Access to Scientific Publication through GS Spark

The editorial highlighted GS Spark needs along with the issues of scientific publication and ways forward. It extended acknowledgments and short review of article published in editorial perspective along with good wishes. The push for open access publishing in the scientific community is aimed at making research more accessible to the public and promoting collaboration among researchers. However, many of the current efforts to increase access to scientific knowledge, such as increasing funds for subscription fees or article processing charges (APCs), may actually reinforce the dominance of a few publishing houses and maintain the existing market model. One of the main challenges in transitioning to open access publishing is the need to cover the costs that are currently supported by subscription fees. While some open access journals are funded by institutional subscribers or dedicated open-access publishers, many traditional publishers have also started offering open access options. However, these publishers may still benefit from the existing market structure and the lack of price sensitivity among researchers, potentially leading to a new pay-to-publish system that is more costly than the previous subscription model. This made us to initiate GS Spark: Journal of Applied Academic Discourse. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of all the authors, reviewers, and readers who have supported GS Spark: Journal of Applied Academic Discourse. Thank you for your valuable time, effort, and expertise. I wish you all on behalf of journal team a happy and prosperous Dashain, Tihar and Chhath.How to cite this article: Mishra, A. K., (2023). Access to Scientific Publication through GS Spark. GS Spark: Journal of Applied Academic Discourse. 1(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.838187

Andaman mangrove sediments: source of nutrients and sink of heavy metals

156-166Andaman Islands (AI) of India is a biodiversity hotspot of mangroves but biogeochemical dynamics of AI is less understood. We collected sediment samples from four AI mangrove sites and one site without mangroves for nutrients and trace metal analysis. Samples were collected from each site at the inlet of seawater (Zone A) and the other 500 m into the mangrove creek (Zone B). Nutrients (sulphate, ammonium, nitrite and nitrate) level, organic matter (OM) and carbon content were higher at Zone B of mangrove ecosystem due to the higher OM content from mangrove leaf litter decomposition and microbial degradation. Metal (Pb & Cd) content of zones with and without mangroves were similar and Igeo values indicated moderate contamination of mangrove zones of AI due to lack of anthropogenic pollution. Our results suggest mangrove ecosystems of AI are uncontaminated from heavy metals and are source of nutrients to the oligotrophic coastal ecosystems of Andaman Sea

Effect of combined thyroxine and cortisol treatment on hatching of eggs, post-embryonic growth and survival of larvae of Heteropneustes fossilis

In order to record the effects of thyroxine and cortisol (individual/combined) on hatching, post-embryonic growth and survival of larvae of Heteropneustes fossilis, newly fertilized eggs were given bath immersion treatments of L-thyroxine (T sub(4); 0.05 mg/l), cortisol (0.50 mg/l) and T sub(4)+ cortisol (0.05 mg/l+0.50 mg/l) for 15 days. Hatching of eggs, growth and survival of the larvae improved significantly (P<0.001) in the hormone treated groups as compared to those of control. The frequency of deformities was reduced in the combined hormone treatment group. The present observations suggest that the advanced digestive function probably induced by T sub(4)+cortisol treatment might have resulted in improvement in food utilization during the critical phases of first feeding and promoted vital developmental processes resulting in uniform growth, decreased mortality, better survival and transformation of larvae to juveniles. This combined hormone therapy appears to have practical utility in fish hatchery practice for better success in larval rearing

A Comprehensive Review of Recent Variants and Modifications of Firefly Algorithm

Swarm intelligence (SI) is an emerging field of biologically-inspired artificial intelligence based on the behavioral models of social insects such as ants, bees, wasps, termites etc.&nbsp;Swarm intelligence is the discipline that deals with natural and artificial systems composed of many individuals that coordinate using decentralized control and self-organization. Most SI algorithms have been developed to address stationary optimization problems and hence, they can converge on the (near-) optimum solution efficiently. However, many real-world problems have a dynamic environment that changes over time. In the last two decades, there has been a growing interest of addressing Dynamic Optimization Problems using SI algorithms due to their adaptation capabilities. This paper presents a broad review on two SI algorithms: 1) Firefly Algorithm (FA) 2) Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA). FA is inspired from bioluminescence characteristic of fireflies. FPA is inspired from the the pollination behavior of flowering plants. This article aims to give a detailed analysis of different variants of FA and FPA developed by parameter adaptations, modification, hybridization as on date. This paper also addresses the applications of these algorithms in various fields. In addition, literatures found that most of the cases that used FA and FPA technique have outperformed compare to other metaheuristic algorithms

Study of heat transport by stationary magneto-convection in a Newtonian liquid under temperature or gravity modulation using Ginzburg-Landau model

The present paper deals with a weak non-linear stability problem of magneto-convection in an electrically conducting Newtonian fluid, confined between two horizontal surfaces, under a constant vertical magnetic field, and subjected to an imposed time-periodic boundary temperature (ITBT) or gravity modulation (ITGM). In the case of ITBT, the temperature gradient between the walls of the fluid layer consists of a steady part and a time-dependent oscillatory part. The temperature of both walls is modulated in this case. In the problem involving ITGM, the gravity field has two parts: a constant part and an externally imposed time periodic part, which can be realized by oscillating the fluid layer. The disturbance is expanded in terms of power series of amplitude of convection, which is assumed to be small. Using Ginzburg-Landau equation, the effect of modulations on heat transport is analyzed. Effect of various parameters on the heat transport is also discussed.© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Long-term treatment and poor management of psychiatric manifestations in mesial temporal sclerosis leading to suicidality in a young male

AbstractPsychiatric disorders including anxiety, psychosis, and aggressive behaviors are frequently diagnosed in patients with epilepsy. In this communication, we report a patients with mesial temporal lobe sclerosis with interictal affective-somatoform (dysphoric) disorders who was never treated for psychiatric manifestations, and who deliberately took a massive dose of phenytoin and phenobarbitone with a motive of suicide, resulting in severe combined toxicity. Such unfortunate incidences may be prevented, and quality of life can be improved with early diagnosis, through the selection of the right antiepileptic drugs, reasonable psychiatric consultation, and appropriate biological and psychological treatments

Performance evaluation of rice bran biodiesel in small size agricultural diesel engines

India is the second largest rice producing country in the world.  The estimated yield of crude Rice Bran Oil (RBO) is about 400,000 tons of which only 50% is of edible grade, 50% of the total available rice bran oil is left unutilized due to the presence of active lipase in bran and lack of economic stabilization methods most of the bran is used as animal feed or for industrial application.  One of the best ways for the potential utilization of RBO is the production of biodiesel.  This study targets at finding the effects of the engine parameters to compare the performance of diesel and rice bran biodiesel blends.  Rice Bran (RB) blends were found to be substitute for diesel fuel.  Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTHE) was maximum for RB05 blend and minimum for RB20 blend.  RB05 blend can be considered as a substitute for diesel with lower Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) and Brake Specific Energy Consumption (BSEC), RB15 was found to have minimum smoke opacity.   Keywords: Rice bran oil, Blend, Brake parameters and opacit

Application of somatic hybridization for the improvement of horticultural crops

Somatic hybridization (SH) using protoplast fusion is a promising tool to produce symmetrical and asymmetrical polyploidy somatic hybrids in many agricultural crops. The technique of SH could facilitate conventional breeding by providing of novel lines so as to use them as elite breeding materials in conventional crosses for both scion and rootstock improvement. Further, SH can overcome those problems associated with sexual hybridization viz., sexual incompatibility, nucellar embryogenesis, and male/female sterility. Successful exploitation of SH in horticultural crops mainly comes from transfer of resistance genes for biotic and abiotic stresses from related species in several horticultural crops, viz., citrus, potato, brinjal, tomato, mango, avocado, banana, strawberry, pear, cherry etc. Unlike transgenic technology, SH is not affected by legal formalities and able to transfer uncloned multiple genes. However, certain boundaries and limitations of SH restricts its use over sexual hybridization but, envisage of new genomic technologies providing better insight into the plant genomes will increase the potentiality of SH in betterment of agriculture

Effects of crosstalk in WDM optical label switching networks due to wavelength switching of a tunable laser

rosstalk caused by switching events in fast tunable lasers in an optical label switching (OLS) system is investigated for the first time. A wavelength-division-multiplexed OLS system based on subcarrier multiplexed labels is presented which employs a 40-Gb/s duobinary payload and a 155-Mb/s label on a 40-GHz subcarrier. Degradation in system performance as the transmitters switch between different channels is then characterized in terms of the frequency drift of the tunable laser