Anuradha and low-energy cosmic rays

After critically reviewing observational results obtained by astronomical spacecraft in the interplanetary medium for several aspects of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs), attention is given to spacecraft data gathered in the magnetosphere and a detailed description is given of the Anuradha cosmic-ray experiment carried by Spacelab-3. The Anuradha results discussed concern the orbit average flux and ionization state of ACRs, the origins of partially ionized galactic cosmic-ray sub-Fe and Fe ions, and the significance of enhanced abundance ratios of sub-Fe and Fe ions in GCRs inside the magnetosphere

Metabolic syndrome and its components: A cross-sectional analysis of its distribution among pre- and post-menopausal women from Northern India

Aim: This study aims to determine the prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) and recognize its abnormal components in pre and postmenopausal women. We also aim to recognize the abnormal components in postmenopausal women with regard to duration since menopause. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was undertaken among pre- and post-menopausal women between 40 and 65 years. Women with MS were identified as per the modified National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. Results: A total of 220 women were enrolled comprising 112 premenopausal and 108 postmenopausal women, the prevalence of MS among them being 33% and 51.85%, respectively. Postmenopausal status was found to be independently associated with MS when adjusted for potential confounders (adjusted odds ratios = 14.77, 95% confidence intervals: 1.77–23.33). All the components were proportionately higher in postmenopausal group, the rise in blood pressure (BP) (P = 0.003) and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (0.027) being statistically significant. The risk of MS, abdominal obesity, and high BP were highest in <5 years since menopause and decreased thereafter. The risk for low HDL and high triglyceride increased with the number of years since menopause, reaching the peak level in the 5–9-year group and then decreased while the risk of high fasting blood sugar increased reaching peak in the 10–14 years' group. Conclusion: The prevalence of MS is significantly high in postmenopausal women. Screening of women in premenopausal period will give an opportunity to intervene and prevent the menace of MS in Indian women predisposed to abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular adverse events

Study of Association and Significance of Hyponatremia in Patients with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI)

Introduction: Pneumonia, the severe form of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in children especially from the developing nations. Pneumonia is the infection and associated inflammation of the lung parenchyma. Pneumonia is the leading infectious killer of under 5 children claiming more lives than any other diseases. The burden is more in the developing nations. Around 15% of under 5 mortality is attributed to pneumonia. Hyponatremia is a common electrolyte imbalance which occurs in children with pneumonia. Many studies have reported the incidence of hyponatremia around 40 to 45%. Aim &amp; Objective-: To see the frequency of hyponatremia in patients with LRTI &amp; its significance in relation to disease severity. Materials &amp; Methods:&nbsp; It was a hospital based observational study. The study has been conducted in the Department of pediatrics, S C B Medical college hospital &amp; SVPPPGIP, Cuttack. Result: Hyponatremia was a frequent finding in children with bronchopneumonia (44.6%). Patients with hyponatremia group had initial high body temperature in present study (101.9ºc vs99.7). Conclusion: There is importance of measuring serum electrolytes in patients with LRTI. Appropriate fluid should be done in case of LRTI

Effect of perioperative use of oral triidothyronine for infants undergoing complex congenital cardiac surgeries under cardiopulmonary bypass: A double-blinded randomised controlled study

Background: Thyroid hormone metabolism disrupts after cardiopulmonary bypass both in adults and pediatric patients. This is known as Euthyroid sick syndrome, and it is more evident in pediatric patients who were undergoing complex cardiac surgeries compared to adults. This decrease in serum T3 levels increases the incidence of low cardiac output, requirement of inotropes, prolonged mechanical ventilation, and prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Aims and Objectives: The primary objective was to compare the mean Vasoactive-inotropic score (VIS) at 72 hours postoperatively between T3 and Placebo groups. Materials and Methods: One hundred patients were screened, and 88 patients were included in the study. Triidothyronine 1 mic/kg 10 doses 8th hourly was given orally postoperatively to cases and sugar sachets to controls. The blood samples for analysis of FT3, FT4, and TSH were taken every 24 hours postoperatively, and baseline values were taken after induction. Mean VIS scores, ejection Fraction (EF), Left ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral (LVOT VTi), hemodynamics and partial pressure of oxygen/ fraction of inspired oxygen(PaO2/FiO2) were recorded daily. Results: The Mean VIS scores at 72 Hours postoperatively were significantly less in the T3 group (5.49 ± 6.2) compared to the Placebo group (13.6 ± 11.7). The PaO2/FiO2 ratios were comparatively more in the T3 group than the Placebo group. The serum levels of FT3 FT4 were significantly higher in the T3-supplemented group than the Placebo group. The VIS scores were significantly lower from 48 hours postoperatively in children < 6 months of age. Conclusion: In this study, we observed that supplementing T3 postoperatively decreases the ionotropic requirement from 72 hours postoperatively. This is more useful in children <6 months of age undergoing complex cardiac surgeries

Transcription factors : a tool box for countering the effect of abiotic stresses

Plant development and growth are severely hampered by a wide array of abiotic stress situations, which includes salinity, drought, cold, heat, and many other stress conditions. This leads to the loss of yield and quality in horticultural crops. Plants have developed different ways and strategies to counter abiotic stresses, which includes the regulation of various functional and regulatory proteins. Among them, transcription factors (TFs) have gained a lot of attraction in the past recent years because of their role as a molecular switch, thereby controlling/modulating the expression of various stress-responsive genes. TFs are the key players in regulating the growth and development of several horticultural crop plants that enhance their ability to tolerate various abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Therefore in this chapter, we will be dissecting the function of various TFs like NAC, WRKY, MYB, HSF, DoF (DNA binding with one finger), bZIP; their structures; and possible molecular mechanisms that they exert in the plants in response to abiotic stress conditions. This information will provide valuable insights about TFs, which eventually will be very helpful for engineering stress-tolerant horticultural crops. Furthermore, we have also highlighted recent advancements made in the field of (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9) CRISPR-Cas9 system for improving important agronomic traits in horticultural crops. Collectively, the goal of this chapter is to elaborate various functional aspects of TFs in countering abiotic stresses for developing agronomically refined horticultural crops that may ensure food and nutritional security under adverse climatic conditions

Effect of 1.2 MeV argon ions irradiation on magnetic properties of ZnO

Room temperature ferromagnetism in 1.2 MeV argon ions irradiated polycrystalline ZnO has been observed. The magnetic contribution in form of saturation magnetization is higher in sample irradiated with ion fluence of 1 × 1015 ions/cm2. However, annealing of the defects at higher fluences of 5 × 1015 ions/cm2 reduce the magnetic contribution in comparison to the magnetic contribution of the lower fluences. The X-ray diffraction reveals that the degree of crystallinity decreases with the increase of ion fluences upto 1 × 1015 ions/cm2 and further it increases at a fluence of 5 × 1015 ions/cm2. The inhomogeneous arrangement of grains and changes in their sizes with increasing ion fluences decrease the magnetic ordering of the system. The electron probe microstructure analyses and micro-Raman spectra of irradiated samples show in-homogeneity in zinc and oxygen ratio which is one of the causes to show ferromagnetism

Observation of enhanced sub-iron (Sc---Cr) to iron ration in low energy cosmic rays of 50-100 MeV/N in spacelab-3

Relative abundances of sub-iron (Sc-Cr) to iron nuclei in low energy (50-100 MeV/N) galactic cosmic rays have been determined from an analysis of about 100 events of heavy ions (Z = 10-28) recorded in a detector assembly flown in the Anuradha cosmic ray experiment in the Spacelab-3 on a six day mission in April-May 1985. The measured abundance ratio of (Sc-Cr)/Fe nuclei in 50-100 MeV/N energy range is 1.1 ± 0.3, and the present result of enhanced ratio of sub-iron to iron nuclei is in agreement with other experimental results in 200-800 MeV/N range. The over-abundance of iron secondaries at these low energies cannot be explained in the conventional models for propagation of cosmic rays. Available experimental data indicate a very different time history for the low energy iron-group, as compared to those of lighter nuclei in galactic cosmic rays

DataSheet_1_CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing and functional analysis of SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 genes of Solanum lycopersicum L. in imparting genetic tolerance to multiple stress factors.pdf

CRISPR/Cas is a breakthrough genome editing system because of its precision, target specificity, and efficiency. As a speed breeding system, it is more robust than the conventional breeding and biotechnological approaches for qualitative and quantitative trait improvement. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an economically important crop, but its yield and productivity have been severely impacted due to different abiotic and biotic stresses. The recently identified SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 are two potential negative regulatory genes in response to different abiotic (drought and salinity) and biotic stress (bacterial leaf spot and bacterial wilt) conditions in S. lycopersicum L. The present study aimed to evaluate the drought, salinity, bacterial leaf spot, and bacterial wilt tolerance response in S. lycopersicum L. crop through CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 and their functional analysis. The transient single- and dual-gene SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 CRISPR-edited plants were phenotypically better responsive to multiple stress factors taken under the study. The CRISPR-edited SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 plants showed a higher level of chlorophyll and proline content compared to wild-type (WT) plants under abiotic stress conditions. Reactive oxygen species accumulation and the cell death count per total area of leaves and roots under biotic stress were less in CRISPR-edited SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 plants compared to WT plants. The study reveals that the combined loss-of-function of SlHyPRP1 along with SlDEA1 is essential for imparting significant multi-stress tolerance (drought, salinity, bacterial leaf spot, and bacterial wilt) in S. lycopersicum L. The main feature of the study is the detailed genetic characterization of SlDEA1, a poorly studied 8CM family gene in multi-stress tolerance, through the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system. The study revealed the key negative regulatory role of SlDEA1 that function together as an anchor gene with SlHyPRP1 in imparting multi-stress tolerance in S. lycopersicum L. It was interesting that the present study also showed that transient CRISPR/Cas9 editing events of SlHyPRP1 and SlDEA1 genes were successfully replicated in stably generated parent-genome-edited line (GEd0) and genome-edited first-generation lines (GEd1) of S. lycopersicum L. With these upshots, the study’s key findings demonstrate outstanding value in developing sustainable multi-stress tolerance in S. lycopersicum L. and other crops to cope with climate change.</p