Neurotoxin (N-Oxalyl-L-α,β-Diamino Propionic Acid) Content in Different Plant Parts of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Spanning Seedling to Maturity Stage: Does It Increase over Time?

ODAP (N-oxalyl-L-2,3-diaminopropionic acid) is present in the seeds of grass pea. In this study, variation of total ODAP accumulation in leaves throughout the crop growth starting from 40 days after sowing to maturity, and the distribution pattern of ODAP in different plant parts including the seeds at the mature stage was analyzed. Five grass pea accessions were evaluated for two subsequent growing seasons in one location of ICARDA, Aleppo (Syria). The results found that the rate of accumulation of total ODAP varied during plant development. Increased rates of synthesis were noticed in young leaves of grass pea. The highest total ODAP content in leaves was noted in the early growth stage (40–50 days after sowing). Mean total ODAP content in leaves ranged from 0.17 to 0.96 percent during 2010–2011 and from 0.19 to 1.28 percent during 2011–2012. During maturity, the total ODAP content was lowest in the seeds than in leaves, stems, pod cover, seed coat, and cotyledons. The ranges of total ODAP content were 0.13 (seed)–0.34 (stem), 0.20 (seed)–1.01 (leaf), 0.22 (seed)–0.62 (leaf), 0.21 (seed)–0.66 (leaf), and 0.21 (seed)–0.78 (leaf) percent in B387, B222, B390, Bio-520, and B587 accessions, respectively, during maturity. The results indicated that the rate of accumulation and synthesis of total ODAP varied during the plant lifespan. The lowest total ODAP content of leaves was observed after 130 days of sowing. The lower total ODAP content after the early vegetative stage of grass pea plants makes them suitable as a feed.     

Modulation of Singlet-Triplet Gap in Atomically Precise Silver Cluster-Assembled Material

Silver cluster-based solids have garnered considerable attention owing to their tunable luminescence behavior. While surface modification has enabled the construction of stable silver clusters, controlling interactions among clusters at the molecular level has been challenging due to their tendency to aggregate. Judicious choice of stabilizing ligands becomes pivotal in crafting a desired assembly. However, detailed photophysical behavior as a function of their cluster packing remained unexplored. Here, we modulate the packing pattern of Ag₁₂ clusters by varying the nitrogen-based ligand. CAM-1 formed through coordination of the tritopic linker molecule and NC-1 with monodentate pyridine ligand; established via non-covalent interactions. Both the assemblies show ligand-to-metal-metal charge transfer (LMMCT) based cluster-centered emission band(s). Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra exhibit blue shifts at higher temperatures, which is attributed to the extent of the thermal reverse population of the S₁ state from the closely spaced T₁ state. The difference in the energy gap (ΔE_ST) dictated by their assemblies played a pivotal role in the way that Ag₁₂ cluster assembly in CAM-1 manifests a wider ΔE_ST and thus requires higher temperatures for reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) than assembly of NC-1. Such assembly-defined photoluminescence properties underscore the potential toolkit to design new cluster- assemblies with tailored optoelectronic properties.     

A game theory-based approach for the study of inter-interference in coexisting wireless body area networks

A wireless body area network (WBAN) enables the continuous monitoring of health conditions including heart rate, temperature, and glucose levels. It is composed of several sensors that are placed on the body. The network's performance is significantly affected by the unpredictable movements of the human body. Due to the varying proximities between them, the existence of several WBANs creates a challenge when mobility is involved. In this fictitious scenario, we consider a park area with both mobile and static WBANs or WBAN-equipped individuals passing through the park who have varying degrees of mobility. When a mobile WBAN passes a static WBAN and is within a minimum distance of the static WBAN, they pair up and immediately interfere. Inter-interference caused by WBANs operating in a limited area causes packet loss and performance deterioration. In this work, static WBAN locations are optimised to minimise interference and system inter-interference problems are addressed by a game theoretic method. This paper formulates a flexible game theoretic framework to study WBAN coexistence using the expected pay-off function considering a two-player game. It is observed from the results obtained that the probability of interference caused by fast mobile WBANs is reduced to a maximum of 50% compared with that caused by slow mobile WBANs thereby reducing the need for relocation of static WBANs.     

Nucleotide-Driven Molecular Sensing of Monkeypox Virus Through Hierarchical Self-Assembly of 2D Hafnium Disulfide Nanoplatelets and Gold Nanospheres

Liquid interfaces facilitate the organization of nanometer-scale biomaterials with plasmonic properties suitable for molecular diagnostics. Using hierarchical assemblage of 2D hafnium disulfide nanoplatelets and zero-dimensional spherical gold nanoparticles, the design of a multifunctional material is reported. When the target analyte is present, the nanocomposites’ self-assembling pattern changes, altering their plasmonic response. Using monkeypox virus (MPXV) as an example, the findings reveal that adding genomic DNA to the nanocomposite surface increases the agglomeration between gold nanoparticles and decreases the π-stacking distance between hafnium disulfide nanoplatelets. Further, this self-assembled nanomaterial is found to have minimal cross-reactivity toward other pathogens and a limit of detection of 7.6 pg µL⁻¹ (i.e., 3.57 × 10⁴ copies µL⁻¹) toward MPXV. Overall, this study helped to gain a better understanding of the genomic organization of MPXV to chemically design and develop targeted nucleotides. The study has been validated by UV–vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman microscopy and electromagnetic simulation studies. To the best knowledge, this is the first study in literature reporting selective molecular detection of MPXV within a few minutes and without the use of any high-end instrumental techniques like polymerase chain reactions.     

Light-Regulated Pro-Angiogenic Engineered Living Materials

Regenerative medicine aims to restore damaged cells, tissues, and organs, for which growth factors are vital to stimulate regenerative cellular transformations. Major advances have been made in growth factor engineering and delivery like the development of robust peptidomimetics and controlled release matrices. However, their clinical applicability remains limited due to their poor stability in the body and need for careful regulation of their local concentration to avoid unwanted side-effects. In this study, a strategy to overcome these limitations is explored using engineered living materials (ELMs), which contain live microorganisms that can be programmed with stimuli-responsive functionalities. Specifically, the development of an ELM that releases a pro-angiogenic protein in a light-regulated manner is described. This is achieved by optogenetically engineering bacteria to synthesize and secrete a vascular endothelial growth factor peptidomimetic (QK) linked to a collagen-binding domain. The bacteria are securely encapsulated in bilayer hydrogel constructs that support bacterial functionality but prevent their escape from the ELM. In situ control over the release profiles of the pro-angiogenic protein using light is demonstrated. Finally, it is shown that the released protein is able to bind collagen and promote angiogenic network formation among vascular endothelial cells, indicating the regenerative potential of these ELMs.     

Stochastic modeling for energy efficiency in modified directional discontinuous reception for LTE-5G networks

Fifth-generation (5G) networks deal with high-frequency data rates, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, more availability, and a more uniform user experience. To validate the high-frequency rates, 5G networks engage beam searching operation. By adopting a beam searching state between the short and long sleep, one can reduce the system's delay. The energy consumption of user equipment (UE) in 5G networks is much higher than in the 4G networks. To reduce the energy consumption and increase the energy saving in UE, Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-5G networks adopt the discontinuous reception (DRX) scheme with a fixed number of short sleep. LTE-DRX without beam search operation (i.e., beam alignment) cannot work in 5G networks. Hence, keeping this scenario in mind, we have modeled a new modified directional discontinuous reception (MD-DRX) mechanism for LTE-5G networks. The MD-DRX mechanism captures the behavior of a beam searching, an inactive, an active, a long sleep, an ON, and a short sleep states. The short sleep state consists of a maximum $M$ short sleep. To get the optimal energy saving and energy consumption (i.e., energy efficiency) from the MD-DRX mechanism, it is required to check the system's throughput. The trade-off between energy saving/energy consumption and throughput will provide the system's optimal energy saving and optimal energy consumption. In this paper, we have obtained the system's optimal energy saving and throughput by optimizing the maximum short sleep and short sleep duration. To get the energy efficiency for LTE-5G networks, the trade-off between average energy consumption/energy saving and throughput is shown.