More than 2,000 barrier islands line the world's shorelines. Along the US East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands line almost two-thirds of the coastline. About half of the barriers worldwide are being eroded mostly as a result of sea-level rise. As a consequence, one of two scenarios might happen: the barriers regress landward as the sea-level rises (shoreface retreat) or the barrier may be overwhelmed by waves during a major storm event and may be "drowned in place". Both of these scenarios have taken place along the US East Coast during the last 8,000 years of sea-level rise. Sea levels may rise by up to a meter by the end of the 21st century, thus endangering coastlines worldwide. Moreover, during the last few decades the population living full time or part time on these islands has increased tremendously. While the impulse is to “replenish or restore the beach” after each major natural disaster, the results are always short term. In the long term, only engineered retreat towards the land or complete abandandoment might be the only solutions. However, rather than responding to each natural disaster one-by-one as it affects the barriers, a national plan, with state-, and local-level buy-in needs to be implemented now.

More than 2,000 barrier islands line the world's shorelines. Along the US East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands line almost two-thirds of the coastline. About half of the barriers worldwide are being eroded mostly as a result of sea-level rise. As a consequence, one of two scenarios might happen: the barriers regress landward as the sea-level rises (shoreface retreat) or the barrier may be overwhelmed by waves during a major storm event and may be "drowned in place". Both of these scenarios have taken place along the US East Coast during the last 8,000 years of sea-level rise as well as in more recent years. Both processes were documented to have taken place along the Gulf Coast barriers during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, the "real time" monitoring of shoreface retreat, as well as drowning in place during the same storm has inspired this essay. Sea levels may rise by up to a meter by the end of the twenty-first century, thus endangering coastlines worldwide. Moreover, during the last few decades the population living full time or part time on these islands has increased tremendously. While the impulse is to "replenish or restore the beach" after each major natural disaster, the results are always short term. In the long term, only engineered retreat toward the land or complete abandandoment might be the only solutions. However, rather than responding to each natural disaster one-by-one as it affects the barriers, a national plan for our coastlines, that includes a cost-benefit analysis along with state-, and local-level buy-in needs to be implemented now.

Purpose of review Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is the gold standard for directly assessing cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and has a relatively new and evolving role in evaluating atherosclerotic heart disease, particularly in detecting cardiac dysfunction caused by ischemic heart disease. The purpose of this review is to assess the current literature on the link between cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, cardiac dysfunction and CRF assessed by CPET. Recent findings We summarize the basics of exercise physiology and the key determinants of CRF. Prognostically, several studies have been published relating directly measured CRF by CPET and outcomes allowing for more precise risk assessment. Diagnostically, this review describes in detail what is considered healthy and abnormal cardiac function assessed by CPET. New studies demonstrate that cardiac dysfunction on CPET is a common finding in asymptomatic individuals and is associated with CV risk factors and lower CRF. This review covers how key CPET parameters change as individuals transition from the asymptomatic to the symptomatic stage with progressively decreasing CRF. Finally, a supplement with case studies with long-term longitudinal data demonstrating how CPET can be used in daily clinical decision making is presented. Summary In summary, CPET is a powerful tool to provide individualized CV risk assessment, monitor the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions, and provide meaningful feedback to help patients guide their path to improve CRF when routinely used in the outpatient setting.

The research problems on Object detection have been attracted with major issues in the computer vision domain. Object detection based on images from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) - drones, has versatile applications in both defence security, agriculture and GIS. However, real-time object detection in UAV scenarios remains quite a tedious problem due to environmental obstructions such as occlusion and view-invariant conditions despite the high number of solutions proposed to solve this task. This paper proposes an improved YOLOv3-tiny object detector by introducing a multi-dilated module between the convolution unit and the receptive field, where the problem of a small number of positive training samples is solved by a larger size of the predicted feature map thereby reducing the rate of label rewriting in YOLOv3-tiny. We find that the fusion of multi-scale receptive fields is effective in detecting even every single tiny object. We introduce a path aggregation module that merges the semantic information in a deeper layer and detailed information in an earlier layer. The analysis of the proposed solution shows that on the VisDrone2019-Det test set, our proposed model is more efficient and effective, running 2.96% times faster and increasing 4.0% AP50 than YOLOv3.

Forensic evidence plays an important role in investigation and prosecution of civil proceedings. One of the most reliable form of evidence in many criminal cases is DNA. DNA evidences can be collected from blood, hair, skin, cells and other bodily substances but question arises how long the samples can be preserved and suitable for DNA profiling. In this study, blood samples which were preserved in EDTA vial were taken and DNA was extracted from the samples. Quantity of DNA was observed appropriate for DNA profiling. Quantification was done and Genemapper ID-X Software was used for STRanalysis. It was observed that DNA can be extracted even after 6 years from the blood samples preserved in EDTA vial.

More than 2,000 barrier islands, linear sand bodies paralleling the shoreline with open ocean in the front and a lagoon or marsh on the landward side, line the world’s shorelines. Although sparsely populated many decades ago, during the last few decades the population living full time or part time on these scenic islands has tremendously increased. With the worldwide sea-level rise, risk to life and property has therefore become a serious concern. Along the US East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands line almost two-thirds of the coastline and they are being eroded along majority of its length. With the relative sea-level rise, barriers may either retreat landwards (shoreface retreat) or they may be overwhelmed by waves during a storm event and may be “drowned in place”. These scenarios have been documented along the US East Coast during the last 7,000 years of Holocene sea-level rise. Although the origin of these barriers and their preservation in geological record has been studied for almost 100 years, It is only during the last fifty years or so that modern technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System), GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) have been applied to document the effects of sea-level rise on these islands. If the global sea-levels rise by almost a meter by the end of the 21st century, the risks may be faced by many of those alive today. With significant population and infrastructure to support them, “let nature take its course” is not an option. At the same time, “rescue and rebuild” with each major storm is expensive and essentially fruitless. Protecting the barrier beaches by hard structures or sand replenishment might offer temporary relief, or raising the structures (houses and roads) above the storm-wave level might provide another short-term solution. However, in the long-term, only engineered retreat towards the land or complete abandondoment might be the only solution. Rather than responding to each natural disaster individually, we need to have a science-based plan with national, state, and local political buy-in and it needs to be implemented now.

This research constitutes a bibliometric in the field of WAQF. The data was taken from the SCOPUS database. Research on waqf was initiated in 1914. This study analysed the development trend and origin of scientific literature published in the field of waqf. The study used Publish or Perish software and VOSviewer in incorporating and visualising the data, respectively. The data was also analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 25.0. A standard bibliometric analysis was employed to present the citation analysis, research productivity, and evolution of publications. The findings of 529 total documents suggested that there was a yearly increase in the literature concerning waqf, especially after 2010. Most of these articles were published in the form of academic journals and literature reviews, which were mainly written in English. The research in waqf, conducted mostly in Malaysia, comprised of the social sciences, arts and humanities and economics, econometrics, and finance field. The main keywords used in this study were waqf and cash waqf. These findings should assist the potential directions for future research and facilitate the establishment of collaboration strategies between authors and institutions.

Present day agriculture has disturbed the age-vintage stability of host-pathogen system resulting diseases arise at regular interval leading to significant loss to the agricultural production, that is predicted to be 10-25% or much less in the course of everyday years however might also additionally enlarge as much as 100 % in the course of epidemic. Broadly, there are breeding tactics followed for disease resistance, which incorporates molecular and molecular one. Conventional method consists of pure line, pedigree, backcross, recurrent choice and interspecific hybrids through which numerous resistant sorts were developed. However, after someday there may be surprising outbreak of diseases because of non-stop sowing of those sorts, which ends up with inside the development in molecular biology and with the invention of trait-connected markers, it paved a new pathway to appearance a new nook to expand sorts that are disease resistant. Molecular method includes gene pyramiding through which or greater genes imparting resistance to different varieties of diseases is introgressed in a specific variety, gene deployment and multiline sorts which include heterogeneous populace shaped with the aid of using mixing the cultivars to vary with inside the ability of disease resistance and decreases the charge of epidemic improvement. With the help of makers in marker assisted breeding the usage of foreground, recombinant and historical past choice several linked markers are diagnosed which gives resistance towards disorder like in wheat stem rust, leaf rust etc. With the improvement of greater superior technology transgenic techniques got here into life wherein gene silencing is achieved through RNA, mediated silencing strategies and numerous fungal, viral and bacterial diseases has been controlled.

Increasing numbers of female victims of violent sexual assaults are being murdered with the aim of concealing the identity of the perpetrator. Proper handling and analysis of evidence is very important in gaining a conviction in many criminal cases. After evidence is collected, due precautions must be taken to ensure that the integrity of the sample is maintained, and chances of contamination are minimised. This paper presents a case study where improper handling of biological evidence led to loss of evidentiary value, and the semen could not be located on the vaginal swabs and victim’s garments due to improper preservation of samples. However, the DNA from the nail of a decomposed finger helped identify the victim, and the suspect was apprehended based on the clues given by her family.

The experiment was laid out on the effect of nitrogen and zinc on growth and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) at Research Farm of the Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India during kharif (July to October) season of 2017. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design three replication with eight treatments. The soil of the experimental field was Gangetic alluvial having clay loam texture with pH 7.5. It was moderately fertile, with available nitrogen (285.24 kg ha-1), available phosphorus (26.15 kg ha-1), available potassium (250.84 kg ha-1) and available zinc (1.42 mg kg-1). The maximum growth parameter viz. plant height (cm), LAI (%), dry matter accumulation (g) and the highest yield attributes and yield parameters viz., number of cob-1, length of cob (cm), test weight (g), number of grain cob-1, grain yield (q ha-1), stover yield (q ha-1), biological yield (q ha-1) and harvest index (%) was recorded at 30, 60, 90 DAS and at harvest stage with the application of nitrogen @150 kg ha-1++zinc @30 kg ha-1 which was at par with the treatments namely; nitrogen @150 kg ha-1++zinc @15 kg ha-1 and nitrogen @150 kg ha-1. All the treatments significantly influenced the growth and yield attributes as compared to control. The maximum net returns (` 89977 ha-1) and benefit:cost ratio (1.58) has been recorded with application of nitrogen @150 kg ha-1++zinc @30 kg ha-1.

As there are many slaughtering cases of animals especially cow and buffalo, it is essential to determine the identification of these animals. It has become necessity of the state to provide precise result regarding this issue. Serological techniques has been used for identifying meat, blood, hair and other remnants of the species of animals. This technique is only depends on antigen -antibodies. With the advancement in the technology, the development of Real Time PCR technology is helpful in providing result for the identification of species from meat/tissue samples In this present study, we have analyzed different samples of meat/tissue material of cow and buffalo species preserved in common salt, formalin and without any of them and to find out the preferably best preservative which doesn't interfere with the meat sample and provide the result.

Breeding wheat for improved root traits and suitability under conservation agriculture (CA) practices has the potential to boost and sustain grain yield in different parts of the world. Difficulties in scoring for root phenes under field conditions, considered a major hurdle to breed for root traits, can be surmounted by scoring under hydroponic conditions. Significant variability was found for rooting depth (RD), shoot dry weight (SDW) and root dry weight (RDW) when 175 genotypes were screened for root traits under hydroponic conditions. Further evaluation of a subset of 19 genotypes under field conditions showed that four root traits -total root length (TRL), root volume (RV), root surface area (RSA) and root tip numbers (RN) are integrated with RDW because of their positive correlation with this trait. Both RDW and SDW could be combined favorably to obtain the most appropriate (higher) biomass and greater yield under a set of crop growth durations. Significant correlation and strong direct effect of RDW on crop yield under CA appeared to justify its selection in the breeding programme. A derivative of the cross EGPSN-36/ PBW343 showed maximum value for all root traits including RDW and therefore can be used in future breeding programmes.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is oldest oil seed crop and affected by many diseases, in which Macrophomina phaseolina pathogen causes heavy yield losses during cropping season. It caused stem and root rot and prevalent on all plant parts and pathogen is saprophytic and soil borne, so management is difficult in nature, therefore is a major problem of sesame due to its wider host range and survive in soil in the form of sclerotia. The disease incidence was (23.84 - 53.72%) recorded during survey in major sesame growing areas of Rajasthan. Disease incidence was found maximum in Jodhpur district (41.14%) followed by Pali (38.71%), Jaipur (35.90%), Nagaur (28.58%) and lowest incidence was observed in Tonk district (24.41%). Mean disease incidence was 33.74%. Pathogen was isolated from infected stem and root parts and purified by using hyphal tip cut method. Pathogenicity was proved through Koch’s postulates by using seed cum soil inoculation techniques and 53.84% disease incidence.

Abstract Dysregulation of cellular proliferation and evasion of apoptosis are key contributors to colon cancer (CoCa) development. Chemotherapeutic agents such as 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) and Oxaliplatin (OxT) which are frequently offered to treat CoCa are known to target cells in S and G2 phase of cell cycle. Cancer cells often overcome the effects of 5FU and OxT by deregulating cell cycle in response to these drugs. Therefore, to improve the cytotoxic effect of these chemotherapeutic agents it is important to keep CoCa cells in S and G2 phase. Hence, understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in CoCa cell-cycle progression and chemotherapeutic response could provide strategies for developing effective treatment options. Hence, in this study, we determined the effect of natural agent “Emodin” on CoCa cell-cycle regulation and its ability to increase the efficacy of 5FU and OxT by cell cycle regulation. The effects of Emodin, 5FU, and OxT as a single agent or in combination on CoCa (DLD-1, COLO-201, HCT116 p53WT, and HCT116 p53-/-) cell viability were determined by MTT assays. Combination index of Emodin, 5FU, and OxT were evaluated using Calcusyn. Emodin-induced changes in molecules involved in cell-cycle regulation and proliferation were analyzed via RT-PCR and confirmed by western blot (WB) analysis. Cell-cycle distribution with Emodin treatment alone and in combination with 5FU and OxT were assessed via flow cytometry and WB. Collectively, our data shows that Emodin alone was able to decrease cell survival and induced apoptosis in CoCa cells. Furthermore, cytotoxic ability of 5FU and OxT was increased when combined with Emodin as compared to when these chemotherapeutic drugs were given as single agents Emodin-induced cell-cycle regulation resulted in increased expression of tumor suppressor genes such as p21, p27 and p53, modulated cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase expression, and induced cell-cycle arrest. Emodin also negatively impacted several signaling pathways associated with cell growth and differentiation. Overall, this study demonstrates that Emodin could be a promising adjuvant to either 5-Fluorouracil or Oxaliplatin in the treatment of CoCa. Citation Format: Ian T. Saunders, Dexter Ezeagwu, Naresh Kumar, Hina Mir, Shailesh Singh. Emodin enhances efficacy of Oxaliplatin and 5 Fluorouracil in colon cancer by promoting cell cycle arrest [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2428.

Plant shutdowns due to the accumulation of ash materials in the boilers is a commonly practiced problem in thermal power sectors. Cleaning of ash products at regular intervals need to be necessary for maintaining the good furnace operation conditions. Use of slagging technology is the best practice for the removal of high temperature ash products, in which the melting temperature of ash is lowered by using the additive technology. In this paper, the properties of ash products formed during the combustion of low grade Indian coal were analyzed in terms of proximate and ash fusion temperature analysis. The effect of flux addition on the slagging behavior of Indian coal ash was analyzed. The AFT analysis of Indian origin coal ash shows that it is of non-fusible type. The formation of high temperature stable phases like kaolinite and quartz are the reason for high AFT temperatures in Indian origin coal.

The execution of large scale Brownfield Offshore Oil and Gas projects remains a challenge mainly due to space constraints on existing platforms and minimum production shutdown requirements from Client. The objective of this paper is to explain the design innovations to overcome the challenges in brownfield project execution and the implementation of electrical changeover philosophy with minimum production shutdown. The innovative technical solutions are discussed to solve the space constraints on the existing platforms. This paper also discusses the methods to cut down the process shutdown period. Various value engineering ideas are presented to solve the actual technical issues faced on site while executing the brownfield project. There are many challenges in executing a brownfield project. While each project offers unique set of technical challenges, some common challenges are discussed in this section. The mitigation measures to solve the technical issues are also covered below for some items. However, the value engineering ideas, technical innovations and mitigation measures for the major points are presented in next section. This section is mainly for highlighting the challenges faced during project execution.

Wheat is one of the most nutritious, proteinaceous and basic stable food crop is attacked by several factors. Among the biotic factors, the most notorious disease of wheat is spot blotch caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph Cochliobolus sativus). The disease mainly occurs in warm, humid wheat-growing regions, and the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia is a hotspot. It is most important disease of wheat in north eastern plains zone (NEPZ) representing warm and humid climate in India as well as in other South Asian countries. The incidence of spot blotch of wheat that were thought earlier as minor diseases, are increasing tremendously now a days due to global climate change. It is also increasing in North western plains zone (NWPZ) due to climatic change and causing losses in susceptible varieties. It is a soil and seed borne pathogen of wheat, barley and other small cereal grains and grasses that causes head blight, foliar blight/ spot blotch, seedling blight, common root rot, black point diseases and yield losses. The yield loss due to the disease is very significant especially in North Eastern Plains Zone (NEPZ) of India, Nepal Tarai and North Western Bangladesh. Estimates of yield losses due to spot blotch were reported to vary from 15.5 to 19.6% and up to 100% under severe infection conditions. Ideal conditions for spot blotch development on the leaves are relative humidity of near 95 per cent with an average temperature in the coolest month above 17 °C and long periods (more than 12 to 18 hours) of leafs wetness caused by rainfall, irrigation, fog or dew. Recently a number of genotypes have been identified as donors for improving host resistance. The best way to control spot blotch is through an integrated approach including varietal replacement, agronomic management and need based application of fungicides.