In silico Characterization of Industrial Important Cellulases using Computational Tools

Cellulases refer to a class of enzymes produced majorly by fungi, bacteria and protozoans that catalyze cellulolysis. Cellulase enzyme is used extensively in various industries, especially in textile, food and in the bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes to alcohol. The extensive use of cellulase in industries depends on the cost of the enzyme and hence considerable research is being carried out to isolate better microbial strains and also to develop new fermentation processes with the aim to reduce the product cost. Cellulases from different strains of Pseudomonas species were analyzed using computational tools. The physicochemical properties of the selected cellulases were analyzed by using ExPASy’s ProtParam tool and it was found that the molecular weight (M.Wt) ranges between 40927.4-100058.7 Da. Isoelectric Points (pI) of all the organisms were found to be acidic in nature. The aliphatic index infers that all the cellulases are stable. The negative value of GRAVY indicates that there will be better interaction with water. The secondary structure prediction was done by SOPMA which showed that random coils dominated all the other conformations. Multiple sequence analysis and evolutionary analysis of cellulases were carried out by CLC workbench. The Phylogenetic analysis was done using Neighbour joining method. The 3D structures of cellualses were obtained by ESyPred 3D server. Keywords: Cellulases, Enzymes, ProtParam, SOPMA, ESyPred 3D

Role of CA 125 in predicting pathological response and recurrence in advanced stage non mucinous epithelial ovarian cancer

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most common gynaecological malignancy. Neo adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by interval cytoreduction is proven to be non-inferior to primary debulking surgery in advanced stage epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC). The data about patterns of reduction of CA125, its cut off value to predict chemotherapy response and recurrence in patients who receive NAC is heterogeneous with varying cut offs. This study aims to evaluate the role of CA125 as a predictive marker of pathological response and recurrence in cases of advanced EOC and to determine cut off for the same.Methods: This is a prospective study conducted in department of medical oncology, from December 2019 to May 2021. Patients of advanced stage EOC who are on NAC with carboplatin and paclitaxel combination were included (n=33). CA125 values before treatment, after each cycle of chemotherapy, post-surgery, during the course of adjuvant chemotherapy and every 2 months post treatment were noted. As the patient undergoes interval cytoreduction, histopathology reports were followed for chemotherapy response score (CRS). Imaging was done to detect recurrence during follow up, if CA 125 value increases.Results: The level of CA125 after third cycle of NAC showed significant correlation with chemotherapy response score and DFS in all the patients who were operable at the end of NAC. Patients with normal CA125 value (i.e. <35 U/ml) post 3 cycles chemotherapy had increased chance of having CRS 3 and longer DFS in patients with high grade serous carcinoma. Decline in CA125 value to less than 10 IU/ml post interval cytoreduction also correlates with DFS.Conclusions: Our study shows that CA125 levels before cytoreductive surgery predicts CRS and DFS of women undergoing NAC for advanced stage EOC

Effect of farm size on farm productivity: empirical evidences from India

Our study provides evidence on land tenure related issues in India. We use the Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) panel dataset for the years 2010 to 2015 covering 1129 households in 9 states of India. We specifically test two hypotheses: 1) plot size is positively related to farm productivity; 2) owner operated lands have higher farm productivity. We calculate Hierarchical Mixed Effects Models in order to take the nested structure of the data into account. Transformation parameters are included in order to accommodate non-linear relationships between our variables. Our results confirm a positive relation between the average plot size and the agricultural productivity from cultivation. They provide supporting arguments for key aspects of ongoing land reform processes in India. In particular the land consolidation and ceiling policies should support an increase in agricultural productivity

Drivers of Change : Dynamics of Rural Livelihoods and Poverty in SAT India (Research Bulletin no. 26)

This paper studies structural change and development pathways in six villages of the Indian semi-arid tropics over the last three and a half decades: 1975 to 2011. Two villages are from Mahbubnagar district in Telangana and two from Solapur and Akola districts in Maharashtra. While the villages are located in the disadvantaged agro-climate of the semi-arid tropics, they are also located in two rapidly growing states. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected by ICRISAT: (a) longitudinal household survey panel data for every year of the periods 1975-1984, 1989 and 2001-2011 respectively, and (b) information and data gathered through focus group discussions with the villagers....

Role of seasonal migration on asset accumulation and moving out of poverty: The case of dokur village in telangana, India

Rural households in many countries have used temporary or seasonal migration as a strategy to cope with natural shocks such as drought, means of employment and income generation during lean season and to move out of poverty. This paper studies the linkages between migration, employment in economic activities, asset accumulation and poverty reduction among rural households in a drought-prone village of India over the last four decades. The Dokur village of Mahbubnagar district in Telangana State of India experienced persistent drought over a decade. To cope with this situation, many households of the village temporarily migrated to the nearby and faraway cities. ICRISAT had conducted household surveys in Dokur under the Village Level Studies (VLS) and Village Dynamics Studies (VDSA) program since 1975. The present study has used the VLS-VDS dataset (1975-2012) and reorganized sample households into 46 dynasty households. Based on their participation in migration, sample households were grouped into two categories: migrant and non-migrant households. Household income was computed by sources for all households for all the study years. Contribution of migratory income and remittances to the total household income was quantified. To identify the factors responsible for migration decision, Probit analysis was carried out. For each year, sample households were grouped into poor and non-poor category using both lower ($1.25 ppp per day per person) and upper ($2.00 ppp per day per person) poverty line. The study revealed that seasonal out migration helped many households to come out of poverty even though they had experienced a decade of drought. In-depth analysis of asset accumulation behaviour of the households over time revealed important insights regarding their coping mechanism and the process of moving out of povert

Multi-frequency, Multi-Epoch Study of Mrk 501: Hints for a two-component nature of the emission

Since the detection of very high energy (VHE) $\gamma$-rays from Mrk 501, its broad band emission of radiation was mostly and quite effectively modeled using one zone emission scenario. However, broadband spectral and flux variability studies enabled by the multiwavelength campaigns carried out during the recent years have revealed rather complex behavior of Mrk 501. The observed emission from Mrk 501 could be due to a complex superposition of multiple emission zones. Moreover new evidences of detection of very hard intrinsic $\gamma$-ray spectra obtained from {\it Fermi}--LAT observations have challenged the theories about origin of VHE $\gamma$-rays. Our studies based on {\it Fermi}--LAT data indicate the existence of two separate components in the spectrum, one for low energy $\gamma$-rays and the other for high energy $\gamma$-rays. Using multiwaveband data from several ground and space based instruments, in addition to HAGAR data, the spectral energy distribution of Mrk~501 is obtained for various flux states observed during 2011. In the present work, this observed broadband spectral energy distribution is reproduced with a leptonic, multi-zone Synchrotron Self-Compton model.Comment: Published in Astrophysical Journal (ApJ

Crop Yield Prediction Using Gradient Boosting Neural Network Regression Model

The finest utility sector is agriculture, especially in emerging nations like India. Utilizing historical data in agriculture can change the context of decision-making and increase farmer productivity. Approximately a part of India's population is employed in agriculture, however this sector contributes just 14% of the country's GDP. This can be explained in part by farmers not making sufficient decisions on yield forecast. By examining numerous climatic elements, such as rainfall, and land characteristics, such as soil type and ground water salinity, as well as historical records of crops cultivated, the suggested machine learning technique tries to estimate the agricultural yield for a certain location. Finally, we anticipate that our proposed Machine Learning Gradient Boosting Neural Network Regression (Grow Net) model was predicting the accurate yield. Finally our system is expected to predict the yield based on dataset we have taken. We were compared our proposed algorithm with various Machine Learning algorithms such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, KNN, Multi-layer Perceptron Regressor, Gradient Boosting Regressor and results shows that proposed was given best RMSE ,MAE and R2 value

Optical observations of the bright long duration peculiar GRB 021004 afterglow

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson $B,V$ and Cousins $R$ and $I$ photometric passbands are determined for the bright long duration GRB 021004 afterglow from 2002 October 4 to 16 starting $\sim$ 3 hours after the $\gamma-$ray burst. Light curves of the afterglow emission in $B$,$V$,$R$ and $I$ passbands are obtained by combining these measurements with other published data. The earliest optical emission appears to originate in a revese shock. Flux decay of the afterglow shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well-observed GRBs. Rapid light variations, especially during early times ($\Delta t < 2$ days) is superposed on an underlying broken power law decay typical of a jetted afterglow. The flux decay constants at early and late times derived from least square fits to the light curve are $0.99\pm0.05$ and $2.0\pm0.2$ respectively, with a jet break at around 7 day. Comparison with a standard fireball model indicates a total extinction of $E(B-V)=0.20$ mag in the direction of the burst. Our low-resolution spectra corrected for this extinction provide a spectral slope $\beta = 0.6\pm0.02$. This value and the flux decay constants agree well with the electron energy index $p\sim 2.27$ used in the model. The derived jet opening angle of about $7^{\circ}$ implies a total emitted gamma-ray energy $E_{\gamma} = 3.5\times10^{50}$ erg at a cosmological distance of about 20 Gpc. Multiwavelength observations indicate association of this GRB with a star forming region, supporting the case for collapsar origin of long duration GRBs.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, BASI, 31, 1