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Abstract During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, lockdowns and movement restrictions were thought to negatively impact population mental health, since depression and anxiety symptoms were frequently reported. This study investigates the effect of COVID-19 mitigation measures on mental health across the United States, at county and state levels using difference-in-differences analysis. It examines the effect on mental health facility usage and the prevalence of mental illnesses, drawing on large-scale medical claims data for mental health patients joined with publicly available state- and county-specific COVID-19 cases and lockdown information. For consistency, the main focus is on two types of social distancing policies, stay-at-home and school closure orders. Results show that lockdown has significantly and causally increased the usage of mental health facilities in regions with lockdowns in comparison to regions without such lockdowns. Particularly, resource usage increased by 18% in regions with a lockdown compared to 1% decline in regions without a lockdown. Also, female populations have been exposed to a larger lockdown effect on their mental health. Diagnosis of panic disorders and reaction to severe stress significantly increased by the lockdown. Mental health was more sensitive to lockdowns than to the presence of the pandemic itself. The effects of the lockdown increased over an extended time to the end of December 2020.

This study focused on strategically employing the carboxylesterase enzyme Ha006a, derived from the pesticide-resistant microorganism Helicoverpa armigera, to detect atrazine. A comprehensive analysis through biochemical, biophysical and bioinformatics approaches was conducted to determine the interaction between the Ha006a protein and the herbicide atrazine. These experimental findings elucidated the potential of leveraging the inherent pesticide sequestration mechanism of the Ha006a enzyme for sensor fabrication. Numerous optimizations were undertaken to ensure the precision, reproducibility and convenient storage of the resulting electrochemical sensor, Ha006a/MCPE. This biosensor exhibited exceptional performance in detecting atrazine, demonstrating outstanding selectivity with a lower limit of detection of 5.4 µM. The developed biosensor has emerged as a reliable and cost-effective green tool for the detection of atrazine from diverse environmental samples. The Ha006a-based biosensor fabrication has expanded the possibilities for the efficient integration of insect enzymes as analytical tools, paving the way for the design of cost-effective biosensors capable of detecting and quantifying pesticides., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The study presented here aims at assessing the effects of hypobaric hypoxia on RAAS pathway and its components along with mitigation of anomalies with quercetin prophylaxis. One hour prior to hypobaric hypoxia exposure, male SD rats were orally supplemented with quercetin (50 mg/kg BW) and acetazolamide (50 mg/kg BW) and exposed them to 25,000 ft. (7,620 m) in a simulated environmental chamber for 12 h at 25 ± 2 °C. Different biochemical parameters like renin activity, aldosterone, angiotensin I, ACE 2 were determined in plasma. As a conventional response to low oxygen conditions, oxidative stress parameters (ROS and MDA) were elevated along with suppressed antioxidant system (GPx and catalase) in plasma of rats. Quercetin prophylaxis significantly down regulated the hypoxia induced oxidative stress by reducing plasma ROS & MDA levels with efficient enhancement of antioxidants (GPx and Catalase). Further, hypoxia mediated regulation of renin and ACE 2 proves the outstanding efficacy of quercetin in repudiating altercations in RAAS cascade due to hypobaric hypoxia. Furthermore, differential protein expression of HIF-1α, NFκB, IL-18 and endothelin-1 analyzed by western blotting approves the biochemical outcomes and showed that quercetin significantly aids in the reduction of inflammation under hypoxia. Studies conducted with Surface Plasmon Resonance demonstrated a binding among quercetin and ACE 2 that indicates that this flavonoid might regulate RAAS pathway via ACE 2. Henceforth, the study promotes the prophylaxis of quercetin for the better adaptability under hypobaric hypoxic conditions via modulating the RAAS pathway., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Urea is recognized as one of the most frequently used adulterants in milk to enhance artificial protein content, and whiteness. Drinking milk having high urea concentrations which causes innumerable health disputes like ulcers, indigestion, and kidney-related problems. Therefore, herein, a simple and rapid electroanalytical platform was developed to detect the presence of urea in milk using a modified electrode sensor. Calcium oxide nanoparticles (CaO NPs) were green synthesized and used as a catalyst material for developing the sensor. Synthesized materials formation was confirmed by different techniques like FTIR, UV-visible, XRD, SEM-EDX, and Raman spectroscopy. The carbon paste electrode (CPE) was modified using the CaO NPs and used as a working electrode during the analysis followed by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques. The fabricated calcium oxide modified carbon paste electrode (CaO/CPE) successfully detected the presence of urea in the lower concentration range (lower limit of detection (LLOD) = 0.032 µM) having a wide linear detection range of 10-150 µM. Adsorption-controlled electrode process was achieved at the scan rate variation parameter. The leading parameters like the selectivity, repeatability, and stability of the CaO/CPE were investigated. The relative standard deviation of sensor was ± 3.8% during the interference and stability study., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Millions of people worldwide visit, live or work in the hypoxic environment encountered at high altitudes and it is important to understand the biomolecular responses to this stress. This would help design mitigation strategies for high altitude illnesses. In spite of a number of studies spanning over 100 years, still the complex mechanisms controlling acclimatization to hypoxia remain largely unknown. To identify potential diagnostic, therapeutic and predictive markers for HA stress, it is important to comprehensively compare and analyse these studies. Towards this goal, HighAltitudeOmicsDB is a unique resource that provides a comprehensive, curated, user-friendly and detailed compilation of various genes/proteins which have been experimentally validated to be associated with various HA conditions, their protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and gene ontology (GO) semantic similarities. For each database entry, HighAltitudeOmicsDB additionally stores the level of regulation (up/down-regulation), fold change, study control group, duration and altitude of exposure, tissue of expression, source organism, level of hypoxia, method of experimental validation, place/country of study, ethnicity, geographical location etc. The database also collates information on disease and drug association, tissue-specific expression level, GO and KEGG pathway associations. The web resource is a unique server platform that offers interactive PPI networks and GO semantic similarity matrices among the interactors.These unique features help to offer mechanistic insights into the disease pathology. Hence, HighAltitudeOmicsDBis a unique platform for researchers working in this area to explore, fetch, compare and analyse HA-associated genes/proteins, their PPI networks, and GO semantic similarities. The database is available at http://www.altitudeomicsdb.in ., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The oral cavity of human contains bacteria that are critical for maintaining the homeostasis of the body. External stressors such as high altitude (HA) and low oxygen affect the human gut, skin and oral microbiome. However, compared to the human gut and skin microbiome, studies demonstrating the impact of altitude on human oral microbiota are currently scarce. Alterations in the oral microbiome have been reported to be associated with various periodontal diseases. In light of the increased occurrence of HA oral health related problems, the effect of HA on the oral salivary microbiome was investigated. We conducted a pilot study in 16 male subjects at two different heights i.e., H1 (210 m) and H2 (4420 m). Total of 31 saliva samples,16 at H1 and 15 at H2 were analyzed by utilizing the 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, to explore the relationship between the HA environment and salivary microbiota. The preliminary results suggesting that, the most abundant microbiome at the phylum level are: Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Interestingly, 11 genera were identified at the both heights with different relative abundances. In addition, the salivary microbiome was more diverse at H1 compared to H2 as demonstrated by decreased alpha diversity. Further, predicted functional results indicate that microbial metabolic profiles significantly decreased at H2 as compared to H1, including two major metabolic pathways involving carbohydrates, and amino acids. Our findings show that HA induces shifts in the composition and structure of human oral microbiota which can affect host health homeostasis., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Ship voyage to Antarctica is a stressful journey for expedition members. The response of human gut microbiota to ship voyage and a feasible approach to maintain gut health, is still unexplored. The present findings describe a 24-day long longitudinal study involving 19 members from 38th Indian Antarctic Expedition, to investigate the impact of ship voyage and effect of probiotic intervention on gut microbiota. Fecal samples collected on day 0 as baseline and at the end of ship voyage (day 24), were analyzed using whole genome shotgun sequencing. Probiotic intervention reduced the sea sickness by 10% compared to 44% in placebo group. The gut microbiome in placebo group members on day 0 and day 24, indicated significant alteration compared to a marginal change in the microbial composition in probiotic group. Functional analysis revealed significant alterations in carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. Carbohydrate-active enzymes analysis represented functional genes involved in glycoside hydrolases, glycosyltransferases and carbohydrate binding modules, for maintaining gut microbiome homeostasis. Suggesting thereby the possible mechanism of probiotic in stabilizing and restoring gut microflora during stressful ship journey. The present study is first of its kind, providing a feasible approach for protecting gut health during Antarctic expedition involving ship voyage., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Peanut pods develop underground, which is the most salient characteristic in peanut. However, its developmental transcriptome remains largely unknown. In the present study, we sequenced over one billion transcripts to explore the developmental transcriptome of peanut pod using Illumina sequencing. Moreover, we identified and quantified the abundances of 165,689 transcripts in seed and shell tissues along with a pod developmental gradient. The dynamic changes of differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) were described in seed and shell. Additionally, we found that photosynthetic genes were not only pronouncedly enriched in aerial pod, but also played roles in developing pod under dark condition. Genes functioning in photomorphogenesis showed distinct expression profiles along subterranean pod development. Clustering analysis unraveled a dynamic transcriptome, in which transcripts for DNA synthesis and cell division during pod expansion were transitioning to transcripts for cell expansion and storage activity during seed filling. Collectively, our study formed a transcriptional baseline for peanut fruit development under dark condition.

Cardiovascular mechanical stresses trigger physiological and pathological cellular reactions including secretion of Transforming Growth Factor β1 ubiquitously in a latent form (LTGF-β1). While complex shear stresses can activate LTGF-β1, the mechanisms underlying LTGF-β1 activation remain unclear. We hypothesized that different types of shear stress differentially activate LTGF-β1. We designed a custom-built cone-and-plate device to generate steady shear (SS) forces, which are physiologic, or oscillatory shear (OSS) forces characteristic of pathologic states, by abruptly changing rotation directions. We then measured LTGF-β1 activation in platelet releasates. We modeled and measured flow profile changes between SS and OSS by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. We found a spike in shear rate during abrupt changes in rotation direction. OSS activated TGF-β1 levels significantly more than SS at all shear rates. OSS altered oxidation of free thiols to form more high molecular weight protein complex(es) than SS, a potential mechanism of shear-dependent LTGF-β1 activation. Increasing viscosity in platelet releasates produced higher shear stress and higher LTGF-β1 activation. OSS-generated active TGF-β1 stimulated higher pSmad2 signaling and endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndoMT)-related genes PAI-1, collagen, and periostin expression in endothelial cells. Overall, our data suggest variable TGF-β1 activation and signaling occurs with competing blood flow patterns in the vasculature to generate complex shear stress, which activates higher levels of TGF-β1 to drive vascular remodeling.

Salinity is a major constraint for intrinsically salt sensitive grain legume chickpea. Chickpea exhibits large genetic variation amongst cultivars, which show better yields in saline conditions but still need to be improved further for sustainable crop production. Based on previous multi-location physiological screening, JG 11 (salt tolerant) and ICCV 2 (salt sensitive) were subjected to salt stress to evaluate their physiological and transcriptional responses. A total of ~480 million RNA-Seq reads were sequenced from root tissues which resulted in identification of 3,053 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to salt stress. Reproductive stage shows high number of DEGs suggesting major transcriptional reorganization in response to salt to enable tolerance. Importantly, cationic peroxidase, Aspartic ase, NRT1/PTR, phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinase, DREB1E and ERF genes were significantly up-regulated in tolerant genotype. In addition, we identified a suite of important genes involved in cell wall modification and root morphogenesis such as dirigent proteins, expansin and casparian strip membrane proteins that could potentially confer salt tolerance. Further, phytohormonal cross-talk between ERF and PIN-FORMED genes which modulate the root growth was observed. The gene set enrichment analysis and functional annotation of these genes suggests they may be utilised as potential candidates for improving chickpea salt tolerance.