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Arachnoid cysts can be intra-cranial or along the spinal cord. Intracranial arachnoid cyst is a very rare finding, trauma being the leading case of it. It is extremely rare for the development of intra-diploic arachnoid cyst without a traumatic history. We present a case of an intra-diploic arachnoid cyst communicating with the greater wing of the sphenoid and in close proximity to the cavernous sinus in a known case of Wilson disease for 22 years. Due to its low incidence, there is a gap in the knowledge and discussion of this cystic lesion, its pathophysiology and management, which are discussed in this case report.

Invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common type of breast cancer and can affect any age group, predominantly females older than 55 years of age. We present a case of a female in her mid-30s complaining of a fungating mass in the upper outer quadrant of the left anterior chest wall. On workup of the patient, it was histopathologically found that the patient was affected by infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the left breast, which was causing tumoral thrombosis of the left axillary vein. Also, thrombosis of the right axillary vein, bilateral brachiocephalic veins, and superior vena cava with a focal hepatic hotspot sign were appreciated on contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan. No such case of tumoral thrombosis of the axillary vein causing superior vena cava obstruction has been reported in recent literature.

We are responding to an article by Arulananthan et al [...]

Abstract Background Intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence experienced by women. It has detrimental consequences. A range of determinants cause intimate partner violence and to reduce it, effective interventions are required to address the determinants. Health promotion interventions have been recommended as effective to enable people to control over the determinants and to improve health. Hence, a community based participatory health promotion intervention was developed and tested in a selected study setting. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention in terms of addressing knowledge, attitudes and practices related to intimate partner violence. Methods A quasi-experimental study was conducted by recruiting ninety women aged 15 to 49 years separately from two health administrative areas identified as the intervention area and the control area from the Kandy district of Sri Lanka. A pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in both pre- and post-assessments. Selected groups of women from the intervention area were facilitated with a health promotion intervention to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices related to intimate partner violence. To evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention descriptive summaries and bivariate analysis were used. Results The response rate was 90.9% (N = 90) during the pre-assessment and 87.9% (n = 87) and 82.8% (n = 82) from the intervention and control areas, respectively, during the post-assessment. Statistically significant improvement was reported in the total mean score comprising knowledge, attitudes, practices and identification of determinants from 59.6 to 80.8 in the intervention area [Pre-assessment: Mean = 59.6 (standard deviation-SD) = 17.5; Post-assessment: Mean = 80.8, SD = 19.0; p

Abstract Background The rice-wheat cropping system is the prevailing agricultural method in the North-Western states of India, namely in the Indo-Gangetic plains. The practice of open burning of rice residue is frequently employed for expedient land preparation, but it has significant adverse impacts on both the environment and human health. These include the emission of greenhouse gases, loss of nutrients, elevated concentrations of particulate matter (PM), and disruption of the biological cycle. This research aims to investigate the implementation of effective management strategies in the rice-wheat cropping system, namely via the use of tillage-based crop cultivation techniques, stubble retention, and integration approaches. The objective is to enhance soil health features in order to augment crop yield and improve its attributes. Results The research was carried out using a split plot experimental design, consisting of three replications. The main plot consisted of four different cultivation methods, while the subplot included three genotypes of both rice and wheat. The research demonstrates the enhanced efficacy of residue application is significantly augmenting soil nutrient concentrations compared to standard tillage practices (P

The study was carried out during rainy (kharif) seasons of 2020 and 2021 at Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh to assess the impact of different tillage practices on the crop productivity, nutrient status, and energy dynamics of three distinct rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes. The experiment was conducted in a split-plot design (SPD), replicated three times. The study examined the impact of two major factors, viz. (A) Factor 1 (Main plot), Four tillage system: Reduced tillage; Traditional tillage; Natural farming: and Zero tillage; (B) Factor 2 (Sub plot): Three rice genotypes: HPR 2656; HPR 2795; and HPR 1156. Based on the findings of two years we found that the conventional tillage recorded notably higher grain yield (3420 kg/ha) and straw yield (6010 kg/ha) while significantly lower values of grain yield (2134 kg/ha) and straw yield (4053 kg/ ha) were found in natural farming treatment. Significantly higher nutrient contents (N, P, and K) and their uptake were observed in conventional tillage, followed by reduced tillage treatment. In contrast, significantly lower values of nutrient contents (N, P, and K) and their uptake were recorded in natural farming treatment. Among genotypes evaluated HPR 2795 recorded significantly higher values of grain yield (3050 kg/ha) and straw yield (5402 kg/ha) owing to significantly higher values of yield attributes recorded in this variety. The present study shows that the conventional tillage method led to a higher yield for rice crops. Among all the genotypes tested, HPR 2795 exhibited the best performance.

Objective Healthy lifestyle centres (HLCs), a state service that screens for major non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors and promotes lifestyle modifications in Sri Lanka, report underutilisation. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a participatory intervention to empower communities in improving HLC utilisation.Design A quasi-experimental study based on the principles of community-based participatory researchSetting Six rural communities each as the intervention (IG) (Gampaha district) and comparison (CG) groups (Kalutara district) from the capital province of Sri Lanka.Participants Study population was healthy individuals aged 35–65 years, the target group of HLCs in Sri Lanka. A random sample of 498 individuals was selected from each group for evaluation.Interventions Community support groups (CSGs) were established and empowered using health promotion approach from August 2019 to February 2020. Group discussions and participatory mapping were conducted to identify determinants of underutilisation of HLCs, design activities to address prioritised determinants and develop indicators to monitor the progress of CSGs.Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was improvement of HLC utilisation and the secondary outcome was initiation of lifestyle modifications.Results Significant improvements were seen in the IG, compared with the CG in the seven determinants that contribute to HLC utilisation. The largest differences were seen in reducing negative perceptions of susceptibility for NCDs (pre=64.7%; post=33.3%; p

BackgroundComprehensive session summaries enable effective continuity in mental health counseling, facilitating informed therapy planning. However, manual summarization presents a significant challenge, diverting experts’ attention from the core counseling process. Leveraging advances in automatic summarization to streamline the summarization process addresses this issue because this enables mental health professionals to access concise summaries of lengthy therapy sessions, thereby increasing their efficiency. However, existing approaches often overlook the nuanced intricacies inherent in counseling interactions. ObjectiveThis study evaluates the effectiveness of state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) in selectively summarizing various components of therapy sessions through aspect-based summarization, aiming to benchmark their performance. MethodsWe first created Mental Health Counseling-Component–Guided Dialogue Summaries, a benchmarking data set that consists of 191 counseling sessions with summaries focused on 3 distinct counseling components (also known as counseling aspects). Next, we assessed the capabilities of 11 state-of-the-art LLMs in addressing the task of counseling-component–guided summarization. The generated summaries were evaluated quantitatively using standard summarization metrics and verified qualitatively by mental health professionals. ResultsOur findings demonstrated the superior performance of task-specific LLMs such as MentalLlama, Mistral, and MentalBART evaluated using standard quantitative metrics such as Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROUGE)-1, ROUGE-2, ROUGE-L, and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers Score across all aspects of the counseling components. Furthermore, expert evaluation revealed that Mistral superseded both MentalLlama and MentalBART across 6 parameters: affective attitude, burden, ethicality, coherence, opportunity costs, and perceived effectiveness. However, these models exhibit a common weakness in terms of room for improvement in the opportunity costs and perceived effectiveness metrics. ConclusionsWhile LLMs fine-tuned specifically on mental health domain data display better performance based on automatic evaluation scores, expert assessments indicate that these models are not yet reliable for clinical application. Further refinement and validation are necessary before their implementation in practice.

Obesity is a condition caused by excess fat buildup, often measured using the body mass index (BMI) and categorized into underweight, normal weight, and obesity. Obesity is a global epidemic with an alarmingly rising incidence. Obesity is closely associated with insulin resistance, metabolic disorders, hypertension, and atherosclerosis, as well as endothelial dysfunction, which leads to numerous diseases. Noncommunicable diseases are significantly associated with high BMI and can have a negative impact on physical and psychological conditions. Endothelium, the internal lining of blood vessels, controls vascular tone, inflammation, and clotting processes. Endothelial dysfunction is a clinical complication characterized by the loss of normal endothelial cell homeostatic mechanisms. Reduced bioavailability of nitric oxide can be moderately related to endothelial dysfunction, which promotes vascular abruptions such as thrombosis, inflammation, plaque rupture, and other related conditions. The rise in obesity incidence and its global status highlights the urgent need to address responsible factors such as sedentary lifestyles, bad food habits, and globalization. Factors such as dietary modifications, low-cost food and beverages, and liberalization of international trade contribute to obesity, whereas factors such as genetics, poor diet, and lack of physical activity can also contribute to obesity.

In the present paper, pyrazole and pyrazoline derivatives of β-ionone were synthesized. The protocol involved intramolecular oxidative C–H amination of hydrazone to yield corresponding pyrazole in moderate to good yields. Another methodology comprising of condensation of hydrazine hydrochloride with β-ionone in methanol leading to pyrazoline and its oxidative dehydrogenation using hypervalent iodine reagent to synthesize pyrazole is also achieved. One pot methodology for synthesis of pyrazole is also developed by refluxing the hydrazine hydrochloride with β-ionone in acetic acid. The structures of the synthesized compounds were elucidated using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR and mass spectrometry. All the pyrazole and pyrazoline derivatives were subjected to bovine serum albumin assay for in-vitro anti-inflammatory activity and all the compounds exhibited good to excellent activity. Compounds containing bromo and sulfonamide group exhibited inhibition rates of 87.36 % and 85.82 %, respectively, at a concentration of 0.5 mg/mL, surpassing the efficacy of the standard drug celecoxib (81.67 %). Further, cytotoxicity of the compounds was also evaluated against VERO cell line and all the compounds exhibited the cytotoxic values almost similar to the standard. Molecular docking was performed to study binding affinity of the potent compounds i. e bromo bearing pyrazole and sulfonamide bearing pyrazoline into the crystal structure of COX-II enzyme (PDB ID: 3LN1) at celecoxib binding site to determine the binding energy and interactions.

Lateral Medullary Syndrome (LMS) is a collection of different neurologic symptoms after cerebral haemorrhage/infarction. The areas most frequently afflicted are the cerebellum and the posterolateral portion of the brain stem’s medulla oblongata; the Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery (PICA) supplies blood. Dizziness, vertigo, nystagmus, nausea, ataxia, dysphagia, vomiting, hiccups, hoarseness, sensation impaired on half of the face, impaired thermal sensation and pain on the contralateral side of the limbs, trunk, ipsilateral face, along with Horner’s syndrome are amongst the typical symptoms of lateral medullary infarction. Hiccups are among the signs that are simple to ignore, although they can also result in oesophagitis, and respiratory depression, as Wallenberg’s syndrome is the most frequently reported. The authors discuss the case of a 30-year-old male who complained of recurrent, uncontrollable hiccups as an LMS-presenting symptom and was brought to our hospital. He arrived at our emergency room complaining of persistent, intractable hiccups and cerebellar symptoms on the left-side. In addition to being hypertensive, he had a long history of tobacco (chewing) and alcohol addictions dating back six years. He had 7, 9 and 10th cranial nerve involvement. The authors are reporting this case because the patient had Upper Motor Neuron (UMN)-type facial palsy, a rare presentation in LMS.

BackgroundHealthy Lifestyle Centres (HLCs) are state-owned, free-of-charge facilities that screen for major noncommunicable disease risks and promote healthy lifestyles among adults older than 35 years in Sri Lanka. The key challenge to their effectiveness is their underutilisation. This study aimed to describe the underutilisation and determine the factors associated, as a precedent of a bigger project that designed and implemented an intervention for its improvement.MethodsData derived from a community-based cross-sectional study conducted among 1727 adults (aged 35 to 65 years) recruited using a multi-stage cluster sampling method from two districts (Gampaha and Kalutara) in Sri Lanka. A prior qualitative study was used to identify potential factors to develop the questionnaire which is published separately. Data were obtained using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and analysed using inferential statistics.ResultsForty-two percent (n = 726, 95% CI: 39.7-44.4) had a satisfactory level of awareness on HLCs even though utilisation was only 11.3% (n = 195, 95% CI: 9.80-12.8). Utilisation was significantly associated with 14 factors. The five factors with the highest Odds Ratios (OR) were perceiving screening as useful (OR = 10.2, 95% CI: 4.04-23.4), perceiving as susceptible to NCDs (OR = 6.78, 95% CI: 2.79-16.42) and the presence of peer support for screening and a healthy lifestyle (OR = 3.12, 95% CI: 1.54-6.34), belonging to the second (OR = 3.69, 95% CI: 1.53-8.89) and third lowest (OR = 2.84, 95% CI: 1.02-7.94) household income categories and a higher level of knowledge on HLCs (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.24-1.38). When considering non-utilisation, being a male (OR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.05-0.52), belonging to an extended family (OR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.21-0.88), residing within 1-2 km (OR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.14-0.63) or more than 3 km of the HLC (OR = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.04-0.53), having a higher self-assessed health score (OR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95-0.99) and low perceived accessibility to HLCs (OR = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.04-0.36) were significantly associated.ConclusionIn conclusion, underutilisation of HLCs is a result of multiple factors operating at different levels. Therefore, interventions aiming to improve HLC utilisation should be complex and multifaceted designs based on these factors rather than merely improving knowledge.

Background: Cervical cancer, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths in 2020, is the fourth most common cancer among women globally. Low- and middle-income countries accounted for 90% of the new cases and deaths worldwide in 2020. Cervical cancer in females can be prevented to a great extent by vaccination. Implementation of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is still facing challenges, but it has the potential to address the challenges of cervical cancer screening in India. Implementation of HPV vaccination faces barriers of acceptance and lack of awareness, along with a high vaccine cost. Aims and Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practise of the HPV vaccine among 1st and 2nd year medical students in a rural medical college. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 study subjects using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. The results were expressed in descriptive statistics like proportions and percentages. Results: 94% of the students were aware that cervical cancer is preventable, whereas 87% of them knew that cervical cancer can be prevented by a vaccine. 84% of the students had the knowledge that HPV vaccine is available in India. The maximum number of students were unvaccinated (92%), whereas 67% were ready to take the HPV vaccine in the future. Conclusion: Sensitization regarding the importance of the HPV vaccine to the general public can be achieved only when health care professionals are adequately aware of the safety and efficacy of the HPV vaccine. The first step in this direction is to educate the students who will form the backbone of our health care system in the future.

Chemical fungicides are the backbone of modern agriculture, but an alternative formulation is necessary for sustainable crop production to address human health issues and soil/water environmental pollution. So, a green chemistry approach was used to form guar gum nanoemulsions (NEs) of 186.5–394.1 nm containing the chemical fungicide mancozeb and was characterized using various physio-chemical techniques. An 84.5% inhibition was shown by 1.5 mg/mL mancozeb-loaded NEs (GG-1.5) against A. alternata, comparable to commercial mancozeb (86.5 ± 0.7%). The highest mycelial inhibition was exhibited against S. lycopersici and S. sclerotiorum. In tomatoes and potatoes, NEs showed superior antifungal efficacy in pot conditions besides plant growth parameters (germination percentage, root/shoot ratio and dry biomass). About 98% of the commercial mancozeb was released in just two h, while only about 43% of mancozeb was released from nanoemulsions (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) for the same time. The most significant results for cell viability were seen at 1.0 mg/mL concentration of treatment, where wide gaps in cell viability were observed for commercial mancozeb (21.67%) and NEs treatments (63.83–71.88%). Thus, this study may help to combat the soil and water pollution menace of harmful chemical pesticides besides protecting vegetable crops.

Flowering is an integral feature of the life history of seagrasses, and it contributes to the genetic diversity and resilience of meadows. There is some evidence that seagrass flowering is influenced by tidal depth; however, the effects of tidal exposure on the flowering variabilities in patchy intertidal meadows are largely unknown. In the present study, inter and intra-annual variability of flowering was examined using a line transect sampling method across two subtropical intertidal meadows (i.e., Lilley’s Beach and Pelican Banks) of Zostera muelleri on Australia’s east coast. Along each transect, the depth was measured using Leica Geosystems AGS14 RTK, and the plant cover was estimated using a standard scale. The duration of exposure at each depth was computed based on the tidal data and categorised exposure duration by hours. The abundance (i.e., the density of flowering shoots and density of spathes) and the ratio of flowering (i.e., flowering frequency) and morphology of flowering (i.e., the number of spathes per flowering shoot) were estimated at every 10 m along three 100 m fixed transects established perpendicular to the tide monthly in 2020 and 2021. Flowering started in July and extended for approximately six months, with peak flowering observed in September-October at both sites. Generalised linear mixed-effect models showed that approximately 39% of the density of flowering shoots, 36% of the density of spathes and 28% of flowering frequency were explained by plant cover and exposure duration. Similar variation in the spathes per flowering shoot was explained by plant cover only (40%). The density of spathes during peak flowering months was significantly different among exposure categories (3-4 hrs and 5-6 hrs in Lilley’s Beach and 5-6 hrs and 6-7 hrs in Pelican Banks in 2021), where significantly different interannual variability was observed only between the same exposure categories in Pelican Banks. The study offers valuable insights into seed-based restoration projects, including optimal seed harvesting times and the average quantity of harvestable flowers, although some inter-annual variations should be anticipated.

Introduction: To determine the prognosis and fetomaternal outcome in eclampsia and pre-eclampsia, a simple and costeffective approach is to assess the Red cell Distribution Width (RDW) and platelet count. RDW, Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR), and platelet markers such as Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) have been the subject of research. Aim: To compare the variation of RDW, NLR, PLR, and platelet indices between women with pre-eclampsia and gestational age-matched healthy controls. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 208 pregnant women (104 with pre-eclampsia and 104 controls) at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, from January 2020 to June 2021. RDW, NLR, PLR, and platelet indices were analysed after obtaining detailed history, conducting clinical examinations, and relevant investigations. An Independent t-test was used as a test of significance to identify the mean difference between the two quantitative variables. Results: The RDW among cases was 17.05±4.01, whereas among controls, it was 15.09±1.86. The mean age of subjects among case group was 25.72±4.741 years, while in the control group it was 23.25±3.803 years. There was a significant difference in mean Red cell Distribution Width- Coefficient of Variation (RDW-CV) between the two groups. The MPV among cases was 9.86±1.14, while among controls, it was 8.92±1.40 (p-value=0.001). The PDW among cases was 11.30±2.20, and among controls, it was 12.72±3.50. The mean NLR among cases was 5.92±4.94, whereas among controls, it was 4.59±2.22. There was a significant difference in mean platelet count, MPV, PDW, and NLR between the two groups. Conclusion: According to the findings of the current study, RDW, NLR, and MPV were all shown to be higher in women with pre-eclampsia. Additionally, pre-eclamptic women consistently exhibited decreased PDW and platelet counts.

Isometamidium chloride (ISM) is a trypanocide for the prophylactic and therapeutic use against vector-borne animal trypanosomosis (mainly Surra caused by Trypanosoma evansi) and African animal trypanosomosis caused by T. congolense/T. vivax/T. brucei). ISM was found to be an efficient trypanocide for therapeutic/prophylactic use against trypanosomosis; however, it produces some local and systemic detrimental effects in animals. We synthesized isometamidium chloride-loaded alginate gum acacia nanoformulation (ISM SANPS) to lessen the detrimental side effects of isometamidium chloride (ISM) while treating trypanosomal diseases. We intended to determine the cytocompatibility/toxicity, and DNA deterioration/chromosomal structural or number changes (genotoxicity) of ISM SANPs using mammalian cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites are one of the major types of DNA lesions formed during base excision and repair of oxidized, deaminated, or alkylated bases. The intensity of the cellular AP site is an excellent marker of the deterioration of DNA quality. We thought it pertinent to quantify the AP sites in ISM SANPs-treated cells. Our investigations established a dose-dependent cyto-compatibility or toxicity and DNA impairment (genotoxicity) in ISM SANPs-treated horse peripheral blood mononuclear cells. ISM SANPs were biocompatible at various concentrations tested on the mammalian cells.

Pain is often a subjective sensation having physiological, psychological and emotional implications for an individual. In a hospital setting, children usually perceive unpredictable pain which is often procedure related that can impact both emotionally and psychologically. Perception of pain varies with multiple factors such as age, gender, intellectual level, personality, parental care and previous experience of painful procedure/ suppression of pain using pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures. Our study aimed to assess the effectiveness of animated cartoons as a distraction strategy to reduce behavioral response to pain perception among children undergoing venepuncture and to assess and compare pain perception in children with and without cartoon distraction. We had total of 60 children participated in the study group, we found that children who were distracted perceived less pain (p < 0.001), also the number of attempts required to do venepuncture also reduced significantly (p < 0.001). We concluded that, distraction technique is a simple yet effective tool in alleviating pain during venepuncture in preschool children. This technique can help in reduction of anxiety among children.

Dentine adhesives have demonstrated great success with permanent teeth. Though the results in primary teeth are not well documented, some studies have demonstrated lower values of bond strength in primary teeth than those found in permanent teeth. The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the effect of grape seed extract (6.5%) (Herbal Bio Solutions, Delhi, India), glutaraldehyde (5%) (Loba Chemie PVT. LTD., Mumbai), hesperidin (0.5%) (Herbal Bio Solutions, Delhi, India), and casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (tooth mousse) (GC Corporation, Alsip, IL, USA) on the shear bond strength of dentine of primary teeth and to evaluate the resin tags at the resin tooth interface. Seventy-five caries-free human primary molars were collected, and their occlusal surfaces were ground flat. Dentin surfaces were etched using phosphoric acid. Then teeth were randomly assigned in sequential order to five groups according to the dentinal treatment method: Group I (Control group) (no treatment), Group II (5% glutaraldehyde), Group III (6.5% grape seed extract), Group IV (0.5% hesperidin), and Group V (CPP-ACP). Ten teeth from each group were assigned for Shear Bond Strength and five for SEM analysis. ANOVA and a post hoc least significant difference test (p < 0.05) were used for statistical analysis of the collected data. The grape seed extract group showed significantly increased shear bond strength than the control group (p < 0.05), and the mean length of resin tags in different dentine bio modifiers groups was also statistically significant (p < 0.05). The use of dentin bio modifiers such as 5% glutaraldehyde, 6.5% grape seed extract, 0.5% hesperidin, and CPP-ACP in the bonding process for primary teeth did not improve the dentinal bond strength.

Though Sri Lanka reports low endemicity and a lesser number of cases detected annually, leprosy patients below 14 years of age are rising. Therefore, active case finding is essential. A skin clinic was conducted in the District Hospital (DH), Lunawa of Colombo District where higher numbers of cases had been reported in the past. The people were alerted on the clinic through public health staff to identify new cases. Out of the 54 persons who attended the clinic, one was clinically diagnosed as having multibacillary leprosy and another subsequently detected among the five suspected patients who were referred for skin biopsy, giving a yield of active case finding of 0.37 per 10 000 persons screened (95% CI: 0.45, 1.26). This high yield of the disease indicates that active case finding is a possible strategy for high endemic areas, which could be enhanced with a combination of outreach programs like household surveys or awareness on leprosy at institutions like schools.

HIV-infected patients are at higher risk of developing oral mucosal infection and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-associated B cell malignancies. However, the potential role of oral immunity in the pathogenesis of oral lesions is unknown. Tonsils are oral-pharyngeal mucosal-associated lymphoid tissues that play an important role in oral mucosal immunity. In this study, we investigated the changes of innate and adaptive immune cells in macaque tonsils during chronic SIV infection. We found significantly higher frequencies of classical monocytes, CD3+CD56+ (NKT-like) cells, CD3+CD4+CD8+ (DP), and CD161+ CD4 T cells in tonsils from chronic infected compared to naïve animals. On the contrary, intermediate monocytes and CD3+CD4-CD8- (DN) cells were lower in chronic SIV-infected macaques. We further confirmed a recently described small B-cell subset, NKB cells, were higher during chronic infection. Furthermore, both adaptive and innate cells showed significantly higher TNF-α and cytotoxic marker CD107a, while IL-22 production was significantly reduced in innate and adaptive immune cells in chronic SIV-infected animals. A dramatic reduction of IFN-γ production by innate immune cells might indicate enhanced susceptibility to EBV infection and potential transformation of B cells in the tonsils. In summary, our observation shows that the SIV-associated immune responses are distinct in the tonsils compared to other mucosal tissues. Our data extends our understanding of the oral innate immune system during SIV infection and could aid future studies in evaluating the role of tonsillar immune cells during HIV-associated oral mucosal infections.

Different tillage methods i.e. zero tillage, natural farming, reduced tillage and conventional tillage in combination with 3 rice varieties, viz. Sukara Dhan 1 (HPR 1156), Him Palam Dhan 1 (HPR 2656) and Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 (HPR 2795) were evaluated in terms of growth, yield attributes and yield of direct seeded rice at research farm of Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh during rainy (kharif) season of 2020 and 2021. The experiment, was laid out in split plot design with tillage options in main plot and cultivars in subplot and replicated thrice. Findings exhibits that the, conventional tillage recorded significantly higher grain, straw and biological yield followed by reduced tillage and zero tillage while significantly lower values of all these traits were observed in natural farming during both the years of experimentation. Significantly greater and lower yields recorded in conventional tillage and natural farming treatments were due to the significantly higher and lower values of different yield attributes including number of panicles/m2, number of grains/panicle, grain weight/panicle and 1000-grain weight, observed in the respective treatments. From the present investigation it can be concluded that conventional tillage resulted in higher yield attributes and yield as compared to natural farming while lower values of yield attributes and yield were recorded under natural farming. Among different rice cultivars Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 was found superior than Sukara Dhan 1 and Him Palam Dhan 1.