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Summary Background/Aims Methods Results Conclusions Patients with hepatocellular cancer (HCC) are vulnerable to psychological distress given a new cancer diagnosis superimposed on pre‐existing chronic liver disease. We aimed to characterise the psychiatric burden in HCC, risk factors for incident diagnosis and treatment patterns over time.Using IQVIA PharMetrics® Plus for Academics—a nationally representative claims database of the commercially insured US population—we identified psychiatric diagnoses and treatment among patients with newly diagnosed HCC. Multivariable logistic regression modelling identified factors associated with psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.Of 11,609 patients with HCC, 2166 (18.6%) had a psychiatric diagnosis after cancer diagnosis with depression (58.3%) and anxiety (53.0%) being most common. Women (aOR 1.33, 95% CI [1.19–1.49]), pre‐existing psychiatric diagnoses (aOR 9.12 [8.08–10.3]) and HCC treatment type (transplant: aOR 2.15 [1.66–2.77]; locoregional therapies: aOR 1.74 [1.52–1.99]; hospice: aOR 2.43 [1.79–3.29]) were significantly associated with psychiatric diagnosis. Female sex, ascites, higher comorbidity and treatment type were associated with incident psychiatric diagnosis. Pharmacotherapy was used in 1392 (64.3%) patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, with antidepressants (46.2%) and anxiolytics (32.8%) being most common. Psychiatric diagnoses increased from 14.8% in 2006–2009 to 21.1% in 2018–2021 (p < 0.001). In almost 20% of patients with pre‐existing psychiatric conditions, therapy was discontinued after HCC diagnosis.Nearly 2 of 10 patients with HCC were diagnosed with a psychiatric condition after cancer diagnosis with unique sociodemographic and clinical risk factors identified. This highlights a risk for increased psychological burden in need of early evaluation and treatment among patients with newly diagnosed HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retirement decision can significantly affect an individual's well‐being for many years. There are many reasons and issues for retirement decision for a government official. Financial and health concerns are a major part of the retirement decision but there are other issues that bring about the retirement decision that are unrelated to an individual's financial and health status. In Nepal, majority of government workers have compulsory retirement due to age concern. To study the profile of the retired employees and their perception toward retirement. A descriptive cross‐sectional research methodology was used in this study. About 85% (out of 105) of the retired employees attending Pension Management Office were male, which was due to the absence of female inclusiveness in employment before 2006. There were several reasons for retirement. The most common reason for being retired was the compulsory retirement, which was followed by the reasons of poor health and family problems, each counting about 14.2%. Most of the retired employees, that is, 48.5% (51) rated the retirement program as fair and about 42% (44) rated it as poor. Preserving the skilled and productive manpower in civil service is equally important as the nation has greater effort in building them up in terms of career and capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: Detection of bacteria‐specific metabolism via positron emission tomography (PET) is an emerging strategy to image human pathogens, with dramatic implications for clinical practice. In silico and in vitro screening tools have recently been applied to this problem, with several monosaccharides including l‐arabinose showing rapid accumulation in Escherichia coli and other organisms. Our goal for this study was to evaluate several synthetically viable arabinofuranose‐derived 18F analogs for their incorporation into pathogenic bacteria. PROCEDURES: We synthesized four radiolabeled arabinofuranose‐derived sugars: 2‐deoxy‐2‐[18F]fluoro‐arabinofuranoses (d‐2‐18F‐AF and l‐2‐18F‐AF) and 5‐deoxy‐5‐[18F]fluoro‐arabinofuranoses (d‐5‐18F‐AF and l‐5‐18F‐AF). The arabinofuranoses were synthesized from 18F‐ via triflated, peracetylated precursors analogous to the most common radiosynthesis of 2‐deoxy‐2‐[18F]fluoro‐d‐glucose ([18F]FDG). These radiotracers were screened for their uptake into E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Subsequently, the sensitivity of d‐2‐18F‐AF and l‐2‐18F‐AF to key human pathogens was investigated in vitro. RESULTS: All 18F radiotracer targets were synthesized in high radiochemical purity. In the screening study, d‐2‐18F‐AF and l‐2‐18F‐AF showed greater accumulation in E. coli than in S. aureus. When evaluated in a panel of pathologic microorganisms, both d‐2‐18F‐AF and l‐2‐18F‐AF demonstrated sensitivity to most gram‐positive and gram‐negative bacteria. CONCLUSIONS: Arabinofuranose‐derived 18F PET radiotracers can be synthesized with high radiochemical purity. Our study showed absence of bacterial accumulation for 5‐substitued analogs, a finding that may have mechanistic implications for related tracers. Both d‐2‐18F‐AF and l‐2‐18F‐AF showed sensitivity to most gram‐negative and gram‐positive organisms. Future in vivo studies will evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of these radiotracers in animal models of infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Na+-dependent glutamate transporter GLT-1 (EAAT2) shows selective expression in astrocytes, and neurons induce the expression of GLT-1 in astrocytes. In an unpublished analysis of GLT-1 promoter reporter mice, we identified an evolutionarily conserved domain of 467 nucleotides ~ 8 kb upstream of the GLT-1 translation start site that is required for astrocytic expression. Using in silico approaches, we identified Pax6 as a transcription factor that could contribute to the control of GLT-1 expression by binding within this region. We demonstrated the expression of Pax6 protein in astrocytes in vivo. Lentiviral transduction of astrocytes with exogenous Pax6 increased the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein ( eGFP) in astrocytes prepared from transgenic mice that use a bacterial artificial chromosome containing a large genomic region surrounding the GLT-1 gene to control expression of eGFP. It also increased GLT-1 protein and GLT-1-mediated uptake, whereas there was no effect on the levels of the other astroglial glutamate transporter, glutamate aspartate transporter (GLAST). Transduction of astrocytes with an sh RNA directed against Pax6 reduced neuron-dependent induction of GLT-1 or eGFP. Finally, we confirmed Pax6 interaction with the predicted DNA-binding site in electrophoretic mobility assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation (Ch IP). Together, these studies show that Pax6 contributes to the regulation of GLT-1 through an interaction with these distal elements and identify a novel role of Pax6 in astrocyte biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglia, the primary resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), exhibit dynamic behavior involving rapid process motility and cellular migration that is thought to underlie key functions of immune surveillance and tissue repair. Although age-related changes in microglial activation have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases of aging, how dynamic behavior in microglia is influenced by aging is not fully understood. In this study, we employed live imaging of retinal microglia in situ to compare microglial morphology and behavioral dynamics in young and aged animals. We found that aged microglia in the resting state have significantly smaller and less branched dendritic arbors, and also slower process motilities, which probably compromise their ability to survey and interact with their environment continuously. We also found that dynamic microglial responses to injury were age-dependent. While young microglia responded to extracellular ATP, an injury-associated signal, by increasing their motility and becoming more ramified, aged microglia exhibited a contrary response, becoming less dynamic and ramified. In response to laser-induced focal tissue injury, aged microglia demonstrated slower acute responses with lower rates of process motility and cellular migration compared with young microglia. Interestingly, the longer term response of disaggregation from the injury site was retarded in aged microglia, indicating that senescent microglial responses, while slower to initiate, are more sustained. Together, these altered features of microglial behavior at rest and following injury reveal an age-dependent dysregulation of immune response in the CNS that may illuminate microglial contributions to age-related neuroinflammatory degeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thyroid hormone (TH) has a profound effect on astrocyte differentiation and maturation. Astrocytes cultured under TH-deficient conditions fail to transform from flat polygonal morphology to mature, process-bearing, stellate cells. Supplementation of physiological concentrations of TH initiate gradual transformation of the cells and the process takes ≈ 48 h to complete. The signal transduction pathways associated with TH-mediated maturation of astrocytes have been investigated. TH treatment caused an initial activation of protein kinase A (PKA), with a peak activity at 2 h which fell back to basal level there after. Although there was no visible change in morphology of the cells during the observed activation of PKA, it was sufficient to drive the process of transformation to completion, suggesting the involvement of downstream regulators of PKA. PKA inhibitors as well as the MEK inhibitor PD098059 attenuated the TH-induced morphological transformation. Further studies showed that TH treatment resulted in a biphasic response on the cellular phospho-MAP kinase (p-MAPK or p-ERK) level: an initial decline in the p-ERK level followed by an induction at 18–24 h, both of which could be blocked by a PKA inhibitor. Such sustained activation of p-ERK levels by TH at this later stage coincided with initiation of morphological differentiation of the astrocytes and appeared to be critical for the transformation of astrocytes. The nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor 7-NI inhibited this induction of p-ERK activity. Moreover, the induction was accompanied by a parallel increase in phospho-CREB activity which, however, persisted at the end of the transformation of the astroglial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of complexity has become pivotal in multiple disciplines, including quantum information, where it serves as an alternative metric for gauging the chaotic evolution of a quantum state. This paper focuses on Krylov complexity, a specialized form of quantum complexity that offers an unambiguous and intrinsically meaningful assessment of the spread of a quantum state over all possible orthogonal bases. This study is situated in the context of Gaussian quantum states, which are fundamental to both Bosonic and Fermionic systems and can be fully described by a covariance matrix. While the covariance matrix is essential, it is insufficient alone for calculating Krylov complexity due to its lack of relative phase information is shown. The relative covariance matrix can provide an upper bound for Krylov complexity for Gaussian quantum states is suggested. The implications of Krylov complexity for theories proposing complexity as a candidate for holographic duality by computing Krylov complexity for the thermofield double States (TFD) and Dirac field are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Submerged citric acid (CA) bioproduction was carried out by Aspergillus niger NRRL-567 using various industrial wastes, such as brewery spent liquid (BSL), lactoserum and starch industry water sludge. CA bioproduction was carried out by varying the temperature (25-35 °C), pH (3-5), addition of inducers, incubation time and supplementation with different proportions of apple pomace ultrafiltration sludge (APS). The results indicated that under the best conditions with 3% (v/v) methanol, the optimal concentration of 11.34 g L−1 CA was recorded using BSL at pH 3.5 and temperature 30 °C after 120-h incubation period. Supplementation of methanol resulted in an increase of 56% CA production. Meanwhile, under similar conditions, higher concentration of 18.34 g L−1 CA was reported with the supplementation of BSL with 40% (v/v) APS having suspended solids concentration of 30 g L−1. The present study demonstrated the potential of BSL supplemented with APS as an alternative cheap substrate for CA fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deteriorating soil health, diminishing soil organic carbon (SOC), development of subsurface hard compact layer and declining system productivity are barriers to achieving sustainable production in the traditional rice–wheat cropping system (TA) in the eastern Indo‐Gangetic Plain of India. Conservation agriculture (CA), which favours minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop diversification could be a viable alternative to the TA to address most of those major problems. With that in mind, a long‐term experiment is being implemented at ICAR‐RCER, Patna, Bihar, India, with four treatments: (a) TA, (b) full CA (fCA) and (c and d) partial CA (pCA1 and pCA2), differing in crop establishment methods, cropping system and crop residue management in a randomized complete block design. Measurement of soil health parameters was carried out in the 11th year of the experiment. The results revealed a beneficial effect of CA and 46 and 40% increase in SOC concentration and stock, respectively, under fCA over TA in the 0–7.5‐cm soil layer. The effect of partial CA (pCA1 and pCA2) was variable, but an increasing trend was always observed under pCA compared to TA. There was an enrichment in SOC content of aggregates under CA irrespective of size class; however, no relation was found between SOC content and aggregate diameter. The contribution of macroaggregates to SOC stock was larger (36–66%) under CA in the 0–7.5‐cm soil layer. Adoption of CA improved the macroaggregate content, MWD and GMD of aggregates, and aggregation ratio. Soil macropore content was greater under fCA, whereas other parameters were similar among treatments. The impact of CA was mostly limited to 0–7.5 cm soil layer and a maximum up to 15 cm soil depth while evaluation until 60 cm soil depth was realized. The yield of rice in CA was comparable to or higher than in TA, whereas the system rice equivalent yield was always higher (38–53%) under CA than under the conventional practices. Therefore, a CA‐based cropping system must be encouraged, to increase SOC status, improve aggregation stability and, consequently, sustain or increase system productivity, in order to achieve food and nutritional security in the eastern Indo‐Gangetic Plain of India. Highlights: Effects of long‐term conservation agriculture (CA) on soil C, aggregation and yield were evaluated.CA improved SOC concentration and stock by 46 and 40%, as well as macroaggregate SOC stock by 36–66%.Macro‐aggregation and mean weight diameter improved in CA but was mostly limited to a shallow soil depth.CA can be promoted for sustainability of a rice–wheat system due to higher productivity (38–53%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, sequential nitrification and anoxic experiments in synthetic municipal wastewater were exposed to 0.5 to 100 mg/L of chlortetracycline for 24 h to evaluate acute impact on the nitrification, and denitrification processes of biological treatment. Both processes were significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited at >50 mg/L of chlortetracycline, and the results revealed that nitrification was adversely affected by chlortetracycline compared with the anoxic process. In nitrification, chemical oxygen removal (COD) and ammonia oxidation kinetics were 50% inhibited at 10 mg chlortetracycline/L, and nitrite oxidation kinetics at 0.5 mg chlortetracycline/L. Likewise, in the anoxic process, 14 and 10 mg/L of chlortetracycline inhibited 50% of COD removal and nitrate reduction kinetics, respectively. In nitrification and denitrification, 90% of chlortetracycline was removed by adsorbing onto sludge suspended solids. In addition, a higher chlortetracycline concentration in anoxic effluent, compared with aerobic effluents, indicated a dissimilarity in the composition of sludge solids, pH, and biomass production for both processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipase is one of the most widely used enzymes and plays an important role in biotechnological and industrial processes including food, paper, and oleochemical industries, as well as in pharmaceutical applications. However, its aqueous solubility and instability make its application relatively difficult and expensive. The immobilization technique is often used to improve lipase performance, and the strategy has turned out to be a promising method. Immobilized lipase on nanomaterials (NMs) has shown superiority to the free lipase, such as improved thermal and pH stability, longer stable time, and the capacity of being reused. However, immobilization of lipase on NMs also sometimes causes activity loss and protein loading is relatively lowered under some conditions. The overall performance of immobilized lipase on NMs is influenced by mechanisms of immobilization, type of NMs being used, and physicochemical features of the used NMs (such as particle size, aggregation behavior, NM dimension, and type of coupling/modifying agents being used). Based on the specific features of lipase and NMs, this review discusses the recent developments, some mechanisms, and influence of NMs on lipase immobilization and their activity. Multiple application potential of the immobilized lipases has also been considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of different types of agitation (i) continuous agitation ( C); (ii) continuous, discontinuous, continuous agitation ( C/ D/ C); (iii) discontinuous, continuous, discontinuous agitation ( D/ C/ D) and aeration (0.87, 1.25, 1.66 vvm) on ligninolytic enzyme production and polyphenolic compounds extraction by solid-state cultures of Phanerochaete chrysosporium BKM- F-1767 was investigated. Higher production of manganese peroxidase ( Mn P) (1690.3 ± 87.6), lignin peroxidase ( Li P) (387.9 ± 14.3) and laccase (898.9 ± 53.3 U gds−1) and liberation of total polyphenolics (ranging from 12.22 ± 1.1 to 30.12 ± 0.88 mg gallic acid equivalents per gram DW) was obtained after 195, 147, 219 and 204 h of fermentation, respectively, using 1.66 vvm as airflow and ( C/ D/ C) agitation mode. Maximal enzyme production and total polyphenolic content were influenced by aeration, and higher values were obtained using 1.66 vvm as airflow rate, followed by 1.25 and 0.83 vvm, respectively. They were also influenced by agitation, and maximal values were obtained using C/ D/ C, followed by D/ C/ D and continuous agitation, respectively. The agitation modes influenced the production of ligninolytic enzymes and simultaneous extraction of polyphenols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The citric acid ( CA) industry is currently struggling to develop a sustainable and economical process owing to high substrate and energy costs. Increasing interest in the replacement of costly synthetic substrates by renewable waste biomass has fostered research on agro-industrial wastes and screening of raw materials for economical CA production. The food-processing industry generates substantial quantities of waste biomass that could be used as a valuable low-cost fermentation substrate. The present study evaluated the potential of different agro-industrial wastes, namely apple pomace ( AP), brewer's spent grain, citrus waste and sphagnum peat moss, as substrates for solid state CA production using Aspergillus niger NRRL 2001. Results Among the four substrates, AP resulted in highest CA production of 61.06 ± 1.9 g kg−1 dry substrate ( DS) after a 72 h incubation period. Based on the screening studies, AP was selected for optimisation studies through response surface methodology ( RSM). Maximum CA production of 312.32 g kg−1 DS was achieved at 75% (v/w) moisture and 3% (v/w) methanol after a 144 h incubation period. The validation of RSM-optimised parameters in plastic trays resulted in maximum CA production of 364.4 ± 4.50 g kg−1 DS after a 120 h incubation period. Conclusion The study demonstrated the potential of AP as a cheap substrate for higher CA production. This study contributes to knowledge about the future application of carbon rich agro-industrial wastes for their value addition to CA. It also offers economic and environmental benefits over traditional ways used to dispose off agro-industrial wastes. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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