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Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of chemotherapy combined with irreversible electroporation (IRE) in patients with locally advanced gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) presenting as gallbladder masses. Materials and Methods: Patients with unresectable GBC masses of size greater than 2 cm and less than 6 cm without evidence of distant metastases and with no contraindication to general anaesthesia will be enrolled in the study. They will be randomized using computer generated table into two arms with 1:1 allocation ratio to include 15 patients in each group. Group I will be the chemotherapy alone arm and Group II will be the combined image-guided irreversible electroporation of the tumour and chemotherapy arm. The primary outcome assessed shall be the clinical benefit rate (complete response, CR; partial response, PR and stable disease, SD) based on the mRECIST criteria and overall survival. The secondary outcome shall be feasibility and safety of the procedure and quality of life pre and post procedure. The quality of life will be assessed by a questionnaire as given by EORTC-Quality of Life Group before starting therapy and 4 weeks after completion of therapy. Expected Gain of Knowledge: The combined local and systemic effects of irreversible electroporation and systemic chemotherapy respectively may improve the outcomes in inoperable cases of gallbladder carcinoma. Trial Registration: Clinical Trials Registry – India (https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/advancesearchmain.php). Identifier: CTRI/2021/05/033803. Primary Register of the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) (http://www.who.int/ictrp/search/en/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a ceramic membrane with tubular configuration was made via the extrusion method using naturally available clay materials such as ball clay, white clay, quartz and calcium carbonate and sintered at 1000 °C. Along with thermogravimetric (TGA and DTA), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis, the tubular membrane was characterized for porosity, water permeability, average pore size and chemical tolerance. The porosity, water permeability and average pore size were calculated to be 25%, 5.40 × 10–4 L/m2hPa and 194 nm, respectively. The membrane showed better chemical tolerance as it is more stable in acid, alkali and chlorine solutions. The membrane was utilized in separating the bacteria Kocuria rhizophila from its culture broth which was used for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The influence of operating parameters such as cross-flow rate and pressure on permeate flux and rejection was investigated. It was observed that the pressure shows more effect on permeate flux and rejection than the cross-flow rate. The maximum bacteria rejection of 99.6% with average permeate flux of 3.6 L/m2h was observed at a pressure and cross-flow rate of 69 kPa and 100 L/h, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to meet the high demand for eggs, poultry producers are using certain feed strategies, which can increase production, but may indirectly cause metabolic and other stress in the birds. To overcome these issues, natural plant extracts and ingredients, such as turmeric, can be added to the diet. The inclusion of turmeric, which has various beneficial properties, at levels of 0.75% and 1% in the diets can improve feed intake and significantly reduce cholesterol in broilers. Cholesterol in eggs has been shown to decrease by 16, 24 and 25% (P<0.05) when layers were fed 1, 2 and 4% turmeric in feed, respectively. Birds fed a high carbohydrate ration and supplemented with turmeric powder for 30 days prior to sexual maturity had 20% more egg production as compared to a control group. Lactobacillus spp. counts were significantly higher (P<0.01) in chickens fed 1% turmeric supplemented feed compared to unsupplemented birds. Hence, this review includes the effect of feeding turmeric on feed intake, feed conversion ratio, nutrient digestibility, biochemical parameters, egg production, egg qualities, intestinal morphology, gut bacteria and the genetic expression of toll-like receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-term field experiment started in 1995 on Research Farm of Department of Soil Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hisar (India) was selected to study the effects of organic manures and chemical fertilizers on productivity, seed quality and nutrient use efficiency of wheat under pearl millet-wheat cropping system. The organic manures (15 Mg FYM, 5 Mg poultry manure and 7.5 Mg pressmud) were applied alone and in combination with fertilizers (150 kg N + 30 kg P2O5 ha-1) and compared with chemical fertilizers applied alone (150 kg N + 60 kg kg P2O5 ha-1 and 75 kg N + 30 kg P2O5 ha-1). The results showed that the application of organic manures in combination with N and P fertilizers significantly increased all yield attributes, i.e. plant height, number of tillers/m row length, spike length, number of grains/spike. Higher grain yield of wheat (61.4, 57.4 and 62.7 q ha-1) was observed when recommended dose of N and half of P was applied in conjunction with FYM, poultry manure and pressmud, respectively. Grain yield of wheat increased by 13.5, 6.1 and 15.9%, respectively, under same treatments when compared with recommended dose of N and P fertilizers. Among the organic manures, highest yield (32.9 q ha-1) was obtained with pressmud application. However, application of organic manures alone resulted in poor yield and even lower than 50% recommended dose of N and P fertilizer. All the seed quality parameters (standard germination, shoot length, root length, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index-I and -II) improved with the combined application of organic manures and chemical fertilizers as compared to their individual application. The partial factor productivity of N and P increased with combined application organic manures and chemical fertilizer as compared to chemical fertilizers applied alone, however, nutrient harvest index and their utilization efficiency decreased with combined application of organic manures and fertilizers as compared to their individual application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For easy separation of arils, pomegranate fruits were subjected to hot water dipping and normal water dipping treatments. Minimum time of separation as 4.10 min/kg of fruit was observed in case of hot water (80±2°C) dip for 2 min which was at par with hot water (80±2°C) dip for 1 min as 4.7 min/kg. All treatments saved time over the traditional method but only hot water dipping was significant without any significant adverse effect on aril quality in comparison with traditional method except anthocyanin and phenols. Anthocyanin content reduced and phenols content increased in comparison to traditional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive rectal bleeding is an uncommon presentation of ileal tuberculosis (TB). We report an uncommon cause of anemia in a post-renal transplant patient due to massive lower gastrointestinal (LGI) bleed. The index case had a normal upper and LGI endoscopy, but the 99technetium labeled red blood cell scan showed active bleeding from terminal ileum and caecum. Microscopic examination of the resected specimen revealed tubercular granuloma with acid-fast bacilli. Intestinal TB should be a differential diagnosis for massive LGI bleed in immunosuppressed patients in developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of oral tolerance of caseins (CSN) and whey proteins (WP) in alleviating the allergic response to cow's milk proteins in Swiss albino mice raised on a milk protein-free diet. Oral tolerance was induced by feeding mice with 20 mg of CSN or WP once in a day for 4 days consecutively before immunization with respective protein by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections (20 μg 200 per μl of PBS) using 2% of alum Al(OH)3 as adjuvant. Three weeks later, oral tolerance induction was analysed in humoral and cellular compartments of CSN- and WP-fed versus saline-fed control mice groups by measuring seric and intestinal antibody responses, mRNA abundance in splenic tissue and cytokine secretion patterns. The specific serum immunoglobulin-E (IgE) levels were significantly suppressed (p < 0.05), while sIgA was enhanced in these groups when compared with their respective saline-fed mice. Moreover, the mRNA levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) in both CSN- and WP-tolerized mice were found to be significantly decreased, while the abundance of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) was increased significantly, as compared to respective control groups. Finally, cytokine profiles indicated a reciprocal decrease in IL-4 and IFN-γ versus an increase in IL-10 secretions in supernatants of cultured splenocytes of tolerized mice. Taken together, these results clearly showed that oral administration of cows' milk caseins and whey proteins can induce significant hyposensitization in mice, with the participation of suppressor cytokines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast marching method is computationally efficient in approximating the viscosity solution of the eikonal equation in the case of unidirectional wavefront propagation through a medium at rest. The main assumption of this method is that the front propagates only in its normal direction, which is the case when the medium of propagation is at rest. In many real-time applications, the medium may be occupied with a moving fluid. In such cases, the governing equation is a generalized (anisotropic) eikonal equation. The main assumption of the fast marching method may not hold in this case, since the front may propagate in both the tangential and the normal direction. This leads to instability in the fast marching method due to violation of the upwind criterion. In this work, we develop a fast marching method for the generalized eikonal equation, called the characteristic fast marching method, where the upwind criterion is achieved using the characteristic direction of the propagating wavefront at each grid point. We suitably modify the narrow band algorithm of the fast marching method so that the anisotropic nature of the medium is incorporated in the method. We compare the numerical results obtained from our method with the solution obtained using the ray theory (geometrical optics theory) to show that the method accurately captures the viscosity solution of the generalized eikonal equation. We apply the method to study the propagation of a wavefront in a medium with a cavity and also study the merging of two wavefronts from different sources. The method can easily be generalized to higher order approximations. We develop a method with second order finite difference approximation and study the rate of convergence numerically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 50-year-old male with intermittent abdominal pain in the right lumbar and iliac fossa, malaise, and abdominal lump. A pallor with ulcerated growth in the right lower abdomen was shown and investigations revealed anemia, hypoproteinemia, with normal renal and liver functions. Contrast enhanced computerized tomographic (CECT) scan indicates duodenal infiltration. The patient deferred surgery and selected palliative chemoradiotherapy.