Ethical investment is a new term in the finance field. There are some avenues that are prohibited by some laws. In Shariah, investing money in some assets or businesses operating particular activities is restricted. For investors who do not want to invest in stocks of those companies prohibited by Shariah law on ethical grounds, for them, a term called Halal. Halal stocks are those companies that are engaged in those businesses which are allowed by Shariah law. Portfolio selection is the procedure of identifying the best portfolio among available options. The best portfolio is the portfolio that has the highest return with the lowest risk. Harry Markowitz introduced portfolio selection in 1952 by proposing the modern portfolio theory. After that, many exact approaches were presented by finance experts. These approaches provide the solution, but these approaches have many limitations. Some other approaches are needed to overcome these limitations to solve portfolio selection problem. In this study, an evolutionary approach named genetic algorithm inspired by the theory of natural selection is presented to solve the portfolio selection problem. This study demonstrated a solution to halal stock selection by a genetic algorithm. Four stocks are chosen from the BSE-500 Shariah index for empirical research. Returns of 12 months from June 2018 to May 2019 present the application of the genetic algorithm in halal portfolio selection. Empirical results show the robustness of the proposed approach in the portfolio selection domain.

Barbari is a most preferred breed for commercial goat farming-under intensive management. However, pure-bred Barbari goats; especially buck’s availability are meager due to indiscriminate castration which resulted in stagnation of genetic improvement and breed dilution. Multiplier Flock Scheme, an integrated genetic improvement model was initiated at ICAR-CIRG, Makhdoom to cater the need of pure-bred and high merit goats and to promote commercial goat farming. Trained farmers with adequate housing and know-how were registered under this scheme and they were provided a foundation stock of Barbari goat to multiply with all technical support. Currently, 50 such goat farms exist in India with flock size of 50 to 350 goats. Data was collected on animal performance and economic attributes from eight such farms. The least squares means of body weight of Barbari kids at birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age were 1.58, 7.22, 14.54, 20.01 and 25.76 kg, respectively. The average 60 and 90 days milk yield were 45.23 and 66.28 litre. The pre-weaning, post-weaning (3-12 month) and adult mortality were 9.03, 4.33 and 5.40% of flock strength. The net profit per goat/year ranged from ₹3800 to ₹13000 under various business models and the benefit:cost ratios ranged from 1.50 to 2.42 with mean and median value of 1.94 and 2.00, respectively. Present study concluded that multiplier flocks is efficient breeding model for improvement, conservation of goat breeds, promoting scientific goat farming at grass root level and very helpful to policymakers for small ruminant development.

Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising approach to addressing the challenges faced by modern agriculture, particularly in the field of crop protection. Nano-pesticides, which are pesticide formulations that incorporate nanomaterials or nanostructures, have garnered significant attention due to their potential to enhance the efficacy of active ingredients while minimizing adverse environmental and health impacts. This review provides a comprehensive overview of on the current state of research on nano-pesticides, focusing on their synthesis, characterization, mode of action, and efficacy in various agricultural applications. The unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials, such as high surface area to volume ratio, enhanced solubility, and controlled release, are exploited in the development of nano-pesticide formulations. Different types of nano-pesticides, including nanoemulsions, nanoencapsulation, and nanocomposites, are discussed in detail, highlighting their advantages over conventional pesticide formulations. The review also examines the interactions of nano-pesticides with target pests and the environment, as well as their potential toxicity and ecotoxicological effects. The role of nano-pesticides in integrated pest management strategies and their compatibility with sustainable agricultural practices are explored. Furthermore, the review addresses the challenges associated with the commercialization and regulatory aspects of nano-pesticides, emphasizing the need for thorough risk assessment and standardized testing protocols. Future research directions and opportunities for the development of nano-pesticides are outlined, focusing on the optimization of formulations, targeted delivery, and precision agriculture. Overall, this review provides valuable insights into the potential of nano-pesticides as a tool for enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainability while minimizing the negative impacts on biodiversity and food safety.

Early fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is an essential trait in reducing the maintenance cost and increasing the reliability of the manufacturing system. Considerable advancements have been achieved in recent years toward creating a reliable and automated condition monitoring approach that can detect the occurrence of a fault in advance, permitting the maintenance to be performed proactively to prevent trivial problems from building into catastrophic failures. In this study, we present a radial basis kernel based optimized Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classifying vibrational data obtained from the case western reserve university (CWRU) bearing data set into either good or faulty classes. Instead of using the raw data directly into the model, our method first involves extracting the relevant statistical characteristics from the sensor data. The hyper-parameters C and Gamma of the Support Vector Classifier (SVC) are optimized, resulting in an optimal value that maximizes the accuracy score on both the training and test data. A comprehensive assessment revealed that employing a basic SVM classifier could yield improved accuracy, provided that the features are appropriately extracted and the hyper-parameters are effectively tuned. A distinct demarcation was observed in the majority of the extracted features, resulting in a notable increase in the performance measures. Furthermore, the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) was conducted to calculate the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the signal. This allows for the analysis of the attributes and trends displayed by the data in the frequency domain.

Awake self-proning is being used widely as respiratory support in COVID-19 hypoxemia, in resource limited settings. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of early awake self-proning in preventing mortality and need for intubation in adults with moderate COVID-19 hypoxemia. In this randomized clinical trial with intention-to-treat analysis, we enrolled eligible adults with COVID-19 hypoxemia (SpO2 <94%), requiring supplemental oxygen via nasal prongs or facemask from a tertiary-care setting in Jodhpur, India between June 15 to December 24, 2020. Awake proning comprised of 4-hour cycles with prone position maintained 2 h per cycle. The control group did not maintain any specific position. All participants received standard care. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and requirement for mechanical ventilation. Of 502 participants included, mean (SD) age was 59.7 (12.7) years with 124 women (24.6%); 257 were randomized to awake-proning, 245 to control group and all 502 were included for follow-up mortality analysis. Mortality at follow-up was 16.3% in the awake-prone and 15.1% in the control group [OR:1.10 (0.68–1.78), p=0.703). Requirement of mechanical ventilation was 10% in both groups (p=0.974). Survival time (in days) was not significantly different between the groups [Log-rank test, HR: 1.08 (95% CI, 0.70–1.68), p=0.726]. Likewise, time to intubation was comparable (Log-rank test, HR: 0.93 (95% CI, 0.56–1.70), p=0.974). Hence, awake self-proning did not improve survival or requirement of mechanical-ventilation in non-intubated patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 hypoxemia. Trial Registration: Clinical trial registry of India, ID: CTRI/2020/06/025804. *************************************************************** *Appendix Authors list Deepak Kumar1, Gopal Krishna Bohra1, Nishant Kumar Chauhan2, Nikhil Kothari3, Vijaya Lakshmi Nag4 Sanjeev Misra5 1Department of Internal Medicine; 2Department of Pulmonary Medicine; 3Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care; 4Department of Microbiology; 5Department of Surgical Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, India

Growing demand for video services increases the bandwidth consumption leading to highly utilization of the core network resources. The increased data traffic has an impact on the users’ viewing experience. Still there are many issues in providing the better QoE. Increasing the number of CDN servers does not seem a feasible solution to improve the QoE. Edge computing integrates the network’s core capabilities, storage, computing and application at the user’s proximity. P2P systems may reduce the burden on CDN servers. The authors have integrated the benefits of both P2P and CDN. The major issue in the P2P system is the churn (leaving and joining of a peer) which results in reducing the video services quality. In this paper, the authors have tried to handle the churning of peers to improve the QoE by using multiple paths. The authors tried to explore the possibilities of multiple paths with the help of HTTP/2 to bring the CDN for adaptive video streaming near to the user and implemented multiple connections for our churn-tolerant approach. The approach is evaluated on the parameters like stall count, stall duration under varying churn rates, startup delay, average bitrate, maturity effect and scalability effect to improve QoE.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the most abundant non-psychotropic phytocannabinoid isolated from Cannabis sativa. To support preclinical studies of ocular pharmacology of CBD, a bioanalytical method was developed and validated for quantification of CBD in aqueous humor using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS). Aqueous humor samples were subjected to protein precipitation by acetonitrile, followed by chromato-graphic separation using reversed phase LC on a Raptor ARC-18 column with mobile phase A: 0.1 % (v/v) formic acid in water (B) 0.1 % formic acid in acetonitrile (B) as eluents. Detection was carried out with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization operated in positive ion mode. Stable-isotope labeled CBD (CBD-d3) was used as internal standard. The total run time was 8 min. Quantification was accomplished within the validated concentration range of 0.5-500 ng/mL for CBD using a 5 mu L sample. The lower limit of quantitation was 0.5 ng/mL. Inter-and intra-day precision is 4.737-7.620 % and 3.426-5.830 %, respectively. Inter-and intra-day accuracy ranged between 99.01 % and 100.2 % and 99.85-101.4 % respectively. The extraction recoveries were found to be 66.06 +/- 5.146 %. The established method was successfully applied to investigate ocular pharmacokinetics of CBD in mice. Following intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of 50 mg/kg CBD, its concentration reaches a Cmax of 71.55 +/- 36.64 ng/mL in aqueous humor, with a Tmax of 2 h and a half-life of 1.046 h. The AUC was 183.4 +/- 49.17 ng * h/mL. The development and validation of this LC-MS/MS method is an important step toward the goal of assessing the aqueous humor concentrations of CBD and correlating the concentrations of this phytocannabinoid with its ocular pharmacologic effects.

Second-generation biofuel production is a necessary process in a way to get rid of the agricultural waste produced on farmlands. The more the agriculture waste is produced, the more it becomes necessary for it to be disposed off in a suitable manner, else it will lead to air pollution resulting from its indiscriminate burning and other modes of improper disposal. But the currently the existing technologies face challenges either with respect to sustainability or with respect to technology. The thermochemical conversions emit higher GHG emissions and therefore isn’t an option worth considering when sustainability measures are taken into account. Whereas the biochemical conversions lack efficiency at many steps, lignin removal from the biomass for easing the conversion of the cellulosic and hemicellulosic material into simpler sugars, feedback inhibition at the hydrolysis step by the cellobiose formed, and lastly at the fermentation step if some of the products are acidic in the preceding step. Further, the use of mesophilic enzymes for the conversion of biomass into simpler sugars brings many factors in one frame, i.e., the chances of potential contamination from the surrounding environment is very high; efficiency wise it is less stable at higher temperatures, which is usually required for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass. Thermophilic microbes seem to be a viable option for all such biochemical challenges put in frame by mesophilic microbes. The thermophilic microbes not only defer the chances of ambient environmental contamination but also lead to the enhancement in the rate of reaction during hydrolysis.

A novel technique of using activated flux in Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding is used in the present investigations. The influence of a hybrid multi-component surfactant, often known as flux, is explored in terms of depth of penetration (DOP), micro-hardness, tensile strength, and metallurgical characteristics. The activated TIG welding has been performed at three distinct levels of current, travel speed, and flow rate for workpiece materials of varying thicknesses. These three factors: current, travel speed, and flow rate. The results revealed a significant increase in the depth of penetration on using activated flux. The maximum value of the DOP was found to be 8.28 mm for the process parameters current 110 A, speed 82 mm/min and 12 L/min of flow rate. The conclusion that can be drawn from the findings of the tensile test is that A-TIG welding results in welds that have superior strength. Radiography revealed defect-free welds on using activated flux. The findings of this study provide evidence that demonstrates the viability of employing this economical method of welding in the process of combining thick sheets of SS-316 stainless steel to create an enhanced endowment.

To meet the demands of an ever increasing number of users wishing to watch video-based content over the Internet, the idea of content delivery network (CDN) at the edge has been advocated. Earlier, we have proposed an architecture using technologies such as DHT-based P2P overlays, software-defined networking (SDN), and dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) to provide P2P CDN at the edge within the enterprise domain. However, under moderate to heavy churn of peers, our implementation failed to provide acceptable QoS. We identified that the major reason behind the unacceptable QoS under churn is due to a complex relationship among HTTP keep-alive timeout, TCP keep-alive timeout and video chunk size which leads to late notification of the event of peer leaving. This results in frequent stalls and relatively longer stall durations affecting the QoS badly. In this paper, we present our SDN-based churn-tolerant approach.

Uranium in soil can exist in both (IV) and (VI) oxidation states, distributed among different soil fractions (exchangeable, carbonate, oxidizable, reducible, and residual). Following its release from these fractions, uranium enters the soil pore water, becoming bioavailable and potentially posing risks due to its radio and chemical toxicity. Given the significant health and environmental risks associated with uranium, it is crucial to understand its behaviour in contaminated soil pore water and how it changes over time, especially in response to seasonal variations. To address this issue, study was designed to investigate the temporal changes in uranium availability in soil pore water, with a special focus on effect of seasonal variations and biogeochemical reactions that govern the bioavailability of uranium in a contaminated soil mesocosm. This field investigation was carried out for two consecutive years, and revealed that, seasonal variation has a significant effect on the bioavailability of the uranium in the upper soil layers (<30 cm). The biogenic NO3- induced oxidative dissolution of uranium was found to be the predominant reaction causing the dissolution of uranium into soil pore water, followed by ion-exchange in upper layer, whereas at higher depths (30 cm < d < 70 cm) bioavailability is predominantly controlled by ion-exchange reaction. Furthermore, the study shows that at upper layers bioavailability is high during the summer, which is attributed to higher rate of biogenic denitrification and ion exchange reactions. Fast vertical migration of uranium in the soil column is attributed to formation of stable mobile species such as hydroxo‑carbonato ((UO2)xCO3(OH)y-), hydroxo (UO2)x(OH)y and carbonato (UO2CO3) complexes, identified by speciation modelling. For the first time, this study reports the process controlling uranium behaviour in soil pore water and the effect of seasonal variation on it in a contaminated soil. The findings are essential for assessing its potential radiological impact and remediation planning.

Jute sticks obtained after the extraction of jute fiber are an excellent biomass feedstock with a significant amount of carbohydrates that makes it an attractive resource for sustainable energy generation. However, the high lignin content in the jute stick hinders the cellulosic component of the cell wall from enzymatic hydrolysis.This work demonstrates the lignin degradation of jute stick biomass by Trametes maxima laccase in the presence of mediator Hydroxybenzotriazole and improvement in its subsequent saccharification. Lignin component in jute stick is reduced by 21.8% in a single reaction treatment with laccase-mediator compared to the untreated jute stick sample used as control. The yield of fermentable sugar is increased by 19.5% that verifies enhanced saccharification after lignin removal. Delignification of jute stick was corroborated through different analytical techniques. The Pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry results further confirms abundance of S lignin unit in the jute stick compared to the H and G unit and modification in lignin polymer as a change in the syringyl-to-guaiacyl ratio. Hence, this work demonstrates that jute stick can be effectively delignified using biocatalyst-mediator system and utilized as biomass source, thus contributing in circular bio-economy through waste valorization.

α1,3-Fucosyltransferase 9 (Fut9) is responsible for the synthesis of Lewis X [LeX, Galβ1-4(Fucα1-3)GlcNAc] carbohydrate epitope, a marker for pluripotent or multipotent tissue-specific stem cells. Although Fut9-deficient mice show anxiety-related behaviors, structural and cellular abnormalities in the brain remain to be investigated. In this study, using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical techniques in combination, we clarified the spatiotemporal expression of Fut9, together with LeX, in the brain and retina. We found that Fut9-expressing cells are positive for Ctip2, a marker of neurons residing in layer V/VI, and TLE4, a marker of corticothalamic projection neurons (CThPNs) in layer VI, of the cortex. A birthdating analysis using 5-ethynyl-2ʹ-deoxyuridine at embryonic day (E)11.5, 5-bromo-2ʹ-deoxyuridine at E12.5, and in utero electroporation of a GFP expression plasmid at E14.5 revealed a reduction in the percentage of neurons produced at E11.5 in layer VI/subplate of the cortex and in the ganglion cell layer of the retina in P0 Fut9–/– mice. Furthermore, this reduction in layer VI/subplate neurons persisted into adulthood, leading to a reduction in the number of Ctip2strong/Satb2– excitatory neurons in layer V/VI of the adult Fut9–/– cortex. These results suggest that Fut9 plays significant roles in the differentiation, migration, and maturation of neural precursor cells in the cortex and retina.

The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the genetic progress and variability for growth traits and also to suggest a suitable direction to the existing breeding program of the Barbari goat population in India. The analysis included 10,648 animals descended from 2697 dams and 420 sires at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom between 1993 and 2020 (28 years). The effect of fixed factors such as period and season of kidding, sex of the kid, type of birth, parity of doe, and doe weight at kidding on live weights were significant (P < 0.05). Animal models with average information restricted maximum likelihood (AIREML) approach were used to estimate genetic parameters for growth traits. The mean of inbreeding coefficient for the whole pedigree was 2.16%. For the inbred animals it was 3.32%, indicating within normal estimate for average inbreeding in a nucleus flock. Results suggested that the genetic model for additive direct effects of animal and dam and their covariance, as well as dam's permanent environment, was best for birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), weight at six months (6 W), and weight at nine months (9 W), whereas the model with direct effects of animal and dam and their covariance was best for weight at 12 months (12 W). The estimates of direct heritability (h(2)) for Barbari goat were 0.31 +/- 0.04, 0.23 +/- 0.03, 0.18 +/- 0.03, 0.13 +/- 0.03 and 0.21 +/- 0.04 for BW, WW, 6 W, 9 W, and 12 W, respectively. However, the estimates were influenced by negative correlation between direct additive effects of animal and dam. We also observed substantial variance for additive maternal effect (0.09-0.15) and maternal permanent environment effect (0.11-0.17) across traits analysed. Pre-weaning growth traits had a significant maternal effect that receded as age advanced. The prospect of selecting Barbari goats for growth traits is indicated by moderate h(2) estimates. The positive and desired genetic trend revealed favourable response to selection in the nucleus of the Barbari goat for growth traits. The significant and positive genetic and phenotypic correlation between post-weaning weights (6-9 W= 0.89) suggests scope for early selection of Barbari goats by decreasing the age for selection from 9 to 6 months.

Background: The huge decline in grazing resources and many fold increase in stocking rate has made goat farming unsustainable and uneconomic under extensive system, therefore, it has become essential to explore and develop alternative and strategic goat production system. The present study was undertaken to compare the performance of male barbari goats fed with and without green fodder under stallfed system to develop a goat farming model for peri urban/ rainfed region where availability of green fodder is exclusive and costly. Methods: Twelve Barbari male kids of average body weight 13.49±0.54 kg at 4 months of age were randomly divided into two equal groups (Gr 1 and Gr 2) of 6 animals each. The animals of Gr 1 was fed with concentrate pellet (16% crude protein), green and dry fodder while kids in Gr 2 were fed with concentrate pellet, dry fodder and no green fodder for a period of 150 days (up to 9 month of their age). Growth parameters, carcass parameters and cost benefit analysis were carried out. Result: Average slaughter weight, daily weight gain (g), empty body weight, carcass weight and dressing % was 26.31±1.99 kg, 85.53±8.17 g, 22.09 kg, 13.18 kg and 49.13% in group-I and 25.8±1.16 kg, 82.0±4.13 g, 21.91 kg, 12.91 kg and 48.88% respectively in group-II. Differences between kids of both the groups for above growth and carcass parameters were non-significant. Net profit per kid fed with green and without green fodder when sold at Rs. 250/kg live weight was Rs. 2381.17 and Rs. 2347.72 respectively and Rs 3696.67 in Gr 1 and Rs 3637.72 in Gr 2 if sold @ Rs. 300/kg live weight. Present study concluded that the Barbari growing kids could be profitably raised for mutton production exclusively on concentrate and dry fodder without deteriorating slaughter weight and carcass quality. This model of goat farming is technically and economically viable for commercial goat farming and also benefits resource poor traditional goat farmers in big way by making goat based self-help groups.

The objective of the present study was to estimate the genetic parameters for the feed efficiency traits in Barbari goats. The data records of 9332 progenies born to 413 sires and 2580 dams were collected with respect to the average daily weight gain (ADG), i.e., ADG1 (birth to weaning), ADG2 (weaning to 6 months), ADG3 (6 to 12 months), as well as derived trait Kleiber ratio (KR), i.e., KR1 (ADG1/3MW0.75), KR2 (ADG2/6MW0.75), and KR3 (ADG3/12MW0.75). The data were corrected for fixed covariates like period of kidding, the season of birth, sex, type of birth, and parity. Univariate and multivariate animal models with an average information function of restricted maximum likelihood (REML) were used to estimate genetic factors for these traits. The best model was evaluated based on the likelihood ratio test. The direct heritability estimates were 0.21 ± 0.03, 0.17 ± 0.03, 0.23 ± 0.04, 0.22 ± 0.04, 0.16 ± 0.04, and 0.26 ± 0.04 for ADG1, ADG2, ADG3, KR1, KR2, and KR3, respectively. However, they were inflated due to high and negative estimates of covariance between direct animal and maternal genetic effects. Moderate estimates of heritability augur the scope for improvement for feed efficiency traits. The maternal genetic effects (m2) significantly contributed to 3–12

The effect of non-genetic factors on pre-weaning growth and survival performance in Barbari kids was assessed to maximize pre-weaning growth and survival rates. Performance records of 10,013 Barbari goats maintained at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Mathura, India, from 1995 to 2020 were analyzed for non-genetic factors. The effect of period and season of birth, type of births, sex of kids, parity of doe and dam’s 90- days milk yield were significant on birth weight and pre-weaning growth. Kids born in spring and winter had higher birth weight than those born in summer, monsoon and autumn, and maintained their superiority up to weaning. Male and single-born kids at birth were heavier than their counterparts and maintained superiority up to weaning. Significant linear association was observed in body weight at birth, 3 months and average daily weight gains with the increase in doe’s milk yield. Multiparous does produced kids with higher birth weight than primiparous does. Kidding in inclement seasons such as the peak of monsoon, summer and winter was associated with higher mortality. Autumn-born kids had the lowest pre-weaning mortality followed by the spring season. Higher mortality incidences were obtained in multiple-born kids, kids with low birth weight (<1.5 kg) and doe’s with low milk yield. The results suggest that to obtain higher growth and survival of kids, breeding should be planned to obtain maximum kidding during the spring and autumn seasons. Adequate care should be given to kids born from does with lesser milk yield, triplet or less birth weight, and for first 15 days of birth.

Cedrus deodara is an excellent timber species extensively prone to illicit felling and smuggling of timber. Knowledge of molecular marker techniques can help in tracing the origin of the stolen timber back to the forest area for legal purposes. The present study demonstrates the use of nSSR markers for timber tracking in Cedrus deodara. In this research twentyfive individual trees were randomly selected from two geographically distinct populations Kathiyan and Jageshwar forest of Uttarakhand. Out of 47 nuclear SSR primers, only nine showed positive amplification out of which five (pdms009, pm01, pm05, SSRPtctg4698 and RPTest9) were finally selected to reveal allelic variation. Total of 10 alleles of individuals were detected at all five loci for both populations. For Kathiyan, population effective number of alleles ranged from 1.26 to 2 while for Jageshwar, it ranged from 1.14 to 1.98. Expected heterozygosity (HE) for Chakrata population ranged from 0.21 to 0.51 while for Jageshwar it was between 0.13 to 0.5. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) shows that most of the variations were found within a population (97.81 %) as compared to among the population (2.19 %) with an FST value of 0.02. In this research, we found that the same primer pairs gave a different product length for both geographically distinct populations of C. deodara, for Kathiyan population locus pdms009, pm01, pm05, SSRPtctg4698 and RPTest9 product lengths for both alleles a and b were 197 and 125, 304 and 221,402 and 317,261 and 208, 332 and 246 base pair respectively, while for Jageshwar population, it were 339 and 238, 319 and 203, 456 and 283, 245 and 197, 309 and 235 base pair respectively.

Radiological and environmental risk assessments of uranium require knowledge of its immediate and long-term behaviour in the soil system. To better understand U(VI) behaviour in contaminated soil, a mesocosm experiment was conducted from 2018 to 2021 by amending soil with U(VI). Study revealed that short-term behaviour of U(VI) is controlled by soil Fe-oxide (hydroxide) content, as approximately 55% of total U binds to the soil reducible fraction within a month of contamination. However, the stability of U-Fe oxide (hydroxide) complexes decreases with aging, possibly due to bio-geochemically induced transformation of Fe-oxide/hydroxide minerals. For this reason, long-term performance testing of the Fe-based permeable reactive barriers for U immobilization is recommended. Study shows that, about 50% of total U in top soil leached out in the first year. Meanwhile, progressive incorporation of U in different soil fractions was also taking place with ageing. X-ray absorption near edge spectra and carbonate leaching studies confirm that, in the long-term reductive transformation of U (VI) to U (IV) and enrichment of U in the residual fractions are important processes that lead to U immobilization. The study also highlights the challenges of long-term study in an open system due to its dynamic nature. The study suggests that for reliable radiological environmental impact assessment, a long-term study is required and the findings of this study could be valuable in hazard management and remediation strategy development.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has strained human resources globally. Healthcare workers are the frontline warriors in this pandemic, and their judicious utilization is a must in this long battle. Proper allocation of healthcare resources, training of healthcare workers for COVID-19 care and infection prevention, and systematic and realistic duty plans are key tools. Planned management of personal protective equipment, drugs, and instruments can ensure their uninterrupted supply. The fight against COVID-19 continues worldwide, and to secure success, adherence to preventive measures and good management skills is essential. It is mostly affected by healthcare worker awareness and preparedness toward COVID-19.