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Diffuse low-grade gliomas (LGG) are tumours of the glial tissue, which are generally slow-growing, but have the potential to undergo anaplastic progression into more aggressive tumours. Diffuse low-grade gliomas (LGG) represent a heterogeneous group of primary brain tumour arising from supporting glial cells. The role of surgery in the management of human low- gliomas has been controversial. The current adjuvant therapies have facilitated treatment of patients, and have rendered neurosurgical removal without morbidity or mortality more commonplace than ever before. Here, we investigated the role of neurosurgery in the management of adults with low-grade gliomas. The management of low- grade glioma is one of the most controversial areas in clinical neuro-oncology. The concept of management of low-grade gliomas is not unitary but much more a composite of different challenges depending on the clinical presentation, signs, neuroradiology, perspectives of neurologists, the opinion of the neurosurgeon, and perhaps most importantly, the aspirations of the patient. It is true therefore that in many patients there will be a dilemma about what is considered optimal management since there is no good evidence base to underpin any single management. Even though there is substantial evidence which claims that surgery have a role to play in extending patient survival.

Existing parenteral SARS-CoV-2 vaccines produce only limited mucosal responses, which are essential for reducing transmission and achieving sterilizing immunity. Appropriately designed mucosal boosters could overcome the shortcomings of parenteral vaccines and enhance pre- existing systemic immunity. Here we present a new protein subunit nanovaccine using multiadjuvanted (e.g. RIG-I: PUUC, TLR9: CpG) polysaccharide-amino acid-lipid nanoparticles (PAL-NPs) that can be delivered both intramuscularly (IM) and intranasally (IN) to generate balanced mucosal-systemic SARS-CoV-2 immunity. Mice receiving IM-Prime PUUC+CpG PAL- NPs, followed by an IN-Boost, developed high levels of IgA, IgG, and cellular immunity in the lung, and showed robust systemic humoral immunity. Interestingly, as a purely intranasal vaccine (IN-Prime/IN-Boost), PUUC+CpG PAL-NPs induced stronger lung-specific T cell immunity than IM-Prime/IN-Boost, and a comparable IgA and neutralizing antibodies, although with a lower systemic antibody response, indicating that a fully mucosal delivery route for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may also be feasible. Our data suggest that PUUC+CpG PAL-NP subunit vaccine is a promising candidate for generating SARS-CoV-2 specific mucosal immunity.

Background and Aims Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) leads to multiple hospitalizations in liver cirrhosis. This imposes a significant burden on patients caregivers, and the healthcare system. Rifaximin reduces HE recurrence and hospitalizations, but many patients are not able to receive Rifaximin promptly after hospitalizations due to gaps in the prior authorization process and insurance coverage. This study shows the results of the Quality Improvement (QI) project aimed at improving access to Rifaximin by utilization of hospital pharmacy to provide Rifaximin at bedside or soon after hospital discharge with HE. Methods A retrospective analysis of 124 patients admitted to our hospital with recurrent HE was performed. All selected patients had Rifaximin prescribed for the first time during a hospitalization (index hospitalization). Both 30-day and 60-day liver-related hospitalizations were recorded for these patients. 80 patients were included in the intervention group when the hospital pharmacy was notified of the Rifaximin prescription prior to discharge as part of a QI project (Group A). Control (Group-B) group included 44 patients who had admission and were prescribed Rifaximin at discharge, prior to initiation of our QI project. Results The number of patients who had a re-admission after index hospitalization with HE was lower in Group A compared to Group B (48% vs 73%, p=0.002 for re-admission within 30 days; 56% vs 73%, p=0.007 for re-admission within 60 days respectively). Total hospitalizations decreased in Group A (reduced by 32%, and 59% for the 30-day and 60-day time frame, respectively) compared to Group B. The median days to readmission in Group A was 32, compared to 10 in Group B after the index hospitalization. Conclusion Providing Rifaximin to patients with recurrent HE before or soon after discharge from HE-related hospitalization reduced readmission rates for liver-related admissions at our hospital. A significantly higher number of patients did not require early readmission when Rifaximin was provided by the hospital pharmacy. This intervention could lead to lower costs, fewer complications related to frequent hospitalization, and thus reduced healthcare burden.

Agriculture plays a vital role for any economy primarily for developing and under developed economies. Increasing abiotic as well as biotic stresses adversely affects crop productivity across the world. Microorganisms inhabiting the Rhizospheric region of plant soil are known to play an important role in alleviating these stresses, thus enhancing crop productivity and yield. The present study was carried out to isolate the Rhizospheric bacteria from Cyamopsis showing potential to tolerate abiotic and biotic stresses. To carry out this, bacteria were isolated from Rhizospheric soil of Cyamopsis which were collected from different regions of Gujarat. These isolates were screened for tolerance to different abiotic stresses such as temperature, pH, salt and drought. Highly abiotic stress tolerant isolates were further tested for biotic stress against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Among the 80 bacterial isolates, best grown 30 cultures were tested for different abiotic stress. Four cultures i.e. MN40, KM1, KM6 and AK17 showing high tolerance to abiotic stresses were further investigated for biotic stress tolerance. Selected cultures were tested for their antagonistic activity against pathogenic fungi viz., Macrophomina phaseolina, Fusarium oxysporium, Sclerotinum rolfissii and Trichoderma spp. Furthermore, antimicrobial activities of all 4 selected bacterial strains were tested against different test organisms viz., Gram negative bacteria (Salmonella typhi) and Gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus). Amongst the 4 selected bacterial strains, KM6 shows highest antagonistic activity.

We examine the effect of testing and social distancing measures on the severity of COVID19 across Indian states during the 68th day nationwide lockdown period. We also explore whether pre-existing socio-economic factors such as quality of health care and the ability to practice social distancing influences the effect of these policy measures across states. Using daily level data between April 1 and May 31 for 18 of the major states, we find that both testing and social distancing have a negative effect on COVID-19 fatalities in India. Further, testing is more helpful in reducing CFR for states with lower per capita health expenditure and weaker medical infrastructure. This highlights how ramping up testing can aid states that have a weak health care system through the detection of infection, contact tracing and isolation. In contrast, social distancing measures are more effective in states that are less populous and have lesser people dwelling in single-room houses. Our results confirm the role of pre-existing institutional factors in shaping the effect of policy actions on health outcomes.

Does the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) lead to better and more inclusive women representation in the workforce? We explore this question for India- a developing economy characterized by strong patriarchal norms and gender-based discrimination in the workforce. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey of 2014, we examine the effect of computerization, email usage and Internet services on three aspects of female representation- total female representation, representation across the hierarchy of workforce and quality of female representation. Using instrumental variable estimation models, we find that ICT adoption has a positive effect on the total share of women in the workforce. A deeper analysis reveals that the positive effect of ICTs on female employment is limited to the share of females in the highly skilled workforce. In contrast, it does not affect the female share in the low or unskilled workforce. This indicates that ICT adoption has a semi-polarization effect on women. We also find that ICT adoption is associated with better quality females in the workforce. Both rises in demand for skilled people and a women-friendly work environment drive these results. The overall findings establish the effective role of ICTs in enhancing women’s representation in the workforce.

Based on the resource-based view that identifies both CSR and innovation as resourceful and competitive advantage-generating activities, the current paper examines the effect of innovation spending...

Mobile software development is an emerging technology. The aim of working on this technology is to make it user-friendly and improve the user experience. This paper focuses on the advancing technology - Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). These apps combine the experience of both native and web applications. Progressive web apps are cross-platform developed which means that the app should function both on Android and iOS platform. While web/hybrid/native apps are costly to build, PWAs are way cheaper to build. These apps provide far better user experience than the conventional native/web/hybrid mobile applications. The service worker is the foundation of a PWA. Service Worker enables caching of assets and controls the network traffic. Manifest file lets the app to be installed on the user’s device. Different caching techniques are discussed in the paper and their performance has been monitored. The performance of the Progressive Web App is analyzed using Blazemeter as Remarkable growth has been seen in the performance of several business platforms after the implementation of progressive web apps. This paper assesses: (1). The difference in features of Native/Mobile Web/ Hybrid Web Mobile with PWAs, (2). Performance Analysis of the caching techniques in PWAs.

This article estimates the impact of a maternity cash transfer programme, Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, implemented in India since 2011, on fertility choices. Since the scheme restricts the benefits to the first two births, we ask whether there is an impact on the likelihood of birth post implementation and if this behaviour is driven by son preference. We also test whether the scheme has affected the likelihood of female births. Our results give evidence in support of ‘stopping rule’ and we find that treated households reduce births only when their first two births are sons. However, we do not find any statistically significant impact of the likelihood of a female birth. We further find that post the implementation of the scheme, mothers and children are less likely to get better care for higher order births. JEL Codes: J13, J18

Despite recent success in vaccinating populations against SARS-CoV-2, concerns about immunity duration, continued efficacy against emerging variants, protection from infection and transmission, and worldwide vaccine availability, remain. Although mRNA, pDNA, and viral-vector based vaccines are being administered, no protein subunit-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is approved. Molecular adjuvants targeting pathogen-recognition receptors (PRRs) on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) could improve and broaden the efficacy and durability of vaccine responses. Native SARS-CoV-2 infection stimulate various PRRs, including toll-like receptors (TLRs) and retinoic-acid-inducible gene I-like receptors (RIG-I). We hypothesized that targeting the same PRRs using adjuvants on nanoparticles along with a stabilized spike (S) protein antigen could provide broad and efficient immune responses. Formulations targeting TLR4 (MPLA), TLR7/8 (R848), TLR9 (CpG), and RIG-I (PUUC) delivered on degradable polymer-nanoparticles (NPs) were combined with the S1 subunit of S protein and assessed in vitro with isogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions (iso-MLRs). For in vivo studies, the adjuvanted nanoparticles were combined with stabilized S protein and assessed using intranasal and intramuscular prime-boost vaccination models in mice. Combination NP-adjuvants targeting both TLR and RIG-I (MPLA+PUUC, CpG+PUUC, or R848+PUUC) differentially increased proinflammatory cytokine secretion (IL-1β, IL-12p70, IL-27, IFN-β) by APCs cultured in vitro, and induced differential T cell proliferation. When delivered intranasally, MPLA+PUUC NPs enhanced local CD4+CD44+ activated memory T cell responses while MPLA NPs increased anti-S-protein-specific IgG and IgA in the lung. Following intramuscular delivery, PUUC-carrying NPs induced strong humoral immune responses, characterized by increases in anti-S-protein IgG and neutralizing antibody titers and germinal center B cell populations (GL7+ and BCL6+ B cells). MPLA+PUUC NPs further boosted S-protein-neutralizing antibody titers and T follicular helper cell populations in draining lymph nodes. These results suggest that SARS-CoV-2-mimicking adjuvants and subunit vaccines could lead to robust and unique route-specific adaptive immune responses and may provide additional tools against the pandemic.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

The current study examines the effect of a set of Electricity Act, adopted by India in 2003, on the price gap between two specific consumer groups-industrial and commercial. Paying a higher tariff than the other consumer groups, these two groups have been referred to as the ‘subsidizing’ groups of consumers in the Indian context. While the effect of reforms between the ‘subsidizing; ’ and subsidized’ groups has received attention, research on the effect of reforms on the tariff gap within the ‘subsidizing’ sector has been under-addressed. Using data on all major states of the country spanning from 2004-2014, the study uses a graphical exposition, excerpts of policy document and panel econometric modelling technique. The study focuses on six aspects of the policy and emphasizes on adoption and implementation extent and finds that mere policy adoption has no strong effect on tariff gap. Instead, effective implementation may be beneficial in narrowing the tariff gap within the subsidizing sectors as well. Specifically, unbundling of the electricity sector into three different segments and establishment of an independent regulatory authority in the state may lead to narrowing tariff gap if implemented effectively.

Progressive loss of glomerular podocytes during kidney disease leads to irreversible kidney failure, and is exacerbated by the fact that podocytes are terminally differentiated epithelial cells and unable to proliferate. Regeneration of lost podocytes must therefore derive from nonpodocyte sources. Human urine-derived renal progenitor cells (uRPCs) are attractive podocyte progenitors for cell therapy applications due to their availability from patient urine and ability to migrate to injured glomeruli and differentiate into de novo podocytes after intravenous administration. Because gene delivery has emerged as an important strategy to augment the functionality and survival of cell therapies prior to injection, in this work we optimized nonviral gene delivery conditions (cell density, DNA dose, % FBS, and transfection material composition) to primary uRPCs. Using the cationic polymer-peptide conjugate VIPER for gene delivery and the Sleeping Beauty transposon/transposase constructs for gene integration, we optimized transfection parameters to achieve efficient transgene expression (up to 55% transfected cells) and stable transgene expression (>65% integration efficiency) lasting up to 10 days. With these methods, we transfected uRPCs to overexpress CXCR4, an important chemokine receptor that mediates uRPC migration to the kidneys after intravenous injection, and demonstrate that CXCR4-uRPCs exhibit enhanced migration compared to mock-transfected cells.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is shaped by dynamic metabolic and immune interactions between precancerous and cancerous tumor cells and stromal cells like epithelial cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and hematopoietically-derived immune cells. The metabolic states of the TME, including the hypoxic and acidic niches, influence the immunosuppressive phenotypes of the stromal and immune cells, which confers resistance to both host-mediated tumor killing and therapeutics. Numerous in vitro TME platforms for studying immunotherapies, including cell therapies, are being developed. However, we do not yet understand which immune and stromal components are most critical and how much model complexity is needed to answer specific questions. In addition, scalable sourcing and quality-control of appropriate TME cells for reproducibly manufacturing these platforms remain challenging. In this regard, lessons from the manufacturing of immunomodulatory cell therapies could provide helpful guidance. Although immune cell therapies have shown unprecedented results in hematological cancers and hold promise in solid tumors, their manufacture poses significant scale, cost, and quality control challenges. This review first provides an overview of the in vivo TME, discussing the most influential cell populations in the tumor-immune landscape. Next, we summarize current approaches for cell therapies against cancers and the relevant manufacturing platforms. We then evaluate current immune-tumor models of the TME and immunotherapies, highlighting the complexity, architecture, function, and cell sources. Finally, we present the technical and fundamental knowledge gaps in both cell manufacturing systems and immune-TME models that must be addressed to elucidate the interactions between endogenous tumor immunity and exogenous engineered immunity.

Opinion Mining is a matter of great concern and an emerging research field of omnipresent computing. Nowadays, people find it very difficult to find the exact content which they have searched for due to the enormous amount of content found on google, YouTube etc. Using Machine Learning one can make the exact search and get the best match of the search without spending a lot of time which eventually leads to economizing time. Sentiment analysis systems are being applied in almost every business and social domain. It is primarily used to evaluate or analyse the commenter’s opinions, sentiments, emotions and attitude from a written piece/comment on a particular post/video.

Single-channel sleep EEG data from eight subjects have been analyzed using Lempel-Ziv complexity measure and alpha-delta and gamma-delta power ratios. Complexity values are consistently high during the waking state for all the subjects and low during the sleep state. Similarly, both the power ratios are high when the subjects are awake and become low during sleep. We have obtained an accuracy of 93.9% in classifying EEG epochs into data corresponding to sleep or awake states. The misclassification is mainly arising from the fact that both the complexity values and the power ratios during the REM sleep state are sometimes comparable to the waking state. By adding another signal such as electromyogram or electrooculogram, one maybe able to minimize the misclassification. The uniqueness of our work is that we have been able to achieve a good accuracy using only one EEG channel, two carefully chosen simple features and a linear classifier.

Features extracted from the electrooculogram (EOG) or electroencephalogram (EEG) are able to distinguish between waking and sleeping states of a person with 95.2% and 97.5% accuracy, respectively. Sleep EEG data of eight subjects from the Physionet database have been analyzed using 8th order autoregressive model and the model parameters have been used as features, along with Higuchi fractal dimension and sample entropy. Independently, features derived from EOG such as power in a particular band of frequencies and sum of absolute differences were also used. A combination of all these features obtains the maximum accuracy of 98% using 10-fold cross-validation, employing a support vector machine classifier with radial basis function as kernel. Knowing whether a person is awake or asleep is extremely important before presenting sensory stimuli to the patients with disorders of consciousness as a part of neurorehabilitation.

The outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus or the COVID-19 in various parts of the world has affected the world as a whole and caused millions of deaths. This remains an ominous warning to public health and will be marked as one of the greatest pandemics in world history. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how various Machine Learning models can be implemented in real-world situations. Apart from the analysis done on the world figures, this paper also analyzes the current trend or pattern of Covid-19 transmission in India. With the help of datasets from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, this study puts forward various trends and patterns experienced in different parts of the world. The data to be studied has been obtained for 154 days i.e. from January 22, 2020, till June 24, 2020. For future references, the data can be further analyzed, and more results can be obtained.

Mobile software development is an emerging technology. The aim of working on this technology is to make it user-friendly and improve the user experience. This paper focuses on the advancing technology - Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). These apps combine the experience of both native and web applications. Progressive web apps are cross-platform developed which means that the app should function both on Android and iOS platform. While web/hybrid/native apps are costly to build, PWAs are way cheaper to build. These apps provide far better user experience than the conventional native/web/hybrid mobile applications. The service worker is the foundation of a PWA. Service Worker enables caching of assets and controls the network traffic. Manifest file lets the app to be installed on the user’s device. Different caching techniques are discussed in the paper and their performance has been monitored. The performance of the Progressive Web App is analyzed using Blazemeter as Remarkable growth has been seen in the performance of several business platforms after the implementation of progressive web apps. This paper assesses: (1). The difference in features of Native/Mobile Web/ Hybrid Web Mobile with PWAs, (2). Performance Analysis of the caching techniques in PWAs.

Skin prick testing (SPT) is one of the most extensively used screening and diagnostic tool in contemporary allergy practice. It plays a vital role in diagnosis of type 1 hypersensitivity reaction in patients with rhinoconjunctivitis, asthma, urticaria, anapylaxis, atopic eczema and suspected food and drug allergy. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the pattern of allergenicity of aero-allergens and mites in the rural part of Eastern India using SPT. A total of 50 subjects (25 males and 25 females) were selected for the present study. Complete history and clinical symptoms were recorded according to ARIA guidelines. All the patients were subjected to SPT using 35 allergens. Positive sensitization was recorded in terms of frequency and measured in terms of maximum wheal diameter. The most common allergens observed were Gynandropsis gynandra (positive sensitization in 33 cases with wheal of 4.18 mm diameter) followed by Dermatophagoides farinae (25 cases, 6.12 mm diameter), Ageratum conyzoides (19 cases, 3.36 mm diameter), Cannabis sativa (17 cases, 3.52 mm diameter) and Cassia occidentalis (17 cases, 3.58 mm diameter). When the sensitivity was being compared between the most common allergens, statistical significance was obtained for Ageratum conyzoides and Cannabis sativa with Dermatophagoides farina (p value-0.0001). SPT is a reliable, minimally invasive procedure with immediate results useful in detection and promoting health of patients suffering from allergic rhinitis.

We report an acid-reversible linker for triggered release of Bis-T-23, an experimental small molecule drug for kidney disease treatment that restores podocyte morphology during disease. Bis-T-23 contains catechols, which form an acid-reversible, covalent boronate ester bond with boronic acids. We synthesized phenylboronic acid-containing polymers using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization that were able to directly load and solubilize Bis-T-23. Because of the reversibility of the boronic ester bond, drug was released in its native form in a pH-dependent manner. The polymers rapidly trafficked into acidic compartments and did not exhibit cytotoxicity, and polymer-drug conjugates successfully delivered Bis-T-23 into cultured podocytes.

Using panel data estimation for limited dependent variables and sample selection models, we identify political, industry specific, firm specific and macroeconomic variables which influenced the dec...