Differential seminal plasma proteome signatures of acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors

With advances in therapeutic methods, there is a high survival rate among leukemia patients, of an extent more than 80%. However, chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat these patients have adverse effects on their overall health profile including fertility. The primary aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed proteins in seminal plasma of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors compared to age-matched healthy controls, which can provide molecular basis of idiopathic infertility in such survivors. Differential proteome profiling was performed by 2D–differential in-gel electrophoresis, protein spots were identified by mass spectrometry and selective differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were validated by western blotting and ELISA method. Out of eight DEPs identified, five proteins (isocitrate dehydrogenase 1, semenogelin 1, lactoferrin, prolactin-inducible protein, and human serum albumin) were upregulated and three (pepsinogen, prostate specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase) were downregulated. Expression profiles of these proteins are suggestive of reduction in semen quality in ALL survivors and can further be explored to determine their fertility status.     

Dosimetric impact of statistical uncertainty on Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithm in volumetric modulated arc therapy using Monaco TPS for three different clinical cases

AimTo study the dosimetric impact of statistical uncertainty (SU) per plan on Monte Carlo (MC) calculation in Monaco? treatment planning system (TPS) during volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for three different clinical cases.BackgroundDuring MC calculation SU is an important factor to decide dose calculation accuracy and calculation time. It is necessary to evaluate optimal acceptance of SU for quality plan with reduced calculation time.Materials and methodsThree different clinical cases as the lung, larynx, and prostate treated using VMAT technique were chosen. Plans were generated with Monaco? V5.11 TPS with 2% statistical uncertainty. By keeping all other parameters constant, plans were recalculated by varying SU, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5%. For plan evaluation, conformity index (CI), homogeneity index (HI), dose coverage to PTV, organ at risk (OAR) dose, normal tissue receiving dose ≥5 Gy and ≥10 Gy, integral dose (NTID), calculation time, gamma pass rate, calculation reproducibility and energy dependency were analyzed.ResultsCI and HI improve as SU increases from 0.5% to 5%. No significant dose difference was observed in dose coverage to PTV, OAR doses, normal tissue receiving dose ≥5 Gy and ≥10 Gy and NTID. Increase of SU showed decrease in calculation time, gamma pass rate and increase in PTV max dose. No dose difference was seen in calculation reproducibility and dependent on energy.ConclusionFor VMAT plans, SU can be accepted from 1% to 3% per plan with reduced calculation time without compromising plan quality and deliverability by accepting variations in point dose within the target.     

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and biochar improves drought tolerance in chickpea

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and biochar amendment has been reported to improve growth of several crop plants however their role in stress amelioration individually as well as in combination has not been worked out. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the application of AMF and biochar on the performance of chickpea under drought stress. The treatments included the individual as well as combined treatment of AMF and biochar to drought stressed and normal chickpea plants. Plants inoculation improved growth in terms of shoot and root length, leaf area and number of branches which was observed to show a steep decline due to drought stress. Drought declined the AMF colonization potential though biochar amendment ameliorated the negative effects of drought significantly by improving the spore population, number of mycelium, vesicle and arbuscules and the percentage of colonization as well. Increased chlorophyll synthesis in biochar and AMF treated plants was obvious, which lead to significant enhancement in the net photosynthetic efficiency. Drought stress also declined the relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability index (MSI), while treatment of biochar and AMF either individually or in combination mitigated the deleterious effects to considerable extent and caused a significant enhancement in RWC and MSI under normal conditions. Amendments with biochar and AMF inoculation increased the nitrogen fixation attributes including the number and weight of nodules, leghemoglobin content and activity of nitrate reductase enzyme leading to greater uptake and assimilation of nitrogen in them when compared to drought stressed plants. Drought stressed chickpea plants exhibited considerable reduction in uptake of nitrogen and phosphorous which was ameliorated by biochar and AMF treatments. It could be suggested that increase in growth and physiological attributes in chickpea due to biochar amendments and AMF inoculation under drought stress were plausibly due to their involvement in nitrogen and phosphorous uptake, chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesis.     

Biosurfactant production: emerging trends and promising strategies

Biosurfactants are economically most sought after biotechnological compounds of the 21st century. However, inefficient bioprocessing has mitigated the economical commercial production of these compounds. Although much work is being done on the use of low-cost substrates for their production, a paucity of literature exists on the upcoming bioprocess optimization strategies and their successes and potential for economical biosurfactant production. This review discusses some of the latest developments and most promising strategies to enhance and economize the biosurfactant production process. Recent market analysis, developments in the field of optimally formulated cost credit substrates for enhanced product formation and subsequent process economization are few of the critical aspects highlighted here. Use of nanoparticles and coproduction of biosurfactant along with other commercially important compounds like enzymes, are other upcoming bioprocess intensification strategies. The recent developments discussed here would not only give an overview of pertinent parameters for economic biosurfactant production but would also bring to fore multiple strategies that would open up new avenues of research on biosurfactant production. This would go a long way in making biosurfactants a commercially successful compound of the current century.     

Benchmarking environmental performance of electric insulator supply chain in India using life cycle assessment

Purpose

This study aims at finding the environmental impacts generated by an electric disk insulator supply chain, used for the distribution of electricity by an open wire system, through a case study. This study also aims at benchmarking the environmental impacts of an electric insulator manufacturing process by taking ideal condition of zero waste as reference.

Methods

Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out by following the guidelines provided in ISO 14040 series standards and using Umberto NXT software. ReCiPe endpoint and ReCiPe midpoint impact assessment methodologies have been used to calculate environmental impacts under various categories. The primary data has been collected from a medium-scale manufacturer of electric disk insulators located at Bikaner in north-west India. The secondary data has been taken from ecoinvent 3.0 database and literature. The environmental impacts using endpoint assessment (ecosystem quality, human health, and resources) and midpoint assessment (climate change, fossil depletion, human toxicity, metal depletion, ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, and water depletion) categories have been computed. Finally, the results are compared and benchmarked against the ideal zero waste condition using three different production scenarios. The limitation of this study is that the data has been collected only from one manufacturer and its supply chain.

Results and discussion

It has been found that the use of steel, electricity, and fuel; transportation of product; and disposal of water generate high environmental impacts in the supply chain. It has also been found that in the electric disk insulator supply chain, the raw material extraction phase has the highest environmental impacts followed by manufacturing, disposal, transportation, and installation phases. This study has also found that benchmark scenario “B” (zero waste condition) is environmentally more efficient in comparison to scenario “A” (actual recycling condition) and scenario “C” (maximum waste condition).

Conclusions

This study has identified that raw materials, resources, and processes in the supply chain of an electric disk insulator manufacturing unit are responsible for the environmental damage. The various manufacturing processes and installation of the electric disk insulators are similar for all manufacturers except the machinery efficiency and the generated waste. This study provides environmental impacts associated with an electric disk insulator manufacturing process under zero waste or ideal conditions (scenario B). These results are used as a benchmark to compare environmental performance of electric disk insulator supply chain operating under actual conditions.