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Interdisciplinary and integrated powerful knowledge (IIPK) is the outcome of integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives and approaches to tackle challenging real-world issues. Using many disciplinary fields, IIPK is essential for problem solving, innovation, and technical breakthroughs that require careful, imaginative, and innovative application of a wide range of disciplinary knowledge. It is especially relevant when addressing socio-scientific issues, which require a comprehensive understanding of scientific, social, and ethical dimensions. Collaborative and interdisciplinary work among people with diverse backgrounds and expertise is necessary to advance IIPK, including professionals from different academic fields, policymakers, stakeholders, and community members who bring various perspectives and values to the table. The co-creation of IIPK could inform policy making, support informed decision making, and lead to more comprehensive, effective, and sustainable solutions. Theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of co-creating IIPK are discussed here based on several principles with the potential to impact current practices. The co-creation and dissemination of IIPK could use multiple platforms, such as scholarly articles, encyclopedias, and media, including social media. These platforms provide scope for co-creating powerful knowledge through a people participatory approach, which would lead to changes in practices.

Abstract Background Diabetic myonecrosis, also called diabetic muscle infarction, is an uncommon complication of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and is frequently underdiagnosed. The objective of this case report is to highlight the challenges in the early diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Case presentation A 51-year-old African American woman with a long history of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus presented to her primary care physician with right thigh pain. A diagnosis of diabetes myonecrosis was made on the basis of magnetic resonance imaging, biopsy, and negative autoimmune panel. After failing conservative treatment, the patient was treated with prednisone with gradual improvement of her symptoms. However, she had a recurrence of myonecrosis almost one year after her original presentation, which was also treated with prednisone. The recurrence had a shorter course and the patient recovered well. Challenges to the treatment in this patient were her debilitating pain and her underlying chronic kidney disease. Conclusions A high index of suspicion for diabetic myonecrosis is necessary when a patient with diabetes presents with unilateral focal leg pain and swelling. Magnetic resonance imaging and biopsy can help confirm the diagnosis. Prednisone may be considered in patients who lack spontaneous regression with just rest. Educating healthcare professionals about this uncommon condition is of utmost importance in avoiding unnecessary testing and inappropriate treatment.

AbstractIn 2018, WHO with the support of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India and partner organisations launched a Learning Districts Initiative to strengthen the district-level application of the National Adolescent Health Programme and to draw out lessons. An assessment of this initiative from 2019 to 2023 using qualitative and quantitative programme monitoring data from interviews, discussions, observations and data from multiple secondary sources explored the evolution of the concept, the process of securing government agreement, operationalising the initiative and the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness and the potential of sustainability and replicability within the government health system. As part of the process, WHO developed the concept with partners to address the challenges identified in a Rapid Programme Review requested by the Ministry. The Ministry concurred with the proposed participatory problem identification and problem-solving approach. A review-based process guided the implementation. Local non-government organisations supported District Health Management Units to strengthen planning, implementation and monitoring. An expert in adolescent health provided technical oversight. Three years later in 2022, adolescent health is on district agendas, staff capacity has been built, and clinic and community-based activities are carried out in a structured manner. The Initiative is feasible as it leverages local expertise. Its core interventions are acceptable to government officials. While there are improvements in inputs, processes and outputs, these need to be independently validated. Challenges such as unfilled vacancies, problems in supply procurement, inability of staff to discuss sensitive issues, weak intersectoral convergence and low engagement of adolescents in programme management remain to be addressed. Nevertheless, the overall experience augurs well for the future of the programme.

The paper presents a computationally efficient method based on the modified equivalent current approximation for electromagnetic wave scattering analysis of electrically large multilayered lossy dielectric structures. The proposed method can be an effective alternative to commercially available tools and methods, which tend to become computationally intensive with increase in size and losses of structures. The proposed method is applied to compute the radar cross-section of various multilayered dielectric and coated PEC structures for both TE and TM polarization under normal and oblique incidences and compared with method of moments (MoM). The result shows excellent agreement and reduced computational resources and time by a factor of fifteen compared to MoM. The proposed method can be applied directly to study scattering problems involving electrically large multilayer dielectric and conducting structures.

Lymphatic vessels conduct a diverse range of activities to sustain the integrity of surrounding tissue. Besides facilitating the movement of lymph and its associated factors, lymphatic vessels are capable of producing tissue-specific responses to changes within their microenvironment. Lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) secrete paracrine signals that bind to neighboring cell-receptors, commencing an intracellular signaling cascade that preludes modifications to the organ tissue’s structure and function. While the lymphangiocrine factors and the molecular and cellular mechanisms themselves are specific to the organ tissue, the crosstalk action between LECs and adjacent cells has been highlighted as a commonality in augmenting tissue regeneration within animal models of cardiac and intestinal disease. Lymphangiocrine secretions have been owed for subsequent improvements in organ function by optimizing the clearance of excess tissue fluid and immune cells and stimulating favorable tissue growth, whereas perturbations in lymphatic performance bring about the opposite. Newly published landmark studies have filled gaps in our understanding of cardiac and intestinal maintenance by revealing key players for lymphangiocrine processes. Here, we will expand upon those findings and review the nature of lymphangiocrine factors in the heart and intestine, emphasizing its involvement within an interconnected network that supports daily homeostasis and self-renewal following injury.

Purpose: Presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POHS) is a posterior segment disorder that is usually subclinical unless choroidal neovascular membrane (CNVM) develops. It is thought to be the sequela of a prior systemic infection with Histoplasma capsulatum, and evidence supporting this association is based on epidemiologic, animal, and few enucleation studies. Acute presentation of chorioretinal involvement during an initial histoplasmosis systemic infection in immunocompetent patients is rarely reported, presumably due to the usual lack of or minimal symptoms of both the systemic and ocular disease. We report on an immunocompetent male with choroidal lesions detected during disseminated histoplasmosis infection and characterize the lesions using multimodal imaging. Observations: A 17-year-old male presented when routine optometry screening detected two deep, yellowish-white lesions in the left fundus. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging confirmed a choroidal mass with extension through Bruch's membrane into the subretinal space and a small amount of subretinal fluid. Fluorescein angiography was suggestive of CNVM. There were no clinical findings of intraocular inflammation, and the patient was initially lost to follow-up. Eight weeks after last follow-up, the patient presented to the emergency department with fatigue, mild respiratory symptoms, and abdominal pain for the last month. Imaging revealed a mediastinal mass with hilar extension and innumerable nodules throughout the lung and spleen. Serum Histoplasma IgM/IgG were positive, and biopsy of the mediastinal mass revealed Histoplasma organisms. The patient was treated with antifungals and discharged. The patient underwent an extensive immunologic evaluation while admitted, which did not reveal an underlying immunodeficiency. On last follow-up, the choroidal lesions were smaller and more consolidated, and the subretinal fluid had resolved. Conclusions and Importance: We present a patient with choroidal lesions in the setting of disseminated systemic histoplasmosis infection and characterize a lesion using multimodal imaging. The presentation of acute chorioretinal lesions in the setting of biopsy proven systemic Histoplasma infection supports H. capsulatum as the etiology of POHS.

BAX plays an essential role in retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death induced by optic nerve injury. Recently, we developed M109S, an orally bioactive and cytoprotective small compound (CPSC) that inhibits BAX-mediated cell death. We examined whether M109S can protect RGC from optic nerve crush (ONC)-induced apoptosis. M109S was administered starting 5 h after ONC for 7 days. M109S was orally administered in two groups (5 mg/kg twice a day or 7.5 mg/kg once a day). The retina was stained with anti-BRN3A and cleaved Caspase-3 (active Caspase-3) that are the markers of RGC and apoptotic cells, respectively. ONC decreased the number of BRN3A-positive RGC and increased the number of active Caspase-3-expressing apoptotic cells. In ONC-treated retina, there were cells that were double stained with anti-BRN3A and ant-cleaved Caspase-3, indicating that apoptosis in BRN3A-positive RGCs occurred. M109S inhibited the decrease of BRN3A-positive cells whereas it inhibited the increase of active Caspase-3-positive cells in the retina of ONC-treated mice, suggesting that M109S inhibited apoptosis in RGCs. M109S did not induce detectable histological damage to the lungs or kidneys in mice, suggesting that M109S did not show toxicities in the lung or kidneys when the therapeutic dose was used. The present study suggests that M109S is effective in rescuing damaged RGCs. Since M109S is an orally bioactive small compound, M109S may become the basis for a portable patient-friendly medicine that can be used to prevent blindness by rescuing damaged optic nerve cells from death.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that has gained significant attention in recent years due to its increasing prevalence and profound impact on individuals, families, and society as a whole. In this study, we explore the use of different machine learning classifiers for the accurate detection of ASD in children, adolescents, and adults. Furthermore, we conduct feature reduction to identify key features contributing to ASD classification within each age group using Cuckoo Search Algorithm. Logistic Regression has the highest accuracy compared to the other two models.

In the conventional system of education, a student can regularly interact with teachers and peers and effectively and smoothly carry on with the learning process. However, in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, students have to learn by themselves with the self-instructional materials and with the minimum guidance received from counselors, making the system more demanding. In other words, although opportunities are created in an ODL system for student interaction with faculty and peers, these are less frequent as compared to the conventional system, making effective learning challenging. Besides the facts placed above, this paper is also based on the premise that the admission process in conventional institutions/universities are highly selective where decisions at the entry level is influenced by the academic performance of the students and/or scores at assessment/screening examinations; therefore, the students so selected are relatively academically stronger students capable of better academic performance. Due to its inherent constraints of providing space and infrastructural facilities, conventional higher education is more selective and consequently more merit and excellence based in its approach. At the other end of the spectrum are the institutions of open learning which are primarily addressing the issues of access and equity in education and therefore have more open and flexible admissions. While following basic eligibility criteria and/or standardized test scores, it is seen that students would not have to be outstanding or even necessarily academically strong students to be admitted to the various programmes of study. As a result, a major chunk of the students who enter the ODL system are those who are filtered and are unable to get admission into the traditional and conventional system of education. It becomes very difficult for these students to manage with the demanding ODL system contributing to low pass out rates. On this premise, the paper tries to discuss the possible mechanism/s for student screening for all programmes run in the ODL mode too so that justice is ensured to students. The authors also try to reason that use of ODL would be successful only for those learners who have a certain level of intelligence, competence and capability and are self-motivated to put in more effort. Further, the authors attempt to highlight that democratization of education is actually being misinterpreted and is targeting mass enrolment. If self-learning is achieved in its true sense, which can be attained just by competent, self-motivated and select students, only then can we say that ODL system is effectively contributing to educational development of the country.

Neuroproteomics, an emerging field at the intersection of neuroscience and proteomics, has garnered significant attention in the context of neurotrauma research. Neuroproteomics involves the quantitative and qualitative analysis of nervous system components, essential for understanding the dynamic events involved in the vast areas of neuroscience, including, but not limited to, neuropsychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, mental illness, traumatic brain injury, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and other neurodegenerative diseases. With advancements in mass spectrometry coupled with bioinformatics and systems biology, neuroproteomics has led to the development of innovative techniques such as microproteomics, single-cell proteomics, and imaging mass spectrometry, which have significantly impacted neuronal biomarker research. By analyzing the complex protein interactions and alterations that occur in the injured brain, neuroproteomics provides valuable insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurotrauma. This review explores how such insights can be harnessed to advance personalized medicine (PM) approaches, tailoring treatments based on individual patient profiles. Additionally, we highlight the potential future prospects of neuroproteomics, such as identifying novel biomarkers and developing targeted therapies by employing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). By shedding light on neurotrauma’s current state and future directions, this review aims to stimulate further research and collaboration in this promising and transformative field.

In this paper, we propose and formulate a C++ based training methodology for speeding up the implementation of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The proposed ANN implementation methodology uses a custom C++ based program referred to as Neural Network Design Parameter Extraction (NNDPE) program developed using an open source library namely Fast Artificial Neural Network (FANN). The proposed C++ based NNDPE program reduces the time required to train and extract the design parameters of the ANN, such as the number of layers, the number of neurons in each layer, and the weights. The extracted ANN design parameters, custom hardware arithmetic units, and function-approximate activation functions are used to implement the ANN hardware architecture of a linear function on the Virtex-7 FPGA platform. The Vivado 2018.3 tool is used to simulate, synthesize, and implement the ANN-based linear function. It was concluded from the simulation that the ANN hardware implementation has high precision due to the usage of floating-point arithmetic operations compared to the ANN which uses fixed-point arithmetic operations. The ANN-implemented on the Virtex-7 FPGA operates at 150.76 MHz, which is approximately 11 to 18 times faster than the software implementation running on various CPU cores with operating frequencies ranging over 2.2 GHz to 4.70 GHz.

Abstract Aim The present study investigated the influence of environmental variables on macrobenthic fauna in the Achenkovil River, Southern Western Ghats, Kerala. The knowledge of aquatic ecosystems in many remote areas is very scanty and no one has yet made an attempt to study the macrobenthic fauna of Achenkovil river. Since, macrobenthos play an important role in the benthic community structure a better knowledge of their ecology and distributional patterns in remote freshwater ecosystems would be of great interest for a better understanding of their functioning. Methods A bimonthly sampling was conducted from February 2019 to January 2020. Water samples for physicochemical analysis were carried to the laboratory in clean polyethylene bottles. The macrobenthic fauna was collected using Van Veen grab (0.025m2). Multivariate statistical technique such as Principal Component Analysis was used to monitor the variation in environmental parameters. The diversity of macrobenthic fauna was studied using Simpson_1-D, Shannon_H, Evenness_e^H/S, and Margalef’s indices. We analyzed the relationship between environmental variables and macrobenthic fauna, using Canonical Correlation Analysis and Pearson correlation. Results A total of 3563 individuals belonging to 9 orders, 32 families, 32 genera, and 32 species were identified. The most dominant order was Ephemeroptera followed by Coleoptera and Trichoptera and the least dominant was Zygoptera. The maximum number of macrobenthic fauna was observed in station 1(S1), (1461 Ind/m2) and the least in station 9 (S9), (37 Ind/m2). Station 1 (S1) is a pristine forest area, so this area is considered the reference site. The macrobenthic fauna in the pristine headwater forests (S1) was much more diverse than in the river mouth (S9) which is a highly impacted region. This region is facing various kinds of anthropogenic stress resulting in pollution and deterioration of water quality. The macrobenthic community structure in the Achenkovil River was significantly associated to the variations in water quality due to various natural as well as anthropogenic stresses. Conclusions It can be concluded that Ephemeroptera, Coleoptera, and Trichoptera were the most dominant groups in the undisturbed habitats in the river during the study period. The predominance of Chironomidae species, especially from the Chironomus genus in the midstream and downstream segments of the river is possibly due to their ability to adapt to various environmental conditions or habitats and their tolerance to the low oxygen content in anoxic conditions of the bottom sediment. The lowest abundance of macrobenthos at all the studied stations was observed at station 9 (S9) during dry seasons. S9 is a highly impacted region, characterized by high temperature, turbidity, TDS, pH, conductivity, nitrate, and phosphate values. For this reason, anthropogenic stress and changing environmental conditions are the main factors affecting the distribution of the macrobenthic fauna of the Achenkovil River basin, Kerala.

In the present study, an attempt has been done to explore the phytochemicals and proximate compositions from an edible plant Rumex vesicarius, which is found in the wild habitats in United Arab Emirates. Extracts were prepared from the dried powder of the areal parts of the plant using methanol as solvent in Soxhlet. The extract was tested for phytochemicals and also studied for the proximate composition. The antioxidant power of the extract was determined by using four different assays (ABTS, DPPH, superoxide anion and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity). The results revealed that the extracts contain phytochemicals, which can be used as effective radical scavengers. The antioxidant activities were highly significant in the extract, which shows that this plant has high potential to be used in traditional and alternative medical systems. The present information would be of helpful for the future isolation and pharmacologically active compound identification from this plant.