Modeling impact of improved forage cultivation on milk productivity and feed sufficiency in semiarid tropics of central India: A doubly robust analysis.

The study using cross-sectional data collected from 300 dairy farmers has analyzed the factors affecting adoption of improved forage technologies and its impact on milk yield and feed sufficiency in central region. We used inverse-propensity-weighting regression adjustment (IPWRA) method as main technique for impact evaluation and checked the robustness of the results using matching methods. Our findings suggest that education status, adult cattle unit, animal breed type, off-farm income activities, farm size, and access to training and market significantly influence adoption of improved forage technologies and practices.

Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause: A Narrative Review Focusing on Its Effects on the Sexual Health and Quality of Life of Women.

Genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) is a progressive condition due to a hypoestrogenic state affecting perimenopausal and menopausal women. GSM was previously known as urogenital syndrome, vulvovaginal atrophy, or atrophic vaginitis. The term vulvovaginal atrophy did not encompass the symptoms of the urinary tract like incontinence, urgency, and discomfort, or allude that it is due to a hypoestrogenic state.

Calcium storage in multivesicular endo-lysosome.

It is now established that endo-lysosomes, also referred to as late endosomes, serve as intracellular calcium store, in addition to the endoplasmic reticulum. While abundant calcium-binding proteins provide the latter compartment with its calcium storage capacity, essentially nothing is known about the mechanism responsible for calcium storage in endo-lysosomes. In this paper, we propose that the structural organization of endo-lysosomal membranes drives the calcium storage capacity of the compartment.

Accuracy in readout of glutamate concentrations by neuronal cells.

Glutamate and glycine are important neurotransmitters in the brain. An action potential propagating in the terminal of a presynaptic neuron causes the release of glutamate and glycine in the synapse by vesicles fusing with the cell membrane, which then activate various receptors on the cell membrane of the post-synaptic neuron. Entry of Ca[Formula: see text] through the activated NMDA receptors leads to a host of cellular processes of which long-term potentiation is of crucial importance because it is widely considered to be one of the major mechanisms behind learning and memory.

Green fodder cultivation improves technical efficiency of dairy farmers in semi-arid tropics of central India: a micro-analysis.

This study assessed the impact of improved green fodder production activities on technical efficiency (TE) of dairy farmers in climate vulnerable landscapes of central India. We estimated stochastic production frontiers, considering potential self-selection bias stemming from both observable and unobservable factors in adoption of fodder interventions at farm level. The empirical results show that TE for treated group ranges from 0.

Ocular Gene Therapy: A Literature Review With Focus on Current Clinical Trials.

Gene therapy has been one of the most researched topics in the last decade. It has now become a revolutionized therapeutic tool of modern medicine. Gene therapy is the alteration of the defective gene involved in the disease process in the host cells.

Range grasses to improve soil properties, carbon sustainability, and fodder security in degraded lands of semi-arid regions.

Tropical grasses are the primary source of forage for livestock and a valuable resource for improving soil health and environmental sustainability in semi-arid regions. A study was carried out in a semi-arid region of central India to determine the short-term (6-year) impact of nine range grasses on soil physio-chemical and biological properties, carbon stock, and forage security. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design with three replications.

Limitations on concentration measurements and gradient discerning times in cellular systems.

This work reports on two results. At first we revisit the Berg and Purcell calculation that provides a lower bound to the error in concentration measurement by cells by considering the realistic case when the cell starts measuring the moment it comes in contact with the chemoattractants, instead of measuring after equilibrating with the chemotactic concentration as done in the classic Berg and Purcell paper. We find that the error in concentration measurement is still the same as evaluated by Berg and Purcell.

Average search time bounds in cue-based searches.

In this work we consider search problems that evaluate the probability distribution of finding the source at each step in the search. We start with a sample strategy where the movement at each time step is in the immediate neighborhood. The jump probability is taken to be proportional to the normalized difference between the probability of finding the source at the jump location with the probability of finding the source at the present location.

Accuracy of position determination in Ca^{2+} signaling.

A living cell senses its environment and responds to external signals. In this paper, we study theoretically the precision at which cells can determine the position of a spatially localized transient extracellular signal. To this end, we focus on the case where the stimulus is converted into the release of a small molecule that acts as a second messenger, for example, Ca^{2+}, and activates kinases that change the activity of enzymes by phosphorylating them.

Positional Information Readout in Ca^{2+} Signaling.

Living cells respond to spatially confined signals. Intracellular signal transmission often involves the release of second messengers like Ca^{2+}. They eventually trigger a physiological response, for example, by activating kinases that in turn activate target proteins through phosphorylation.

Serum prolactin level and its correlation with psychopathology in drug free/drug naïve schizophrenia a case control study.

Background: There is a discrepancy in literature regarding level of prolactin in drug free/ drug naïve patients with non-affective psychosis. Few earlier studies have found low levels of prolactin whereas recent studies have found high levels of prolactin when compared to controls. Most of these studies have not considered the possible confounding factors.

Issues in data expansion in understanding criticality in biological systems.

At the point of a second-order phase transition also termed as a critical point, systems display long-range order and their macroscopic behaviors are independent of the microscopic details making up the system. Due to these properties, it has long been speculated that biological systems that show similar behavior despite having very different microscopics, may be operating near a critical point. Recent methods in neuroscience are making it possible to explore whether criticality exists in neural networks.

Physical model of protein cluster positioning in growing bacteria.

Chemotaxic receptors in bacteria form clusters at cell poles and also laterally, and this clustering plays an important role in signal transduction. These clusters were found to be periodically arranged on the surface of the bacterium Escherichia coli, independent of any known positioning mechanism. In this work we extend a model based on diffusion and aggregation to more realistic geometries and present a means based on "bursty" protein production to distinguish spontaneous positioning from an independently existing positioning mechanism.

Bacterial motion in narrow capillaries.

Motile bacteria often have to pass through small tortuous pores in soil or tissue of higher organisms. However, their motion in this prevalent type of niche is not fully understood. Here, we modeled it with narrow glass capillaries and identified a critical radius (Rc) for bacterial motion.

Confinement-dependent localization of diffusing aggregates in cellular geometries.

Confinement has a strong influence on diffusing nano-sized clusters. In particular, biomolecular aggregates within the shell-like confining space of a bacterial cell have been shown to display a variety of localization patterns, from being midcell to the poles. How does the confining space determine where the aggregate will localize? Here, using Monte Carlo simulations we have calculated the equilibrium spatial distribution of fixed-sized clusters diffusing in spherocylindrical shells.

Modeling curvature-dependent subcellular localization of the small sporulation protein SpoVM in Bacillus subtilis.

Recent in vivo experiments suggest that in the bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, the cue for the localization of the small sporulation protein, SpoVM, an essential factor in spore coat formation, is curvature of the bacterial plasma membrane. In vitro measurements of SpoVM adsorption to vesicles of varying sizes also find high sensitivity of adsorption to vesicle radius. This curvature-dependent adsorption is puzzling given the orders of magnitude difference in length scale between an individual protein and the radius of curvature of the cell or vesicle, suggesting protein clustering on the membrane.

Modeling the dynamics of dendritic actin waves in living cells.

The actin cytoskeleton in living cells exhibits a high degree of capacity for dynamic self-organization. Recent experiments have observed propagating actin waves in Dictyostelium cells recovering from complete depolymerization of their actin cytoskeleton. The propagation of these waves appear to be dependent on a programmed recruitment of a few proteins that control actin assembly and disassembly.