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Chronic subdural hematomas (CSDHs) and its management comprise a majority work in a neurosurgical specialty. The effectiveness of surgery is beyond doubt and sometimes even lifesaving in severe cases. However, the straightforward surgery is sometimes complicated by the associated comorbidities of the patient. Comorbidities in the form of coagulopathies secondary to chronic liver diseases, drugs (warfarin, ecosprin, clopidogrel), thrombocytopenia secondary to systemic illness are always a challenge to deal with in patients with CSDH. The authors encountered a patient with thrombocytopenia secondary to systemic HIV infection who presented with CSDH. Her coagulation profile was severe enough to preclude surgery. She was managed conservatively with tranexamic acid and responded well. The authors present the challenges they faced in the course of successful management of this patient.

Salinity is a significant threat that causes considerable yield losses in date palm. The root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica has proven effective in providing salt stress tolerance to host plants. However, the underlying molecular mechanism facilitating the date palm's response to P. indica inoculation, and its involvement in the salt stress tolerance, remains unknown. In this study, the colonization of P. indica on date palm seedlings exposed to saline conditions was observed through confocal microscopy, and its impact on gene expressions was evaluated using the transcriptomic analysis. Our findings show that P. indica colonization reinforced the cortical cells, prevented them from plasmolysis and cell death under salinity. The RNAseq analysis produced clean reads ranging from 62,040,451 to 3,652,095 across the treatment groups, successfully assembling into 30,600 annotated genes. Out of them, the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) varied across the treatments: i.e., 2523, 2031, and 1936 DEGs were upregulated, while 2323, 959, and 3546 were downregulated in Salt, Fungi, and Fungi+Salt groups, respectively. Furthermore, principal component analysis based on transcriptome profiles revealed discrete clustering of samples from different treatment groups. KEGG and GO pathways enrichment analysis highlighted variation in the number and types of enriched pathways among the treatments. Our study indicated variations in gene expression related to plant hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction (auxin, abscisic acid, gibberellin, and ethylene), ABC transporters, sodium/hydrogen exchanger, cation HKT transporter, transcription factors such as WRKY and MYBs, and the plant immune system (lipoxygenase and jasmonate) of the date palm seedlings. By characterizing the transcriptome of date palm roots under salt stress and with colonization of P. indica , the present findings provide valuable perspectives on the molecular mechanisms responsible for inducing salinity stress tolerance in plants., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Ahmad, Abdul Aziz, Sabeem, Kutty, Sivasankaran, Brini, Xiao, Blilou and Masmoudi.)

In date palm, the LEA2 genes are of abundance with sixty-two members that are nearly all ubiquitous. However, their functions and interactions with potential target molecules are largely unexplored. In this study, five date palm LEA2 genes, PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.3, PdLEA2.4, PdLEA2.6, and PdLEA2.7 were cloned, sequenced, and three of them, PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.3, and PdLEA2.4 were functionally characterized for their effects on the thermostability of two distinct enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and β-glucosidase (bglG) in vitro. Overall, PdLEA2.3 and PdLEA2.4 were moderately hydrophilic, PdLEA2.7 was slightly hydrophobic, and PdLEA2.2 and PdLEA2.6 were neither. Sequence and structure prediction indicated the presence of a stretch of hydrophobic residues near the N-terminus that could potentially form a transmembrane helix in PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.4, PdLEA2.6 and PdLEA2.7. In addition to the transmembrane helix, secondary and tertiary structures prediction showed the presence of a disordered region followed by a stacked β-sheet region in all the PdLEA2 proteins. Moreover, three purified recombinant PdLEA2 proteins were produced in vitro, and their presence in the LDH enzymatic reaction enhanced the activity and reduced the aggregate formation of LDH under the heat stress. In the bglG enzymatic assays, PdLEA2 proteins further displayed their capacity to preserve and stabilize the bglG enzymatic activity., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Vegetable production is a key determinant of contribution from the agricultural sector toward national Gross Domestic Product in a country like India, the second largest producer of fresh vegetables in the world. This calls for a careful scrutiny of the threats to vegetable farming in the event of climate extremes, environmental degradation and incidence of plant pests/diseases. Cucurbits are a vast group of vegetables grown almost throughout the world, which contribute to the daily diet on a global scale. Increasing food supply to cater to the ever-increasing world population, calls for intensive, off-season and year-round cultivation of cucurbits. Current situation predisposes these crops to a multitude of stressors, often simultaneously, under field conditions. This scenario warrants a systematic understanding of the different stress specific traits/mechanisms/pathways and their crosstalk that have been examined in cucurbits and identification of gaps and formulation of perspectives on prospective research directions. The careful dissection of plant responses under specific production environments will help in trait identification for genotype selection, germplasm screens to identify superior donors or for direct genetic manipulation by modern tools for crop improvement. Cucurbits exhibit a wide range of acclimatory responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses, among which a few like morphological characters like waxiness of cuticle; primary and secondary metabolic adjustments; membrane thermostability, osmoregulation and, protein and reactive oxygen species homeostasis and turnover contributing to cellular tolerance, appear to be common and involved in cross talk under combinatorial stress exposures. This is assumed to have profound influence in triggering system level acclimation responses that safeguard growth and metabolism. The possible strategies attempted such as grafting initiatives, molecular breeding, novel genetic manipulation avenues like gene editing and ameliorative stress mitigation approaches, have paved way to unravel the prospects for combined stress tolerance. The advent of next generation sequencing technologies and big data management of the omics output generated have added to the mettle of such emanated concepts and ideas. In this review, we attempt to compile the progress made in deciphering the biotic and abiotic stress responses of cucurbits and their associated traits, both individually and in combination., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Parvathi, Antony and Kutty.)

A case of iliofemoral thrombosis possibly related to chicken pox infection is reported. Treated with rest and anti-coagulants, the patient made a satisfactory recovery.

Reports show striking regional and ethnic variations in the incidence and pattern of certain malignancies in the Middle East. In view of this, a study of 19 cases of malignant tumours of the bone seen at King Fahd University Hospital during the period 1981-1983 was carried out. Of these eight were primary and eleven secondary tumours. Lymphoma and Ewing's sarcoma formed 50% of the primary tumours. Breast and lungs were the chief sources of secondary deposits in the bone.