electrocatalyst for Alcohol Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction Reactions.

Direct alcohol fuel cells play a pivotal role in the synthesis of catalysts because of their low cost, high catalytic activity, and long durability in half-cell reactions, which include anode (alcohol oxidation) and cathode (oxygen reduction) reactions. However, platinum catalysts suffer from CO tolerance, which affects their stability. The present study focuses on ultrafine Pt nanoparticles stabilized by flowerlike MoS2/N-doped reduced graphene oxide (Pt@MoS2/NrGO) architecture, developed via a facile and cost-competitive approach that was performed through the hydrothermal method followed by the wet-reflux strategy. Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction patterns, Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectra, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy verified the conversion to Pt@MoS2/NrGO. Pt@MoS2/NrGO was applied as a potential electrocatalyst toward the anode reaction (liquid fuel oxidation) and the cathode reaction (oxygen reduction). In the anode reaction, Pt@MoS2/NrGO showed superior activity toward electro-oxidation of methanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol with mass activities of 448.0, 158.0, and 147.0 mA/mgPt, respectively, approximately 4.14, 2.82, and 3.34 times that of a commercial Pt-C (20%) catalyst. The durability of the Pt@MoS2/NrGO catalyst was tested via 500 potential cycles, demonstrating less than 20% of catalytic activity loss for alcohol fuels. In the cathode reaction, oxygen reduction reaction results showed excellent catalytic activity with higher half-wave potential at 0.895 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode for Pt@MoS2/NrGO. The durability of the Pt@MoS2/NrGO catalyst was tested via 30 000 potential cycles and showed only 15 mV reduction in the half-wave potential, whereas the Pt@NrGO and Pt-C catalysts experienced a much greater shift (Pt@NrGO, ∼23 mV; Pt-C, ∼20 mV).

Clinico-radiological Co-relation of Carcinoma Larynx and Hypopharynx: A Prospective Study.

The successful management of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers requires accurate diagnosis, staging, assessment of patient wishes, and the selection of the most appropriate treatment for the individual patient. Imaging plays an important complementary role to clinical examination and endoscopy in the evaluation of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. The combined information allows the disease to be staged accurately. To correlate carcinoma larynx and hypopharynx clinically and radiologically and to know the accurate pre-therapeutic stage of the disease. A total of 50 cases were included in this study. After clinical TNM staging, CT scan was done to know the real extent of tumor, volume and nodal status. After that, TNM staging was revised based on radiological findings. The number of people who had been upstaged and downstaged after CT evaluation was measured. There were total of 50 cases of carcinoma larynx and hypopharynx in this study. There were 26 (52%) cases of carcinoma larynx and 24 (48%) cases of carcinoma hypopharynx. There were significant changes in T stage after radiological evaluation. Major changes were observed in T2 and T3 stages. Majority of cases (17) were having N1 disease after radiological evaluation. On comparing clinical and radiological staging of neck nodes, it was observed that upstaging occurred mainly in N0. Overall after radiological evaluation, 48% of our cases were upstaged, 48% remained in same stage and 4% were downstaged. By combining both clinical and radiological evaluation in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers, a correct pre therapeutic staging can be obtained and thereby prompt treatment can be given.

Plasma assisted synthesis of γ-alumina from waste aluminium dross.

Aluminium dross, a waste generated from aluminium melting process, contains aluminium metal, aluminium oxide, aluminium oxy-nitride and impurities such as sodium chloride and potassium chloride. Since aluminium dross is land filled without treatment, it is hazardous to the environment. Conventional methods for the metal recovery from the recycling of aluminium dross involve chemicals and are time consuming. In this study, an attempt was made to treat aluminium dross using plasma arc melting process. The aluminium dross was melted and evaporated by the plasma arc established between a crucible anode and a rod type hollow cathode made of graphite. Raw dross and products of plasma treated dross such as slag and fine powder were characterized. The generation of ultrafine alumina powder and slag are explained using simulation of the plasma arc inside the crucible and free energy minimization calculations. High temperature and air entrainment into the plasma inside the crucible converted the dross into alumina slag and fine powder. The amount of fine alumina powder produced increased substantially with plasma power initially as seen from the results of alumina obtained at 5 kW and 10 kW. However, further increase in plasma power resulted only in marginal increase in the conversion of Al dross to alumina. Results of this study indicate that arc plasma technology can be effectively applied to convert Al dross into value added fine alumina powder.

Exploring Zeptosecond Quantum Equilibration Dynamics: From Deep-Inelastic to Fusion-Fission Outcomes in

Energy dissipative processes play a key role in how quantum many-body systems dynamically evolve toward equilibrium. In closed quantum systems, such processes are attributed to the transfer of energy from collective motion to single-particle degrees of freedom; however, the quantum many-body dynamics of this evolutionary process is poorly understood. To explore energy dissipative phenomena and equilibration dynamics in one such system, an experimental investigation of deep-inelastic and fusion-fission outcomes in the ^{58}Ni+^{60}Ni reaction has been carried out. Experimental outcomes have been compared to theoretical predictions using time dependent Hartree-Fock and time dependent random phase approximation approaches, which, respectively, incorporate one-body energy dissipation and fluctuations. Excellent quantitative agreement has been found between experiment and calculations, indicating that microscopic models incorporating one-body dissipation and fluctuations provide a potential tool for exploring dissipation in low-energy heavy ion collisions.

Trace metal pollution assessment in the surface sediments of nearshore area, off Calicut, southwest coast of India.

Metal concentrations (Al, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb), grain size, and total organic carbon content in 29 surface sediment samples from the nearshore area off Calicut were analyzed to determine their distribution and pollution status. Surface sediments were dominantly silts with low percentage of clay and sand at nearshore and offshore areas. The mean metal concentrations were in the following order: Cr>Ni>Zn>Pb>Cu. The enrichment factor and geo-accumulation index of metals suggest that the surface sediments were not polluted by Zn and moderately polluted by Cu and Ni. By contrast, Cr and Pb showed significant enrichment levels. Results from a multivariate statistical analysis suggested that the spatial enrichment of these heavy metals was related to sediment type. Thus, the sediment distribution and their metal enrichment were mainly controlled by local hydrodynamic conditions that caused the winnowing of fine-grained sediments.

Ni-Co bimetal nanowires filled multiwalled carbon nanotubes for the highly sensitive and selective non-enzymatic glucose sensor applications.

The facile, time and cost efficient and environmental benign approach has been developed for the preparation of Nickel (Ni)-Cobalt (Co) alloy nanowires filled multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with the aid of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN)/Ni-Co catalyst. The controlled incorporation of Ni-Co nanostructures in the three dimensional (3D) pore structures of MSN yielded the catalytically active system for the MWCNT growth. The inner surface of MWCNTs was quasi-continuously filled with face-centered cubic (fcc) structured Ni-Co nanowires. The as-prepared nanostructures were exploited as non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor probes for the reliable detection of glucose. The electrochemical measurements illustrated that the fabricated sensor exhibited an excellent electrochemical performance toward glucose oxidation with a high sensitivity of 0.695 mA mM-1 cm-2, low detection limit of 1.2 µM, a wide linear range from 5 µM-10 mM and good selectivity. The unprecedented electrochemical performances obtained for the prepared nanocomposite are purely attributed to the synergistic effects of Ni-Co nanowires and MWCNTs. The constructed facile, selective and sensitive glucose sensor has also endowed its reliability in analyzing the human serum samples, which wide opened the new findings for exploring the novel nanostructures based glucose sensor devices with affordable cost and good stability.

Efficiency enhancement of cubic perovskite BaSnO3 nanostructures based dye sensitized solar cells.

Cubic perovskite BaSnO3 (BSO) is an important photoelectron transporting material due to its electronic structure that competes with TiO2 in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Separately, BSO/TiCl4 treated and BSO/scattering layer photoelectrodes have been used in DSCs that effectively increase the photoexcited charge carriers collection resulting in superior photovoltaic performance. In the present work, the different TiCl4 treatment time (1, 3 and 5 min), different scattering layer (tetragonal anatase TiO2 and hexagonal wurtzite ZnO) and different combinations thereof are successfully used on BSO nanocuboids/nanoparticle morphological structure photoelectrodes, and then we systematically inspected their performance in DSCs. Under the optimized conditions, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.88% is obtained by a BSO/TiCl4 treated photoanode. Furthermore, the BSO photoanodes made using a scattering layer such as anatase TiO2 and hexagonal ZnO i.e., BSO/anatase TiO2 and BSO/hexagonal ZnO, exhibited PCEs of 1.14% and 1.25% respectively. In the end, one of the highest PCEs (5.68%) was achieved using BSO/TiCl4 treated/TiO2 scattering layer photoanode. Another photoelectrode such as BSO/TiCl4 treated/ZnO scattering layer exhibited a PCE of 4.28% that is also higher than the BSO/TiCl4 treated/BSO scattering layer photoanodes. Electron lifetime versus current density studies illustrate the stability of the BSO photoelectrode in DSCs. From the observed results, it is realized that BSO is one of the most important future technological materials.