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BackgroundDespite the report of an imbalance between CD4+T helper (Th) cell subsets in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), patient stratification for precision medicine has been hindered by the discovery of ever more Th cell subsets, as well as contradictory association results.ObjectivesTo capture previously reported Th imbalance in RA with deep immunophenotyping techniques; to compare hypothesis-free unsupervised automated clustering with hypothesis-driven conventional biaxial gating and explore if Th cell heterogeneity accounts for conflicting association results.MethodsUnstimulated and stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from RA patients and controls were immunophenotyped with a 37-marker panel by mass cytometry (chemokine receptors, intra-cellular cytokines, intra-nuclear transcription factors). First, conventional biaxial gating and standard definitions of Th cell subsets were applied to compare subset frequencies between cases and controls. Second, unsupervised clustering was performed with FlowSOM and analysed using mixed-effects modelling of Associations of Single Cells (MASC).ResultsConventional analytical techniques fail to identify classical Th subset imbalance, while unsupervised automated clustering, by allowing for unusual marker combinations, identified an imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory subsets. For example, a pro-inflammatory Th1-like (IL-2+T-bet+) subset and an unconventional but pro-inflammatory IL-17+T-bet+subset were significantly enriched in RA (odds ratio=5.7, p=2.2 × 10−3; odds ratio=9.7, p=1.5×10−3, respectively). In contrast, a FoxP3+IL-2+HLA-DR+Treg subset was reduced in RA (odds ratio=0.1, p=7.7×10−7).ConclusionsInnovative approaches capture known CD4+T cell subset imbalances in RA blood.

Background Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) is an opportunistic pathogen associated with major inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). AIEC is a human commensal but during unfavorable gastric conditions it exhibits pathogenic properties and induces inflammation in the gut, sometimes progressing to inflammation-induced colon cancer. The exact mechanisms for AIEC pathogenesis are still being discovered. As a human opportunistic pathogen, AIEC has few animal models. In recent years, zebrafish have emerged as a useful model for studies of various human pathogens. Here, a zebrafish model to study AIEC infection was developed. Methods Colonization of AIEC from overnight culture was determined with different infectious doses (103, 104, 105 and 106 CFU/ml of infection water) in zebrafish, incubating fish with AIEC in water for 6 h and then in fresh water for 18 h at 28o C. The invasive property of AIEC in zebrafish gut was determine by gentamycin protection assay. Persistent colonization of AIEC in zebrafish gut was also assessed for 10 days. Induction of pro-inflammatory markers such as IL-1β, TNFα, IFNγ and S100A-10b (akin to human calprotectin) in zebrafish intestinal cells in response to AIEC infection was determined by qRT PCR and ELISA. A probiotic strain, E. coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) was used as a therapeutic and prophylactic against AIEC infection. Propionic acid was used to augment the AIEC infection and the efficacy of ECN was tested against the hyper-infectious condition of AIEC in zebrafish. Results Bath inoculation with AIEC resulted in colonization, invasion and tissue disruption in the zebrafish intestine. The AIEC infection induced neutrophil recruitment and showed significant pro-inflammatory responses in zebrafish gut. S100A-10b protein of zebrafish, equivalent of a human IBD marker, calprotectin, was significantly increased in the zebrafish gut during AIEC infection. The probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) reduced AIEC colonization, tissue damage and pro-inflammatory responses in zebrafish in both prophylactic and therapeutic ways. Furthermore, EcN diminished the propionic acid-augmented hyper infection of AIEC in the zebrafish model. Conclusion In this study a new zebrafish model was developed to study the infection and inflammation induced by AIEC. Probiotic strain, EcN was used successfully against AIEC to reduce the inflammation in AIEC-zebrafish model.

Cancer is emerging as a major public health concern for the entire globe. According to the World Cancer Report, cancer is the world's second most common cause of death. This poses a rapidly increasing threat worldwide to individuals, health systems and economies.Cancer patients are more susceptible to critical illness and death as compared to the general infected population. Various cohort studies were conducted in China between December 2019 to June 2020;it was inspected that among overall cancer patients admitted in hospital during the pandemic, 79% were Covid-19 Positive among which 39% died in ICU;whereas among all general population admitted to the same hospital 37% were Covid positive out of which 8% died. It suggests that the cancer patients are at more risk due to Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. In order to prevent 7 million cancer deaths over the next decade, countries must expedite their health care system. In low-income and middle-income countries,during the next decade, the incidence of cancer is expected to almost double.In 2018 India had about 1.16 million cancer cases, 784800 cancer deaths amongits population of 1.35 billion people. Furthermore, the treatment cost for more than 40% of cancer hospitalization is made by selling the assets and borrowing from relatives;they incur out-of-pocket (OOPE) expenditure in the private sector and can cost more than 20 percent of their annual per capita household spending.And over 76% of cancer patient families faced financial problems during treatment. The main aim objective of the study was to understand the cancer scenario in India, its treatment cost implications and various treatment facilities and different funding assistance cum Health schemes implemented by central and state governments in India.The data is collected from secondary sources and descriptive study was performed. Therefore in conclusion we find that, we require effective prevention for surviving against cancer along with the proper awareness of the funding schemes by the government for the cancer patients and greater investment in the healthcare infrastructure needs proper attention.

Two field experiments were conducted at the Research Farm of ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Mendhasal, Odisha with wet season rice. The objective of the first experiment was to compare the effect of inorganic fertilizers (IF) with the integrated nutrient management (INM) using in situ green manure Sesbania and complimentary dose of IF on rice yield, energy use, economics and residual soil fertility. In the second experiment, the IF was compared with the organic nutrient management (ONM) using in situ green manure Sesbania and vermicompost. The results of the first experiment revealed that grain and straw yields of rice were similar with the INM and IF. However, the INM helped in reducing energy input (24%), improving energy efficiency (35%) and net return (20%). Soil organic C, available N and P contents increased significantly by 14%, 8% and 53%, respectively, for the INM at the end of 3 years. The results of the second experiment revealed that the ONM registered rice grain yield reduction by 8% but increased net return (8%) due to a higher premium of INR 1750 (US $ 26.21) t−1 paddy grain. The ONM treatment reduced energy input (39%) and enhanced energy efficiency (57%) as compared to the IF. Soil organic C, available N and P contents increased by 23%, 39% and 12%, respectively, for the ONM at the end of 3 years. Thus, the practice of ONM or INM using Sesbania green manure-cum-cover crop saved energy and fertilizer, and maintained soil fertility.

System of rice intensification (SRI) together with appropriate nutrient management holds promise in increasing rice productivity with micronutrient enriched grains. Trials were conducted to investigate the performance of SRI vis-a-vis conventional management practices (CMP), both with either integrated nutrient management (INM) or organic sources of nutrients. Grain yields were consistently higher under SRI (34.6%) than with CMP under the same nutrient management system. At the same time, yields under INM were higher than for those with organic fertilization. There were significant differences among treatment combinations also; both SRI–INM and SRI–organic out-yielded CMP–INM and CMP–organic, respectively, by 43.8 and 24.8%. Further, SRI with organic sources produced 18.6% higher grain yield than CMP with INM, which showed a way to achieve higher output of rice grain grown organically. Significant improvements were observed with SRI in root growth, xylem exudation rate, LAI, canopy light interception, SPAD chlorophyll level, photosynthesis rate, and grain-filling rate. The improvements in physiological functioning evidently contributed to better grain formation and yield under SRI management. Both the rice grains and straw obtained with SRI methods contained more N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn than grains and straw produced with CMP. SRI methods not only raised rice productivity, but also enhanced nutrient uptake due to greater root growth and activity, and improved the nutritional content and quality of produced grain.

The unusual MF symmetricity of primary morphological elements is a striking feature of PTCL. PTCL also tends to present with monomorphic granulomatous confluent papulonodules on the upper back, around elbows and knees, which is also quite uncommon for MF. The disproportion of the severity of lymph node involvement (fully effaced) in a patient with “MF IA” disease should render a re-evaluation of “MF as a diagnosis in favor of PTCL.” While histological features may significantly overlay with MF, there are several diagnostic features of PTCL, such as high Ki67 (>50%) and an absence of epidermotropism.

Unsupervised Domain Adaptation (UDA) aims to learn a predictor model for an unlabeled domain by transferring knowledge from a separate labeled source domain. However, most of these conventional UDA approaches make the strong assumption of having access to the source data during training, which may not be very practical due to privacy, security and storage concerns. A recent line of work addressed this problem and proposed an algorithm that transfers knowledge to the unlabeled target domain from a single source model without requiring access to the source data. However, for adaptation purposes, if there are multiple trained source models available to choose from, this method has to go through adapting each and every model individually, to check for the best source. Thus, we ask the question: can we find the optimal combination of source models, with no source data and without target labels, whose performance is no worse than the single best source? To answer this, we propose a novel and efficient algorithm which automatically combines the source models with suitable weights in such a way that it performs at least as good as the best source model. We provide intuitive theoretical insights to justify our claim. Furthermore, extensive experiments are conducted on several benchmark datasets to show the effectiveness of our algorithm, where in most cases, our method not only reaches best source accuracy but also outperforms it., Comment: This paper will appear at CVPR 2021

Annually 500 M t organic wastes are produced in India from the agriculture sector. Transportation of bulky organic manures for centralized collection, processing and distribution to farms is cost prohibitive. Hence, recycling of agricultural wastes using vermicompost technology at the farm level is a practical way of managing agriwaste for meeting the plant nutrient requirement. Our experience with a 1.584 ha farm for three years (2015–2016 to 2017–2018) revealed that 8.1 t vermicompost was produced in three batches from 24 t agriwastes produced within the farm area. The system productivity by recycling these farm generated agriwastes and run-off water was 18.05 t (≈11.4 t ha−1) rice equivalent yield which was higher by 2.6 times as compared to rice fallow (4.46 t ha−1). Also, the net return from this system (Indian rupees 70141 ha−1) was higher by 2.3 times, after considering the fixed cost towards construction of a water recycling pond. An increase in carbon stock in soil for the four years study period was 0.66 Mg ha−1 year−1 with the agriwaste recycling system under organic nutrition. For the inorganic fertilizer plot, the increase in carbon stock was 0.53 Mg ha−1 year−1. A decrease in bulk density from 1.56 to 1.46 Mg m−3, increase in water holding capacity from 0.43 to 0.52 cm3 cm−3 and increase in available P and K content in soil from 38.0 and 174.7 kg ha−1 to 45.8 and 186.5 kg ha−1, respectively, were noted. Thus, recycling of agricultural waste at the farm level is useful in improving soil health and crop productivity.

Cross-border and domestic merger and acquisitions are considered as fastest means of growth and survival too. This study provides evidence on the value creation by applying inorganic growth strategies based on a sample of Indian pharmaceutical companies. Relying on the key financial ratios, their pre-merger and post-merger financial performances were compared to find whether merger has affected their performance. Based on these multiple financial ratios it has been noted that there was no improvement found in the profitability after merger. The main motives of the mergers and acquisitions like cost reduction, risk spreading etc were compared to the financial results which indicates that the overall motives more or less were achieved by the companies keeping internal factors of acquiring companies constant.

Macrophages tailor their function to the signals found in tissue microenvironments, taking on a wide spectrum of phenotypes. In human tissues, a detailed understanding of macrophage phenotypes is limited. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing, we define distinct macrophage subsets in the joints of patients with the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects ~1% of the population. The subset we refer to as HBEGF+inflammatory macrophages is enriched in RA tissues and shaped by resident fibroblasts and the cytokine TNF. These macrophages promote fibroblast invasiveness in an EGF receptor dependent manner, indicating that inflammatory intercellular crosstalk reshapes both cell types and contributes to fibroblast-mediated joint destruction. In anex vivotissue assay, the HBEGF+inflammatory macrophage is targeted by several anti-inflammatory RA medications, however, COX inhibition redirects it towards a different inflammatory phenotype that is also expected to perpetuate pathology. These data highlight advances in understanding the pathophysiology and drug mechanisms in chronic inflammatory disorders can be achieved by focusing on macrophage phenotypes in the context of complex interactions in human tissues.One Sentence SummaryA newly identified human macrophage phenotype from patients with the autoimmune condition RA is found to promote joint tissue invasiveness and demonstrates variable sensitivities to anti-inflammatory medications used to treat the disease.

The crystal structure of an inactive variant of the the quorum-sensing master transcription regulator HapR from Vibrio cholerae suggests that its inactivity is owing to steric clashes and charge repulsion with the phosphate backbone of DNA., HapR is a TetR-family transcriptional regulator that controls quorum sensing in Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. HapR regulates the expression of hemagglutinin protease, virulence and biofilm genes. The crystal structure of wild-type HapR from V. cholerae strain O1 El Tor C6706 has previously been solved. In this study, the structure of a DNA-binding-deficient variant of HapR (HapRV2) derived from the protease-deficient V. cholerae serotype O37 strain V2 is reported. The structure reveals no structural differences compared with wild-type HapR. However, structural alignment of HapRV2 with the TetR-family member QacR in complex with its operator DNA suggests that the aspartate residue located between the regulatory and DNA-binding domains may clash with and electrostatically repel the phosphate backbone of DNA to prevent binding.

Water scarcity is one of the major factors affecting the productivity of banana. Drip irrigation (DI) has been found as a water saving technique in banana cultivation. Further, sensor-based automated DI which has been considered as a smart and real time water application technique might increase the water savings and enhance yield of banana. With this hypothesis, a field experiment was conducted to study the performance of automated DI in banana (cv. Grand Naine) at Bhubaneswar, India during 2016–2017. Five automated DI schedules: (i) soil water sensor-based irrigation (I1) and timer based irrigation (ii) at 1 h interval 3 times daily at 80% crop evapotranspiration (ETc) (I2), (iii) at 2 h interval 2 times daily at 80% ETc (I3), (iv) at 1 h interval 3 times daily at 60% ETc (I4) and (v) at 2 h interval 2 times daily at 60% ETc (I5) were compared with manually operated DI at 100% ETc (I6) in the crop. The highest vegetative growth of plants (plant height, canopy diameter, stem girth) was observed with manually operated DI. However, sensor-based DI produced 15% higher fruit yield with 20% water saving, resulting in 40% higher water productivity (yield per unit quantity of water) compared with manually operated DI (water used, 820 mm; yield, 60.5 t ha−1; water productivity, 6.2 kg m−3) in the crop. The fruit qualities (total soluble solids and acidity) of sensor-based irrigated plants were superior to manually irrigated plants. The volumetric soil water content under manual DI was marginally higher (11–15%) than that under sensor-based DI (21.2–24.8%). The soil available nutrients (N, P and K) and leaf nutrients content of the plants followed the similar trend of soil water content under different treatments. The yield forecasting based on leaf-N, leaf-K, leaf water content and radiation interception using ‘Principal component analysis’ performed well with reasonably accuracy (R2 = 0.82). Overall, these results reveal that soil water sensor-based automated DI is a productive and water saving technique which may be adopted in banana cultivation in eastern India and anywhere else with similar agro-climates of the study site.

The study conducted among the information technology users in business organizations in Delhi and NCR, addressed the issues of service quality and its impact on long-term customer satisfaction from an interaction approach and relationship marketing perspective in the medium size B2B sector. The objectives include identification of important customer requirements and service attributes that signify internal processes and customer interaction. It reveals that, service improvements and technical preparedness emerge as new dimensions apart from the applicability of dual aspects of Gronroos’ perceived service quality model—technical and functional dimensions.

Organizational behavior is the study of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors exhibited by people in the workplace. Commitment is one of the basic constructs in behavioral studies. Behavioral scientists claim that managers who know why workers act the ways they do, are better equipped to encourage employees to add to the achievement of organizational goals. It was found that the higher an employee's commitment, the more likely he or she commits to "go the extra mile" and deliver excellent on-the-job performance. They are also five times less likely to leave the company voluntarily. Therefore, this article investigates the previous research and theories of organizational commitment using the exploratory methodology and an analysis of various relevant kinds of literature related to organizational commitment and its potential implications for human resource management (HRM).. After analyzing the previous literature, we find a variety of definitions for organizational commitment. However, all of them include one or all of the meanings like emotional attachment to the organization, the obligation to remain and the need to stay with the organization. There are two assessment tools for evaluating employee commitment levels. A critical review of the literature also indicates that many factors influence organizational commitment; characteristics such as, personal, organizational, attitudinal, job and work experience are prominent factors. These identified factors in this paper can be improved by specific interventions as a part of HRM. Moreover, commitment was found to be related to intent and desire to remain, job performance and intention to leave

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (pepc) gene is known to play the key role in C 4 photosynthesis by catalyzing initial fixation of CO 2 in C 4 maize. We have introduced intact maize pepc gene in indica rice by biolistic transformation. Integration of the gene was confirmed by PCR and Southern analysis. RT-PCR and Northern blot showed expression of the gene in RNA level in transgenic plants. Immunoblot studies showed the presence of 106 kDa PEPC protein in transgenic plants. The transformants showed enhancement in photosynthesis rate in high temperature conditions.

The rhizobial products for groundnut contain different strains. The lack of information regarding the efficacy of commercial rhizobial products in different agro ecological regions, often leads to erratic results. Field experiment was conducted to study the symbiotic efficiency of the commercially available standard strains of Rhizobium viz TAL 1000, IGR 6, NC 92 and JCG 48 for two groundnut cultivars viz JL 24 and TKG 19A on the nodulation, nutrient uptake, yield attributes and yield, of groundnut in an acid hill Ultisol. IGR-6 increased dry nodular mass maximum by 43 % followed by 29% with NC-92 and JCG-48 both in JL-24, however, TKG 19A responded differently. The variety x strain interaction was significant for both the pod (P0.05 = 1.57 q/ha) and straw (P0.05 = 2.87 q/ha) yield. N and P uptake in pod as well as straw increased significantly with all strains except TAL-1000 in JL-24. Rhizobial strains NC 92 and IGR 6 showed better performance than TAL 1000 in an acid hill Ultisol.

The proper distribution of sterols among organelles is critical for numerous cellular functions. How sterols are sorted and moved among membranes remains poorly understood, but they are transported not only in vesicles but also by non-vesicular pathways. One of these pathways moves exogenous sterols from the plasma membrane to the endoplasmic reticulum in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have found that two classes of proteins play critical roles in this transport, ABC transporters (ATP-binding-cassette transporters) and oxysterol-binding protein-related proteins. Transport is also regulated by phosphoinositides and the interactions of sterols with other lipids. Here, we summarize these findings and speculate on the role of non-vesicular sterol transfer in determining intracellular sterol distribution and membrane function.

GaN has become increasingly important for microwave applications up to K a band as a result of its wide band-gap, which provides a high critical breakdown field and good thermal stability, yielding excellent potential for high power and high voltage operation. It is of major interest to understand the device structures that will lead to high efficiency, high power microwave amplifiers. In this paper, we investigate by simulation the microwave performance of InGaN/GaN Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs), with proper device geometry to account for the effects of current crowding. We provide an analysis of both emitter-up and collector-up InGaN/GaN HBT structures, based on a distributed HBT model implemented in ADS. We simulate their performance in a fully matched Class B high power amplifier. The results show that an important issue for high power operation is the mismatch between optimum load conditions for peak output power and peak gain, To increase the output impedance, it is important to decrease base-collector capacitance, which can be achieved with a collector-up structure. Furthermore, current crowding in the emitter caused by the sheet resistance in the base becomes more important at higher power operation, and is therefore a key design consideration.

SOME APPLICATIONS OF θ-CLOSURE OPERATORS

The impact of climatic variability on crop production was studied in the Mahanadi delta area where upland, midland and lowland sites were selected covering Dhenkanal, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Cuttack and Puri district. The monthly run-off (106 m3) data of 19 gauging stations adequately representing the sub-basins of the Mahanadi River basin with a command area of 1,41,589 km2 during the period 1972–2004 was analysed to investigate the run-off variability and trends of the basin. Analysis of hydroclimatic parameters using advanced statistical tools revealed that due to alteration in the hydrological cycle the severity of droughts and intensity of floods increased and the quantity of the available water resources also gets affected. The average annual result run-off during the period 1990–2004 exhibits an increased run-off, in comparison to the previous subseries 1972–1989 for all the stations. However, this increased run-off is also associated with an increase in the variability (standard deviation), suggesting that the wet period is more prone to uncertainty in comparison to the corresponding dry period. The rainfall status of the experimental sites on the Mahanadi delta showed occurrence of frequent drought and flood in the last 25 years (Table 1). Uneven distribution of rainfall affected the crop yield adversely. Increase in rainfall in May and September and severe drought in November and December affected the paddy yield. It has been observed that in spite of canal irrigation sources, water is unavailable during the critical stages of crop growth and moisture stress condition. To mitigate the vagaries caused by climate change, water harvesting structures for assured irrigation, microirrigation techniques to increase the water use efficiency, crop diversification and multiple use of water to improve water productivity are some of the technological interventions for resilience and sustainable identified production.

Diverse events take place every day in our country and abroad, which may have deeper consequences on our economy and investors' perception. A common man, who wants to earn profits by investing in the economy through stock markets, is often left helpless due to the sudden changes in the market behavior. This leads to suspicion and fear in the investors' mind. To avoid such traps, it becomes imperative to analyze the risks from investments beforehand. Since the common man is incompetent to do so, intermediaries like mutual funds are resorted to. However, the selection of the right asset management company and the right scheme is very important. In this study, 41 mutual funds were taken of which 14 were gold mutual funds, 12 were exchange traded funds, and 15 were energy mutual funds. We studied the performance of mutual funds using different portfolio measurement methods, models, and ratios. Capital asset pricing model was used for most of the interpretations. Various performance related facts were highlighted in this study. In general, it was found that the gold funds performed better than the energy funds and moved in tandem with their benchmark index.

For decades it has been known that the HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles are associated with an increased risk of development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recently, the following variations in the peptide-binding grooves of HLA molecules that predispose to RA development have been identified: Val and Leu at HLA-DRB1 position 11, Asp at HLA-B position 9, and Phe at HLA-DPB1 position 9. This study was undertaken to investigate whether these variants are also associated with radiographic progression in RA, independent of SE and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) status.A total of 4,911 radiograph sets from 1,878 RA patients included in the Leiden Early Arthritis Clinic (The Netherlands), Umeå (Sweden), Hospital Clinico San Carlos-Rheumatoid Arthritis (Spain), and National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases (US) cohorts were studied. HLA was imputed using single-nucleotide polymorphism data from an Immunochip, and the amino acids listed above were tested in relation to radiographic progression per cohort using an additive model. Results from the 4 cohorts were combined in inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses using a fixed-effects model. Analyses were conditioned on SE and ACPA status.Val and Leu at HLA-DRB1 position 11 were associated with more radiographic progression (meta-analysis P = 5.11 × 10(-7)); this effect was independent of SE status (meta-analysis P = 0.022) but not independent of ACPA status. Phe at HLA-DPB1 position 9 was associated with more severe radiographic progression (meta-analysis P = 0.024), though not independent of SE status. Asp at HLA-B position 9 was not associated with radiographic progression.Val and Leu at HLA-DRB1 position 11 conferred a risk of a higher rate of radiographic progression independent of SE status but not independent of ACPA status. These findings support the relevance of these amino acids at position 11.

Extracellular lipase production byRhizopus arrhizus was increased by mutant selection from 130 to 670 μmol FFA per mL per min using UV radiation and aziridine treatment. The produced lipase was purified 720-fold by ammonium sulfate fractionation and Sephadex G-100 gel filtration. The molar mass of the produced lipase was determined to be approximately 67 kDa which comigrated with bovine serum albumin in both a Sephadex G-100 column and SDS-PAGE.