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Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection continues to persist in India over the past three decades. The involvement of the spleen in these patients has a wide array of differentials with opportunistic infections and malignancies. The spectrum of splenic lesions in patients with HIV/AIDS has not been described in the Indian literature. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was designed to understand the spectrum of splenic pathology in patients with HIV/AIDS. The specimens of the spleen obtained at autopsy in 257 patients over a period of 29 years were systematically analyzed. Results: Among 257 patients, 197 (77%) were males and 60 (23%) were females with a heterosexual route of transmission in 246 (96%) patients. There were 236 (92%) patients from the pre-highly active anti-retroviral therapy era, while 21 (8%) patients had received highly active anti-retroviral therapy for a short duration. The most frequent splenic pathology identified was tuberculosis, noted in 135 (52%) patients, manifesting as military lesions (119 patients, 46%), tuberculous abscesses (13 patients, 5%), and tuberculosis associated with splenic infarcts (03, 1%) patients. The other pathologies noted were cryptococcosis in 17 (7%) patients, malarial infection in 13 (5%) patients, and cytomegalovirus infection in 01 (0.5%) patient. The other findings identified were chronic passive venous congestion, perivascular fibrosis, hemosiderosis, and amyloidosis. In addition, absence or depletion of lymphocyte was noted in 98 (38%) patients and in 4 (1.5%) patients diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was found. Conclusions: Patients with HIV/AIDS presenting with splenic lesions have a wide array of differentials, such as tuberculosis, opportunistic infection, and the lymphoma. This study provides a better insight into the splenic lesions in patients with AIDS in India.

Appendicitis is the most common cause of the acute abdomen and usually occurs because of the fecalith in adults and lymphoid hyperplasia in childhood. Gastric cancer metastasis to the appendix is a rare condition that might be present with symptoms of acute appendicitis. The English literature describes only thirteen cases of gastric carcinoma metastasizing to the appendix and presenting as acute appendicitis. In this report, we describe the first case of metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma of appendix presenting with clinical features of acute appendicitis.

A theoretical analysis of an asymmetric roller bearing system with cavitation that is hydro-dynamically lightly loaded and lubricated by a thin, incompressible fluid is presented. The lubricant adheres to the non-Newtonian Bingham plastic fluid concept, in which the viscosity of the fluid should change depending on the mean film temperature. The continuity and momentum equations, which regulate fluid flow, are first solved analytically and then numerically using MATLAB. Through graphs and tables, some key bearing features are addressed and further explained. This leads to the conclusion that there is a discernible difference between Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in terms of pressure, temperature, load, and traction. The findings are good in line with the body of literature.

Histoplasmosis, also known as Darling's disease, is a fungal infection caused by Histoplasma capsulatum and is common among patients with AIDS and is mainly found in North, Central and South America and sub-Saharan Africa. It manifests as pulmonary, progressive disseminated histoplasmosis involving reticuloendothelial system, liver, spleen, lymph node, bone marrow, adrenal glands and primary cutaneous histoplasmosis. In HIV infection, 10% cases of histoplasmosis have cutaneous manifestations. Only 12 reports of AIDS associated histoplasmosis are described in the Indian literature. In this report, we describe an additional case of histoplasmosis in 19-year-old male in Kutch district of Gujarat state.

Changes in land use practices may affect the distribution of soil sulfur (S) fractions and their bioavailability. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the influence of different land use changes on the distribution of soil S fractions and their bioavailability for plant nutrition. Soil samples from farmers’ fields with different land use practices such as rice-mustard-jute (R-M-J), rice-lentil-jute (R-L-J), rice-lentil-sesame (R-L-S), rice-vegetable-jute (R-V-J), and rice-potato-green gram (R-P-G) were collected and analyzed for different fractions of S. The bioavailability of S was assessed by extracting the soil with six different extractants (acidic, neutral, and alkaline) with different extraction modes and chemistry. The results showed that changes in land use practices could influence the distribution of soil S fractions and their bioavailability. Organic S was the dominant fraction, accounting for 93.5% of total S across land use practices. The inorganic S fraction (water-soluble, sorbed, and occluded) varied significantly among the land use practices. Among the inorganic fractions, the water-soluble fraction was the dominant fraction across the land use practices. The bioavailability of S, as assessed by different chemical extractants, was in the following order: sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO3) > mehlich-3 > ammonium bicarbonate-diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid (AB-DTPA) > ammonium acetate-acetic acid (NH4Ac-HOAc) > calcium dihydrogen phosphate {Ca(H2PO4)2} > calcium chloride (CaCl2). By establishing relationships between extractable S and soil S fractions, it was observed that all the extractants could obtain S from the water-soluble, sorbed, and organic S fractions, with little extractability from the occluded fraction. Among the extractants tested, mehlich-3 extracted a similar amount of S corresponding to the inorganic fraction across the land use practices. It also maintained positive relationships with different fractions of S, and as a multi-nutrient extractant, its use in routine soil testing can be recommended.

Cloacal exstrophy is a rare condition that occurs during the prenatal development of the lower abdominal wall. Cloacal exstrophy is also known as OEIS Syndrome because of the four features that are typically found together: Omphalocele, Exstrophy of the bladder and rectum, Imperforate anus, Spinal defects. We describe a case of 29-year-old female with 3 months’ gestation, her USG showed rudimentary right lower limb and anterior abdominal wall defect for which pregnancy was terminated and fetal autopsy was performed. This is a first case report from our institute in which the fetal autopsy finding showed features of OEIS syndrome.

Splenic abscess is a rare complication of thalassemia major. It has a high mortality due to delay in diagnosis and treatment. Medical treatment alone is insufficient and splenectomy is considered to be a gold standard for splenic abscesses. In this paper, we report a 22-year-old thalassaemic male with splenic abscess. He presented with moderate pain in left hypochondrium and tender splenomegaly. The diagnosis was confirmed by ultrasonography and computerized tomography scan and histopathology.

Nanotechnology is an emerging applied science delivering crucial human interventions. Biogenic nanoparticles produced from natural sources have received attraction in recent times due to their positive attributes in both health and the environment. It is possible to produce nanoparticles using various microorganisms, plants, and marine sources. The bioreduction mechanism is generally employed for intra/extracellular synthesis of biogenic nanoparticles. Various biogenic sources have tremendous bioreduction potential, and capping agents impart stability. The obtained nanoparticles are typically characterized by conventional physical and chemical analysis techniques. Various process parameters, such as sources, ions, and temperature incubation periods, affect the production process. Unit operations such as filtration, purification, and drying play a role in the scale-up setup. Biogenic nanoparticles have extensive biomedical and healthcare applications. In this review, we summarized various sources, synthetic processes, and biomedical applications of metal nanoparticles produced by biogenic synthesis. We highlighted some of the patented inventions and their applications. The applications range from drug delivery to biosensing in various therapeutics and diagnostics. Although biogenic nanoparticles appear to be superior to their counterparts, the molecular mechanism degradation pathways, kinetics, and biodistribution are often missing in the published literature, and scientists should focus more on these aspects to move them from the bench side to clinics.