Phytochemical analysis of Tinospora cordifolia and Withania somnifera and their therapeutic activities with special reference to COVID-19

Various important medicines make use of secondary metabolites that are produced by plants.Medicinal plants,such as Withania somnifera and Tinospora cordifolia,are rich sources of chemically active compounds and are reported to have numerous therapeutic applications.The therapeutic use of medicinal plants is widely mentioned in Ayurveda and has folkloric importance in different parts of the world.The aim of this review is to summarize the phytochemical profiles,folkloric importance,and primary pharmacological activity of W.somnifera and T.cordifolia with emphasis on their action against the novel coronavirus.

Teleportation of Superposition of Coherent States Using 4-Partite States and Effect of Decoherence on Fidelity

A scheme of teleporting a superposition of coherent states |α> and |-α> using a 4-partite state, a beam splitter and two phase shifters was proposed by N. Ba An (Phys. Rev. A, 68, 022321, 2003). The author concluded that the probability for successful teleportation is only 1/4 in the limit |α|→∞ and 1/2 in the limit |α|→∞. In this paper it is shown that the author’s scheme can be altered slightly so as to obtain an almost perfect teleportation for an appreciable value of |α|2. We find the minimum assured fidelity i.e., the minimum fidelity for an arbitrarily chosen information state, which we write MAF in this paper, for different cases. We also discuss the effect of decoherence on teleportation fidelity. We find that if no photons are counted in both final outputs, MAF, is still nonzero except when there is no decoherence and the initial state (the state to be teleported) is even coherent state. For non-zero photon counts, MAF decreases with increase in |α|2 for low noise. For high noise, however, it increases, attains a maximum value and then decreases with |α|2. The average fidelity depends appreciably on the initial state for low values of |α|2 only.

Analysis of periodic and aperiodic convective stability of double diffusive nanofluid convection in rotating porous layer

The onset of periodic and aperiodic convection in a binary nanofiuid satu- rated rotating porous layer is studied considering constant flux boundary conditions. The porous medium obeys Darcy＇s law, while the nanofluid envisages the effects of the Brow- nian motion and thermophoresis. The Rayleigh numbers for stationary and oscillatory convection are obtained in terms of various non-dimensional parameters. The effect of the involved physical parameters on the aperiodic convection is studied graphicMly. The results are validated in comparison with the published literature in limiting cases of the present study.

Tunable Reflection Bands and Defect Modes in One-Dimensional Tilted Photonic Crystal Structure

We show theoretically that range of reflection bands and defect modes inside the band gap can be tuned by using a one-dimensional tilted photonic crystal (TPC) structure. A TPC structure is similar to the conventional PC structure with the only difference that in this case alternate layers are inclined at certain angle in the direction of periodicity of the structure. In order to obtain the reflectance spectra of the proposed structure transfer matrix method (TMM) has been employed. From the analysis of the reflectance curve, it is found that 100% reflectance range can be varied and enhanced by using TPC structure for both (TE- and TM-) polarizations. The enhancement in reflection bands increases as the tilt angle increases for both the polarizations and hence the enlarged omni-reflectance bands are obtained. Further, we study the properties of the defect modes in TPC structure by introducing the tilted defect at the different tilt angle. The results show that defect modes (tunneling modes) can be tuned at different wavelengths by changing the tilt angle of the structure without changing other parameters. Finally, the effect of variation thickness of defect layers on the tunneling mode has been studied for both TPC and conventional PC structure. The proposed model might be used as a tunable broadband omnidirectional reflector as well as tunable tunneling or transmission mode, which has potential applications in the field of photonics and optoelectronics.

On some new fuzzy entropy measure of Pythagorean fuzzy sets for decision-making based on an extended TOPSIS approach

Fuzzy entropy measures are valuable tools in decision-making when dealing with uncertain or imprecise information.There exist many entropy measures for Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets(PFS)in the literature that fail to deal with the problem of providing reasonable or consistent results to the decision-makers.To deal with the shortcomings of the existing measures,this paper proposes a robust fuzzy entropy measure for PFS to facilitate decision-making under uncertainty.The usefulness of the measure is illustrated through an illustration of decision-making in a supplier selection problem and compared with existing fuzzy entropy measures.The Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution(TOPSIS)approach is also explored to solve the decision-making problem.The results demonstrate that the proposed measure can effectively capture the degree of uncertainty in the decision-making process,leading to more accurate decision outcomes by providing a reliable and robust ranking of alternatives.

Dielectric and magnetic properties of Ba-,La-and Pb-doped Bi_(0.8)Gd_(0.1)M_(0.1)Fe_(0.9)Ti_(0.1)O_(3) perovskite ceramics

The multiferroic Bi_(0.8)Gd_(0.1)M_(0.1)Fe_(0.9)Ti_(0.1)O_(3),(where M=Ba(DB),La(DL)and Pb(DP))has been synthesized by using solid-state reaction technique.Effects of Ba,La and Pb substitution on the structure,electrical and ferroelectric properties of Bi_(0.8)Gd_(0.1)M_(0.1)Fe_(0.9)Ti_(0.1)O_(3) samples have been studied by performing X-ray diffraction,dielectric and magnetic measurements.The crystal structures of the ceramic samples have a tetragonal phase.The vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM)measurement shows a significant change in the magnetic properties of Ba-doped Bi_(0.8)Gd_(0.1)M_(0.1)Fe_(0.9)Ti_(0.1)O_(3) as compared to La-and Pb-doped ceramics.It is seen that coercive field(HC)and remanent magnetization(MR)increases with Ba-doped ceramics but decreases for La-and Pbdoped ceramics.

Effect of pollution on dynamics of SIR model with treatment

In this paper, an SIR epidemic model with treatment affected by pollution is proposed. The existence, local and global dynamics of the model are studied. It is shown that backward bifurcation occurs at R0 〈 1 and P0 〈 1 because of insufficient capacity of treatment. It is also found that due to pollution the number of infective has gone to a very high level. As a result, backward bifurcation occurs for R0 〈 1, even when P0 〉 1. Further, there exist bistable endemic equilibria for a very low capacity for R0 〉 1. Thus, we found that disease can be eradicated for R0 〈 1 only by increasing the capacity to a sufficiently high level. Persistence of endemicity of the system is obtained and the mathematical results suggest that the basic reproduction number is insufficient for disease eradication. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results obtained.

Pathways of nanotoxicity:Modes of detection,impact,and challenges

Nanotoxicology has become the subject of intense research for more than two decades.Thousands of articles have been published but the space in understanding the nanotoxicity mechanism and the assessment is still unclear.Recent researches clearly show potential benefits of nanomaterials(NMs)in diagnostics and treatment,targeted drug delivery,and tissue engineering owing to their excellent physicochemical properties.However,these NMs display hazardous health effect then to the greater part of the materials because of small size,large surface area-to-volume ratio,quantum size effects,and environmental factors.Nowadays,a large number of NMs are used in industrial products including several medical applications,consumer,and healthcare products.However,they came into the environment without any safety test.The measurement of toxicity level has become important because of increasing toxic effects on living organisms.New realistic mechanism-based strategies are still needed to determine the toxic effects of NMs.For the assessment of NMs toxicity,reliable and standardized procedures are necessary.This review article provides systematic studies on toxicity of NMs involving manufacturing,environmental factors,eco-toxic and genotoxic effects,some parameters which have been ignored of NMs versus their biological counterparts,cell heterogeneity,and their current challenges and future perspectives.

Advances in early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is the most recurrent hepatic malignancy and the third in the cancer-related casualties in the west.The frequently-documented causes of HCC are chronic liver infections by hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus,nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,cirrhosis,exposure to aflatoxins and tobacco smocking,etc.Clinical presentation of this fatal disease ranges from asymptomatic to upper abdominal pain or common health conditions like weight loss or lethargy.Among current surveillance strategy for suspected patients,liver imaging and serum alpha fetoprotein estimation has been regularly recommended.However,sensitivity of this diagnostic methodology especially in early detections,often suffers from compromised sensitivity and selectivity.Various image based and serological biomarkers for HCC has been introduced in recent decades with varied sensitivity as stand-alone or combined diagnostic protocol.The current article will review the status of HCC diagnosis with respect to common diagnostic protocol,and upcoming novel biomarkers.

A near infrared optical reflector using one-dimensional photonic crystal structure containing chalcogenide glasses

The reflectivity of one-dimensional chalcogenide photonic crystal(CGPC) structure with the first order reflection band in near infrared(NIR) region is theoretically studied.Sb-Se and Ge-S chalcogenide glasses are used as high and low refractive index layers respectively,because these materials have zero absorption in NIR region.The transfer matrix method(TMM) is employed to calculate the reflective spectra of the proposed structure.The theoretical results of reflective spectra of bulk chalcogenide materials with the composition of Sb40Se60 and Ge30S70 for 4,8,12 and 15 layers and thicknesses of 117 nm and 183 nm respectively,at normal incidence,are close agreement with the experimental results.Furthermore,by increasing the number of layers of Sb40Se60 and Ge30S70,the reflection bands can be enhanced in the wider range of the NIR region for the polarization at different angles and thus the broadband omnidirectional reflector can be designed.

Two-level supply chain models with imperfect quality items when demand influences price and marketing promotion

The present paper studies a supply chain model with items that are of imperfect quality and with the assumption that end demand is responsive to price and promotion cost.The seller delivers items to the buyer in a lot.After an inspection process,it is observed that few articles produced are not of perfect quality.These defects might be the result of common operations or static maintenance.These defective items are then collected and are sold at a lower/discounted price.In this paper,supply chain models are developed to approve the interaction among the players,in the supply chain channel.This interaction between the players is demonstrated by non-cooperative and cooperative game theoretical approaches.In non-cooperative approach,optimal solutions are attained by game theoretic approaches named as Seller–Stackelberg and Buyer–Stackelberg.In the cooperative approach,a Pareto efficient solution is outlined.In the last,numerical illustrations with sensitivity scrutiny are presented to support the theory of the present paper.