Journals
2025 EN
Behera Supriya · Kar Ipsita · Yadav Ashok
+1 more
ABSTRACT Waterlogging is a critical abiotic stress factor severely affecting maize, one of the World's most widely cultivated cereal crops. Globally, maize is a crucial food crop, grown in diverse agro‐climatic zones, from subtropical to temperate climates. Waterlogging, resulting from flooding, intense rainfall and inefficient drainage systems, continues to be a major abiotic stress factor influencing crop productivity globally. Prolonged exposure to excess soil moisture leads to oxygen depletion in the root zone, resulting in restricted aerobic respiration, impaired nutrient uptake and disruption of physiological processes. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the morphological, physiological and biochemical changes maize undergoes in response to waterlogging stress. Key aspects such as root system adaptation, reduction in photosynthetic efficiency, accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and hormonal imbalances are systematically examined. Furthermore, we delve into the metabolic shifts that enable maize to survive under anaerobic conditions, including alterations in energy metabolism, carbohydrate partitioning, and activating antioxidant defence mechanisms. The role of key signalling molecules such as ethylene is explored, highlighting their involvement in regulating stress responses. Additionally, the review discusses agronomic and genetic approaches for improving waterlogging tolerance in maize, including the development of stress‐resilient cultivars through breeding and biotechnological interventions. By synthesising recent advances in understanding maize's response to waterlogging, this paper identifies gaps and proposes future research directions, focusing on the integration of molecular and field‐based strategies. The insights from this review are crucial for developing sustainable agricultural practices aimed at mitigating the adverse impacts of waterlogging on maize productivity, particularly in flood‐prone areas. Breeding for waterlogging resilience integrates the creation of robust varieties, plant morphology optimisation, and utilisation of tolerant secondary traits through combined conventional and biotechnological breeding strategies.
Journals
2025 EN
Sahu Spandan Prasad · Sarkar Himirkanti · Kumar Lakshaman
+1 more
Abstract The hot‐corrosion behavior of sintered 3 mol.% yttria‐stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) ceramic with significant (1:4 in ratio) variation in grain sizes was investigated. Contrary to the popular perception of the role of grain boundaries, ceramics with smaller grains portrayed remarkable hot‐corrosion resistance despite having ∼450% more grain boundaries compared to their counterpart. The mechanism behind a rather ‘unusual’ role of the grain boundary in deciding the corrosion pathways for 3YSZ ceramic systems was examined. The affinity of NaVO 3 to react with Y 2 O 3 was found to be a crucial step for the initiation of corrosion and this process had no potential influence on the fraction of grain boundaries in the system. A phase transformation (tetragonal to monoclinic) induced porosity created easy path for the molten liquid to flow inside the ZrO 2 matrix. The ceramic with a smaller grain size resisted such a transformation and resulted in a much lower penetration depth for the corrosion to proceed further inside the matrix. Although grain boundaries are usually portrayed as weak points for corrosion, this study illustrates an alternate pathway using which corrosion can be averted in a fine grained 3YSZ ceramic.
Journals
2025 EN
Sahu Somnath · Balmuchu Shashi Priya · Dobbidi Pamu
+1 more
Abstract The BaZr 0.1 Ti 0.9 O 3 (BZT)–Ni 0.5 Co 0.2 Zn 0.3 Fe 2 O 4 (NCZF) ceramic composite exhibits multiferroic behavior, making it a promising candidate for next‐generation sensors, filters, and tunable microwave devices. It is of fundamental interest to explore its conduction mechanism and tune the composition for enhanced dielectric performance. This work explores the multifunctional properties of BZT–NCZF ceramic composites, emphasizing their conduction, dielectric, ferroelectric, and magnetic behavior. The correlated barrier hopping mechanism governs AC conduction in the composites, wherein Coulomb interactions between defect sites reduce the potential barrier, facilitating carrier transport. Meanwhile, DC transport follows the variable range hopping mechanism, where charge carriers hop between localized polarons. The ferroelectric to paraelectric transition temperature shifts from ∼353 K in pristine BZT to ∼403 K in BZNC15, with BZNC20 showing dual anomalies at ∼343 K and ∼423 K, corresponding to ferroelectric and magnetic transitions. BZNC10 exhibits a high dielectric constant ( ε ′ ≈ 1150), low loss (tan δ ≈ 0.04 at 1 MHz), and strong relaxor behavior. It also demonstrates optimal energy storage performance, achieving a recoverable energy storage density of 383.8 mJ/cm 3 ; and an efficiency of 92%. Saturation and remnant magnetization improve with increasing NCZF content while coercivity declines. Thermal dependence of magnetic properties follows Bloch's and Kneller's laws. These results highlight the potential of BZT–NCZF composites for multifunctional device applications.
Journals
2025 EN
Psyllou Constantina · Luman Marjolein · Hoofdakker Barbara J.
+33 more
Background Understanding the mechanisms of change and between‐family differences in behavioural parenting interventions for children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may help personalise interventions. Therefore, we examined whether improvements in parenting are associated with changes in child behaviour and functional outcomes, and how these associations vary based on parents' baseline parenting levels. Methods We collected individual participant data including 19 randomised controlled trials focusing on children with ADHD ( n = 1,720). Immediate post‐intervention measures of child ADHD and oppositional behaviour severity, reported by parents and functional impairment reported by either the parent or probably masked clinicians, were treated as outcomes. We estimated pathways from intervention (vs. control) to child outcomes, via immediate post‐intervention parent reports of constructive parenting (e.g. praise), non‐constructive parenting (e.g. physical punishment) and parent–child affection (e.g. warmth), while controlling for baseline values of both child outcomes and parenting levels. Baseline values of each parenting variable were used as moderators of the mediated pathways. Results Improvements in parenting behaviours and parent–child affection immediately following the intervention jointly explained concurrent improvements in children's ADHD severity, oppositional behaviour and functional impairment. Furthermore, when reversing the direction of the pathways, improvements in all child outcomes jointly explained improvements in each aspect of parenting. Improvements in non‐constructive parenting and parent–child affection uniquely accounted for intervention effects on functional impairment, especially for families with higher baseline levels of non‐constructive parenting. Conclusions Our findings might indicate that improvements in both the behavioural and affective aspects of parenting are associated with concurrent reductions in child behaviour problems and functional impairment. However, more research is necessary to explore the potential causal directionality between parenting and child outcomes. Nonetheless, supporting families with poorer parenting skills may be especially important, as reductions in non‐constructive parenting in these families are linked to stronger treatment effects on child functional impairment.
Journals
2025 EN
Singh Poornima · Pandey Vinay Kumar · Sahu Mansi
+2 more
ABSTRACT Ensuring food quality and safety is a global priority due to increasing concerns over contamination, spoilage, and foodborne illnesses. Traditional methods for monitoring food quality are frequently tedious, time‐consuming, and not sensitive enough to detect trace amounts of contaminants. Microbial biosensors provide speedy, specific, and sensitive alternatives by employing enzymes, antibodies, or genetically engineered microbial cells as the recognition elements coupled with optical, electrochemical, or thermal transducers. These biosensors employ biological recognition elements such as enzymes, antibodies, or genetically engineered microbial cells coupled with transducers like electrochemical, optical, or thermal systems to detect target analytes. The major advancements in sensor miniaturization, real‐time analysis, and on‐site applications are highlighted. While biosensors offer unmistakable benefits in food safety and quality control, stability, matrix interference, and scalability remain issues. Future prospects involve nanotechnology‐based stabilization and machine learning‐based signal processing to surmount present limitations. This review offers a critical overview of the challenges and opportunities in transferring microbial biosensor technology from the laboratory to the industry.
Journals
2025 EN
Wang Dan · Chen Zhuo · Sahu Reetik Kumar
+8 more
Abstract Wastewater treatment plays a crucial role in removing pollutants. Water conservation and reuse of wastewater help to reduce freshwater use and to alleviate water stress. However, the extent to which water conservation, wastewater treatment, and reuse can contribute to water stress mitigation is not clear. This study aims to investigate the impact of water conservation, wastewater treatment, and reuse on both water quantity and quality stress mitigation in China. The investigation is based on a dataset mapping water quantity and pollutant flows across 32 sectors in 31 provinces in 2017 and a dataset of 7411 wastewater treatment plants containing information on wastewater quantity and quality. The findings show that wastewater reuse can reduce provincial water quantity stress by less than 10% and alleviate water stress in 4 out of 25 water‐stressed provinces. In contrast, water conservation can contribute to water quantity stress reduction by 31% on average. When water conservation measures and reuse are jointly implemented, quantity stress levels can significantly be alleviated in 19 out of 25 water‐stressed provinces, with quantity stress reductions ranging from 25% to 74%. The contribution of wastewater treatment to water quality stress mitigation varies between 6% and 86%, with an average of 29%. Nevertheless, wastewater treatment cannot sufficiently safeguard most regions against water quality stress. This is evident as 25 out of 29 water quality‐stressed provinces continue to suffer from quality stress despite implementing wastewater treatment and water conservation practices. Additional measures such as non‐point‐source pollution control should be implemented alongside wastewater treatment to eliminate provincial quality stress.
Journals
2025 EN
Gehrke Ella J. · Sahu Tejram · Manuguri Krishna Sathya
+6 more
ABSTRACT Conserved across eukaryotic cells, Golgi reassembly and stacking proteins (GRASPs) are peripheral proteins that hold the flat cisternal membranes of the Golgi apparatus into stacks and that also play a role in a process of unconventional protein secretion involving the autophagy machinery. The Golgi in Plasmodium malaria parasites is composed of unstacked cisternae that contain a single GRASP homolog. We previously showed that the initial development of Plasmodium berghei in hepatocytes involves the clearance of micronemes through their sequestration into PbATG8‐positive autophagosomes that fuse with the parasite plasma membrane. Here, we examine the involvement of PbGRASP in microneme elimination and extend our studies to assess the importance of GRASP for parasite development in the mammalian host and mosquito vector. GRASP associates with PbATG8 autophagosomes containing micronemes, though PbGRASP‐KO parasites can expel micronemes. PbGRASP‐KO parasites have no discernable phenotype during mosquito stage development or asexual blood stage growth. PbGRASP‐KO liver stages form small schizonts at mid‐infection, and then growth resumes. PbGRASP‐KO hepatic merozoites egress from the mouse liver and induce higher parasitemia but display delayed and reduced cerebral malaria symptoms. These observations point to a regulatory role for GRASP in controlling parasite proliferation and virulence in mammalian hosts.
Journals
2025 EN
Sahu Satya Ranjan · Parida Sushree Subhashree · Utkalaja Bhabasha Gyanadeep
+3 more
ABSTRACT Translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) is a fundamental biological process that enables DNA replication through various lesions to ensure genome stability and to prevent cell death due to replication fork collapse. Rev1, a member of Y‐family DNA polymerase (Pol), functions in concert with a B‐family enzyme Polζ in promoting TLS through various lesions. Interestingly, for such a function, the catalytic activity of Rev1 seems to be dispensable in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Unlike Polζ, which possesses robust DNA polymerase activity, biochemical assays suggest that Rev1 predominantly incorporates a “C” opposite any templating residues, but the biological relevance of this activity of Rev1 remains elusive. Here we characterized Rev1 from Candida albicans , an opportunistic fungal pathogen responsible for maximum casualties due to systemic candidiasis in immunosuppressed individuals. Concerted genetic analyses of several Rev1 mutants in various DNA‐damaging conditions suggested that in most lesion bypasses except 4‐NQO‐induced DNA lesions, the catalytic role of Rev1 is not important. However, simultaneous interactions of BRCT and the C‐terminal domain of Rev1 with PCNA and Polζ, respectively, enable Rev1 to be essential during TLS. DNA damage recovery and mutagenesis assays further confirmed the lesion‐specific roles of various domains of Rev1. Contrary to ex vivo data, animal studies suggested that CaRev1 is dispensable for systemic candidiasis development. We discuss the possible involvement of other TLS DNA polymerases in DNA damage response while C. albicans replicates and establishes itself in the host.
Journals
2025 EN
Behera Minakshi M. · Purkait Suvendu · Ghosh Amit
+3 more
ABSTRACT Monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) are crucially implicated in cancer cell metabolism by transporting lactate/H+ ions and thus regulating the pH of the microenvironment. We assessed MCT1 and MCT4 expression in 98 cases of adult‐type hemispheric Glioblastomas (GBMs) (IDH wild‐type), along with 51 cases of IDH‐mutant astrocytic and oligodendroglial tumors (grade 2–4) for comparison. U87MG and LN229 cell lines were used for in vitro analysis. Both MCT‐1 and MCT‐4 showed significantly higher expression in GBMs on immunohistochemistry than in IDH‐mutated gliomas, which mostly showed weak or negative immunoreactivity. The mRNA expression was also in a similar line. Interestingly, in all areas of the pathological endothelial proliferation of grade 4 tumors, there was MCT‐1 loss of expression, unlike the nonproliferating endothelium. High MCT1/4 expression was associated with shorter overall survival in all gliomas together but not in GBM separately. Syrosingopine, a dual MCT1/4 inhibitor, showed significant antitumor effects in both the glioma cell lines, including dose‐dependent cytotoxicity, increased apoptosis, and decreased migration/invasion. The results indicated the role of MCT1/4 in the pathobiology of GBM and the diagnostic utility at the immunohistochemical level. Syrosingopine, an antihypertensive agent with good CNS penetration and previously used in different malignancies, may be an essential therapeutic adjunct in GBM.
John Wiley & Sons Australia
Journals
2025 EN
Krishan Satyam · Agarwal Siddharth · Munir Muhammad Bilal
+6 more
ABSTRACT Background Patients with cancer undergoing cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implantation face unique challenges. This study evaluates the outcomes and implications of CIED implantation in this population. Methods Using data from the National Readmission Database (NRD) from 2016 to 2019, we analyzed CIED implantations in patients aged ≥18 years, categorized by cancer status: no cancer, historical cancer, and active cancer. Multivariable logistic and linear regression models assessed associations with in‐hospital, 30‐day, and 90‐day outcomes, adjusting for various patient characteristics. Results A total of 748,957 CIED procedures were analyzed among which 13.3% were in patients with historical cancer and 3.8% with active cancer. Active cancer was linked to higher odds of pacemaker implantation but lower odds for ICD and CRT devices. Patients with active cancer experienced higher index hospitalization mortality (aOR 1.68; 1.50–1.89; p < 0.001), major adverse cardiovascular events (aOR 1.07; 1.02–1.14; p = 0.01), bleeding (aOR 1.36; 1.27–1.46; p < 0.01), and sepsis‐related (aOR 1.31; 1.19–1.44; p < 0.01) complications, with increased readmission rates at 30 (aOR 1.37; 1.30–1.44; p < 0.01) and 90 days (aOR 1.37; 1.31–1.44; p < 0.01) compared to those without cancer. Historical cancer was associated with better outcomes. Key predictors of adverse outcomes included chronic heart failure, kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, and protein‐calorie malnutrition. Conclusions Patients with active cancer undergoing CIED implantation have an increased risk of in‐hospital complications and readmissions as compared to those without cancer.