Articles

Okra is an herbaceous hairy annual plant that belongs to the family Malvaceae. It is cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions around the world. The present work was carried out to study the effect of biofertilizers (Azotobacter + Bacillus) and different concentrations of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium i.e.NPK on growth and photosynthetic pigments of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench). Okra can be named a multipurpose crop as its various parts such as leaves, buds, flowers, pods, stems and seeds can be used for different purposes [1]. Okra is rich in dietary fiber, vitamins, oils, etc. Application of hazardous fertilizers causes a nutrient imbalance in soil, With respect to reducing the causes due to chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers are suited best to maintain higher productivity and yield of crops. Random block design (RBD) was selected as an experimental design. The treatments combination taken are T0- Control, T1- Azotobacter + 50% NPK, T2- Azotobacter (2.5 kg/ha) + 100% NPK, T3- Bacillus (2.5 kg/ha) + 50% NPK, T4- Bacillus (2.5 kg/ha) + 100% NPK, and T5 with NPK 100%. The final result revealed, that the treatment combination with Azotobacter + 100% NPK (T2) showed the highest value of plant height (65.60 cm), number of leaves per plant(62.36), number of flowers per plant (27.40), and also carotenoid content (2.82 mg/g), chlorophyll a(2.47 mg/g) and chlorophyll b(3.25 mg/g) were observed maximum. So, it can be concluded through this paper that the combination of Azotobacter 2.5 kg/ha + 100% NPK (T2) is suitable for the okra plant for better growth and enhancement of photosynthetic potential in-field practices.

The internal structure of a sunflower leaf could be reconstructed by applying RET reverse engineering techniques on measurements from terahertz time-domain probing (Time Domain Spectroscopy TDS). This new and non-destructive method allows us to follow the evolution of this structure in time during a process of dehydration. This paper is a synthesis of our previous work.

Knowing the psychological traits and clinically relevant symptoms for the development and maintenance of Eating Behavior Disorders (EDD) in bodybuilding and fitness athletes is a necessity for early intervention and the elimination of stressors that contribute to improving sports performance and quality of life.The aim of the study: To know the dynamics of EDD and the level of general psychological adaptation in athletes who practice bodybuilding and fitness according to sports gender and age.By applying the Inventory of Eating Disorders, EDI-III on 30 participants, bodybuilding and fitness practitioners, aged between 19 and 53, of which 21 are male and 9 are female, psychological traits were investigated relevant (low self-esteem, perfectionism, asceticism, fear of maturity, interpersonal, emotional problems, exaggerated control, and others) in order to know the level of distress and the presence of clinically relevant symptoms for the development and maintenance of EDD (the desire to being thin, bulimia, body dissatisfaction)We concluded that most of the athletes fall within the limits of the threshold values ​​established for the evaluated scales, 30% of the athletes (3 female athletes and 6 male athletes), obtained scores rated above the threshold on at least one of the clinical scales, which means that the risk of EDD is present in some athletes. The average of the investigated psychological scales calculated for the rated scores to establish the level of general psychological adaptation does not exceed the specified threshold for each investigated dimension separately, except for the asceticism, interpersonal problems, and exaggerated control scales. Female athletes have greater psychological balance than male athletes and lower risk of ED than male athletes, important aspects of personality and mental health in psychological training as a screening tool in the process of optimizing the effectiveness of bodybuilding and fitness training.

There is a renewed interest in heart failure treatments. With this, there is an increasing interest in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Trans-mitral Doppler is commonly used in the assessment of ‘diastolic’ function. It is fashionable to discuss diastolic dysfunction and diastology with the result that the more important systolic dysfunction has become passé. The current literature equates trans-mitral Doppler patterns to diastolic function when actually it is more relevant in systolic dysfunction. This article is an attempt to correct this flawed perception of trans-mitral Doppler.

Background: Asthma, a chronic inflammatory respiratory ailment, is characterized by variable airflow obstruction and heightened bronchial reactivity. Despite therapeutic advancements, a comprehensive comprehension of its underlying metabolic mechanisms remains elusive. Metabolomics has emerged as a powerful approach to investigating the complex connections between serum metabolites and disease pathogenesis. However, exploring the causal relationship between serum metabolites and asthma susceptibility demands meticulous examination to unveil potential therapeutic targets.Methods: Mendelian randomization (MR) approach was explored to investigate the potential causal associations between serum metabolites and asthma risk. The main analysis employed the inverse variance weighted method, supported by supplementary approaches such as MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and sample mode. To enhance the strength and credibility of our results, we conducted sensitivity analyses encompassing heterogeneity testing, assessment of horizontal pleiotropy, and leave-one-out analysis. Additionally, pathway enrichment analysis was performed to further elucidate the results.Results: We identified 18 known and 12 unknown metabolites with potential associations with asthma risk. Among known metabolites, seven exhibited protective effects (e.g., 4-acetamidobutanoate, allantoin, kynurenine, oxidized bilirubin*), while eleven were considered risk factors (e.g., ornithine, N-acetylornithine, alanine). Through the integration of four additional MR models and sensitivity analyses, we revealed a connection between 4-acetamidobutanoate and approximately 6% lower asthma risk (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90–0.98).Conclusions: Our MR analysis uncovered protective and risk-associated metabolites, alongside 12 unknown metabolites linked to asthma. Notably, 4-acetamidobutanoate demonstrated a nominal 6% reduction in asthma risk, highlighting its potential significance.

A new technique for the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for the generalization and visual presentation of the results of experimental studies is proposed. The possibility of using ANN for cases for which their use was previously considered impossible is shown. ANN calculators have been created that summarize the results of experimental studies on the effect of trans-polynorbornene and basalt fiber on the characteristics of a rubber compound based on general-purpose rubbers (isoprene SKI-3, butadiene-methylstyrene SKMS-30ARK and butadiene SKD), which also contained vulcanizing agents (N, N′-dithiodimorpholine, thiuram D), vulcanization accelerators (sulfenamide C, 2-mercapto-benzothiazole), vulcanization activators (zinc white, stearic acid), emollients (industrial oil I-12A, rosin) and antioxidants (acetonanil H, diaphene FP). The rubber mixture was prepared on laboratory rollers LB 320 160/160. Subsequently, the rubber mixture was vulcanized in a P-V-100-3RT-2-PCD press. For the resulting vulcanizates, the physical and mechanical properties and their changes were determined after daily exposure to air and in a standard SZhR-1 hydrocarbon liquid at a temperature of 100 °C. We also studied the change in the mass of vulcanizates after exposure to industrial oil I-20A and water. The dynamic parameters (modulus of elasticity and mechanical loss tangent) of vulcanizates, which characterize their noise and vibration-absorbing properties, were studied on a Metravib VHF 104 dynamic mechanical analyzer. The created ANN calculators allow solving a direct problem - interpolating the dependences of all rubber characteristics on the content of basalt fiber, as well as solving inverse problems - to determine the required content of basalt fiber to create rubber with the required performance properties. The autonomous executable modules of the calculators developed by ANN were made and can be passed to everyone.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are considered as “lifestyle” diseases and so far “No unified procedure” or medicines are effective in the management of this group of diseases. Researchers and clinicians have indicated that no safe therapeutic window is available in therapeutics at present. Recent research showed that gut microbiota are effective in managing lifestyle diseases therefore we introduced the influence of gut microbiota in the prognosis of the CVDs. Faecal transplant therapy(FMT) has been anticipated to treat many diseases similar to recurrent bacterial Clostridioides difficile infection which has been used worldwide. Recently, FMT was tried on an animal model to treat CVDs, and recent human trials that were tried to manage CVDs in humans by FMT showed encouraging results. The mechanism of action of transplanted bacteria to manage CVDs in the human population is also discussed. In-depth knowledge on the pros and cons of FMT will pave the way to standardize the procedure once the lacuna existing at present in treating CVDs, is paved, this technology will be useful for the masses.

Pneumopericardium is a rare clinical entity, occurring in the setting of thoracic trauma, malignancies, or mechanical ventilation. Very few cases report pneumopericardium as a complication of gastrointestinal tract surgery. Signs and symptoms may be frustrating, ranging from asymptomatic to chest pain, sepsis, hemodynamic instability, pericarditis, or even cardiac tamponade. Clinical pathognomonic signs of pneumopericardium include pericardial metallic tinkling friction rub and mill wheel murmur. Diagnostic work-up includes electrocardiogram, chest radiography, and, computed tomography imaging. A gastro pericardial fistula should be considered a rare differential diagnosis for acute chest pain in patients with a history of gastroesophageal surgery. Rapid recognition and treatment avoid life-threatening complications. The successful outcome of gastro pericardial fistula treatment depends on both emergency and definitive surgical management. The survival rate with conservative management is poor.We present the case of a 78-year-old patient suffering from pneumopericardium and pericardial infusion, due to a fibrotic fistula between the Nissen’s valve, occurring 10 years after redo antireflux surgery. Treatment included broad-spectrum antibiotics, and emergency surgery for pericardial drainage, biopsy of the valve’s defect, suture, and omentoplasty.

The newly launched IAEA project MEREIA (MEthods for Radiological and Environmental Impact Assessment; 2021- 2025), MEREIA continues some activities of previous IAEA exercises in the field of radioecological modelling and focuses on areas where the probabilistic approach determines the predictive capability of environmental models. The program offered the opportunity to set up well-designed and verified scenarios to collect and compare exposures predicted by particular models based on this scenario and then perform a validation study of contributing models. It consists of the comparison of model prediction with observed data or in the case where there is a lack of measurement data to perform a comparison within model prognoses.  The previous international works have brought significant improvement in environmental modeling in terms of better understanding and mathematical description of complex physical and chemical phenomena that occur in various environmental media and also have promoted new areas for experimental investigations. The new experimental results yielded updated handbooks of a large number of environmental parameters for less-known elements. Moreover, the principal objective of the activities in environmental modelling was an integrated risk assessment of the reference group of population and biota associated with radionuclides releases from various kinds of nuclear facilities as from different types and power nuclear reactors, radioactive waste disposal and more complex nuclear research facility. This reflects recent international recommendations to extend protection against radiation hazards of humans to wildlife flora and fauna. However, the statistics supported knowledge on some essential environmental parameters still remain small. Therefore, one could be aware of some limitations of the probabilistic approach that required advanced methods of probabilistic prognosis Monte Carlo.

Background and aim: Preclinical in vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that radiation-induced tumour cell death can be enhanced 10- to 40-fold when combined with focused-ultrasound (FUS)-stimulated microbubbles (MB). The acoustic exposure of MB in the tumour volume causes vasculature perturbation, activation of the acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase) ceramide pathway, and resultant endothelial cell apoptosis. When the tumour is subsequently treated with radiation, there is increased endothelial cell death and anoxic tumour killing. Here we describe a first-in-human experience treating patients with magnetic resonance (MR)-guided FUS-stimulated MB (MRgFUS+MB) radiation enhancement.Case presentation: A head and neck cancer patient with recurrent disease underwent radiotherapy for 5 separate sites of locoregional disease followed by systemic therapy. The first consisted of a course of 45 Gy in 5 fractions alone, the second of 30 Gy in 5 fractions with hyperthermia, and the three others of 20-30 Gy in 5 fractions along with MRgFUS+MB treatment. The treatment methodology used an MR-coupled FUS-device operating at 500 KHz and 540 kPa peak negative pressure with an insonification time of 750 ms spread over 5 minutes to stimulate intravenously administered MB within tumour target. All sites treated with stimulated MB had a complete radiological response, and subsequently, the patient’s other cutaneous metastatic disease disappeared. The patient has been under surveillance for over two years without active treatment or disease progression.Discussion: MRgFUS+MB was well-tolerated with no reported treatment-related adverse events, which can be attributed to the capability of FUS to selectively stimulate MB within the tumour volume while sparing the surrounding normal tissue. Sustained local control at all target sites aligns with earlier preclinical findings suggesting the radiation enhancement potential of FUS+MB.Conclusion: MRgFUS+MB represents a novel and promising therapy for enhancing radiation efficacy and improving therapeutic index with potential improvements in disease control.