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Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most prevalent endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and there is widespread concern about the adverse effects of EDCs on human health. However, the exact mechanism of these toxicities has still not been fully deciphered. Additionally, studies have reported the toxicological effects at far low doses to the generally considered no‐observed‐adverse‐effect level (NOAEL) dose. The present study investigates the effects of a sub‐acute (28 days) exposure to BPA (10, 50 and 100 mg/kg/day) in adult male mice on various hormones levels, sperm motility, sperm count, functional integrity of sperm plasma membrane, testicular histological changes, oxidative stress markers and DNA damage. The key proteome signatures were quantified by LC‐MS/MS analysis using Orbitrap Fusion Lumos Tribrid Mass Spectrometer equipped with nano‐LC Easy‐nLC 1200. Data suggest that the BPA exposure in all doses (below/above NOAEL dose) have greatly impacted the hormone levels, sperm parameters (sperm count, motility and membrane integrity) and testicular histology. Mass spectrometry‐based proteomics data suggested for 1352 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs; 368 upregulated, 984 downregulated) affecting biological process, cellular component, and molecular functions. Specifically searched male reproductive function related proteins suggested a complex network where 46 potential proteins regulating spermatogenesis, sperm structure, activity and membrane integrity while tackling oxidative stress responses were downregulated. These potential biomarkers could shed some more light on our current understanding of the reproductive toxicological effects of BPA and may lead to exploration of novel interventions strategies against these targets for male infertility. Highlights: Bisphenol A (BPA), a potent endocrine disruptor has known reproductive toxicitiesIt shows varied degree of responses and toxicities in doses well below no‐observed‐adverse‐effect level.Sub‐acute BPA exposure leads sperm count, motility and structure alterations46 potential proteins relevant to spermatogenesis and testes tissue were downregulated by BPARedox reaction, hormonal changes, cell cycle and structural proteins affected by BPA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic wounds are the wounds that damage both the skin and the underlying tissues. Bacterial load in wounded tissue triggers elongation of the inflammation phase of wound healing. In case of excessive inflammation, the wound may undergo delayed healing that can lead to complications such as sepsis or amputation. In the present work, a hydrogel using green-synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was synthesized and characterized in terms of homogeneity, viscosity, spreadability, excipient compatibility, etc. The hydrogels containing different percentages of AgNPs were tested for healing efficacy in full-thickness excision wound model in adult female Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats. Safety study of hydrogels was performed in SD rats as per the OECD guideline 410. The prepared hydrogels were stable for over 3 months and remain intact on parameters such as homogeneity, pH balance, good spreadability, and extrudability. Healing efficacy study showed that an increased amount of AgNPs in hydrogel enhanced wound contraction over 100% with increased tensile strength and dense aligned collagen fibers in treated wound tissues as compared to standard (silver sulfadiazine), placebo, and sham groups. Dermal toxicity studies showed that there were no signs of irritation, inflammation, and edema on the dorsum of SD rats. Besides, there was no local and systemic toxicity in hydrogel-treated groups.

The objective of this study was to review the demographics, causes injury, severity, treatment and outcome of traumatic brain injuries in victims of the April 2015 earthquake who were admitted in Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara. A total of 37 patients was admitted under Neurosurgery Services. Collapse of buildings was the commonest cause of head injury. The majority of them had mild head injury. Associated injuries to other parts of the body were present in 40.54% patients.

Bleomycin (BLM) is an effective curative option in the management of several malignancies including pleural effusions; but pulmonary toxicity, comprising of pneumonitis and fibrosis, poses challenge in its use as a front-line chemotherapeutic. Although Amifostine has been found to protect lungs from the toxic effects of radiation and BLM, its application is limited due to associated toxicity and unfavorable route of administration. Therefore, there is a need for selective, potent, and safe anti-fibrotic drugs. The current study was undertaken to assess the protective effects of DRDE-30, an analog of Amifostine, on BLM-induced lung injury in C57BL/6 mice. Whole body micro- computed tomography (CT) was used to non-invasively observe tissue damage, while broncheo-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissues were assessed for oxidative damage, inflammation and fibrosis. Changes in the lung density revealed by micro-CT suggested protection against BLM-induced lung injury by DRDE-30, which correlated well with changes in lung morphology and histopathology. DRDE-30 significantly blunted BLM-induced oxidative stress, inflammation and fibrosis in the lungs evidenced by reduced oxidative damage, endothelial barrier dysfunction, Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, pro-inflammatory cytokine release and protection of tissue architecture, that could be linked to enhanced anti-oxidant defense system and suppression of redox-sensitive pro-inflammatory signaling cascades. DRDE-30 decreased the BLM-induced augmentation in BALF TGF-β and lung hydroxyproline levels, as well as reduced the expression of the mesenchymal marker α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), suggesting the suppression of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) as one of its anti-fibrotic effects. The results demonstrate that the Amifostine analog, DRDE-30, ameliorates the oxidative injury and lung fibrosis induced by BLM and strengthen its potential use as an adjuvant in alleviating the side effects of BLM.

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate four-segment slant-hole (FSSH) SPECT for cardiac imaging. FSSH is a slant-hole collimator that is divided into four segments and arranged such that the photons from the volume of interest (VOI) are projected four times for every location of the detector. These multiple projections help to improve the sensitivity of the photons from the VOI by a factor 4 [cos.sup.3] [sigma], where [sigma] is the slant angle of the collimator. Another advantage of FSSH SPECT is a reduction in the total scan time, since a gantry rotation of [pi]- 2[sigma] is sufficient to satisfy Orlov's condition. That means, for a slant angle of 30[degrees], a gantry rotation of 120[degrees] is sufficient to satisfy Orlov's condition and obtain a complete dataset. In this paper, we evaluate and compare the reconstructed images obtained using an FSSH collimator, for a gantry rotation of 180[degrees] and 120[degrees], with those obtained from a parallel-hole (PH) SPECT system using a 180[degrees] acquisition. The reconstructed images from the three imaging geometries were compared in terms of average image noise, contrast, and percentage error, for seven different clinical count levels and for multiple noise realizations in each case. The increase in sensitivity of the FSSH system was found to translate into a proportional decrease in statistical noise for voxels in the VOI of the reconstructed images. Finally, a physical phantom study was performed using a prototype FSSH collimator. Our findings show that FSSH collimators have the potential of being the collimator of choice for cardiac SPECT imaging. Though we explore the potential of FSSH collimators for cardiac imaging in this paper, the concept can be extended for imaging other organs such as the breasts, kidney, and brain. Index Terms--Cardiac imaging, SPECT, three-dimensional (3-D).

Biology guided radiotherapy (BgRT) uses real-time PET data from the tumor to guide the planned dose to the tumor. The aim of this study is to test the effect of tumor growth on the accuracy of BgRT delivery. A custom-built fillable patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) insert containing a ball target and a C-shape OAR was used. The ball shaped target is divided into 4 quadrants. Three of the 4 quadrants were filled with FDG using a target-to-background ratio of 8:1. PET avid area was contoured as GTV and a 5 mm margin was added to generate the PTV. An additional 5 mm margin was added to create Biology Tracking Zone (BTZ), where the PET emissions will be used to plan and treat using BgRT. The same PET biodistribution of three compartments filled (3/4) is used during the first set of BgRT deliveries to test the accuracy of this non-uniform biodistribution. In the second set of BgRT deliveries, all 4 quadrants of the ball target were filled with FDG to demonstrate the growth of tumor in the 4th compartment. Both BgRT deliveries were repeated multiple times as PET activity decayed down to 5 kBq/ml activity concentration (AC) or Normalized Target Signal (NTS) down to 2. Resulting BgRT delivery doses were captured with the patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) and evaluated with 3%/2mm gamma criteria. For the 3/4th filled target BgRT experiment, the AC during PET modeling was 12.3, and during PreScan PET was AC was 19.7, 13.6, 10.9, 7.2, 6.1 and 5.1 kBq/ml. The Normalized Target Signal (NTS) during modeling was 12.3 while after PreScan PET NTS was 10.7, 8.6, 9.6, 6.2, 6.5 and 5.9. In tumor growth case where all quadrants were filled, the AC was 13.7, 12.1, 9.8, 9.5, and 5.5 while the NTS was 8.3, 7.2, 7.2, 7.9 and 7.0. The patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) gamma pass rates were 93.2%, 97.4%, 96%, 100% and 92.9% for the 3/4 deliveries and 96.3%, 93.5%, 99.1%, 96.9% and 95.7% for the 4/4 delivery. The plan designed for the 3/4 biodistribution was successfully treated for both 3/4 filled case and 4/4 filled case. The accuracy of delivery was maintained as the FDG decayed as well as the shape of the tumor changed, suggesting that the BgRT delivery is robust even though the AC decreases to the half of the values that BgRT planned was based on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RefleXion® X1 system is a biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT) machine with SCINTIX® treatment capability, which uses real-time positron emission signals from the tumor to guide radiation delivery. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of using the Gallium-68 (Ga-68) prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-11 radiotracer as a bio-guide for SCINTIX® treatment on the X1 machine in the future for bony metastases in prostate cancer patients. A retrospective review was performed on patients who underwent recent diagnostic Ga-68 PSMA-11 PET/CT scans at our institution. Five patients with PET-avid bone metastases identified in the scans were included. A gross tumor volume (GTV) was drawn for a PET-avid bone lesion for each patient. The PTV was created by adding a 5 mm margin to the GTV, and a biology tracking zone (BTZ) was created to encompass the potentially full range of motion of the tumor plus margin. To create SCINTIX treatment plans on the X1 machine, the diagnostic PET images were first converted to simulated treatment planning PET images on the X1 machine to account for differences in PET detector size and reconstruction algorithms. Then the activity concentration (AC) and normalized target signal (NTS) were calculated. The SCINTIX plans used a jaw width of 2 cm and a prescription dose of 27 Gy in 3 fractions given to the PTV using four couch passes. A 64-leaf binary MLC was used to modulate a 6-MV flattening filter-free photon beam on a ring gantry that rotates around the patient at 60 RPM. Patients received an average Ga-68 injection dose of 4.86 ± 0.73 mCi (range = 4.1 – 5.6 mCi) prior to PET/CT scans. In the diagnostic Ga-68 PSMA-11 PET images, the average maximum and mean PET activities in the GTVs were 25.2 ± 12.0 kBq/mL (range = 13.3 – 43.5 kBq/mL) and 16.44 ± 5.6 kBq/mL (range = 14.3 – 24.2 kBq/mL), respectively. The average AC and NTS values for targets in the simulated treatment planning PET images were 11.5 ± 5.2 kBq/mL (range = 6.2 - 18.9 kBq/mL) and 12.6 ± 5.5 (range = 8.7 - 22.2), respectively. With an average PTV volume of 15.7 ± 9.6 cc (range = 7.0 – 30.9 cc), the average treatment beam-on time was 1,678 ± 290 seconds (range = 1,416 – 2,120 seconds). Bounded dose-volume histograms (bDVH) were calculated to estimate the range of delivered dose due to PET signal and patient position uncertainties. The average PTV coverage, conformity index, and homogeneity index were 93.6 ± 1.9%, 1.14 ± 0.1, and 1.63 ± 0.1, respectively. This is one of the first studies on Ga-68 based tracers for SCINTIX planning as the current plan creation software was developed for F-18 based tracers. Metastatic bony lesions from prostate cancer could have sufficient positron emission strength for SCINTIX treatment when Ga-68 PSMA-11 radiotracer is used at diagnostic dose levels. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using Ga-68 PSA-11 radiotracer for future PET-guided SCINTIX treatments on the X1 machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands are known to sequester atmospheric CO2 in biomass and sediments, often referred to as 'blue carbon' of the ocean. The present research has tried to focus on depth-wise (0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40 and 40-50 cm) profile of sediment organic carbon (OC) along with temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and bulk density (BD) seasonally in Bhitarkanika wetlands at five different locations for two years 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively. Variation of sediment temperature with depth ranged from 21.32±0.76 to 34.13±0.58 °C, pH ranged from 4.8±0.28 to 6.6±0.75, EC ranged from 0.167±0.08 to 1.814±1.89 Sm-1, BD ranged from 740±0.06 to 125±0.17 kg m-3 and OC ranged from 0.24±0.14 to 3.57±0.80 %, respectively. Variation of OC between season, depth and stations has been proved through ANOVA analysis. The study revealed approximately 22.45±11.24 to 63.51± 37.84 t ha-1 CO2 equivalent is being absorbed by the sediment compartment in this mangrove ecosystem, confirming the potentiality of mangrove sediment as a sink of carbon dioxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]