Determinants of Export Services of USA with its Asian Partners: A Panel Data Analysis

Trade in services has accounted for 20 per cent of global trade. Despite the increasing importance of services trade in global economy, there has been limited research on service trade which uses determinants driving such trade. The present paper has examined the export potential in service sector of USA with its Asian trade partners (Japan, China, India, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong) by taking into account geographic, economic and other features. The approach is based on gravity model, widely used to analyze trade in goods and has more recently been applied to service sector. Being a nature of study is of panel data i.e. for 9 years (2000-2008) and six cross sections, the study used panel data methodology. The study revealed that USA has export potential in services for India and Japan. Regarding the convergent and divergent economies, USA had convergence in exports with three Asian countries (Hong Kong, India and Korea) and divergence with three Asian countries (Japan, China and Singapore). There is a large scope for export expansion for Hong Kong, India and Korea

Self-assembly and potassium ion triggered disruption of peptide-based soft structures

This report describes formation of soft vesicular structures by a tetrapeptide and its disruption triggered by potassium ions

Determination of economic threshold level for the timely management of cotton jassid Amrasca bigutulla (Ishida) on okra vegetable crop

A field study was carried out at Vegetable Research Farm PAU, Ludhiana to determine the economic threshold level for the timely management of cotton jassid Amrasca bigutulla (Ishida) on okra vegetable crop. It was observed that significantly lowest jassid nymphal count per leaf in the pooled data (0.96 nymphs/leaf) were registered in the treatment where spray against jassid were given at 2 nymphs/leaf stage and first injury grade that is curling and yellowing of leaf margin as compared to others spray stages (1.54-1.72 nymphs/leaf) and unsprayed control (1.75 nymphs/leaf) significantly lowest jassid injury grade was also observed when spray stared at 2 nymphs/ leaf (0.58) and second spray stage curling and yellowing of leaf margin (0.65 nymphs/leaf) as against other spray stages (1.13 – 1.60 nymphs/leaf) and unsprayed control (1.63 nymphs/leaf). Maximum plant (110.33-110.44 cm) was also recorded as against other treatment (90.80 – 108.46 cm) and control (90.13cm). Total highest fruit yield (120.40-120.75) quintal /ha was also registered in these two treatments. Economic threshold level estimated for the management of cotton jassid on okra crop will help to develop an ecologically safe pest management practices against this pest

R tools for MicroRNA pathway analysis

In the early 2000s, microRNAs (miRNAs) were discovered as segments of a new class of highly conserved and small non-coding RNA molecules of 20-25 nucleotides that are transcribed from DNA.
They do not translation into proteins, rather they inhibit protein expression by binding to the 3’untranslated regions (3’ UTRs) of specific mRNA targets (that is/are complementary to them) and guiding their translational repression or complete degradation and gene silencing. With this, miRNAs provide a second level of regulation beyond primary gene expression. Integrative study of cellular pathways is pivotal to understanding the functions of individual genes and proteins in terms of systems and processes that contribute to normal physiology and to disease. "WikiPathways":http://wikipathways.org is an open, collaborative platform dedicated to the curation of biological pathways by and for the scientific community. The collection of pathways is publicly available to the researchers. The miRNA’s predicted by TargetScan in cardiomyocytes hypertrophy pathway has already been visualized on WikiPathways (WP1560). Since more studies investigate miRNAs using microarray technologies it would be desirable to be able to use information about miRNA’s in that analysis. One way to do that is to add the miRNA’s to all pathways. Therefore, we are integrating both validated and predicted miRNA information into biological pathways and making them available in WikiPathways. Initially, we focused on pathways related to the heart because miRNAs created a true revolution in the cardiovascular research field. The validated miRNAs have been downloaded from miRNA databases such as TarBase or miRTarbase. In order to link the validated miRNA targets to the genes in the pathways of our interest, we use "BridgeDb":http://www.bridgedb.org for identifier mapping. BridgeDb is a middleware between the relational databases, files and mapping services. BridgeDb is available in two forms. The first is a framework suitable for integration in Java applications. The other is based on Representational State Transfer (REST) webservices and is suitable for all other programming languages. The identifier mapping has been done in the R statistical environment as the connected Bioconductor repository has many pre-existing packages for microarray data analysis. For now we used the REST interface from R but we will also submit BridgeDb R package to Bioconductor.
Predicted miRNA targets by different prediction algorithms were verified by co evaluating miRNA and mRNA expression using microarray analysis. Quality control and normalization of the microarray datasets was done using the current functionality of the arrayanalysis.org web portal. Statistical analysis was done using Limma and the miRNAs were visualized in the pathways of interest using "PathVisio":http://www.pathvisio.org. Modules for statistical and pathway analysis have been developed which will be added to the "arrayanalysis.org":http://www.arrayanalysis.org portal. This also required connecting R to PathVisio, for which a new XMLRPC interface was developed. Through this PathVisio can be controlled by R scripts.
In conclusion, these R tools can help to integrate information about miRNAs with other knowledge about biological pathways and used for research purposes

Effect of proline and salicylic acid on germination and antioxidant enzymes at different temperatures in Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) seeds

Effect of different seed treatments hydration, warm water, proline (10mM and 20mM) and salicylic acid (0.1mM and 0.5mM) was investigated on percent germination and activity of antioxidant enzymes viz. superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POX) at different temperatures in Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) seeds. It was observed that lower temperature (20ËšC) had decreased seed germination and activity of various anti-oxidant enzymes. Various seed treatments increased percent germination and activity of these enzymes as com-pared to control at both the temperatures. Proline 20mM (96.6) and SA 0.1mM (91.6) showed better results as com-pared to proline 10mM (95.0) and salicylic acid 0.5mM (86.6) respectively. Thus, proline and salicylic acid play an ameliorating role on low temperature stress by enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes and scavenging the free radicals

Chemical composition and inhibitory effects of water extract of Henna leaves on reactive oxygen species, DNA scission and proliferation of cancer cells

From the centuries, Lawsonia inermis L. (Henna) is utilized in traditional health care system as a medicinal and cosmetic agent. The present study was intended to assess antiradical, DNA protective and antiproliferative activity of water extract of Lawsonia inermis L. leaves (W-LI). Antioxidant activity was estimated using various in vitro assays such as DPPH, ABTS, superoxide anion radical scavenging, FRAP, deoxyribose degradation and DNA protection assay. Growth inhibitory effects of W-LI were assessed using MTT assay against different cancer cell lines viz. HeLa, MCF-7, A549, C6 and COLO-205. From the results of antioxidant assays, it was found that W-LI quenched DPPH and ABTS cation radicals with IC50 value of 352.77 μg/ml and 380.87 μg/ml respectively. It demonstrated hydroxyl radical scavenging potential of 59.75 % at highest test dose of 1000 μg/ml in deoxyribose degradation assay. The results of FRAP assay showed that W-LI also possesses significant reducing activity. Extract inhibited hydroxyl radical induced pBR322 plasmid DNA strand scission, thus conferring DNA protection. Growth inhibition of various cancer cell lines was achieved to the varying extent on treatment with W-LI. Further, it was observed that activity was quite promising against colon cancer COLO-205 cells (GI50 121.03 μg/ml). HPLC profiling of W-LI revealed the presence of different polyphenolic compounds such as ellagic acid, catechin, quercetin, kaempferol etc. which might be contributing towards antioxidant and cytotoxic activity. The present study demonstrated that polyphenols rich W-LI extract from leaves of L. inermis possesses ability to inhibit oxidative radicals and cancer cells proliferation

Comparative assessment of microbial enzyme activity with compost and sewage sludge amendment

Changes in soil microbial activities were investigated to examine the effect of aerobically digested sewage sludge (SS) and compared with compost under incubation conditions over 63 days. Sandy soil was amended with 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 % w/w of compost and sewage sludge. Enzyme activity (dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, phytase and urease) were examined at an interval of 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 42 and 63 days. At the end of the experiment the change in organic carbon, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus was also recorded.Results indicated that enzyme activities were substantially enhanced in presence of both amendments for first few days and the higher increases were measured at 1.5% of compost and sewage sludge amendment. Then an overall decrease in enzyme activity was recorded. Both the amendments also significantly increased the organic carbon, nitrogen and potassium of the soil while increase in available phosphorus was only recorded in treatment receiving compost. The present experiment indicated that addition of compost and sewage sludge have positive effect on soil microbial activity and can be safely used as soil amendment without having any adverse effect. Though, a previous examination of sewage sludge to be used must be made for heavy metals and pathogens