Toxicity assays and in silico approach to assess the impacts of chlorine dioxide on survival, respiration and some biochemical markers of marine zooplankton.

Chlorination is the common antifouling method in desalination and power plant water intake structures to control microbial and macrofouling growth. In this study, the impacts of chlorine dioxide on toxicity, metabolic activity and biochemical markers like glutathione S-transferase and catalase enzyme activity were tested using four zooplankton species (Centropages sp., Acartia sp., Oncaea sp., and Calanus sp.) collected from the Red Sea. The zooplankton species were treated with different concentrations (0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 mg L-1) of chlorine dioxide. Further, chlorite, the main decomposition product of chlorine dioxide, was used for molecular docking studies against glutathione S-transferase and catalase enzymes. The results indicated the LC50 range of 0.552-1.643 mg L-1 for the studied zooplankton species. The respiration rate of the zooplankton increased due to the chlorine dioxide treatment with a maximum of 0.562 µg O2 copepod h-1 in Acartia. The glutathione S-transferase and catalase enzyme activities showed elevated values in zooplankton treated with chlorine dioxide. Molecular docking of chlorite with enzymes involved in antioxidant defense activity, such as glutathione S-transferase and catalase enzyme showed weak interactions. Overall, this study yielded significant insights for understanding the effects of chlorine dioxide on the survival, metabolism, and biochemical composition of marine zooplankton.

Roles of water-soluble aerosol coatings for the enhanced radiative absorption of black carbon over south asia and the northern indian ocean.

Black Carbon (BC), formed by incomplete combustion, absorbs solar radiation and heats the atmosphere. We investigated the enhancement in optical absorption of BC due to coatings of water-soluble (WS) species in the polluted South Asian atmosphere. The BC Mass Absorption Cross-section (MAC; 678 nm) was estimated before and after removal of the WS components. Wintertime samples were collected from three South Asian receptor observatories intercepting large-footprint outflow: Bangladesh Climate Observatory Bhola (BCOB; integrating outflow of the Indo-Gangetic Plain), Maldives Climate Observatories at Hanimaadhoo (MCOH) and at Gan (MCOG), both reflecting outflow from the South Asian region. The ambient MAC observed at BCOB, MCOH and MCOG were 4.2 ± 1.4, 7.9 ± 1.9 and 7.1 ± 1.5 m2 g-1, respectively. The average enhancement of the BC MAC due to WS coatings (i.e., ws-EMAC) was identical at all three sites (1.6 ± 0.5) indicating that the anthropogenic aerosols had already evolved to a fully coated morphology at BCOB and/or that subsequent aging involved two compensating evolution processes of the coating. Inspecting the key coating component sulfate; the sulfate-to-BC ratio increased threefold when transitioning from BCOB to MCOH and by about 1.5 times from BCOB to MCOG. Conversely, both WS organic carbon (WSOC)/BC and water-insoluble OC (WIOC)/BC ratios declined with distance: WSOC/BC diminished by 84 % from BCOB to MCOH and by 80 % from BCOB to MCOG, while WIOC/BC dropped by about 63 % and 59 %, respectively. Such declines in WSOC and WIOC reflect a combination of photochemical oxidation and more efficient washout of OC compared to BC. The observed changes in the SO42-/BC and WSOC/BC ratios across South Asia highlight the significant impact of aerosol composition on the optical properties of Black Carbon (BC). These findings emphasize the need for detailed studies on aerosol composition to improve climate models and develop effective strategies for reducing the impact of anthropogenic aerosols on the climate.

Surgical outcomes of common arterial trunk repair beyond infancy.

Background: The aim of this study is to analyze the clinical outcomes of common arterial trunk repair beyond infancy in terms of both early- and long-term outcomes. Methods: Between January 2003 and December 2019, 56 patients underwent repair for common arterial trunk beyond infancy at our institute. Median age was 34.5 months, 51.8% were females, and 48.2% were males. Results: 48.2% were type 1, 46.4% were type 2, and 5.4% were type 3. 17.9% patients underwent direct connection technique for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction; remaining received a conduit. The most common type of truncal valve anatomy was tricuspid (82.1%). Early mortality was 7%. Univariable analysis identified age (p = 0.003), weight (p = 0.04), duration of ventilation (p = 0.036), and pulmonary hypertensive crisis (p ≤ 0.001) as factors affecting early mortality. In our overall cohort of beyond infancy repair for common arterial trunk, at 10 years, the survival, freedom from reintervention for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction, freedom from ≥ moderate conduit obstruction, freedom from impaired right ventricle function, and freedom from ≥ moderate truncal valve regurgitation were 76.7%, 89.7%, 74%, 88.6%, and 66.3%, respectively. Conclusion: Repair for common arterial trunk in patients presenting beyond 1 year of age is challenging; however, it can be done with satisfactory early and late outcomes in terms of mortality and reintervention.

A method for noninvasive beat-by-beat visualization of His bundle signals.

BACKGROUND: Invasive recording of His bundle signals (HBS) in electrophysiological study (EPS) is important in determining HV interval, the time taken to activate the ventricles from the His bundle. Noninvasive surface measurements of HBS are attempted by averaging typically 100-200 cardiac cycles of ECG time series in body surface potential mapping (BSPM) and in magnetocardiography (MCG) which records weak cardiac magnetic fields by highly sensitive detectors. However, noninvasive beat-by-beat extraction of HBS is challenged by ramp-like atrial signals and noise in PR segment of the cardiac cycle. METHODS: By making use of a signal-averaged trace showing prominent HBS as a guide trace, we developed a method combining interval-dependent wavelet thresholding (IDWT) and signal space projection (SSP) technique to eliminate artifacts from single beats. The method was applied on MCG recorded on 21 subjects with known HV intervals based on EPS and noninvasive signal-averaging, including five subjects with BSPM recorded subsequently. The method was also applied on stress-MCG of a subject featuring autonomic dynamics. RESULTS: HBS could be extracted from 19 out of 21 subjects by signal-averaging whose timing differed from EPS between -8 and 11 ms as tested by 2 observers. HBS in single beats were seen as aligned patterns in inter-beat contours and were appreciable in stress-MCG and conspicuous than BSPM. The performance of the method was evaluated on simulated and measured MCG to be adequate if the signal-to-noise ratio was at least 20 dB. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest the use of this method for noninvasive assessments on HBS.

Aerosol demasking enhances climate warming over South Asia.

Anthropogenic aerosols mask the climate warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). In the absence of observational constraints, large uncertainties plague the estimates of this masking effect. Here we used the abrupt reduction in anthropogenic emissions observed during the COVID-19 societal slow-down to characterize the aerosol masking effect over South Asia. During this period, the aerosol loading decreased substantially and our observations reveal that the magnitude of this aerosol demasking corresponds to nearly three-fourths of the CO2-induced radiative forcing over South Asia. Concurrent measurements over the northern Indian Ocean unveiled a ~7% increase in the earth's surface-reaching solar radiation (surface brightening). Aerosol-induced atmospheric solar heating decreased by ~0.4 K d-1. Our results reveal that under clear sky conditions, anthropogenic emissions over South Asia lead to nearly 1.4 W m-2 heating at the top of the atmosphere during the period March-May. A complete phase-out of today's fossil fuel combustion to zero-emission renewables would result in rapid aerosol demasking, while the GHGs linger on.

Black carbon aerosols over Indian Ocean have unique source fingerprint and optical characteristics during monsoon season.

Effects of aerosols such as black carbon (BC) on climate and buildup of the monsoon over the Indian Ocean are insufficiently quantified. Uncertain contributions from various natural and anthropogenic sources impede our understanding. Here, we use observations over 5 y of BC and its isotopes at a remote island observatory in northern Indian Ocean to constrain loadings and sources during little-studied monsoon season. Carbon-14 data show a highly variable yet largely fossil (65 ± 15%) source mixture. Combining carbon-14 with carbon-13 reveals the impact of African savanna burning, which occasionally approach 50% (48 ± 9%) of the total BC loadings. The BC mass-absorption cross-section for this regime is 7.6 ± 2.6 m2/g, with higher values during savanna fire input. Taken together, the combustion sources, longevity, and optical properties of BC aerosols over summertime Indian Ocean are different than the more-studied winter aerosol, with implications for chemical transport and climate model simulations of the Indian monsoon.

Spectrum of opportunistic fungal lung co-infections in COVID-19: What the radiologist needs to know.

Fungal lung co-infections associated with COVID-19 may occur in severely ill patients or those with underlying co-morbidities, and immunosuppression. The most common invasive fungal infections are caused by aspergillosis, mucormycosis, pneumocystis, cryptococcus, and candida. Radiologists integrate the clinical disease features with the CT pattern-based approach and play a crucial role in identifying these co-infections in COVID-19 to assist clinicians to make a confident diagnosis, initiate treatment and prevent complications.

[Spectrum of opportunistic fungal lung co-infections in COVID-19: What the radiologist needs to know]. / Espectro de coinfecciones pulmonares fúngicas oportunistas en COVID-19: lo que el radiólogo debe saber.

Fungal lung co-infections associated with COVID-19 may occur in severely ill patients or those with underlying co-morbidities, and immunosuppression. The most common invasive fungal infections are caused by aspergillosis, mucormycosis, pneumocystis, cryptococcus, and candida. Radiologists integrate the clinical disease features with the CT pattern-based approach and play a crucial role in identifying these co-infections in COVID-19 to assist clinicians to make a confident diagnosis, initiate treatment and prevent complications.

Ensemble Deep Learning and Internet of Things-Based Automated COVID-19 Diagnosis Framework.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a viral infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. The modalities such as computed tomography (CT) have been successfully utilized for the early stage diagnosis of COVID-19 infected patients. Recently, many researchers have utilized deep learning models for the automated screening of COVID-19 suspected cases. An ensemble deep learning and Internet of Things (IoT) based framework is proposed for screening of COVID-19 suspected cases. Three well-known pretrained deep learning models are ensembled. The medical IoT devices are utilized to collect the CT scans, and automated diagnoses are performed on IoT servers. The proposed framework is compared with thirteen competitive models over a four-class dataset. Experimental results reveal that the proposed ensembled deep learning model yielded 98.98% accuracy. Moreover, the model outperforms all competitive models in terms of other performance metrics achieving 98.56% precision, 98.58% recall, 98.75% F-score, and 98.57% AUC. Therefore, the proposed framework can improve the acceleration of COVID-19 diagnosis.

Radiative effects of atmospheric aerosols on the average channel capacity of free-space optical communication systems.

Free-space optical (FSO) communication systems employ unguided light beams propagating through the atmosphere to carry a large volume of data. The reliability of such data transfer can be hampered by various atmospheric effects. Based on an analytical model of a differential phase-shift keying FSO system through exponentiated Weibull turbulence, we investigate the effectiveness of beam width optimization and improved beam alignment, along with aperture averaging on the average channel capacity. Our results show significant signal deterioration produced due to the aerosol-induced optical turbulence, which substantially shadows the performance gain achieved through beam width optimization. Strong aerosol-induced atmospheric heating and the consequent enhanced optical scintillations result in reduction of the channel capacity by as much as 50% of its value when these effects are not considered or negligible. FSO systems are more resilient to aerosol-induced optical turbulence when the normalized beam width is less, and the average channel capacity can be significantly improved by improved beam alignment. These variations are weakly dependent under poor transmitter-receiver alignment conditions. Furthermore, the receiver aperture has a strong control on the link performance. While FSO systems with higher magnitude of normalized beam width have improved performance under all aperture diameter conditions; for a given beam configuration, large aperture diameter ensures a significant improvement in the link performance due to reduction in effects of scintillations.

Enhanced optical pulse broadening in free-space optical links due to the radiative effects of atmospheric aerosols.

Propagation through turbulent media produces complex amplitude fluctuations and temporal spreading of narrow optical pulses. Light-absorbing aerosols present in the atmospheric transmission path will perturb the refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) through atmospheric heating. The consequent enhancement in broadening and attenuation of ultrashort (femtosecond) optical pulses has been calculated by combining multi-satellite observations, radiosonde profiles and computational radiative transfer. It is shown that narrower optical pulses are more vulnerable to aerosol-induced impairments while broader pulses are more resilient, notwithstanding three to four orders of enhanced optical scintillation.

Antiproliferative activity of caged xanthones from the leaves of Garcinia wightii T. Anderson.

Two new caged xanthones, wightiic acid (1) 16-O-methyl wightiic acid (2), along with eight known compounds, gaudichaudic acid E (3), isogaudichaudic acid E (4), ursolic acid (5) stigmasterol (6), lupeol (7), glutinol (8), lupenone (9) and stigmasteryl linoleate (10) were isolated from Garcinia wightii T. Anderson. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic means, including 1D and 2D NMR, HR-ESIMS, and the absolute configuration of the new compounds 1 and 2 were determined by analysis of ECD data. Anti-proliferation activities of the four caged xanthones (1-4) were evaluated by MTT assay on MCF-7 and SKBR-3 human breast cancer cells and A-375 human melanoma cells by MTT assay. All the tested compounds exhibited dose dependent antiproliferative activity. Wightiic acid (1) showed remarkable activity with IC50 value of 4.7 µM and 5.2 µM respectively in A-375 and MCF-7 cells. The compound isogaudichaudic acid E (4) induced potent antiproliferation against SKBR-3 cells with an IC50 value of 6.1 µM.

Entanglement of near-surface optical turbulence to atmospheric boundary layer dynamics and particulate concentration: implications for optical wireless communication systems.

Localized reduction in optical turbulence due to enhanced atmospheric heating caused by the solar absorption of aerosol black carbon (BC) is reported. Immediate response of atmospheric turbulence to BC-induced atmospheric warming strongly depends on the available solar radiation (time of the day), BC concentration, and atmospheric boundary layer dynamics. Besides the significant climate implications of a reduction in turbulence kinetic energy, a large reduction in the refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) resulting from BC-induced warming would affect the atmospheric propagation of laser beams. Interestingly, aerosols contribute significantly (up to 25%) to the signal deterioration in optical wireless communication systems during convectively stable atmospheric conditions when higher signal-to-noise ratios are expected otherwise due to the reduced thermal convection. Competing effects of the fractional contributions of aerosol extinction and scintillations on beam attenuation are reported; daytime being largely dominated by scintillation effects while the nighttime being dependent on the ambient aerosol concentration as well. We put forward the entanglement of optical turbulence to aerosol concentration, atmospheric boundary layer dynamics, and surface-reaching solar radiation, and discuss the possible implications for optical propagation.

Performance of free-space optical communication systems: effect of aerosol-induced lower atmospheric warming.

We report the effect of aerosol-induced local atmospheric heating and the resulting changes in the lower atmospheric optical turbulence on the performance of Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication links. A closed form mathematical expression is derived to estimate the influence of aerosol-induced warming on the Bit Error Rate (BER) of a Binary Phase Shift Keying FSO communication link through Gamma-Gamma modeled turbulence. Our results demonstrate a strong impact, with the aerosol-induced turbulence taking a toll on the signal-to-noise ratio of ~20 dB for a BER of 10-9. Aerosol-induced warming produces significant variations in BER compared to the clear atmospheric conditions and can subdue the benefits of improved beam alignment.

Outcome of pregnancies in women with pulmonary hypertension: a single-centre experience from South India.

OBJECTIVE: To study maternal complications and pregnancy outcome in women with pulmonary hypertension, attending a tertiary centre in south India. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: Tertiary centre in south India. POPULATION: Pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension. METHOD: Data regarding demographics, clinical course, medication received, and echocardiographic diagnosis regarding pulmonary hypertension and antenatal care received were collected from the records. Details of labour and delivery, and postpartum follow up were retrieved. We compared the outcome based on the presence or absence of cyanosis and right ventricular systolic pressure levels. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Maternal mortality, occurrence of complications such as heart failure, fetal growth restriction. RESULTS: There were 81 pregnancies in 73 women with pulmonary hypertension. The majority of them had pulmonary hypertension secondary to congenital heart disease (80.8%); 17.8% had Eisenmenger syndrome. An advanced pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) medication, sildenafil, was administered in 25 (31.3%) pregnancies. There were four maternal deaths, of which three had Eisenmenger syndrome. Heart failure complicated 6.3% and fetal growth restriction 26.3% of pregnancies. Morbidity was significantly increased in women with pulmonary hypertension associated with a cyanotic cardiac lesion or with right ventricular systolic pressure >70 mmHg. CONCLUSION: Despite advances in care, mortality in pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension is a matter of concern, especially in those with Eisenmenger syndrome. Multidisciplinary team management in tertiary centres and the use of advanced PAH medications even in low- to middle-income countries with limited resources, could lead to a reduction in morbidity and mortality related to pulmonary hypertension. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Multidisciplinary care and use of new medication may improve outcomes in pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension.

RepEx: A web server to extract sequence repeats from protein and DNA sequences.

Evolution builds up new genetic material from existing ones, not in random, but in highly ordered and eloquent patterns. Most of these sequence repeats are revelatory of valuable information contributing to areas of disease research and function of macromolecules, to name a few. In the age of next generation genome sequencing, rapid and efficient extraction of all unbiased sequence repeats from macromolecules is the need of the hour. In view of this reckoning, an online web-based computing server, RepEx, has been developed to extract and display all possible repeats for DNA and protein sequences. Apart from exact or identical repeats, the server has been designed adeptly to identify and extract degenerate, inverted, everted and mirror repeats from both DNA and protein sequences. The server has striking output displays, featuring interactive graphs and comprehensive output files. In addition, RepEx has been accoutered with an easy-to-use interface and search filters to facilitate a user-defined query or search and is freely available and accessible via the World Wide Web at http://bioserver2.physics.iisc.ac.in/RepEx/.

Distinctive roles of elevated absorbing aerosol layers on free-space optical communication systems.

The impact of enhanced local heating due to absorption of solar radiation by elevated layers of aerosol black carbon (BC) in the lower troposphere in the performance of free-space optical (FSO) communication links is investigated. It is seen that a strong elevated BC layer at an altitude around 4.5 km enhances the atmospheric stability locally and leads to a large reduction in the atmospheric refractive index structure parameter (Cn2), leading to improved performance of the FSO communication links. For layers in the tropical atmosphere with sufficiently high BC concentration, the signal attenuation due to BC absorption is alleviated by the large reduction in Cn2 due to BC-induced warming and brings down the link outage probability. Synergy between reduction in Cn2 and long wavelength transmission improves the link budget significantly by reducing the beam wander and number of adaptive optics units required.

Coronary Angiography Findings and Its Determinants in Patients Presenting With Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Descriptive Analysis from Asian Population.

The aim was to study the angiographic profile in patients presented as acute coronary syndrome and its relation with risk factors and comparison between genders. This prospective observational study was performed on total 352 patients of acute coronary syndrome were analyzed for various risk factors, angiographic pattern in Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, South India from January 2015 to July 2016. Mean age of presentation was 52.62±11.63 years. Male were 271(77.0%) and female were 81(23.0%). Majority of patients were STEMI (67.6%) followed by UA (24.4%) and NSTEMI (8%). Smoker was 117(33.3%) patients. Hypertensive were 124(35.2%) of patients and 149(42.3%) were diabetics. Family history of CAD was positive in 45(12.8%). On angiographic evaluation left main reference diameter was lower in females (4.02±0.72) than males (4.07±0.82). LAD was most commonly involved followed by RCA and LCX among all three group of acute coronary syndrome. Left main was least involved (8.3%). In STEMI SVD (40.3%) was most common presentation, after that DVD was seen in 22.3%, TVD in 10.5%, non-obstructive coronary was seen in 16% of patients and normal coronary was seen in 11% of patients. In UA 28%, 22.8%, 13.2%, 15.8%, 20.2% was seen in SVD, DVD, TVD, non-obstructive and normal coronary respectively. Long length coronary lesions (>20mm) were seen in majority in all type of acute coronary syndrome. Coronary lesion length was not associated with presentation acute coronary syndrome and genders. Male were most commonly presented as acute coronary syndrome. STEMI was most common presentation. Diabetic was most prevalent risk factor. SVD was most common angiographic pattern and LAD was most common involved arteries.

Surgical Management of a Separated Endodontic Instrument using Second Generation Platelet Concentrate and Hydroxyapatite.

Fractured endodontic instrument is an unfortunate endodontic mishap which may obstruct thorough cleaning and shaping of the root canals with potential impact on the endodontic prognosis and treatment outcome. When the fractured segment lies apical to canal curvature, overzealous removal of tooth structure is required to gain access to the separated segment which in turn increases the likelihood of root fracture. In infected cases, the stage at which instrument separation occurs is crucial as root canal disinfection is jeopardized. This case report describes the surgical retrieval of a fractured endodontic file from the mesiobuccal canal of mandibular first molar by limited resection of mesial root. Second generation platelet concentrate called Platelet Rich Fibrin (PRF) and nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite and ß-tricalcium phosphate bone graft was placed to fill the surgical defect as the combination enhances the regenerative effect of PRF by exerting an osteoconductive effect in the bony defect area. The clinical and radiographic examination after eighteen months revealed complete periapical healing.

Dependence of atmospheric refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) on the residence time and vertical distribution of aerosols.

Effects of absorbing atmospheric aerosols in modulating the tropospheric refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) are estimated using high resolution radiosonde and multi-satellite data along with a radiative transfer model. We report the influence of variations in residence time and vertical distribution of aerosols in modulating Cn2 and why the aerosol induced atmospheric heating needs to be considered while estimating a free space optical communication link budget. The results show that performance of the link is seriously affected if large concentrations of absorbing aerosols reside for a long time in the atmospheric path.