Portal Vein Aneurysm: Incidental Detection of Uncommon Entity as Cause of Chronic Abdominal Pain

Portal vein aneurysm is an uncommon anomaly. Both congenital and acquired cases are reported. We report a case of idiopathic probably congenital portal vein aneurysm incidentally detected on contrast CT. There was no evidence of any chronic liver disease or portal hypertension in this patient

Distribution of Gingival Inflammation in Mouth breathing patients: An Observational pilot study

Background:  Mouth breathing has been reported to affect gingival health in children. However, studies on the effect of mouth breathing in adult patients are scarce. The objective of present cross sectional study was to examine the relationship between mouth breathing and gingival condition and to evaluate the distribution of gingival inflammation in young adult mouth breathing patients. Methods: Study groups comprised of participants with mouth breathing (test group) and nose breathing (control group) patients with gingivitis. Both the groups underwent periodontal examination. PI, GI and BOP % sites were recorded and analyzed statistically for the differences in mean values. Results: Mouth breathing patients showed higher full mouth GI and BOP scores. Upper anterior segment in mouth breathing patients showed highest GI and BOP followed by lower anterior segment, lower posterior and upper posterior region. Conclusion: Within the limits of present study, our findings suggest that relative to control group participants, test group i.e. patients with mouth breathing had higher gingival inflammation and bleeding sites in upper anterior region.Keywords: Mouth breathing; gingivitis; young adult; cross sectional pilot stud

Financial and energy exchange traded funds futures: an evidence of spillover and portfolio hedging

This paper examines spillover from financial exchange-traded funds (ETF) futures to energy ETF futures using adjusted daily data extending from April 2, 2009, to November 23, 2020. We also explore the portfolio hedging-based conditional variance and co-variance derived from dynamic conditional correlation. The proxies for the financial ETF futures are financial select sector SPDR fund (XLF) and generic 1st S&P 500 index futures (SP1) while generic 1st crude oil WTI futures (CL1), generic 1st natural gas futures (NG1), and energy select SPDR fund (XLE) are proxies of energy ETF futures. The results obtained from Granger causality indicate that there is unidirectional causality from RXLF to RSP1 while bidirectional causality between RXLF and RCL1 at a 5% significance level. Further, dynamic conditional correlation indicates the spillover effect from RXLF to RCL1, RXLF to RXLE, RSP1 to RCL1, and RSP1 to RXLE both in the short-run and long run. The spillover from RXLF to RNG1 is witnessed only in the short run while the spillover from RSP1 to RNG1 is present in long run. The present study corroborates with the studies of Chang et al. (Int J Finan Stud 6(2): 1–24, 2018) and Lau et al. (Int Rev Finan Anal 52: 316-332, 2017). We notice that the average optimal hedge ratio of the RXLF/RNG1 pair is the most expensive while the cheapest hedging strategy is of RSP1/RCL1 pair

From brew to table: unleashing the potential of spent grains protein

United Nations and Upcycled Food Association have suggested the possible use of food processing residues and waste materials to improve food quality as well as overcome hunger and malnutrition. Brewer's spent grains (BSG) account 85% of brewery waste having high nutritive value. Spent grains are initially exploited for animal feed only and restricted to the local area due to high moisture content that leads to spoilage. Spent grains are rich in fibre and proteins and were explored for the preparation of cookies, bread, pasta, and noodles which showed higher nutritive value and health benefits in comparison to conventional materials. The bioactive compounds in spent grains also provide additional advantages and can be used in drug formulation for commercial products. However, it needs in-depth research and technical support that aid in contributing to the circular economy

A Hybrid Machine Learning Technique For Feature Optimization In Object-Based Classification of Debris-Covered Glaciers

Object-based features like spectral, topographic, and textural are supportive to determine debris-covered glacier classes. The original feature space includes relevant and irrelevant features. The inclusion of all these features increases the complexity and renders the classifier’s performance. Therefore, feature space optimization is requisite for the classification process. Previous studies have shown a rigorous exercise in manually selecting the best combination of features to define the target class and proven to be a time consuming task. The present study proposed a hybrid feature selection technique to automate the selection of the best suitable features. This study aimed to reduce the classifier’s complexity and enhance the performance of the classification model. Relief-F and Pearson Correlation filter-based feature selection methods ranked features according to the relevance and filtered out irrelevant or less important features based on the defined condition. Later, the hybrid model selected the common features to get an optimal feature set. The proposed hybrid model was tested on Landsat 8 images of debris-covered glaciers in Central Karakoram Range and validated with present glacier inventories. The results showed that the classification accuracy of the proposed hybrid feature selection model with a Decision Tree classifier is 99.82%, which is better than the classification results obtained using other mapping techniques. In addition, the hybrid feature selection technique has sped up the process of classification by reducing the number of features by 77% without compromising the classification accuracy

The impact of different fertiliser management options and cultivars on nitrogen use efficiency and yield for rice cropping in the Indo-Gangetic Plain: two seasons of methane, nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions

This study presents detailed crop and gas flux data from two years of rice production at the experimental farm of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. In comparing 4 nitrogen (N) fertiliser regimes across 4 rice cultivars (CRD 310, IR-64, MTU 1010, P-44), we have added to growing evidence of the environmental costs of rice production in the region. The study shows that rice cultivar can impact yields of both grain, and total biomass produced in given circumstances, with the CRD 310 cultivar showing consistently high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) for total biomass compared with other tested varieties, but not necessarily with the highest grain yield, which was P-44 in this experiment. While NUE of the rice did vary depending on experimental treatments (ranging from 41% to 73%), 73%), this did not translate directly into the reduction of emissions of ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Emissions were relatively similar across the different rice cultivars regardless of NUE. Conversely, agronomic practices that reduced total N losses were associated with higher yield. In terms of fertiliser application, the outstanding impact was of the very high methane (CH4) emissions as a result of incorporating farmyard manure (FYM) into rice paddies, which dominated the overall effect on global warming potential. While the use of nitrification and urease inhibiting substances decreased N2O emissions overall, NH3 emissions were relatively unaffected (or slightly higher). Overall, the greatest reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions came from reducing irrigation water added to the fields, resulting in higher N2O, but significantly less CH4 emissions, reducing net GHG emission compared with continuous flooding. Overall, genetic differences generated more variation in yield and NUE than agronomic management (excluding controls), whereas agronomy generated larger differences than genetics concerning gaseous losses. This study suggests that a mixed approach needs to be applied when attempting to reduce pollution and global warming potential from rice production and potential pollution swapping and synergies need to be considered. Finding the right balance of rice cultivar, irrigation technique and fertiliser type could significantly reduce emissions, while getting it wrong can result in considerably poorer yields and higher pollution

Rapid Host Defense against Aspergillus fumigatus Involves Alveolar Macrophages with a Predominance of Alternatively Activated Phenotype

The ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is associated with chronic diseases such as invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in immunosuppressed patients and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) in patients with cystic fibrosis or severe asthma. Because of constant exposure to this fungus, it is critical for the host to exercise an immediate and decisive immune response to clear fungal spores to ward off disease. In this study, we observed that rapidly after infection by A. fumigatus, alveolar macrophages predominantly express Arginase 1 (Arg1), a key marker of alternatively activated macrophages (AAMs). The macrophages were also found to express Ym1 and CD206 that are also expressed by AAMs but not NOS2, which is expressed by classically activated macrophages. The expression of Arg1 was reduced in the absence of the known signaling axis, IL-4Rα/STAT6, for AAM development. While both Dectin-1 and TLR expressed on the cell surface have been shown to sense A. fumigatus, fungus-induced Arg1 expression in CD11c+ alveolar macrophages was not dependent on either Dectin-1 or the adaptor MyD88 that mediates intracellular signaling by most TLRs. Alveolar macrophages from WT mice efficiently phagocytosed fungal conidia, but those from mice deficient in Dectin-1 showed impaired fungal uptake. Depletion of macrophages with clodronate-filled liposomes increased fungal burden in infected mice. Collectively, our studies suggest that alveolar macrophages, which predominantly acquire an AAM phenotype following A. fumigatus infection, have a protective role in defense against this fungus

RNase and DNase activities of antiviral proteins from leaves of Bougainvillea xbuttiana†

152-155Antiviral proteins (AVPs) purified from the leaves of Bougainvillea xbuttiana cv Mahara exhibited RNase activity against viral RNA of the tobamoviruses, Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Sunnhemp rosette virus (SRV). They caused complete degradation of viral RNAs in a concentration-dependent manner. RNase activity gel assay ruled out the possibility of the presence of contaminating nucleases. AVPs also showed DNase activity, as indicated by conversion of supercoiled form of plasmid DNA into relaxed and linear forms. The implications of these activities in controlling plant viruses are discussed

Oats: A multi-functional grain

Oats are predominantly a European and North American crop, as they have cool moist climate; Russia, Canada, the United States, Finland, and Poland are leading oat producing countries. Oats have been used as livestock and human foods since ancient times. Oats (Avena sativa) is a class of cereal grain essentially grown for human consumption as well as for livestock fodder. Food industry fundamentally alter agricultural commodities into foods making it edible, palatable as well as appealing; by innumerable physical and chemical operations increasing shelf-life, bioavailability of the nutrients, stabilizing colour, flavour along with increase in the economic value of the grain. Recent observational and human interventional studies indicate that oats can have an impact on various non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes; obesity and hypertension etc. Therefore it is important to increase awareness of oats and its health benefits among individuals thereby encouraging them to increase the frequency of oats in the diet. In the year 1997, USFDA approved the use of a health claim "3g/day of oat Beta- glucan may help lower blood total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) cholesterol". Over all consumption of oats has increased in the recent years due to its nutritional benefits; presence of Beta-glucan, antioxidants like Avenanthramides, vitamin E (tocotrienols and tocopherols)