Search

Provides information on three plant species and their distribution in Himachal Pradesh, India. Hypochoeris radicata; Helixanthera lingustrina; Calanthe Pachystalix.

Climate change and anthropogenic activities alter the ecosystem which affects the ecosystem services (ES) associated with it. Therefore, the objective in this study is to quantify the impact of climate change on different regulation and provisioning ecosystem services. For this, we propose a modelling framework to simulate the impact of climate change on streamflow, nitrate loads, erosion, and crop yield in terms of ES indices for two agricultural catchments (Schwesnitz and Schwabach) located in Bavaria, Germany. The agro-hydrologic model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used to simulate the considered ES in past (1990-2019), near future (2030-2059) and far future (2070-2099) climatic conditions. Three different bias-corrected (Representative Concentration Pathway, RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5) climate projections from five different climate models retrieved from the Bavarian State Office for Environment (∼5 km) are used in this research to simulate the impact of climate change on ES. The developed SWAT models were calibrated for the major crops (1995 to 2018) present in the respective watersheds as well as for daily streamflow (1995 to 2008), which gave promising results with good PBIAS and Kling-Gupta Efficiency. The impact of climate change on erosion regulation, food and feed provisioning, and water quantity and water quality regulation were quantified in terms of indices. When using the ensemble of the five climate models, no significant impact on ES was seen due to climate change. Furthermore, the impact of climate change on different ES services from the two catchment is different. The findings of this study will be valuable for devising suitable management practices for sustainable water management at the catchment level to cope with climate change., 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 © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is crucial for aerobic life in streams and rivers and mostly depends on photosynthesis (P), ecosystem respiration (R) and atmospheric gas exchange (G). However, climate and land use changes progressively disrupt metabolic balances in natural streams as sensitive reflectors of their catchments. Comprehensive methods for mapping fundamental ecosystem services become increasingly important in a rapidly changing environment. In this work we tested DO and its stable isotope ( 18 O/ 16 O) ratios as novel tools for the status of stream ecosystems. For this purpose, six diel sampling campaigns were performed at three low-order and mid-latitude European streams with different land use patterns. Modelling of diel DO and its stable isotopes combined with land use analyses showed lowest P rates at forested sites, with a minimum of 17.9 mg m -2  h -1 . Due to high R rates between 230 and 341 mg m -2  h -1 five out of six study sites showed a general heterotrophic state with P:R:G ratios between 0.1:1.1:1 and 1:1.9:1. Only one site with agricultural and urban influences showed a high P rate of 417 mg m -2  h -1 with a P:R:G ratio of 1.9:1.5:1. Between all sites gross G rates varied between 148 and 298 mg m -2  h -1 . In general, metabolic rates depend on the distance of sampling locations to river sources, light availability, nutrient concentrations and possible exchanges with groundwater. The presented modelling approach introduces a new and powerful tool to study effects of land use on stream health. Such approaches should be integrated into future ecological monitoring., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objective: To gain better insight into the extent of secondary bacterial and fungal infections in hospitalized patients in India, and to assess how these alter the course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) so that control measures can be suggested., Methods: In this retrospective, multicentre study, the data of all patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), admitted to hospital between March 2020 and July 2021, were accessed from the electronic health records of a network of 10 hospitals across five states in North India., Results: Of 19,852 patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR and admitted to the study hospitals during the study period, 1940 (9.8%) patients developed secondary infections (SIs). Patients with SIs were, on average, 8 years older than patients without SIs (median age 62.6 vs 54.3 years; P <0.001). The risk of SIs was significantly ( P <0.001) associated with age, severity of disease at admission, diabetes, admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and ventilator use. The most common site of infection was urine (41.7%), followed by blood (30.8%) and sputum/bronchoalveolar lavage/endotracheal fluid (24.8%); the least common was pus/wound discharge (2.6%). Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) were the most common organisms (63.2%), followed by Gram-positive cocci (GPC) (19.6%) and fungi (17.3%). Most patients with SIs were on multiple antimicrobials. The most commonly used antibiotics against GNB were beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitors (76.9%), carbapenems (57.7%), cephalosporins (53.9%), and antibiotics against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (47.1%). Empirical use of antibiotics against GPC was seen in 58.9% of patients with SIs, and empirical use of antifungals was observed in 56.9% of patients with SIs. The average length of hospital stay for patients with SIs was almost twice as long as that of patients without SIs (median 13 vs 7 days). Overall mortality among patients with SIs (40.3%) was more than eight times higher than that among patients without SIs (4.6%). Only 1.2% of patients with SIs with mild COVID-19 at admission died, compared with 17.5% of those with moderate COVID-19 at admission and 58.5% of those with severe COVID-19 at admission ( P <0.001). The mortality rate was highest in patients with bloodstream infections (49.8%), followed by those with hospital-acquired pneumonia (47.9%), urinary tract infections (29.4%), and skin and soft tissue infections (29.4%). The mortality rate in patients with diabetes with SIs was 45.2%, compared with 34.3% in those without diabetes ( P <0.001)., Conclusions: SIs complicate the course of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. These patients tend to have a much longer hospital stay, a higher requirement for oxygen and ICU care, and a significantly higher mortality rate compared with those without SIs. The groups most vulnerable to SIs are patients with more severe COVID-19, elderly patients and patients with diabetes. Judicious empirical use of combination antimicrobials in these groups of vulnerable patients can save lives. It is desirable to have region- or country-specific guidelines for appropriate use of antibiotics and antifungals to prevent their overuse., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Identification of critical erosion-prone areas and selection of best management practices (BMPs) for watersheds are necessary to control their degradation by reducing sediment yields. The current research assesses and proposes a combination of potential BMPs for the Baitarani catchment in India using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). After the successful calibration and validation of the SWAT model developed for this catchment, the model was applied to evaluate the efficacy of eight agricultural and structural management practices and their combinations (three scenarios) for controlling sediment yields at watershed and sub-watershed levels as well as to assess the impacts of combined BMPs on water balance components. A combination of BMPs was found more effective in reducing sediment yields than individual BMPs. Comparative evaluation revealed that structural BMPs (0.66-70%) are better than agricultural BMPs (2-7%) in minimizing sediment yields at watershed level. The costly measures like grade and streambank stabilization structures can reduce the sediment yield up to 70% at the watershed level. The modeling results of the impacts of different combinations of BMPs (three scenarios) indicated that if all the eight BMPs are implemented, the reduction of sediment yields is increased by 76% and 80% at sub-watershed and watershed levels, respectively compared to the Base Scenario. Based on funds availability, a suitable combination of BMPs can be adopted by the concerned decision-makers to effectively reduce sediment yields in the study area. Further, the simulation results of BMPs impacts on water balance components revealed that the annual average surface runoff reduces by 4-14% in the three scenarios, while aquifer recharge (6.8-8.7%), baseflow (8-10.5%), and percolation (1.2-3.9%) increase due to implementation of BMPs. Overall, the findings of this study are very useful for ensuring sustainable management of land and other resources at a catchment scale., 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 © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Irrigation water is one of the most substantial water uses worldwide. Thus, global simulation studies about water availability and demand typically include irrigation. Nowadays, regional scale is of major interest for water resources management but irrigation lacks attention in many catchment modelling studies. This study evaluated the performance of the agro-hydrological model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for simulating streamflow, evapotranspiration and irrigation in four catchments of different agro-climatic zones at meso-scale (Baitarani/India: Subtropical monsoon; Ilmenau/Germany: Humid; Itata/Chile: Mediterranean; Thubon/Vietnam: Tropical). The models were calibrated well with Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) varying from 0.74-0.89 and percentage bias (PBIAS) from 5.66-6.43%. The simulated irrigation is higher when irrigation is triggered by soil-water deficit compared to plant-water stress. The simulated irrigation scheduling scenarios showed that a significant amount of water can be saved by applying deficit irrigation (25-48%) with a small reduction in annual average crop yield (0-3.3%) in all climatic zones. Many catchments with a high share of irrigated agriculture are located in developing countries with a low availability of input data. For that reason, the application of uncorrected and bias-corrected National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and ERA-interim (ERA) reanalysis data was evaluated for all model scenarios. The simulated streamflow under bias-corrected climate variables is close to the observed streamflow with ERA performing better than NCEP. However, the deviation in simulated irrigation between observed and reanalysis climate varies from -25.5-45.3%, whereas the relative irrigation water savings by deficit irrigation could be shown by all climate input data. The overall variability in simulated irrigation requirement depends mainly on the climate input data. Studies about irrigation requirement in data scarce areas must address this in particular when using reanalysis data., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the clinical profile and course of dengue patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and to identify factors related to poor outcome., Methods: All patients with dengue admitted to ICU over 2.5 years were included prospectively. Severity of illness was assessed by the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, and organ failure was determined by the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score. Primary outcome measure was 28-day mortality. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors predicting mortality., Results: Data from 198 patients were analyzed. Mean age was 39.56 ± 17.1 years, and 61.1% were male. The commonest complaints were fever (96%) and rash (37.9%). Mean admission APACHE II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores were 7.52 ± 7.8 and 4.52 ± 3.4, respectively. The commonest organ failure was coagulation (43.4%) followed by respiratory failure (13.1%). Vasopressors were required by 11.6%; and dialysis and mechanical ventilation were required by 7.6% and 9.1%, respectively. Mortality was 12 (6.1%); and on multivariate analysis, APACHE II score (odds ratio, 1.781; 95% confidence interval, 0.967-3.281; P = .048) could independently predict mortality., Conclusions: Patients with dengue fever may require ICU admission for organ failure. Outcome is good if appropriate aggressive care and organ support are instituted. Admission APACHE II score may predict patients at higher risk of death., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Context: Intermittent subglottic drainage (ISD) of secretions is recommended for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) as it reduces microaspiration from the area around the cuff. Poor suction techniques can contribute to VAP, hence closed suction system (CSS) may have theoretical benefit in VAP prevention. Combination of these two techniques may provide added advantage., Aims: To study the influence of ISD with/without CSS on the incidence of VAP., Materials and Methods: Data from 311 patients requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) for more than 72 hours were collected retrospectively. They were divided into four groups as follows: group A, no intervention; group B, only CSS; group C, only ISD; and group D, ISD with CSS. These groups were compared with respect to incidence of VAP, duration of MV, length of ICU and hospital stay and ICU mortality., Results: Patients in the four groups were comparable with respect to age, sex ratio and admission Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores. Incidence of VAP per 1000 ventilator days in groups A, B, C, and D were 25, 23.9, 15.7 and 14.3, respectively (P=0.04). There was no significant difference in the duration of MV (P=0.33), length of ICU (P=0.55) and hospital stay (P=0.36) and ICU mortality (P=0.9) among the four groups., Conclusions: ISD of secretions reduces the incidence of VAP. CSS alone or in combination with ISD has no significant effect on VAP incidence. Hence, ISD may be recommended for VAP prevention, but indications other than VAP prevention should determine the type of the suction system.

Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism were induced in adult female Sprague Dawley rats by feeding 0.05% propylthiouracil and 0.0012% L-thyroxine in drinking water. Contents of protein-bound hexose, fucose, hexosamine and sialic acid in serum were estimated in experimental rats. The results showed an increase in the protein bound hexose, fucose, hexosamine and sialic acid levels in hypothyroid rats and decrease in hyperthyroid rats. The increased content of serum glycoproteins in hypothyroid rats might possibly have come from disruptions of membranes. Depleted glycoproteins in hyperthyroid animals might be due to increase in depolymerisations of glycoproteins and accelerated secretion of glycoproteins with urine.

Female Sprague Dawley rats were fed 5 mg linamarin daily for 10 days. Reduced glutathione (GSH) levels in blood and liver of experimental rats were analysed. The results showed an increase of 45% and 33% glutathione levels in blood and liver respectively in experimental rats. This alteration in glutathione levels could be most likely either due to increased hepatic biosynthesis or as a consequence of decreased peripheral utilization which might be appreciated due to hypothyroidal status induced by linamarin feeding.

Reduced glutathione (GSH) contents of blood, heart, liver and spleen were studied after one, four and seven days of irradiation in rats. Blood GSH in rats exposed to 4 Gy remained unaltered throughout, while animals exposed to 8 Gy showed significant decrease of blood GSH on the 8th day after exposure. Diminution of liver and heart GSH contents was observed initially in both groups of irradiated rats, while the reverse was noted in spleen GSH contents of experimental animals.

Adult female Sprague Dawley rats approximate ten months old were exposed to whole body gamma radiation of sublethal (4 Gy) and lethal (10 Gy) doses of radiation. Serum glutathione reductase enzyme values of 4 Gy exposed rats did not show any change on first and fourth day but significantly decreased on eighth day, while enzyme values in 10 Gy exposed group remained unaltered throughout. Heart glutathione reductase activities of sublethal group did not show any change on first and eighth day but significantly decreased on fourth day. Rats exposed to lethal doses of radiation, enzyme activities remained unchanged throughout. Liver glutathione reductase enzyme values of 4 Gy exposed group showed significant decrease on first and fourth day but arrived at control values on eighth day while the same in 10 Gy exposed group showed significant decrease from first day till the eighth day. An appreciable diminution was observed in spleen glutathione reductase enzyme activities of sublethal and lethal exposed rats from first day till eighth day.

Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to whole-body gamma radiation of 4 Gy and 10 Gy and cyclic AMP and GMP of several tissues were studied 4 hours, 24 hours and 72 hours after irradiation. Animals exposed to 4 Gy exhibited initial increase and subsequent decrease of plasma cyclic AMP, while opposite effects were noted in plasma cyclic GMP. Both groups of irradiated rats showed significant decrease of spleen cyclic AMP with variable responses in cyclic GMP. Initial increase with subsequent decrease of liver cyclic AMP was observed in irradiated animals with unaltered cyclic GMP values. It was interesting to note variable responses of myocardial cyclic AMP in both groups of experimental rats with a significant increase in heart cyclic GMP in rats exposed to 10 Gy only. In contrast, myocardial cyclic GMP was significantly decreased in rats exposed to 4 Gy groups.

Adult male rats were exposed to 4 and 10 Gy of whole-body gamma radiation, and several metals of plasma were studied on 1st, 3rd and 6th day after exposure. Lethal radiation increased plasma calcium initially with subsequent diminution, while plasma magnesium decreased initially in both groups, becoming normal on the 6th day post exposure. Plasma iron in 4-Gy exposed rats diminished on 3rd day, while the same in 10-Gy exposed animals increased initially and then decreased. Both groups of animals exhibited significant diminution of plasma copper and ceruloplasmin from the 3rd day post irradiation. Plasma monoamine oxidase (MAO) was enhanced from 1st day post exposure in 10-Gy exposed rats, which persisted still 6th day. Liver monoamine oxidase was significantly diminished from 1st day after exposure in lethally exposed rats, while spleen monoamine oxidase, after initial increase was normalised on 6th day post irradiation.