Marine Pollution Bulletin: A Scientometric Analysis

This study aims to present a scientometric analysis of the Marine Pollution Bulletin journal (MPB) during the period of 2008 to 2017. A total of 5416 publications were published during the period of 2008 to 2017 in the MPB journal. The paper covers the scientometric analysis of year-wise distribution of publications Out of total 5416; the maximum numbers of publications are in the year 2017 contributing 905 (16.71%) papers. The relative growth rate (RGR) has decreased from 2009 (0.63) to 2017 (0.18) and the doubling time has increased from 2009 (1.10) to 2017 (3.85) in the span of 10 years. The degree of collaboration in the MPB journal is 0.94, which clearly indicates its dominance of multiple authors\u27 contributions. Among the Prolific authors, Liu J. is in the top rank who has contributed 49 articles. In geographical distribution of publications the highest number of contribution from United States 910 (12.06%)

Mathematical modeling of drying behavior of cashew in a solar biomass hybrid dryer

The main objective of this study is to analyze the drying behavior of cashew nut experimentally in a solar biomass hybrid dryer using mathematical models. Suitability of fifteen different mathematical drying models available in the literature is used to describe the drying characteristics of cashew. Experimental data of moisture ratio, temperature and relative humidity obtained from different dryer conditions were fitted to the various empirical drying models. The performance of the drying model was compared based on their correlation co-efficient (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Reduced Chi-Square (χ2) between the observed moisture ratios. The two terms and Midilli models showed the best fit under solar drying. Page model was found to be the best model for describing the thin layer drying behavior of cashew for biomass drying and hybrid drying

A perspective of COVID 19 impact on global economy, energy and environment

COVID-19 or novel coronavirus is not only an international emergency for public health but also has significant consequences on energy, economy, and environment. Although much of the World's attention is understandably focused on COVID-19's human toll, the outbreak's economic toll also potentially has catastrophic implications and has disrupted all the leading economies. Consequently, the energy market has plunged, leading to an oil supply surplus and a decline in the price. Policymakers also examine the impacts of COVID-19 on the energy market and its relation to the ongoing transition to renewable energy. Against this backdrop, this paper helps in summarising the impact of COVID-19 on economy, energy and environment. Besides, it provides some critical recommendations and policy measures for the energy sector to overcome the challenges from the impact of COVID-19

Investigation on Microstructure, Hardness, Wear behavior and Fracture Surface Analysis of Strontium (Sr) and Calcium (Ca) Content A357 Modified Alloy by Statistical Technique

The aluminum alloy are extensively used in several industrial applications. Stir casting is one of the most frequently accepted methods. In the present investigation, how the microstructure, mechanical and wear mechanics of A357 alloy were impacted by the presence of Sr/Ca was investigated. The outcomes revealed that addition of elements (Sr/Ca) enhance the microstructural features. Uniform dispersal of particulates (Sr/ Ca) in Al357 alloy and also the modified structure of silicon (Si) were observed. Hardness of modified alloy was evaluated by using hardness tester. A result reveals that hardness of modified alloy was improved by increasing in the Sr/Ca content. The wear rate of modified alloy was evaluated by using Pin and Disc wear test rig. Test trials were conducted according to Taguchi technique. L27 array was implemented for evaluation of data. The effect of varying parameters (factors) on wear loss and COF were analyzed using ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) method. ANOVA outcomes shown that, the Sr/Ca content has a better significant impact on wear behavior and COF of the modified alloy. A wear fractography result shows the internal fracture structure of a wornout surface which was studied by SEM analysis

Task-driven Prompt Evolution for Foundation Models

Promptable foundation models, particularly Segment Anything Model (SAM), have emerged as a promising alternative to the traditional task-specific supervised learning for image segmentation. However, many evaluation studies have found that their performance on medical imaging modalities to be underwhelming compared to conventional deep learning methods. In the world of large pre-trained language and vision-language models, learning prompt from downstream tasks has achieved considerable success in improving performance. In this work, we propose a plug-and-play Prompt Optimization Technique for foundation models like SAM (SAMPOT) that utilizes the downstream segmentation task to optimize the human-provided prompt to obtain improved performance. We demonstrate the utility of SAMPOT on lung segmentation in chest X-ray images and obtain an improvement on a significant number of cases ($\sim75\%$) over human-provided initial prompts. We hope this work will lead to further investigations in the nascent field of automatic visual prompt-tuning

E. coli Group 1 Capsular Polysaccharide Exportation Nanomachinary as a Plausible Antivirulence Targetin the Perspective of Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance

Bacteria evolving resistance against the action of multiple drugs and its ability to disseminate the multidrug resistance trait(s) across various strains of the same bacteria or different bacterial species impose serious threat to public health. Evolution of such multidrug resistance is due to the fact that, most of the antibiotics target bacterial survival mechanisms which exert selective pressure on the bacteria and aids them to escape from the action of antibiotics. Nonetheless, targeting bacterial virulence strategies such as bacterial surface associated polysaccharides biosynthesis and their surface accumulation mechanisms may be an attractive strategy, as they impose less selective pressure on the bacteria. Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) or K-antigen that is located on the bacterial surface armors bacteria from host immune response. Thus, unencapsulating bacteria would be a good strategy for drug design, besides CPS itself being a good vaccine target, by interfering with CPS biosynthesis and surface assembly pathway. Gram-negative Escherichia coli uses Wzy-polymerase dependent (Groups 1 and 4) and ATP dependent (Groups 1 and 3) pathways for CPS production. Considering E. coli as a case in point, this review explains the structure and functional roles of proteins involved in Group 1 Wzy dependent CPS biosynthesis, surface expression and anchorage in relevance to drug and vaccine developments

IS MULLIGAN'S SUSTAINED NATURAL APOPHYSEAL GLIDES (SNAGS) OR MUSCLE ENERGY TECHNIQUE IS EFFECTIVE IN THE NON-SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF CERVICOGENIC HEADACHE? A TWO-GROUP PRETEST-POSTTEST RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of Mulligan's Glides like sustained natural apophyseal glides and muscle energy technique (MET) in the management of individual with cervicogenic headache (ICH).Methods: A total of 30 ICH were recruited by the simple random sampling to participate in this two-group pretest-posttest, single-blinded randomized clinical study. Recruited ICH was randomly allocated into two groups, Group A and Group B. ICH in Group A was provided with Mulligan's SNAGs of 3 glides/session/day×5 days/week×4-week duration, while in Group B, ICH received MET for suboccipital muscles for 6 times/session/day×5 days/ week×4 weeks. Both the groups received the common intervention of stretching and strengthening for cervical muscles for 4 weeks. Pain scores (visual analog score [VAS]), disability (headache disability index [HD]), and cervical extension range of motion (ROM) were documented at baseline and 4th week after intervention and analyzed.Results: Group B demonstrated significance difference (p<0.05) in HDI, VAS, and cervical extension ROM when compared to Group A.Conclusion: 4 week MET has the sufficient potential to decrease neck pain, disability, and increase cervical mobility among ICH as a non-surgical management

Anti Nociceptive, Anti Inflammatory and Anti Bacterial Properties of Leaf of Female Borassus flabellifer (Arecaceae)

ABSTRACT: The Borassus flabellifer is a tall, erect palm, easy to recognize by its large, fan-shaped leaves. The different parts of the plant are used for ailments like secondary syphilis, antiperiodic, heart burns, liver, inflammation and spleen enlargement. The chemical constituents include gums, albuminoids, fats, steroidal glycosides and carbohydrates like sucrose. In the present work anti nociceptive, anti inflammatory, membrane stabilizing property, and anti microbial activities were carried out. The dried leaf powder was extracted with ethanol and submitted to chemical tests. It revealed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, steroids and tannins.  In the anti nociceptive activity Eddy’s hot plate method and tail immersion method were performed using tramadol as the standard. The leaf extract has shown a potent nociceptive activity for both the evaluation parameters.  Carrageenan induced rat paw edema and HRBC membrane stabilizing property were performed for the anti inflammatory activity using diclofenac sodium and hydrocortisone as the standard drugs. The results showed that the ethanolic leaf extract exhibited potent anti inflammatory activity and membrane stabilizing property in a dose dependent manner. The antibacterial screening was performed on the organisms Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia using gentamycin as the standard. In the antibacterial activity the leaf extract was found to be not effective in inhibiting the growth of bacterial strains