Price Transmission in Vertical Markets: An Empirical Analysis of Red Gram

Price transmission provides insight into vertical and horizontal integration of agricultural markets this will help in producer and consumer welfare. We have examined price transmission process between wholesale and retail markets by adopting Error correction model (ECM). This study has taken case of Red gram (Cajanuscajan) wholesale and retail markets in Bengaluru and Mumbai respectively It has used wholesale and retail prices data from secondary sources. The results revealed that retail price does not react completely to changes in producer price within one month. Dal price responds differently to seed price in its increasing and decreasing phases. Decreasing phase of seed price is associated with one lag, implying dal price to adjust slowly to seed price, say in a month’s time period. The estimated results were 0.98 in Bengaluru and 0.97 in Mumbai  in the rising phase (ECT+) and 0.58 and 0.64  respectively in these markets in the falling phase (ECT-), suggesting that the positive deviations of price from long-run equilibrium are reduced faster in a month’s time period than the negative deviations in Bengaluru. Both values are significant but ECT+ induces a greater change in the tur dal than ECT- in Bengaluru. Where as in Mumbai values of ECT+ and ECT- are also showing faster changes almost. This clearly explains the asymmetry in red gram seed to dal price transmission in Bengaluru and Mumbai

Analysis of the Efficacy of Real-Time Hand Gesture Detection with Hog and Haar-Like Features Using SVM Classification

The field of hand gesture recognition has recently reached new heights thanks to its widespread use in domains like remote sensing, robotic control, and smart home appliances, among others. Despite this, identifying gestures is difficult because of the intransigent features of the human hand, which make the codes used to decode them illegible and impossible to compare. Differentiating regional patterns is the job of pattern recognition. Pattern recognition is at the heart of sign language. People who are deaf or mute may understand the spoken language of the rest of the world by learning sign language. Any part of the body may be used to create signs in sign language. The suggested system employs a gesture recognition system trained on Indian sign language. The methods of preprocessing, hand segmentation, feature extraction, gesture identification, and classification of hand gestures are discussed in this work as they pertain to hand gesture sign language. A hybrid approach is used to extract the features, which combines the usage of Haar-like features with the application of Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG).The SVM classifier is then fed the characteristics it has extracted from the pictures in order to make an accurate classification. A false rejection error rate of 8% is achieved while the accuracy of hand gesture detection is improved by 93.5%

Towards Understanding the Endemic Behavior of a Competitive Tri-Virus SIS Networked Model

This paper studies the endemic behavior of a multi-competitive networked susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model. Specifically, the paper deals with three competing virus systems (i.e., tri-virus systems). First, we show that a tri-virus system, unlike a bi-virus system, is not a monotone dynamical system. Using the Parametric Transversality Theorem, we show that, generically, a tri-virus system has a finite number of equilibria and that the Jacobian matrices associated with each equilibrium are nonsingular. The endemic equilibria of this system can be classified as follows: a) single-virus endemic equilibria (also referred to as the boundary equilibria), where precisely one of the three viruses is alive; b) 2-coexistence equilibria, where exactly two of the three viruses are alive; and c) 3-coexistence equilibria, where all three viruses survive in the network. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition that guarantees local exponential convergence to a boundary equilibrium. Further, we secure conditions for the nonexistence of 3-coexistence equilibria (resp. for various forms of 2-coexistence equilibria). We also identify sufficient conditions for the existence of a 2-coexistence (resp. 3-coexistence) equilibrium. We identify conditions on the model parameters that give rise to a continuum of coexistence equilibria. More specifically, we establish i) a scenario that admits the existence and local exponential attractivity of a line of coexistence equilibria; and ii) scenarios that admit the existence of, and, in the case of one such scenario, global convergence to, a plane of 3-coexistence equilibria.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2209.1182

Competitive Networked Bivirus SIS spread over Hypergraphs

The paper deals with the spread of two competing viruses over a network of population nodes, accounting for pairwise interactions and higher-order interactions (HOI) within and between the population nodes. We study the competitive networked bivirus susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model on a hypergraph introduced in Cui et al. [1]. We show that the system has, in a generic sense, a finite number of equilibria, and the Jacobian associated with each equilibrium point is nonsingular; the key tool is the Parametric Transversality Theorem of differential topology. Since the system is also monotone, it turns out that the typical behavior of the system is convergence to some equilibrium point. Thereafter, we exhibit a tri-stable domain with three locally exponentially stable equilibria. For different parameter regimes, we establish conditions for the existence of a coexistence equilibrium (both viruses infect separate fractions of each population node)

Summary of TRUEX Radiolysis Testing Using the INL Radiolysis Test Loop

The INL radiolysis and hydrolysis test loop has been used to evaluate the effects of hydrolytic and radiolytic degradation upon the efficacy of the TRUEX flowsheet for the recovery of trivalent actinides and lanthanides from acidic solution. Repeated irradiation and subsequent re-conditioning cycles did result in a significant decrease in the concentration of the TBP and CMPO extractants in the TRUEX solvent and a corresponding decrease in americium and europium extraction distributions. However, the build-up of solvent degradation products upon {gamma}-irradiation, had little impact upon the efficiency of the stripping section of the TRUEX flowsheet. Operation of the TRUEX flowsheet would require careful monitoring to ensure extraction distributions are maintained at acceptable levels

Contribution of limbic norepinephrine to cannabinoid-induced aversion

RATIONALE: The cannabinoid system has risen to the forefront in the development of novel treatments for a number of pathophysiological processes. However, significant side effects have been observed in clinical trials raising concerns regarding the potential clinical utility of cannabinoid-based agents. Understanding the neural circuits and neurochemical substrates impacted by cannabinoids will provide a better means of gaging their actions within the central nervous system that may contribute to the expression of unwanted side effects. OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we investigated whether norepinephrine (NE) in the limbic forebrain is a critical determinant of cannabinoid receptor agonist-induced aversion and anxiety in rats. METHODS: An immunotoxin lesion approach was combined with behavioral analysis using a place conditioning paradigm and the elevated zero maze. RESULTS: Our results show that the non-selective CB1/CB2 receptor agonist, WIN 55,212-2, produced a significant place aversion in rats. Further, NE in the nucleus accumbens was critical for WIN 55,212-2-induced aversion but did not affect anxiety-like behaviors. Depletion of NE from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis was ineffective in altering WIN 55,212-2-induced aversion and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that limbic, specifically accumbal, NE is required for cannabinoid-induced aversion but is not essential to cannabinoid-induced anxiety.This works was supported by PHS grant DA 020129. Ana Franky Carvalho was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/33236/2007)

KNOTTIN: the knottin or inhibitor cystine knot scaffold in 2007

The KNOTTIN database provides standardized information on the small disulfide-rich proteins with a knotted topology called knottins or inhibitor cystine knots. Static pages present the essential historical or recent results about knottin discoveries, sequences, structures, syntheses, folding, functions, applications and bibliography. New tools, KNOTER3D and KNOTER1D, are provided to determine or predict if a user query (3D structure or sequence) is a knottin. These tools are now used to automate the database update. All knottin structures and sequences in the database are now standardized according to the knottin nomenclature based on loop lengths between knotted cysteines, and to the knottin numbering scheme. Therefore, the whole KNOTTIN database (sequences and structures) can now be searched using loop lengths, in addition to keyword and sequence (BLAST, HMMER) searches. Renumbered and structurally fitted knottin PDB files are available for download as well as renumbered sequences, sequence alignments and logos. The knottin numbering scheme is used for automatic drawing of standardized two-dimensional Colliers de Perles of any knottin structure or sequence in the database or provided by the user. The KNOTTIN database is available at http://knottin.cbs.cnrs.fr

Isolation and characterization of tissue-specific isozymes of glucosephosphate isomerase from catfish and conger.

In teleosts glucosephosphate isomerase exists as two tissue-specific isozymes. Most tissues contain the more acidic liver-type isozyme, while white muscle contains the more basic isozyme; and a few tissues contain both the liver- and muscle-type isozymes as well as a hybird. The isozymes were isolated from catfish liver and muscle and from conger muscle and shown to be homogeneous by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, analytical ultracentrifugation, and rechromatography. Both isozymes are of molecular weight 132,000 (S020,w = 7.0 S) and composed of two subunits of Mr approximately 65,000. The muscle and liver isozymes were shown to have distinct isoelectric points (catfish liver = 6.2; muscle = 7.0) and amino acid compositions. Tryptic peptide maps, after S-carboxymethylation and carbamylation, revealed several distinct differences in the primary structures of the isozymes. Although the isozymes could also be distinguished on the basis of their stabilities, most of their basic catalytic properties were found to be similar. A conger was obtained which was heterozygous for the variant allele at the muscle-glucosephosphate isomerase locus. A comparison of the variant conger muscle isozyme with the wild type revealed a single altered peptide, suggesting a point mutation. The structure-function studies, as well as the genetic studies, clearly establish that the two types of isozymes are of independent genetic origin

Optimizing structural modeling for a specific protein scaffold: knottins or inhibitor cystine knots

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Knottins are small, diverse and stable proteins with important drug design potential. They can be classified in 30 families which cover a wide range of sequences (1621 sequenced), three-dimensional structures (155 solved) and functions (> 10). Inter knottin similarity lies mainly between 15% and 40% sequence identity and 1.5 to 4.5 Å backbone deviations although they all share a tightly knotted disulfide core. This important variability is likely to arise from the highly diverse loops which connect the successive knotted cysteines. The prediction of structural models for all knottin sequences would open new directions for the analysis of interaction sites and to provide a better understanding of the structural and functional organization of proteins sharing this scaffold.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have designed an automated modeling procedure for predicting the three-dimensionnal structure of knottins. The different steps of the homology modeling pipeline were carefully optimized relatively to a test set of knottins with known structures: template selection and alignment, extraction of structural constraints and model building, model evaluation and refinement. After optimization, the accuracy of predicted models was shown to lie between 1.50 and 1.96 Å from native structures at 50% and 10% maximum sequence identity levels, respectively. These average model deviations represent an improvement varying between 0.74 and 1.17 Å over a basic homology modeling derived from a unique template. A database of 1621 structural models for all known knottin sequences was generated and is freely accessible from our web server at <url>http://knottin.cbs.cnrs.fr</url>. Models can also be interactively constructed from any knottin sequence using the structure prediction module Knoter1D3D available from our protein analysis toolkit PAT at <url>http://pat.cbs.cnrs.fr</url>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This work explores different directions for a systematic homology modeling of a diverse family of protein sequences. In particular, we have shown that the accuracy of the models constructed at a low level of sequence identity can be improved by 1) a careful optimization of the modeling procedure, 2) the combination of multiple structural templates and 3) the use of conserved structural features as modeling restraints.</p

Groundnut Baseline and Early-Adoption Surveys in South Asia: Insights from TL-II (Phase-1) Project: Synthesis Report 2013

The production of groundnut and its cultivated areas in India showed a steady growth till the end of the twentieth century. Groundnut, however, lost its preeminence as the most important oilseed crop in the country during the last 13 years after the liberalization of edible oil imports. More recently the importance of groundnut is increasing for food uses. Despite a growth in productivity even during the last decade, the crop is losing areas in all the important growing states to more profitable crops. India is incurring a heavy import bill for the import of edible oils. India has relaunched a technology mission titled the ‘Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil Palm and Maize’ development program to improve the productivity and production of oilseeds in the country and to reduce dependence on the imports of edible oil. Groundnut is one of the mandate crops of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and this premier international institute has been contributing its bit for genetic improvement, crop production and protection practices in India and Africa during the last four decades. The generous support received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided ICRISAT an opportunity to work more intensively with its research and development partners to demonstrate the potential of new technologies to enhance the yields, raise the profitability and revive the interest of the farmers in groundnut crop in India and the strategy chosen is the Farmer Participatory Varietal Selection (FPVS). This report synthesizes the efforts made during the short period of three years (2007–10) in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for groundnut crop improvement in India. Overall, the FPVS results established that the new varieties out-yielded the respective check varieties in two states. Due to different constraints and lack of institutional support, the adoption of those cultivars was low in the targeted districts. From the past lessons learned, the report refocuses on the further efforts needed during the second phase of the project to achieve greater success and impact