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BACKGROUND:HIV-infected individuals are at increased risk for both sarcopenia and cardiovascular disease. Whether an association between low muscle mass and subclinical coronary artery disease (CAD) exists, and if it is modified by HIV serostatus, are unknown. METHODS:We performed cross-sectional analysis of 513 male MACS participants (72% HIV-infected) who underwent mid-thigh computed tomography (CT) and non-contrast cardiac CT for coronary artery calcium (CAC) during 2010-2013. Of these, 379 also underwent coronary CT angiography for non-calcified coronary plaque (NCP) and obstructive coronary stenosis ≥50%. Multivariable-adjusted Poisson regression was used to estimate prevalence risk ratios of associations between low muscle mass (

Kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata) is an important medicinal plant belonging to the Acanthaceae family and used for the treatment of many diseases. This study is focused on determining the critical limit for the cultivation of A. paniculata in sodic soil. A pot experiment was conducted with different exchangeable sodium percentages (ESPs) to determine the critical limit for the cultivation of A. paniculata in sodic soil. The critical limit, 16 ESP, was found for A. paniculata grown in sodic soil. Overall, increasing trends in N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Cr, and Mo and a decreasing trend in Ni and Se were observed in all part of the plant due to increasing sodicity levels. The determination of the critical limit for the cultivation of A. paniculata in sodic soil is an important aspect of this paper. The nutrients and heavy metal profiling with the extreme levels of sodicity will be useful to study the nutrient utilization pattern for the nutrient management strategy of A. paniculata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Problems with reward processing have been implicated in multiple psychiatric disorders, but psychiatric comorbidities are common and their specificity to individual psychopathologies is unknown. Here, we evaluate the association between reward functioning and general or specific psychopathologies. Method: 1,213 adults and their1,531 children (ages 6–12) completed various measures of the Positive Valence System domain from the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). Psychopathology was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist for children and the Adult Self Report for parents. Results: One general factor identified via principal factors factor analysis explained most variance in psychopathology in both groups. Measures of reward were associated with the general factor and most specific psychopathologies. Certain reward constructs were associated solely with specific psychopathologies but not general psychopathology. However, some prior associations between reward and psychopathology did not hold following removal of comorbidity. Conclusion: Reward dysfunction is significantly associated with both general and specific psychopathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cellular Automata (CA) based SLEUTH model has emerged as a widely applied model to many cities for land use land cover (LULC) change and urban growth modelling due to its simplicity, robustness, and ease of implementation. The present study employed a rigorous sensitivity testing of self-modifying constants, Monte Carlo runs and critical slope to determine their influence on model calibration performance. Calibration performance has been examined in terms of statistical measures i.e., urban area, clusters, edges, mean cluster size, and cluster radius, best model fitness measure (i.e., Optimal SLEUTH Metrics (OSM)), overall accuracy percentage and hit-miss-false alarm method have been used. The sensitivity analysis reveals the optimum values for self-modifying parameters as {1.3, 0.10, 0.90, and 1.25} for boom, bust, critical low and critical high respectively; Monte Carlo runs as sixty (60) and critical slope as 15 to simulate the urban growth of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption of polythene is unavoidable in this era and it is increasing day by day. Polythene's hazardous waste is adversely effecting environment. In fact any form of polythene is a nuisance to the environment because of strong resistance against degradation thus; they remain in nature for a very long time. Biodegradation is the only promising solution to overcome this problem. Fungi, a group of saprophytic organisms are evolved to adapt for almost every environment, specially marine and freshwater source. This property drives fungi to grown on polythene even in adverse environment. So, present study was planned to compare biological degradation of low density polythene [LDPE] and biodegradable polythene by potential fungus to find out an eco-friendly and economic solution of polythene waste. Ten fungal strains were isolated from rotting polythene debris those are Penicillium chrysogenum, Rhizopus nigricans, Chaetomium murorum, Memnoniella echinata, Aspergillus fumigatus, Stachybotrys chartarum, Aspergillus niger, Chaetomium globosum, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium oxysporum, in which Penicillium chrysogenum, Rhizopus nigricans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus showed greatest results in terms of degrading both Low density polythene and biodegradable polythene. These isolates also showed good enzymatic reaction and weight loss. SEM analysis of polythene surface was also in support of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work pressure resulting into burnout Due to the remote working situation, employees are feeling neglected as their commitment toward work is being questioned because they are not physically present at workplace. As employees are struggling with their mental status, employees' mental health should be a matter of concern for every organization. GLO:J8E/01aug21:pa2552-fig-0002.jpg PHOTO (COLOR): 2 Employee mental well-being gl Job and Financial insecurities resulting into depression COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard the global economy as well as India. Many multinational companies like Unilever and Deloitte believe in conducting mentorship programs during the pandemic situation to provide career guidance and attaining individual goals of employees, thereby having more loyal employees (Sharma, 2020). [Extracted from the article]

Bioremediation of various waste waters is a new technology that has undergone a lot of deep investigation in recent decades. With growing population, advanced agricultural practices, industrialization, urbanization and multiple use of water has increased the demand for water around the globe. Due to daily human activity and also various agricultural and industrial operations, wastewater is produced in huge quantity. Due to lack of proper management and treatment facilities most of the urban wastewater generated in Indian cities is discharged into natural aquatic environments without any proper treatment. Municipal sewage problems are more complex as the volume of the wastewater is large and it also requires large area for treatment. Several techniques have been recommended for effective wastewater treatment but among all of them bioremediation is the most effective management tool to control the environmental pollution and to improve the contaminated sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present study is aimed to compare the performance of SLEUTH model from two different calibration methods, that is, brute force and GA in term of computational efficiency of calibration processes, capturing urban growth, a form of growth or growth pattern and its spatial distribution. SLEUTH has been parameterized for Ajmer city (India) and its performance has been compared in term of eight parameters/methods, that is, computational efficiency, model fitness that is, OSM, urban shape index, best fit coefficient values, hit-miss-false alarm method, kappa statistics, accuracy percentage and visual analysis. GA-based calibration has been found to be computationally more efficient and relatively better in capturing urban growth and form of growth as compared to brute force. Brute force calibration seems to be slightly better considering urban hits as compared to GA, however, GA is better with respect to lesser false alarms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to observe the comparative effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the morphological and biochemical parameters of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) var. Savoy under pot trials. Organic fertilizers viz. sesame and mustard oil cake were applied @ (15t/ha) and inorganic fertilizer viz. NPK was applied @ (120 kg/ha) individually as well as in combinations. The application of sesame and mustard oil cakes showed significant enhanced growth over the inorganic fertilizer NPK in terms of root, shoot, total length, fresh and dry weight of the plant. Similarly results of biochemical parameters have shown significant differences between organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers and control. The best plant performance was obtained in integrated treatment of organic and inorganic fertilizer that is sesame, mustard oil cake and NPK treatment. Thus the study supports and recommends the use of organic fertilizers like sesame and mustard oil cake with judicial use of inorganic fertilizers by farmers to have better yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue of polythene pollution has evolved to become a major threat to global ecology because of polythene has strong resistance against degradation thus they remain in nature for very long time. A thinkable method to overcome this problem is bio-degradation by saprophytic fungi. Fungi from polythene decaying sites can initiate the de-polymerization of many polymers. In present study 10 saprophytic fungal isolates were grow on polythene by submerge fermentation technique under laboratory conditions andbiodegradation was determine in terms of weight loss in both low density polythene (LDPE) and biodegradable polythene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]