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IntroductionA persistent gender divide in digital competence is visible empirically in both developed and developing countries. But there is not a single study in the context of Bangladesh, as per the author’s best knowledge. This study, therefore, was designed to find out the gender divide in the digital competence of university students with reference to socioeconomic background.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was carried out in a public university of Bangladesh, where data were collected from 1,059 students using a semi-structured interview schedule, where digital competence was measured by computer application usage (CAU) and computer self-efficacy (CSe), with overall reliability of 0.840 and 0.960, respectively. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistic v25, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were used to determine the differences between students regarding digital competence.ResultsFindings from ANOVA suggested that older students, in terms of age (p

Elevated levels of interleukin-33 have been associated with poor prognosis in patients with glioma. Here the authors show that glioma-derived IL-33 modulates a pro-tumorigenic immune microenvironment by activating resident and recruiting peripheral innate immune cells.

The erratic nature of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) forced the Bangladeshi government to shut down all the educational institutions since March 18, 2020. This prolonged closure not only detached the students from their study but also increased anxiety among them regarding their future academic as well as professional careers. The present study aimed to explore the perception and understanding of the students and teachers regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the academic life and career pursuit of university students in Bangladesh. With a semi-structured interview schedule, data for this qualitative study were collected from 8 purposively selected participants, using telephone interviews, affiliated with a public university in Bangladesh. Students argued that the extended closure is responsible for the delayed graduation of the senior students, thereby, mounting mental stress and frustration among them. The informants unequivocally opposed the online education platform, as a solution for the ongoing gap, due to scarcity of the resources, and unequal accesses and opportunities for all. It has been suggested that the education gap can be reduced by shortening the term, curtailing the preparatory leave, and taking extra classes over the weekends when the universities re-open together with enforced collective health hygiene.

Changes in ECM are of predictive value in pancreatic and colorectal cancer prognosis. Here, the authors perform a pan-cancer analysis and find a subset of ECM genes that is linked to TGF-β signalling signature and is correlated with immunotherapy failure.

The dismal prognosis of glioblastoma is attributed in part to the existence of stem-like brain tumor-initiating cells (BTICs) that are highly radio- and chemo-resistant. New approaches such as therapies that reprogram compromised immune cells against BTICs are needed. Effective immunotherapies in glioblastoma, however, remain elusive unless the mechanisms of immunosuppression by the tumor are better understood. Here, we describe that while the conditioned media of activated T lymphocytes reduce the growth capacity of BTICs, this growth suppression was abrogated in live co-culture of BTICs with T cells. We present evidence that BTICs produce the extracellular matrix protein tenascin-C (TNC) to inhibit T cell activity in live co-culture. In human glioblastoma brain specimens, TNC was widely deposited in the vicinity of T cells. Mechanistically, TNC inhibited T cell proliferation through interaction with α5β1 and αvβ6 integrins on T lymphocytes associated with reduced mTOR signaling. Strikingly, TNC was exported out of BTICs associated with exosomes, and TNC-depleted exosomes suppressed T cell responses to a significantly lesser extent than control. Finally, we found that circulating exosomes from glioblastoma patients contained more TNC and T cell-suppressive activity than those from control individuals. Taken together, our study establishes a novel immunosuppressive role for TNC associated with BTIC-secreted exosomes to affect local and distal T lymphocyte immunity.