PASSENGER SECURITY FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Techniques are provided to effectively monitor and alert situations involving compromised passenger security in a public transport system. This solution includes three layers of voice synthesis. The first layer includes voice sensors/enablers incorporated within passenger vehicles. The second layer is a fog/edge layer with a voice threat detection mechanism. The third layer is a cloud layer with Machine Language (ML) trained models. These techniques help build a safe and secured society

Genetic control of seasonal reproductive cycle in Talpa occidentalis

Incluye Resumen y Conclusiones en españolTesis Univ. Granada. Departamento de Genética. Leída el 19 de diciembre de 200

Multiple Biological Activities of Lactic Acid in Cancer: Influences on Tumor Growth, Angiogenesis and Metastasis

High rate of glycolysis is a metabolic hallmark of cancer. While anaerobic glycolysis promotes energy production under hypoxia, aerobic glycolysis, the Warburg effect, offers a proliferative advantage through redirecting carbohydrate fluxes from energy production to biosynthetic pathways. To fulfill tumor cell needs, the glycolytic switch is associated with elevated glucose uptake and lactic acid release. Altered glucose metabolism is the basis of positron emission tomography using the glucose analogue tracer [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose, a widely used clinical application for tumor diagnosis and monitoring. On the other hand, high levels of lactate have been associated with poor clinical outcome in several types of human cancers. Although lactic acid was initially considered merely as an indicator of the glycolytic flux, many evidences originally from the study of normal tissue physiology and more recently transposed to the tumor situation indicate that lactic acid, i.e. the lactate anion and protons, directly contributes to tumor growth and progression. Here, we briefly review the current knowledge pertaining to lactic acidosis and metastasis, lactate shuttles, the influence of lactate on redox homeostasis, lactate signaling and lactate-induced angiogenesis in the cancer context. The monocarboxylate transporters MCT1 and MCT4 have now been confirmed as prominent facilitators of lactate exchanges between cancer cells with different metabolic behaviors and between cancer and stromal cells. We therefore address the function and regulation of MCTs, highlighting MCT1 as a novel anticancer target. MCT1 inhibition allows to simultaneously disrupt metabolic cooperativity and angiogenesis in cancer with a same agent, opening a new path for novel anticancer therapies

Impact of Biomass Recycling and Fertilization on Soil Microbiological Characteristics and Wheat Productivity in Semi-Arid Environment

In India, 700 million tons of agricultural waste generated annually is burned by farmers in the fields, which decreases biological activity in soil. The issue of handling the enormous amounts of crop residues that emerge from increased crop output might be resolved by composting. However, different crop residues improve soil physico-chemical and biological properties in different ways. Crop residue incorporation and fertilization (NPK) impact crop productivity due to changes in soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and the soil enzymatic activity. A field experiment was conducted for two years (2020–2021 and 2021–2022), which comprises five partially composted crop residues treatments viz., control, clusterbean straw, groundnut shell, pearlmillet husk, and sesame stover (added at rate of 5 t ha−1), and four fertilization (NPK) treatments viz., control, 75% RDF, 100% RDF, and 125% RDF. The microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), microbial biomass phosphorus (MBP), enzymatic activities in soil and wheat yield were studied under a semi-arid environment (India). Data showed that the continuous application of crop residues and fertilizer significantly affected MBC, MBN, MBP, and soil enzymatic activity after two years of experimentation in a semi-arid region environment. The highest levels of microbial biomass (viz, MBC, MBN, MBP) and enzyme activities were noticed in the sesame stover and 125% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) treatments. Therefore, this study highlights the need for restoring crop residue for effective soil management. The crop residue and NPK fertilization are more efficient in improving the soil’s microbial properties and the yield of wheat

Pattern and Density of Vascularization in Mammalian Testes, Ovaries, and Ovotestes

According to the classical paradigm, the vasculature of the embryonic testis is more dense and complex than that of the ovary, but recent studies based on whole-mount detection of Caveolin-1 (CAV1) as an endothelial cell marker, have suggested that the level of ovarian vascularization is higher than previously assumed. However, this new hypothesis has been neither tested using alternative methodology nor investigated in other mammalian species. In this paper, we have studied the vascularization process in the gonads of males and females of two mammalian species, the mouse (Mus musculus) and the Iberian mole (Talpa occidentalis). Our results show that the pattern of testis vascularization is very well conserved among mammals, including both pre- and postnatal stages of development and, at least in the mole, it is conserved irrespectively of whether the testicular tissue is XY or XX. We have shown that CAV1 is present not only in endothelial cells but also in prefollicular oocytes and in an ovarian population of somatic cortical cells. These data clearly establish that: (1) according to the classical hypothesis, the degree of vascularization of the developing ovary is lower than that of the testis, (2) ovarian vascularization is also evolutionarily conserved as it occurs similarly both in moles and in mice, and (3) that the degree of vascular development of the mammalian ovary is age-dependent increasing significatively at puberty. The expression of CAV1 in the ovary of most animal taxa, from nematodes to mammals, strongly suggests a role for this gene in the female meiosis. © 2012 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC

Lactate promotes glutamine uptake and metabolism in oxidative cancer cells.

Oxygenated cancer cells have a high metabolic plasticity as they can use glucose, glutamine and lactate as main substrates to support their bioenergetic and biosynthetic activities. Metabolic optimization requires integration. While glycolysis and glutaminolysis can cooperate to support cellular proliferation, oxidative lactate metabolism opposes glycolysis in oxidative cancer cells engaged in a symbiotic relation with their hypoxic/glycolytic neighbors. However, little is known concerning the relationship between oxidative lactate metabolism and glutamine metabolism. Using SiHa and HeLa human cancer cells, this study reports that intracellular lactate signaling promotes glutamine uptake and metabolism in oxidative cancer cells. It depends on the uptake of extracellular lactate by monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1). Lactate first stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (HIF-2α), and HIF-2α then transactivates c-Myc in a pathway that mimics a response to hypoxia. Consequently, lactate-induced c-Myc activation triggers the expression of glutamine transporter ASCT2 and of glutaminase 1 (GLS1), resulting in improved glutamine uptake and catabolism. Elucidation of this metabolic dependence could be of therapeutic interest. First, inhibitors of lactate uptake targeting MCT1 are currently entering clinical trials. They have the potential to indirectly repress glutaminolysis. Second, in oxidative cancer cells, resistance to glutaminolysis inhibition could arise from compensation by oxidative lactate metabolism and increased lactate signaling

Greenhouse gas inventory estimates for India

This article reports the greenhouse gas emissions of anthropogenic origin by sources and removals by sinks of India for 2007 prepared under the aegis of the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) (note 1). The emission profile includes carbon dioxide (CO(2)), methane and nitrous oxide. It also includes the estimates of hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride at the national level from various sectors, viz, energy, industrial process and product use, agriculture, land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), and waste. In 2007, emissions were of the order of 2008.67 Tg (note 2) of CO(2) equivalents without emissions from the LULUCF sector. Whereas with LULUCF the emissions were about 1831.65 Tg CO(2) equivalents. The energy sector accounted for 69% of the total emissions, the agriculture sector contributed 19% of the emissions, 9% of the emissions was from the industrial processes and product use, and only 3% of the emissions was attributable to the waste sector. The LULUCF sector on the whole was net sink category for CO(2). The study tracks the improvements made in inventory estimates at the national level through the years, in terms of the expanding coverage of sources, reducing uncertainties and inclusion of new methodologies, including some elements of future areas of work