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The investigation entitled "Characters Study of Selection Criteria and Genetic Variability in Forage Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Genotype for Green Fodder Yield and Its Contributed Traits" were conducted at Crop Research Center, Modipuram, SVPUA and T, Meerut 250110 (UP) during kharif season 2019-20. Genetic variability studies were carried out for 33 sorghum genotypes during the years 2019-20. The analysis of variance revealed that there was significant amount of variation for all the ten characters. Days to 50% flowering, plant height, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf area, stem girth, leaves per plant, leaf stem ratio, total soluble solids and green fodder yield per plant was shown to have been recognized as having high heritability value. High estimate of (phenotypic coefficient of variance and genotypic coefficient of variance) PCV and GCV were observed for plant height, leaf area and green fodder yield per plant. The genetic divergence by Tocher's method for seed yield and it's component traits in sorghum genotypes. On the basis of genetic divergence under study, it is suggested that the crosses between cluster IV and cluster III, cluster II and cluster V be used for an effective in hybridization breeding program. The percent contribution of ten characters towards total genetic divergence showed that green fodder yield per plant maximum contribution to divergence followed by leaf area, leaves per plant, plant height and leaf breadth and lower contribution was made by leaf length towards the divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-tilt angle ferroelectric liquid crystal material in surface stabilised geometry (SSFLC) is investigated for the smectic layer reorientation and its molecular dynamics by electro-optical and dielectric spectroscopy techniques. Smectic layer reorientation (5 $^o$ o to 45 $^o$ o ) is obtained by controlled cooling rate and applying electric field in the vicinity of transition temperature from chiral nematic (${N^*}$ N ∗ ) to chiral smectic C ($Sm{C^*}$ Sm C ∗ ) phase. After slow cooling down to room temperature, the stripe domain textures along the rubbing are observed with quasi-bistable states. Dielectric spectroscopy has revealed the unusual increment in the dielectric permittivity. A dielectric relaxation process at lower frequency than Goldstone mode with the increase in DC bias up to 2 $V$ V is observed in the sample cooled without any bias. This increment is found to be originated by the heliconical structure within the stripes which is seen in the optical textures recorded at the time of dielectric scan. However, this increment is not observed in the sample cooled under DC bias. Thus, there exist different phenomena in the high tilt angle SSFLC sample cooled in different conditions of DC bias; stripe domains, smectic layers reorientation, heliconical stricture and twisted structure within stripes which are significant to explore deeply in high-tilt angle ferroelectric liquid crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical cooling and warming rates (CCR and CWR) are two important calorimetric properties of cryoprotective agents (CPA) solutions, and achieving these rates is generally regarded as the critical criterion for successful vitrification and rewarming. In 1996, Peyridieu et al. discovered that the measured critical rates are reduced inside kidney tissue equilibrated with 30 % (w/w) 2,3-butanediol compared to its free CPA solution. In general, they found a ∼5-fold reduction for CCR and a >100-fold reduction for CWR. However, to our knowledge, no follow-up studies have been conducted. We revisit this important concept, understanding that tissues never fully equilibrate with full-strength 100 % CPAs during perfusion. We therefore performed measurements in a range of dilutions of two commonly employed CPA cocktails, including 75-100 % VS55 (41.25-55.00 % w/v) and 90-100 % VMP (48.60-54.00 % w/v) equilibrated with kidney tissues vs. free solution. The measured reduction in the kidney was up to 5-fold for CCR and 9-fold for CWR. After discussing possible mechanisms for this effect, curves that fit the dilution to the observed reduction in critical rate were constructed to allow extrapolation for differentially loaded tissues, which can guide the follow-up studies to find the more concentrated CPA (>8.4 M VMP) in the M22 family to achieve human-sized kidney vitrification and rewarming., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Society for Cryobiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The cabbage webworm, Hellula undalis (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is a significant pest of brassicas and other cruciferous plants in warm regions worldwide. Transcriptome analysis is valuable for investigation of molecular mechanisms underlying the insect development and reproduction. De novo assembly is particularly useful for acquiring complete transcriptome information of insect species when there is no reference genome available. In case of Hellula undalis, only 17 nucleotide records are currently available throughout NCBI nucleotide database. Genes associated with metabolic processes, general development, reproduction, defense and functional genomics were not previously predicted in the Hellula undalis at the genomic level., Methods & Results: To address this issue, we constructed Hellula undalis transcriptome using Illumina NovaSeq6000 technology. Approximately 48 million 150 bp paired-end reads were obtained from sequencing. A total of 30,451 contigs were generated by de novo assembly of sample and were compared with the sequences in the NCBI non-redundant protein database (Nr). In total, 71 % of contigs were matched to known proteins in public databases including Nr, Gene Ontology (GO), and Cluster Orthologous Gene Database (COG), and then, contigs were mapped to 123 via functional annotation against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database (KEGG). In addition, we compared the ortholog gene family of the Hullula undalis, transcriptome to Spodoptera frugiperda, spodotera litura and spodoptera littoralis and found that 391 orthologous gene families are specific to Hullula undalis. A total of 1,913 potential SSRs was discovered in Hullula undalis contigs., Conclusions: This study is the first transcriptome data for Hullula undalis. Additionally, it serves as a valuable resource for identifying target genes and developing effective and environmentally friendly strategies for pest control., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Banking cryopreserved organs could transform transplantation into a planned procedure that more equitably reaches patients regardless of geographical and time constraints. Previous organ cryopreservation attempts have failed primarily due to ice formation, but a promising alternative is vitrification, or the rapid cooling of organs to a stable, ice-free, glass-like state. However, rewarming of vitrified organs can similarly fail due to ice crystallization if rewarming is too slow or cracking from thermal stress if rewarming is not uniform. Here we use "nanowarming," which employs alternating magnetic fields to heat nanoparticles within the organ vasculature, to achieve both rapid and uniform warming, after which the nanoparticles are removed by perfusion. We show that vitrified kidneys can be cryogenically stored (up to 100 days) and successfully recovered by nanowarming to allow transplantation and restore life-sustaining full renal function in nephrectomized recipients in a male rat model. Scaling this technology may one day enable organ banking for improved transplantation., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Cryopreservation by vitrification to achieve an "ice free" glassy state is an effective technique for preserving biomaterials including cells, tissues, and potentially even whole organs. The major challenges in cooling to and rewarming from a vitrified state remain ice crystallization and cracking/fracture. Ice crystallization can be inhibited by the use of cryoprotective agents (CPAs), though the inhibition further depends upon the rates achieved during cooling and rewarming. The minimal rate required to prevent any ice crystallization or recrystallization/devitrification in a given CPA is called the critical cooling rate (CCR) or critical warming rate (CWR), respectively. On the other hand, physical cracking is mainly related to thermomechanical stresses, which can be avoided by maintaining temperature differences below a critical threshold. In this simplified analysis, we calculate deltaT as the largest temperature difference occurring in a system during cooling or rewarming in the brittle/glassy phase. This deltaT is then used in a simple "thermal shock equation" to estimate thermal stress within the material to decide if the material is above the yield strength and to evaluate the potential for fracture failure. In this review we aimed to understand the limits of success and failure at different length scales for cryopreservation by vitrification, due to both ice crystallization and cracking. Here we use thermal modeling to help us understand the magnitude and trajectory of these challenges as we scale the biomaterial volume for a given CPA from the milliliter to liter scale. First, we solved the governing heat transfer equations in a cylindrical geometry for three common vitrification cocktails (i.e., VS55, DP6, and M22) to estimate the cooling and warming rates during convective cooling and warming and nanowarming (volumetric heating). Second, we estimated the temperature difference deltaT and compared it to a tolerable threshold (deltaTmax) based on a simplified "thermal shock" equation for the same cooling and rewarming conditions. We found, not surprisingly, that M22 achieves vitrification more easily during convective cooling and rewarming for all volumes compared to VS55 or DP6 due to its considerably lower CCR and CWR. Further, convective rewarming (boundary rewarming) leads to larger temperature differences and smaller rates compared to nanowarming (volumetric rewarming) for all CPAs with increasing failure at larger volumes. We conclude that as more and larger systems are vitrified and rewarmed with standard CPA cocktails, this work can serve as a practical guide to successful implementation based on the characteristic length (volume/surface area) of the system and the specific conditions of cooling and warming. doi.org/10.54680/fr22610110112.

Deep-seated tumors of the liver, brain, and other organ systems often recur after initial surgical, chemotherapeutic, radiation, or focal treatments. Repeating these treatments is often invasive and traumatic. We propose an iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP)-enhanced precipitating hydrophobic injectable liquid (PHIL, MicroVention inc.) embolic as a localized dual treatment implant for nutrient deprivation and multiple repeatable thermal ablation. Following a single injection, multiple thermal treatments can be repeated as needed, based on monitoring of tumor growth/recurrence. Herein we show the ability to create an injectable stable PHIL-IONP solution, monitor deposition of the PHIL-IONP precipitate dispersion by μCT, and gauge the IONP distribution within the embolic by magnetic resonance imaging. Once precipitated, the implant could be heated to reach therapeutic temperatures >8 °C for thermal ablation (clinical temperature of ∼45 °C), in a model disk and a 3D tumor bed model. Heat output was not affected by physiological conditions, multiple heating sessions, or heating at intervals over a 1 month duration. Further, in ex vivo mice hind-limb tumors, we could noninvasively heat the embolic to an "ablative" temperature elevation of 17 °C (clinically 54 °C) in the first 5 min and maintain the temperature rise over +8 °C (clinically a temperature of 45 °C) for longer than 15 min.

Vitrification can dramatically increase the storage of viable biomaterials in the cryogenic state for years. Unfortunately, vitrified systems ≥3 mL like large tissues and organs, cannot currently be rewarmed sufficiently rapidly or uniformly by convective approaches to avoid ice crystallization or cracking failures. A new volumetric rewarming technology entitled "nanowarming" addresses this problem by using radiofrequency excited iron oxide nanoparticles to rewarm vitrified systems rapidly and uniformly. Here, for the first time, successful recovery of a rat kidney from the vitrified state using nanowarming, is shown. First, kidneys are perfused via the renal artery with a cryoprotective cocktail (CPA) and silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (sIONPs). After cooling at -40 °C min -1 in a controlled rate freezer, microcomputed tomography (µCT) imaging is used to verify the distribution of the sIONPs and the vitrified state of the kidneys. By applying a radiofrequency field to excite the distributed sIONPs, the vitrified kidneys are nanowarmed at a mean rate of 63.7 °C min -1 . Experiments and modeling show the avoidance of both ice crystallization and cracking during these processes. Histology and confocal imaging show that nanowarmed kidneys are dramatically better than convective rewarming controls. This work suggests that kidney nanowarming holds tremendous promise for transplantation., (© 2021 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)