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Field experiment conducted during the kharif season 2016 at the Agricultural Research Farm, B.H.U., Varanasi, India to evaluate the bio-efficacy of newer insecticide formulations against yellow stem borers (YSB), Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker) infesting on rice crop. The experiment consisted nine treatments including control namely fipronil 5% + buprofezin 20EC, indoxacarb 10% + thiamethoxam 10WG, cypermethrin 10% + indoxacarb 10SE, buprofezin 20WG, indoxacarb 14.5SC, thiamethoxam 25 WG, chlorpyriphos 20EC, quinolphos 25EC and control. In the experiment two sprays, was carried out for the management of YSB. The overall data revealed that the all insecticidal treatments were significantly reduced the incidence of YSB (dead hearts and white ears) than the untreated control. The plot treated with fipronil 5% + buprofezin 20EC recorded the lowest per cent incidence of YSB in both, first and second spray (5.80% dead hearts and 3.71% white ears, respectively) followed by indoxacarb 10% + thiamethoxam 10WG (6.52% dead hearts and 5.68% white ears, respectively). The grain yield obtained from different treatments was ranged from 2160 to 4120 kg/ha. The highest yield was recorded from fipronil 5% + buprofezin 20EC treated plot (4120 kg/ha) followed by indoxacarb 10% + thiamethoxam 10WG (3910 kg/ha). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study entitled "Biology and Morphometry of E. vittella (F.) on okra" was conducted in the laboratory during October-November, 2015 and observations were recorded on the parameters viz., Incubation period, Hatching per centage, first, second, third and fourth instar duration, total larval period, pupal period, total development, sex ratio (M:F), preoviposition, oviposition, fecundity, post-oviposition, female and male longevity were recorded as 3.60 ±0.49, 78.6 ± 5.14%, 4±0.73, 2.26 ±0.45, 2.45 ±0.50, 2.76 ± 0.74, 11.46 ±1.15, 9.72 ± 1.49, 24.78 ±1.84, 1:1.4, 3.04 ±0.57, 5.91 ±1.14, 196.51 ±49.04 (number of eggs/female), 3.85 ±1.11, 12.80±1.76 and 10.33 ±1.83 days, respectively. The average length and breadth of different life stages of E. vitella (F.) viz., first, second, third, fourth instar and pupae were recorded as 1.73 ± 0.29, 3.07 ± 0.58, 6.86 ± 0.62, 12.81 ± 1.91 and 10.83 ± 0.70 respectively and 0.37 ± 0.10, 1.17 ± 0.37, 1.81 ± 0.20, 3.23 ± 0.41 and 3.31 ± 0.30, respectively. Egg diameter observed as 0.52 ± 0.02 mm. Female and male length recorded as 10.92 ± 0.78 and 9.89 ± 0.42 mm respectively. Female and male wing span observed as 22.16 ± 1.36 mm and 21.30 ± 1.32, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The supraclavicular approach of the brachial plexus has a high success rate including blockade of the ulnar and musculocutaneous nerve, which are often missed during interscalene and axillary approach. The present study evaluated and compared dexamethasone and tramadol as adjuvant to levobupivacaine in supraclavicular block. Materials & Methods: The present study was conducted on 50 patients of American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) grade I and II of age group 18 - 60 years of either sex. Patients were divided into 2 group of 25 each. Group I in which 30 ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine hydrochloride plus 2 ml tramadol (100mg) was used. Group II in which 30 ml of 0.5% Levobupivacaine hydrochloride plus 2 ml dexamethasone (8 mg) was used. A through clinical examination was performed. Sensory and motor block was assessed. Results: Duration of sensory block in group I was 12.81 hours and in group II was 15.34 hours, motor block was 14.24 hours in group I and 17.51 hours in group II. Duration of surgery was 114.2 hours in group I and 110.5 hours in group II. Duration of analgesia was 17.12 hours in group I and 19.16 hours in group II. The difference was significant (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Authors found that dexamethasone is a better adjuvant than tramadol when added to levobupivacaine in supraclavicular brachial plexus block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mean velocity distribution of open channel flows with fully submerged two-layered vegetation can be divided into three zones. Zone 1 represents the lower region of short vegetation, where the flow has high drag because of highly dense vegetation, Zone 2 represents the middle flow zone from the edge of the short vegetation to the top of the tall one, and Zone 3 denotes the upper region with the free surface flow. A new analytical model is developed based on the momentum equation of vegetated flow, where turbulent eddy viscosity is approximated as a linear relationship with local velocity. The analytical model was evaluated using seven experimental data sets under different flow conditions with distinctive densities and formations of vegetation. Three sets of data available from other researchers were also used to check the applicability of the proposed model. An agreement between the analytical model and experimental data indicates the validity and robustness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the three materials ability to prevent glucose leakage through root-end fillings: Ceramicrete, BioAggregate, and white ProRoot MTA (mineral trioxide aggregate). Materials and methods: Following root canal instrumentation, the apical 3 mm of maxillary incisors were resected and retro preparations, 3 mm in depth, were created with ultrasound. Rootend cavities were filled with the tested materials (15 roots per group). All roots were mounted in a double-chamber system to assess glucose penetration using 15 psi pressure application. After 1 h, glucose concentrations in the lower chamber were measured following an enzymatic reaction. Four roots were used as controls. One-way anova verified differences in glucose leakage between groups and Tukey test performed multiple comparisons. Significance was set at a = 5%. Results: There was a significant difference between the three materials (anova, P < 0.05). Ceramicrete had significantly lower glucose penetration than BioAggregate (Tukey, P < 0.05). There was no difference between the two bioceramic cements and white MTA (P > 0.05). Conclusions Both endodontic bioceramic repair cements displayed similar leakage results to white MTA when used as root-end fillings materials. Ceramicrete had significantly lower glucose penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesser trochanter fractures are rare in adult bones. Few cases have been reported in the literature. When fracture of lesser trochanter is met in patients with closed growth plates, it is likely to be precursor of a silent neoplastic process. A case of lesser trochanter fracture in middle aged female with traumatic aetiology is presented here, which came out to be non-pathological despite high degree of suspicion for contrary. Patient responded positively to conservative line of treatment. Correct evaluation and anticipation of further complication take precedence in case rather than rarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The neurological effects of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) raise concerns about potential long-term consequences, such as an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neuroinflammation and other AD-associated pathologies are also suggested to increase the risk of serious SARS-CoV-2 infection. Anosmia is a common neurological symptom reported in COVID-19 and in early AD. The olfactory mucosa (OM) is important for the perception of smell and a proposed site of viral entry to the brain. However, little is known about SARS-CoV-2 infection at the OM of individuals with AD. Methods: To address this gap, we established a 3D in vitro model of the OM from primary cells derived from cognitively healthy and AD individuals. We cultured the cells at the air–liquid interface (ALI) to study SARS-CoV-2 infection under controlled experimental conditions. Primary OM cells in ALI expressed angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), neuropilin-1 (NRP-1), and several other known SARS-CoV-2 receptor and were highly vulnerable to infection. Infection was determined by secreted viral RNA content and confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) in the infected cells by immunocytochemistry. Differential responses of healthy and AD individuals-derived OM cells to SARS-CoV-2 were determined by RNA sequencing. Results: Results indicate that cells derived from cognitively healthy donors and individuals with AD do not differ in susceptibility to infection with the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, transcriptomic signatures in cells from individuals with AD are highly distinct. Specifically, the cells from AD patients that were infected with the virus showed increased levels of oxidative stress, desensitized inflammation and immune responses, and alterations to genes associated with olfaction. These results imply that individuals with AD may be at a greater risk of experiencing severe outcomes from the infection, potentially driven by pre-existing neuroinflammation. Conclusions: The study sheds light on the interplay between AD pathology and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Altered transcriptomic signatures in AD cells may contribute to unique symptoms and a more severe disease course, with a notable involvement of neuroinflammation. Furthermore, the research emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to enhance outcomes for AD patients with viral infection. The study is crucial to better comprehend the relationship between AD, COVID-19, and anosmia. It highlights the importance of ongoing research to develop more effective treatments for those at high risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV2 pandemic exposed the limitations of artificial intelligence based medical imaging systems. Earlier in the pandemic, the absence of sufficient training data prevented effective deep learning (DL) solutions for the diagnosis of COVID-19 based on X-Ray data. Here, addressing the lacunae in existing literature and algorithms with the paucity of initial training data; we describe CovBaseAI, an explainable tool using an ensemble of three DL models and an expert decision system (EDS) for COVID-Pneumonia diagnosis, trained entirely on pre-COVID-19 datasets. The performance and explainability of CovBaseAI was primarily validated on two independent datasets. Firstly, 1401 randomly selected CxR from an Indian quarantine center to assess effectiveness in excluding radiological COVID-Pneumonia requiring higher care. Second, curated dataset; 434 RT-PCR positive cases and 471 non-COVID/Normal historical scans, to assess performance in advanced medical settings. CovBaseAI had an accuracy of 87% with a negative predictive value of 98% in the quarantine-center data. However, sensitivity was 0.66–0.90 taking RT-PCR/radiologist opinion as ground truth. This work provides new insights on the usage of EDS with DL methods and the ability of algorithms to confidently predict COVID-Pneumonia while reinforcing the established learning; that benchmarking based on RT-PCR may not serve as reliable ground truth in radiological diagnosis. Such tools can pave the path for multi-modal high throughput detection of COVID-Pneumonia in screening and referral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The human sweat is a mixture of secretions from three types of glands: eccrine, apocrine, and sebaceous. Eccrine glands open directly on the skin surface and produce high amounts of water-based fluid in response to heat, emotion, and physical activity, whereas the other glands produce oily fluids and waxy sebum. While most body fluids have been shown to contain nucleic acids, both as ribonucleoprotein complexes and associated with extracellular vesicles (EVs), these have not been investigated in sweat. In this study we aimed to explore and characterize the nucleic acids associated with sweat particles. Results: We used next generation sequencing (NGS) to characterize DNA and RNA in pooled and individual samples of EV-enriched sweat collected from volunteers performing rigorous exercise. In all sequenced samples, we identified DNA originating from all human chromosomes, but only the mitochondrial chromosome was highly represented with 100% coverage. Most of the DNA mapped to unannotated regions of the human genome with some regions highly represented in all samples. Approximately 5 % of the reads were found to map to other genomes: including bacteria (83%), archaea (3%), and virus (13%), identified bacteria species were consistent with those commonly colonizing the human upper body and arm skin. Small RNA-seq from EV-enriched pooled sweat RNA resulted in 74% of the trimmed reads mapped to the human genome, with 29% corresponding to unannotated regions. Over 70% of the RNA reads mapping to an annotated region were tRNA, while misc. RNA (18,5%), protein coding RNA (5%) and miRNA (1,85%) were much less represented. RNA-seq from individually processed EV-enriched sweat collection generally resulted in fewer percentage of reads mapping to the human genome (7–45%), with 50–60% of those reads mapping to unannotated region of the genome and 30–55% being tRNAs, and lower percentage of reads being rRNA, LincRNA, misc. RNA, and protein coding RNA. Conclusions: Our data demonstrates that sweat, as all other body fluids, contains a wealth of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA of human and microbial origin, opening a possibility to investigate sweat as a source for biomarkers for specific health parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of new therapies is hampered by the lack of predictive, and patient-relevant in vitro models. Organ-on-chip (OOC) technologies can potentially recreate physiological features and hold great promise for tissue and disease modeling. However, the non-standardized design of these chips and perfusion control systems has been a barrier to quantitative high-throughput screening (HTS). Here we present a scalable OOC microfluidic platform for applied kinetic in vitro assays (AKITA) that is applicable for high, medium, and low throughput. Its standard 96-well plate and 384-well plate layouts ensure compatibility with existing laboratory workflows and high-throughput data collection and analysis tools. The AKITA plate is optimized for the modeling of vascularized biological barriers, primarily the blood-brain barrier, skin, and lung, with precise flow control on a custom rocker. The integration of trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) sensors allows rapid and repeated monitoring of barrier integrity over long time periods. Together with automated liquid handling and compound permeability testing analyses, we demonstrate the flexibility of the AKITA platform for establishing human-relevant models for preclinical drug and precision medicine’s efficacy, toxicity, and permeability under near-physiological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The isolation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from milk, a complex mixture of colloidal structures having a comparable size to EVs, is challenging. Although ultracentrifugation (UC) has been widely used for EV isolation, this has significant limitations, including a long processing time at high g-force conditions and large sample volume requirements. We introduced a new approach based on nature nanoentities cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and short time and low g-force centrifugation to isolate EVs from various milk fractions. The flexible and entangled network of CNFs forms nanoporous, which entraps the EVs. Further, positively charged CNFs interact with anionic EVs through an electrostatic attraction, promoting their isolation with efficiency comparable with UC. The functionality and toxicity of isolated milk EVs were tested in Caco2 cells. Overall, the newly developed approach provides straightforward isolation and biocompatibility and preserves the natural properties of the isolated EVs, enabling further applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational development of more physiologic in vitro models includes the design of robust and flexible 3D-microtissue-based multi-tissue devices, which allow for tissue–tissue interactions. The developed device consists of multiple microchambers interconnected by microchannels. Pre-formed spherical microtissues are loaded into the microchambers and cultured under continuous perfusion. Gravity-driven flow is generated from on-chip reservoirs through automated chip-tilting without any need for additional tubing and external pumps. This tilting concept allows for operating up to 48 devices in parallel in order to test various drug concentrations with a sufficient number of replicates. For a proof of concept, rat liver and colorectal tumor microtissues were interconnected on the chip and cultured during 8 days in the presence of the pro-drug cyclophosphamide. Cyclophosphamide has a significant impact on tumor growth but only after bio-activation by the liver. This effect was only observed in the perfused and interconnected co-cultures of different microtissue types on-chip, whereas the discontinuous transfer of supernatant via pipetting from static liver microtissues that have been treated with cyclophosphamide did not significantly affect tumor growth. The results indicate the utility and multi-tissue functionality of this platform. The importance of continuous medium circulation and tissue interaction is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived endothelial cells (iECs) have emerged as a promising tool for studying vascular biology and providing a platform for modelling various vascular diseases, including those with genetic origins. Currently, primary ECs are the main source for disease modelling in this field. However, they are difficult to edit and have a limited lifespan. To study the effects of targeted mutations on an endogenous level, we generated and characterized an iPSC derived model for venous malformations (VMs). CRISPR-Cas9 technology was used to generate a novel human iPSC line with an amino acid substitution L914F in the TIE2 receptor, known to cause VMs. This enabled us to study the differential effects of VM causative mutations in iECs in multiple in vitro models and assess their ability to form vessels in vivo. The analysis of TIE2 expression levels in TIE2 L914F iECs showed a significantly lower expression of TIE2 on mRNA and protein level, which has not been observed before due to a lack of models with endogenous edited TIE2 L914F and sparse patient data. Interestingly, the TIE2 pathway was still significantly upregulated and TIE2 showed high levels of phosphorylation. TIE2 L914F iECs exhibited dysregulated angiogenesis markers and upregulated migration capability, while proliferation was not affected. Under shear stress TIE2 L914F iECs showed reduced alignment in the flow direction and a larger cell area than TIE2 WT iECs. In summary, we developed a novel TIE2 L914F iPSC-derived iEC model and characterized it in multiple in vitro models. The model can be used in future work for drug screening for novel treatments for VMs., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Riparian woodlands prevent bank erosions, recycle minerals, sustain biodiversity, act as flow resistance on floodplains, and filter pollutants. The emergent trees characterize woodlands with different spacing arrangements that dictate flow resistance and longitudinal dispersion of the pollutants in compound channel flow. The single- and multistage compound channels exist in urban and natural watercourses with riparian and transplanted trees on different stages of the floodplain. This study numerically validates the planting of vegetation in lines on single- and multistage floodplains using a wall-modeled large-eddy simulation model. Post-validation, the focus of the study was to assess the hydrodynamic behavior and mixing around the floodplain and main channel section of different tested configurations. The approximation of flow structures for the various configurations of tree plantations shows stronger vortices with significant characteristic length scales for floodplains closer to the main channel. The intensity of the secondary current is higher for denser planted trees at junctions of floodplains. For higher flow events, drag force contributions for staged floodplains with trees on both stages are 45-41%, and trees on the top stage contribute 27-22% to the total frictional force budget. The subsequent investigation shows that the in-line trees geometrical configuration and spacing arrangement on the floodplain dictates flow resistance and longitudinal dispersion of the pollutants and contamination in channel flow. The results show that the overall reduction in discharge for floodplains with tree planting is 19.8-36.2% for single-stage and 10.4-23.6% for multistage compound channels. The longitudinal dispersion coefficients for each multi-zone model predict a 61% and 41% dispersion reduction, respectively, in single- and multistage floodplains with planted trees. Floodplains with denser tree spacing have a maximum zonal discharge reduction of 45% for a single-stage and 27.2% and 28.0% for multistage channels. These findings strongly suggest that the planting parameters of spacing-to-diameter ratio and floodplain geometry play a pivotal role in floodplain management from the perspective of contaminant dispersion and flood risk reduction during high-flow events., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)