COEXISTENCE OF POLYMORPHISM IN FECUNDITY GENES BMPR 1B AND GDF 9 OF INDIAN KENDRAPADA SHEEP

Present study was carried out to find out the status of mutations in three fecundity genes i.e. growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9/FecG), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15/FecX) and bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR1B/FecB) in Kendrapada sheep, the second most prolific sheep breed of India after Garole. Kendrapada ewes (n=85) were genotyped by Tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system-PCR and a total of eleven SNP points over these three candidate fecundity genes (one point on FecB and five points each on BMP15 and GDF9) were assessed. Out of eleven, two SNP points, viz. FecB and G4 of GDF9 were found to be polymorphic in this breed. In this sheep breed average litter size of the ewes with non-carriers, heterozygous carrier and homozygous carrier of FecB locus mutation were 1.61, 1.80 and 2.06 respectively. G4 point of the GDF9 gene was also polymorphic with average litter size of noncarriers, heterozygous carrier and homozygous carrier ewes were 1.63, 2.00 and 1.91 respectively. This study establishes Kendrapada sheep as the sixth sheep breed after Belclare/Cambridge, Lacaune, Small-tailed Han, Garole and Bayanbulak sheep, where coexisting polymorphism has been found in two different fecundity genes (BMPRIB and GDF9 genes)

Proximitized spin-phonon coupling in topological insulator due to two-dimensional antiferromagnet

Induced magnetic order in a topological insulator (TI) can be realized either by depositing magnetic adatoms on the surface of a TI or engineering the interface with epitaxial thin film or stacked assembly of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials. Herein, we report the observation of spin-phonon coupling in the otherwise non-magnetic TI Bi$_\mathrm{2}$Te$_\mathrm{3}$, due to the proximity of FePS$_\mathrm{3}$ (an antiferromagnet (AFM), $T_\mathrm{N}$ $\sim$ 120 K), in a vdW heterostructure framework. Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopic studies reveal deviation from the usual phonon anharmonicity at/below 60 K in the peak position (self-energy) and linewidth (lifetime) of the characteristic phonon modes of Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ (106 cm$^{-1}$ and 138 cm$^{-1}$) in the stacked heterostructure. The Ginzburg-Landau (GL) formalism, where the respective phonon frequencies of Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ couple to phonons of similar frequencies of FePS$_3$ in the AFM phase, has been adopted to understand the origin of the hybrid magneto-elastic modes. At the same time, the reduction of characteristic $T_\mathrm{N}$ of FePS$_3$ from 120 K in isolated flakes to 65 K in the heterostructure, possibly due to the interfacial strain, which leads to smaller Fe-S-Fe bond angles as corroborated by computational studies using density functional theory (DFT). Besides, our data suggest a double softening of phonon modes of Bi$_\mathrm{2}$Te$_\mathrm{3}$ (at 30 K and 60 K), which in turn, demonstrates Raman scattering as a possible probe for delineating the magnetic ordering in bulk and surface of a hybrid topological insulator

IoT Based Secure Smart City Architecture Using Blockchain

Standard security protocols are heavy weight in terms of memory foot prints which make all the security protocol unfit for budgeted platforms such as Internet of Things (IoT). The blockchain (BC) is a very efficient architecture to preserve five basic cryptographic primitives, such as authenticity, integrity, confidentiality, availability and non-repudiation. Conventional adoption of blockchain in IoT causes significant energy consumption, delay, and computational overhead which are not suitable for various resource-constrained IoT devices. In our submission we change the basic architecture of blockchain and make it more efficient for IoT application. The article proposes an IoT based smart city architecture which adopted the blockchain technology preserving all the cryptographic security issues. The adoption of blockchain causes very minimal overhead on IoT platform. Comparison of all security parameters with existing literature shows that the architecture is reasonably efficient in terms of security

Aminoisophthalate Bridged Cd(II)-2D Coordination Polymer: Structure Description, Selective Detection of Pd²⁺ in Aqueous Medium, and Fabrication of Schottky Diode

Photoluminescence activity of coordination polymers (CPs) has evoked intricate applications in the field of materials science, especially sensing of ions/molecules. In the present study, 2,3,5,6-tetrakis(2-pyridyl)pyrazine (tppz) and 5-aminoisophthalate (HAIPA–) coordinated to Cd(II) to architect a coordination polymer, {[Cd(HAIPA)(tppz)(OH)]·3H2O}n (CP1) which unveils blue emission in an aqueous acetonitrile (98% aqueous) suspension. The emission is selectively quenched by Pd2+ only without interference in the presence of as many as 16 other cations. The structure of CP1 shows the presence of a free –COOH group, and the interlayer (–CO)O(2)···O(7) (OC–) distance, 4.242 Å, along with the π···π interactions (3.990, 3.927 Å), may make a cavity which suitably accommodates only Pd2+ (van der Waal’s radius, 1.7 Å) through the Pd(II)-carboxylato (–COO–Pd) coordination. The stability of the composite, [CP1 + Pd2+] may be assessed from the fluorescence quenching experiment, and the Stern–Volmer constant (KSV) is 7.2 × 104 M–1. Therefore, the compound, CP1, is a promising sensor for Pd(II) in a selective manner with limit of detection (LOD), 0.08 μM. The XPS spectra of CP1 and [CP1 + Pd2+] have proven the presence of Pd2+ in the host and the existence of a coordinated –COO–Pd bond. Interestingly, inclusion of Pd2+ in CP1 decreases the band gap from 3.61 eV (CP1) to 3.05 eV ([CP1 + Pd2+]) which lies in the semiconducting region and has exhibited improved electrical conductivity from 7.42 × 10–5 (CP1) to 1.20 × 10–4 S m–1 ([CP1 + Pd2+]). Upon light irradiation, the electrical conductivities are enhanced to 1.45 × 10–4 S m–1 (CP1) and 3.81 × 10–4 S m–1 ([CP1 + Pd2+]); which validates the highly desired photoresponsive device applications. Therefore, such type of materials may serve as SDG-army (sustainable development goal) to battle against the environmental issues and energy crisis

Anisotropic magnetodielectric coupling in layered antiferromagnetic FePS 3

We report anisotropic magnetodielectric coupling in layered van der Waals antiferromagnetic FePS3 (Néel temperature TN∼ 120 K) with perpendicular anisotropy. Above TN, while the dielectric response function along the c axis shows frequency-dependent relaxations, in-plane data is frequency independent and reveals a deviation from phonon-anharmonicity in the ordered state, thereby implying a connection to spin-phonon coupling known to be indicative of onset of magnetic ordering. At low temperature (below 40 K), atypical anomaly in the dielectric constant is corroborated with temperature-dependent dc and ac susceptibility. The magnetodielectric response across this anomaly differs significantly for both in-plane and out-of-plane cases. We have explained this in terms of preferential orientation of magnetic antiferromagnetic zigzag alignment, implied by the in-plane structural anisotropy as confirmed by ab initio calculations. Controlling the relative strength of magnetodielectric coupling with magnetic anisotropy opens a strategy for tracking subtle modifications of structures, such as in-plane anisotropy, with potential applications for spintronic technologies