Search

Lentil (Lens culinaris), an annual plant of the Fabaceae family, is extensively cultivated in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. In India, it is cultivated in rabi season (winter) and is an important legume due to its highly nutritious nature. Thirty-seven distinct lentil (Lens culnaris Medik) genotypes were examined for 10 quantitative traits, including seed yield and its associated characters. Among them, the maximum contribution most towards genetic divergence was observed by 100 seed weight. Seven clusters were created based D2 values comprising of all the genotypes. The cluster analysis revealed that the number of genotypes in each cluster ranged from 1 to 22. The clustering pattern confirmed the non-correspondence among geospatial and genetic diversity. Due to the fact that clusters IV and VI (670.74) had the greatest inter-cluster distance, their members were very diverse from one another. Days to flower initiation (61.73), days to maturity (112.47), no. of pods per plant (128.51), biological yield per plant (26.46), harvest index (44.41), and seed yield per plant (11.65) were among the traits for which entries from Cluster VI recorded the highest values. As a result, the genotypes from clusters IV and VI might be used in a hybridization scheme to create genotypes with high yields.

The greengram, also known as mungbean or Vigna radiata L. Wilczek, is a significant pulse crop in India. Throughout India, it is mostly cultivated in subsistence agricultural systems. Even though it may be cultivated in three seasons across India, the average production is unbelievably low. The local germplasm has a significant genetic variation since the crop has developed in a wide variety of environmental settings. To comprehend the genetic variability and identification of distinct germplasm lines, a study was conducted on 300 green gram accessions utilising 14 quantitative traits. For pods per plant, pod clusters per plant, branches per plant, biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight, nodes per plant, harvest index, and seeds per pod, relatively high PCV and GCV were found. Additionally, an evaluation of the genetic advance (GA) and broad-sense heritability (h2) was done to select the most significant quantitative variables. Due to their high broad sense heritability (h2) and genetic advance, biological yield per plant, pods per plant, plant height, and harvest index were shown to be highly suited for mungbean breeding programmes. The breeder must typically utilise an appropriate breeding strategy to use these traits in subsequent breeding programmes.

Neuroinflammation is associated with activation of glial cells and pro-inflammatory arm of the central Renin Angiotensin System (RAS) namely, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme/Angiotensin II/Angiotensin Type 1 Receptor (ACE/Ang II/AT1R) axis. Apart from this, another axis of RAS also exists, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2/Angiotensin (1-7)/Mas Receptor (ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR), which counters ACE/Ang II/AT1R axis by showing anti-inflammatory properties. However, the role of ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR axis has not been explored in glial activation and neuroinflammation. Hence, the present study tries to unveil the role of ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR axis in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation using diminazene aceturate (DIZE), an ACE2 activator, in astroglial (C6) and microglial (BV2) cells as well as male SD rats. We found that ACE2 activation efficiently prevented LPS-induced changes by decreasing glial activation, inflammatory signaling, cell migration, ROS generation via upregulation of ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR signaling. In addition, activation of ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR axis by DIZE significantly suppressed the pro-inflammatory ACE/Ang II/AT1R axis by reducing Ang II level in neuroinflammatory conditions induced by LPS in both in vitro and in vivo. ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR axis activation further decreased mitochondrial depolarization and apoptosis, hence providing neuroprotection. Furthermore, to validate that the beneficial effect of the ACE2 activator was indeed through MasR, a selective MasR antagonist (A779) was used that significantly blocked the anti-inflammatory effect of ACE2 activation by DIZE. Hence, our study demonstrated that ACE2 activation imparted neuroprotection by enhancing ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR signaling which in turn decreased glial activation, neuroinflammation, and apoptosis and improved mitochondrial health.

Background: Lentil is an important legume crop that plays a vital role in sustainable agriculture and human health. However, the restricted genetic foundation or parentage of contemporary cultivars has arisen as a serious challenge for lentil development. Therefore, determining the genetic diversity and yield-related characteristics is crucial for the breeder to broaden the genetic base and aid in selecting the desirable parents for hybrid development programmes. Methods: In the current study, microsatellite markers were used for diversity analysis among 37 lentil genotypes. Morphological and molecular systems both were able to differentiate lentil genotypes. Among applied SSR primers 10 were able to produce successful amplifications with template DNA of all the studied genotypes of lentil. Result: A sum of 357 scoreable bands were produced, 148 of which accounted for 41.45% polymorphism. The UPGMA dendrogram grouped 37 lentil genotypes into 2 groups. PIC values ranged from 0.37 to 0.77. For this experiment, SSR 80, SSR 130, SSR 34-2 and SSR 33 were highly informative polymorphic markers, demonstrating the efficacy and higher resolution in exposing molecular genetic diversity among lentil genotypes. The highest numbers of alleles (5) were produced by SSR 80 primer which was selected as extremely polymorphic. This study reveals the variation across lentil genotypes, which might be employed further in breeding efforts for lentils that result in strong heterosis in the segregating generation. The SSR markers found as polymorphic may also be utilized for further polymorphism analysis among different set of lentil genotypes.

Objective. This study aimed to identify the primary research areas, countries, and organizational involvement in publications on neurological disorders through an analysis of human-assigned keywords. These results were then compared with unsupervised and machine-algorithm-based extracted terms from the title and abstract of the publications to gain knowledge about deficiencies of both techniques. This has enabled us to understand how far machine-derived terms through titles and abstracts can be a substitute for human-assigned keywords of scientific research articles. Design/Methodology/Approach. While significant research areas on neurological disorders were identified from the author-provided keywords of downloaded publications of Web of Science and PubMed, these results were compared by the terms extracted from titles and abstracts through unsupervised based models like VOSviewer and machine-algorithm-based techniques like YAKE and CounterVectorizer. Results/Discussion. We observed that the post-covid-19 era witnessed more research on various neurological disorders, but authors still chose more generic terms in the keyword list than specific ones. The unsupervised extraction tool, like VOSviewer, identified many other extraneous and insignificant terms along with significant ones. However, our self-developed machine learning algorithm using CountVectorizer and YAKE provided precise results subject to adding more stop-words in the dictionary of the stop-word list of the NLTK tool kit. Conclusion. We observed that although author provided keywords play a vital role as they are assigned in a broader sense by the author to increase readability, these concept terms lacked specificity for in-depth analysis. We suggested that the ML algorithm being more compatible with unstructured data was a valid alternative to the author-generated keywords for more accurate results. Originality/Value. To our knowledge, this is the first-ever study that compared the results of author-provided keywords with machine-extracted terms with real datasets, which may be an essential lead in the machine learning domain. Replicating these techniques with large datasets from different fields may be a valuable knowledge resource for experts and stakeholders.

This article presents our findings on the recursive band gap engineering of chiral fermions in bilayer graphene doubly aligned with hBN. By utilizing two interfering moire′ potentials, we generate a supermoire′ pattern which renormalizes the electronic bands of the pristine bilayer graphene, resulting in higher-order fractal gaps even at very low energies. These Bragg gaps can be mapped using a unique linear combination of periodic areas within the system. To validate our findings, we used electronic transport measurements to identify the position of these gaps as functions of the carrier density and establish their agreement with the predicted carrier densities and corresponding quantum numbers obtained using the continuum model. Our study provides conclusive evidence of quantization of the momentum-space area of quasi-Brillouin zones in a minimally incommensurate lattice. It fills essential gaps in understanding the band structure engineering of Dirac fermions by a doubly periodic superlattice spinor potential.

Marriage and family are not optional; they are necessary. Marriage provides a person an opportunity for a secure and protected satisfaction of his need companionship, affections and sexual expression. Adjustment is very much an integral part of marriage but to be honest, adjustment is not always easy. The ground reality of adjustment is quite different from whatever is spoken or written about it. Marriage may be stressful for vulnerable people, which may lead to development of mental-health problems. Major mental-health disorders may be the cause or effect of marital discord. As it is evident from the literature OCD is considered to widely prevalent and significantly affect the marital adjustment among spouses of the patients. Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the marital adjustment between spouses of patients diagnosed with OCD. Methodology: The present study was a cross-sectional, hospital based study, using purposive sampling. Sample collected from the outpatient departments of Gwalior Mansik Arogyashala Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh as per the inclusion & exclusion criteria. The study was conducted among randomly chosen 30 patients with OCD and their spouses. Sample had collected after informed about the nature and purpose of the study. Socio-demographic data of the patients and spouses, clinical data of patients, and marital adjustment were recorded. The severity of Obsessive and Compulsive Disorders was recorded using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) (Wayne K. Goodman, 1989) and Marital Adjustment Questionnaire (MAQ) (Dr. Kumar & Dr. Rohatgi, 1999) was used for assessment the marital adjustment of spouse. Results: Result shown that there was a significant negative correlation between the total score of marital adjustment and the severity of illness among patients diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Hypertension is reported to cause major brain disorders including Parkinson's disease (PD), apart from cardiovascular and chronic kidney disorders. Considering this, for the first time, we explored the effect of modulation of the ACE2/Ang (1-7)/MasR axis using diminazene aceturate (DIZE), an ACE2 activator, in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) induced PD model. We found that DIZE treatment improved neuromuscular coordination and locomotor deficits in the 6-OHDA induced PD rat model. Further, the DIZE-mediated activation of ACE2 led to increased tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine transporters (DAT) expression in the rat brain, indicating the protection of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons from 6-OHDA induced neurotoxicity. Moreover, 6-OHDA induced activation of glial cells (astrocytes and microglia) and release of neuroinflammatory mediators were attenuated by DIZE treatment in both

High mortality has been observed in the cancer population affected with COVID-19 during this pandemic. We undertook this study to determine the characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients with COVID-19 and assessed the factors predicting outcome.Patients of all age groups with a proven history of malignancy and a recent diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on nasal/nasopharyngeal reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR tests were included. Demographic, clinical and laboratory variables were compared between survivors and non-survivors groups, with respect to observed mortality.Between May 11 and August 10, 2020, 134 patients were included from the three centres and observed mortality was 17.1 per cent. The median age was 53 yr (interquartile range 39-61 yr) and thirty four patients (25%) were asymptomatic. Solid tumours accounted for 69.1 per cent and breast cancer was the most common tumour type (20%). One hundred and five patients (70.5%) had received chemotherapy within the past four weeks and 25 patients (19.3%) had neutropenia at presentation. On multivariate analysis, age [odds ratio (OR) 7.99 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-54.00); P=0.033], haemoglobin [OR 6.28 (95% CI 1.07-37.04); P=0.042] neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio [OR 12.02 (95% CI 2.08-69.51); P=0.005] and baseline serum albumin [OR 18.52 (95% CI 2.80-122.27); P=0.002], were associated with higher mortality. Recent chemotherapy, haematological tumours type and baseline neutropenia did not affect the outcome.Higher mortality in moderate and severe infections was associated with baseline organ dysfunction and elderly age. Significant proportion of patients were asymptomatic and might remain undetected.

Proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene has led to the observation of intriguing phenomena like time-reversal invariant $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological phase and spin-orbital filtering effects. An understanding of the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the band structure of graphene is essential if these exciting observations are to be transformed into real-world applications. In this research article, we report the experimental determination of the band structure of single-layer graphene (SLG) in the presence of strong proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling. We achieve this in high-mobility hBN-encapsulated SLG/WSe2 heterostructures through measurements of quantum oscillations. We observe clear spin-splitting of the graphene bands along with a substantial increase in the Fermi velocity. Using a theoretical model with realistic parameters to fit our experimental data, we uncover evidence of a band gap opening and band inversion in the SLG. Further, we establish that the deviation of the low-energy band structure from pristine SLG is determined primarily by the valley-Zeeman SOC and Rashba SOC, with the Kane-Mele SOC being inconsequential. Despite robust theoretical predictions and observations of band-splitting, a quantitative measure of the spin-splitting of the valence and the conduction bands and the consequent low-energy dispersion relation in SLG was missing -- our combined experimental and theoretical study fills this lacuna., 27 pages

Yield is a complex trait subjective to several components and environmental factors. Therefore, it becomes necessary to apply such technique which can identify and prioritize the key traits to lessen the number of traits for valuable selection and genetic gain. Principal component analysis is primarily a renowned data reduction technique which identifies the least number of components and explain maximum variability, it also rank genotypes on the basis of PC scores. PCA was calculated using Ingebriston and Lyon (1985) method. In present study, PCA performed for phenological and yield component traits presented that out of thirteen, only five principal components (PCs) exhibited more than 1.00 eigen value, and showed about 80.28 per cent of total variability among the traits. Scree plot explained the percentage of variance associated with each principal component obtained by illustrating a graph between eigen values and principal component numbers. PC1 showed 26.12 per cent variability with eigen value 3.40. Graph depicted that the maximum variation was observed in PC1 in contrast to other four PCs. The PC1 was further associated with the phenological and yield attributing traits viz., number of nodes per plant, number of pod cluster per plant, number of pod per plant. PC2 exhibited positive effect for harvest index. The PC3 was more related to yield related traits i.e., number of seeds per pod, number of seeds per plant and biological yield per plant, whereas PC4 was more loaded with phenological traits. PC5 was further related to yield and yield contributing traits i.e. number of primary branches per plant, seed yield per plant and 100 seed weight. A high value of PC score of a particular genotype in a particular PC denotes high value for those variables falling under that specific principal component. Pusa Vishal found in PC 2, in PC 3, PC 4 and PC 5, can be considered as an ideal breeding material for selection and for further deployment in defined breeding programme.

225Ac-PSMA-617 therapy has shown good response in many recent studies. We report our experience of targeted alpha therapy with 225Ac-PSMA-617 in mCRPC patients who have failed therapy with taxanes. Thirty-eight patients with CRPC with progressive disease following at least one taxane-based chemotherapy received 225Ac-PSMA-617 between July 2017 and Nov 2019. Primary end point was a composite 50% PSA and radiological response. Secondary endpoints were PFS, OS, and changes in QOL. The differences in outcomes between patients with skeletal and lymph-node metastases versus those with visceral metastases were also studied. A composite response by predetermined criteria was observed in 25 (66%) of 38 patients. The median PFS was 8 months (95% CI 5.3–10.6 months). Median overall survival was 12 months (95% CI 9.1–14.9) with 16 patients alive at the time of censorship. There was no difference in response rates or survival statistics between patients with visceral metastases versus those with only bone and lymph-node metastases (Chi-square 1.51, df 1, Sig 0.218). The most common adverse effect was xerostomia. On the QOL Symptom score, Pain, Fatigue Insomnia, and constipation showed a significant improvement as compared to baseline. 225Ac-PSMA-617 is a safe and tolerable treatment option for mCRPC that demonstrates marked anti-tumour activity with improvement in quality of life even in patients of metastatic CRPC who have been previously treated with taxane-based chemotherapy.

Abstract: Multi-targeted agents can interact with multiple targets sequentially, resulting in synergistic and more effective therapies for several complicated disorders, including cancer, even with relatively modest activity. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are low molecular weight small compounds that increase the acetylation of histone and nonhistone proteins, altering gene expression and thereby impacting angiogenesis, metastasis, and apoptosis, among other processes. The HDAC inhibitors affect multiple cellular pathways thus producing adverse issues, causing therapeutic resistance, and they have poor pharmacokinetic properties. The designing of HDAC-based dual/multi-target inhibitor is an important strategy to overcome adverse effects, drug resistance and increase the effectiveness in controlling cancer. The selection of target combinations to design multitarget HDAC inhibitor is generally accomplished on the basis of systematic highthroughput screening (HTS), network pharmacology analysis methods. The identification of the pharmacophore against individual targets is performed using rational or computation methods. The identified pharmacophore can combine with merged, fused, or linked with the cleavable or non-cleavable linker to retain the interaction with the original target while being compatible with the other target. The objective of this review is to elucidate the potential targets' design strategies, biological activity, and the recent development of dual/multi-targeting HDAC inhibitors as potential anticancer agents. This review elucidates the designing strategies of the potential target along with biological activity and the recent development of dual/multi-targeting HDAC inhibitors as potential anticancer agents. The development of HDAC-based dual/multi-target inhibitors is important for overcoming side effects, drug resistance, and effective cancer control.

Background: The management of Alzheimer’s disease is challenging due to its complexity. However, the currently approved and marketed treatments for this neurodegenerative disorder revolves around cholinesterase inhibitors and glutamate regulators or the combination of these agents. Despite the prompt assurance of many new drugs, several agents were unsuccessful, especially in phase II or III trials, not meeting efficacy endpoints. Objective: The execution of effective treatment approaches through further trials investigating a rational combination of agents is necessitude for Alzheimer’s disease. Method: For this review, more than 248 relevant scientific papers were considered from a variety of databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Sciencedirect, and Pubmed) using the keywords Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid-β, combination therapies, cholinesterase inhibitors, dementia, glutamate regulators, AD hypothesis. Result and Discussion: The researcher's intent for either developing a disease-modifying therapeutic means for aiming in the early phases of dementia and/or optimizing the available symptomatic treatments principally committed to the more advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. Since Alzheimer possesses multifactorial pathogenesis, designing a multimodal therapeutic intervention for targeting different pathological processes of dementia may appear to be the most practical method to alter the course of disease progression. Conclusion: The combination approach may even allow for providing individual agents in lower doses, with reducible cost and side effects. Numerous studies on combination therapy predicted better clinical efficacy than monotherapy. The below literature review highlights the major clinical studies (both symptomatic and disease-modifying) conducted in the past decade on combination therapy to combat the cognitive disorder.

Medulloblastoma is the commonest embryonal brain tumor in children. It has shown improved outcomes with combined modality treatment. We aimed to study patient characteristics and survival outcomes of patients with this disease across two tertiary care centers in India.We analyzed data of patients with histological diagnosis of medulloblastoma treated from January 2010 to January 2016. Patient characteristics and follow-up data were retrieved from hospital records. Descriptive statistics were used to describe clinical and pathological characteristics. Overall survival (OS) was calculated from date of diagnosis to death due to any cause. Relapse-free survival (RFS) was calculated from date of diagnosis to occurrence of relapse or death.Out of 26 patients treated, 24 were children and 2 were adults. Median age was 10 years (range = 0.8-22 years). Twenty (76.9%) patients were male. Fifteen (57.7%) patients were stratified as high-risk (HR), rest 11 (42.3%) were categorized as average risk (AR). Histopathology showed classical variety in majority of patients except for 4 (15%) cases, 3 with desmoplastic and 1 with anaplastic subtype. Median follow-up was 49.7 months (range= 4.2-102.5 months). Overall, eight (30.8%) patients relapsed and six (23%) deaths occurred. Five (33.3%) patients in HR category and 3 (27.3%) patients in AR group showed relapse. Median RFS and OS were not yet reached. Five-year RFS was 69.2% whereas five-year OS was 76.9%.: This study highlighted patient characteristics and treatment outcomes in Indian patients. With adherence to standard treatment, high remission rates and improvement in mortality rates were achieved.

Introduction: The Oriental nose differs from the Caucasian nose in terms of size, subunit definition, texture, and thickness of the skin [1]. Zitelli’s bilobed flap enables aesthetic reconstruction in Caucasian noses but in smaller Oriental noses the outcomes are less desirable with nasal alar retraction commonly seen [2]. Hence, we describe a modification of Zitelli’s bilobed flap incorporating nasolabial skin for a single stage nasal reconstruction with reduced nasal alar retraction [3]. Methods: We modified the bilobed flap based on Zitelli’s bilobed flap and the aesthetic subunit principle, as modified for Orientals by Yotsuyanagi in 2000 [4]. The primary lobe was located between the defect and the cheek and the second lobe was located on the cheek, above the nasolabial fold. The modification of the bilobed flap was designed to have a primary lobe that was 10% longer than the length of the distal defect edge from the flap’s pivot point, and the width of the primary lobe was equal to the width of the defect. The length of the secondary lobe was 130% of the length of the distal defect edge to the flap’s pivot point, and the width of the secondary lobe was two-thirds the width of the primary lobe. Results: Satisfactory alar reconstruction was achieved from the viewpoint of the patient and surgeon. There was good nasal contour and appropriate symmetry of the nasal tip with reduced nasal alar retraction. Conclusion: The modification of Zitelli’s bilobed flap to have a longer primary lobe and include nasolabial skin, results in reduced nasal alar retraction.

Despite of the advancement in technology and excessive use of chemical fertilizers for agricultural production, about 870 million people around the globe are hunger stricken due to various resource scarcities. There is a need to boost the agricultural productivity in order to feed the population which is growing in sky rocketing way. Food insecurity is a burning problem affecting nutrition, health and the betterment of population across the globe. Basically, food security depends on four pillars: availability, access, utilization and stability. Sustainable approaches in agricultural sector are of great importance to improve the food productivity and security along with mitigating nutrition problem around the world. In industrialized countries, less developed and developing countries, gaps in earnings by gender have long been evident. For the equivalent kind of work, women wages are found to be 60-75% of men wages. The agricultural sector of Nepal contributes 28 percent to national GDP and this share tends to rise in the future years. At present the productivity of Nepal is sufficient to feed its population but there are a lot of problems related to gender inequality which eventually affects food and nutritional security. Several such aspects are discussed in this paper.

Dairy sector has been a vector in providing dairy products to the urban population and pull the urban capital into the rural areas. Dairy industries have been successful in creating a strong network between the dairy farmers and the consumers and have been established as a bridge between the urban and rural trade across the country. The entire dairy chain is dependent upon milk production. At present, Nepal contributes approximately 0.247% of the world's total milk production. Nepal's milk output is estimated to be 2.05 million metric tons. The per capita availability of milk in Nepal is around 158.9 grams per day, which is far below than the value recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). The current milk production should be raised by 4 percent so as to meet the WHO recommended minimum value of 250 gm per day per-capita milk consumption by the year2025.The dairy sector in Nepal is the most important sub sector in Nepalese livestock production. Almost 28% of the national GDP comes from the agriculture and livestock sector. However, the share of dairy sector in agricultural GDP of Nepal is 8% of the national GDP. Beside contributing to the GDP, the agriculture sector also provides employment to the two-thirds of the country’s population. The cooperative sector in Nepal has been in the emerging state and is playing an important role in socioeconomic development of millions of rural families.

Nowadays natural products are considered protective markers compared to synthetic products that are considered unsafe for human health and the environment. Although a large number of synthetic drugs have been added to the world of current pharmacopoeia, there is still no drug system in the world that has been able to solve all health problems, including diseases such as Cancer. The extracts from plants have played an important role in the development of clinically effective anti-cancer agents. The plant kingdom produces naturally occurring secondary metabolites that are being investigated for their anti-cancer activities leading to the development of new clinical drugs. Global results continue to identify new anticancer compounds from plants. In recent years out of fear of adverse effects, people have chosen to make greater use of natural cancer products. This review attempted to summarize a few plants in India and outside India that have anti-cancer activity.

Thirty-eight patients with CRPC with progressive disease following at least one taxane-based chemotherapy receivedA composite response by predetermined criteria was observed in 25 (66%) of 38 patients. The median PFS was 8 months (95% CI 5.3-10.6 months). Median overall survival was 12 months (95% CI 9.1-14.9) with 16 patients alive at the time of censorship. There was no difference in response rates or survival statistics between patients with visceral metastases versus those with only bone and lymph-node metastases (Chi-square 1.51, df 1, Sig 0.218). The most common adverse effect was xerostomia. On the QOL Symptom score, Pain, Fatigue Insomnia, and constipation showed a significant improvement as compared to baseline.

Most craniofacial bones are derived from the ectodermal germ layer via neural crest stem cells, which are distinct from mesoderm-derived long bones. However, current craniofacial bone tissue engineering approaches do not account for this difference and utilize mesoderm-derived bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) as a paradigm cell source. The effect of the embryonic origin (ontogeny) of an MSC population on its osteogenic differentiation potential and regenerative ability still remains unresolved. To clarify the effects of MSC ontogeny on bone regenerative ability, we directly compared the craniofacial bone regenerative abilities of an ecto-mesenchymal stem cell (eMSC) population, which is derived from human embryonic stem cells via a neural crest intermediate, with mesodermal adult BM-MSCs. eMSCs showed comparable osteogenic and chondrogenic ability to BM-MSCs in 2-D in vitro culture, but lower adipogenic ability. They exhibited greater proliferation than BM-MSCs and comparable construct mineralization in a well-established 3-D polycaprolactone-tricalcium phosphate (PCL-TCP) scaffold system in vitro. eMSC-derived 3D osteogenic constructs were maintained for longer in a proliferative osteoblast state and exhibited differential levels of genes related to fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling compared to BM-MSCs. Although both eMSC and BM-MSC-seeded scaffold constructs could promote bone regeneration in a rat calvarial defect model, eMSC-derived osseous constructs had significantly higher cellularity due to increased number of proliferative (Ki67+) cells than those seeded with BM-MSCs, and exhibited enhanced new bone formation in the defect area as compared to untreated controls. Overall, our study demonstrates the potential of human eMSCs for future clinical use in craniofacial regeneration applications and indicates the importance of considering MSC origin when selecting an MSC source for regenerative applications.

Background. Intraoperative frozen section (IFS) is often utilised in the surgical treatment of nonmelanocytic skin cancer (NMSC) in sensitive facial regions when Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is not available. Objective. To compare the outcome of NMSC patients with excision performed with and without IFS. Materials and Methods. A retrospective, single-centre study was performed on all patients who had undergone resection of NMSC with and without IFS control at the National University Hospital (NUH) from 2010 to 2015. Results. 116 patients were recruited, of which 86 had IFS and 30 did not. The complete excision rate of patients with IFS was higher at 87.2% ( p = 0.0194 ), need for secondary operation was lower at 1.2% ( p = 0.005 ), and need for postsurgery radiotherapy or chemotherapy was lower at 1.2% ( p = 0.001 ). The average duration of surgery in patients who underwent IFS was 95.4 minutes compared to 70.1 minutes in cases which did not undergo IFS. Conclusion. Our study showed an increased complete excision rate and reduced need for secondary surgeries and adjuvant therapy in patients with IFS. However, a longer operative duration was required. Use of IFS may be useful in patients with NMSC lesions in sensitive regions requiring complex reconstruction after tumour excision.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of design variables on the performance requirements, i.e., total deformation and equivalent stress of the angular contact ball bearing. Design variables such as material properties, inner raceway curvature, and a number of balls greatly influence the deformation and stress developed on ball-bearing under different working conditions. There is a need to determine the best configuration of these design variables for given operating conditions that give minimal deformation and stress. This can be achieved by utilizing the concept of design of the experiment which will help in improving the design of angular contact ball bearing. The results obtained by mathematical calculation and ANSYS tool analysis are compared and are found to be in good correlation. Based on the results obtained the effect of these design variables on the bearing performance is studied by means of Taguchi’s design of the experiment and the best design configurations can then be figured out.

Topological insulators, along with Chern insulators and quantum Hall insulator phases, are considered as paradigms for symmetry protected topological phases of matter. This article reports the experimental realization of the time-reversal invariant helical edge-modes in bilayer graphene/monolayer WSe

Purpose The purpose of this study was to revisit the medial plantar artery's anatomy and study its distribution for raising the medialis pedis flap. Several investigators have reported their clinical experience with the use of this flap for reconstruction of soft tissue defects of the hand. However, many have reported difficulty raising the flap due to variations in its arterial anatomy and the confusion that exists with respect to the nomenclature in our literature. Methods This study was divided into 2 parts: an anatomic study and clinical application. In the anatomic study, 12 cadaveric feet specimens from 6 patients were injected with latex and barium-gelatin injections and the medial branch of the deep division of the medial plantar artery distribution was studied. We then described the use of a medialis pedis flap in four clinical cases to cover defects of the digits. Results The anatomic study revealed that the average pedicle length of the deep division of the medial plantar artery was 1.94cm. In the four illustrative clinical cases where the flap was used, the average flap size was 4.5 × 3.75cm. Donor sites were either closed primarily or with skin grafts. The vessels used for this flap were the medial branch of the deep division of the medial plantar artery and venae commitantes, or subcutaneous veins which provided the superficial drainage. All flaps were successful without any significant complications. The study is novel in that it describes the anatomic variability of length of the medial branch of the deep division of the medial plantar artery that exits in nature. Conclusions This paper describes the medial branch of the deep division of the medial plantar artery and the anatomic variations that exist in the raising of the medialis pedis flap. We have shown how a medialis pedis flap is an ideal option for reconstructing soft tissue defects of the hand because of its texture, bulkiness and pliability in the context of like for like reconstruction.

In today’s growing population, vehicular congestion is exponentially leading to long traffic jams on roads. In India, traffic conditions of roads are not similar to those of foreign countries; therefore, detection, counting, and classification of vehicles in real-time have become difficult. In the worlds’ growing population, traffic is one of the biggest problems in megacities. Hence, there is a need to understand traffic density conditions on the roads in real time for the betterment of the city’s traffic congestion. The need for optimization in traffic control and simulation is increasing day by day due to different reasons for traffic congestions viz uncontrolled demand, considerable delay of red light, insufficiency of roads capacity, etc. The dissertation work presents the method of traffic optimization by using a machine learning approach. The data utilization is optimum. The algorithm will run on the system on chip (SoC) to achieve high speed and throughput without any additional overhead related to deploying the algorithms in the cloud. It can also help people for traveling safely with the reduction of waiting time and fuel consumption. Hence, the data which has been collected for real-time traffic management can also be used for making new plans and analyzing the situation.

To evaluate various standardization parameters of powdered mixture of Ficus religosa leaf and bark. Method: Physico-chemical tests such as foreign organic matter, ash and extractive values, moisture content and fluorescent analysis as well as preliminary phytochemical analysis were used to evaluate the quality control parameters. Results: Physico-chemical constants such as foreign organic matter, ash and extractive values, moisture content and fluorescent analysis were established. Phytochemicals like alkaloid, steroids, flavanoids and tannins were found to be present in the extracts. Conclusion: Proven standardization parameters have a key role in identifying and authenticating the right plant material in the present research.

To gain insights on the diverse practice patterns and treatment pathways for prostate cancer (PC) in India, the Urological Cancer Foundation convened the first Indian survey to discuss all aspects of PC, with the objective of guiding clinicians on optimizing management in PC. A modified Delphi method was used, wherein a multidisciplinary panel of oncologists treating PC across India developed a questionnaire related to screening, diagnosis and management of early, locally advanced and metastatic PC and participated in a web-based survey (WBS) (n = 62). An expert committee meeting (CM) (n = 48, subset from WBS) reviewed the ambiguous questions for better comprehension and reanalyzed the evidence to establish a revote for specific questions. The threshold for strong agreement and agreement was ≥90% and ≥75% agreement, respectively. Sixty-two questions were answered in the WBS; in the CM 31 questions were revoted and 4 questions were added. The panelists selected answers based on their best opinion and closest to their practice strategy, not considering financial constraints and access challenges. Of the 66 questions, strong agreement was reached for 17 questions and agreement was achieved for 22 questions. There were heterogeneous responses for 27 questions indicative of variegated management approaches. This is one of the first Indian survey, documenting the diverse clinical practice patterns in the management of PC in India. It aims to provide guidance in the face of technological advances, resource constraints and sparse high-level evidence.

Background: The incidence of renal cell cancer (RCC) is increasing worldwide. However, scant information is available from the Indian subcontinent regarding its clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes. We retrospectively analyzed data of patients suffering from RCC at our center over the last one decade (2004–2013) to generate information on these aspects. Materials and Methods: Case records of 423 patients treated between 2004 and 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Baseline characteristics, histopathological information, and survival outcomes were assessed. Overall survival was calculated from the time of diagnosis to death due to any cause. Results: The median age was 52 years (range: 18–87 years). Male: female ratio was 3.5:1. The median duration of symptoms was 3 months (range: 0–24 months). Thirty-five patients (8.3%) were detected in asymptomatic state. The most common symptom was hematuria (53.2%) followed by flank pain (46.3%). The most common histology was clear cell subtype (71.4%). Two hundred and ninety-three (69.3%) patients presented with nonmetastatic disease whereas 130 (30.7%) had upfront metastatic disease. Five-year survival in Stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 was 92.7%, 72.9%, 54.6%, and 11.5%, respectively. Conclusion: Younger age, higher male–female ratio, lower proportion of asymptomatic patients, higher proportion of advanced stage at diagnosis, and lower stage-wise survival were some of the key findings.

Facilities for measuring methotrexate (MTX) levels are not available everywhere, potentially limiting administration of high-dose methotrexate (HDMTX). We hypothesized that serum creatinine alteration after HDMTX administration predicts MTX clearance. Overall, 122 cycles in 50 patients of non-Hodgkin lymphoma or acute lymphoblastic leukemia aged ≤18 years receiving HDMTX were enrolled prospectively. Plasma MTX levels were measured at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 hours; serum creatinine was measured at baseline, 24, 48, and 72 hours. Correlation of plasma MTX levels with creatinine levels and changes in creatinine from baseline (Δ creatinine) were evaluated. Plasma MTX levels at 72 hours showed positive correlation with serum creatinine at 48 hours (P = .011) and 72 hours (P = .013) as also Δ creatinine at 48 hours (P = .042) and 72 hours (P = .045). However, cut-off value of either creatinine or Δ creatinine could not be established to reliably predict delayed MTX clearance. Greater than 50% Δ creatinine at 48 and 72 hours significantly predicted grade 3/4 leucopenia (P = .036 and P = .001, respectively) and thrombocytopenia (P = .012 and P = .009, respectively) but not mucositis (P = .827 and P = .910, respectively). Delayed MTX elimination did not predict any grade 3/4 toxicity. In spite of demonstration of significant correlation between serum creatinine and Δ creatinine with plasma MTX levels at 72 hours, cut-off value of either variable to predict MTX delay could not be established. Thus, either of these cannot be used as a surrogate for plasma MTX estimation. Interestingly, Δ creatinine effectively predicted hematological toxicities, which were not predicted by delayed MTX clearance.