Publications by authors named "Bikram K Das"

Article Synopsis
  • The report highlights the efficiency of SbSe nanorods (NRs) in converting light to heat for solar thermal applications, achieving around 57.8% efficiency with specific lasers and heating hybrid membranes to ≈59°C in just 15 minutes.* -
  • Despite their advantages, SbSe NRs have a limited evaporation rate due to hydrophobicity, which restricts water movement to the heated areas, leading to less effective solar evaporation.* -
  • A new macro-channel imprinting technique improves water transport in these hybrid membranes, boosting evaporation efficiency to ≈148% under strong lighting and achieving effective heavy metal removal from water, meeting WHO standards for safe drinking water.*
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Background: Assam's aromatic Joha rice is a unique rice class famous for its aroma, taste, and nutritional benefits, which fetch high market prices in domestic and international markets. Joha landraces are inherently poor yielders due to their strong aroma and predominantly photoperiod sensitivity. Hybridization involving non-aromatic HYVs improves yield with concomitant loss of quality.

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Maharaji rice, an aromatic variety with medium slender grains, is traditionally cultivated in the central regions of India. This study aimed to identify the biochemical compounds responsible for Maharaji rice's distinctive fragrance and enhance its agro-morphological traits through mutation breeding. Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, forty major metabolites were identified which may be responsible for its characteristic aroma.

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Salt stress is one of the most severe environmental stresses limiting the productivity of crops, including rice. However, there is a lack of information on how salt-stress sensitivity varies across different developmental stages in rice. In view of this, a comparative evaluation of contrasting rice varieties CSR36 (salt tolerant) and Jaya (salt sensitive) was conducted, wherein NaCl stress (50 mM) was independently given either at seedling (S-stage), tillering (T-stage), flowering (F-stage), seed-setting (SS-stage) or throughout plant growth, from seedling till maturity.

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Short-grain aromatic Joha rice of Assam is a unique class of specialty rice having tremendous potential in domestic and international markets. The poor yielding ability of Assam's Joha rice demands its systematic characterization for an effective breeding program. This study investigates the morphological, molecular and biochemical profiles of twenty popular Joha (aromatic) rice cultivars indigenous to Assam.

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For several decades, the development of potential flexible electronics, such as electronic skin, wearable technology, environmental monitoring systems, and the internet of Things network, has been emphasized. In this context, piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are highly regarded due to their simple design, high output performance, and cost-effectiveness. On a smaller scale, self-powered sensor research and development based on piezo-triboelectric hybrid nanogenerators have lately become more popular.

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Stem rust of wheat is a deleterious fungal disease across the globe causing severe yield losses. Although, many stem rust resistance genes (Sr) are being used in wheat breeding programs, new emerging stem rust pathotypes are a challenge to important Sr genes. In recent years, multiple studies on leaf and yellow rust molecular mechanism have been done, however, for stem rust such studies are lacking.

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The impact of food on immune functions has been recognized for centuries and is now being increasingly explored for therapeutic applications. Rice, in addition to being the staple food in most developing countries, exhibits diverse complexities of phytochemicals among its wide germplasm repertoire, which supports its development as a functional food. In the present study, we have explored the immunomodulatory properties of Gathuwan rice, a local rice variety grown in Chhattisgarh, India, and traditionally used for the treatment of rheumatism.

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Purpose: The popular rice cultivar , cultivated throughout the state, was used to induce mutations. is short-grain aromatic rice with excellent cooking quality. The cultivar is tall and late maturing with an average yield of less than 2 tons ha and is susceptible to lodging.

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The present work entails the synthesis of thermally modified graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) using a two-step thermal treatment procedure and its subsequent use in the photocatalytic reduction of toxic pollutants such as rhodamine B dye (RhB) and chromium (VI) (Cr(VI)) from aquatic environments. The as-synthesised exfoliated GCN (GCNX) is characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These characterisations helped to elucidate the phase formation, chemical structure, composition, surface area, optical properties, and morphology of the sample.

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Mutation breeding offers a simple, fast and efficient way to rectify major defects without altering their original identity. The present study deployed radiation (gamma rays @ 300Gy)-induced mutation breeding for the improvement and revival of three traditional rice landraces, viz., Samundchini, Vishnubhog and Jhilli.

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Rice production needs to be sustained in the coming decades, as the changeable climatic conditions are becoming more conducive to disease outbreaks. The majority of rice diseases cause enormous economic damage and yield instability. Among them, rice blast caused by is a serious fungal disease and is considered one of the major threats to world rice production.

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Using rigorous calculations within the framework of phonon Boltzmann transport theory, we have carried out a detailed investigation to probe the effects of uniform bi-axial strain and finite size on the lattice thermal conductivity () of monolayer AlN. We show that implementation of bi-axial tensile strain can shoot up the value of of monolayer AlN by a large amount unlike in the case of analogous 2D materials. The value of for monolayer AlN is calculated to be 306.

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The quantity of grass-root exudates varies by season, suggesting temporal shifts in soil microbial community composition and activity across a growing season. We hypothesized that bacterial community and nitrogen cycle-associated prokaryotic gene expressions shift across three phases of the growing season. To test this hypothesis, we quantified gene and transcript copy number of nitrogen fixation (nifH), ammonia oxidation (amoA, hao, nxrB), denitrification (narG, napA, nirK, nirS, norB, nosZ), dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (nrfA), and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (hzs, hdh) using the pre-optimized Nitrogen Cycle Evaluation (NiCE) chip.

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Using extensive first principles protocols, a systematic investigation is performed to probe the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanism on nitrogen (N) doped graphynes (Gys, e. g. αGy, βGy, γGy and 6,6,12Gy) and graphdiyne (Gdy) in alkaline medium.

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The incorporation of vacancies in a system is considered a proficient method of defect engineering in general catalytic modulation. Among two-dimensional materials, the deficiency of surface active sites and a high band gap restrict the catalytic activity of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) material towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which hinders its applicability in fuel cells. A bane to boon strategy has been introduced here by coupling two sluggish ORR materials (hBN & MoS) by a probe-sonication method to form a heterostructure (termed HBPS) which fosters four electron pathways to assist the reduction of oxygen.

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The recent advancements in forward genetics have expanded the applications of mutation techniques in advanced genetics and genomics, ahead of direct use in breeding programs. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled easy identification and mapping of causal mutations within a short period and at relatively low cost. Identifying the genetic mutations and genes that underlie phenotypic changes is essential for understanding a wide variety of biological functions.

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Sequence tagged microsatellite site (STMS) are useful PCR based DNA markers. Wide genome coverage, high polymorphic index and co-dominant nature make STMS a preferred choice for marker assisted selection (MAS), genetic diversity analysis, linkage mapping, seed genetic purity analysis etc. Routine STMS analysis involving low-throughput, laborious and time-consuming polyacrylamide/agarose gels often limit their full utility in crop breeding experiments that involve large populations.

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Photocatalytic activity of low band gap semiconductor largely restrained by high recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers. To enhance the catalytic performance numerous protocols were adopted amongst which designing of novel hybrid via coupling of semiconductors are very intriguing from modest application point of view. Here, we report facile realization of type II heterojunctions embracing polymeric graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN/GCN) and all-inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite (CsPbBrCl) for degradation complex organic effluents under visible-light illumination.

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Fast neutron (FN) radiation mediated mutagenesis is a unique approach among the several induced mutagenesis methods being used in plant science in terms of impacted mutations. The FN mutagenesis usually creates deletions from few bases to several million bases (Mb). A library of random deletion generated using FN mutagenesis lines can provide indispensable resources for the reverse genetic approaches.

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The present study reports the regulation of cytotoxicity of Cu doped ZnO nanoparticles in macrophages (RAW 264.7) due to altered physiochemical properties changes like electrical properties by controlled doping of Cu in ZnO. Cu-doped ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by High Energy Ball Milling technique (HEBM) and formed single phase ZnCuO (x = 0.

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Rice has been cultivating and utilizing by humans for thousands of years under diverse environmental conditions. Therefore, tremendous genetic differentiation and diversity has occurred at various agro-ecosystems. The significant indica-japonica differentiation in rice provides great opportunities for its genetic improvement.

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This work highlights the synthesis of zinc blende ZnCdS ternary solid solutions with a tunable bandgap. Composition dependent band gaps are realized due to the effective band edge tuning of the solid solutions which in turn show decent photocatalytic behaviour. The bandgap of ZnCdS increases as Zn composition increases.

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Herein, methylammonium lead triiodide (CHNHPbI) nanorods and nanocrystals were prepared by a facile room-temperature wet chemical method via simple variation of the synthesis parameters. Proper phase formation was confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies, whereas the morphological features were investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The bonding information and the presence of organic functional groups within the synthesized nanostructures were confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

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Dispersive force corrected density functional theory is used to map the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics of six kinds of graphyne (Gy) and graphdiyne (Gdy) systems (namely αGy, βGy, γGy, δGy, 6,6,12Gy, RGy and Gdy) with substitutional boron (B) atom doping. To this end, the most favorable sites for B doping of each structures are determined by comparing their formation energies and then the best configuration for di-oxygen (O2) adsorption is computed by analyzing the corresponding adsorption energies. Even though oxygen adsorption is found to be energetically favorable on all of these and all Gys and Gdy are found to distinctly favor the four electron pathways for ORR, a reaction scheme with monotonically exothermic ΔG is observed only for B doped RGy.

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