Drawida willsi was the first species of earthworm reported from Chhattisgarh state by Michaelsen in 1907. After that, only one survey of earthworm has been carried out there in 2021. Here we present ...a first-hand information on the survey of earthworms carried out in Chhattisgarh state in the year 2022. The study documents 12 species belonging to 4 families. Among these, Dichogaster affinis (Michaelsen, 1890) and Polypheretima elongata (Perrier, 1872) are exotic peregrine species. Species such as Drawida limella Gates, 1934, Lennogaster chittagongensis (Stephenson, 1917) and Octochaetona compta (Gates, 1945) expanded their distribution to central India. The study also noted the presence of microplastic for the first time in the ingesta of an earthworm (Lampito mauritii Kinberg, 1867) from India. Further detailed survey would add more species into the faunal list of Chhattisgarh, even species new to science.
•Termites are commonly differentiated into feeding and building groups.•Sheeting properties are mainly explained by the properties of the environment.•Building strategy better explains sheeting ...properties.•Redefining groups using a trait-based approach is proposed as perspective.
Termites are key soil bioturbators in tropical ecosystems. Apart from mound nests constructed by some advanced lineages, most of the species use their faeces, oral secretions, debris, or soil aggregates to protect themselves from predators and desiccation when they go out to forage. Although this soil ‘sheeting’ is considered to play a key role in soil functioning, the properties of this termite-made material has been poorly studied. The few available data showed that sheeting properties are highly variable with positive, neutral or negative impacts on soil C and clay content, and consequently on soil aggregate stability. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the factors controlling the physical (particle size fractions and structural stability) and chemical (pH, electrical conductivity and carbon content) properties of soil sheeting produced by termite species encompassing all feeding and building categories using a dataset representative of an important diversity of biotopes coming from 21 countries from all continents colonized by termites. We showed that sheeting properties were explained by the properties of their environment, and especially by those of the bulk soil (linear relationships), followed in a lesser extent by the mean annual precipitation and biotope. Classic hypotheses related to termite feeding and building strategies were not hold by our analysis. However, the distinction of termites into fungus-growing and non-fungus growing species was useful when differentiating the impact of termites on soil electrical conductivity, C content, and structural stability. The large variability observed suggests the need to redefine termite functional groups based on their impacts on soil properties using a trait-based approach from morphological, anatomical and/or physiological traits.
Understanding the link between termites’ impact on ecosystem functioning and their ecological needs remains a key question in ecology. This study focused on the influence of the fungus-growing ...termite species,
Hypotermes obscuriceps
, on soil properties in Southern India. This species produces soil sheetings and mounds on the ground. In contrast to other termite species, such as those belonging to the
Macrotermes
and
Odontotermes
genera, which produce mounds to live in,
H. obscuriceps
excavates soil above ground for constructing its chambers below ground. Using a captive colony of
H. obscuriceps
growing up in control conditions, we measured the soil properties (carbon content, particle size distribution, pH, electrical conductivity and concentration in soluble anions and cations) of its mound and of the sheetings it produced over the leaves of
Acacia auriculiformis
and on the branches of
Ipomoea carnea
and
Lantana camara
. The physical and chemical properties of
H. obscuriceps
mounds were very similar to those of the surrounding soil and even if rain erodes these mounds in the field, it is likely to have only a small effect on the resulting run-off water quality. In contrast, sheetings have higher clay and C contents than the surrounding soil. Their degradation by rain is likely to be associated with soil detachment and F
−
, Cl
−
and K
+
export in water runoff and/or leachate. In conclusion, this study shows that this species impacts soil properties more through the construction of sheetings than mounds. This difference is explained by the ecological needs of termites. While
H. obscuriceps
is not dependent on soil mound properties for survival, soil sheetings’ properties are essential for providing them a protective cover.
Termites are undoubtedly amongst the most important soil macroinvertebrate decomposers in semi-arid environments in India. However, in this specific type of environment, the influence of termite ...foraging activity on soil functioning remains unexplored. Therefore, this study examines the link between the quality of litter and the functional impact of termite feeding preferences on soil properties and soil hydraulic conductivity in a deciduous forest in southern India. Different organic resources (elephant dung: "ED", elephant grass: "EG", acacia leaves: "AL" and layers of cardboard: "CB") were applied on repacked soil cores. ED appeared to be the most attractive resource to
, leading to a larger amount of soil sheeting (i.e., the soil used by termites for covering the litter they consume), more numerous and larger holes in the ground and a lower soil bulk density. As a consequence, ED increased the soil hydraulic conductivity (4-fold) compared with the control soil. Thus, this study highlights that the more
prefers a substrate, the more this species impacts soil dynamics and water infiltration in the soil. This study also shows that ED can be used as an efficient substrate for accelerating the infiltration of water in southern-Indian soils, mainly through the production of galleries that are open on the soil surface, offering new perspectives on termite management in this environment.
The present analysis reports the clinical, pathological, treatment profile and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes of consecutive breast cancer patients from three Indian ...centres, who underwent curative surgery as their first treatment. Among the 3453 patients, stage I, II, and III cases were 11.75%, 66.79%, and 21.64%, respectively while hormone receptor positive/HER2 negative, triple negative (TNBC) and hormone receptor any/HER2 positive cases were 55.2%, 24.2% and 20.6%, respectively. The five-year OS in the entire cohort, node-negative and node-positive patients were 94.1% (93.25-94.98), 96.17% (95.2-97.15) and 91.83% (90.36-93.31), respectively, and the corresponding DFS were 88.1% (86.96-89.31), 92.0% (90.64-93.39) and 83.93% (82.03-85.89), respectively. The five-year OS in hormone receptor positive/HER2 negative, TNBC and HER2 subgroups were 96.11% (95.12-97.1), 92.74% (90.73-94.8) and 90.62% (88.17-93.15), respectively, and the corresponding DFS were 91.59% (90.19-93.02), 85.46% (82.79-88.22) and 81.29% (78.11-84.61), respectively. This is the largest dataset of early breast cancer patients from India with survival outcome analysis and can therefore serve as a benchmark for future studies.
Quality control testing of the vaccine for lot release is of paramount importance in public health. A recent pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus brought together all spheres of vaccine to combat ...the virus. The scientific advancement in the development of vaccines facilitated the scientists to develop the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in a record time. Thus, these vaccines should be stringently monitored for their safety and efficacy as per the latest WHO and national regulatory guidelines, and quality control evaluation of the product should be done at national control laboratories before releasing the product into the market as it assures the quality and safety of the vaccine.
The SARS-CoV-2 exploited the ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2) receptor, a surface protein on mammalian cells to gain entry into the host cells. The viral surface protein that interacted with the ACE2 receptor is the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, in the development of the vaccine and assessing its quality, the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 became an attractive immunodominant antigen. In National Institute of Biologicals, an apex body in the testing of biologicals in India, received the Adenovector (Adenovirus + vector) based COVID-19 vaccine, a finished product for quality evaluation. Due to the lack of a pharmacopeial monograph, the testing of the vaccine was done as per the manufacturer's specifications and methods. The routine assays of identification employed by the manufacturer do not reflect the expression of Spike protein which is required for the immune system to get activated. In this report, we showed the determination of Spike protein expression by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence for identification parameters in the quality testing of the COVID-19 vaccine. We determined the translation of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike gene cloned into an Adenovector.
The results from these experiments indicated the expression of Spike protein upon infection of mammalian cells with viral particles suggested that the expression of immunodominant Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 may be employed by quality control laboratories as a parameter for identification.
The study suggested that the determination of the expression of Spike protein is pertinent to identifying the Adenovector based vaccines against COVID-19.
Modern financial funding systems have particular difficulties in the process of managing investments. It is simple to choose the proper project when investing. Managing funds is essential once the ...correct project has been chosen. We must look for cutting-edge technologies and environmentally friendly money management practises in order to do this. The banking ecosystem is being reinvented by blockchain technology, which also enables conventional financial institutions to operate more effectively on their own. The main concept is to use the Blockchain technology to build decentralised transaction ledger functionality. All kinds of contracts and property could be registered, verified, and transferred via blockchain. In this work, all financial services are being reimagined as crypto pals using Blockchain-based decentralised frameworks. Peer-to-peer fundraising is the notion.With the use of blockchain technology, this effort eliminates the need for a middleman and implements a reliable fund usage system. This paper examines various opportunities, benefits, strategies, and technical difficulties of using Blockchain technology in smart funding and provides frameworks for important Blockchain-based smart funding applications. With more effective checks and balances, this system starts crowd funding cryptocurrency initiatives in a decentralised manner.
Abstract
Breast cancer is a public health challenge globally as well as in India. Improving outcome and cure requires appropriate biomarker testing to assign risk and plan treatment. Because it is ...documented that significant ethnic and geographical variations in biological and genetic features exist worldwide, such biomarkers need to be validated and approved by authorities in the region where these are intended to be used. The use of western guidelines, appropriate for the Caucasian population, can lead to inappropriate overtreatment or undertreatment in Asia and India. A virtual meeting of domain experts discussed the published literature, real-world practical experience, and results of opinion poll involving 185 oncologists treating breast cancer across 58 cities of India. They arrived at a practical consensus recommendation statement to guide community oncologists in the management of hormone positive (HR-positive) Her2-negative early breast cancer (EBC). India has a majority (about 50%) of breast cancer patients who are diagnosed in the premenopausal stage (less than 50 years of age). The only currently available predictive test for HR-positive Her2-negative EBC that has been validated in Indian patients is CanAssist Breast. If this test gives a score indicative of low risk (< 15.5), adjuvant chemotherapy will not increase the chance of metastasis-free survival and should not be given. This is applicable even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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