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Ferroptosis is a new type of iron-dependent cell death induced by a failure of the lipid repair protein GPX4 or the Xc- antiporter, which is essential for glutathione production. Some heavy metals such as arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), mercury (Hg) as well as zinc (Zn) are shown to induce ferroptotic cell death involving the generation of oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunctioning, lipid peroxidation, and several other cellular etiologies. However, selenium (Se) treatment has been shown to enhance adaptive transcription responses to protect cells from ferroptosis. Heavy metals like Cadmium exposure activated ALK4/5 signaling via Smad3 and Akt signaling which leads to cell death mechanism. Continuous exposure to a small dose of mercury can damage tissues, and methylmercury bind to sulfhydryl proteins and GSH, this elevates oxidative stress, free radical accumulation, glutathione depletion, mitochondrial damage, and inhibited the nuclear factor-κB pathway which leads to ferroptotic cell death. Animals exposed to nickel and cobalt may have increased lipid peroxidation which can induce ferroptosis. Glutathione depletion is caused by Zn intoxication and exposure to manganese. These metals are systemic toxins that have been shown adverse effects on humans. Ferroptosis has recently been related to several pathological disorders, including, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington's disease, as well as cardiovascular disease, and any type of cancer. For these disorders and some heavy metal toxicity, ferroptosis suppression needs to be looked upon as a promising therapeutic choice.

The basic oxygen process, which involves blowing oxygen into molten iron to reduce its carbon content from 4 to < 0.5%, is used to make more than half of the steel used worldwide. The present study delves into a detailed environmental implication of commercially produced oxygen and nitrogen in oxygen unit within a steel plant. The focus is on cryogenic air separation, a widely adopted method for industrial oxygen generation. The primary data is collected from the iron and steel industry located in eastern India. The life cycle assessment investigated the fact that electricity consumption has a considerable contribution to the majority of environmental impacts. Alone, electricity highly adds to the global warming potential (825 kg CO 2 eq.), marine aquatic ecotoxicity (1.18E + 6 kg DCB eq.) and abiotic depletion potential (fossil) (8.36E + 3 MJ). The water consumption in cryogenic air separation has a minimum impact. The overall impact of oxygen production per ton of crude steel is also reported. The production impacts are also compared with the Netherlands and Germany database (GaBi-8.5.0.79 version). The results revealed a significantly higher environmental impact for the Indian region compared to the Netherlands and Germany. India's reliance on non-renewable energy sources, mainly coal for electricity, is an important reason behind its consistently higher impact across all measured impact categories. This contrasts with countries like the Netherlands and Germany, which utilise more renewable energy sources.

Purpose: We investigated the persistence of the vaccine-induced immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Odisha who received a complete dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccine. Methods: This 24-week longitudinal cohort study was conducted from January to July 2021 with participants from 6 healthcare and research facilities of Odisha to understand the dynamicity of the vaccine-induced IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after the complete dose of vaccines. Results: Serum samples were collected from 614 participants during each follow-up and were tested in two chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CLIA)-based platforms to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies both qualitatively and quantitatively. Among these participants, 308 (50.2%) participants were Covishield recipients and the rest 306 (49.8%) participants took Covaxin. A total of 81 breakthrough cases were recorded and the rest 533 HCWs without any history of postvaccination infection showed significant antibody waning either from T3 (Covaxin recipient) or T4 (Covishield recipient). The production of vaccine-induced IgG antibodies is significantly higher ( p < 0.001) in Covishield compared with Covaxin. Covishield recipients produced higher median anti-S IgG titer than Covaxin. No statistically significant differences in antibody titers were observed based on age, gender, comorbidities, and blood groups. Conclusion: This 6-month follow-up study documents a 2-fold and 4-fold decrease in spike antibody titer among Covishield and Covaxin recipients, respectively. The clinical implications of antibody waning after vaccination are not well understood. It also highlights the need for further data to understand the long-term persistence of vaccine-induced antibody and threshold antibody titer required for protection against reinfection.

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) increase the morbidity and hospital bed occupancy. Cases of LRTI due to non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) are common in healthcare institutions. The common NFGNB found nowadays are , , and . Prophylactic antibiotic use and frequent antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) impact the microbes' antimicrobial sensitivity patterns. We planned this study to estimate the prevalence of LRTI due to NFGNB and the antimicrobial sensitivity patterns of the causative microbes. This retrospective study was conducted at Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar, India. We analyzed data of the patients admitted between June 2023 and May 2025. We included female and male adult patients admitted to KIMS with LRTI during the study period. The specimens of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and endotracheal tube (ET) aspirate obtained from the qualified subjects were examined. Pathogenic bacteria were cultivated using enriched and selective media, such as 5% sheep blood agar and MacConkey agar. To identify isolates and evaluate AST, the VITEK 2 system (bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) was employed. To analyze the data, we used R software (version 4.4.3; R Development Core Team, Vienna, Austria). Our hospital admitted 2,389 patients with LRTI during the research period. Of them, 757 (31.69%) patients had a positive culture result for NFGNB, and 362 (47.82%) participants were female. The study population's median age was 44.79 (38.11-66.43) years. We found three non-fermenters: (401, 52.97%), (248, 32.76%), and (108, 14.27%). The samples of  and were highly sensitive to tigecycline. The cases with   were mainly sensitive to aztreonam and demonstrated the least sensitivity to colistin. The NFGNB encountered in this study were , , and . was highly sensitive to aztreonam. and had maximum sensitivity for tigecycline. Future studies with bigger sample sizes must examine the pathogenic NFGNB causing LRTI and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.

The epidemiology of scrub typhus caused by has been growing in Odisha, India. The most common symptoms include fever, cough, lymphadenopathy, eschar, and rash. In India, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and DNA real-time polymerase chain reaction (DNA RT-PCR) are the most commonly used methods to diagnose scrub typhus. We conducted this study to determine the pattern of symptoms and association between the findings of ELISA and DNA RT-PCR. This retrospective study was accomplished at the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar, OR, IND. We analyzed the data of adult patients admitted with scrub typhus between March 2022 and February 2024, and their blood samples were evaluated with both IgM ELISA and DNA RT-PCR. The IgM antibody levels against were detected by ELISA and expressed as optical density (OD) values. The bacterial load was assessed by RT-PCR and presented as cycle threshold (CT) values. The OD values > 0.5 and CT values < 40 were deemed positive diagnoses for scrub typhus. The symptoms were weighed for their incidence and co-occurrence. We correlated the OD and CT values of the study population. The R software version 4.4.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, AUT) was utilized for data analysis. Of the 231 patients scrutinized, 170 were deemed eligible. Sixty-five (38.2%) participants were female. The median age of the study subjects was 44.5 (24.0-61.8) years. All of them had fever. Other symptoms (in decreasing order of incidence) were as follows: cough (139, 81.8%), lymphadenopathy (29, 17.1%), rash (26, 15.3%), abdomen pain (18, 10.6%), eschar (6, 3.5%), and seizure (2, 1.2%). Maximum co-occurrence was observed between cough, lymphadenopathy, rash, and pain in the abdomen with fever. It held good for both females and males. The study population's median OD and CT values were 2.8 (0.8-3.7) and 41.0 (36.0-42.0), respectively. The OD and CT values were positively correlated (r = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.71-0.83, p < 0.001). The study participants had symptoms like fever, cough, lymphadenopathy, rash, pain in the abdomen, and eschar. Our findings suggest that ELISA and DNA RT-PCR could be used for scrub typhus diagnosis among patients with febrile illness for > 5 and ≤ 5 days, respectively. Both diagnostic methods were found to possess a positive correlation. The findings of ELISA and DNA RT-PCR must be probed further.

   infections (CDI) among elderly individuals are common. Antibiotic use and gut dysbiosis are major contributors to CDI. Probiotics and prebiotics help prevent CDI by addressing dysbiosis. This study aims to document the effect of the combination of probiotics from  , a traditional fermented food (rich in   species), and prebiotics (xylitol) on CDI among elderly hospitalized individuals. This two-arm, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Odisha, India. The eligible elderly hospitalized participants will be randomized into two groups in a 1:1 ratio to receive 350 ml of either  -xylitol mixture or plain water once daily for 14 days. The data on sociodemography, clinical, and laboratory tests, antibiotics, and other medications used shall be recorded from their case sheets. Stool samples or rectal swabs will be collected on days 0 and 15 or at discharge/death/referral for CD isolation. A stool or rectal swab sample will be collected for any suspected CDI during the hospitalization. Follow-up contacts will be made on days 30 (+7), 60 (+7), and 90 (+7) to address any illness/infection, medication use, hospitalization, blood tests, and dietary practices. As we have not started the study, we do not have any observations yet. This RCT shall document the effect of -xylitol mixture on CDI prevention and CD colonization among hospitalized elderly individuals. If found effective, it can promote using beneficial fermented foods to prevent CDI, reducing morbidity, mortality, hospitalization rate, and duration, cost of therapy, and bed occupancy.

Agricultural mechanization and farm power availability are pivotal for sustainable production, especially in developing countries where small land holder farmers lack access to necessary machinery. This study aims to evaluate the degree of agricultural mechanization across small, medium, and large-scale farms in the South Asia–Pacific coastal regions, characterized by tropical monsoon climates, where rice cultivation is predominant. The investigation focuses on the period leading up to 2021–2022, employing Pareto analysis, descriptive statistics, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering techniques. Data collection encompassed diverse sources of farm power, cultivated areas dedicated to major crops, and the principal inputs utilized in cultivation, quantified in cost per unit area. The analysis indicated that, despite mechanical and electrical sources contributing to 79.55% of farm power, the overall average mechanization index based on the cost of machinery usage stood at only 11.54%. The density of tractors and power tillers, significant contributors to the overall available farm power, were identified at 44 and 32 units per 1000 hectares, respectively. Additionally, the crop-wise mechanization index was utilized to quantify the extent of mechanization for different major crops, reflecting the level of technology adoption. The mechanization index varied from the highest value of 22.70% in rice to the lowest value of 5.02% in groundnut. The findings shed light on the challenges and opportunities for enhancing agricultural productivity through targeted mechanization interventions. If enacted, these findings could yield substantial social and economic impacts on the livelihoods of farmers inhabiting coastal plains reliant on rice cropping systems, while simultaneously enhancing productivity.