Bilateral indirect ovarian inguinal hernia in a young female with type 1 Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome: An extremely rare clinical context.

Key Clinical Message: Incidence of bilateral inguinal hernia encompassing bilateral ovaries in adult female is very thin and concomitant association with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome is out of ordinary. Along with surgical management of hernia, these females need multidisciplinary slant to manage gynecological, social, and emotional issues. Abstract: In mature females, bilateral ovarian inguinal hernias are a rarity. In this situation, ultrasonography is the basic adjunct to confirm the diagnosis. Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome is typically linked to ovarian hernias in grown-up females. The most important ways to avoid problems are early diagnosis and surgical repair. A 25-year-old lady presented to our outpatient clinic with a history of swelling in bilateral inguinal region for 1 month. On the ultrasound examination, the right ovary was visualized in the right high inguinal canal, and the left ovary was seen at the level of deep inguinal ring with no visualization of the uterus in its normal anatomical position. The patient underwent bilateral inguinal exploration under spinal anesthesia, and herniated contents were successfully reduced back to anatomical locations. Clinical care for such a clinical condition must be multifaceted, involving intensive counseling, relocating the uterus, fallopian tube, and ovary to preserve fertility, and preventing consequences like incarceration and strangulation.

Unraveling determinants of integrated farming systems adoption for sustainable livelihood and dietary diversity.

Introduction: Over the years, smallholder farmers have faced more vulnerability to risk and uncertainty in India due to their dependence on cereal crops. One way to reduce this risk is through diversified agriculture, integrating different practices for efficient resource utilization, and adopting a farming systems approach. An integrated farming system (IFS) is one such technique that provides year-round income from different components of enterprises. However, the decision to adopt IFS may be determined by several characteristics of farmers, which needs to be delineated through impact analysis to harness the benefits of a systems approach. Methods: This study analyzes the economic effects of integrated farming systems and assesses their determinants, as well as the dietary diversity patterns of farmers in two states of southern India, i.e., Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A multistage sampling technique was used to obtain cross-sectional data from 367 farmers randomly chosen from one district in Kerala and two districts in Tamil Nadu. The participants have Crop + Horticulture + Animal husbandry (45.45%) as their major system, whereas non-participants have Crop + Animal husbandry (44.35%) as their predominant system. Coarsened exact matching and logit regression methods were used to evaluate the economic impacts of IFS and its influencing factors. Results: The findings of the study indicate that age, education, livestock holding, access to credit, and plantation area have a positive and significant effect on participation by farmers in the program. The matching results show that adoption of IFS resulted in a significant economic impact, generating an additional gross income of Rs. 36,165 ha-1 and a net income of Rs. 35,852 ha-1 and improving the dietary diversity of farm households by 8.6% as compared to non-adopters. Discussion: This study suggests that IFS is a promising approach for improving farmers' livelihoods, economic gains, and nutritional security. Therefore, the integrated farming systems models need to be upscaled through the convergence of government schemes in other regions of India to support smallholder farmers' farming.

Integrating conservation agriculture with intensive crop diversification in the maize-based organic system: Impact on sustaining food and nutritional security.

Introduction: Developing an intensive sustainable model and feeding a rising population are worldwide challenges. The task is much more daunting in the North Eastern Himalayas, where, low productive maize (Zea mays)- fallow is the main production system in the upland. To increase farm productivity, nutritional security, and energy dietary returns while maintaining environmental sustainability and economic viability, short-duration crops must be included in the maize-fallow system. Methods: A field study was conducted in sandy clay loam soil with a randomized complete block design with three replications for three continuous years (2018-2021) under organic management with two crop management practices, viz., (i) conservation agriculture and (ii) conventional agriculture, and six crop diversification options, viz., (i) maize-sweet corn (Zea mays saccharata)-vegetable pea (Pisum sativa) (M-SC-VP), (ii) maize-sweet corn-mustard (Brassica juncea) (M-SC-M), (iii) maize-sweet corn-lentil (Lens culinaris) (M-SC-L), (iv) maize-sweet corn-vegetable broad bean (Vicia faba) (M-SC-VB), (v) maize (local)-vegetable pea (M-VP), and (vi) maize (local)-fallow (M-F). Results: The results showed that, the average system productivity was 5.3% lower for conventional agriculture than conservation agriculture. System carbohydrate, protein, fat, dietary fiber, and dietary energy were ~6.9, 6.8, 7.8, 6.7, and 7%, higher in conservation agriculture than in conventional agriculture, respectively. Similarly, system macronutrients (Ca, Mg, P, and K) and system micronutrients yield (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) were, 5.2-8% and 6.9-7.4% higher in conservation agriculture than in conventional agriculture, respectively. On average, over the years, crop diversification with M-SC-VP/M-SC-VB intensive crop rotation had higher system productivity (158%), production efficiency (157%), net returns (benefit-cost ratio) (44%), and dietary net energy returns (16.6%) than the local maize-vegetable pea system. Similarly, the M-SC-VP/M-SC-VB system improved the nutritional security by improving Ca, Mg, P, K, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu yield by 35.5-135.7% than the local M-VP system. Discussion: Conservation agriculture with M-SC-VP/M-SC-VB rotation showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher productivity, carbohydrate yield, protein yield, fat yield, and dietary fiber production. It is concluded that conservation agriculture improved soil health and performed better than conventional agriculture in maize-based intensive cropping systems. Overall results indicate that crop diversification with M-SC-VP/M-SC-VB can potentially increase calorie and protein consumption and farm profitability.

Anticarcinogenic and Antioxidant Action of an Edible Aquatic Flora Jussiaea repens L. Using In Vitro Bioassays and In Vivo Zebrafish Model.

Oxidative stress is the major cause of many health conditions, and regular consumption of antioxidants helped to encounter and prevent such oxidative stress-related diseases. Due to safety concerns over long-term uses of synthetic antioxidants, natural antioxidants are more preferred. The purpose of this study is to investigate the antioxidant and anticancer activities of Jussiaea repens L., a wild edible flora found in Manipur, India. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and DNA-nicking assay. The anticancer activity was tested using five cancer lines viz., SKOV3 cells (ovarian), HeLa (cervical), MDA-MB-231 (breast), PANC-1 (pancreatic), and PC3 (prostate). The toxicity, developmental effect, antiproliferative activity was further tested using zebrafish embryos. The methanolic plant extract had higher polyphenol content than flavonoids. The in vitro study demonstrated a promising antioxidant capacity and DNA protection ability of this plant. The extract also showed cytotoxic activity against SKOV3, HeLa, MDA-MB-23, and PANC-1 cancer cell lines. The in vivo studies on zebrafish embryos demonstrated the extract's ability to suppress the developmental process and elicited more cytotoxicity to cancer cells than developing zebrafish embryos. Moreover, the in vivo studies on zebrafish embryos also indicated the antiproliferative activity of J. repens L. extract.

Comparative study on phenolic, flavonoids and in vitro antioxidant activity of wild edible plants from Loktak Lake wetland ecosystem under North East Indian Himalayan Region.

The present study investigates the antioxidant activity of 28 wild edible plants (WEPs) resources of Loktak Lake wetland ecosystem of Manipur, North East Indian Himalayan Region and their correlation with phenolics and flavonoids. Antioxidant activity was measured by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assay. The antioxidant capacity was found to wide ranges of 1.71 to 263.7 µM TEAC/g fresh weight. In three assays, maximum antioxidant capacity is in same order Jussiaea repens L. > Gynura cusimbua (D. Don) Moore > Polygonum sagitattum L. ranging from 99.5 to 263.7 µM TEAC/g fresh weight. The correlation study established that all the three antioxidant assays are positively correlated and phenolics have contributed more in antioxidant activity than flavonoids. Among 28 WEPs, Jussiaea repens L. and Gynura cusimbua (D. Don) Moore were found to be most promising. These plants can be used as source of natural antioxidant additives, nutritional supplements or ingredients of functional foods.

In silico molecular modelling, structural dynamics simulation and characterization of antifungal nature of ß-glucosidase enzyme from Sechium edule.

ß-glucosidase is an enzyme that has ability to cleave ß-glycosidic bonds present in oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates. They are known to be present across all domains of living organism and have important roles in many biological processes including plant defense mechanism. In the present study, a ß-glucosidase enzyme identified from seeds of Sechium edule was characterized using various bioinformatics tools. A homology model (SeBG) was generated using a ß-glucosidase crystal structure from Oryza sativa (PDB ID: 3PTK) as template. In silico structural binding studies on putative ß-glucosidase protein revealed a stable and strong interaction indicative of higher GOLD fitness score with the substrates: p-nitrophenyl-ß-d-glucopyranoside (pNPG), laminarin, chitotriose, N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid suggesting its possible role in broad spectrum antifungal and antimicrobial activity. Assessment of the in vitro enzyme activity with pNPG showed a Km and Vmax values of 2.7 mM and 22 µMmin-1mL-1mg-1, respectively. While, the in vitro enzyme activity with laminarin showed a Km and Vmax values of 0.31 mM and 0.043 µMmin-1mL-1mg-1. The broad spectrum activity of the protein shown in our result indicates SeBG as a promising biocontrol agent against phytopathogens.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Valorization of chicken feather waste into bioactive keratin hydrolysate by a newly purified keratinase from Bacillus sp. RCM-SSR-102.

The objective of this study is the characterization of a keratinase from Bacillus sp.RCM-SSR-102 and its application in the preparation of keratin hydrolysate from chicken feather waste. The purified KER102 keratinase was characterized as a serine-metallo protease having a molecular weight of 30 kDa with optimum pH and temperature of 10 and 50 °C respectively. The keratinase could retain 98% activity at pH 10 and above and 55% activity at 20% salt concentration. The KER102 keratinase was found to be stable in the presence of oxidizing agents, surfactants and organic solvents. The keratinase could also hydrolyze both soluble and insoluble complex protein substrates. The KER102 keratinase could hydrolyze up to 5% (w/v) feather releasing 1.7 ± 0.19 mg/mL soluble peptides. The feather keratin hydrolysate (FKH) had both antioxidant and antityrosinase activity. The IC50 value of FKH in 2, 2-diphenyl 1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity (1.02 ± 0.01 mg/mL), 2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) radical scavenging activity (20 ± +00.04 µg/mL) and anti-tyrosinase activity (1.2 ± 0.22 mg/mL) was recorded. The FKH also had DNA protecting ability against oxidative damage. Antioxidant and anti-tyrosinase compounds have potential applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industry. Hence, the purified keratinase can be a potential candidate for the production of antioxidant and antityrosinase compounds from chicken feather waste.