Combinatorial Effect of Fertigation Rate and Scheduling on Tomato Performance under Naturally Ventilated Polyhouse in Indian Humid Sub-Tropics

Protected cultivation is a resource-efficient method of crop production, however, at the same time, it is resource intensive. An optimum rate and time of fertilizer application is required in order to maximize crop yield vis-a-vis resource use efficiency. However, these aspects are scarcely studied for tomato under low- and medium-tech greenhouses in Indian humid sub-tropics. In this regard, a two-year study was conducted to assess the effect of four NPK fertilization rates (i.e., 120, 100, 80, and 60% of the recommended dose of fertilizers, RDF) and three fertigation scheduling approaches-fertigation at different stages in different proportions of NPK, along with an additional treatment, i.e., farmers' practice (soil-based application of recommended NPK) for tomatoes under a naturally ventilated polyhouse. The plant growth attributes, the tomato yield- and quality-related traits, the nutrient (NPK) accumulation by the plants, the water use efficiency (WUE), and economics were studied in response to different fertigation rates and scheduling approaches. These parameters were affected by both the rates of NPK fertilization and their time of application (scheduling) over the different growth stages. Among the different rates and time of fertigation, the recommended dose of fertilizer (100% RDF) (i.e., 300 kg N, 150 kg P2O5, and 150 kg K2O per ha and their scheduling as 15% N, 10% P2O5, and 10% K2O of RDF during 15-45 days after transplanting (P-1); 40% N, 40% P2O5, and 40% K2O of RDF during 47-76 DAT (P-2); 30% N, 40% P2O5, and 40% K2O of RDF during 77-107 DAT (P-3); and 15% N, 10% P2O5, and 10% K2O of RDF during 108-138 DAT (P-4)) was found to be the optimum for fruit yield, WUE, and economics of tomato under protected condition

Insight into trichomonas vaginalis genome evolution through metabolic pathways comparison

Trichomonas vaginalis causes the trichomoniasis, in women and urethritis and prostate cancer in men. Its genome draft published by TIGR in 2007 presents many unusual genomic and biochemical features like, exceptionally large genome size, the presence of hydrogenosome, gene duplication, lateral gene transfer mechanism and the presence of miRNA. To understand some of genomic features we have performed a comparative analysis of metabolic pathways of the T. vaginalis with other 22 significant common organisms. Enzymes from the biochemical pathways of T. vaginalis and other selected organisms were retrieved from the KEGG metabolic pathway database. The metabolic pathways of T. vaginalis common in other selected organisms were identified. Total 101 enzymes present in different metabolic pathways of T. vaginalis were found to be orthologous by using BLASTP program against the selected organisms. Except two enzymes all identified orthologous enzymes were also identified as paralogous enzymes. Seventy-five of identified enzymes were also identified as essential for the survival of T. vaginalis, while 26 as non-essential. The identified essential enzymes also represent as good candidate for novel drug targets. Interestingly, some of the identified orthologous and paralogous enzymes were found playing significant role in the key metabolic activities while others were found playing active role in the process of pathogenesis. The N-acetylneuraminate lyase was analyzed as the candidate of lateral genes transfer. These findings clearly suggest the active participation of lateral gene transfer and gene duplication during evolution of T. vaginalis from the enteric to the pathogenic urogenital environment

‘G’ followed by ‘H’-gout follows homoeopathy

Currently in modern medicine, it is seen that taking a uric acid reducing drug during an attack of gout actually prolongs the pain and discomfort. So, the learning is that one need not worry about high uric acid levels during an acute flair of gout. What actually someone needs is an anti-inflammatory that reduces the inflammation caused by the crystals of uric acid that build up in the joints when someone has gout. This anti-inflammatory drug is ‘colchicine’. Homoeopathy has been using the drug ‘colchicum autumnale’ for last 233 years since its discovery in 1790 by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). It also uses its active principle ‘colchicine’ for the last 233 years. It is quite striking to see that the modern medicine is realizing the importance of ‘colchicine’ currently. The same ‘colchicine’ was advised to be used as an anti-inflammatory to reduce the markers like C-reactive protein, LDH, D-dimer and homocysteine. During the COVID-19 peak, again the homoeopathic Colchicine came to the rescue. The current article examines the use of homoeopathy in gout and uric acid problems and again at a larger issue with the protein metabolism and the kidney heath. Integration of homoeopathy at large scale will help the nation to protect its members from protein metabolism disorders, kidney health and gout as well

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Reconfigurable Ultra Low Power LNA With and Without in Band Interference Rejection for IoT Application

In this paper, a reconfigurable Ultra low power Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is presented. In this work,subthreshold driven Common Gate (CG) input stage is modified to provide wideband input matchingand a current reuse noise cancelling technique is introduced toimprove noise performance. Additionally, substantial reductionin power consumption is obtained by driving the MOS devices insubthreshold region.To provide dual output i.e. with and without Interference Rejection a High Isolation and Low Insertion Loss SPDT Switch is used. Negative Gm Based LC Series Notch Filter is used for the interference rejection. This Circuit achieved a gain of 10 dB (1 dB) with NF 6.3-7.2 over the bandwidth of 1.5-5.5 GHz in one port and 35dB Inference rejection of Narrow band @2.45GHz, A very high Isolation is obtained between the two ports i.e. 54dB. This is suitable for IOT Wireless Sensor Nodes. The circuit is simulated in Cadence Virtuoso using Spice Models in TSMC 65nm node

CFD-Based Modeling for Computing Discharge Coefficient of an Ogee Spillway

The basic functionality of the spillway is to control the flow and safely convey the excess flow while keeping the structure stable. An ogee spillway is commonly used due to its high discharging capacity. The discharge coefficient of an ogee spillway is greatly affected by the ratio of an operating head and design head. Since physical models are expensive and have limitations in terms of scale effect, a comprehensive numerical simulation was performed in this study to estimate the discharge coefficient for an ogee spillway under various head ratios using CFD-based numerical modeling. The numerical simulations were done using FLOW-3D. In the present study, renormalized group (RNG) �� − �� turbulence closure model and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) algorithm were used for the simulation of flow over an ogee spillway. The discharge coefficient of the ogee spillway computed using CFD simulation for various head ratios shows a reasonable agreement with the values reported in the literature. Also, the water surface profiles, pressure distribution, discharge rating curve, and velocity distribution over the ogee spillway for the different heads were plotted and analyzed

Immunomodulatory effects of β-defensin 2 on tumor associated macrophages induced antitumor function in breast cancer

Background: Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) express cytokines and chemokines that can suppress antitumor immunity and promote tumor progression. The immunomodulatory and antitumor function of β-defensin 2 is still unclear, despite the evidence of infection response. We previously reported that β-defensin 2 modulates immunomodulatory and their antitumor function of macrophages in breast cancer. We investigate the association between β-defensin 2 and TAMs and determined the role in tumor-promoting attributes of TAMs reversal of phenotype in tumor regression. Methods: Swiss albino mice and C127i breast cancer cell line was used in this study. C127i conditioned media was prepared and generated macrophage-derived TAMs to study antitumor function. Flow cytometry was performed for phenotype identification of macrophages and TAMs. MTT assay was performed to estimate cytotoxicity and dose optimization of β-defensin 2. Oxidative stress was analyzed by H2O2 and NO estimation, and qPCR was performed for iNOS, cytokines and chemokines expression. Results: PEC harvested macrophages were characterized by flow-cytometry using F4/80, CD11c antibodies with 98% pure population of macrophages and cultured in C127i conditioned media for 7 days. TAMs markers were estimated, and it was found that 98% expression of F4/80, CD-206, and CD-115 expression compared to macrophages. Purified 100 ng/ml of β-defensin 2 was used to stimulate the TAMs population was viable, which was confirmed by cell viability assay. ROS levels decreased in TAMs treated with β-defensin 2 compared to control group. Interleukins (ILs)-6, 10, and 3, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and chemokine ligand (CXCL)-1, 5 and 15, chemokine ligand (CCL)-24 and 5 decreased drastically compared to control. Conclusion: This is the first report of β-defensin 2 on TAMs to elucidate the immunomodulatory and anti-tumor function. It was found that the cytokines, chemokines, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) expression pliably changed which facilitates tumor regression. β-defensin 2 must be targets as adjuvant for future cancer immunotherapeutic agent