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Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a rare systemic small-vessel vasculitis. This inflammatory reaction can affect the upper and lower respiratory tract, as well as the kidneys. The expected age of presentation is in the sixth and seventh decades of life, and Caucasians are mostly affected. The cornerstone of treatment is high-dose glucocorticoids in combination with immunosuppressant, steroid-sparing drugs, which leads to remission in almost 80% of patients. We present an unusual case of a 55-year-old Hispanic woman presenting with acute kidney injury secondary to treatment-resistant GPA. The failure of standard treatment is extremely rare. In addition, this patient presented with primarily renal symptoms, even though head and neck and airway symptoms are expected in almost all cases initially.Keywords: Granulomatosis with polyangiitis, renal failure, treatment failure

Riedel’s thyroiditis is a rare disease of chronic inflammation with fibrotic infiltration of the thyroid gland and its surrounding vital structures. Due to its low incidence, there are often delays in diagnosis as it is commonly mistaken for other thyroid diseases. We report the case of a 34-year-old female patient who presented with a firm, enlarged mass in the neck, compression symptoms, and hypothyroidism. Lab tests showed elevated A-TG (thyroglobulin antibodies) and A-TPO (thyroid peroxidase antibodies) levels. Based on the disease presentation and supporting lab findings, the patient was misdiagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and treated accordingly. Yet the patient’s symptoms grew progressively worse. She was discovered to have severe tracheal compression and bilateral RLN (recurrent laryngeal nerve) palsy. Tracheotomy became a necessary surgical intervention after the development of respiratory failure, but this procedure was complicated by the development of an intraoperative pneumothorax. After an open biopsy, histology revealed Riedel’s thyroiditis. A new treatment was introduced, with which the patient’s condition improved. However, she continued to suffer from the open tracheocutaneous fistula left by the tracheostomy, which adversely affected her everyday life. A follow-up operation was performed to close the fistula. In this case report, we discuss the consequences of misdiagnosing the patient and delaying the appropriate treatment for her disease.

Functional status could predict development of bipolar disorder (BD) or have clinical significance. The relationship between BD risk and functioning is poorly understood. We undertook a systematic review examining the global and social functioning of those at risk for BD.We examined observational studies comparing a risk sample with healthy controls or full-threshold BD participants, using measures of global or social functioning. Risk status included family history of BD, meeting risk criteria, or having prodromal symptomatology, or premorbid functioning of persons with BD. Medline, PsycINFO, and Embase were searched. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for Cross-Sectional Studies was used to assess quality. Meta-analyses were performed where possible.7215 studies were screened and 40 studies were included (8474 participants). Risk samples had poorer functioning than controls, and superior functioning to participants with BD. Meta-analysis indicated poorer global functioning among persons with familial risk compared to healthy controls (mean global functional difference: 5.92; 95 % confidence interval: 7.90, 3.95; mean premorbid functioning difference: 2.31; 95 % confidence interval: 0.70, 3.92). Studies with higher proportions of female participants had slightly poorer global functioning. High heterogeneity was attributable functional measures and potentially functionally differential subgroups within the risk samples.Broader measures of functioning, such as neurocognition and behavioural measures, were excluded. Measures of global functioning are limited by conflating functioning and symptoms.Functioning in the BD risk populations is intermediate to that of healthy controls and persons with BD, indicating their value in definitions of BD risk, in itself a likely heterogeneous state.

Strategic development of a redox-active multi-functionalized and multiporous biochar-based electrode as a bioanode to enhance microbial processes in an MFC to achieve a current density as high as 2.53 × 102 mA m−2.

After about 16 years since its first outburst, the transient neutron star low-mass X-ray binary XTE J1701$-$462 turned on again in September 2022, allowing for the first study of its X-ray polarimetric characteristics by a dedicated observing program with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE). Polarimetric studies of XTE J1701$-$462 have been expected to improve our understanding of accreting weakly magnetized neutron stars, in particular, the physics and the geometry of the hot inner regions close to the compact object. The IXPE data of two triggered observations were analyzed using time-resolved spectroscopic and polarimetric techniques, following the source along its Z-track of the color-color diagram. During the first pointing on 2022 September 29, an average 2-8 keV polarization degree of 4.6$\pm$ 0.4\% was measured, the highest value found up to now for this class of sources. Conversely, only a $\sim$0.6\% average degree was obtained during the second pointing ten days later. The polarimetric signal appears to be strictly related to the higher energy blackbody component associated with the boundary layer (BL) emission and its reflection from the inner accretion disk, and it is as strong as 6.1\% and 1.2\% ($>95\%$ significant) above 3-4 keV for the two measurements, respectively. The variable polarimetric signal is apparently related to the spectral characteristics of XTE J1701$-$462, which is the strongest when the source was in the horizontal branch of its Z-track and the weakest in the normal branch. These IXPE results provide new important observational constraints on the physical models and geometry of the Z-sources. Here, we discuss the possible reasons for the presence of strong and variable polarization among these sources., 7 pages, 8 figures; published in A&A 674, L10 (2023)

Full list of authors: Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Slane, Patrick; Prokhorov, Dmitry; Zhou, Ping; Vink, Jacco; Bucciantini, Niccolo; Costa, Enrico; Di Lalla, Niccolo; Di Marco, Alessandro; Soffitta, Paolo; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Asakura, Kazunori; Baldini, Luca; Heyl, Jeremy; Kaaret, Philip E.; Marin, Frederic; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Ng, C. -Y.; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Silvestri, Stefano; Sgro, Carmelo; Swartz, Douglas A.; Tamagawa, Toru; Yang, Yi-Jung; Agudo, Ivan; Antonelli, Lucio A.; Bachetti, Matteo; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Bonino, Raffaella; Brez, Alessandro; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Chen, Chien-Ting; Ciprini, Stefano; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Gesu, Laura; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Doroshenko, Victor; Dovciak, Michal; Ehlert, Steven R.; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Garcia, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Iwakiri, Wataru; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Kislat, Fabian; Karas, Vladimir; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; Krawczynski, Henric; La Monaca, Fabio; Latronico, Luca; Liodakis, Ioannis; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Marinucci, Andrea; Marscher, Alan P.; Marshall, Herman L.; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Muleri, Fabio; Negro, Michela; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Omodei, Nicola; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro; Pavlov, George G.; Peirson, Abel L.; Perri, Matteo; Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier; Pilia, Maura; Possenti, Andrea; Poutanen, Juri; Puccetti, Simonetta; Ramsey, Brian D.; Rankin, John; Ratheesh, Ajay; Roberts, Oliver; Romani, Roger W.; Spandre, Gloria; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Taverna, Roberto; Tawara, Yuzuru; Tennant, Allyn F.; Thomas, Nicholas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Tsygankov, Sergey S.; Turolla, Roberto; Wu, Kinwah; Xie, Fei; Zane, Silvia.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Supernova remnants are commonly considered to produce most of the Galactic cosmic rays via diffusive shock acceleration. However, many questions regarding the physical conditions at shock fronts, such as the magnetic-field morphology close to the particle acceleration sites, remain open. Here we report the detection of a localized polarization signal from some synchrotron X-ray emitting regions of Tycho's supernova remnant made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The derived degree of polarization of the X-ray synchrotron emission is 9% ± 2% averaged over the whole remnant, and 12% ± 2% at the rim, higher than the value of polarization of 7%–8% observed in the radio band. In the west region, the degree of polarization is 23% ± 4%. The degree of X-ray polarization in Tycho is higher than for Cassiopeia A, suggesting a more ordered magnetic field or a larger maximum turbulence scale. The measured tangential direction of polarization corresponds to the radial magnetic field, and is consistent with that observed in the radio band. These results are compatible with the expectation of turbulence produced by an anisotropic cascade of a radial magnetic field near the shock, where we derive a magnetic-field amplification factor of 3.4 ± 0.3. The fact that this value is significantly smaller than those expected from acceleration models is indicative of highly anisotropic magnetic-field turbulence, or that the emitting electrons either favor regions of lower turbulence, or accumulate close to where the orientation of the magnetic field is preferentially radially oriented due to hydrodynamical instabilities. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., J. Vink & D.Prokhorov are supported by funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101004131 (SHARP). P.S. acknowledges support from NASA contract NAS8-03060. P.Z. acknowledges the support from NWO Veni Fellowship grant No. 639.041.647 and NSFC grant No. 12273010 C.-Y.N. and Y.J.Y. are supported by a GRF grant of the Hong Kong Government under HKU 17305419., With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2021-001131-S).

We report the first $> 99\%$ confidence detection of X-ray polarization in BL Lacertae. During a recent X-ray/$\gamma$-ray outburst, a 287 ksec observation (2022 November 27-30) was taken using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer ({\it IXPE}), together with contemporaneous multiwavelength observations from the Neil Gehrels {\it Swift} observatory and {\it XMM-Newton} in soft X-rays (0.3--10~keV), {\it NuSTAR} in hard X-rays (3--70~keV), and optical polarization from the Calar Alto, and Perkins Telescope observatories. Our contemporaneous X-ray data suggest that the {\it IXPE} energy band is at the crossover between the low- and high-frequency blazar emission humps. The source displays significant variability during the observation, and we measure polarization in three separate time bins. Contemporaneous X-ray spectra allow us to determine the relative contribution from each emission hump. We find $>99\%$ confidence X-ray polarization $\Pi_{2-4{\rm keV}} = 21.7^{+5.6}_{-7.9}\%$ and electric vector polarization angle $\psi_{2-4{\rm keV}} = -28.7 \pm 8.7^{\circ}$ in the time bin with highest estimated synchrotron flux contribution. We discuss possible implications of our observations, including previous {\it IXPE} BL Lacertae pointings, tentatively concluding that synchrotron self-Compton emission dominates over hadronic emission processes during the observed epochs., Comment: Accepted to ApJL. 16 pages, 8 figures

Full list of authors: Forsblom, Sofia; Poutanen, Juri S.; Tsygankov, Sergey; Bachetti, Matteo; Marco, Alessandro Di; Doroshenko, Victor; Heyl, Jeremy; Monaca, Fabio La; Malacaria, Christian L.; Marshall, Herman; Muleri, Fabio A.; Mushtukov, Alexander; Pilia, Maura; Rogantini, Daniele F.; Suleimanov, Valery; Taverna, Roberto; Xie, Fei; Agudo, Ivan A.; Antonelli, Lucio; Baldini, Luca H.; Baumgartner, Wayne; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano D.; Bongiorno, Stephen; Bonino, Raffaella; Brez, Alessandro; Bucciantini, Niccolo; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Chen, Chien-Ting; Ciprini, Stefano; Costa, Enrico; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Gesu, Laura; Di Lalla, Niccolo; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Dovciak, Michal R.; Ehlert, Steven; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo A.; Garcia, Javier; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Iwakiri, Wataru G.; Jorstad, Svetlana; Kaaret, Philip; Karas, Vladimir; Kitaguchi, Takao J.; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery; Krawczynski, Henric; Latronico, Luca; Liodakis, Ioannis; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Marin, Frederic; Marinucci, Andrea P.; Marscher, Alan; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Negro, Michela; Ng, Chi-Yung L.; O'Dell, Stephen; Omodei, Nicola; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro G.; Pavlov, George L.; Peirson, Abel; Perri, Matteo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier; Possenti, Andrea; Puccetti, Simonetta D.; Ramsey, Brian; Rankin, John; Ratheesh, Ajay J.; Roberts, Oliver W.; Romani, Roger; Sgro, Carmelo; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, Paolo; Spandre, Gloria A.; Sunyaev, Rashid A.; Swartz, Douglas; Tamagawa, Toru; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Tawara, Yuzuru F.; Tennant, Allyn E.; Thomas, Nicholas; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Turolla, Roberto; Vink, Jacco C.; Weisskopf, Martin; Wu, Kinwah; Zane, Silvia; IXPE Collaboration.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., The radiation from accreting X-ray pulsars was expected to be highly polarized, with some estimates for the polarization degree of up to 80%. However, phase-resolved and energy-resolved polarimetry of X-ray pulsars is required in order to test different models and to shed light on the emission processes and the geometry of the emission region. Here we present the first results of the observations of the accreting X-ray pulsar Vela X-1 performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Vela X-1 is considered to be the archetypal example of a wind-accreting, high-mass X-ray binary system, consisting of a highly magnetized neutron star accreting matter from its supergiant stellar companion. The spectropolarimetric analysis of the phase-averaged data for Vela X-1 reveals a polarization degree (PD) of 2.3% ± 0.4% at the polarization angle (PA) of −47fdg3 ± 5fdg4. A low PD is consistent with the results obtained for other X-ray pulsars and is likely related to the inverse temperature structure of the neutron star atmosphere. The energy-resolved analysis shows the PD above 5 keV reaching 6%–10% and a ∼90° difference in the PA compared to the data in the 2–3 keV range. The phase-resolved spectropolarimetric analysis finds a PD in the range 0%–9% with the PA varying between −80° and 40°. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a joint US and Italian mission. The US contribution is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led and managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), with industry partner Ball Aerospace (contract NNM15AA18C). The Italian contribution is supported by the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI) through contract ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0, agreements ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0 and ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0, and its Space Science Data Center (SSDC) with agreements ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0 and ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0, and by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy. This research used data products provided by the IXPE Team (MSFC, SSDC, INAF, and INFN) and distributed with additional software tools by the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). We acknowledge support from the RSF grant 19-12-00423 (SST), the Academy of Finland grants 333112, 349144, 349373, and 349906 (JP, SST), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) travel grant 57525212 (VD, VFS), and the German Research Foundation (DFG) grant WE 1312/53-1 (VFS)., With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2021-001131-S).

EGFR-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) due to primary mutation (EGFR DEL19L858R) has been recognized as a crucial mediator of tumor progression. This led to the development and approval of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which addresses EGFR-mediated NSCLC but fail to show potency after initial months of therapy due to acquired resistance (EGFR T790M, EGFR C797S). Extensive research allowed identification of drugs for EGFR-positive NSCLC, wherein the majority of compounds have a pyrimidine substructure offering marked therapeutic benefits compared with chemotherapy. This current review outlines the diverse pyrimidine derivatives with amino-linked and fused pyrimidine scaffolds such as furo-pyrimidine, pyrimido-pyrimidine, thieno-pyrimidine, highlighting pyrimidine EGFR TK inhibitors reported in research emphasizing structural aspects, design approaches, inhibition potential, selectivity profile toward mutant EGFR conveyed through biological evaluation studies. Furthermore, mentioning the in-silico interaction profile of synthesized compounds for evaluating the binding affinity with key amino acids. The epilogue of review focuses on the recent research that drives forward to aid in the discovery and development of substituted amino and fused scaffolds of pyrimidine that can counteract the mutations and effectively manage EGFR-positive NSCLC.

Solid waste management may be defined as the discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer, processing and disposal of solid waste. This paper presents the current status of solid waste management (SWM) system of Ganapathipuram town panchayat one of the municipalities of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. The study provides an overview of generation, segregation, collection, transportation, disposal and recycling of municipal solid waste with emphasis on assessment of the type and mode of waste disposal practices followed by the households. The main objective of the study is to identify the major problems and limitations that hinder improvement in the current SWM practices and finally suggest remedial measures. Basic information was gathered from municipality and representative ward members. A detailed field survey was carried out with documentary and photographic investigations and also using a questionnaire which was circulated among the households. The study reveals that the present system of SWM is inadequate, as the average collection efficiency is only 45%-50% of non-segregated waste.

In an X-ray pulsar, a neutron star accretes matter from a stellar companion through an accretion disk. The high magnetic field of the rotating neutron star disrupts the inner edge of the disc, funneling the gas to flow onto the magnetic poles on its surface. Hercules X-1 is in many ways the prototypical X-ray pulsar; it shows persistent X-ray emission and it resides with its companion HZ Her, a two-solar-mass star, at about 7~kpc from Earth1. Its emission varies on three distinct timescales2 the neutron star rotates every 1.2~seconds, it is eclipsed by its companion each 1.7~days, and the system exhibits a superorbital period of 35~days which has remained remarkably stable since its discovery3. Several lines of evidence point to the source of this variation as the precession of the accretion disc4,5, the precession of the neutron star6,7 or both8. Despite the many hints over the past fifty years, the precession of the neutron star itself has yet not been confirmed or refuted. We here present X-ray polarization measurements with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer9 (IXPE) which probe the spin geometry of the neutron star. These observations provide direct evidence that the 35-day-period is set by the free precession of the neutron star crust, which has the important implication that its moment of inertia eigenvalues differ fractionally by a few parts per ten million10. Furthermore, we find indications that the basic spin geometry of the neutron star is altered by torques on timescale of a few hundred days.

SME sector is the key area for marking the economic growth in our country. The rise in the SME sector plays an important role, especially in a developing country like our country India. The primary data needed for the study has been collected through well structured questionnaire. The sample size of 105 respondents was selected from Coimbatore District. The selected samples were tabulated and analysed analyzed using simple percentage, Chi square test, standard deviation and ANOVA. The study concluded that Indian Government and Tamil Nadu Government have taken various efforts to improve the economy by providing relief measures to the SME units to increase their number vis-àvis improving employment opportunity, exports and Country’s GDP., {"references":["1.\tSonnenfeld, Jeffrey A. (September 2002). What Makes Great Boards Great. Harvard Business Review, pp. 106-13. 199. 2.\tLindsay, Noel J.; and Justin Craig. (Winter 2002). A Framework for Understanding Opportunity Recognition. The Journal of Private Equity. pp. 13-24. 133. 3.\tLing-yee, Li; and Gabriel O. Ogunmokun. (2001). Effect of Export Financing Resources and Supply-Chain Skills on Export Competitive Advantages: Implications for Superior Export Performance. Journal of World Business, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 260-79. 134. 4.\tLodish, Leonard. (May-June 2001). Building Marketing Models That Make Money. Interfaces, vol. 31, no. 3, part 2, pp. S45-S55. 5.\tMichael, Steven C. (2000).Investment to Create Bargaining Power: The Case of Franchising. Strategic Management Journal, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 497-517. 148. 6.\tMichael, Steven C. (2003). First Mover Advantage through Franchising. Journal of Business Venturing. Vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 61-81. 149. 7.\tMinerm, J.; R. Norman; and J. S. Brecker. (1992). Defining the Inventor-Entrepreneur in the Context of Established Typologies. Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 103-13. 8.\tSorenson, Olav; and Toby E. Stuart. (2001). Syndication Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Venture Capital Investments. American Journal of Sociology, vol. 106, no. 6, pp. 1546-88. 9.\tK. Veerakumar & A. Dinesh Kumar, \"People Preference towards Organic Products\", International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, Volume 4, Issue 7, Page Number 73-75, 2017. 10.\tK. Veerakumar & A. Dinesh Kumar, \"Challenges of Agricultural Development\", International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies , Volume 4, Issue 5, Page Number 76-79, 2017. 11.\tR. Sindhuja & A. Dinesh Kumar, \"A Study on the Level of Work-Life Balance among Medical Representatives\", International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, Volume 5, Issue 12, Page Number 28-33, 2018."]}

Muttusvami Dikshitar, who is one of the Trinity of Carnatic Music, was born in Thiruvarur. He was a great Devi Upasaka and out of his devotion to Kamalāmba, the celebrated deity at the famous Tyagaraja temple in Thiruvarur, Dikshitar has composed nine compositions on Goddess Kamalāmbika. These compositions show his proficiency in the Sanskrit language, especially Sri Cakra and its Āvaraṇa-s. Though these compositions are nine in number, they are preceded by a Dhyana kṛti and succeeded by a Mangala kṛti. Navāvaraṇa kirtan-s are composed based on the Vibhakti (case ending) of Sanskrit grammar. Muttusvami Dikshitar’s devotional outpourings towards Goddess Kamalāmba can be seen in these compositions. The composition ‘Sri Kamalāmbikayā’ composed in the raga Śankarabharanam is taken here for analysis. This is an attempt to analyse the melodic, rhythmical, textual and philosophical aspects of the particular composition

Full list of authors: Taverna, Roberto; Turolla, Roberto; Muleri, Fabio; Heyl, Jeremy; Zane, Silvia; Baldini, Luca; Gonzalez-Caniulef, Denis; Bachetti, Matteo; Rankin, John; Caiazzo, Ilaria; Di Lalla, Niccolo; Doroshenko, Victor; Errando, Manel; Gau, Ephraim; Kirmizibayrak, Demet; Krawczynski, Henric; Negro, Michela; Ng, Mason; Omodei, Nicola; Possenti, Andrea; Tamagawa, Toru; Uchiyama, Keisuke; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Agudo, Ivan; Antonelli, Lucio A.; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Bonino, Raffaella; Brez, Alessandro; Bucciantini, Niccolo; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Ciprini, Stefano; Costa, Enrico; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Gesu, Laura; Di Marco, Alessandro; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Doviak, Michal; Ehlert, Steven R.; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Garcia, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Iwakiri, Wataru; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Karas, Vladimir; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; La Monaca, Fabio; Latronico, Luca; Liodakis, Ioannis; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Marin, Frederic; Marinucci, Andrea; Marscher, Alan P.; Marshall, Herman L.; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Ng, Stephen C-Y; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro; Pavlov, George G.; Peirson, Abel L.; Perri, Matteo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Pilia, Maura; Poutanen, Juri; Puccetti, Simonetta; Ramsey, Brian D.; Ratheesh, Ajay; Romani, Roger W.; Sgro, Carmelo; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, Paolo; Spandre, Gloria; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Tawara, Yuzuru; Tennant, Allyn F.; Thomas, Nicolas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Tsygankov, Sergey; Vink, Jacco; Wu, Kinwah; Xie, Fei., Magnetars are neutron stars with ultrastrong magnetic fields, which can be observed in x-rays. Polarization measurements could provide information on their magnetic fields and surface properties. We observed polarized x-rays from the magnetar 4U 0142+61 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and found a linear polarization degree of 13.5 ± 0.8% averaged over the 2– to 8–kilo–electron volt band. The polarization changes with energy: The degree is 15.0 ± 1.0% at 2 to 4 kilo–electron volts, drops below the instrumental sensitivity ~4 to 5 kilo–electron volts, and rises to 35.2 ± 7.1% at 5.5 to 8 kilo–electron volts. The polarization angle also changes by 90° at ~4 to 5 kilo–electron volts. These results are consistent with a model in which thermal radiation from the magnetar surface is reprocessed by scattering off charged particles in the magnetosphere. © 2022 The Authors., R.Ta. and R.Tu. acknowledge financial support from the Italian MUR through grant PRIN 2017LJ39LM. J.H., D.G.-C., I.C., and D.K. acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), funding reference number 5007110, and the Canadian Space Agency. D.G.-C. is a Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysical (CITA) National Fellow (grant no. CITA 490888-16). E.G. and H.K. acknowledge NASA support under grants 80NSSC18K0264, 80NSSC22K1291, 80NSSC21K1817, and NNX16AC24G. M.Ne. acknowledges support from NASA under award 80GSFC21M0002. T.T. was supported by grant JSPS KAKENHI JP19H05609. F.Mu., J.R., S.B., E.Co., E.D.M., A.D.M., Y.E., S.F., R.F., F.L.M., G.M., M.Pe., A.R., P.So., and A.T. were supported by ASI and INAF under grants ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0 and ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0. L.B., L.L., R.Be., R.Bo., A.B., S.Ca., S.M., A.Mar., C.O., M.P.-R., C.S., and G.S. were supported by ASI and INFN under grants ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0 and ASI-INFN-2021-43-HH.0., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based genomic disruption of vascular endothelial growth factor A (Vegfa) with a single gRNA suppresses choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in preclinical studies, offering the prospect of long-term anti-angiogenesis therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Genome editing using CRISPR-CRISPR-associated endonucleases (Cas9) with multiple guide RNAs (gRNAs) can enhance gene-ablation efficacy by augmenting insertion-deletion (indel) mutations with gene truncations but may also increase the risk of off-target effects. In this study, we compare the effectiveness of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated CRISPR-Cas9 systems using single versus paired gRNAs to target two different loci in the Vegfa gene that are conserved in human, rhesus macaque, and mouse. Paired gRNAs increased Vegfa gene-ablation rates in human cells invitro but did not enhance VEGF suppression in mouse eyes invivo. Genome editing using paired gRNAs also showed a similar degree of CNV suppression compared with single-gRNA systems. Unbiased genome-wide analysis using genome-wide unbiased identification of double-stranded breaks (DSBs) enabled by sequencing (GUIDE-seq) revealed weak off-target activity arising from the second gRNA. These findings suggest that invivo CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing using two gRNAs may increase gene ablation but also the potential risk of off-target mutations, while the functional benefit of targeting an additional locus in the Vegfa gene as treatment for neovascular retinal conditions is unclear.

The present study aims to investigate the contamination of heavy metals in the sediments of a tropical ecosystem, India, and to evaluate the factors responsible for the dominance of specific macrobenthic communities, particularly in estuarine sediments. For the analysis of Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb and Cd in sediments, acid digestion and subsequent quantification by microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy was performed, whereas for Hg determination, cold vapour atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used. The general trend of the heavy metal concentration was observed as Cr Cu Zn Ni Pb Cd Hg, regardless of any seasonal alteration. The estuarine region was considerably contaminated by Cu and Cr (C.F. 2) irrespective of any seasonal difference, and by Cd in 2017 non-monsoon (CF 3). Heavy metal contamination was most pronounced during the monsoon (2018). Estuarine and marine zone together considered as deteriorated zone especially during monsoon seasons (PLI 1, 2018 monsoon) while riverine zone remained poorly contaminated (PLI 1). Clay Loam/Clay/Heavy Clay textures preferred polychaetes and bivalves in the estuarine and marine zone as compared to other macrobenthic communities (OMC). Among the hydrochemical parameters, total dissolved solids in general and euryhaline and slightly alkaline pH preferred domination of bivalves followed by polychaetes in non-monsoon seasons. The trace metal contamination in estuarine sediments increases the concern of bioaccumulation tendency of dominant bivalves of the estuarine and coastal sediments.

In the current scenario, most countries are affected by COVID-19, a pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has a massive impact on human health. Previous studies showed that some traditionally used medicinal herbs and their combinations showed synergistic anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activity against SARS-CoV-2 type infections. Therefore, the goal of this study is to demonstrate the anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects of a novel polyherbal formulation, hereinafter referred to as Imusil, on Vero E6 cell lines and Raw 264.7 murine macrophage cells respectively. The Imusil was subjected to identify its chemical characterisations such as UV-Visible spectrum profile, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopic (GC-MS) analysis. FT-IR analysis of Imusil peak values with various functional compounds such as alcohol, esters, aliphatic and carboxylic acids. GC-MS analysis of compounds with totally 87 compounds major chemical compounds were identified, such as 3-(Octanoyloxy) propane-1,2-diyl bis(decanoate), Succinic acid, 2-methylhex-3-yl 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl ester, Neophytadiene, 3,5,9-Trioxa-4-phosphaheneicosan-1-aminium, 4-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethyl-10-oxo-7-[(1-oxododecyl)oxy]-, hydroxide, inner salt, 4-oxide, (R)-. The anti-viral activity of Imusil against SARS-CoV-2 was assessed using plaque reduction assay and anti-inflammatory study was conducted on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 cells. The results obtained from the study reveal that Imusil significantly inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells and the production of inflammatory mediator's cyclooxygenase-2 and pro-inflammatory cytokines like tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin- 6 were significantly reduced, along with thwarting the significant oxidative stress by preventing the expression of NOX-2 thereby inhibiting the reactive oxygen species formation. Hence, considering the current study as a novel strategy for mediating the COVID-19 associated aliments, inceptive scientific evidence of Imusil promises its potential therapeutic implications against COVID-19 and inflammatory conditions.

A minuscule structural change of CF3TP in solid-state impacts the solid-state fluorescence behaviour heavily. A detailed experimental proof for the geometric reorganization upon temperature change or mechanical grinding is described in the manuscript.