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We study a class of homogeneous and anisotropic geometries with affine equation of state (EoS) for different physically plausible scenarios of the universe evolution using dynamical system technique. We analyze the locally rotationally symmetric Bianchi I (LRS BI), Bianchi III (LRS BIII) and Bianchi V (LRS BV) geometry for the exhibition of the effects of affine EoS in the model. The model exhibits stable attractor which is also isotropic and thus, it may explain the late-time accelerated expansion of the universe. The model also possess stiff matter-, radiation- and matter-dominated phases prior to the dark energy assisted accelerating phase which are confirmed by the behaviours of effective equation of state and deceleration parameters. We use the statefinder diagnostic which is a geometrical diagnostic to explore model independent features of the cosmological dynamical system. The LRS BI, BIII and BV geometry based dynamical systems exhibit r = 1 , s = 0 ( Λ cold dark matter model) at late-times, which is compatible with the observations. The dynamical system for the Kantowski–Sachs model yields synchronous bounce on the basis of the model parameters. It also yields a late-time attractor which may explain the accelerated expansion of the universe in the model. The qualitative differences between LRS BIII and BV cosmological dynamical systems have also been discussed.

In this paper, we derive the field equations of modified Gauss–Bonnet gravity termed as f ( R ,  G ) gravity for the non-flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) spacetime. We utilize the dynamical system approach to study the cosmic dynamics of two different class of f ( R ,  G ) models composed of radiation and matter (cold dark matter and baryonic matter). The linear perturbations around the fixed points are studied to explore the corresponding stability of points. The cosmological implications are studied in f ( R , G ) = f 0 R n G 1 - n and f ( R , G ) = f 0 R α + f 1 G β models to identify the qualitative evolution of universe with the flat-FRW spacetime. The qualitative differences between the considered class of models are discussed in detail. The fixed points corresponding to the late-time accelerated and radiation phase of the universe will exist in the model but, the existence of fixed point corresponding to the matter dominated phase will depend on the functional form of f ( R ,  G ). Furthermore, the autonomous systems are utilized to study the cosmographic parameters along with the statefinder diagnostic.

In New Delhi, India, candidemia affected 15 critically ill coronavirus disease patients admitted to an intensive care unit during April–July 2020. Candida auris accounted for two thirds of cases; case-fatality rate was high (60%). Hospital-acquired C. auris infections in coronavirus disease patients may lead to adverse outcomes and additional strain on healthcare resources.

Multiple environmental stresses adversely affect plant growth and development. Plants under multiple stress condition trigger cascade of signals and show response unique to specific stress as well as shared responses, common to individual stresses. Here, we aim to identify common and unique genetic components during stress response mechanisms liable for cross-talk between stresses. Although drought and cold stress have been widely studied, insignificant information is available about how their combination affects plants. To that end, we performed meta-analysis and co-expression network comparison of drought and cold stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana by analyzing 390 microarray samples belonging to 29 microarray studies. We observed 6120 and 7079 DEGs (differentially expressed genes) under drought and cold stress respectively, using Rank Product methodology. Statistically, 28% (2890) DEGs were found to be common in both the stresses (i.e.; drought and cold stress) with most of them having similar expression pattern. Further, gene ontology-based enrichment analysis have identified shared biological processes and molecular mechanisms such as-'photosynthesis', 'respiratory burst', 'response to hormone', 'signal transduction', 'metabolic process', 'response to water deprivation', which were affected under cold and drought stress. Forty three transcription factor families were found to be expressed under both the stress conditions. Primarily, WRKY, NAC, MYB, AP2/ERF and bZIP transcription factor family genes were highly enriched in all genes sets and were found to regulate 56% of common genes expressed in drought and cold stress. Gene co-expression network analysis by WGCNA (weighted gene co-expression network analysis) revealed 21 and 16 highly inter-correlated gene modules with specific expression profiles under drought and cold stress respectively. Detection and analysis of gene modules shared between two stresses revealed the presence of four consensus gene modules.

The whole genome sequencing analysis of 20 T. indotineae strains demonstrate that this new species is distinct clonal offshoot of T. mentagrophytes/T. interdigitale spp. complex. [...]naming of this emerging antifungal-resistant species was essential as it could not be unambiguously identified as either T. mentagrophytes or T. interdigitale based on ITS sequencing, mycological and physiological characteristics. [...]in the last 5 years before labelling T. indotineae as a species de novo, studies based on rDNA ITS region sequencing identified Indian Trichophyton strains as T. mentagrophytes/interdigitale; further, Nenoff and colleagues grouped the strains as T. mentagrophytes Type VIII [3,4,6,26,32]. The BLAST searches of ITS sequences of T. indotineae on NCBI database still show ≥99% sequence similarity with T. mentagrophytes, T. interdigitale, and T. indotineae. [...]to obtain accurate identification (i.e., sequence similarity of 100% with T. indotineae), ITS sequences of well-defined reference strains described by Tang and colleagues [30], importantly, primary T. indotineae strains (NUBS19006 and NUBS19007), should be included in the analysis. Notably, TRB-resistant T. indotineae strains isolated from cases in Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland during 2016 to 2020 exhibited Phe397Leu and Leu393Phe amino acid substitutions that confer resistance to TRB [11,15,22,33]. Since 2018, several cases of clinically resistant tinea corporis with extensive lesions that do not respond to TRB have been reported from France [13,14].

Carrot processing industries produce 25–30% of waste in the form of carrot rejects, peels, and pomace which contain a large amount of high-value bioactive components. Green extraction of the bioactive components from carrot rejects with green solvents using closed-vessel energy-intensive microwave-assisted extraction was the objective of this work. In this work, three experimental studies were implemented. One uses 8 different green solvents for maximum yield of bioactive using green technology, and the other for the optimization of Microwave-assisted Extraction (MAE) parameters to enhance the bioactive components yield. Response Surface Methodology was employed to optimize the processing parameters including temperature, time, solid to solvent ratio, and solvent type. The optimized extraction conditions: treatment temperature of 50 °C for 5 min gave a significantly higher yield of total carotenoids (192.81 ± 0.32 mg carotenoids/100 g DW), total phenolic (78.12 ± 0.35 g GAE/100 g DW), and antioxidants by FRAP (5889.63 ± 0.47 mM TE/100 g DW), ABTS (1143.65 ± 0.81 mM TE/100 g DW), and DPPH (823.14 ± 0.54 mM TE/100 g DW) using a solvent combination of hexane and ethanol (1:3) with solid to solvent ratio of 1:40 (w/v). This green technology in combination with GRAS solvents promoted the best recovery of bioactive from carrot rejects. Moreover, the solid residue remained after the extraction of bioactive components exhibited higher carbon content (46.5%) and calorific value (16.32 MJ/kg), showcasing its potential to be used as an energy source.

Candida auris is a recently emerged multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen capable of causing severe infections in hospitalized patients. Despite its recognition as a human pathogen a decade ago, so far the natural ecological niche(s) of C. auris remains enigmatic. Candida auris is a multidrug resistant pathogen that presents a serious global threat to human health. As C. auris is a newly emerged pathogen, several questions regarding its ecological niche remain unexplored. While species closely related to C. auris have been detected in different environmental habitats, little is known about the natural habitat(s) of C. auris . Here, we explored the virgin habitats around the very isolated Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean for evidence of C. auris . We sampled coastal wetlands, including rocky shores, sandy beaches, tidal marshes, and mangrove swamps, around the Andaman group of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Union Territory, in India. Forty-eight samples of sediment soil and seawater were collected from eight sampling sites representing the heterogeneity of intertidal habitats across the east and west coast of South Andaman district. C. auris was isolated from two of the eight sampling sites, a salt marsh and a sandy beach. Interestingly, both multidrug-susceptible and multidrug-resistant C. auris isolates were found in the sample. Whole-genome sequencing analysis clustered the C. auris isolates into clade I, showing close similarity to other isolates from South Asia. Isolation of C. auris from the tropical coastal environment suggests its association with the marine ecosystem. The fact that viable C. auris was detected in the marine habitat confirms C. auris survival in harsh wetlands. However, the ecological significance of C. auris in salt marsh wetland and sandy beaches to human infections remains to be explored. IMPORTANCE Candida auris is a recently emerged multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen capable of causing severe infections in hospitalized patients. Despite its recognition as a human pathogen a decade ago, so far the natural ecological niche(s) of C. auris remains enigmatic. A previous hypothesis suggested that C. auris might be native to wetlands, that its emergence as a human pathogen might have been linked to global warming effects on wetlands, and that its enrichment in that ecological niche was favored by the ability of C. auris for thermal tolerance and salinity tolerance. To understand the mystery of environmental niches of C. auris , we explored the coastal wetland habitat around the very isolated Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. C. auris was isolated from the virgin habitats of salt marsh area with no human activity and from a sandy beach. C. auris isolation from the marine wetlands suggests that prior to its recognition as a human pathogen, it existed as an environmental fungus.

Inhibin, β, which is also known as INHBA, encodes a protein that belongs to the Transforming Growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily, which plays a pivotal role in cancer. Gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) cancer refers to the cancers that develop in the colon, liver, esophagus, stomach, rectum, pancreas, and bile ducts of the digestive system. The role of INHBA in all GI tract cancers remains understudied. By utilizing GEPIA2, which uses transcriptomic data from TCGA, we examined the expression of INHBA across different GI tract cancers. The results revealed consistent upregulation of INHBA in all TCGA GI tract cancers, except for liver hepatocellular carcinoma, where it showed downregulation compared to normal tissues, along with GTEx normal samples. Significant differences in INHBA expression were noted in adenocarcinomas of the colon, pancreas, rectum, and stomach, while no such differences were observed in cholangiocarcinoma and liver cancer. Moreover, a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis has been done to demonstrate that the differences in expression levels are significantly related to pathological tumor stages and prognosis in different GI tract cancers. Mucinous adenocarcinoma, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and stomach adenocarcinoma show a higher frequency of INHBA alteration and are primarily linked to mutations and amplifications. DNA methylation, immune infiltration, functional enrichment analysis, the genes associated with INHBA, and survival analysis in all TCGA GI tract cancers have been extensively analyzed. In colon and stomach cancers, increased INHBA expression significantly correlates with poorer overall survival (OS). However, in colon and pancreatic adenocarcinoma, higher expression is significantly associated with worse disease-free survival (DFS). Additionally, INHBA expression exhibited a positive correlation with cancer-associated fibroblasts across all gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancers. The KEGG pathway analysis revealed that INHBA and its interacting proteins are involved in several pathways, including TGF-beta signaling, Signalling pathways regulating pluripotency of stem cells, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, AGE-RAGE signaling, and so on as major pathways. These findings demonstrate that INHBA could serve as a potential biomarker therapeutic target for GI tract cancer.

The present study explores the prevalence and socio-economic demographic factors affecting childhood illnesses. Diarrhoea, fever and ARI among under-five children in the North -East states of India using NFHS-5 data Kids file. Results showed that diarrhoea, ARI, and fever among the northeastern states were highest in Meghalaya.For diarrhoea Sikkim has the highest prevalence for children within 6 months while Meghalaya has the highest prevalence in the age groups 6- 12 months and 1- 2 years old children and Arunachal Pradesh has the highest rate in the age group 2- 5 years old children. Meghalaya stands out with the highest prevalence of fever and ARI in all age groups. Compared to Sikkim, the state of Meghalaya had more diarrhoea, ARI and fever, and it was statistically highly significant. However, Tripura and Assam had significantly higher odds of having fever and ARI than Sikkim. There is an association between diarrhoea, fever, and ARI and factors such as the age of the child and caregiver, the wealth status of the household, the quality of sanitation facilities, methods of stool disposal, and the caregiver's educational level.

Climate change has intensified and co-occurrence of drought and heat events, becoming a major threat to the crops. The reproductive stage of maize is very sensitive to combined drought and heat (D + H) stress. Thus, this study investigated the impact of combined D + H stress on phenotypic and molecular responses in maize. Ten contrasting sets of maize inbreds were subjected to combined D + H stress in a Field-based Crop Phenotyping Facility. Results revealed that combined D + H stresses caused a significant effect on morphological, physiological, and yield-related traits. The inbred CAH 192 showed the highest pollen grains per anther (1181.00) with the highest seed set (8.67 g), whereas UASBM 25 showed the lowest pollen grains per anther (577.33) with zero seed set under combined D + H stress conditions. Based on the phenotypic performance, contrasting inbreds (CAH 192 and UASBM 25) were selected for gene expression study in the anther tissues. Moreover, gene expression patterns revealed the genes responsible for drought and heat tolerance were significantly overexpressed in tolerant inbred (CAH 192). Interestingly, the observed phenotypic variations and gene expression analysis revealed that different sets of physiological traits and stress-responsive genes are involved in drought, heat, and combined D + H stress tolerance. This study reveals that maize response to stress combinations was unique with rapid readjustment at physiological and molecular levels. Overall, phenotypic changes under D + H stress showed substantial adaptive plasticity in maize, which warrants further investigations at the molecular level.