SOIL TEST BASED FERTILIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS OF ECONOMICS AND NUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF MUSTARD ON INCEPTISOL

During the winter (Rabi) season of 2019-20, the experiment was conducted in a farmer's field in the village of Loharapur, Varanasi, to investigate the impact of nutrient management technologies in alluvial soil with farmyard manure and various levels of inorganic fertilizers under mustard (Brassica juncea L.). Based on the STCR target yield idea, the use of plant nutrients has achieved mustard (18.0 q ha-1) and (22.0 q ha-1) outputs (soil test crop response technology). The test results indicated that the target yields were reached within + 5% of site modifications, confirming the validity of the formulae used to prescribe integrated mortar fertilizer dosages. For RDF, the highest production increases of 22 q ha-1 (37, 60%), followed by 18 q ha-1 were recorded (12.05 percent). The maximum cost-effectiveness and profit rate of 22.00 q ha-1 was the result. Organic carbon content is positive and significantly connected to the activity of the enzyme. As a consequence, the combination of NPK and FYM has been more successful in improving the productivity of rice aimed at 18 q ha-1, 22 q ha-1, and soil nutritional status than a single application of FYM or chemical fertilizer. Significant net benefits of mustard at the site (Rs 55,190.00 and Rs 38,583.00) in the treatment of plant nutrient levels in the soil test; (STCR treatment). Though fertilization enhanced mustard production above control, it was reported that using NPK and FYM together was more successful than using them alone in increasing mustard productivity

Increased working hours per day and its impact on health of the workers: A review

Working conditions in most of the developing nations are not as per the guidelines. Government is changing the guidelines as per the benefit of the employers and side-lining the employees regarding many issues. With many occupations requiring heavy work and taking a lot of physical strength from manual labourers, the working time per day also affects the health of such workers. We investigated the different health impacts of increasing the working hours on labourers, and did a literature review on the same. We recommend that the workers in every occupational sector should work not more than 8-9 hours per day. They should get at least 30 minutes lunch break and one or two 15 minutes tea brakes during their shift to avoid exhaustion and fatigue from prolonged working

Performance analysis of anomalous photocatalytic activity of Cr-doped TiO2 nanoparticles [Cr(x)TiO2(1-x)]

We report the synthesis and characterisation of pristine and chromium (Cr) metal ion-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles [Cr(x)TiO2(1-x)] to study the anomalous effect of Cr doping on the photocatalytic property of TiO2. The presence of dopants generates more number of recombination pairs and increases surface coverage sites which decreases photocatalytic activity. We study the structural morphology of the synthesised Cr(x)TiO2(1-x) samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. The effect of Cr3+ ions on the optical properties of TiO2 has been studied using various imaging and spectroscopic techniques. Further, the effect of doping of Cr on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 has been analysed in detail. The concentration of Cr in TiO2 has been chosen as 0, 1, 5 and 10% by weight. It has been observed that the pristine TiO2 exhibits better photocatalytic activity as compared to Cr-doped TiO2 irrespective of the Cr concentration. This can be attributed to the fact that due to Cr doping in TiO2, the number of available adsorption sites for malachite green reduces which degrades its photocatalytic activity. It is also confirmed by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. PL intensity increases, and lifetime decreases with increase in doping concentration. Radiative recombination of electron and hole pairs of Cr3+ in TiO2 degrades its photocatalytic activity. The degradation efficiency is found to be 96% in the case of pristine TiO2 which reduces to 12% when doped with x = 10% concentration of chromium. Therefore, it is observed that in comparison with Cr-doped TiO2, pristine TiO2 exhibits an improved photocatalytic activity which shows the anomalous effect of Cr doping on the photocatalytic property of TiO2

Alteration of cell wall xylan acetylation triggers defense responses that counterbalance the immune deficiencies of plants impaired in the β‐subunit of the heterotrimeric G‐protein

[EN] Arabidopsis heterotrimeric G-protein complex modulates pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggeredimmunity (PTI) and disease resistance responses to different types of pathogens. It also plays a role in plantcell wall integrity as mutants impaired in the Gb-(agb1-2)orGc-subunits have an altered wall compositioncompared with wild-type plants. Here we performed a mutant screen to identify suppressors ofagb1-2(sgb) that restore susceptibility to pathogens to wild-type levels. Out of the foursgbmutants (sgb10–sgb13)identified,sgb11is a new mutant allele ofESKIMO1(ESK1), which encodes a plant-specific polysaccharideO-acetyltransferase involved in xylan acetylation. Null alleles (sgb11/esk1-7)ofESK1restore to wild-typelevels the enhanced susceptibility ofagb1-2to the necrotrophic fungusPlectosphaerella cucumerina BMM(PcBMM), but not to the bacteriumPseudomonas syringaepv.tomatoDC3000 or to the oomyceteHyaloper-onospora arabidopsidis. The enhanced resistance toPcBMMof theagb1-2 esk1-7double mutant was notthe result of the re-activation of deficient PTI responses inagb1-2. Alteration of cell wall xylan acetylationcaused byESK1impairment was accompanied by an enhanced accumulation of abscisic acid, the constitu-tive expression of genes encoding antibiotic peptides and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of trypto-phan-derived metabolites, and the accumulation of disease resistance-related secondary metabolites anddifferent osmolites. Theseesk1-mediated responses counterbalance the defective PTI andPcBMMsuscepti-bility ofagb1-2plants, and explain the enhanced drought resistance ofesk1plants. These results suggestthat a deficient PTI-mediated resistance is partially compensated by the activation of specific cell-wall-trig-gered immune responses.SISpanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) grants BIO2012-32910 to A.M.The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls and matching funding from KTH (grants to V.B) and NIGMS (R01GM065989) and NSF (MCB-1713880) to A.M.J. The Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy through the grant DE-FG02-05er15671 to A.M.J. funded technical support in this study. H.M. was supported by an IEF grant (SignWALLINg-624721) from the European Union, E.M. by a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellow from MINECO, S.S. by the BRAVE Erasmus Mundi Program (European Union), and A.M.-B. was the recipient of a PIF fellow from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Identifying sources, pathways and risk drivers in ecosystems of Japanese Encephalitis in an epidemic-prone north Indian district

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) has caused repeated outbreaks in endemic pockets of India. This study was conducted in Kushinagar, a highly endemic district, to understand the human-animal-ecosystem interactions, and the drivers that influence disease transmission. Utilizing the ecosystems approach, a cross-sectional, descriptive study, employing mixed methods design was employed. Four villages (two with pig-rearing and two without) were randomly selected from a high, a medium and a low burden (based on case counts) block of Kushinagar. Children, pigs and vectors were sampled from these villages. A qualitative arm was incorporated to explain the findings from the quantitative surveys. All human serum samples were screened for JE-specific IgM using MAC ELISA and negative samples for JE RNA by rRT-PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In pigs, IgG ELISA and rRT-PCR for viral RNA were used. Of the 242 children tested, 24 tested positive by either rRT-PCR or MAC ELISA; in pigs, 38 out of the 51 pigs were positive. Of the known vectors, Culex vishnui was most commonly isolated across all biotopes. Analysis of 15 blood meals revealed human blood in 10 samples. Univariable analysis showed that gender, religion, lack of indoor residual spraying of insecticides in the past year, indoor vector density (all species), and not being vaccinated against JE in children were significantly associated with JE positivity. In multivariate analysis, only male gender remained as a significant risk factor. Based on previous estimates of symptomatic: asymptomatic cases of JE, we estimate that there should have been 618 cases from Kushinagar, although only 139 were reported. Vaccination of children and vector control measures emerged as major control activities; they had very poor coverage in the studied villages. In addition, lack of awareness about the cause of JE, lack of faith in the conventional medical healthcare system and multiple referral levels causing delay in diagnosis and treatment emerged as factors likely to result in adverse clinical outcomes

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Characterization of the ERECTA-YODA MAPK functional cascade and other phosphorylation events in innate immunity

Las cascadas de fosforilación son importantes mecanismos de transducción de señales que median entre la percepción de las señales y la activación de múltiples respuestas en las plantas. YODA (YDA) es una MAPK quinasa quinasa que funciona aguas abajo del receptor tipo quinasa (RLK) ERECTA (ER). Además de controlar el patrón estomático y otros procesos del desarrollo de la planta, la vía mediada por YDA-ER regula respuestas inmunitarias de Arabidopsis. La activación constitutiva de YDA en Arabidopsis (plantas CA-YDA) confiere resistencia a la enfermedad de amplio espectro. Un análisis transcriptómico mostró que las plantas CA-YDA sobreexpresan constitutivamente varios genes relacionados con la pared celular y asociados con la respuesta de defensa. Además, algunos supuestos SMALL SECRETED PEPTIDES (SSP1-8) y PUTATIVE RECEPTOR PROTEINS (PRP1-9), que codifican RLKs, se inducen transcripcionalmente en plantas CA-YDA. El análisis de resistencia a enfermedades realizado en mutantes individuales en estos genes reveló que SSP1, SSP2, SSP6, SSP7, SSP8, PRP1, PRP4 y PRP7 son necesarios para activar las respuestas inmunes de Arabidopsis frente al hongo Plectosphaerella cucumerina (PcBMM), la bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 o el oomiceto Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis Noco2. Por otra parte, los mutantes en SSP1 y PRP1 mostraron una mayor susceptibilidad al virus del mosaico de la coliflor, destacando así su papel en la inmunidad frente a una amplia gama de patógenos. Además, se generaron péptidos sintéticos correspondientes a las regiones C-terminales de SSP1 (PEP-A y PEP-E), SSP2 (PEP-O) y SSP7 (PEP-I) para determinar su capacidad de desencadenar respuestas inmunes activadas por PAMPs (PAMP-triggeredi immunity, PTI). Datos preliminares indican que SSP7 y, en menor medida, SSP1 podrían actuar como activadores de respuestas de defensa, ya que los tratamientos con PEP-I y PEP-E son capaces de desencadenar algunos eventos de PTI en plantas silvestres (Col-0). Curiosamente, ni estos pequeños péptidos de señalización ni PRP1 parecen estar implicados en la regulación de parámetros del desarrollo vegetal tales como la altura de la planta o la longitud del pedicelo y la silicua. Además, sólo SSP3 parece tener un papel regulador en el patrón de desarrollo de estomas, ya que los mutantes ssp3 presentan un índice estomático mayor. Por lo tanto, la mayoría de los SSPs seleccionados y PRP1 parecen estar implicados exclusivamente en las respuestas de defensa de Arabidopsis. Estos resultados apoyan la hipótesis de que cambios en la pared celular de las plantas CA-YDA podrían desencadenar respuestas inmunes novedosas que actuarían en paralelo a las vías canónicas de resistencia a enfermedades reguladas por fitohormonas. Este nuevo sistema de vigilancia de la defensa se basaría en pares de péptidos inmunogénicos (SSP) y sus receptores (LRKs) que, tras la percepción de patógenos o elicitores, actuarían en un ciclo de retroalimentación positiva que maximizaría el nivel de inmunidad. El complejo de proteína G heterotrimérica de Arabidopsis modula la PTI y regula la resistencia a la enfermedad causada por patógenos. Para identificar nuevos elementos de la respuesta inmune de las plantas, se realizó un cribado de mutantes para identificar supresores de la susceptibilidad a PcBMM mostrada por una mutación en el gen que codifica la subunidad β de la proteína G heterotrimérica (AGB1). Cuatro mutantes sgb (supresores de la proteína G βeta 1; sgb10, sgb11, sgb12 y sgb13) fueron identificados por su capacidad para rescatar completamente la susceptibilidad de agb1-2. Este estudio se centró principalmente en la caracterización de sgb10. Esta mutación se localizó en el cromosoma 3, correspondiendo a una transición de G a A en la secuencia codificante de MAP KINASE PHOSPHATASE 1 (MKP1; At3g55270). Curiosamente, el mutante mkp1/sgb10 presentó niveles elevados de especies reactivas de oxígeno (ROS) que se mostraron ausentes en el doble mutante con la NADPH oxidasa rbohD, lo que sugiere que esta producción aumentada de ROS es generada por esta oxidasa. Además, se observó una interacción genética epistática entre mkp1/sgb10 y rbohD en la respuesta de resistencia de Arabidopsis a PcBMM, lo que sugiere que MKP1 y RBOHD son componentes de la misma vía de señalización de la inmunidad y que esta NADPH oxidasa podría ser una diana aguas abajo de MKP1. ----------ABSTRACT---------- Phosphorylation cascades are important signal transduction mechanisms that mediate the perception of signals and the activation of multiple responses in plants. YODA (YDA) is a MAPK Kinase Kinase that functions downstream the Receptor Like Kinase (RLK) ERECTA (ER). Besides controlling stomatal patterning and other plant developmental-associated processes, YDA-ER pathway regulates Arabidopsis immune responses. Constitutive activation of YDA in Arabidopsis (CA-YDA plants) confers broad-spectrum disease resistance. A transcriptomic analysis showed that CA-YDA plants constitutively overexpress several cell wall-related and defence-associated genes. In addition, some putative SMALL SECRETED PEPTIDES (SSP1-8) and PUTATIVE RECEPTOR PROTEINS (PRP1-9) coding for RLKs, were upregulated in CA-YDA plants. Disease resistance analysis on single mutants in these genes revealed that SSP1, SSP2, SSP6, SSP7, SSP8, PRP1, PRP4 and PRP7 are required to trigger Arabidopsis immune responses against the fungus Plectosphaerella cucumerina (PcBMM), the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 or the oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis Noco2. Moreover, mutants in SSP1 and PRP1 displayed enhanced susceptibility towards Cauliflower Mosaic Virus, highlighting their putative role in immunity against a broad range of pathogens. Synthetic peptides corresponding to the C-terminal regions of SSP1 (PEP-A and PEP-E), SSP2 (PEP-O) and SSP7 (PEP-I) were generated to determine their ability to trigger PAMP-triggered immune (PTI) responses. Preliminary data indicate that SSP7 and, to a lesser extent, SSP1 could act as activators of defence responses, as treatments with PEP-I and PEP-E are able to trigger some PTI events in WT plants (Col- 0). Interestingly, neither these small signalling peptides nor PRP1 seem to be involved in regulating developmental parameters such as plant height and pedicel and silique length, and only SSP3 may have a role in stomata patterning, as ssp3 mutants present higher stomatal index. Thus, the contribution of most of the selected SSPs and PRP1 remains unique to Arabidopsis defence responses. We therefore hypothesize that changes in the cell wall of CA-YDA plants may trigger novel immune responses in parallel to canonical disease resistance pathways regulated by phytohormones. This new defence surveillance system would rely on immunogenic peptides (SSPs)-RLK pairs that upon perception of pathogens or elicitors would act in a positive feedback loop maximizing the level of immunity. Arabidopsis heterotrimeric G protein complex modulates PTI and regulates disease resistance to pathogens. To identify new immune response elements, a mutational screening was performed to identify suppressors of the enhanced susceptibility to PcBMM displayed by a mutation in the gene encoding the heterotrimeric G protein β subunit (AGB1). Four sgb (suppressor of G protein βeta1) mutants (sgb10, sgb11, sgb12 and sgb13) were identified based on their ability to fully rescue agb1-2 susceptibility. This study was mainly focused on the characterization of sgb10. This mutation mapped on chromosome 3 and corresponded to a G to A transition in the coding sequence of MAP KINASE PHOSPHATASE 1 (MKP1; At3g55270). Interestingly, mkp1/sgb10 mutant displayed elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels that were compromised in the NADPH oxidase mutant rbohD, suggesting that the enhanced ROS production is generated by this oxidase. Moreover, an epistatic, genetic interaction was observed between mkp1/sgb10 and rbohD in Arabidopsis resistance response to PcBMM, suggesting that MKP1 and RBOHD are components of the same immune pathway and that this NADPH oxidase could be a downstream target of MKP1

Eribulin in Cancer Treatment

Halichondrin B is a complex, natural, polyether macrolide derived from marine sponges. Eribulin is a structurally-simplified, synthetic, macrocyclic ketone analogue of Halichondrin B. Eribulin was approved by United States Food and Drug Administration in 2010 as a third-line therapy for metastatic breast cancer patients who have previously been treated with an anthracycline and a taxane. It has a unique microtubule dynamics inhibitory action. Phase III studies have either been completed or are currently ongoing in breast cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and non-small cell lung cancer. Phase I and II studies in multiple cancers and various combinations are currently ongoing. This article reviews the available information on eribulin with respect to its clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, mechanism of action, metabolism, preclinical studies, and with special focus on clinical trials

Dye sensitized solar cells using the electric field assisted spray deposited kesterite (Cu2ZnSnS4) films as the counter electrodes for improved performance

Kesterite (Cu2ZnSnS4) thin films are spray deposited under 0 V and 1500 V DC voltages and then treated with N-2+H2S(5%) environment at 500 degrees C for 1 h for sulphurisation. The improvement in different properties like structural, optical, morphological and electrical occur in the kesterite films deposited under the electric field. The activation energy is also reduced for these films, after applying the DC voltage during the spray deposition. These improvements resulted in the enhancement of the catalytic properties of kesterite films for use as the counter electrodes in dye sensitized solar cells. Dye sensitized solar cell using the kesterite film as a counter electrode deposit under the applied voltage of 1500 V exhibits the power conversion efficiency of 4.93%, which is higher than that for the kesterite film deposit under the applied voltage = 0 V ( 3.77%). The power conversion efficiency of sulphurised kesterite films deposit at 0 V and 1500 V yield further improvement in the power conversion efficiency (6.58 and 7.67%, respectively)