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SiOx-based resistive switching (RS) cells composed of Cu as the active electrode were fabricated on flexible muscovite mica flakes using DC and radio frequency magnetron sputtering techniques. In one set of the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) devices, Cu-nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) have been embedded into the SiOx layer and their RS properties have been compared with the devices without the Cu-NPs. All the devices exhibited forming free bipolar RS characteristics. Room temperature DC current–voltage (I–V) measurements suggest improved resistance windows for the Cu-NP-embedded MIM devices. Analysis of the DC I–V characteristics suggests electrochemical metallization-driven RS, where current conduction follows Ohmic and space-charge-limited conductions mechanism for low and high resistance states, respectively. The resistance windows of the Cu-NPs-embedded MIM structures tested for multiple cycles do not degrade under different bending conditions, indicating their mechanical robustness for potential flexible device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) has the natural ability to liberate unavailable phosphorus (as a result of microbial metabolism extracellularly) from soil, rocks, and mines thereby increasing its availability for plants. The main mechanism behind this is the production of mineral dissolving compounds, such as organic acids, protons, hydroxyl ions, and CO2. The current study was conducted to explore the potential of a phosphate solubilizing bacteria which are isolated from rock phosphate mine in Rajasthan for enhancing the growth of Zea mays (maize) plants. Out of total of 137 bacterial isolates, one bacterial isolate RJ-11 was found to have multiple plant growth promoting (PGP) properties. Its phosphate solubilization ability was observed with solubility index (PSI) of 5.15. The potential isolate RJ-11 was found to solubilize tri calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) at a rate of 790.67 mg L-1. RJ-11 was found positive for potash solubilization, zinc solubilization, and siderophore production. On the basis of morphological and molecular characterization, isolate RJ-11 was identified as Gram positive bacterium, Bacillus altitudinis. LabID-B197 was assigned to B. altitudinis for further greenhouse pot experiments. Greenhouse pot experiments demonstrated that maize plants inoculated with B197 incorporated more phosphate which was observed as increase in germination percentage, increased shoot length (155%) and root length (45%), and much higher biomass weights than those plants without any added bacteria or controls. The result of present study indicates that B. altitudinis is a unique bacterium with multiple plant growth promoting properties and could act as potential bio fertilizer to improve the plant growth and develop cost-effective and sustainable agriculture practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cornelia de Lange syndrome presents with various problems which include anatomical anomalies of face and extremities, cardiopulmonary and endocrine disorders, renal dysfunction, epileptic EEG waves, and mental retardation. Difficult airway and aspiration risk due to gastroesophageal reflux and poor esophageal motility are the main challenges in anesthesia management. The choice of anesthetic procedure must be carefully considered in view of these abnormalities. We report a 14 years old male child who was a known case of Cornelia De Lange Syndrome for dental extraction with restorations under general anesthesia. The uneventful course of the anesthesia in the presented case was due to the thorough systemic evaluation and careful anesthetic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive astrocytes are associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and several AD genetic risk variants are associated with genes highly expressed in astrocytes. However, the contribution of genetic risk within astrocytes to cellular processes relevant to the pathogenesis of AD remains ill-defined. Here we present a resource for studying AD genetic risk in astrocytes using a large collection of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from deeply phenotyped individuals with a range of neuropathological and cognitive outcomes. IPSC lines from forty-four individuals were differentiated into astrocytes followed by unbiased molecular profiling using RNA sequencing and tandem mass tag-mass spectrometry. We demonstrate the utility of this resource in examining gene- and pathway-level associations with clinical and neuropathological traits, as well as in analyzing genetic risk and resilience factors through parallel analyses of iPSC-astrocytes and brain tissue from the same individuals. Our analyses reveal that genes and pathways altered in iPSC-derived astrocytes from AD individuals are concordantly dysregulated in AD brain tissue. This includes increased prefoldin proteins, extracellular matrix factors, COPI-mediated trafficking components and reduced proteins involved in cellular respiration and fatty acid oxidation. Additionally, iPSC-derived astrocytes from individuals resilient to high AD neuropathology show elevated basal levels of interferon response proteins and increased secretion of interferon gamma. Correspondingly, higher polygenic risk scores for AD are associated with lower levels of interferon response proteins. This study establishes an experimental system that integrates genetic information with a heterogeneous set of iPSCs to identify genetic contributions to molecular pathways affecting AD risk and resilience.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with complex pathological manifestations and is the leading cause of cognitive decline and dementia in elderly individuals. A major goal in AD research is to identify new therapeutic pathways by studying the molecular and cellular changes in the disease, either downstream or upstream of the pathological hallmarks. In this study, we present a comprehensive investigation of cellular heterogeneity from the temporal cortex region of 40 individuals, comprising healthy donors and individuals with differing tau and amyloid burden. Using single-nucleus transcriptome analysis of 430,271 nuclei from both gray and white matter of these individuals, we identified cell type-specific subclusters in both neuronal and glial cell types with varying degrees of association with AD pathology. In particular, these associations are present in layer specific glutamatergic (excitatory) neuronal types, along with GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons and glial subtypes. These associations were observed in early as well as late pathological progression. We extended this analysis by performing multiplexed in situ hybridization using the CARTANA platform, capturing 155 genes in 13 individuals with varying levels of tau pathology. By modeling the spatial distribution of these genes and their associations with the pathology, we not only replicated key findings from our snRNA data analysis, but also identified a set of cell type-specific genes that show selective enrichment or depletion near pathological inclusions. Together, our findings allow us to prioritize specific cell types and pathways for targeted interventions at various stages of pathological progression in AD.

One of the newest and strongest members of intercellular communicators, the Extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their enclosed RNAs; Extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have been acknowledged as putative biomarkers and therapeutic targets for various diseases. Although a very deep insight has not been possible into the physiology of these vesicles, they are believed to be involved in cell-to-cell communication and host-pathogen interactions. EVs might be significantly helpful in discovering biomarkers for possible target identification as well as prognostics, diagnostics and developing vaccines. In recent studies, highly bioactive EVs have drawn attention of parasitologists for being able to communicate between different cells and having likeliness of reflecting both source and target environments. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has eased the way to have a deeper insight into these vesicles and their roles in various diseases. This article arises from bioinformatics-based analysis and predictive data mining of transcriptomic (RNA-Seq) data of EVs, derived from different life stages of Trypanosoma cruzi ; a causing agent of neglected Chagas disease. Variants (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)) were mined from Extracellular vesicular transcriptomic data and functionally analyzed using different bioinformatics based approaches. Functional analysis showed the association of these variants with various important factors like Trans-Sialidase (TS), Alpha Tubulin, P-Type H+-ATPase, etc. which, in turn, are associated with disease in different ways. Some of the 'candidate SNPs' were found to be stage-specific, which strengthens the probability of finding stage-specific biomarkers. These results may lead to a better understanding of Chagas disease, and improved knowledge may provide further development of the biomarkers for prognosis, diagnosis and drug development for treating Chagas disease., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.