Enhancement of magnetoresistance in manganite multilayers

Magnanite multilayers have been fabricated using La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 as the ferromagnetic layer and Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 and Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3 as the spacer layers. All the multilayers were grown on LaAlO3 (100) by pulse laser deposition. An enhanced magnetoresistnace (defined (RH- R0)/R0) of more than 98% is observed in these multilayers. Also a low field magnetoresistance of 41% at 5000 Oe is observed in these multilayer films. The enhanced MR is attributed to the induced double exchange in the spacer layer, which is giving rise to more number of conducting carriers. This is compared by replacing the spacer layer with LaMnO3 where Mn exists only in 3+ state and no enhancement is observed in the La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 / LaMnO3 multilayers as double exchange mechanism can not be induced by external magnetic fields.Comment: 13 pages, 5 Figure

Zinc Finger Protein 36L1 (ZFP36L1): Gene Expression, Regulation and Interactions with Immune Receptors in Human Tumour Cells.

The Zinc finger protein 36 like 1 (ZFP36L1) or Butyrate response factor 1 (BRF1) is involved in the differentiation, proliferation, and angiogenesis of various cell types. ZFP36L1 can positively or negatively regulate cellular processes such as transcription and signalling, depending on external and internal stimulations. The basic mechanism with which this protein functions is via its binding to the AU- rich regions of the mRNA causing their degradation. However, its exact roles in cellular physiology and mRNA targets are poorly understood. We hypothesize that ZFP36L1 regulates expression of effectors and receptors linked to immunity and is therefore important in controlling cell proliferation and cancer. We investigated roles of ZFP36L1 in regulating expression of TNF α and VEGF A as well as of the adhesion receptor CD44 involved in lymphocyte activation, haematopoiesis and tumour metastasis. In this study we also report data on the detection and quantification of ZFP36L1 in several tumour cell lines such as THP1, Jurkat, B16, MCF7, and MC38. To study the function of ZFP36L1 a CRISPR-Cas9 system was used to generate ZFP36L1 knockout MC38 cell line. Our results show that ZFP36L1 limits production of TNF α and VEGF A. Our preliminary data also show co-localization of ZFP36L1 with CD44 upon cellular permeablization, which needs further investigation and future studies. In conclusion, we show that ZFP36L1 is expressed in various cancer cell lines including Jurkat immune cells and its expression regulates various effector molecules and cell growth

Technical Efficiency and its Determinants in Tomato Production in Karnataka, India: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Approach

Low productivity in agriculture is mainly due to the inability of the farmers to exploit the available technologies fully, resulting in lower efficiencies of production. The present study has estimated the technical and scale efficiencies of tomato-producing farms in Karnataka, considering different production levels and has identified the determining factors of their technical efficiency. The study is based on the data collected from the major tomato-producing regions of Karnataka, viz. Kolar and Bangalore rural districts of Karnataka, under three-production situations, viz. small, medium and large farms. Data Envelopment analysis (DEA) and log linear regression models have been used for estimating the technical efficiency and its determining factors, respectively. The study has indicated that most of the farms irrespective of size of holding have shown technical inefficiency problems. The medium farmers have been observed with best measures of technical efficiency, which has been explained by factors such as the land and labour productivity and education. Though medium farmers have been found efficient, with higher yields, it is the small farmers who have emerged as price-efficient producers in terms of lower cost on production (Rs 1.72/kg compared to Rs 2.01 in medium farms and Rs 1.85 in large farms) and higher unit profit. Most of the farms have been observed to have potential to expand production and productivity, increasing technical efficiency as majority have been performing with increasing returns to scale.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Lehya formulations for mother and child care in Havyak community of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India

The period between pregnancy and the child birth is a critical phase in the lives of mothers and newborn babies. In most of the Asian countries including India, the use of medicinal plants, cultural traditions and the diets practiced by the ethnic groups have their age old histories. Present study was carried out to compile the traditional knowledge of the age old practitioners on pre and postnatal remedies. The survey was carried out in the areas of Sirsi, Siddapur and Mundgod taluks of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India. Medicinal plants were collected and quantitative data analyses like Use Value (UV), Relative frequency citation (Rfc) and Family Importance Value (FIV) have been provided to analyze the importance of reported plants. The study revealed the use of 28 plant species belonging to 19 families. The home remedies for pregnant women are in the form of paste, called ‘Lehya’ in local language. Habit-wise analysis of the plants indicate that herbs are highly used (35.71%) and in most of the case fruits (32.14%) and seeds (25%) are frequently used plant parts in ‘Lehya’ preparation. The most important plant species according to the quantitative data analysis are Cassia sophera, Centella asiatica, Cocos nucifera, Cucumis melo var. acidulus, Curcuma longa, Phoenix dactylifera and Syzygium aromaticum