Public transport: a large scale fomite of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Background: The role of public transport as reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci was determined.Methods: 200 swabs were collected from 50 public buses (urban and rural) circulating in Davangere, Karnataka. Swabs collected were inoculated on Blood agar, Mannitol salt agar and MacConkey agar plates. After incubation for 24-48 hours, plates were examined for the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Anti-microbial susceptibility test was performed using oxacillin 1ug disc to detect methicillin resistance as per CSLI guidelines.Results: Out of 40 Staphylococcus aureus isolated 35 isolates were resistant to more than two classes of antibiotics, hence multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Out of 35 MDR isolates, 18 were resistant to oxacillin and cefoxitin. Minimum inhibitory concentration test revealed that out of 35 MDR isolates, 18 isolates had MIC value of ≥ 4µg/ml.Conclusions: The recovery methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from public transport system implies a potential risk for transmission of these bacteria in community

A Survey of Cybersecurity of Digital Manufacturing

The Industry 4.0 concept promotes a digital manufacturing (DM) paradigm that can enhance quality and productivity, which reduces inventory and the lead time for delivering custom, batch-of-one products based on achieving convergence of additive, subtractive, and hybrid manufacturing machines, automation and robotic systems, sensors, computing, and communication networks, artificial intelligence, and big data. A DM system consists of embedded electronics, sensors, actuators, control software, and interconnectivity to enable the machines and the components within them to exchange data with other machines, components therein, the plant operators, the inventory managers, and customers. This article presents the cybersecurity risks in the emerging DM context, assesses the impact on manufacturing, and identifies approaches to secure DM

Effect of Potassium Levels, Sources and Time of Application on Storage Life of Onion (Allium cepa L.)

The present investigation on “Effect of potassium levels, sources and time of application on storage life of onion var. ArkaKalyan” was carried out at the College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka during Kharif season crop of 2015 and 2016.The physiological loss in weight and rotting and sprouting of onion bulbs was minimum in 200 per cent RDK (19.25 and 13.91%, respectively) and maximum was recorded in 100 per cent RDK (23.40 and 18.13%, respectively). The marketable bulbs of onion was recorded highest in 200 per cent RDK (77.51%) and lowest marketable bulbs was recorded in 100 per cent RDK (71.96%) followed by 175 per cent RDK. The physiological loss in weight and rotting and sprouting of onion bulbs was minimum in potassium sources as SOP (21.12 and 15.09%) over MOP (22.60 and 16.50 per cent respectively). The marketable bulbs of onion was highest in potassium sources as SOP (76.01%, respectively) over MOP (74.43%). The increased marketable bulb yield and reduced the physiological loss in weight and rotting and sprouting onion bulb with the application 50 per cent potassium at transplanting and 50 per cent K at 30 DAT over 100 per cent potassium at transplanting

Potassium Levels, Sources and Time of Application on Nutrient Uptake and Nutrient Use Efficiency of Onion (Allium cepa L.)

The present study on potassium levels, sources and time of application on nutrient uptake and nutrient use efficiency of onion var. ArkaKalyan was carried out at the College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka during Kharif season of 2015 and 2016. The uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and zinc recorded significantly in 200 per cent RDK (203.62, 47.33, 236.36 kg ha-1 and 347.19 g ha-1 , respectively) over 100 per cent RDK. Among the potassium sources, SOP recorded higher nitrogen and phosphorus, potassium and zinc uptake (171.02 and 40.29, 197.73 kg ha-1 and 264.02 g ha-1 respectively) over MOP. The higher nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and zinc uptake was recorded significantly in application of 50 per cent potassium at transplanting and 50 per cent at 30 DAT (168.52, 39.74, 195.69 kg ha-1 and 289.76 g ha-1 ) over 100 per cent potassium at transplanting (157.90, 37.03, 187.23 kg ha-1 and 277.73 g ha-1 ). Significantly higher nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency was recorded in 200 per cent RDK (162.90 and 63.10%, respectively) over 100 per cent RDK. The higher potassium use efficiency on the contrary was recorded in 100 per cent RDK (121.18%) over 125, 150, 175 and 200 per cent RDK. Among the potassium sources, SOP recorded higher nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium use efficiency of onion plant (136.82, 53.72 and 107.89%, respectively) over MOP. The higher nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium use efficiency was recorded significantly in application of 50 per cent potassium at transplanting and 50 per cent at 30 DAT (134.82, 52.99 and 106.68%) over 100 per cent potassium at transplanting (126.31, 49.37 and 102.0%)

Response of Onion (Allium cepa L.) to Potassium Levels, Sources and Time of Application

The present investigation on “Effect of potassium levels, sources and time of application on growth and growth parameters of onion var. Arka Kalyan” was carried out at the College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka during Kharif season of 2015 and 2016. Potassium significantly influenced the growth components like plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, neck thickness and biomass per plant with increasing levels of potassium at 30, 60 and 90 days after transplanting. Application of 200 per cent RDK recorded significantly higher plant height (37.08, 54.00 and 56.69 cm, respectively), number of leaves per plant (5.59, 8.66 and 9.88, respectively), leaf length (33.85, 47.50 and 48.02 cm, respectively), leaf breadth (5.19, 7.44 and 7.84 mm, respectively), leaf area per plant (154.52, 490.92 and 582.72 cm2, respectively), neck thickness (7.60, 13.90 and 15.08 mm, respectively) and biomass per plant (4.60, 8.22 and 14.70 g, respectively) and it proved significantly superior over 100 per cent RDK. Growth parameters like plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf area per plant, neck thickness and biomass per plant varied significantly by potassium supplied as sulphate of potash over muriate of potash. The growth parameters was significantly influenced by the time of application of potassium. At 30 DAT, the application of 100 per cent potassium at transplanting was recorded significantly higher growth parameters compared to 50 per cent potassium at transplanting and 50 per cent K at 30 DAT was applied as basal. At 60 and 90 DAT, application of 50 per cent potassium at transplanting and 50 per cent K at 30 DAT was recorded superior growth over 100 per cent potassium at transplanting

Report of the Task Force on Enhancing technology use in agriculture insurance

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to provide insurance coverage and financial support to farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops, unsown area and damage to harvest produce as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases to stabilise the income of farmers, and to encourage them to adopt modern agricultural practices. The scheme is a considerable improvement over all previous insurance schemes in India and is heavily subsidised by the state and central governments. The scheme aims to cover 50 percent of the farming households within next 3 years. During its implementation in the last one season, several challenges relating to enrolment, yield estimation, loss assessment, and claim settlement were reported by farmers, insurance companies as well as the state governments. It was also noted that several technological opportunities existed for possibly leveraging support to the Indian crop insurance program for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. NITI Aayog of the Government of India, therefore, constituted a Task Force to deliberate on this subject and identify such potential opportunities. This report summarises the recommendations of the Task Force. The Task Force constituted to address the issue of technology support to crop insurance comprised the following 5 sub-groups: (1) Remote Sensing & Drones; (2) Decision Support Systems, Crop Modelling & Integrated Approaches; (3) IT/ICT in Insurance; (4) Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs); and (5) Technologies for Livestock and Aquaculture Insurance. Each sub-group had several discussions with experts in the respective areas, and submitted draft reports. More than 100 experts related to professional research agencies, insurance industry, banks, and the government contributed to these discussions. Technological options available in the country and abroad were considered by all groups. The Task Force together with the sub-groups then deliberated on key issues and formulated its recommendations as presented in this report. During the discussions it was realised that there were many administrative and institutional issues that needed to be addressed in PMFBY. However, the focus of the Task Force was on its main mandate, technology use in crop insurance. We hope these recommendations would help the Indian crop insurance sector take full advantage of the technological options suggested so as to increase its efficacy and effectiveness leading to reduced agrarian distress in the country

High Resolution Methylome Map of Rat Indicates Role of Intragenic DNA Methylation in Identification of Coding Region

DNA methylation is crucial for gene regulation and maintenance of genomic stability. Rat has been a key model system in understanding mammalian systemic physiology, however detailed rat methylome remains uncharacterized till date. Here, we present the first high resolution methylome of rat liver generated using Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing (MeDIP-Seq) approach. We observed that within the DNA/RNA repeat elements, simple repeats harbor the highest degree of methylation. Promoter hypomethylation and exon hypermethylation were common features in both RefSeq genes and expressed genes (as evaluated by proteomic approach). We also found that although CpG islands were generally hypomethylated, about 6% of them were methylated and a large proportion (37%) of methylated islands fell within the exons. Notably, we obeserved significant differences in methylation of terminal exons (UTRs); methylation being more pronounced in coding/partially coding exons compared to the non-coding exons. Further, events like alternate exon splicing (cassette exon) and intron retentions were marked by DNA methylation and these regions are retained in the final transcript. Thus, we suggest that DNA methylation could play a crucial role in marking coding regions thereby regulating alternative splicing. Apart from generating the first high resolution methylome map of rat liver tissue, the present study provides several critical insights into methylome organization and extends our understanding of interplay between epigenome, gene expression and genome stability