Impact of riparian land use on stream insects of Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka state, India

The impact of riparian land use on the stream insect communities was studied at Kudremukh National Park located within Western Ghats, a tropical biodiversity hotspot in India. The diversity and community composition of stream insects varied across streams with different riparian land use types. The rarefied family and generic richness was highest in streams with natural semi evergreen forests as riparian vegetation. However, when the streams had human habitations and areca nut plantations as riparian land use type, the rarefied richness was higher than that of streams with natural evergreen forests and grasslands. The streams with scrub lands and iron ore mining as the riparian land use had the lowest rarefied richness. Within a landscape, the streams with the natural riparian vegetation had similar community composition. However, streams with natural grasslands as the riparian vegetation, had low diversity and the community composition was similar to those of paddy fields. We discuss how stream insect assemblages differ due to varied riparian land use patterns, reflecting fundamental alterations in the functioning of stream ecosystems. This understanding is vital to conserve, manage and restore tropical riverine ecosystems

Conserved angio-immune subtypes of the tumor microenvironment predict response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has revolutionized cancer treatment. However, only a fraction of patients respond to ICB therapy. Accurate prediction of patients to likely respond to ICB would maximize the efficacy of ICB therapy. The tumor microenvironment (TME) dictates tumor progression and therapy outcome. Here, we classify the TME by analyzing the transcriptome from 11,069 cancer patients based on angiogenesis and T cell activity. We find three distinct angio-immune TME subtypes conserved across 30 non-hematological cancers. There is a clear inverse relationship between angiogenesis and anti-tumor immunity in TME. Remarkably, patients displaying TME with low angiogenesis with strong anti-tumor immunity show the most significant responses to ICB therapy in four cancer types. Re-evaluation of the renal cell carcinoma clinical trials provides compelling evidence that the baseline angio-immune state is robustly predictive of ICB responses. This study offers a rationale for incorporating baseline angio-immune scores for future ICB treatment strategies

Mapping ecologically sensitive, significant and salient areas of Western Ghats: proposed protocols and methodology

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (GOI) has been asked to identify ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) along the Western Ghats, and to suggest how to manage them. The concept of ESAs has been extensively discussed in the literature. Several ESAs have been set up in India over the last 22 years under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and a GOI committee under the chairmanship of Pranob Sen has proposed certain criteria for identification of ESAs. However, WGEEP noted that we still lack a global consensus either on the criteria to define ESAs or on a workable methodology to identify them. Furthermore, there are no clear guidelines on the management regime that should prevail in ESAs, and the Pranob Sen Committee has not addressed this issue at all. Hence, WGEEP decided to undertake an exercise of defining ESAs and developing a workable methodology to assign levels of ecological significance/sensitivity as a first step towards putting ESAs on the map of the Western Ghats. This article provides a report on the outcome of a series of discussions and consultations held by WGEEP to build a consensus on defining and mapping ESAs. It hopes to provoke discussion and feedback from a wider section of experts, with the aim of finalizing a generic methodology for mapping ESAs in other ecologically sign ificant, biodiversity-rich areas within and outside the country. We hope to shortly prepare a companion paper that will address the equally vital management issues

Impact of riparian land use on stream insects of Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka state, India

The impact of riparian land use on the stream insect communities was studied at Kudremukh National Park located within Western Ghats, a tropical biodiversity hotspot in India. The diversity and community composition of stream insects varied across streams with different riparian land use types. The rarefied family and generic richness was highest in streams with natural semi evergreen forests as riparian vegetation. However, when the streams had human habitations and areca nut plantations as riparian land use type, the rarefied richness was higher than that of streams with natural evergreen forests and grasslands. The streams with scrub lands and iron ore mining as the riparian land use had the lowest rarefied richness. Within a landscape, the streams with the natural riparian vegetation had similar community composition. However, streams with natural grasslands as the riparian vegetation, had low diversity and the community composition was similar to those of paddy fields. We discuss how stream insect assemblages differ due to varied riparian land use patterns, reflecting fundamental alterations in the functioning of stream ecosystems. This understanding is vital to conserve, manage and restore tropical riverine ecosystems

Structural investigation of lac resin-II

The three fractions of lac rein viz., hard resin I, hard resin II and soft resin have been cleaved with hydriodic acid followed by deiodination. The products were separated into fatty acids and terpene acids. The former have been studied by GLC and data on the nature and distribution of the chain lengths and their relative amounts were thus obtained. Cleavage of the different fractions of the resin with hydrogen chloride followed by alkaline hydrolysis gave the total aleuritic acid quantitatively. Based on the above results, the possibility of the presence of alkali stable linkages in lac resin and the amount of aleuritic acid liberated only by acid cleavage have been determined

Environmentally sustainable visible photocatalytic nanostructured ZnS doped with CuS for chemical effluent treatment applications

wing part of the innovative research concerning the degradation of the chemical industry pollutants was notably focused on photocatalysis process, in order to meet the strict pollution abatement legislation required by environmental protection agencies worldwide. Nanostructured TiO2, ZnO and ZnS as a semiconductor photocatalysts have proved to be effective and more suitable for the widespread environmental application, such as air purification, water disinfection, hazardous waste remediation and water purification. In the present investigation, CuS doped ZnS nanopowders have been synthesized by simple and cost effective sol-gel process. The dried powders have been sintered and the visible photocatalytic property of the pure ZnS and CuS doped in ZnS have been tested for the degradation of standard dyes along with chemical effluent. The samples have been characterized for their structural, chemical and morphological properties by employing X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques, respectively in order to understand the structure–property relationship

Tumor-derived interleukin-1α and leukemia inhibitory factor promote extramedullary hematopoiesis.

Extramedullary hematopoiesis (EMH) expands hematopoietic capacity outside of the bone marrow in response to inflammatory conditions, including infections and cancer. Because of its inducible nature, EMH offers a unique opportunity to study the interaction between hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and their niche. In cancer patients, the spleen frequently serves as an EMH organ and provides myeloid cells that may worsen pathology. Here, we examined the relationship between HSPCs and their splenic niche in EMH in a mouse breast cancer model. We identify tumor produced IL-1α and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) acting on splenic HSPCs and splenic niche cells, respectively. IL-1α induced TNFα expression in splenic HSPCs, which then activated splenic niche activity, while LIF induced proliferation of splenic niche cells. IL-1α and LIF display cooperative effects in activating EMH and are both up-regulated in some human cancers. Together, these data expand avenues for developing niche-directed therapies and further exploring EMH accompanying inflammatory pathologies like cancer

Tumor-derived Interleukin-1α and Leukemia Inhibitory Factor promote extramedullary hematopoiesis

This dataset contains raw data supporting all figures and supplemental figures, except for single cell RNA sequencing data and serum cytokine profiling data, used in PLOS Biology paper, Tumor-derived interleukin-1α and leukemia inhibitory factor promote extramedullary hematopoiesis (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001746). This dataset includes 31 folders organized by Figure number and description of data type (flow cytometry, RT qPCR, ELISA, Immunofluorescence) and each folder contains a data dictionary file to describe variables