The rhizosphere competence of the biological control agent Trichoderma atroviride isolate C52 was studied on onion roots both in the glasshouse and in the field when introduced into soil in a range of formulations. Proliferation of T. atroviride in the rhizosphere was formulation-dependent. A pellet formulation maintained the fungal concentration at 10 5 cfu per g soil, whereas solid-substrate and seed-coating formulations gave concentrations of 10 4 and 10 1 cfu per g soil, respectively.To facilitate rhizosphere-competence studies, a UP-PCR band profile generated with primer L45 for isolate C52 was used to enable conclusive identification of T. atroviride C52 when recovered from soil. When isolate C52 was introduced into Sclerotium cepivorum -infested soil as both pellet and solid-substrate formulations, there was no statistically significant difference in the disease control between these treatments, but the pellet treatment doubled the percentage of healthy plants compared with the control treatment.

Clinical reference intervals among Indian population are poorly defined. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish local clinical laboratory reference intervals for healthy Indian population. The present study aimed to identify the 95 % reference interval for hematological and biochemical parameters in apparently healthy Indian population. We undertook a multicentric cross-sectional study conducted at Apollo Hospitals Educational and Research Foundation across India. Of which 10,665 reference individuals identified as healthy by physicians. The 95 % of the reference distribution was estimated using 2.5th and 97.5th percentile reference limits. The 95 % reference intervals for hemoglobin (Males: 12.3-17 g/dL; Females: 9.9-14.3 g/dL), platelet count (Males: 1.3-3.8; Females: 1.3-4.2 Lakhs/µL), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (Males: 2-22; Females: 4-55 mm/h), serum uric acid in males: 3.5-8.2 mg/dL, gamma glutamyl transferase (Males: 13-61 U/L), fasting blood glucose (Males: 78-110 mg/dL), total cholesterol (Males: 115-254 mg/dL), low density lipoprotein (Males: 60-176 mg/dL) and triglycerides (Males: 55-267 mg/dL, Females: 52-207 mg/dL) were different from currently used reference values. Additionally need for gender based partitioning were observed for triglycerides and gamma glutamyl transferase. The observed findings are of clinical significance and it needs to be validated with additional community based studies.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 500 million malaria tests are performed annually. While microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are the main diagnostic approaches, no single method is inexpensive, rapid, and highly accurate. Two recent studies from our group have demonstrated a prototype computer vision platform that meets those needs. Here we present the results from two clinical studies on the commercially available version of this technology, the Sight Diagnostics Parasight platform, which provides malaria diagnosis, species identification, and parasite quantification. We conducted a multisite trial in Chennai, India (Apollo Hospital [n ϭ 205]), and Nairobi, Kenya (Aga Khan University Hospital [n ϭ 263]), in which we compared the device to microscopy, RDTs, and PCR. For identification of malaria, the device performed similarly well in both contexts (sensitivity of 99% and specificity of 100% at the Indian site and sensitivity of 99.3% and specificity of 98.9% at the Kenyan site, compared to PCR). For species identification, the device correctly identified 100% of samples with Plasmodium vivax and 100% of samples with Plasmodium falciparum in India and 100% of samples with P. vivax and 96.1% of samples with P. falciparum in Kenya, compared to PCR. Lastly, comparisons of the device parasite counts with those of trained microscopists produced average Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.84 at the Indian site and 0.85 at the Kenyan site.

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Most published formulation papers/patents only report survival of organisms over time at a single or limited number of temperatures and RH. For the first time, this study shows how different formulations are better suited to certain temperature and RH combinations.