Genetic transformation in bacteria

Certain species of bacteria can become competent to take up high molecular weight DNA from the surrounding medium. DNA homologous to resident chromosomal DNA is transported, processed and recombined with the resident DNA. There are some variations in steps leading to transformation between Gram-positive bacteria likebiplococcus pneumoniae and Gram-negative bacteria represented byHaemophilus influenzae but the integration is by single-strand displacement in both cases. Plasmid (RSF0885) transformation is low inHaemophilus influenzae but this is increased significantly if (homologous) chromosomal DNA is spliced to plasmid DNA. In Haemophilus influenzae, rec1 function is required for peak transformation with chimeric plasmids. Chimeric plasmid fixed presumably extrachromosomally undergoes frequent recombination between homologous segments contained in resident chromosome and the plasmid

Comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles of the seedling originated polyembryonic mango (Mangifera indica L.) genotypes

In mango, leaf and fruit volatile aroma profiles are variety specific which can be used as fingerprint of a variety. Such biochemical markers can also discriminate the nucellar and zygotic seedlings in polyembryonic mango varieties. In order to validate the applicability of volatile as well as phenolic acid profiles as biomarkers, the open pollinated seedlings of three polyembryonic varieties of mango were compared with their mother trees. Leaf volatile and phenol acid profiling were done using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) methods respectively. The sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the most abundant in all the genotypes studied. Monoterpenoids were the major compounds in cultivars Vellaikolumban and Olour, while the sesquiterpenoids were the major compounds in cv. Turpentine. While terpinolene was the major monoterpenoid compound in Vellaikolumban and limonene in cv. Olour, the sesquiterpene á-gurjunene was the major compound in cv. Turpentine. Volatile profiling showed clear differences between the varieties but was similar within a variety. Among the 15 phenolic acids quantified in the leaves, P-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and ferulic acids were predominant whereas, vanillic acid, syringic acid, gentisic acid, benzoic acid, and sinapic acids were low in quantity. Phenolic acid profile did not show significant diversity among the varieties and therefore cannot be used for identification of varieties. The volatile profiling can be used for the identification and differentiation of polyembryonic mango genotypes

High space-bandwidth in quantitative phase imaging using partially spatially coherent optical coherence microscopy and deep neural network

Quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) is a label-free technique that enables to monitor morphological changes at subcellular level. The performance of the QPM system in terms of spatial sensitivity and resolution depends on the coherence properties of the light source and the numerical aperture (NA) of objective lenses. Here, we propose high space-bandwidth QPM using partially spatially coherent optical coherence microscopy (PSC-OCM) assisted with deep neural network. The PSC source synthesized to improve the spatial sensitivity of the reconstructed phase map from the interferometric images. Further, compatible generative adversarial network (GAN) is used and trained with paired low-resolution (LR) and high-resolution (HR) datasets acquired from PSC-OCM system. The training of the network is performed on two different types of samples i.e. mostly homogenous human red blood cells (RBC) and on highly heterogenous macrophages. The performance is evaluated by predicting the HR images from the datasets captured with low NA lens and compared with the actual HR phase images. An improvement of 9 times in space-bandwidth product is demonstrated for both RBC and macrophages datasets. We believe that the PSC-OCM+GAN approach would be applicable in single-shot label free tissue imaging, disease classification and other high-resolution tomography applications by utilizing the longitudinal spatial coherence properties of the light source

Situational Analysis of the Upper Bhima sub-basin in the context of the Water-Food-Biodiversity Nexus

This report was prepared as part of a research project titled “Soft systems analysis: Streamlining participatory approaches and agent-based models to explore ideas of fairness at the food-water-biodiversity (F-W-B) nexus (fairSTREAM)”. This project is funded by the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) and is implemented in collaboration with two partners from India: Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER Pune). The project started in September 2021, and it will run till December 2024. The main goal of fairSTREAM is to develop and demonstrate a co-production methodology for including equity and justice (fairness) alongside efficiency in developing sustainable policy options across the Water-Food-Biodiversity nexus (WFB nexus). The demonstration component is placed in the Upper Bhima basin, and the specific objectives here are to design and test a systems-informed stakeholder knowledge co-production process with the purpose of developing fair and sustainable policy options for the WFB nexus. The co-production process involves several steps, namely: the assessment phase (including preparatory work, problem framing, and exploration of options) and the action planning phase. An evaluation process is also embedded across the different steps and phases. This report summarizes the findings of the preparatory and problem-framing phase, to contextualize the WFB nexus in the Upper Bhima, and what specific challenges it raises, both from a sustainability, equity, and fairness perspective. Other than serving as a reference document for primary stakeholders - farmers, fishers, and forest-dependent communities to contextualize the WFB nexus in the Upper Bhima, this situational analysis is intended to inform future phases, including the development and co-production of options using a combination of modeling and soft approaches

Transdisciplinarity in practice: the food-water-biodiversity nexus and its fairness in the Upper Bhima Basin

In fairSTREAM, we propose a transdisciplinary research approach using a combination of qualitative and quantitative systems tools to explore challenges related to food, water and biodiversity (FWB), their cross-sectoral interlinkages and emerging aspects related to fairness in the Upper Bhima Basin (India). We do so by co-producing qualitative storylines with local stakeholders (e.g., farmers, NGOs, water managers, politicians) to address issues at and future developments of the FWB-nexus

Designing Origami-Adapted Deployable Modules for Soft Continuum Arms

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. Origami has several attractive attributes including deployability and portability which have been extensively adapted in designs of robotic devices. Drawing inspiration from foldable origami structures, this paper presents an engineering design process for fast making deployable modules of soft continuum arms. The process is illustrated with an example which adapts a modified accordion fold pattern to a lightweight deployable module. Kinematic models of the four-sided Accordion fold pattern is explored in terms of mechanism theory. Taking account of both the kinematic model and the materials selection, a 2D flat sheet model of the four-sided Accordion fold pattern is obtained for 3D printing. Following the design process, the deployable module is then fabricated by laminating 3D printed origami skeleton and flexible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) coated fabric. Preliminary tests of the prototype shown that the folding motion are enabled mainly by the flexible fabric between the gaps of thick panels of the origami skeleton and matches the kinematic analysis. The proposed approach has advantages of quick scaling dimensions, cost effective and fast fabricating thus allowing adaptive design according to specific demands of various tasks

Patterning in Birthweight in India: Analysis of Maternal Recall and Health Card Data

National data on birthweight from birth certificates or medical records are not available in India. The third Indian National Family Health Survey included data on birthweight of children obtained from health cards and maternal recall. This study aims to describe the population that these data represent and compares the birthweight obtained from health cards with maternal recall data in terms of its socioeconomic patterning and as a risk factor for childhood growth failure.The analytic sample consisted of children aged 0 to 59 months with birthweight data obtained from health cards (n = 3227) and maternal recall (n = 16,787). The difference between the card sample and the maternal recall sample in the distribution across household wealth, parental education, caste, religion, gender, and urban residence was compared using multilevel models. We also assessed the ability of birthweight to predict growth failure in infancy and childhood in the two groups. The survey contains birthweight data from a majority of household wealth categories (>5% in every category for recall), both genders, all age groups, all caste groups, all religion groups, and urban and rural dwellers. However, children from the lowest quintile of household wealth were under-represented (4.73% in card and 8.62% in recall samples). Comparison of data across health cards and maternal recall revealed similar social patterning of low birthweight and ability of birthweight to predict growth failure later in life. Children were less likely to be born with low birthweight if they had mothers with over 12 years of education compared to 1-5 years of education with relative risk (RR) of 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.52, 1.2) in the card sample and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.84) in the recall sample. A 100 gram difference in a child's birthweight was associated with a decreased likelihood of underweight in both the card (RR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.96) and recall (RR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.97) samples.Our results suggest that in the absence of other sources, the data on birthweight in the third Indian National Family Health Survey is valuable for epidemiologic research