Cross-ancestry genome-wide association analysis of corneal thickness strengthens link between complex and Mendelian eye diseases

Central corneal thickness (CCT) is a highly heritable trait associated with complex eye diseases such as keratoconus and glaucoma. We perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis of CCT and identify 19 novel regions. In addition to adding support for known connective tissue-related pathways, pathway analyses uncover previously unreported gene sets. Remarkably, >20% of the CCT-loci are near or within Mendelian disorder genes. These included FBN1, ADAMTS2 and TGFB2 which associate with connective tissue disorders (Marfan, Ehlers-Danlos and Loeys-Dietz syndromes), and the LUM-DCN-KERA gene complex involved in myopia, corneal dystrophies and cornea plana. Using index CCT-increasing variants, we find a significant inverse correlation in effect sizes between CCT and keratoconus (r =-0.62, P = 5.30 × 10-5) but not between CCT and primary open-angle glaucoma (r =-0.17, P = 0.2). Our findings provide evidence for shared genetic influences between CCT and keratoconus, and implicate candidate genes acting in collagen and extracellular matrix regulation

Multi-trait genome-wide association study identifies new loci associated with optic disc parameters

A new avenue of mining published genome-wide association studies includes the joint analysis of related traits. The power of this approach depends on the genetic correlation of traits, which reflects the number of pleiotropic loci, i.e. genetic loci influencing multiple traits. Here, we applied new meta-analyses of optic nerve head (ONH) related traits implicated in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG); intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness using Haplotype reference consortium imputations. We performed a multi-trait analysis of ONH parameters cup area, disc area and vertical cup-disc ratio. We uncover new variants; rs11158547 in PPP1R36-PLEKHG3 and rs1028727 near SERPINE3 at genome-wide significance that replicate in independent Asian cohorts imputed to 1000 Genomes. At this point, validation of these variants in POAG cohorts is hampered by the high degree of heterogeneity. Our results show that multi-trait analysis is a valid approach to identify novel pleiotropic variants for ONH

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Not AvailableDoubling farmers’ income (DFI) by 2022 has been set as a target for Agriculture sector of India. Extensive deliberations have been made on application and adoption of technologies/packages as key forces to reach the target. The responsibility is with numerous stakeholders and the specic role of Research and Development (R&D) institutions in doubling farmers’ income has not been touched upon. As agriculture and allied sectors like aquaculture is a state subject, greater linkages have to be established by R&D institutions to achieve the target. The present study analysed the role of R&D institution in doubling farmers’ income, keeping technology as an effective tool, based on a case study of ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)-Khordha in Odisha State, India. The results of the study delineated the ways and means for ICAR-CIFA and KVK, Khordha to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income by developing models with existing proven technology, upscaling proven extension approaches like Farmers Field Schools (FFS) replicated as Aquaculture Field Schools (AFS), best practices to be adopted and rationalising farm innovations.Not Availabl

Enhancement of thermal and techno-economic performance and prediction of drying kinetics of paddy dried in solar bubble dryer

The development and performance evaluation of a solar Bubble drier (SBD) for drying agricultural produce are presented in this study. In order to evaluate the solar bubble dryer's performance in terms of drying characteristics and end-product economics, it was compared to the solar tunnel dryer (STD). A solar tunnel dryer is a structure with a tunnel-like shape that is covered in UV-stabilized polythene sheet so that industrial and agricultural items can be dried off. While there was no load, the maximum temperatures inside the solar bubble dryer and solar tunnel dryer were 56.25 and 49.30 °C, respectively. When there was a full load, the maximum temperatures inside the dryer were 49.55 and 33.20 °C, respectively. For solar bubble dryers, the average final moisture content ranged from 13.07±0.335 % to 18.74±0.716 % (w.b.), while for solar tunnel dryers, it ranged from 13.60±0.575 % to 20.60±0.751 % (w.b.). The mean drying rate also varied depending on the drying air temperature and air flow mode, ranging from 0.081±0.020 to 0.006±0.005 kg/kg dm-h for solar bubble dryers and 0.056±0.025 to 0.005±0.002 kg/kg dm-h for solar tunnel dryers. The thermal efficiency of the developed dryer was found to be 58.39% for solar bubble dryers and 48.09% for solar tunnel dryers, which are significantly higher than that of other general Sun drying (36%). However, the drying rate varied between 0.081 to 0.006 g of water evaporated per g of dry matter per hour when solar bubble dryer was adopted and 0.014 to 0.007 g for solar tunnel dryer. Economic analysis showed that the SBD and STD had payback periods of 3.23 and 2.54 years, respectively. However, the cost of drying came lower for the SBD than the STD, which were Rs. 1.51 per kg and Rs. 1.76 per kg