Emerging concern of nano-pollution in agro-ecosystem: Flip side of nanotechnology.

Nanomaterials (NMs) have proven to be a game-changer in agriculture, showcasing their potential to boost plant growth and safeguarding crops. The agricultural sector has widely adopted NMs, benefiting from their small size, high surface area, and optical properties to augment crop productivity and provide protection against various stressors. This is attributed to their unique characteristics, contributing to their widespread use in agriculture. Human exposure from various components of agro-environmental sectors (soil, crops) NMs residues are likely to upsurge with exposure paths may stimulates bioaccumulation in food chain. With the aim to achieve sustainability, nanotechnology (NTs) do exhibit its potentials in various domains of agriculture also have its flip side too. In this review article we have opted a fusion approach using bibliometric based analysis of global research trend followed by a holistic assessment of pros and cons i.e. toxicological aspect too. Moreover, we have also tried to analyse the current scenario of policy associated with the application of NMs in agro-environment.

Double transplantation as a climate resilient and sustainable resource management strategy for rice production in eastern Uttar Pradesh, north India.

-Enhancing the productivity of rainfed crops, especially rice, while coping with climate adversities and saving critical natural resources is essential for ensuring the food and nutrition security of a growing population. With this context, the present study was undertaken to validate promising farm innovation and adaptation practices used by small-medium landholding farmers for rice cultivation in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), north India, as well as to examine the sustainability of innovative practices for large-scale adoption. For this, a 3-year study comprising extensive field surveys and experiments was undertaken to compare single transplantation (ST) and double transplantation (DT) in rice along with organic addition (farm-yard manure, FYM) on crop growth, yield, climate resilience, soil quality, and overall sustainability i.e., social (women involvements and labour productivity), environmental (water productivity and nutrient use efficiency), and economic (benefit:cost ratio) dimensions of sustainability. Field experiments were conducted in triplicate using two local rice varieties (MotiNP-360 and Sampurna Kaveri) in two agroclimatic zones, namely the middle Gangetic plains and the Vindhyan zone, in the Mirzapur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The DT practices of rice with and without farm yard manure (FYM) (replacing at a dose of 25% NPK) were evaluated over conventional methods of rice cultivation (i.e., ST, as control) and analysis was done periodically. The DT practice improved growth (p < 0.05), percent fertile tiller and grain (p < 0.05), and rice yield (15-20% higher than ST), while also improving soil quality, yield indices, water and labour productivity, and the benefit-cost ratio. The DT practice also resulted in early maturity (10-15 days earlier than ST), created more labour days for women, decreased lodging and pest/disease incidence, as well as a subsequent reduction in the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and associated environmental costs. Importantly, the residual effects of FYM application significantly improved (p < 0.05) the grain yield in subsequent years of cropping. Optimizing DT cultivation practices, preferably with FYM input for various agro-climatic regions, is essential for large-scale sustainable rice production under changing climatic conditions.

Assessing the impact of global initiatives on current and future land restoration scenarios in India.

Land degradation across the world has resulted in an unprecedented decline of ecosystem services, affecting the livelihood of 3.2 billion people globally. Sustainable land management is essential to protect our finite land resources from over-exploitation and degradation. Therefore, the present article was aimed to analyze the impacts of various national and international policies on current and future land restoration scenarios in India. A spatially explicit model (CLUMondo) was employed to predict scenarios, i.e., the 'business as usual' (BU) and 'sustainable restoration' (SR) by 2030. Though the results showed an increasing trend in land degradation , i.e., from 44.28 to 49.74 Mha during the period of 2005-15, a slight decrease was observed in 2019 (49.24 Mha), suggesting a net increase of 11.21% during the 2005-19 period. However, an increase in forest cover by 5.08% under existing policy targets overtook the degradation rate by restoration initiatives. The net decline in degraded land area by 1% with an increased forest cover by 1.83% observed during the 2015-19 periods reflected the positive impact of various national and global policies on existing restoration ventures in India. Our modeled results (weighted AUC = 0.87) also suggested an increase in forest cover by 6.9% and 9.9% under BU and SR scenarios, respectively. Under the BU scenario, degraded land will be restored up to 12.1 Mha; however, 6.27 Mha of these lands will be converted to cropland for food production. Importantly, a decrease in grasslands by 35.1% under the BU scenario warrants the urgency to maintain the integrity of such ecological systems. However, the SR scenario showed an increase in grasslands by 8.9%, with an overall restoration of degraded land up to 18.31 Mha. Moreover, a reduced cropland expansion rate of 1% suggested an effective land management response. While our results may have some uncertainties due to the model limitations, they can still be used for framing suitable land management policies to facilitate sustainable land restoration programs in India.

Steering the restoration of degraded agroecosystems during the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Agroecosystems are the largest human-natural coupled production system covering ~40% of the planet earth and provide essential ecosystem services for a good quality of life and human wellbeing. The sustainable management of agroecosystems are therefore essential for meeting the food, fuel, fiber, and fodder demands of the rapidly growing human population. Agroecosystems also play a key role in trace gases emission, and also affect the quality and usage of life-supporting resources such as air, water, soil etc. Though the sustainable management of agroecosystems are imperative for achieving UN-Sustainable Development Goals, they are frequently under degradation due to multiple drivers of changes such as unsustainable land-use practices, biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change, etc. Therefore, cordial efforts at national, regional and global levels are essential for managing agroecosystems to meet out the global goals and also the targets of the United Nations- Decade o-n Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). Here we opined various strategies for restoring degraded agroecosystems for sustainable development including the adoption of emerging paradigms such as micro-agriculture, urban agriculture, and landless agriculture for averting the mounting pressure on agroecosystems for the benefit of both people and the planet.

Sustainable agronomic practices for enhancing the soil quality and yield of Cicer arietinum L. under diverse agroecosystems.

Sustainable agronomic practices are being implemented worldwide to promote the cleaner and planet friendly crop production. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the effect of agro-waste derived biochar and vermicompost on soil quality and yield in Cicer arietinum L. Field experiment was carried out at three different agro-climatic regions (Varanasi, Sultanpur and Gorakhpur) of Uttar Pradesh, India and periodic soil and crop sampling were done accordingly. Experimental results proven that a significant increase (p < 0.01) in total organic carbon, available N, P and K content was observed under vermicompost followed by biochar amendment at each site. Similarly, irrespective of the experimental site, a significant increase (p < 0.01) in microbial biomass carbon was recorded under vermicompost amendment. Furthermore, the addition of vermicompost increased the grain yield (28-39%) than biochar (23-36%) addition whereas the higher microbial and soil respiration (2-6%) found in former field than the biochar added field (1-3%). Significant correlation (R2= 0.61-0.99) was found between the sustainable yield index and soil fertility factors at each site. Assessment of agricultural soil sustainability indicators (ASSI) suggests that the biochar was more effective in enhancing the soil carbon stock (21 ± 1.31 Mg C ha-1) and higher glomalin activity (62%). The study also confirmed the increased alkaline phosphatase (two fold) and ß-glucosidase activity (one fold) along with enhanced urease (45%), soil dehydrogenase activity (36%) under vermicompost amendment followed by biochar. Present study highlights the significance of sustainable agronomic practices for improving the soil quality and agricultural yield while reducing adverse impact.

p53 dependent apoptosis and cell cycle delay induced by heteroleptic complexes in human cervical cancer cells.

We previously reported synthesis of novel arene ruthenium (Ru) complexes and evaluated their antitumor activity in murine lymphoma (DL) cells. In this present study we further investigated the mechanism of action of two ruthenium complexes [complex 1 (η6-arene)RuCl(2-pcdpm)] and complex 2 (η6-arene)RuCl(4-mtdpm)] in cervical cancer cell line (HeLa). Our studies demonstrate that anticancer property of these two complexes was due to induction of apoptosis through p53 mediated pathway as well as arrest of cells in G2/M phase of cell cycle. It is worth to note that the complexes did not cause any substantial cytotoxic effect on normal cells. Further in comprehensive studies, apoptosis inducing property of both complexes were established in accordance with array of morphological changes ranging from membrane blebbing to formation of apoptotic bodies and followed by DNA fragmentation assay. Furthermore, Flow cytometry by Annexin V/PI staining delineate that complex 1 and 2 have strident impact to induce apoptosis in HeLa cells. The complex 1 and 2 treated cells show increased level of intracellular ROS generation which was preceded by p53 activation. Apoptosis induced by 1 and 2 was preceded by mitochondrial aggregations which were monitored by mitotracker. In addition flow cytometry analysis showed that both complexes also effectively arrest cells at G2/M phase of cell cycle. Western blot, RT-PCR as well as Real Time analysis were used to further confirm that the complexes induced apoptosis in p53 dependent pathway. Thus, our promising results can contribute to the rational design of novel potential anticancer agents.

Smart phone applications as a source of information on stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Smartphone applications have been increasingly identified as a novel platform for dissemination of healthcare related information. However, there have been no studies done to evaluate the availability and content of stroke related apps. PURPOSE: This study aims to identify and analyze stroke-related applications available on the Apple iTunes and Android Google Play Store. METHODS: The Apple iTunes store and Android Google Play Store were searched for stroke-related applications on July 27, 2013 using keywords: stroke, brain attack, intracranial hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral infarction. The content of the applications was analyzed by two independent investigators. RESULTS: A total of 93 relevant applications (46.2% android and 53.8% iPhone) were identified of which 47.3% were available free of cost. 92% of apps were identified as useful by users and over 60% had scientifically valid information. There is a significant participation of healthcare agencies in dissemination of stroke related information through apps with 47.3% apps being uploaded by them. Over half of all stroke related apps were aimed towards health care workers (51.6%), 75% of which could be utilized as bedside tools for patient care and remainder had information related to recent research advances. The difference in scientific validity between the apps aimed at general population versus healthcare professionals was statistically significant (P<0.01). There was no statistical association between cost of app and scientific validity or usefulness. CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone apps are a significant source of information related to stroke. An increasing participation of healthcare agencies should be encouraged to promote dissemination of scientifically valid information.

High-Performance 3D Compressive Sensing MRI Reconstruction Using Many-Core Architectures.

Compressive sensing (CS) describes how sparse signals can be accurately reconstructed from many fewer samples than required by the Nyquist criterion. Since MRI scan duration is proportional to the number of acquired samples, CS has been gaining significant attention in MRI. However, the computationally intensive nature of CS reconstructions has precluded their use in routine clinical practice. In this work, we investigate how different throughput-oriented architectures can benefit one CS algorithm and what levels of acceleration are feasible on different modern platforms. We demonstrate that a CUDA-based code running on an NVIDIA Tesla C2050 GPU can reconstruct a 256 × 160 × 80 volume from an 8-channel acquisition in 19 seconds, which is in itself a significant improvement over the state of the art. We then show that Intel's Knights Ferry can perform the same 3D MRI reconstruction in only 12 seconds, bringing CS methods even closer to clinical viability.

High-performance 3D compressive sensing MRI reconstruction.

Compressive Sensing (CS) is a nascent sampling and reconstruction paradigm that describes how sparse or compressible signals can be accurately approximated using many fewer samples than traditionally believed. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), where scan duration is directly proportional to the number of acquired samples, CS has the potential to dramatically decrease scan time. However, the computationally expensive nature of CS reconstructions has so far precluded their use in routine clinical practice - instead, more-easily generated but lower-quality images continue to be used. We investigate the development and optimization of a proven inexact quasi-Newton CS reconstruction algorithm on several modern parallel architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, and Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture. Our (optimized) baseline implementation on a quad-core Core i7 is able to reconstruct a 256 × 160×80 volume of the neurovasculature from an 8-channel, 10 × undersampled data set within 56 seconds, which is already a significant improvement over existing implementations. The latest six-core Core i7 reduces the reconstruction time further to 32 seconds. Moreover, we show that the CS algorithm benefits from modern throughput-oriented architectures. Specifically, our CUDA-base implementation on NVIDIA GTX480 reconstructs the same dataset in 16 seconds, while Intel's Knights Ferry (KNF) of the MIC architecture even reduces the time to 12 seconds. Such level of performance allows the neurovascular dataset to be reconstructed within a clinically viable time.

Mapping high-fidelity volume rendering for medical imaging to CPU, GPU and many-core architectures.

Medical volumetric imaging requires high fidelity, high performance rendering algorithms. We motivate and analyze new volumetric rendering algorithms that are suited to modern parallel processing architectures. First, we describe the three major categories of volume rendering algorithms and confirm through an imaging scientist-guided evaluation that ray-casting is the most acceptable. We describe a thread- and data-parallel implementation of ray-casting that makes it amenable to key architectural trends of three modern commodity parallel architectures: multi-core, GPU, and an upcoming many-core Intel architecture code-named Larrabee. We achieve more than an order of magnitude performance improvement on a number of large 3D medical datasets. We further describe a data compression scheme that significantly reduces data-transfer overhead. This allows our approach to scale well to large numbers of Larrabee cores.