Intercropping with Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.): An Assessment of Its Influence on the Assemblage of Pollinators and Yield of Neighbouring Non-Leguminous Crops.

Intercropping is practiced in modern intensive agriculture considering many benefits, including additive crop yield. However, it may have competitive or facilitative interactions between pollinator-dependant crops. Here, we investigated the reproductive aspects of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan). We assessed the influence of blooming pigeonpea on pollinator's assemblage and the yield of neighbouring non-leguminous crops (e.g., coriander, mustard). For these, we recorded floral visitors and the yield of the targeted crops from two types of fields-closely situated and distantly situated concerning pigeonpea plantation. Pigeonpea is autogamous, but pollinator's visits enhance fruit and seed sets. Bright, nectariferous flowers emitted several volatile organic compounds and were visited by numerous insect species. The prime pollinators of pigeonpea are carpenter bees and leafcutter bees. In contrast, halictidae, honeybees and stingless bees mainly pollinate the co-blooming non-leguminous crops (coriander and mustard). The richness and abundance of pollinators on these co-blooming crops remain similar in closely situated and distantly situated fields. As a result, the yield of the neighbouring crops is not significantly influenced by the blooming pigeonpea. Therefore, it can be concluded that planting pigeonpea in ridges of agricultural fields will be an additional agricultural output without affecting the assemblage of pollinators and yields of neighbouring co-blooming crops.

Perpendicular electric field drives Chern transitions and layer polarization changes in Hofstadter bands.

Moiré superlattices engineer band properties and enable observation of fractal energy spectra of Hofstadter butterfly. Recently, correlated-electron physics hosted by flat bands in small-angle moiré systems has been at the foreground. However, the implications of moiré band topology within the single-particle framework are little explored experimentally. An outstanding problem is understanding the effect of band topology on Hofstadter physics, which does not require electron correlations. Our work experimentally studies Chern state switching in the Hofstadter regime using twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG), which offers electric field tunable topological bands, unlike twisted bilayer graphene. Here we show that the nontrivial topology reflects in the Hofstadter spectra, in particular, by displaying a cascade of Hofstadter gaps that switch their Chern numbers sequentially while varying the perpendicular electric field. Our experiments together with theoretical calculations suggest a crucial role of charge polarization changing concomitantly with topological transitions in this system. Layer polarization is likely to play an important role in the topological states in few-layer twisted systems. Moreover, our work establishes TDBG as a novel Hofstadter platform with nontrivial magnetoelectric coupling.

Medication Adherence Among Patients of Type II Diabetes Mellitus and Its Associated Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Eastern India.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem. Adherence to anti-diabetic medications improves glycaemic control, which in turn prevents complications as well as reduces out-of-pocket expenditure. The World Health Organization highlights that the impact of interventions directed to improve adherence has far greater implications than specific medical interventions. There are several factors that contribute to poor adherence. Not many studies have been conducted to explore adherence to diabetes medications in eastern India. OBJECTIVES: To measure medication adherence among patients suffering from diabetes. To determine the various risk factors influencing adherence to medication. To find out the association of health-related quality of life with adherence to medication. METHODOLOGY: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient Department of General Medicine and Endocrinology of a tertiary care hospital in eastern India from January to March 2020. Adult subjects, who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus for at least six months, were interviewed using a pretested, structured questionnaire containing 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) to determine adherence to diabetic medications. Data were analysed in SPSS version 27 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: The mean age of the 331 participants interviewed was 53.40 (SD 11.0) years and the majority were males (57.1%). Medication adherence of 34.14% (n=113) was found among the subjects. Having any comorbidity, positive family history of diabetes and the habit of current alcohol intake increased the odds of poor adherence by 3.26 times, 1.88 times, and 2.35 times respectively in binary logistic regression analysis. Those following a diabetic diet had a protective effect, decreasing poor medication adherence by 79.6%. Poor medication adherence increased by 1.077 times with every one-day increase in unhealthy days. CONCLUSION: The medication adherence was 34.14% and as compared to other similar studies medication adherence in the study population was poor and was associated with unhealthy days.

Anthraimidazoledione Based Reversible and Reusable Selective Chemosensors for Fluoride Ion: Naked-Eye, Colorimetric and Fluorescence "ON-OFF".

Novel anthraimidazoledione-based compounds (1-3) are synthesized as selective colorimetric and fluorescent sensors for fluoride ion. The binding properties of the probes (1-3) are studied with different anions in acetonitrile solvent. Spectral red shifts in the absorption spectra and 'turn-off' emission are observed when fluoride is added to 1-3. The striking green to orange color change in the ambient light is thought to be due to the deprotonation of the N-H proton of the imidazole moiety of the probes by the basic F- ion. Interestingly, in all three cases the nonfluorescent probe-F- solutions, on treatment with copper perchlorate, show distinct color change from orange to golden yellow with resumption of fluorescence intensity. Furthermore, the reversibility of sensors (1-3) for the detection of F- ion is tested for four cycles indicating that "ON-OFF-ON" mechanism is operative. Test strip based on sensor 2 acts as a reusable cost-effective F- sensor.

Floquet-Engineered Valleytronics in Dirac Systems.

Valley degrees of freedom offer a potential resource for quantum information processing if they can be effectively controlled. We discuss an optical approach to this problem in which intense light breaks electronic symmetries of a two-dimensional Dirac material. The resulting quasienergy structures may then differ for different valleys, so that the Floquet physics of the system can be exploited to produce highly polarized valley currents. This physics can be utilized to realize a valley valve whose behavior is determined optically. We propose a concrete way to achieve such valleytronics in graphene as well as in a simple model of an inversion-symmetry broken Dirac material. We study the effect numerically and demonstrate its robustness against moderate disorder and small deviations in optical parameters.

Effective theory of Floquet topological transitions.

We develop a theory of topological transitions in a Floquet topological insulator, using graphene irradiated by circularly polarized light as a concrete realization. We demonstrate that a hallmark signature of such transitions in a static system, i.e., metallic bulk transport with conductivity of order e^{2}/h, is substantially suppressed at some Floquet topological transitions in the clean system. We determine the conditions for this suppression analytically and confirm our results in numerical simulations. Remarkably, introducing disorder dramatically enhances this transport by several orders of magnitude.

Transport signatures of Floquet Majorana fermions in driven topological superconductors.

Floquet Majorana fermions are steady states of equal superposition of electrons and holes in a periodically driven superconductor. We study the experimental signatures of Floquet Majorana fermions in transport measurements and show, both analytically and numerically, that their presence is signaled by a quantized conductance sum rule over discrete values of lead bias differing by multiple absorption or emission energies at drive frequency. We also study the effects of static disorder and find that the quantized sum rule is robust against weak disorder. Thus, we offer a unique way to identify the topological signatures of Floquet Majorana fermions.