Repurposed clindamycin suppresses pyroptosis in tumor-associated macrophages through Inhibition of caspase-1.

Background: The metastatic microenvironment is often rich in tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). In uveal melanoma (UM), high levels of TAMs positively correlate with tumor progression and poorer prognosis. We hypothesize that the immunomodulation of TAMs can remodel the UM tumor microenvironment and make it more susceptible to therapeutic interventions.

Comprehensive heavy metal remediation mechanisms with insights into CRISPR-Cas9 and biochar innovations.

Heavy metal contamination of the environment is a serious issue, and more efficient and effective bioremediation techniques are needed. This review introduces current heavy metal bioremediation techniques, with focus on phytoremediation and microbial remediation, and recent developments in biochar and CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Phytoremediation employs the natural process of plants to accumulate and detoxify metals as an eco-friendly and sustainable technique.

Groundwater Quality Assessment in the Foothills of the Kumaun Himalaya, India.

Access to clean and pollutant-free drinking water is a fundamental human necessity and is underscored by the United Nations as the sixth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-6). In this context, the present study aims to assess the physicochemical quality of groundwater in the Kumaun foothills region of Uttarakhand, India. A total of 20 groundwater samples were analyzed for key parameters including pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), turbidity, nitrate, fluoride, alkalinity, sulfate, magnesium, calcium, and chloride content.

Evaluation of radon emanation coefficient in different types of building materials of different grain sizes.

In the present study, the emanation coefficient was calculated for different types of building materials using active and passive methods. Active measurement was carried out using a scintillation detector connected to the sample containing a small chamber (volume ∼ 1582.5 c.

Enhancing wheat β-glucan content through precision crossbreeding: development and evaluation of biofortified lines with improved nutritional and agronomic traits.

To address the urgent demand for biofortified wheat enriched with health-beneficial dietary fibres such as β-glucan, this study employed meticulous crossbreeding between established wheat cultivars and the β-glucan-rich wild relative accession "AK-3790". Within this context, a derivative line encompassing a pair of 7U chromosomes from , denoted as 63-2-13, was identified. The presence of the 7U chromosome in this line was confirmed through comprehensive molecular marker and genomic hybridization (GISH) analyses.

Health risk implications due to uranium content in drinking water sources from the tectonically active zone of Garhwal Himalaya, India.

Uranium is omnipresent in the earth's crust, and its high concentration in the water poses a different type of health risk to humans. In view of this, water samples were collected from several locations in the Uttarkashi district region of Uttarakhand, India. The collected water samples were analyzed using an LED Fluorimeter.

Post-pandemic healthcare choices: SERVQUAL model and the influence of hospital image.

Purpose: This article studies the customer's purchase intention to choose healthcare services in the post-COVID-19 situation. The authors have used the most prominent SERVQUAL model to assess the service quality offered to patients and each variable's influence on customer intent to purchase healthcare services.

Design/methodology/approach: Tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, hospital image and customer purchase intention are the variables considered for this study.

Study of radiation exposure to radon in groundwater using scintillation-based RnDuo technique: A statistical analysis for risk assessment.

Radon in household water, particularly from groundwater sources, is a well-known health concern. Radon in groundwater is typically produced by radium in the aquifer's rocks, which may be originated from geogenic uranium or be transported from distant areas. In this study, radon levels were measured for the first time in groundwater samples (N = 80) collected from the foothills of the Kumaun Himalaya using the scintillation-based RnDuo technique, with the aim to assess whether exposure to radon in the water poses a significant health risk to the general public.

Seasonal variations and correlation analysis of water quality parameters in the Chambal River, Rajasthan, India.

The study investigated the water quality of the Chambal River from 2010 to 2022 throughout the year. The measured parameters like pH, EC (Electrical Conductivity), TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), and Total Hardness (TH) fluctuate between 7.70 and 8.

Measurement of natural radionuclides and health risk assessment in soil samples of the Main Central Thrust region in Garhwal Himalaya, India.

Ionizing radiation emitted from radionuclides is present everywhere in the environment. It is the main source of health hazards to the general public. The present study elaborates on the analysis of primordial radionuclides in the collected soil samples from the Main Central Thrust (MCT) region of Uttarakhand Himalaya in a grid pattern.

Radon quantification in water and dose estimation via inhalation and ingestion across age groups in the Pattan region of North Kashmir, India.

Human survival hinges on access to water, which provides vital necessities. It is crucial to secure reliable, affordable, and uncontaminated water to maintain health and sustain life. For the potential impact of radioactive water pollution on human well-being, a scintillation-based smart RnDuo detector was employed in the Pattan region of North Kashmir Baramulla to quantify radon levels in diverse underground water.

E2F1-induced autocrine IL-6 inflammatory loop mediates cancer-immune crosstalk that predicts T cell phenotype switching and therapeutic responsiveness.

Melanoma is a metastatic, drug-refractory cancer with the ability to evade immunosurveillance. Cancer immune evasion involves interaction between tumor intrinsic properties and the microenvironment. The transcription factor E2F1 is a key driver of tumor evolution and metastasis.

Regulatory Role of IL6 in Immune-Related Adverse Events during Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment in Melanoma.

The landscape of clinical management for metastatic melanoma (MM) and other solid tumors has been modernized by the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), including programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors. While these agents demonstrate efficacy in suppressing tumor growth, they also lead to immune-related adverse events (irAEs), resulting in the exacerbation of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ulcerative colitis (UC), and Crohn's disease (CD). The immune checkpoint inhibitors offer promising advancements in the treatment of melanoma and other cancers, but they also present significant challenges related to irAEs and autoimmune diseases.

Overexpression of rice lectin receptor-like kinase, OsLec-RLK, confers salinity stress tolerance and increases seed yield in pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.).

OsLec-RLK overexpression enhances cell signalling and salt stress tolerance in pigeon pea, enhancing seed yield and harvest index and thus, enabling marginal lands to increase food and nutritional security. Lectin Receptor-like kinases (Lec-RLKs) are highly effective cell signaling molecules that counteract various stresses, including salt stress. We engineered pigeon pea by overexpressing OsLec-RLK gene for enhancing salt tolerance.

Design and assessment of tractor-driven chopping tilling and mixing machine for in-situ management of paddy straw.

In many Indian regions, paddy wheat is the main crop rotation and facing the problem of straw incorporation for seed bed preparation in short period. The handling of straw in combine harvested paddy fields is a significant issue in the paddy wheat rotation. In order to solve this issue, efforts were carried out to cut paddy straw into small pieces by the newly proposed counter-rotating blades, followed by the simultaneous incorporation of a rotary tiller into the soil.

Monitoring of terrestrial gamma dose rate from the Kumaun Himalayan region of the Bageshwar district in Uttarakhand, India.

The present study is carried out in 42 sampling sites for the measurement of background gamma dose rate in six tehsils of the Bageshwar district that comes under the Kumaun Himalaya, Uttarakhand. The annual effective dose in the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons was estimated from the measured values of the Gamma dose rate. It is found that the minimum and maximum values ranged between 0.

An Adjustable Pneumatic Planter with Reduced Source Vibration for Better Precision in Field Seeding.

The growing demand for agricultural output and limited resources encourage precision applications to generate higher-order output by utilizing minimal inputs of seed, fertilizer, land, and water. An electronically operated planter was developed, considering problems like ground-wheel skidding, field vibration, and the lack of ease in field adjustments of ground-wheel-driven seed-metering plates. The seed-metering plate of each unit of the developed planter is individually driven by a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor, and a BLDC motor-based aspirator is attached for pneumatic suction of seeds.

Formulation of next-generation polyvalent vaccine candidates against three important poxviruses by targeting DNA-dependent RNA polymerase using an integrated immunoinformatics and molecular modeling approach.

Background: Poxviruses comprise a group of large double-stranded DNA viruses and are known to cause diseases in humans, livestock animals, and other animal species. The Mpox virus (MPXV; formerly Monkeypox), variola virus (VARV), and volepox virus (VPXV) are among the prevalent poxviruses of the Orthopoxviridae genera. The ongoing Mpox infectious disease pandemic caused by the Mpox virus has had a major impact on public health across the globe.

Gene network-based and ensemble modeling-based selection of tumor-associated antigens with a predicted low risk of tissue damage for targeted immunotherapy.

Background: Tumor-associated antigens and their derived peptides constitute an opportunity to design off-the-shelf mainline or adjuvant anti-cancer immunotherapies for a broad array of patients. A performant and rational antigen selection pipeline would lay the foundation for immunotherapy trials with the potential to enhance treatment, tremendously benefiting patients suffering from rare, understudied cancers.

Methods: We present an experimentally validated, data-driven computational pipeline that selects and ranks antigens in a multipronged approach.

Meta QTL analysis for dissecting abiotic stress tolerance in chickpea.

Background: Chickpea is prone to many abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, salinity, etc. which cause severe loss in yield. Tolerance towards these stresses is quantitative in nature and many studies have been done to map the loci influencing these traits in different populations using different markers.

Quantitative assessment and optimization of parallel contact model for flexible paddy straw: a definitive screening and central composite design approach using discrete element method.

To simulate the bending behaviour of paddy straw at varied moisture contents after crop harvesting, we created a flexible paddy straw specimen model based on the Hertz-Mindlin with parallel contact bonding model using the discrete element model (DEM) approach. The research presented in this study aims to investigate a new approach called Definitive Screening Design (DSD) for parameterizing and screening the most significant parameters of the DEM model. This investigation will specifically focus on the three-point bending test as a means of parameterization, and the shear plate test will be used for validation purposes.

Structural and functional characteristics and expression profile of the 20S proteasome gene family in Sorghum under abiotic stress.

The 26S proteasome is a molecular machine that catalyzes and degrades protein intracellularly with the help of its core complex called 20S proteasome. The 20S proteasomes degrade and cleave denatured, cytotoxic, damaged, and unwanted proteins via proteolysis and impart biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in model plants. This study identified 20 genes, namely, 10 and 10 that encode for α- and β-subunits of the 20S proteasome in (L.

Strategies for economic utilization of rice straw residues into value-added by-products and prevention of environmental pollution.

Rice straw management, along with the prevalent practice of residue burning, poses multifaceted challenges with substantial environmental and human health implications. After harvest, a considerable amount of straw is left behind, often disposed of through burning, releasing several pollutants into the environment. Carbon dioxide (CO) dominates at 70%, accompanied by methane (CH) at 0.