Common salt (NaCl) causes developmental, behavioral, and physiological defects in Drosophila melanogaster

The incidence of obesity has surged to pandemic levels in recent decades. Approximately 1.89 million obesity are linked to excessive salt consumption. This study aims to check the toxicity of salt at different concentrations using an invertebrate model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila food was mixed with different salt concentrations (50, 200, 400, 800 µM). The toxicity of salt in third instar larvae was checked via different experiments such as trypan blue assay, crawling assay, and other histological staining was done to check the deposition of lipid droplets and amount of reactive oxygen species. Food intake analysis was performed to check the feeding rate, and body weight was also calculated to check the obesity index. Several behavioral assays are also performed in adult flies. Most significant abnormalities were seen at 50 and 200 µM concentrations. Feeding rate increased up to 60%, body weight was increased up to 12% in larvae, and 27% in adult at 200 µM concentration. Approximately 60% larvae and 58% adult flies had defective response to extreme heat. 28% larvae and 38% adult flies were not responding to cold temperature. 55% flies had a defective phototaxis behavior and 40% of them showed positive geotaxis at those range. Salt stress leads to the buildup of free radicals, resulting in DNA damage in both the gut and hemolymph. Most toxic consequences are observed at the lower concentration range as the feeding rate was higher. Flies show aversive response to feed on the higher concentration of salt.

Towards ethics of care: exploring eco-identities of men in Life of Pi and Sherdil

While ecological masculinity finds ways in which men can take on roles that would challenge the traditional masculine exploitative mindset and aligns with the ecofeminists in their goal, hegemonic masculinity maximizes its own interests at the expense of others in the name of making rational decisions. In consequence, hegemonic masculinity forgets that humans are vulnerable and therefore dependent on the non-human world, which is now rendered vulnerable due to excessive human interference. The interconnection of vulnerabilities of humans and non-humans is termed as ecological vulnerability. This article explores how recognition of ecological vulnerability leads to the development of ecological masculinity in the films, Life of Pi (2012) and Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga (2022). It examines intersections between men, masculinities and the environment. The article also shows how these films advocate ecological awakening especially in men who cultivate ethics of care for environmental symbiosis.

Energy Intensity Policies Should be Measure-Specific: A Learning from Indian Manufacturing

This study explains: (i) how different measures of energy efficiency help in policy making; (ii) How does the green total factor productivity (GTFP) improve on the existing studies to explain the relationship between TFP and energy efficiency (EE)? Using rich data from the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy’s Prowess IQ data, we estimated the energy efficiency for monetary and physical measures. The finding suggests: (i) Energy efficiency exhibits an inverted U-shape relationship with the TFP, confirming a “rebound effect”; (ii) Export-intensive firms are energy efficient; (iii) Older firms and stringent environmental tax policies harm energy efficiency. They choose to pollute and pay, possibly because it is profitable in terms of cost confrontation. This implies advanced technological cost seems to be greater than a higher tax, and hence, the manufacturers act like a profit-maximizing firm without a greener outlook; (iv) System GMM is applied to control the endogeneity. The findings show that technologically advanced foreign firms are energy efficient; (v) For the physical measure, there is no rebound between energy efficiency and total factor productivity. However, markup pricing works as a significant control for energy efficiency under physical measures; (vi) For monetary measures, policymakers should focus on controlling the pollution of green firms, but for the physical measure, the policy relevance should be red firm-specific; (vii) There is evidence of panel-unit root and cross-sectional dependence. This is taken care of by clustering and correcting for the endogeneity bias; (viii) We also estimate GTFP which exerts an improved estimate over the traditional TFP estimation. The use of renewables may not help in short run, but they are useful in the long run.

Effect of topographical pattern on vortex shedding and heat transfer phenomena in power-law fluid flow around a rotating cylinder

The present numerical investigation studies the momentum and heat transfer phenomena from a heated rotating patterned cylinder in the vortex shedding regime. In particular, the effect of surface patterns (ω , δ ), fluid behavior (0.4 ≤ n ≤ 1.6 ), cylinder rotation speed (0.5 ≤ α ≤ 2 ), and Prandtl number (1 ≤ Pr ≤ 100 ) at Reynolds number100on the force coefficients and Nusselt number are studied. Vorticity and isotherm profiles demonstrate the flow dynamics and heat transfer characteristics. According to the findings of this study, the formation of the vortex (including its size, shape, and number of vortices) and the time period during which the vortex shedding pattern repeats itself demonstrates a dependency on the shape of the cylinder, fluid behavior, and rotating speed. It has been noted that a significant decrease in the frequency of vortex shedding occurs on adding topographical patterns. Additionally, it has been noticed that on increasing rotational speed, vortex shedding can be suppressed for all fluid behaviors. Numerical simulation results reveal that the average drag coefficient (C ¯D) for a rotating patterned cylinder decreases with increasing rotational speed (α), and it further reduces on increase in pattern frequency (ω) and amplitude( δ ) compared to a smooth circular cylinder. The shear-thinning fluid behavior helps to dissipate the heat from the cylinder to the surrounding fluid. Conversely, shear-thickening fluid behavior exhibits the opposite trend.

Implications of homogeneous–heterogeneous reactions, Hall current, and dissipative radiative heat transfer on MHD Casson fluid flow over a bi-directional stretching sheet

This consideration highlights a numerical analysis of the unsteady three-dimensional flow of a Casson fluid over a stretching surface extending in its plane considering the effects of Hall current, thermal radiation, homogeneous–heterogeneous reactions, viscous dissipations, and an external magnetic field. The fluid flow in the region is developed due to the stretching of the sheet along the two directions in its plane. Two different species are present in the flow region which are taking part in homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions. Fluid velocity, thermal, and mass transportation are expressed mathematically using a set of nonlinear partial differential equations( PDEs )along with suitable boundary conditions. By using the appropriate similarity transformations, these equations( PDEs )that reflect the mathematical model are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations( ODEs ) .The transformed equations( ODEs )were further solved numerically utilizing the bvp 4 csolver. The comprehensive study regarding the impacts of flow parameters on velocities, temperature, and concentration is also presented with graphs. It is observed that the thermal boundary layer is enhanced with an increment in the Hall current parameter, magnetic parameter, and thermal radiation. Moreover, with an increase in homogeneous-heterogeneous reaction parameters, mass transportation decreases. The physical quantities such as the coefficient of skin friction and coefficient of heat and mass transfer are also obtained numerically. Moreover, an appropriate agreement is obtained on comparing the current results with previously published results.

Application of ANN methodology to optimize the criteria of performance evaluation with multiple v-cut twisted tape inserts

This study investigates the impact of v-cut twisted tapes on Double Pipe Heat Exchanger (DP HE) thermo-hydraulic performance to optimize v-cut numbers. Eight tapes with a consistent width-to-depth ratio (1.2) were tested, varying v-cut configurations from one to eight. Heat transfer rate improved by up to 188.54% with eight v-cuts, while the friction factor rose by 244.04%. The highest Criterion of Performance Evaluation (CP E) (1.96) occurred with four v-cuts. Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) increased with v-cut numbers, but beyond four cuts, friction factor dominance led to decreased CP E. A Multilayer Feed-forward Neural Network (MLFNN) with backpropagation predicted CP E using normalized input–output data. Optimal ANN configuration (3_7_7_1) had a minimal Mean Relative Error (MRE) of 0.95%, Standard Deviation (ST D) of 1.11%, and R 2 of 0.99. The model accurately predicted thermo-hydraulic performance, especially for the fourth v-cut, offering valuable insights into DP HE design and performance prediction.

Transforming growth factor beta receptor type I (TGF-βRI) kinase inhibitors IOA-359 and IOA-360 stimulate erythropoiesis in MDS

Overactivation of the Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGF-β) pathway is implicated in the pathogenesis of cytopenias in Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). IOA-359 and IOA-360 are potent small molecule inhibitors of the TGF-beta Receptor type I kinase (TGF-βRI, also referred to as ALK5, activin receptor-like kinase 5) that abrogate SMAD phosphorylation in hematopoietic cell lines. Both inhibitors were able to inhibit TGF-β mediated gene transcription at specific doses. ALK5 inhibitors abrogated the growth inhibitory effects of TGF-β on healthy hematopoietic stem cells and stimulated hematopoietic differentiation in cell lines and MDS/AML specimens. These data demonstrate preclinical efficacy of two novel ALK5 inhibitors, IOA-359 and IOA-360, in stimulating erythroid differentiation in MDS and AML.

Cigarette smoking is associated with worse prognosis in myelodysplastic syndromes and hematopoietic alterations in murine models

A derivative free projection method for the singularities of vector fields with convex constraints on Hadamard manifolds

The objective of this paper is to introduce a derivative free projection method designed to find the singularities of pseudomonotone vector fields with convex constraints on Hadamard manifolds. This innovative approach combines the hyperplane projection method with a novel search direction. The global convergence of the proposed method is established under certain conditions. Our method improves some existing results in the literature on Hadamard manifolds. Additionally, illustrative numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the practical efficacy of our method.

Parametric transformation approach for non-linear interval fractional programming: a case study on water-efficient cultivation

Linear fractional programming inadequately captures the complexities of real-world scenarios due to its inherent linearity and sensitivity to parameter variations. In contrast, non-linear fractional programming (NLFP) offers versatility in modelling nonlinear relationships. Yet, existing literature lacks a comprehensive treatment of NLFP with interval uncertainties associated with both coefficients and decision variables. This paper introduces the Non-linear Enhanced Interval Fractional Programming Problem ($ \bf NLEIFP $ NLEIFP ), which extends NLFP to accommodate interval uncertainties. A parametric approach is proposed to address$ \bf NLEIFP $ NLEIFP , transforming it into a deterministic model by leveraging the parametric representation of intervals. This approach enables more precise solutions that account for interval uncertainties in both the objective function and constraints. The efficacy of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through illustrative numerical examples, highlighting its applicability in diverse real-world contexts.