Jhargram Raj College

Recently, the notion of full network nonlocality has emerged as some truly quantum network phenomena that cannot be realized in traditional Bell experiments. Present work manifests the utility of such form of truly network non-classicality in designing a four partite network-based entanglement assisted quantum key distribution protocol. Precisely, validity of the QKD protocol relies upon full network nonlocality detection via violation of some suitable trilocal inequality. Based on the quantum bit error rate and violation of trilocal inequality, arbitrary two qubit entangled states are characterized in accordance with their utility in successfully executing the protocol. The protocol is further analyzed from a restricted Eve-aware perspective by quantifying the Eve`s partial side information and discussing its implications for the corresponding Devetak-Winter 1-way secret key rate. Also, considering Eve's control over the trusted parties' measurement devices, an illustration of the protocol`s resistance to detection loophole is provided. Due to connected structure of entangled sources, any genuine form of network nonlocality may offer advantage over standard Bell nonlocality for designing secure key distribution protocols. To establish such an intuition as a fact, another QKD protocol, relying only upon Bell-CHSH violation, is designed. The former offers more stricter validity checks compared to the latter. Importantly, while the quantum bit error rate can be less than 14.6% exploiting Bell-CHSH nonlocality, it can be reduced below 13.7% by exploiting full network nonlocality.

Gravitational lensing constitutes one of the most direct observational manifestations of spacetime curvature and provides a powerful probe of compact astrophysical objects. In this work, we present a comprehensive analysis of the bending of light in curved spacetime, beginning with the fundamental aspects of gravitational lensing and the Newtonian approximation to light deflection. The relativistic formulation of lensing is then developed through the lens equation, lensing potential, and a geometrical interpretation of Fermat's principle using an effective refractive index in curved spacetime. Photon trajectories and light deflection are subsequently investigated in static, spherically symmetric geometries, followed by a detailed study of photon motion in the equatorial plane of the Kerr spacetime. Analytical expressions for the closest approach distance and critical parameters governing photon orbits are derived. Furthermore, the bending angle is examined using the Rindler-Ishak method and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem within the optical geometry. Finally, the analysis is extended to axisymmetric spacetimes using the OIA and GW-OIA formalisms, providing a unified geometrical framework for computing light deflection in both static and rotating gravitational fields.

Fibrinogen-related proteins (FREPs) contribute to mosquito-parasite interactions, yet the evolutionary processes shaping their functional diversification remain poorly resolved. The mosquito protein FBN30 has been implicated in restricting Plasmodium development, but its molecular basis of action is unknown. Here, the study examines the evolutionary history of FBN30 across Anopheles mosquitoes to test whether lineage-specific adaptive evolution has modified its functional properties. Codon-based analyses of FBN30 orthologs from 29 Anopheles species reveal a single episode of strong episodic diversifying selection confined to the Anopheles darlingi lineage. Site-level tests identify a positively selected residue within the conserved fibrinogen-like (FBG) domain. Ancestral sequence reconstruction shows that this site underwent a serine-to-asparagine substitution along the A. darlingi lineage, with structural modeling indicating only modest local effects on protein stability. Using protein-protein docking and binding affinity prediction as a proxy for functional engagement, the study finds that the reconstructed ancestral FBN30 exhibits significantly stronger predicted affinity for Plasmodium falciparum α-tubulin-1 than the extant A. darlingi protein, whereas the derived substitution alone does not account for this difference. These results indicate that evolutionary divergence in FBN30 is associated with reduced predicted engagement at a parasite-facing interface and support a model in which inhibitory mosquito proteins undergo fine-scale adaptive refinement under parasite-mediated selective pressures.

Due to the proliferative nature of cancer cells, they utilize more dietary extracellular nutrients via one-carbon metabolism for the various metabolic processes, including the synthesis of antioxidants such as glutathione (GSH) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Indeed, several studies have found that specific cancer types produce significantly higher levels of GSH and H2S than normal healthy cells, which may serve as a protective mechanism, allowing them to resist stress, survive, and grow. This metabolic heterogeneity, driven by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, contributes to the distinct metabolic characteristics and vulnerabilities of tumor subtypes, which can be exploited to develop anticancer strategies. In this review, we summarize the fundamental roles and regulation of GSH and H2S in normal physiological systems and in the genesis and progression of cancer, their effects on the tumor microenvironment (TME), and their contribution to drug resistance. We also discuss the influences of diet and the gut microbiome on GSH and H2S production, and how cancer cells reprogram their metabolism to grow and survive in a stressful environment by overproducing GSH and H2S.

Abstract Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) gut metagenomic studies have repeatedly reported disease-associated shifts in microbial taxa, genes, and pathways. However, the field still lacks transparent trait-level indices that summarize biologically coherent microbial exposures. Curli fibres are extracellular bacterial amyloids produced by several Enterobacteriaceae and related taxa, and they provide a plausible microbiological bridge between gut microbial ecology, epithelial/immune interfaces, and alpha-synuclein-centered gut-brain-axis hypotheses. We introduced Curli Carrier Burden (CCB), a mathematically explicit, taxon-informed index that estimates the aggregate abundance of curated curli-carrier bacterial taxa in processed metagenomic profiles. Methods A curated curli-carrier candidate panel was converted into an evidence-weighted taxon set. For sample s , CCB was defined as , where a is is the processed relative abundance of matched curli-carrier taxon i and w i is an evidence weight reflecting curli-carrier confidence. We evaluated CCB in five main PD gut metagenomic evidence streams: Wallen 2022, Integrated-US, Mao Central China, Romano non-Wallen, and DuruIC 2024. Results were interpreted cohort-wise rather than as a formal meta-analysis. Results The CCB framework generated a reproducible sample-level microbial trait variable and enabled cohort-wise comparison of amyloidogenic bacterial burden. Wallen showed discovery-stage PD-associated elevation (724 samples; 31 matched curli taxa; Mann-Whitney p = 0.0020). Integrated-US provided supportive independent evidence (244 samples; 18 matched taxa; p = 0.0079). Mao Central China and DuruIC 2024 showed the same PD-greater-than-control direction by mean and median CCB, although their individual comparisons were not nominally significant. Romano non-Wallen provided a large multi-study analysis (600 samples; 29 matched curli-associated mOTUs taxa), with higher PD mean and median CCB in pooled analysis ( p = 0.0036, Cliff’s δ = 0.137) and cohort-sensitive behavior under study-stratified permutation ( p = 0.1974). Additional processed-cohort checks indicated that CCB interpretability depends on taxonomic representation and matched curli-candidate coverage, reinforcing the value of explicit compatibility reporting. Conclusions CCB is a novel, extensible, microbiology-informed index for quantifying amyloidogenic curli-carrier bacterial burden in processed gut metagenomic profiles. The current results support CCB as a useful exploratory trait-level variable for PD microbiome research and provide a principled route toward future raw-read, csg-operon, strain-resolved, and phenotype-aware studies of the curli-vagal PD axis.