Impact of COVID-19 on journalism in Nepal.

This bilingual rapid response report presents findings from a national survey undertaken to ascertain the impact of Covid-19 on Nepali journalists and their working conditions. Covid-19 spread as Nepal was approaching the fifth anniversary of the devastating 2015 earthquakes, the effects of which can still be felt in the nation. As such, Nepal faces additional economic, cultural, and social pressures because of the global pandemic. This report outlines how national and regional journalists, and news organisations responded to the pandemic, and identifies the training and capacity building requirements of Nepali journalists to strengthen future disaster resilience

Secondary metabolite variability in lichen genus Usnea in India: A potential source for bioprospection

The species of lichen genus Usnea are well known for their worldwide distribution and medicinal properties due to presence of usnic acid. The genus is represented by more than 300 species in the world out of which 57 species are reported from India. In India, the species of Usnea grows profusely in higher altitudes of Western Ghats and Himalayan regions. 20 different secondary metabolites are known from Indian Usnea species which have potential biological and physiological significance. Salazinic acid, stictic acid, norstictic acid and barbatic acid are the most dominant secondary metabolites along with usnic acid. Apart from the natural thalli the cultivated mycobiont of Usnea species also produced many of these compounds in culture conditions. The secondary compounds present in Usnea species are significant source of natural products for commercial uses

COVID-19 disease and comorbidity: an outcome? A study on Indian population in a COVID care hospital

Background: The world has been severely affected by the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Continuously rising number of cases has put a significant strain on healthcare resources of all countries of the world. Preliminary studies show that people suffering from comorbid conditions are at a relatively higher risk of severe disease and poor outcome.Methods: We studied the risk of ICU admission in 152 Covid-19 positive patients with comorbidity compared to those without comorbid conditions. We studied effect of old age (>65 years), male sex, presence of at least one comorbidity, presence of multiple comorbidities, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, CAD, respiratory disease, neurological disease, skin disease, and hypothyroidism on outcome of coronavirus disease with two tailed Student’s t-test, odds ratio, Chi-square test was used to test significance of results at 95% confidence interval 95% (95% CI). Fisher’s test was also used if one expected value (row total × column total/grand total) was less than 5.Results: In this study, 23 (15.13%) required ICU care. We found higher odds of ICU admission in Covid-19 patients in case of presence of comorbid condition (OR=7.3, 95% CI=2.674, 20.038), diabetes mellitus (OR=2.8, 95% CI=1.035, 8.028), hypertension (OR=1.3, 95% CI=0.396, 4.258), coronary artery disease (OR=2.3, 95% CI=0.430, 12.978) and malignancy (OR=6.5, 95% CI=1.516, 28.54). Case fatality rate (CFR) of those with comorbid conditions was higher (7.55) compared to those without comorbidity (3.03).Conclusions: This study shows that presence of comorbid conditions in Covid-19 positive patients results in significantly higher risk of ICU admission and poor outcome

Acidity & Catalytic Activity of Modified Zeolite-X

554-55

Partial root zone drying irrigation in papaya (Carica papaya L.) for enhanced water use efficiency under limited water situations

Field experiments were conducted during 2015-17 at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bengaluru, to standardize the partial root zone drying irrigation in papaya with 12 treatments in RBD design. The results indicated that better soil moisture in the root zone could be maintained under drip irrigation by shifting laterals on either side at fortnightly intervals as compared to fixed laterals with thesame amount of water. Significantly more primary roots (16.5/plant) were observed when irrigation was scheduled on one side with single emitter meeting 60% of the evaporative demand. PRD irrigation through shifting of laterals recorded significantly higher transpiration rate especially at 50% of ER (8.05 m mol m-2 s-1) as compared to the control (3.95m mol m-2 s-1). Further, the same treatment recorded significantly lower fruit cavity index (0.26) with relatively higher fruit volume (1388 cm3). Irrigating papaya only on one side with single emitter resulted in significantly higher T.S.S (13.0%). Higher water productivity (23.7 kg/m3) could be obtained by scheduling the irrigation at 40% evaporation replenishment through shifting of laterals with saving of substantial water (1285m3/ha) resulting in higher water use efficiency (237.4 kg/ha.mm)

Status and Outlook for the U.S. Non-Automotive Fuel Cell Industry: Impacts of Government Policies and Assessment of Future Opportunities

Fuel cells (FCs) are considered essential future energy technologies by developed and developing economies alike. Several countries, including the United States, Japan, Germany, and South Korea have established publicly funded R&D and market transformation programs to develop viable domestic FC industries for both automotive and non-automotive applications. Important non-automotive applications include large scale and small scale distributed combined heat and electrical power, backup and uninterruptible power, material handling and auxiliary power units. The U.S. FC industry is in the early stages of development, and is working to establish sustainable markets in all these areas. To be successful, manufacturers must reduce costs, improve performance, and overcome market barriers to new technologies. U.S. policies are assisting via research and development, tax credits and government-only and government-assisted procurements. Over the past three years, the industry has made remarkable progress, bringing both stack and system costs down by more than a factor of two while improving durability and efficiency, thanks in part to government support. Today, FCs are still not yet able to compete in these markets without continued policy support. However, continuation or enhancement of current policies, such as the investment tax credit and government procurements, together with continued progress by the industry, appears likely to establish a viable domestic industry within the next decade

Solubility Enhancement of Steviol Glycosides and Characterization of Their Inclusion Complexes with Gamma-Cyclodextrin

Steviol glycosidesrebaudioside (reb) A, C and D have low aqueous solubilities. To improve their aqueous solubilities, inclusion complex of steviol glycosides, reb A, C and D and gamma cyclodextrin were prepared by freeze drying method and further characterized by means of differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The effect of gamma cyclodextrin on chemical shifts of the steviol glycosides was also studied in proton NMR experiments as well as in solid state 13C CP/MAS NMR experiments. These results indicated that the steviol glycosides were clearly in inclusion complex formation with the gamma cyclodextrin which also results in solubility enhancement of these steviol glycosides. Phase solubility studies showed that amounts of soluble reb A, C and D increased with increasing amounts of gamma cyclodextrin indicating formation of 1:1 stoichiometric and higher order inclusion complexes

Radiation-Enhanced Therapeutic Targeting of Galectin-1 Enriched Malignant Stroma in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Currently there are no FDA approved targeted therapies for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). Ongoing clinical trials for TNBC have focused primarily on targeting the epithelial cancer cells. However, targeted delivery of cytotoxic payloads to the non-transformed tumor associated-endothelium can prove to be an alternate approach that is currently unexplored. The present study is supported by recent findings on elevated expression of stromal galectin-1 in clinical samples of TNBC and our ongoing findings on stromal targeting of radiation induced galectin-1 by the anginex-conjugated arsenic-cisplatin loaded liposomes using a novel murine tumor model. We demonstrate inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis in response to the multimodal nanotherapeutic strategy using a TNBC model with orthotopic tumors originating from 3D tumor tissue analogs (TTA) comprised of tumor cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts. The ‘rigorous’ combined treatment regimen of radiation and targeted liposomes is also shown to be well tolerated. More importantly, the results presented provide a means to exploit clinically relevant radiation dose for concurrent receptor mediated enhanced delivery of chemotherapy while limiting overall toxicity. The proposed study is significant as it falls in line with developing combinatorial therapeutic approaches for stroma-directed tumor targeting using tumor models that have an appropriate representation of the TNBC microenvironment

Evidence for Two Modes of Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis by Mapatumumab and Oxaliplatin in Combination with Hyperthermia in Human Colon Cancer Cells

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world-- the main cause of death from colorectal cancer is hepatic metastases, which can be treated with isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP). Searching for the most clinically relevant approaches for treating colorectal metastatic disease by isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP), we developed the application of oxaliplatin concomitantly with hyperthermia and humanized death receptor 4 (DR4) antibody mapatumumab (Mapa), and investigated the molecular mechanisms of this multimodality treatment in human colon cancer cell lines CX-1 and HCT116 as well as human colon cancer stem cells Tu-12, Tu-21 and Tu-22. We showed here, in this study, that the synergistic effect of the multimodality treatment-induced apoptosis was caspase dependent and activated death signaling via both the extrinsic apoptotic pathway and the intrinsic pathway. Death signaling was activated by c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling which led to Bcl-xL phosphorylation at serine 62, decreasing the anti-apoptotic activity of Bcl-xL, which contributed to the intrinsic pathway. The downregulation of cellular FLICE inhibitory protein long isoform (c-FLIPL) in the extrinsic pathway was accomplished through ubiquitination at lysine residue (K) 195 and protein synthesis inhibition. Overexpression of c-FLIPL mutant (K195R) and Bcl-xL mutant (S62A) completely abrogated the synergistic effect. The successful outcome of this study supports the application of multimodality strategy to patients with colorectal hepatic metastases who fail to respond to standard chemoradiotherapy that predominantly targets the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. © 2013 Song et al

Physio-biochemical responses of polyembryonic mango (Mangifera indica L.) genotypes to varying levels of salinity stress

Mango genotypes that are salinity tolerant can possibly be used as clonal rootstock for sustained production of salinity sensitive commercial mango cultivars in salt affected soils. Present study was carried out to elucidate the effect of salinity stress induced by salts of NaCl+CaCl2 (1:1) at concentrations of 0, 25, 50 and 100 mM on fifteen polyembryonic mango genotypes. The physio-biochemical parameters such as relative water content, chlorophyll content, epicuticular wax content, water potential (Ψ), carbohydrate content, lipid peroxidation, proline accumulation and antioxidant enzymes were determined at each level of salinity in all genotypes. On the basis of these physio-biochemical changes, the study illustrated that the polyembryonic genotypes, Turpentine, Deorakhio, Olour, Bappakkai, Vattam, Nekkare, Kurukkan, Kensington, Muvandan, EC-95862, Manipur, Sabre, Vellaikolamban, Kitchener and Mylepelian were in the decreasing order in response to salinity stress tolerance