Forage Legumes Intercropping and Nitrogen Management Effects on Performance of Guinea Grass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum maximum\u3c/em\u3e) Varieties in Bundelkhand Region of India

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.) is one of the important forage grass of the tropics with good yield potential, palatability, persistence and quality fodder (Sukhchain, 2010). The low crude protein productivity of guinea grass can be enhanced through its intercropping with forage legumes to sustain ruminant animals throughout the year. The intercropping of legumes with guinea grass will also optimize forage production per unit area, especially during rabi season. Further, its productivity can also be increased through N management as it is heavy feeder due to perennial and multi-cut nature

PUF+IBE: Blending Physically Unclonable Functions with Identity Based Encryption for Authentication and Key Exchange in IoTs

Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) promise to be a critical hardware primitive to provide unique identities to billions of connected devices in Internet of Things (IoTs). In traditional authentication protocols a user presents a set of credentials with an accompanying proof such as password or digital certificate. However, IoTs need more evolved methods as these classical techniques suffer from the pressing problems of password dependency and inability to bind access requests to the “things” from which they originate. Additionally, the protocols need to be lightweight and heterogeneous. Although PUFs seem promising to develop such mechanism, it puts forward an open problem of how to develop such mechanism without needing to store the secret challenge-response pair (CRP) explicitly at the verifier end. In this paper, we develop an authentication and key exchange protocol by combining the ideas of Identity based Encryption (IBE), PUFs and Key-ed Hash Function to show that this combination can help to do away with this requirement. The security of the protocol is proved formally under the Session Key Security and the Universal Composability Framework. A prototype of the protocol has been implemented to realize a secured video surveillance camera using a combination of an Intel Edison board, with a Digilent Nexys-4 FPGA board consisting of an Artix-7 FPGA, together serving as the IoT node. We show, though the stand-alone video camera can be subjected to man-in-the-middle attack via IP-spoofing using standard network penetration tools, the camera augmented with the proposed protocol resists such attacks and it suits aptly in an IoT infrastructure making the protocol deployable for the industry

A comparative study on process optimization of betalain pigment extraction from Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris: RSM, ANN, and hybrid RSM-GA methods

Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris (red Swiss chard) leaf stalks offer a rich source of betalains, natural pigments with promising applications in the food industry. This study employed response surface methodology (RSM) in conjunction with a 3-level Box-Behnken design to optimize independent extraction variables, including temperature, extraction time, and solid-to-liquid ratio, for maximizing betalain extraction from red Swiss chard. Betacyanins and betaxanthins, the key natural pigments, were targeted as response variables. Statistical analysis revealed the optimal conditions for extraction: 21.14 min of extraction time, 52.98°C temperature, and a solid-to-liquid ratio of 21.61 mg/mL, resulting in the maximum extraction of betacyanins (15.53 mg/100g) and betaxanthins (9.5 mg/100g). To enhance prediction accuracy, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was employed, outperforming RSM predictions. Moreover, incorporating a genetic algorithm (GA) into the RSM regression equation predicted even higher betalain contents, with betacyanins reaching 16.53 mg/100g and betaxanthins 10.52 mg/100g. Confirmation experiments conducted under RSM-GA predicted optimum conditions demonstrated mean betacyanin and betaxanthin contents of 16.54 mg/100g and 10.49 mg/100g, respectively. The superior predictive capabilities of the ANN model and the synergistic integration of GA with RSM highlight innovative approaches for enhancing extraction efficiency. Furthermore, the characterized extract exhibit attributes such as aggregated morphology, amorphous nature, and high thermal stability

Extraction of pectin from Ethiopian prickly pear fruit peel and its potency for preparing of cellulose-reinforced biofilm

The objective of this research was to extract and characterize the pectin from the fruit peels of Ethiopian prickly pears (EPP) (Opuntia ficus-indica) using microwave assisted method. Solution pH and microwave potential were optimized using different pH values (1, 3, and 4) and power (300, 400, and 500 W), respectively, to extract ameliorated pectin yield. The pectin yield for EPP varied between 2.3 and 10.0 %. At a pH of 1.0 with 400 microwave intensity, the highest yield was seen. The extracted pectin from EPP had a 25.16 % ash content; however, the pectin sample contained less water and weighed less than the control sample. Further, transforming the acquired pectin from EPP was used to prepare biofilm reinforced by cellulose. Film was prepared using the casting method. It was aimed to provide a new function to EPP waste for preparing the biofilms by developing with the use of cellulose-reinforced modification to ameliorate the mechanical property Therefore, with further optimization and improvements, EPP-F could be used for nonstructural applications, such as a sustainable food packaging material

Tricks and tracks in resource recovery from wastewater using bio-electrochemical systems (BES): A systematic review on recent advancements and future directions

Rapid industrialization and ameliorated lifestyle have vividly contributed to the release of huge quantity of wastewater into the environment. On the other hand, wastewater is enriched with resources like nutrients, metals, and chemicals that possess greater economic value. As a result, resource recovery from wastewater promoted ‘wastewater to wealth’ notion, thereby fostering the circular economy approach. In the recent years, bio-electrochemical systems (BES) emerged as versatile technology for simultaneous wastewater treatment and resource recovery. While the technology offers numerous advantages, its widespread commercial application has been hindered by challenges in scaling up, economical aspects, operational aspects, etc. Over the past few years, substantial efforts have been made to enhance the efficiency of electrode materials, choice of biocatalysts and design improvisations of BES. These improvements have significantly increased the performance efficiency of BES. Nevertheless, further enhancements are still necessary for BES to become economically viable. This review provides a comprehensive over view of recent developments in BES, with a particular focus on their resource recovery applications. The article covers fundamental concepts, various BES types, and the mechanisms underlying electron transfer, with a specific focus on their role in resource recovery from wastewater. Furthermore, the article delves into the challenges of scaling up BES for practical applications and provides in-depth insights into real-world applications of BES technology. The future potential of integrating phototrophic options into BES is also discussed to further enhance resource recovery and the production of value-added products

Sequence Characterisation and Genotyping of Allelic Variants of Beta Casein Gene Establishes Native Cattle of Ladakh to be a Natural Resource for A2 Milk

Bovine milk is regarded as nature's perfect food due to presence of vital nutrients. However some peptides are generated after proteolytic digestion of β-casein that have opioid properties and may increase the risk of chronic diseases. There are 13 genetic variants of bovine beta-casein; out of these A1 and A2 are the most common in dairy cattle breeds. The A1 and A2 variants differ only at position 67, which is histidine in A1 or proline in A2 milk. Earlier published reports have indicated that A1 β casein could be responsible for several health disorders like diabetes, coronary heart disease etc. while A2 β-casein is generally considered safe for human consumption. In the present study, an effort was made to sequence characterize β casein gene and identify allelic distribution of A1A2 alleles in native cattle of Ladakh region adapted to high altitude and low oxygen condition. The data showed 2 non-synonymous variations in coding region, while 5’UTR was completely conserved. The 3’UTR showed 2 more variations in Ladakhi samples. Further, the genotyping in 85 Ladakhi cattle for A1A2 alleles revealed that in Ladakhi cattle, A2 allele is predominantly present as reported for some of the other Indian breeds. The frequency of A2 allele was 0.90 and frequency of A2A2 genotype was found to be 0.79 in Ladakhi cattle. The present data strongly indicate that local cattle of Ladakh with higher frequency of A2 allele and A2A2 genotype is natural resource for A2 milk.  Systematic efforts should be made for long term conservation and genetic improvement of this invaluable genetic resource of Ladakh

Sequence Analysis of Novel Staphylococcus aureus Lineages from Wild and Captive Macaques

Staphylococcus aureus is a widespread and common opportunistic bacterium that can colonise or infect humans as well as a wide range of animals. There are a few studies of both methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolated from monkeys, apes, and lemurs, indicating a presence of a number of poorly or unknown lineages of the pathogen. In order to obtain insight into staphylococcal diversity, we sequenced strains from wild and captive individuals of three macaque species (Macaca mulatta, M. assamensis, and M. sylvanus) using Nanopore and Illumina technologies. These strains were previously identified by microarray as poorly or unknown strains. Isolates of novel lineages ST4168, ST7687, ST7688, ST7689, ST7690, ST7691, ST7692, ST7693, ST7694, ST7695, ST7745, ST7746, ST7747, ST7748, ST7749, ST7750, ST7751, ST7752, ST7753, and ST7754 were sequenced and characterised for the first time. In addition, isolates belonging to ST2990, a lineage also observed in humans, and ST3268, a MRSA strain already known from macaques, were also included into the study. Mobile genetic elements, genomic islands, and carriage of prophages were analysed. There was no evidence for novel host-specific virulence factors. However, a conspicuously high rate of carriage of a pathogenicity island harbouring edinB and etD2/etE as well as a higher number of repeat units within the gene sasG (encoding an adhesion factor) than in human isolates were observed. None of the strains harboured the genes encoding Panton–Valentine leukocidin. In conclusion, wildlife including macaques may harbour an unappreciated diversity of S. aureus lineages that may be of clinical relevance for humans, livestock, or for wildlife conservation, given the declining state of many wildlife populations

Sequence Analysis of Novel Staphylococcus aureus Lineages from Wild and Captive Macaques

Staphylococcus aureus is a widespread and common opportunistic bacterium that can colonise or infect humans as well as a wide range of animals. There are a few studies of both methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolated from monkeys, apes, and lemurs, indicating a presence of a number of poorly or unknown lineages of the pathogen. In order to obtain insight into staphylococcal diversity, we sequenced strains from wild and captive individuals of three macaque species (Macaca mulatta, M. assamensis, and M. sylvanus) using Nanopore and Illumina technologies. These strains were previously identified by microarray as poorly or unknown strains. Isolates of novel lineages ST4168, ST7687, ST7688, ST7689, ST7690, ST7691, ST7692, ST7693, ST7694, ST7695, ST7745, ST7746, ST7747, ST7748, ST7749, ST7750, ST7751, ST7752, ST7753, and ST7754 were sequenced and characterised for the first time. In addition, isolates belonging to ST2990, a lineage also observed in humans, and ST3268, a MRSA strain already known from macaques, were also included into the study. Mobile genetic elements, genomic islands, and carriage of prophages were analysed. There was no evidence for novel host-specific virulence factors. However, a conspicuously high rate of carriage of a pathogenicity island harbouring edinB and etD2/etE as well as a higher number of repeat units within the gene sasG (encoding an adhesion factor) than in human isolates were observed. None of the strains harboured the genes encoding Panton–Valentine leukocidin. In conclusion, wildlife including macaques may harbour an unappreciated diversity of S. aureus lineages that may be of clinical relevance for humans, livestock, or for wildlife conservation, given the declining state of many wildlife populations

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Not AvailableAn experiment was conducted during 2010-2012 at Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) to study the performance of fodder oat (Avena sativa L.) varieties under varied irrigation and fertilizer rates. The experiment was consisted of 18 treatment combinations, viz., 2 fodder oat variety (JHO 99-1 and JHO 99-2), 3 irrigation schedules (0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 IW/CPE) and 3 fertilizer levels (75, 100 and 125% of recommended dose of fertilizer-RDF). Result showed that varieties of oat did not differ significantly in relation to growth, yield and water-use efficiency, but JHO 99-2 accumulated higher crude protein than JHO 99-1. The significant response of growth, dry fodder yield and nutrient uptake to irrigation was observed upto 1.0 IW/ CPE and it increased green and dry fodder yields by 11.8 and 7.3%, respectively over 0.8 IW/CPE. Likewise application of 125% of RDF increased green and dry fodder yields by 17.7 and 10.4%, respectively. Water-use efficiency was increased with fertilizer and vice-versa with irrigation intensity. Apparent nutrient (N, P and K) balances were decreased with irrigation and increased with graded fertilizer application except potassium. Nitrogen and potassium apparent balances were negative. The maximum economic returns were obtained when crop was fertilized with 125% of RDF and irrigation scheduled at 1.0 IW/CPE.Not Availabl