Remediation of lead (Pb) by a novel Klebsiella sp. isolated from tannery effluent of Ranipet, Vellore district

Lead is found to be one of the most toxic heavy metal according to American public health association (APHA). Vellore district is one of the most polluted sites in the world. It is more common for lead poisoning to build up slowly over time. Over time, even low levels of lead exposure can harm a child's mental development. Therefore new resources for the removal of lead are the need of the hour. Soil and effluent samples were obtained from common effluent treatment plant; Ranipet, Vellore district. The concentration of heavy metal was also assessed in the collected samples and then isolated lead tolerant bacteria over lead containing mineral salt medium. The isolated desired bacteria was also tested for their ability to remediate other heavy metals like chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) which are present in the tannery effluent. The one with good bioremediation activity was further characterized by sequencing 16S rRNA gene and it was found to be a novel species of Klebsiella genus.Keywords: Lead tolerant bacteria, Klebsiella, heavy metal remediationAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(32), pp. 5069-507

Performance comparison of two solar cooking storage pots combined with wonderbag slow cookers for off-sunshine cooking

Two similar storage cooking pots are experimentally evaluated and compared during solar cooking and storage off-sunshine cooking periods. One storage pot has sunflower oil as the sensible heat storage material, while the other has erythritol as the phase change material (PCM). To test their thermal performance during off-sunshine periods, the two pots are placed in insulated wonderbag slow cookers. Water and sunflower oil are used as the cooking fluids in the experimental tests. The sunflower oil cooking pot shows better performance during the solar cooking periods since it shows shorter cooking times (1.8–5.6 h) compared to the erythritol PCM pot (3.8–6.6 h). The sunflower oil pot also attains higher maximum storage temperatures (124–145 °C) compared to the erythritol PCM pot (118–140 °C). Storage efficiencies for the sunflower oil pot (3.0–7.1%) are also greater than those of the PCM pot (2.5–3.7%). During the storage cooking periods, the erythritol based phase change material cooking pot shows better performance as evidenced by the lower temperature drops (0.1–9.7 °C) from the maximum cooking temperatures compared to 8.3 to 34 °C for the sunflower oil pot. The heat utilisation efficiencies for the erythritol pot (4.8–14.3%) are also greater compared to the sunflower oil pot (3.7–6%)

Quantum Randomness in Cryptography—A Survey of Cryptosystems, RNG-Based Ciphers, and QRNGs

Cryptography is the study and practice of secure communication with digital data and focuses on confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Random number generators (RNGs) generate random numbers to enhance security. Even though the cryptographic algorithms are public and their strength depends on the keys, cryptoanalysis of encrypted ciphers can significantly contribute to the unveiling of the cipher’s key. Therefore, to ensure high data security over a network, researchers need to improve the randomness of keys as they develop cryptosystems. Quantum particles have a leading edge in advancing RNG technology as they can provide true randomness, unlike pseudo-random numbers generators (PRNGs). In order to increase the level of the security of cryptographic systems based on random numbers, this survey focuses on three objectives: Cryptosystems with related cryptographic attacks, RNG-based cryptosystems, and the design of quantum random number generators (QRNGs). This survey aims to provide researchers with information about the importance of RNG-based ciphers and various research techniques for QRNGs that can incorporate quantum-based true randomness in cryptosystems

MEMS BASED PRESSURE SENSOR SIMULATION FOR HEALTHCARE AND BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

This paper presents the design and characterization of a simulation of a blood pressure for healthcare and biomedical applications. Vital sign measurement and assessment are important components of the review of systems in a physical therapy examination for individuals with and without documented cardiopulmonary disease. The measurement of blood pressure based on the blood flow gives the therapist information regarding the patient’s baseline cardiovascular status, response to exercise/activity, and guides exercise prescription. Accurate measurement of blood pressure is critical for making appropriate clinical decisions especially if physical therapists or doctors wish to play an important role as primary health care providers. The purpose of this paper is to present a stimulated structure used for measuring accurate pressure of blood flow through a vein or an artery using basic known technology of microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems along with the simulation of design on CATIAV5

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Not AvailableGiant river catfish (Mystus seenghala) from the Beas river were compared with a population in the Sutlej river of theIndus river system using 28 morphometric characters. Discriminant analyses and a univariate ANOVA were used toexplore these data. Allometric transformation of each measurement was done to eliminate correlations with size. Thestepwise discriminant analysis retained nine variables that significantly discriminated the Beas samples from theSutlej samples. Using these variables, 91.2% (original) and 89.0% (cross validated) of fish were classified into theircorrect samples. Misclassification was higher for the Sutlej samples (12.5%) than for the Beas samples (6.3%). Theresults of the discriminant analyses showed that variability in the Beas samples was more homogeneous andprovided a more characteristic picture of the group than the Sutlej samples. The univariate ANOVA revealed signifi-cant differences between the means of the two populations for 12 of the 28 transformed morphometric measurements .Council of Scientific and In-dustrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, Indi

CryptoQNRG: a new framework for evaluation of cryptographic strength in quantum and pseudorandom number generation for key-scheduling algorithms

© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-023-05115-4In a cryptosystem, a cipher's security is directly dependent on a key-schedule or key-scheduling algorithm (KSA) or that is used for both encryption and decryption. The random-number-based KSA adds another layer of security and prevents hackers from performing cryptanalysis. Several previous studies have investigated the strength of a cipher's encryption process. The strength evaluation of the key-scheduling process has received less attention that can lead to weaknesses in the overall encryption process. This paper proposes a new framework consisting of cryptographic strength evaluation criteria for random number generators (RNG)-based KSAs. Our framework (CryptoQNRG) evaluates different key-schedules based on pseudorandom and quantum random number generators with a set of tests. There are test suites that compare the strength of KSAs for different block ciphers. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that a framework is built to compare the strength of KSAs incorporating RNGs and various block ciphers. CryptoQNRG comprises of four tests: Frequency, Bit_Correlation, Bit_Interfold, and Bit_Entropy. The tests are used to explore cryptographic properties such as unpredictability, balance of bits, correlation, confusion, and diffusion in the subkeys generated by the RNG-based KSA. We have evaluated the most common KSAs with different block ciphers and a significant outcome of the proposed framework is the distinction between strong and weak RNG-based KSAs.Peer reviewe

Quantum Randomness in Cryptography—A Survey of Cryptosystems, RNG-Based Ciphers, and QRNGs

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Cryptography is the study and practice of secure communication with digital data and focuses on confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Random number generators (RNGs) generate random numbers to enhance security. Even though the cryptographic algorithms are public and their strength depends on the keys, cryptoanalysis of encrypted ciphers can significantly contribute to the unveiling of the cipher’s key. Therefore, to ensure high data security over a network, researchers need to improve the randomness of keys as they develop cryptosystems. Quantum particles have a leading edge in advancing RNG technology as they can provide true randomness, unlike pseudo-random numbers generators (PRNGs). In order to increase the level of the security of cryptographic systems based on random numbers, this survey focuses on three objectives: Cryptosystems with related cryptographic attacks, RNG-based cryptosystems, and the design of quantum random number generators (QRNGs). This survey aims to provide researchers with information about the importance of RNG-based ciphers and various research techniques for QRNGs that can incorporate quantum-based true randomness in cryptosystems.Peer reviewe

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Not AvailableBagrid catfishes constitute a very important group of fishes having immense commercial importance in south-east countries. The phylogenetic relationships and genome specificity among six species of Bagrid catfishes (Mystus bleekeri, M. cavasius, M. vittatus, M. tengara, M. aor and M. seenghala) were investigated using RAPD markers as discriminating characters for the first time. 511 RAPD fragments were generated using ten decamer primers of arbitrary nucleotide sequences. Amplification reactions resulted in fragments ranging in length between 92 and 2,863 bp, which were assigned to 155 RAPD loci. Clearly resolved and repeatable bands were scored for their presence or absence in a binary matrix. Different RAPD profiles were observed for all the six Mystus species. In the present study three group diagnostic, eleven group exclusive and 18 species-specific markers were generated. Thus six Mystus species can be successfully differentiated on the basis of these 18 species-specific RAPD markers. UPGMA dendrogram constructed on the basis of genetic distance formed two distinct clusters, M. seenghala and M. aor form one separate cluster from other four species i.e., M. tengara, M. cavasius, M. bleekeri and M. vittatus. The inferences drawn from the above study clearly showed their genetic distinctness from the other four Mystus species and supported their inclusion into a separate genus, Sperata.Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, New Delhi, India