Assessing the sustainability of vegetable production in India

Vegetable production is an important constituent in Indian agriculture and has a vital role in achieving nutritional security. Factors such as perishability, high value and good yield response to external inputs has led to intensification of vegetable production. Measuring the sustainability of vegetable production and factors influencing it by employing suitable indicators will be helpful in designing of policy instruments and production practices for economically viable and environmentally sustainable production. Thus, the present study was designed to assess the plot level sustainability in Karnataka, a major vegetable growing state in India. Both the economic and environmental sustainability scores were low, proving the existence of ample opportunity to improve the sustainability of the vegetables in the state. Overall composite sustainability indicator for the economic pillar had better accomplishment than the environmental pillar for both the vegetables. The results show that the size of the holding, preference for higher incomes, years of experience in growing vegetables had significant and positive impact on economic sustainability. Flood irrigation decreases the economic sustainability in comparison to rainfed farming system. The low scores of sustainability reflects the crucial role of farmers’ productive decisions, which finally Determine the level of sustainability of each individual farm. Thus, there is room to incentivize producers to modify the way they manage their resources through appropriate policy instruments in order to upgrade their sustainability performance

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Not AvailableThe present study, investigate the socio-economic and other farm level factors influencing the decision making pattern in adopting agricultural innovations by farmers of Karnataka, India. A secondary data on decision pattern in adoption of agricultural innovations, socio-economic and other farm level factors of 372 farmers was considered. Multinomial logistic regression model was employed to identify potential influencing factors for decision making pattern by farmers. The result revealed that age, family size, socio-economic status (SES total score), yield, cost of cultivation, number of innovations adopted, gross income and net income were found to be significantly (p<0.05) influencing factors for the decision making patterns viz, informed and induced categories in adopting agricultural innovations. In conclusion, farmers were facing difficulty in decisions making at several situations towards adoption of any new innovations in agriculture mainly because of inadequate information or awareness about new innovations. Farmers need to have more awareness on their economic status, benefit-cost of different crops, adoption of appropriate innovations which controls the decision making pattern of farmers in perception of any new technology.Not Availabl

Role of 16S ribosomal RNA methylations in translation initiation in Escherichia coli

Translation initiation from the ribosomal P-site is the specialty of the initiator tRNAs (tRNAfMet). Presence of the three consecutive G-C base pairs (G29-C41, G30-C40 and G31-C39) in their anticodon stems, a highly conserved feature of the initiator tRNAs across the three kingdoms of life, has been implicated in their preferential binding to the P-site. How this feature is exploited by ribosomes has remained unclear. Using a genetic screen, we have isolated an Escherichia coli strain, carrying a G122D mutation in folD, which allows initiation with the tRNAfMet containing mutations in one, two or all the three G-C base pairs. The strain shows a severe deficiency of methionine and S-adenosylmethionine, and lacks nucleoside methylations in rRNA. Targeted mutations in the methyltransferase genes have revealed a connection between the rRNA modifications and the fundamental process of the initiator tRNA selection by the ribosome

Complications associated with thoracic pedicle screws in spinal deformity

Thoracic pedicle screws have superior anchoring strength compared with other available fixation techniques. However, these are not universally accepted in many developing countries because of the concerns regarding safety and complications. In addition, there is evidence that pedicle morphology is unique in Chinese patients. The goal of this study was to analyze the complications seen at our institution, while using thoracic pedicle screws for the treatment of thoracic deformity, and to determine the safety of our techniques for the treatment of thoracic deformity in a Chinese population. From 1998 to 2005, there were 208 thoracic deformity patients treated at our institution, 70 of whom were male and 138 were female. Their age ranged from 11 to 55 years (mean of 14.9 years). All of them underwent corrective deformity surgery using posterior pedicle screw systems and follow-up was available for at least 3 years. Etiologic diagnoses included adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in 119 patients, congenital kyphoscoliosis in 38, adult scoliosis in 37 and undetermined in 14. Screw positions were evaluated using intraoperative and postoperative radiographs and a CT scan was performed when a concern for screw malposition was present. All radiographic evaluations were carried out in a double-blinded fashion. A total of 1,123 thoracic pedicle screws were inserted (5.4 thoracic screws/patient). The deformity correction rate was 81, 65 and 62% for idiopathic, congenital and adult scoliosis patients, respectively. The overall complication rate was 16.5% at the final follow-up. Complication rates directly and indirectly related to pedicle screws were 7.2 and 9.3%, respectively. There were no significant screw-related neurologic or visceral complications that adversely affected long-term results. The complications seen with thoracic pedicle screws in a Chinese population were similar to other populations and could be utilized safely for the treatment of thoracic deformity in this population