Salicylic Acid Alters Antioxidant and Phenolics Metabolism in Catharanthus roseus Grown Under Salinity Stress

Background: Salicylic acid (SA) acts as a potential non-enzymatic antioxidant and a plant growth regulator, which plays a major role in regulating various plant physiological mechanisms. The effects of salicylic acid (SA; 0.05 mM) on physiological parameters, antioxidative capacity and phenolic metabolism, lignin, alkaloid accumulation in salt stressed Catharanthus roseus were investigated.Materials and Methods: Catharanthus roseus seeds were grown for two months in a glass house at 27–300C in sunlight, and then divided into fourdifferent groups and transplanted with each group with the following  solutions for one month: group I (non-saline control), group II, 100 mM NaCl, group III, 0.05 mM SA, group IV, 100 mM NaCl+0.05 mM SA and to determine the physiological parameters (DW, FW, WC), chlorophyll contents, carotenoid contents, lipid peroxidation, phenolics, lignin, alkaloid and enzymatic assays in each leaf pairs and roots.Results: SA exhibited growth-promoting property, which correlated with the increase of dry weight, water content, photosynthetic pigments and soluble proteins. SA has additive effect on the significant increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity, which is followed by an increase in total soluble phenolics and lignin contents in all leaf pairs and root of C. roseus. SA enhances malondialdehyde content in all leaf pairs and root. Theantioxidant enzymes (catalase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-tranferase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase) as well as alkaloid accumulation increased in all treatments over that of non-saline control but the magnitude of increase was found more in root. Further, the magnitude of increase of alkaloid accumulation was significantly higher in 100 mM NaCl, but highly significant was found in presence of 0.05 mM SA and intermediate in presence of both 0.05 mM SA+100 mM NaCl.Conclusion: We concluded that applied SA to salt stress, antioxidant and phenolic metabolism, and alkaloid accumulation were significantly alteredand the extent of alteration varied between the SA and salt stress.Key words: Antioxidant enzymes; Catharanthus roseus; indole alkaloids; phenolic metabolism; salicylic acid; salinity stress.Abbreviations: CAT - catalase; Chl - chlorophyll; Car - carotenoids; DTNB - 5,5-dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoic acid; GR - glutathione reductase; GST -Glutathione-S-transferase; H2O2 - hydrogen peroxide; MDA- malondialdehyde; PAL -phenylalanine ammonia lyase; POD - peroxidase; ROS –reactive oxygen species; SA - salicylic acid; SOD - superoxide dismutase; TBA - thiobarbituric acid

Detection and estimation of magnetization induced resonances in unilateral nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sensors

In this work a systematic identification of factors contributing to signal ringing in unilateral nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sensors is conducted. Resonant peaks that originate due to multiple factors such as NMR, electrical, magneto-acoustic, core material response, eddy currents and other factors were observed. The peaks caused by the measurement system or electrical resonances and induced magnet vibrations are further analyzed. They appear in every measurement and are considered as interference to signals received from the magnetic core. Forming a distinction between different peaks is essential in identifying the primary contribution to the captured resonant signal. The measurements for the magnetic core indicate that the magnetization induced resonant peaks of the core have relatively higher amplitudes and shorter decay times at low frequencies

Early Versus Late Tracheostomy for Patients with High and Low Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of early versus late tracheostomies among patients with cervical spinal cord injuries (CSCIs). Methods: This retrospective study included 69 adult CSCI patients who underwent bedside percutaneous tracheostomies at the Intensive Care Unit of Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman, between January 2011 and October 2015. The tracheostomy was considered early if the procedure took place within one week of the CSCI. The impact of an early tracheostomy on patient outcomes was analysed in terms of duration of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) stay among patients with high (C1–C2 vertebrae) and low (C3–C7 vertebrae) CSCIs. Ventilator dependence, bradycardia episodes and surgical intervention outcomes were also examined. Results: Patients with a high CSCI who underwent an early tracheostomy spent significantly fewer days on mechanical ventilation compared to those who underwent a late tracheostomy (9.3 ± 7.2 days versus 13.7 ± 3.2 days; P = 0.041). Low CSCI patients who received an early tracheostomy also experienced significantly fewer days on mechanical ventilation compared to those undergoing a late tracheostomy (12.1 ± 10.4 days versus 25.2 ± 17.7 days; P = 0.035). Moreover, ICU mortality was significantly lower for high CSCI patients who underwent an early tracheostomy (P = 0.015). However, there was no association between length of ICU stay and either type of CSCI or timing of the tracheostomy procedure. Conclusion: An early tracheostomy is beneficial in reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation among patients with CSCIs, irrespective of the level of injury

Characteristics of a pre-monsoon dryline atmospheric boundary layer over the rain shadow region: A case study

A dryline is the zone of distinct moisture gradient separating warm, moist, and hot, dry air masses. It is usually associated with mesoscale phenomena and plays a significant role in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics including initiation of convection/thunderstorms. In the tropical Indian region, these dryline conditions are normally associated with the pre-monsoon season. In the present study, dryline characteristics over a rain shadow region in the Indian subcontinent were investigated utilizing observations and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model from 28 to 30 May 2019. Based upon Wind Profiler Radar and MicroWave Radiometer Profiler measurements, the ABL characteristics were investigated. Interestingly, the ABL height was found to evolve up to 5 km with the horizontal wind vectors oscillating between north-westerly and north-easterly flow. During the intense ABL deepening, stronger downdraft cores were observed in comparison with the updraft cores. The stronger downdrafts entrained free-tropospheric dry air thereby further deepening the ABL. Based upon the entrainment velocity estimates at the ABL top and the variations in potential temperature, the dynamic entrainment fluxes were estimated and further implemented for evaluating two slab models to recreate the ABL growth. With this analysis, we demonstrate the significant contribution of entrainment fluxes on ABL growth during dryline conditions

Molecular Diversity Analysis as An Improvement Tool for Pigeonpea [Cajanus Cajan (L.)]

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker system was used to assess the genetic diversity among forty pigeonpea genotypes using eighty primer pairs. The banding pattern was recorded in the form of 0-1 data sheet which was analyzed using unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient. The results revealed that out of 80 SSR primers, 65 primers showed distinct polymorphism indicating the robust nature of microsatellites in revealing polymorphism. The number of alleles generated by each marker ranged from 2 to 7, with an average of 3.4 alleles. The polymorphism information content values for the SSR loci ranged from 0.24 to 0.86. Higher PIC value was observed for SSR primer CZ681974 (0.86) and lowest PIC value (0.24) was observed for the primer CZ682005. The SSR markers showed an average PIC value of 0.50. Markers with PIC values of 0.5 or higher are highly efficient in revealing genetic studies and are extremely valuable in distinguishing the polymorphism rate of a marker at a specific locus. The cluster analysis showed higher level of genetic variation among the genotypes. Similarity coefficients ranged from 0.45 to 0.93. The dendrogram based on the cluster analysis by microsatellite polymorphism, grouped 40 pigeonpea varieties into 2 major clusters which were further grouped into different sub-clusters. Based on the present study, the large range of similarity values for related genotypes using simple sequence repeats (SSR) provides greater certainty for the evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships for background selections during hybridization based crop improvement programmes

Quality of life of post-menopausal women residing in rural and urban areas of Sikkim, India

Background: Menopause is an inevitable reproductive phase during midlife when various physical and mental changes may impair the quality of life of women. The presence and severity of symptoms vary tremendously from woman to woman and can last from months to years during this transitional period. This study was conducted to assess the quality of life and menopause related problems among post-menopausal women residing rural and urban areas of Sikkim.Methods: Descriptive explorative study was done in East Sikkim among 120 rural and urban post-menopausal women who were in the age group of 45 years and above, had attained natural menopause and didn’t have menstruation from last one year, were selected through purposive sampling technique. Women with induced menopause, hysterectomy, receiving hormonal treatment were excluded. Along with collection of socio-demographic data, the Menopause Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire was used to assess the Quality of life based on experience of the symptoms through interview technique.Results: The mean menopausal age was 48±3.649 years in rural area and 47±3.831 years for urban area. The mean scores in quality of life between post-menopausal women in rural areas (M=136.6, SD=28.78) were found significantly impaired and the difference was found statistically significant (t=5.75 p<0.001) which shows that rural women were having impaired quality of life as compared to urban women during post-menopausal period. The findings also revealed that factors affecting the quality of life of postmenopausal women were the history of menopause, occupation of women, in urban women and time of attending menopause, in rural women.Conclusions: The present study shows that menopause related symptoms had a negative effect on the quality of life of the post-menopausal women. Such studies can help in creating awareness and in educating women on the early identification of the common menopausal symptoms

Identification and optimization of small molecule antagonists of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor-1 (VIPR1)

Identification, synthesis and structure-activity relationship of small-molecule VIPR1 antagonists encompassing two chemical series are described

A multi-institutional analysis of a general pelvis continuous Hounsfield unit synthetic CT software for radiotherapy

Purpose To validate a synthetic computed tomography (sCT) software with continuous HUs and large field-of-view (FOV) coverage for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-only workflow of general pelvis anatomy in radiotherapy (RT).Methods An sCT software for general pelvis anatomy (prostate, rectum, and female pelvis) has been developed by Philips Healthcare and includes continuous HUs assignment along with large FOV coverage. General pelvis sCTs were generated using a two-stack T1-weighted mDixon fast-field echo (FFE) sequence with a superior-inferior coverage of 36 cm. Seventy-seven prostate, 43 rectum, and 27 gynecological cases were scanned by three different institutions. mDixon image quality and sCTs were evaluated for soft tissue contrast by using a confidence level scale from 1 to 5 for bladder, prostate/rectum interface, mesorectum, and fiducial maker visibility. Dosimetric comparison was performed by recalculating the RT plans on the sCT after rigid registration. For 12 randomly selected cases, the mean absolute error (MAE) between sCT and CT was calculated to evaluate HU similarity, and the Pearson correlation coefficients (PCC) between the CT- and sCT-generated digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) were obtained for quantitative comparison. To examine geometric accuracy of sCT as a reference for cone beam CT (CBCT), the difference between bone-based alignment of CBCT to CT and CBCT to sCT was obtained for 19 online-acquired CBCTs from three patients.Results Two-stack mDixon scans with large FOV did not show any image inhomogeneity or fat-water swap artifact. Fiducials, Foley catheter, and even rectal spacer were visible as dark signal on the sCT. Average visibility confidence level (average +/- standard deviation) on the sCT was 5.0 +/- 0.0, 4.6 +/- 0.5, 3.8 +/- 0.4, and 4.0 +/- 1.1 for bladder, prostate/rectum interface, mesorectum and fiducial markers. Dosimetric accuracy showed on average < 1% difference with the CT-based plans for target and normal structures. The MAE of bone and soft tissue between the sCT and CT are 120.9 +/- 15.4 HU, 33.4 +/- 4.1 HU, respectively. Average PCC of all evaluated DRR pairs was 0.975. The average offset between CT and sCT as reference was (LR, AP, SI) = (0.19 +/- 0.35, 0.14 +/- 0.60, 0.44 +/- 0.54) mm.Conclusions The continuous HU sCT software-generated realistic sCTs and DRRs to enable MRI-only planning for general pelvis anatomy

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes

Multifunctional Role of Bcl-2 in Malignant Transformation and Tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-Transformed Lung Cells

B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) is an antiapoptotic protein known to be important in the regulation of apoptosis in various cell types. However, its role in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis of human lung cells is not well understood. We previously reported that chronic exposure of human lung epithelial cells to the carcinogenic hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) caused malignant transformation and Bcl-2 upregulation; however, the role of Bcl-2 in the transformation is unclear. Using a gene silencing approach, we showed that Bcl-2 plays an important role in the malignant properties of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Downregulation of Bcl-2 inhibited the invasive and proliferative properties of the cells as well as their colony forming and angiogenic activities, which are upregulated in the transformed cells as compared to control cells. Furthermore, animal studies showed the inhibitory effect of Bcl-2 knockdown on the tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. The role of Bcl-2 in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis was confirmed by gene silencing experiments using human lung carcinoma NCI-H460 cells. These cells exhibited aggressive malignant phenotypes similar to those of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Knockdown of Bcl-2 in the H460 cells inhibited malignant and tumorigenic properties of the cells, indicating the general role of Bcl-2 in human lung tumorigenesis. Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) revealed potential effectors of Bcl-2 in tumorigenesis regulation. Additionally, using IPA together with ectopic expression of p53, we show p53 as an upstream regulator of Bcl-2 in Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Together, our results indicate the novel and multifunctional role of Bcl-2 in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis of human lung epithelial cells chronically exposed to Cr(VI)