Vacuum pyrolysed biochar for soil amendment

Biochar, a highly carbonaceous charred organic material obtained from biomass conversion can be deliberately applied as a conditioner/ amender in order to improve soil quality and associated environmental services. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), a lignocellulosic biomass, can potentially be used to produce biochar. The aim of the present work is to manufacture, comprehensively characterize, and apply biochar obtained from the vacuum pyrolysis and investigate its potential for soil amendment. Biochar produced from Napier grass was characterized for its pH, electrical conductivity, soil water retention capacity, surface acidity and/or basicity, elemental composition, Infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction spectra, surface area, porosity, soil-water relation and morphological properties. Experiments on the methylene blue adsorption of the biochar indicated an equilibrium uptake capacity of 35 mg.g−1 and showed good agreement with the Langmuir-Freundlich model. Kinetic studies revealed Lagergren pseudo-first-order fit with intra-particle diffusion appearing to be one of the rate controlling mechanisms. Pot trials with Cicer grown in neutral and acidic soil amended with biochar validated that biochar augmented plant growth in terms of enhanced biomass weight and number of seed germinations. The entire investigation revealed that the properties of the produced biochar are in line with those necessary for it to act as a suitable agent for soil amendment

Diagnosis of power switches with power-distribution-network consideration

This paper examines diagnosis of power switches when the power-distribution-network (PDN) is considered as a high resolution distributed electrical model. The analysis shows that for a diagnosis method to perform high diagnosis accuracy and resolution, the distributed nature of PDN should not be simplified by a lumped model. For this reason, a PDN-aware diagnosis method for power switches fault grading is proposed. The proposed method utilizes a novel signature generation design-for-testability (DFT) unit, the signatures of which are processed by a novel diagnosis algorithm that grades the magnitude of faults. Through simulations of physical layout SPICE models, we explore the trade-offs of the proposed method between diagnosis accuracy and diagnosis resolution against area overhead and we show that 100% diagnosis accuracy and up to 98% diagnosis resolution can be achieved with negligible cost

NBTI and leakage aware sleep transistor design for reliable and energy efficient power gating

In this paper we show that power gating techniques become more effective during their lifetime, since the aging of sleep transistors (STs) due to negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) drastically reduces leakage power. Based on this property, we propose an NBTI and leakage aware ST design method for reliable and energy efficient power gating. Through SPICE simulations, we show lifetime extension up to 19.9x and average leakage power reduction up to 14.4% compared to standard STs design approach without additional area overhead. Finally, when a maximum 10-year lifetime target is considered, we show that the proposed method allows multiple beneficial options compared to a standard STs design method: either to improve circuit operating frequency up to 9.53% or to reduce ST area overhead up to 18.4%

First measurement of the Hubble Constant from a Dark Standard Siren using the Dark Energy Survey Galaxies and the LIGO/Virgo Binary–Black-hole Merger GW170814

International audienceWe present a multi-messenger measurement of the Hubble constant H 0 using the binary–black-hole merger GW170814 as a standard siren, combined with a photometric redshift catalog from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The luminosity distance is obtained from the gravitational wave signal detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo Collaboration (LVC) on 2017 August 14, and the redshift information is provided by the DES Year 3 data. Black hole mergers such as GW170814 are expected to lack bright electromagnetic emission to uniquely identify their host galaxies and build an object-by-object Hubble diagram. However, they are suitable for a statistical measurement, provided that a galaxy catalog of adequate depth and redshift completion is available. Here we present the first Hubble parameter measurement using a black hole merger. Our analysis results in , which is consistent with both SN Ia and cosmic microwave background measurements of the Hubble constant. The quoted 68% credible region comprises 60% of the uniform prior range [20, 140] km s−1 Mpc−1, and it depends on the assumed prior range. If we take a broader prior of [10, 220] km s−1 Mpc−1, we find (57% of the prior range). Although a weak constraint on the Hubble constant from a single event is expected using the dark siren method, a multifold increase in the LVC event rate is anticipated in the coming years and combinations of many sirens will lead to improved constraints on H 0

A chromosome conformation capture ordered sequence of the barley genome

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Impact of an Alcohol-based hand sanitizer usage during COVID-19 pandemic on disulfiram treatment: A South Indian psychiatrist's practice experiences

Background: Alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) usage has become one of the COVID-19 pandemic-related adapted responses. Some disulfiram-ethanol reactions are reported in people who use alcohol-based hand rub/sanitizer and take Disulfiram as a treatment for their alcohol use disorders. Aim & Objective: To determine the practice experiences of psychiatrists on disulfiram prescription to alcohol use disorder victims. Methodology: A cross-sectional study on the psychiatrists to find the experiences of disulfiram prescription to their clients with alcohol use disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Nearly 84 (51%) were reverted with a completed questionnaire. Among the respondents, 28 (33.3%) of the respondents decreased to prescribe Disulfiram, 48 (57.1%) reported that their patients stopped using ABHS due to fear of Disulfiram-Ethanol Reaction (DER), and 20 (23.8%) responders notified that their patients were expressed their worry on DER with Disulfiram and ABHS. Conclusion: Disulfiram prescribed for alcohol use disorders; treatment got peculiar experiences with the incidences of DER reported with Alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Many practitioners were scared to prescribe disulfiram due to DER with ABHS. The prevailing evidence that there is no possibility of cutaneous application of ABHS producing enough significant DER. Hence using ABHS is not a contraindication for disulfiram prescription

Historic clinical trial external control arm provides actionable GEN-1 efficacy estimate before a randomized trial

PURPOSE: To inform continued development of the novel immune agent GEN-1, we compared ovarian cancer patients\u27 end points from a neoadjuvant single-arm phase IB study with those of similar historic clinical trial (HCT) patients who received standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS: Applying OVATION-1 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02480374) inclusion and exclusion criteria to Medidata HCT data, we identified historical trial patients for comparison. Integrating patient-level Medidata historic trial data (N = 41) from distinct neoadjuvant ovarian phase I-III trials with patient-level OVATION-1 data (N = 18), we selected Medidata patients with similar baseline characteristics as OVATION-1 patients using propensity score methods to create an external control arm (ECA). RESULTS: Fifteen OVATION-1 patients (15 of 18, 83%) were matched to 15 (37%, 15 of 41) Medidata historical trial control patients. Matching attenuated preexisting differences in attributes between the groups. The median progression-free survival time was not reached by the OVATION-1 group and was 15.8 months (interquartile range, 11.40 months to nonestimable) for the ECA. The hazard of progression was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.16 to 1.73), favoring GEN-1 patients. Compared with ECA patients, OVATION-1 patients had more nausea, fatigue, chills, and infusion-related reactions. CONCLUSION: Comparing results of a single-arm early-phase trial to those of a rigorously matched HCT ECA yielded insights regarding comparative efficacy prior to a randomized controlled trial. The effect size estimate itself informed both the decision to continue development and the randomized phase II trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03393884) sample size. The work illustrates the potential of HCT data to inform drug development

de Nova Whole Genome Sequencing of Marssonina Juglandis Causing Walnut (Juglandis Regia L.) Anthracnose and Development of PCR-Based Diagnosis Using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Markers

Walnut anthracnose, caused by Marssonina juglandis, is one of the economically important diseases of walnuts worldwide. The pathogen is a filamentous fungus belonging to the class Leotiomycetes. In this study, we isolated and purified the Marssonina juglandis from walnut leaves collected from the walnut orchard of SKUAST-Kashmir. The whole genome of the pathogen was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq NGS platform. The whole genome of the pathogen was found to be 63.6354 Mb in size with 1916 scaffolds, 12086 genes, 205 total tRNAs, and 6884 SSRs containing 5861 SSRs with 150 flanking regions. A phylogenetic analysis using whole-genome alignment revealed that Marssonina juglandis is closely related to Cryphonectria parasitica and Coniella lustricola. The BlastP analysis using Uniprot, Pfam, and KOG showed 7612, 5515, and 5163 protein hits out of 12086 proteins. The total number of genes responsible for biological processes, molecular function, and cellular components were 1583, 1429, and 1843, respectively. In the Venn diagram, 3912 genes were found to be common in all three software, namely Uniprot, Pfam, and KOG including NR. In addition, we developed the SSR markers based on the whole genome and standardized them against 25 isolates of the Marssonina juglandis collected, isolated, and purified from the walnut-infected leaves in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Out of 30 randomly selected SSRs, 17 SSRs showed successful PCR amplification in 25 pathogen isolates that were found to be highly polymorphic. Further, a PCR-based detection protocol using SSR markers was also developed for early detection of the disease in the field for timely management. We found two primers that could successfully amplify the pathogen in DNA extracted directly from the infected walnut leaves.   

Gold nanoparticles: New routes across old boundaries

In recent years, gold nanoparticles have emerged as unique non-invasive drug carriers for targeting drugs to their site of action. Their site specificity has helped in increasing drugs’ efficacy at lower dose as well as reduction in their side effects. Moreover, their excellent optical properties and small size offer their utilization as diagnostic tools to diagnose tumors as well as other diseases. This review focuses on various approaches that have been used in last several years for preparation of gold nanoparticles, their characterization techniques and theranostic applications. Their toxicity related aspects are also highlighted. Gold nanoparticles are useful as theranostic agents, owing to their small size, biocompatible nature, size dependent physical, chemical and optical properties etc. However, the challenges associated with these nanoparticles such as scale up, cost, low drug payload, toxicity and stability have been the major impediments in their commercialization. The review looks into all these critical issues and identifies the possibilities to overcome these challenges for successful positioning of metallic nanoparticles in market