Hyderabad Research Articles

Association Among Remote Working and Work-Life Balance with Mediating Effect of Social Support: An Empirical Study Concerning Migrated Employees in Hyderabad, During Covid-19 Pandemic

Objective: To examine the association between remote working and work-life balance with mediating effect of social support on work-life balance among migrated employees in Hyderabad Metro. The study was carried out by surveying the migrated employees who are working super markets, malls, IT industry and construction industry, and are from different states across India, working in Hyderabad city. The data were collected during May 2021 to May 2022. Method: The survey type of research adopted in this empirical study. The data were gathered using a questionnaire with 24 items for 3 constructs remote working with 12 items, social support 6 items, and work-life balance with 6 items. However, 5 items (2 from remote working, 1 from social support, and 2 from work-life balance) were dropped from the study because the outer loadings of the items were <0.5. Results: The reliability and internal consistency of the questionnaire were assed measuring Cronbach’s alpha and Split-half (odd-even) correlations which ranged from 0.80 to 0.92 indicating strong internal consistency and reliability. The data from a total of 301 correct responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling using IBM AMOS 28 version. The data normality was assessed with Shapiro Wilk’s test (p>0.05), The model fit indices demonstrated excellent model fit. There was a statistically insignificant (p>0.05) direct effect between remote working and work-life balance, while social support is fully mediating the work-life balance (p<0.001) of the migrated employees. The moderation analysis indicates statistically significant gender differences with the constructs remote working, work-life balance, and social support exhibiting statistically significant differences among the gender groups. The detailed results are presented in the manuscript. Conclusions: the study provides valuable insights into the impact of remote working on work-life balance and the role of social support as a mediating factor, in particular on migrated employees. The results can be used by companies to enhance their remote work policies and practices, thereby improving work-life balance and overall job satisfaction for their employees. Remote working has become an increasingly popular option for many workers in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating this trend.

Study of Chemical Parameters of Himayat Sagar Lake at Rangareddy District

Abstract: Water is a single major element responsible for sustaining life on Earth. In India, water is sourced from fourteen main stream basins and countless minor basins. Furthermore, it is important to raise awareness among the public about the importance of conserving water. Chemical pollutants have been wreaking havoc on our planet's waterways, and it's time we take a stand.Take Hyderabad, for example. This city is known as the 'Limnological capital of India', and for good reason. It's home to a plethora of major and minor water bodies, many ofwhich are used as drinking water sources The study of water quality at Himayathsagar is a necessity due to its close proximity to Hyderabad city, which is growing rapidly in terms of urbanization and industrialization. In order to ensure that this important drinking water source remains safe and clean, a study of the chemical parameters of the Himayat Sagar lake in Rangareddy District was conducted. Water samples were collected and analyzed for a variety of chemical properties, such as pH, carbonates, and bicarbonates. These parameters are essential to determine the water quality and to plan forthe future management of clean water resources. The study of water quality at Himayathsagar is an important step in ensuring that this vital drinking water source remains safe and clean forgenerations to come. With the ever-growing urbanization and industrialization of Hyderabad city, it is essential that we take all necessary steps to ensure that the water quality of Himayathsagar remains at its highest level.

Comparative analysis of local adaptation processes in the future across peri-urban India to support transformations to sustainability

Peri-urban transformations in emerging economies like India demand scientific attention given their impact on global environmental change processes. Some studies examine past or ongoing peri-urban adaptation processes, but insight into future adaptation needs and aspirations of peri-urban communities is lacking. Also, it is unknown how the high degree of informality that characterizes peri-urban areas, interacts with formal institutions to shape or enable more sustainable adaptation pathways. This study addresses these scientific gaps, using an existing typology of adaptation processes to investigate plausible future adaptation pathways in three peri-urban villages in India, near Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata cities. On-site field research followed by a Delphi-study were used to develop normative adaptation pathways for livelihood and household water use with local actors. The pathways represent development trajectories and adaptation strategies over the next 15 years in the livelihood and household water sectors. Pathways data was thereafter analyzed and compared in terms of drivers of vulnerability and opportunity, adaptation processes, and formal and informal institutions. Our ex-ante study identifies general and context specific drivers of vulnerability and opportunity shaping different peri-urban transformations. Results reveal similarities in future drivers, whose impact on peri-urban livelihoods and household water is context dependent. This comparative analysis contributes a deeper understanding of future adaptation needs by highlighting patterns in locally preferred adaptation processes for different drivers and water-use sectors. This normative understanding reveals preferences of local communities who are otherwise marginalized from decision-making arenas. A combination of adaptation processes will be needed to respond to the various drivers, only some of which are achievable through informal institutions. Formal government intervention will be essential for stimulating innovation, intensification, and revitalization forms of adaptation. Institutional adjustments will be key to shaping local agency and future adaptive capacity away from a business-as-usual trajectory.

The impact of Musi floods along the catchment areas of Hyderabad-A study

Urban floods threaten the functioning of many states across the country. Mumbai, the economic capital of India, gets affected in most of the monsoon seasons due to heavy rains. Likewise, the state of Kerala too witnessed heavy floods in the recent years. In this background, the current research paper is an attempt based on secondary data to focus on the impact of urban floods in the stretch of river Musi in Hyderabad. The Telangana region experienced heavy rains in October 2020 due to which a flash flood occurred in Hyderabad. This happened after 100 years while the river basin had settlements coming up in low laying or catchment areas. The people who were residing along the coastlines of the slums also got affected during the floods. Historically, river musi was a source of drinking water in that region. However, the scenario got completely changed due to overpopulation, uncontrolled migration and housing affordability in this region which led to devastation of the river basin. According to the (CSE)’s 71-city study, Hyderabad city discharges about 700-800 million litres per day of untreated sewerage water directly into Musi river. So, the drinking water for the entire city is brought from different places. The current research paper is an attempt to focus on the regional issues and determine the social cost and the livelihood along the Musi River stretch in Hyderabad region in a comprehensive manner. Pollution brings an unprecedented fall in agricultural yield and increases the input costs for agriculture like handlooms. It also affects the allied services like dairy, poultry, livestock, fishing, washing clothes, health hazard, unemployment etc. In order to avoid the urban floods in the future, the planning strategies need to be implemented to achieve sustainable development along the stretch of Musi through people’s participation and government intervention.

Parental Polymorphism Survey for Identifying Genes/QTLs for BPH Resistance in Assam Land Race 10-3

The current research was taken up at Institute of Biotechnology (IBT), PJTSAU, Hyderabad Telangana, India in kharif from August to November, 2021 to access the parental polymorphism between 10-3 and Telangana Sona. 10-3, an Assam landrace, is a bold grain rice variety with high BPH resistance to biotype-4. Whereas, Telangana Sona (RNR 15048) is a short and slender grain variety of rice that is popular among farmers and consumers across Telangana and other Indian states due to its high yield and low glycemic index. Despite being blast resistant, Telangana Sona is susceptible to the insect pest Brown Plant hopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens (Stål). The present study aimed to characterize the parental polymorphism between 10–3 and Telangana sona to facilitate mapping of genetic loci linked with BPH resistance in the 10–3 and to optimize the retention of favourable alleles from Telangana sona during marker assisted backcross breeding. Eight hundred and sixteen highly variable Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) including thirty-five BPH linked markers covering 12 chromosomes were used to assess DNA polymorphism between 10-3 and Telangana Sona. Out of 816 markers screened, 97 (11.89%) were found to be polymorphic between 10–3 and Telangana Sona of which, 82 were genomic SSRs and 15 were BPH linked markers. Chromosome 6 exhibited highest polymorphism percentage with a value of 30%, indicating that this chromosome is useful in studying parental variation and lowest polymorphism percentage found on chromosome 5 (3.49%). These 97 polymorphic markers will help in construction of linkage map for identifying QTLs linked with BPH resistance and for marker assisted backcrossing breeding in Telangana Sona.

ANALYZING THE SATISFACTION INDEX FOR THE NEED OF PUBLIC PARKS IN HYDERABAD CITY, SINDH

Social cohesiveness and recreational activities depend on a favorable natural environment surrounding the community. The psychology and behavior of users (humans) in response to the interaction of inhabitants with their environment have received increased attention in public parks. When tackling these concerns, public parks' significance is becoming more and more apparent. The study characterizes the attributes of public parks and spatial distribution, found in Hyderabad city. Evidence of clustering of both present conditions and mislaid aesthetic quality postulates spatial analysis of the public parks of Hyderabad city. The study assesses the impact of public parks on inhabitants' social lives in Hyderabad. For evaluating the research, SPSS-20 and ArcGIS software were used to do the statistical calculations for the study analysis. The various studies show that standard analysts, recommend 380 interviews for cities with populations of more than one lac; in shaping social cohesion among the inhabitants of the city, 480 interviews were taken from locale to gauge the impact of public parks and analyze satisfaction of users. The research confronted Hyderabad, numbering about 22 various parks. However, based on this analysis, the backlog for active and passive use was 225 acres and 150 acres, respectively, for the 2 million population intake. The Yeh’s Index of satisfaction equate, the distinctive satisfaction index of 27.582 percent of the user gauged by investigating various responses from inhabitants. A summary of the current situation between public parks and the effects on social cohesiveness among the populace revealed a significant, high level of dissatisfaction among city inhabitants. In the urban areas to support public park resilience, spreading sustainable behavior is suggested as the potential benefit of social cohesion. This study's findings may be used to develop suggestions for strategies that can be used to enlighten planning research studies and more evidence emerges become available. Some recommended policies encourage coordination and cooperative efforts, the development of new urban territories, and development with improved long-term sustainability. Keywords: Natural Environment, Recreation, Public Park, Social Cohesion, Resilience, Hyderabad.

Current status of street foods, over consumption and human health issues in Hyderabad City

Current status of street foods, over consumption and human health issues in Hyderabad City

Employees’ perception towards e-learning: an exploratory study in the information technology sector in India

PurposeThe primary purpose of this research paper is to evaluate e-learning among employees of Information Technology (IT) companies based in Hyderabad, India.Design/methodology/approachA survey was undertaken among the employees from different IT companies based in Hyderabad, India, to gauge the perception towards e-learning. The participants were selected randomly. The evaluation is based on a few factors: convenience, usefulness, course content, quality, effectiveness and benefits for employees and organizations. The responses were recorded online through a structured questionnaire. In total, 237 responses have been collected for this present study, of which 227 questionnaires were used for analysis.FindingsThe surveyed employees perceived that e-learning helped them enhance their workplace competency in a flexible but effective manner. The e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways.Research limitations/implicationsLimitation of the study – by examining the pris study was confined to employees working with IT companies based in Hyderabad City, India. The data is collected online, and there may be some insufficient responses. Implications of the study – the study results show a deep insight into the critical aspects of e-learning as a tool for employee training for the benefit of employees and organizational development. The surveyed respondents from the IT sector at Hyderabad perceived that keys to successful e-learning programs should give due consideration towards availability of internet bandwidth, making the course more interactive, providing more choices to the learners and user-friendly and personalized learning experience. The study also shows that the e-learning programs primarily benefit the employees as well as the organization in a manner, namely, improved productivity, helping to achieve business objectives of the firm, growth and advancement to the employees and enhancing the job-related knowledge. The study also discovered that e-learning improves employees’ opportunities for professional growth and advancement inside and outside the organization by assisting them in learning new skills and enhancing job-related information.Practical implicationsThe internet penetration in recent years, as well as post-Covid-19, has given rise to online learning in the education and corporate sectors. The emergence of online or e-learning has been gaining ground in the corporate world by replacing the existing face-to-face or physical training model because of the cost factor and flexible learning to the learners. E-learning improves the learner’s ability to adapt to the company’s constantly changing business environment, which in turn helps the company increase departmental productivity and, ultimately, achieve its overall business goals.Social implicationsThe e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways. The e-learning also empowers the learner to perform better at his workplace and at the same time moving on the social ladder as the learning makes him/her confident at the job market.Originality/valueThis study provides a valuable understanding of employee perceptions on the adoption and effectiveness of e-learning, which ultimately improves the benefits of the training and development department in realizing and enhancing the quality in corporate companies.

Re‐Visiting EEJ and CEJ Occurrences Pattern Under the Influence of Sq Variations of Both Hemispheres

AbstractThe present study investigated the variability in Equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and Counter electrojet (CEJ) extracted at the Indian equatorial station Tirunelveli (TIR) using low‐latitude geomagnetic conjugate sites, Hyderabad (HYB) and GAN Island (GAN) from the northern and southern hemispheres respectively over a period of 5 years. A significant difference in the amplitudes, of more than 10 nT for 43% of the days, is observed when the TIR‐HYB pair and the TIR‐GAN pair are used. Occurrence of CEJs are 60% more when the TIR‐GAN pair is considered. A correlation coefficient of 0.9 is obtained between the monthly mean peaks of diurnal variations in H between TIR and GAN; this correlation coefficient is 0.66 between TIR and HYB. The correlation coefficients from the first principal components of H, at these sites show variability with seasons; the correlation observed between TIR and GAN is higher than that between TIR‐HYB for all seasons except northern winter. This indicates the coupling of EEJ with Sq of both northern or southern hemispheres with varying extents. The present study highlights that the extraction of EEJ/CEJ using Sq from only one hemisphere will lead to biased estimates; even a small difference in the seasonal pattern of ∆H at equatorial and low latitude sites can result in the over/under‐estimation of EEJ and hence CEJ.

Wintertime patterns of residential electricity use and indoor temperature in the composite climate of India

Wintertime electricity use in India has received little attention due to the growth of residential air conditioning (AC) in the summer and monsoon seasons. This paper combines monitoring (time-series) and survey (contextual) data to examine the wintertime pattern of daily electricity current, indoor temperature, and relative humidity profiles across a sample of 64 dwellings in the city of Hyderabad representing the composite climate of India. Monitoring data were recorded for 31 days (December 2021 with a mean daily outdoor temperature of 25°C) using a CT clamp meter and Bluetooth enabled sensors. Contextual data covered dwelling and household characteristics, and use of appliances. The winter peak period of electricity use was found to occur from 6:30-10:30 in the morning, likely to be for hot water (geysers) and cooking. This is different to the late evening/night-time peak observed in the summer due to use of air conditioning (AC). Only one dwelling showed potential signs of using space heating. Higher electricity use aligned with lower peak temperatures in some homes particularly in the high-income group, indicating the potential use of AC during winter. The wintertime morning electricity peak in India could be managed using thermal stores in geysers through pre-heating which could also offer demand response opportunities.

Urban Rainfall-Runoff Modeling Using HEC-HMS and Artificial Neural Networks: A Case Study

Urban flooding nowadays becomes common throughout the world. The main reason for these floods is rapid urban development and climate change. During the monsoon, the flows in the urban drains will be high and the main reason for these high flows is the existence of a combined network system (i.e. drainage and stormwater). Further, the flow in the city (under study) drainage network was very high and some areas of the network exceeds more than discharge carrying capacity. Hence, this may result in overflow from the manholes and create an overland flood problem. Rainfall-Runoff modeling in these situations in the urban catchment will be essential and required to understand the flow pattern that helps in flood management. Therefore, the current study chose Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for rainfall-runoff modeling at an hourly period for the Kukataplly (zone-12) watershed of Hyderabad city, Telangana State in India. This zone-12 watershed was one of the most affected hydraulic zones of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) during the monsoon period in the past 21 years. The present study focuses on a comparative study between HEC-HMS and ANN has been carried out to comprehend the flood scenario in the study area. Finally, the performance of the model is checked with statistical indices such as Nash-Sutcliff Efficiency (NSE), and Coefficient of Determination (R2). HEC-HMS yielded good results (NSE = 0.74 and R2 = 0.76) when it has taken care of the maximum possible nonlinear complex data to be analysed.

Civil Society Organizations and Communal Harmony Building: Strategies and Dimensions

This paper examines the various dimensions of Civil society engagement in a country like India where low intensity conflicts between the two main religious communities in India. The paper uses Thania Paffenholz's categorization of the functions of civil society organizations work in peacebuilding to understand the role that organizations can play in a changed context. The paper looks at organizations in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad to examine each category in the functionalist approach. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section talks about the functional approach to peace building. The second section draws on extensive fieldwork conducted through in person interviews, participant observation and report analysis in the two cities of Ahmedabad and Hyderabad with four organizations. It highlights the importance of the context of peace building and the reasons why civil society activism for peacebuilding remains limited in capacity. Keywords: Sustainable peace, civil society organizations, functional approach to peacebuilding, democratization of peace process

Practice of Modified Safety Measures for Covid-19 Adopted by Dental Health Care Providers and Barriers Faced by Them

The COVID-19 infection has influenced almost everyone belonging to every walk of life especially dental practitioners are introduced to a higher bet of getting infected because of close contact with such patients. The COVID-19 has put an enormous hassle on clinical benefits system across the globe. The dental practice is to highly needed change in accordance with the new scourge circumstance in order to reduce the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection transmission. Objective: To investigate practice of modified safety measures by the dentists regarding COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among dentists working at Institute of dentistry Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro, Dental outpatient department of Hyderabad, and private dental practitioners of Hyderabad city, Pakistan by convenience sampling technique. The analysis of data were conducted using SPSS version 23.0 after adjusting the potential confounders and to analyze association between dentist response and age, gender, and other characteristics by applying Chi-Square test. Results: Most of the dental professionals are scared of developing COVID-19 from a patient or co-worker (83.17%) and are well known about its transmission (93.36%) and use PPE (74.17%). Conclusions: Although having a high valuable level of knowledge and practice, dental practitioners around the world are in a state of anxiety and dread while working in their respective fields due to the COVID-19 pandemic impact on mankind.

Assessment of Groundwater Quality around Nagole in Hyderabad

Water is one of the most essential elements for survival of living organism. Water consumption of a person is 135l/c/day. In current scenario, due to increase in population leads to occupy the rivers space. Now a days due to deteriorating natural water bodies, human depends upon sub surface water and ground water to meet their daily needs. In future these subsurface water source also become deteriorate due to over exploitation. In future it leads to subsurface and surface water scarcity so, many researchers finding alternate sources, sustainable water management techniques for proper monitoring the present sources to reduce water demand. There are 400 small and biglakes available in Hyderabad City. Out of which 169 lakes were notified by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for protection and conservation of water spread area. We have selected Nagole in Hyderabad City of Telangana state for conducting a study on assessing groundwater quality. Thirteen parameters were chosen for the analysis such as pH, EC, Total dissolved solids, Turbidity, Alkanlinity, Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium, Total hardness, BOD, COD, Fluorine, Sulphate. Finally, results of the analysis were compared with water quality standards such as BIS 10500 (1991) of water sample. From this study, it was observed that EC exceeded the Permissible limit which impacts of more ion presence in the samples, alkalinity also higher than the permissible limit. The high content of alkalinity in water results in formation of chemical scale or precipitate which would clog piping or form a scale on filter, sodium exceeds the permissible limit. These parameters were higher in few sampling station while other parameters were within the permissible limits

Assessment of Surface and Ground water Quality in Hyderabad

Water is one of the most essential elements for survival of living organism. Water consumption of a person is 135l/c/day. In current scenario, due to increase in population leads to occupy the rivers space. Nowa days due to deteriorating natural water bodies, human depends upon sub surface water and ground water to meet their daily needs. In future these subsurface water source also become deteriorate due to over exploitation. In future it leads to subsurface and surface water scarcity so, many researchers finding alternate sources, sustainable water management techniques for proper monitoring the present sources to reduce water demand. There are 400 small and big lakes available in Hyderabad City. Out of which 169 lakes were notified by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for protection and conservation of water spread area. We have selected Himayath Sagar, Osman Sagar, Peerzadiguda in Hyderabad City of Telangana state for conducting a study on assessing groundwater quality. Thirteen parameters were chosen for the analysis such as pH, EC, Total dissolved solids, Turbidity, Alkanlinity, Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium, Total hardness, BOD, COD, Fluorine, Sulphate. Finally, results of the analysis were compared with water quality standards such as BIS 10500 (1991) of water sample. From this study, it was observed that EC exceeded the Permissible limit which impacts of more ion presence in the samples, E.Coli, Coliforms, TBC, Alkalinity, Sodium is higher than the permissible limit in Himayath Sagar and Peerzadiguda. The high content of EC, E.Coli, Coliforms, TBC, Alkalinity in water results in formation of chemical scale or precipitate which would clog piping or form a scale on filter, These parameters were higher in few sampling stations of study area while other parameters were within the permissible limits

Generation of Land use Land Cover Map and its Significance in Ground Water Dynamics: For Part of Hyderabad City

Generation of Land use Land Cover Map and its Significance in Ground Water Dynamics: For Part of Hyderabad City

Agent-based Modeling of COVID-19: A case study of Hyderabad city

This research aims to design and develop an agent-based model (ABM) that can simulate the COVID-19 outbreak, presenting the interaction dynamics and impact of various control strategies imposed in the city of Hyderabad, Pakistan. The observations include how ABM controls the disease outbreak depending on different scenarios. The individuals are visually represented in the form of agents that can interact with each other and can make decisions depending on the situation. The observations are made by studying the dynamics of the behavior of individual agents, and their movements from one compartment to the other. The ABM model is developed in NetLogo and simulates various hypothetical scenarios that reflect the real behavior of the virus’s interaction with humans and their environment while adjusting medical, social, and demographic parameters. The study results provide details on how restricting the social interactions between individuals and their movement decreases the rate of the spread of the virus.

Wavelet coherence analysis of PM2.5 variability in response to meteorological changes in South Asian cities

Assessment of trends and variability of atmospheric particles can help set the target for pollution reduction, robust air-pollution and climate change policy decision-making, and clean air. This study investigated the recent trends and variability of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) concentrations led by meteorological factors in fifteen major South Asian cities. It comprehensively assessed the influence of climatic factors through multiple statistical and time-frequency models. Trends were identified using the Mann-Kendal Test and innovative trend analysis methods. This study found the most critical air quality condition in Lahore (105.43 μg/m3), safe condition in Ho Chi Minh City (25.97 μg/m3), and most of the cities experience unhealthy to very unhealthy air conditions during winter. PM2.5 levels exhibited ascending trends in Dhaka, Jakarta, Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, while descending trends in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Kathmandu, Rangoon, Hanoi, Vientiane, and Ho Chi Minh City. Statistical models such as linear regression, Pearson's correlation, and Spearman rank correlation were applied to determine the influence of temperature, rainfall, humidity, and windspeed on PM2.5 concentrations. Despite the differences in climate conditions, PM2.5 concentrations were most sensitive to humidity, followed by temperature, rainfall, and windspeed across most cities. Most cities showed a negative relationship between PM2.5 and meteorological factors. Bi-wavelet coherence (WC) analyses were performed to investigate how the frequency components of PM2.5 and meteorological factors relate to each other over time. This WC analysis showed a high correlation with phase and antiphase correlations and demonstrated that all meteorological factors have influenced PM2.5 concentrations over time.

Spatio-temporal air quality analysis and PM2.5 prediction over Hyderabad City, India using artificial intelligence techniques

Air pollution is one of the most serious environmental issues faced by humans, and it affects the quality of life in cities. PM2.5 forecasting models can be used to create strategies for assessing and warning the public about anticipated harmful levels of air pollution. Accurate pollutant concentration measurements and forecasting are critical criteria for assessing air quality and are the foundation for making the right strategic decisions. Data-driven machine learning models for PM2.5 forecasting have gained attention in the recent past. In this study, PM2.5 prediction for Hyderabad city was carried out using various machine learning models viz. Multi-Linear Regression (MLR), decision tree (DT), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest (RF), and XGBoost. A deep learning model, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model, was also used in this study. The results obtained were finally compared based on error and R2 value. The best model was selected based on its maximum R2 value and minimal error. The model's performance was further improved using the randomized search CV hyperparameter optimization technique. Spatio-temporal air quality analysis was initially conducted, and it was found that the average winter PM2.5 concentrations were 68% higher than the concentrations in summer. The analysis revealed that XGBoost regression was the best-performing machine learning model with an R2 value of 0.82 and a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 7.01 μg/ m3, whereas the LSTM deep learning model performed better than XGBoost regression for PM2.5 modeling with an R2 value of 0.89 and an MAE of 5.78 μg/ m3.

Association of Dengue Virus Serotypes 1&2 with Severe Dengue Having Deletions in Their 3'Untranslated Regions (3'UTRs).

Dengue virus infections are recorded as hyper-endemic in many countries, including India. Research pertaining to the reasons for frequent outbreaks and severe dengue is ongoing. Hyderabad city, India, has been recorded as a 'hotspot' for dengue virus infections. Dengue virus strains circulating over the past few years in Hyderabad city have been characterized at the molecular level to analyze the serotype/genotypes; 3'UTRs were further amplified and sequenced. The disease severity in patients infected with dengue virus strains with complete and 3'UTR deletion mutants was analyzed. Genotype I of the serotype 1 replaced genotype III, which has been circulating over the past few years in this region. Coincidentally, the number of dengue virus infections significantly increased in this region during the study period. Nucleotide sequence analysis suggested twenty-two and eight nucleotide deletions in the 3'UTR of DENV-1. The eight nucleotide deletions observed in the case of DENV-1 3'UTR were the first reported in this instance. A 50 nucleotide deletion was identified in the case of the serotype DENV-2. Importantly, these deletion mutants were found to cause severe dengue, even though they were found to be replication incompetent. This study emphasized the role of dengue virus 3'UTRs on severe dengue and emerging outbreaks.