Fungal diversity in termite nests associated with tea (Camellia sinensis) plantations: insights from DNA metabarcoding and culture-based analyses.

Tea is a vital plantation crop in India with a significant global economic impact. Termites pose a substantial threat to tea production. This report characterises and compares the fungal communities present in the arboreal nest of the live wood-eating tea termite Microtermes obesi, called the gallery, and the above-ground nest of the scavenging tea termite Odontotermes obesus, called the mound, using DNA metabarcoding and culture-based identification methods.

Primary Mediastinal Germ Cell Tumors: A Real-World Analysis of Clinical Characteristics, Treatment, and Survival Outcomes From Two Tertiary Cancer Centers in India.

Purpose: Mediastinal germ cell tumors (GCTs) are rare malignancies, predominantly affecting young males, with limited real-world data on treatment outcomes in India. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and survival outcomes of patients with mediastinal GCTs, emphasizing the effectiveness of first-line chemotherapy regimens.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 81 patients diagnosed with mediastinal GCTs at two tertiary cancer centers in India from 2005 to 2023.

Harnessing Fungal Bioagents Rich in Volatile Metabolites for Sustainable Crop Protection: A Critical Review.

Pests and diseases have a significant impact on crop health and yields, posing a serious threat to global agriculture. Effective management strategies, such as integrated pest management (IPM), including crop rotation, use of synthetic pesticides, biological control, and resistant/tolerant crop varieties, are essential to mitigate these risks and ensure sustainable agricultural practices. Fungal bioagents play an important role in managing phytopathogens and insect pests by acting as biological agents.

Parametric autoresonance with time-delayed control.

We investigate how a constant time delay influences a parametric autoresonant system. This is a nonlinear system driven by a parametrically chirped force with a negative delay feedback that maintains adiabatic phase locking with the driving frequency. This phase locking results in a continuous amplitude growth, regardless of parameter changes.

Photoassisted Enhancement of Capacitance in the rGO-g-CN-ZnCoO Heterojunction-Based Supercapacitor.

The ever-increasing demand for renewable energy sources necessitates efficient methods for harvesting and storing clean energy. A photosupercapacitor is an energy storage device that shows improved charge storage performance in the presence of light, which is necessary to mitigate the current energy crisis. Here, we have presented rGO-g-CN-ZnCoO as a photoelectrode for a photoassisted supercapacitor.

Energy-based theory of autoresonance in chains of coupled damped-driven generic oscillators.

An energy-based theory of autoresonance in driven dissipative chains of coupled generic oscillators is discussed on the basis of a variational principle concerning the energy functional. The theory is applied to chains of delayed Duffing-Ueda oscillators and the equations that together govern the autoresonance forces and solutions are derived and solved analytically for generic values of parameters and initial conditions, including the case of quenched time-delay disorder. Remarkably, the presence of retarded potentials with time-delayed feedback drastically modify the autoresonance scenario preventing the growth of the energy oscillation over specific regions of the parameter space.

A real-world study on the clinicopathological profile, treatment outcomes and health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression among patients with desmoid tumor at two tertiary care centers in India.

Background: The medical management of DT comprises tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), hormonal agents, anti-inflammatory drugs with the recently approved gamma secretase inhibitor nirogacestat being the current standard of care. Real-world data on evolving treatment landscapes of DT remains scarce.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients with DT registered between 1995 and 2020 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Tata Medical Center, Kolkata.

Trichoderma harzianum TIND02 upregulates the expression of pathogenesis-related genes and enzymes and enhances gray blight resistance in tea.

The gray blight incited by Pestalotiopsis and allied genera is a prevalent disease affecting tea cultivation, and managing it with Trichoderma spp. is an alternative to synthetic fungicides. Plants modify their arsenal system against pathogens when they are exposed to Trichoderma spp.

FeO Nanoflakes - WS Nanosheets Heterojunctions for Multi-Fold Enhancement in Photoelectrochemical Solar Energy Conversion.

FeO-based photoanodes show great potential in photoelectrochemical water splitting due to their excellent stability, moderate band gap, and abundance. However, a short hole diffusion length limits its photocurrent density. Here, a multi-fold enhancement in photocurrent density from FeO nanoflakes - WS nanosheets heterojunction is reported.

Pattern of care and treatment outcomes of metastatic non-clear cell kidney cancer: a single centre experience from India.

Background: Non-clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) refers to a rare diverse heterogeneous group of tumours; usually treated with immune check point inhibitors and or tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Prospective large-scale data from Asian countries is limited.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients with metastatic nccRCC treated at Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata, India, from 2012 to 2022.

Artificial blood for therapeutic and laboratory usage: Where do we stand?

The scarcity of blood for transfusion purposes has been widely acknowledged. Surgical therapeutic processes, war zones, and post-disaster treatments demand a huge amount of blood. Modern-day laboratories also require blood for bioengineering experimentation.

Haematological Profile in Patients With Acute Falciparum Malaria: A Hospital-Based Study.

Introduction Malaria is the most common parasitic disease affecting humans. Haematological alterations in malaria are expected, and these changes play a significant role in fatal complications. The present study aims to assess the clinical and haematological profile in patients with acute falciparum malaria and the significance of various haematological and coagulation alterations with the clinical severity of malaria.

Demographic Characteristics and Treatment Outcomes of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma With Clear Cell Histology: A Single-Center Experience From India.

Background Treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer (mRCC) has revolutionized with the introduction of anti-VEGF tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). There is limited data in the literature on the outcomes of Indian patients treated with TKI. Here, we report the outcome of mRCC treated with first-line TKI in a resource-poor setting.

Clinico-Epidemiological Profile of Vitiligo Among Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Centre of North-East India.

Objectives Vitiligo is a widespread cutaneous disorder. The present study aims to evaluate the epidemiologic profile of vitiligo and investigate its different clinical forms, disease activity, hereditary associations, triggering factors, and probable association with other diseases. Methods This prospective observational study was conducted over one year, from 2019 to 2020, and included 120 cases demonstrating definite clinical evidence of vitiligo.

Kosambi-Cartan-Chern perspective on chaos: Unveiling hidden attractors in nonlinear autonomous systems.

This article confronts the formidable task of exploring chaos within hidden attractors in nonlinear three-dimensional autonomous systems, highlighting the lack of established analytical and numerical methodologies for such investigations. As the basin of attraction does not touch the unstable manifold, there are no straightforward numerical processes to detect those attractors and one has to implement special numerical and analytical strategies. In this article we present an alternative approach that allows us to predict the basin of attraction associated with hidden attractors, overcoming the existing limitations.

Real world study of safety and efficacy of lorlatinib as second line and beyond in -rearranged advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients in India - a multicentre chart review study (ROSELAND).

Background: Lorlatinib, an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-inhibitor, is approved as frontline as well as subsequent line of therapy in ALK-rearranged advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). There is limited literature about safety and efficacy of lorlatinib in Indian patients.

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective multicentre study on patients with ALK-rearranged advanced NSCLC received lorlatinib as second line and beyond between May 2017 and December 2021.

Phase 3 RCT comparing docetaxel-platinum with docetaxel-platinum-5FU as neoadjuvant chemotherapy in borderline resectable oral cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) with TPF (docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5FU) is one of the treatment options in very locally advanced oral cancer with a survival advantage over PF (cisplatin and 5FU). TP (docetaxel and cisplatin) has shown promising results with a lower rate of adverse events but has never been compared to TPF.

Methods: In this phase 3 randomized superiority study, adult patients with borderline resectable locally advanced oral cancers were randomized in a 1:1 fashion to either TP or TPF.

Insect Microbial Symbionts: Ecology, Interactions, and Biological Significance.

The guts of insect pests are typical habitats for microbial colonization and the presence of bacterial species inside the gut confers several potential advantages to the insects. These gut bacteria are located symbiotically inside the digestive tracts of insects and help in food digestion, phytotoxin breakdown, and pesticide detoxification. Different shapes and chemical assets of insect gastrointestinal tracts have a significant impact on the structure and makeup of the microbial population.

Advances and Challenges in Predictive Modeling for Additive Manufacturing of Dissimilar Metals and Complex Alloys.

We present a scrutiny on the state of the art and applicability of predictive methods for additive manufacturing (AM) of metals, alloys, and compositionally complex metallic materials, to provide insights from the computational models for AM process optimization. Our work emphasizes the importance of manufacturing parameters on the thermal profiles evinced during processing, and the fundamental insights offered by the models used to simulate metal AM mechanisms. We discuss the methods and assumptions necessary for an educated tradeoff between the efficacy and accuracy of the computational approaches that incorporate multi-physics required to mimic the associated fluid flow phenomena as well as the resulting microstructures.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in technically unresectable head and neck cancers: a retrospective audit.

Background: The data regarding the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in technically unresectable head and neck cancer (HNC) is limited and real-world studies are needed to look for the efficacy and toxicities of this approach.

Patients And Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in the Medical Oncology department of our hospital. All technically unresectable HNC patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy between May 2018 and May 2020 were included in this analysis.

The scale insects: Its status, biology, ecology and management in tea plantations.

The scale insects reduce plant photosynthetic ability by sucking sap from leaves and causing significant damage to the tea crop in most tea-producing countries. They suck the sap from stems and tea leaves, which not only prevents further growth but also reduces the nutritional quality of the leaves by promoting the growth of sooty molds. However, due to the widespread use of organosynthetic pesticides in recent decades, most insect pests have developed high levels of pesticide resistance, reducing the effectiveness of insecticide application.

First-line Rucaparib Plus Bevacizumab Maintenance Completed One-Year in Germline BRCA1-Mutated Advanced Ovarian Cancer.

The present case study showed the novel approach of Rucaparib and Bevacizumab as first-line maintenance therapy in germline BRCA 1 mutated advanced high-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary. A 56-year-old female with high-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary (ECOG PS1) was treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel in combination with Bevacizumab (CPB), followed by interval debulking surgery. Since the patient was germline BRCA 1 positive, after completion of adjuvant chemotherapy, she was kept on Rucaparib along with Bevacizumab.