Search Results (33)

Monkeypox virus (Mpox virus) is a zoonotic orthopoxvirus that has gained increased global attention due to recent outbreaks. The current review reports the latest update of Mpox cases from 25 February 2022 to 29 April 2025. It also evaluates the possible major complications in human life caused by Mpox. In early 2022, more than 40 countries reported Mpox outbreaks. As of 12 June 2024, the global case count for the 2022–2023 Mpox outbreak was 97,281 confirmed cases, in 118 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Mpox virus, a zoonotic disease, a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 14 August 2024. Mpox symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, and face-to-body rashes. The review also highlights Mpox virus replication, genomics, pathology, transmission, diagnosis, and antiviral therapies. The 2022 outbreak is also discussed in detail. The coinfection of HIV in patients infected with Mpox is also discussed. The evolving Mpox epidemiology has raised concerns about the disease’s increasing spread in non-endemic countries, emphasizing the urgent need for control and prevention. The discussion on preventive measures, including vaccination, suggests that cross-protection against Mpox may be possible using orthopoxvirus-specific antibodies. Although there are no specific antiviral drugs available, certain drugs, such as tecovirimat, cidofovir, and ribavirin, are worth considering. Full article

A multi-proxy study of diatoms, palynofacies, and grain size was conducted on a 100 cm core from Arookutty, Vembanad wetland, Kerala, India, to reconstruct paleolimnological changes during the late Holocene, with a focus on natural versus anthropogenic influences. Four distinct depositional phases, from ca. 500 BCE to ca. 400 CE, were identified, aligning with the Roman Warm Period (RWP). The period from ca. 500 BCE to ca. 450 BCE shows high freshwater and marine planktic diatoms, augmented by silicoflagellates and terrestrial organic matter, with a low dinocyst presence, suggesting a dynamic aquatic environment. The period from ca. 450 BCE to ca. 350 BCE is marked by a high sand content, indicating significant runoff and terrestrial influx, along with increased freshwater and marine planktic diatoms and evidence of human activity in the area. Similarly, the period from ca. 350 BCE to ca. 50 CE is characterized by high sand content and strong anthropogenic influences, with a rise in silicoflagellates, pointing to rising sea levels and high monsoonal precipitation. The period from ca. 50 CE to ca. 400 CE initially shows a decrease in sand and an increase in mud, reflecting a weakening southwest monsoon, likely due to solar variations. However, from ca. 300 CE to ca. 400 CE, sand content rises again, accompanied by high terrestrial influx and dinocysts, while silicoflagellates diminish completely. Thus, despite the dominance of the RWP, the coastal region experienced an extended period of reduced monsoonal activity for a particular span. Full article

The growing challenge of food waste management presents a critical opportunity for advancing the circular bioeconomy, aiming to transform waste into valuable resources. This paper explores innovative strategies for converting food wastes into renewable food resources, emphasizing the integration of sustainable technologies and zero-waste principles. The main objective is to demonstrate how these approaches can contribute to a more sustainable food system by reducing environmental impacts and enhancing resource efficiency. Novel contributions of this study include the development of bioproducts from various food waste streams, highlighting the potential of underutilized resources like bread and jackfruit waste. Through case studies and experimental findings, the paper illustrates the successful application of green techniques, such as microbial fermentation and bioprocessing, in valorizing food wastes. The implications of this research extend to policy frameworks, encouraging the adoption of circular bioeconomy models that not only address waste management challenges but also foster economic growth and sustainability. These findings underscore the potential for food waste to serve as a cornerstone in the transition to a circular, regenerative economy. Full article

In the current scenario in many cities, huge quantities of biowaste solid matter are generated, making it a big challenge to keep our cities smart/clean without creating health issues. The second challenge is to mitigate solid biowastes from municipalities, and it needs systematic valorization/conversion approaches to transform/generate them into clean/least carbon-emitting fuel sources. This effort can help make smart cities with additional amounts of energy generation that can be used by each citizen for their daily energy needs. In the cities, biowastes are reported as food waste (from domestic kitchens and restaurant/hotel), green plant residues (from parks and other cleaning activities), and other miscellaneous sources. Due to the huge generation of these biowastes, the respective cities can look dirtier and also show a poor level of development. So, people from municipal authorities and some research groups have to start converting this biowaste solid matter into renewable and sustainable energy that can help reduce this biowaste accumulation through the promotion of sustainable bioenergy sources. In valorization approaches, biological (anaerobic digestion) and thermochemical (like pyrolysis) processes are common, and these can be applied to biowaste mitigation to minimize the negative impact on the environment and its components. In India, some states, like Madhya Pradesh, have put efforts into creating biogases like green hydrogen from their cities generated biowastes. In this review, we emphasize the different sources of biowaste in cities with their volumes/quantities, factors/activities for generations, and mitigation approaches for biowaste conversion into fuels with the promotion of sustainable goal achievement. Now that waste matters, effort is put into a take-home concept/message regarding the conversion/recovery, and extraction of waste into energy/other valuable products for home needs. It helps keep cities clean, smart, and rich in revenue sources. Full article

The valorisation of food and fruit wastes has the potential for the production of sustainable energy and biochemicals. Approximately 70% of the weight of the original jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) fruit is lost during its processing as waste in the form of peeled skin and core, both of which have not been utilized and, thus these contribute to disposal as well as pollution issues. The major components such as cellulose and hemicellulose can be easily biologically transformed into bioenergy sources such as ethanol, methanol, and butanol; valuable phenolics and biotechnological products such as pectin, citric acid, bromelain, ferulic acid, and vanillin; and many other products. These residues can also be utilized as essential sources for the biological transformation process, leading to the production of numerous products with added value, such as phenolic antioxidants, phenolic flavour compounds, and organic acids. Thus, the value addition of jackfruit waste can support sustainable solutions towards food and nutritional security. In this way, zero waste can be achieved through novel biorefineries, which are critically highlighted in this paper. Furthermore, novel technologies for the conversion of jackfruit waste are summarized with recent findings. Full article

In recent years, copper-based nanomaterials have gained significant attention for their practical applications due to their cost-effectiveness, thermal stability, selectivity, high activity, and wide availability. This review focuses on the synthesis and extensive applications of copper nanomaterials in environmental catalysis, addressing knowledge gaps in pollution management. It highlights recent advancements in using copper-based nanomaterials for the remediation of heavy metals, organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants. Also, it will be helpful to young researchers in improving the suitability of implementing copper-based nanomaterials correctly to establish and achieve sustainable goals for environmental remediation. Full article

Traditional low-carbon steels provide the strength needed to satisfy industrial demands. Low-carbon steel’s poor corrosion resistance is one of its main drawbacks. Due to this restriction, corrosion-resistant materials such as super duplex stainless steels are frequently used for cladding onto the surface of low-carbon steel. The cladded surface possesses superior chloride stress corrosion cracking resistance, pitting and crevice corrosion resistance, yield strength, ductility, and impact toughness. Mild steel with measurements of 300 × 300 × 12 mm has been selected as the substrate material, and super duplex stainless steel (S32950) with an electrode diameter of 2.4 mm has been selected as the filler wire. Gas Tungsten Arc (GTA) cladding was performed onto the surface of low-carbon steel for experimentation. The clad was deposited in the flat position with four different currents, i.e., 120 A, 130 A, 140 A, and 150 A. Cladding was performed on different layers of each current level, i.e., single layer, double layers, and triple layers. After experimenting and overviewing the outcomes, it can be concluded that the optimum input parameters would be a 3-layered clad at a 140 A current level. Cladding of the super duplex stainless steel over mild steel improves the corrosive properties. The percentage ratio of reactivation current density to activation current density (I_r/I_a%) improves from 29% (mild steel) to 4.1% at the top layer and 11.9% at the intermediate layer. The microhardness of the clad decreases with an increase in both the current level and the number of layers. Microhardness varies between 191–248 at the clad, 170–189 at the HAZ, and 143–153 at the substrate for a 1 kgf load. Dilution refers to the change in the cladding alloy composition due to the mixing of the molten matrix. The composition of the clad changes under a high dilution, resulting in a decrease in the mechanical as well as corrosion properties of the clad. However, if the dilution is too small, the bond between the substrate and the clad is poor. Therefore, dilution is one of the most important process control parameters and the key to obtaining high-quality cladding. Thus, the dilution effect is also analyzed on all three clad layers deposited at various current levels using the firefly algorithm (FA) and artificial neural network (ANN). It is observed that dilution levels are found to be more approachable to the experimental setup data with FA in comparison to ANN for various current levels. Full article

Globally, changes in hydroclimate extremes such as extreme precipitation events influence water resources, natural environments, and human health and safety. During recent decades, India has observed an enormous increase in rainfall extremes during the summer monsoon (June to September) seasons. However, future extreme rainfall events have significant uncertainty at the regional scale. Consequently, a comprehensive study is needed to evaluate the extreme rainfall events at a regional river basin level in order to understand the geomorphological characteristics and pattern of rainfall events. In the above purview, the current research focuses on changes in extreme rainfall events obtained through observed gridded datasets and future scenarios of climate models derived through the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). The results highlight a significant rise in the extremes of precipitation events during the first half of the 21st century. In addition, our study concludes that accumulated precipitation will increase by five days in the future, while the precipitation maxima will increase from 200 to 300 mm/day at the 2-year, 50-year, and 100-year return periods. Finally, it is found that during the middle of the 21st century the 23.37% number of events will increase over the TRB at the 90th percentile. Full article

This study reports on the tribological behavior of Indian rail track and wheel materials under different contaminants. A pin-on-disc tribometer was selected for the experimental analysis in ambient conditions (temperature of 24.9 °C and relative humidity of 66%). Sand, mist, leaves, and grease were the contaminants used in this investigation. The railway track was used to make the pin, and the wheel was used to make the disc. The acquired results were analyzed using frictional force and wear depth as a function of time as the variables. These pollutant effects were compared to no-contaminant conditions. It was observed that the sand increased the friction force and wear depth, whereas oil decreased friction and wear. Mist and leaves also reduced friction and wear. The effect of leaves was higher than the mist. The effect of load on various contaminants was also investigated. The results showed that as the load increased, the friction force and wear also increased for all contaminants. The results of this study can help in understanding the wear phenomenon of wheels and rail tracks in different parts of India. Full article

Increased soil salinity poses serious limitations in crop yield and quality; thus, an attempt was made to explore microbial agents to mitigate the ill effects of salinity in rice. The hypothesis was mapping of microbial induction of stress tolerance in rice. Since the rhizosphere and endosphere are two different functional niches directly affected by salinity, it could be very crucial to evaluate them for salinity alleviation. In this experiment, endophytic and rhizospheric microbes were tested for differences in salinity stress alleviation traits in two rice cultivars, CO51 and PB1. Two endophytic bacteria, Bacillus haynesii 2P2 and Bacillus safensis BTL5, were tested with two rhizospheric bacteria, Brevibacterium frigoritolerans W19 and Pseudomonas fluorescens 1001, under elevated salinity (200 mM NaCl) along with Trichoderma viride as an inoculated check. The pot study indicated towards the presence of variable salinity mitigation mechanisms among these strains. Improvement in the photosynthetic machinery was also recorded. These inoculants were evaluated for the induction of antioxidant enzymes viz. CAT, SOD, PO, PPO, APX, and PAL activity along with the effect on proline levels. Modulation of the expression of salt stress responsive genes OsPIP1, MnSOD1, cAPXa, CATa, SERF, and DHN was assessed. Root architecture parameters viz. cumulative length of total root, projection area, average diameter, surface area, root volume, fractal dimension, number of tips, and forks were studied. Confocal scanning laser microscopy indicated accumulation of Na⁺ in leaves using cell impermeant Sodium Green™, Tetra (Tetramethylammonium) Salt. It was found that each of these parameters were induced differentially by endophytic bacteria, rhizospheric bacteria, and fungus, indicating different paths to complement one ultimate plant function. The biomass accumulation and number of effective tillers were highest in T4 (Bacillus haynesii 2P2) plants in both cultivars and showed the possibility of cultivar specific consortium. These strains and their mechanisms could form the basis for further evaluating microbial strains for climate-resilient agriculture. Full article

Worldwide, a huge production of agro-industrial wastes is observed every year in the milling, brewing, agricultural, and food industries. Biochemical and bioactive substances can be produced from these agricultural wastes. Pineapple by-products, which consist of the peeled skin, core, crown end, etc., account for 60% of the weight of pineapple fruit and are disposed of as waste, causing disposal and pollution problems. The bioconversion process can utilize these wastes, which are rich in cellulose and hemicellulose, the main components, to produce value-added biochemicals/bioactive compounds such as pectin, citric acid, bromelain, ferulic acid, vanillin, and so on. Therefore, the sustainable solution for food and nutrition security can be supported by the utilization of pineapple waste. The proposed review article addresses approaches that do not generate waste while adding value. This can be achieved by using innovative biorefinery techniques such as green extraction and the use of green solvents. Microbial fermentation with an effective pretreatment (such as hydrothermal treatment and enzymatic treatment) to convert complex waste (pineapple fruit) into simple sugars and later fuel production are also discussed. The proposed review also provides a concise overview of the most recent research and developments in the field of advanced pineapple waste processing technologies. Full article

A cognitive radio network (CRN) is an intelligent network that can detect unoccupied spectrum space without interfering with the primary user (PU). Spectrum scarcity arises due to the stable channel allocation, which the CRN handles. Spectrum handoff management is a critical problem that must be addressed in the CRN to ensure indefinite connection and profitable use of unallocated spectrum space for secondary users (SUs). Spectrum handoff (SHO) has some disadvantages, i.e., communication delay and power consumption. To overcome these drawbacks, a reduction in handoff should be a priority. This study proposes the use of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) to check for available channels for SU during handoff using a metaheuristic algorithm depending on machine learning. The simulation results show that the proposed “support vector machine-based red deer algorithm” (SVM-RDA) is resilient and has low complexity. The suggested algorithm’s experimental setup offers several handoffs, unsuccessful handoffs, handoff delay, throughput, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), SU bandwidth, and total spectrum bandwidth. This study provides an improved system performance during SHO. The inferred technique anticipates handoff delay and minimizes the handoff numbers. The results show that the recommended method is better at making predictions with fewer handoffs compared to the other three. Full article

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterised by low bone mineral density (BMD), degeneration of bone micro-architecture, and impaired bone strength. Cissus quadrangularis (CQ), popularly known as Hadjod (bone setter) in Hindi, is a traditional medicinal herb exhibiting osteoprotective potential in various bone diseases, especially osteoporosis and fractures. However, the cellular mechanisms underpinning its direct effect on bone health through altering the host immune system have never been elucidated. In the present study, we interrogated the osteoprotective and immunoporotic (the osteoprotective potential of CQ via modulating the host immune system) potential of CQ in preventing inflammatory bone loss under oestrogen-deficient conditions. The current study outlines the CQ’s osteoprotective potential under both ex vivo and in vivo (ovariectomized) conditions. Our ex vivo data demonstrated that, in a dose-dependent manner CQ, suppresses the RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis (p < 0.001) as well as inhibiting the osteoclast functional activity (p < 0.001) in mouse bone marrow cells (BMCs). Our in vivo µ-CT and flow cytometry data further showed that CQ administration improves bone health and preserves bone micro-architecture by markedly raising the proportion of anti-osteoclastogenic immune cells, such as Th1 (p < 0.05), Th2 (p < 0.05), Tregs (p < 0.05), and Bregs (p < 0.01), while concurrently lowering the osteoclastogenic Th17 cells in bone marrow, mesenteric lymph nodes, Peyer’s patches, and spleen in comparison to the control group. Serum cytokine analysis further supported the osteoprotective and immunoporotic potential of CQ, showing a significant increase in the levels of anti-osteoclastogenic cytokines (p < 0.05) (IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-10) and a concurrent decrease in the levels of osteoclastogenic cytokines (p < 0.05) (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-17). In conclusion, our data for the first time delineates the novel cellular and immunological mechanism of the osteoprotective potential of CQ under postmenopausal osteoporotic conditions. Full article

Comprehensive collisional radiative (CR) models have been developed for the diagnostic of argon plasma using Ar and Ar⁺ emission lines. The present CR models consist of 42 and 114 fine-structure levels of Ar and Ar⁺, respectively. Various populating and depopulating mechanisms are incorporated in the model. A complete set of electron-impact fine-structure resolved excitation cross-sections for different excited levels in Ar and Ar⁺ are used, which are obtained by employing relativistic distorted wave theory. Along with this, the electron-impact ionization, radiation trapping, diffusion, and three-body recombination are also considered. Further, to demonstrate the applicability of the present CR model, we applied it to characterize the Helicon-plasma utilizing the optical emission spectroscopy measurements. The key plasma parameters, such as electron density and electron temperature, are obtained using their measured Ar and Ar⁺ emission line intensities. Our results are in reasonable agreement with their anticipated estimates. The matching of our calculated intensities of the different Ar and Ar⁺ lines shows excellent agreement with the measured intensities at various powers. Full article