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Extreme rainfall prior to a flood event is often a necessary condition for its occurrence; however, rainfall alone is not always an indicator of flood severity. Antecedent wetness condition of a catchment is another important factor which strongly influences the flood magnitudes. The key role of soil moisture in driving floods is widely recognized; however, antecedent conditions of deeper saturated zone may contribute to river floods. Here, we assess how closely the flood magnitudes are associated to extreme rainfall, soil moisture and baseflow in 70 catchments of Peninsular India for the period 1979–2018. Annual flood magnitudes have declined across most of the catchments. Effect of flow regulations is also assessed to understand the impact of human interventions on flood characteristics. Reservoir regulation has positive effect by reducing the flood peak and volume, whereas the duration of flood events has increased after the construction of dams. Baseflow exhibits similar patterns of trends as floods, whereas trends in rainfall and soil moisture extremes are weakly correlated with trends in flood magnitudes. Baseflow is found to be more strongly influencing the flood magnitudes than soil moisture at various time lags. Further analysis with event coincidence analysis confirms that baseflow has stronger triggering effect on river floods in Peninsular India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) has the highest mortality rate among the rheumatic diseases, with lung fibrosis leading as the cause of death. A characteristic of severe SSc‐related lung fibrosis is its progressive nature. Although most research has focused on the pathology of the fibrosis, the mechanism mediating the fibrotic spread remains unclear. We hypothesized that extracellular vesicle (EV) communication drives the propagation of SSc lung fibrosis. Methods: EVs were isolated from normal (NL) or SSc‐derived human lungs and primary lung fibroblasts (pLFs). EVs were also isolated from human fibrotic lungs and pLFs induced experimentally with transforming growth factor‐β (TGFβ). Fibrotic potency of EVs was assessed using functional assays in vitro and in vivo. Transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR), immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence were used to analyze EVs, their cargo, extracellular matrix (ECM) fractions, and conditioned media. Results: SSc lungs and pLFs released significantly more EVs than NL lungs, and their EVs showed increased fibrotic content and activity. TGFβ‐stimulated NL lung cores and pLFs increased packaging of fibrotic proteins, including fibronectin, collagens, and TGFβ, into released EVs. The EVs induced a fibrotic phenotype in recipient pLFs and in vivo in mouse lungs. Furthermore, EVs interacted with and contributed to the ECM. Finally, suppressing EV release in vivo reduced severity of murine lung fibrosis. Conclusions: Our findings highlight EV communication as a novel mechanism for propagation of SSc lung fibrosis. Identifying therapies that reduce EV release, activity, and/or fibrotic cargo in SSc patient lungs may be a viable therapeutic strategy to improve fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Lung fibrosis is the leading cause of death in SSc, with no cure currently available. Antifibrotic Endostatin (ES) production does not reach therapeutic levels in SSc patients, suggesting a deficit in its release from Collagen XVIII by the main cleavage enzyme, Cathepsin L (CTSL). Thus, elucidating a potential deficit in CTSL expression and activity unravels an underlying molecular cause for SSc-driven lung fibrosis. Methods Fibrosis was induced experimentally using TGF-β in vitro , in primary human lung fibroblasts (pLFs), and ex vivo , in human lung tissues. ES and CTSL expression was quantified using ELISA, RT-qPCR, immunoblotting or immunofluorescence. Recombinant NC1-FLAG peptide was used to assess CTSL cleavage activity. CTSL expression was also compared between SSc vs normal (NL)-derived pLFs and lung tissues. Results ES levels were significantly reduced in media conditioned by TGF-β-induced pLFs. TGF-β-stimulated pLFs significantly reduced expression and secretion of CTSL into the extracellular matrix (ECM). CTSL was also sequestered in its inactive form into extracellular vesicles, further reducing its availability in the ECM. Media conditioned by TGF-β-induced pLFs showed reduced cleavage of NC1-Flag and reduced release of the antifibrotic ES fragment. SSc-derived pLFs and lung tissues expressed significantly lower levels of CTSL compared with NL. Conclusions Our findings identify CTSL as a protein protective against lung fibrosis via its activation of antifibrotic ES, and whose expression in SSc pLFs and lung tissues is suppressed. Identifying strategies to boost CTSL endogenous levels in SSc patients could serve as a viable therapeutic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxypyridinones (HOPOs) are excellent class of chelators that have been gaining attention in the field of pharmaceutical drugs by their high chelating efficacy and specificity with different metal ions. Among all the metal ions, they exhibit a high binding affinity towards iron (III) and are clinically used as iron chelators nowadays. The HOPO family has different isomers, out of which 3,4-HOPO possesses applicability for designing drugs. The effect of methyl substitution on different positions of pyridinone ring also plays an essential role in deciding the pM values, thus describing the metal affinity. Several metal ions like Fe, Al, Cu, Zn, and some actinides are found to exhibit good chelation efficacy with HOPOs. In terms of denticity, there are various forms of HOPO. Among these, discussion on bidentate, tetradentate, hexadentate, octadentate, and dendrimers will be done here. This review systematically summarizes the various literature reports on the design and pharmacological activities of the newly developed HOPOs and their derivatives, including antibiotics, anticancer, and antineurodegeneratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the dependence structure of concurrent extremes is a fundamental issue for accurate assessment of their occurrence probabilities. Identifying the extremal dependence behavior is also crucial for scientific understanding of interactions between the variables of a multidimensional environmental process. This study investigates the suitability of parametric multivariate extreme value models to correctly represent and estimate the dependence structure of concurrent extremes. Probabilistic aspects of multivariate extreme value theory with point process representation are discussed and illustrated with application to the concurrence of rainfall deficits, soil moisture deficits, and high temperatures. Application is concerned with the investigation of extremal behavior and risk assessment in Marathwada, a drought‐prone region of Maharashtra state, India. To characterize the multivariate extremes, marginal distributions are specified first and transformed into unit Fréchet margins. Standardized distributions are represented by a Poisson point process and coordinates of data points are transformed to pseudo‐polar coordinates to make the dependence form more explicit. The extremal dependence structure is described through angular densities on the unit simplex. Strong dependence is observed between soil moisture deficits and high temperatures, whereas rainfall deficits are mildly dependent on these two variables. Overall, a weak dependence is observed between the variables considered. Estimated extremal dependence is further used to compute probabilities of a few critical extreme combinations. Results demonstrate the ability of parametric multivariate models to characterize the complex dependence structure of concurrent extremes. These models can provide a powerful new perspective for appropriate statistical analysis of dependent hydroclimatic extremes in higher dimensions. Key Points: Utility of parametric multivariate extreme value models is explored for modeling concurrent hydroclimatic extremes in Marathwada, IndiaExtremal dependence structure of rainfall, soil moisture, and temperatures is explicitly described through angular densities on two‐dimensional simplexThe results demonstrate the suitability of parametric models to disentangle the complex interactions of multidimensional concurrent extremes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxypyranones form very stable complexes and possess varied uses in medical applications. They are promising chelators for treating iron overload diseases as they form stable complexes with Fe3+. A novel tripodal ligand tris[(5-hydroxy-4-oxo-pyran-2-yl)methyl] benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (TBHPY) was synthesized and characterized by several spectroscopic techniques like UV–Vis, FT-IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR and mass spectrometry. The coordination behavior of the ligand TBHPY was investigated with proton and trivalent metal ions viz., Fe(III), Al(III) and Cr(III) by potentiometric and spectrophotometric methods. The studies revealed four species viz., L3−, LH2−, LH2− and LH3 for the ligand while ML, MLH and MLH2 species for all the three metal ion complexes. In addition, only aluminium formed MLH−1, MLH−2 and MLH−3. Quantum mechanical studies at DFT level validated the geometrical, spectroscopic, electronic and photophysical properties of the neutral and deprotonated states of the ligand, and its metal complexes. The ligand showed a scorpio-type geometry with the presence of face-to-face stacking and hydrogen bond, whereas the neutral metal–ligand complexes displayed a distorted octahedral structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis, characterization, coordination, bonding and electronic behavior of an ONS pincer ligand with divalent iron, cobalt, copper and zinc are described. The ligand is synthesized by condensation of dihydroxybenzaldehyde with thiosemicarbazide. The reaction of the ligand with metal ions in 1:2 (M:L) stoichiometric in identical conditions resulted in two octahedral pincer type complexes with iron and cobalt in which two ligands extend a perpendicular shape-retaining the ligand's linearity, and one trigonal bipyramidal pincer complex with zinc. For copper, the ligand preferred a bidentate coordination mode forming a square planar geometry. The structure of the copper complex can be viewed as a molecular hammock. Quantum mechanical studies at DFT level were undertaken to confirm the geometry, spectroscopic and electronic properties of all the complexes. The ability of the compounds to possess biological activity is tested against various pathogenic bacterial strains. The results show that the copper complex displays higher antimicrobial activities as compared to the ligand and other complexes. A remarkable change in the electronic spectrum of the ligand in the presence of cobalt ion in highly aqueous medium demonstrates its use as a metal sensor among a wide range of biological important metal ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image super resolution has gained a lot of attention due to its applications in different fields of image processing. It is used to produce high-resolution images from low-resolution input. Because of the excellent learning capability of convolution neural networks, these networks are able to learn complex spatial structures for image super-resolution. In this paper, two different architectures have been proposed for image super resolution. The first architecture is Dual Subpixel Layer Convolution Neural Network (DSL-CNN), which stacks two subpixel CNN architectures to enhance model depth for better representational capability. Two stages provide an effective upscaling factor of 4. In the second architecture, named as Residue based Dual Subpixel Layer Convolution Neural Network (RDSL-CNN), two-stage residual learning has been introduced which effectively sustains the high frequency details and provides superior results than the previous state-of-the-art methods. The performance of the two architectures has been evaluated on various image datasets, and compared with other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical F‐type lectin domain (FLD) has an L‐fucose‐binding motif [HX(26)RXDX(4)R/K] with conserved basic residues that mediate hydrogen bonding with alpha‐L‐fucose. About one‐third of the nonredundant FLD sequences in the publicly available databases are "atypical"; they have motifs with substitutions of these critical residues and/or variations in motif length. We addressed the question if atypical FLDs with substitutions of the critical residues retain lectin activity by performing site‐directed mutagenesis and assessing the glycan‐binding functions of typical and atypical FLDs. Site directed mutagenesis of an L‐fucose‐binding FLD from Streptosporangium roseum indicated that the critical His residue could be replaced by Ser and the second Arg by Lys without complete loss of lectin activity. Mutagenesis of His to other naturally substituting residues and mutagenesis of the first Arg to the naturally substituting residues, Lys, Ile, Ser, or Cys, resulted in loss of lectin activity. Glycan binding analysis and site‐directed mutagenesis of atypical FLDs from Actinomyces turicensis, and Saccharomonospora cyanea confirmed that Ser and Thr can assume the L‐fucose‐binding role of the critical His, and further suggested that the residue in this position is dispensable in certain FLDs. We identified, by sequence and structural analysis of atypical FLDs, a Glu residue in the complementarity determining region, CDR5 that compensates for a lack of the critical His or other appropriate polar residue in this position. We propose that FLDs lacking a typical FLD sequence motif might nevertheless retain lectin activity through the recruitment of other strategically positioned polar residues in the CDR loops. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 71(3):385–397, 2019 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is an illness that affects both the mind and the body and is a leading cause of disability, workplace absenteeism, decreased productivity and high suicide rates. We are not aware of a study on depression from India covering the general population. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of depression among general population. Material and Method: A quantitative and non-experimental research design was adopted to assess the prevalence of depression among general population in selected rural community area. A standardised tool, Beck's depression inventory was used to collect data from subjects. Result: A descriptive study was conducted on 60 subjects of general population in selected rural community area to assess the prevalence of depression, Jalandhar, Punjab. Pilot study was conducted on 10 subjects to ensure the reliability of the tool and feasibility of the study. The data was collected in the third week of May, 2017.The result shows that 28.3% of general population was suffering from depression ( scored above 17 according to Beck's Depression Inventory). The association between depression and selected demographic variables (age, gender, family type, socio-economic status and marital status) was determined by using parametric "t"-test and "F"-test to establish statistical significance. The socio-economic status and family type was statistically significant with depression at 5% level of significance i.e. they have influence on depression. conclusion: The study highlights the increasing prevalence of depression among general population in selected community area. We recommend that the population must be made aware of this problem so that effective copying mechanisms can be adapted to relinquish its ill effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several spore-forming strains of Bacillus are marketed as probiotics due to their ability to survive harsh gastrointestinal conditions and confer health benefits to the host. We report the complete genomes of two commercially available probiotics, Bacillus coagulans S-lac and Bacillus subtilis TO-A JPC, and compare them with the genomes of other Bacillus and Lactobacillus. The taxonomic position of both organisms was established with a maximum-likelihood tree based on twenty six housekeeping proteins. Analysis of all probiotic strains of Bacillus and Lactobacillus reveal that the essential sporulation proteins are conserved in all Bacillus probiotic strains while they are absent in Lactobacillus spp. We identified various antibiotic resistance, stress-related, and adhesion-related domains in these organisms, which likely provide support in exerting probiotic action by enabling adhesion to host epithelial cells and survival during antibiotic treatment and harsh conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]