Benefits and Perception of Dry Chilli Farmers in Online Marketing: Experiences from Karnataka State, India

In recent years e-commerce has found its way in agricultural sector in India, in line with other sectors, agricultural businesses have taken up e-marketing, or internet marketing. For implementation of agricultural marketing policy to bring an efficiency and transparency in the agricultural marketing system for efficient price discovery to benefit farmers, the initiation was taken by Government of Karnataka and the NCDEX Spot Exchange Limited in this direction.Unified Marketing Platform (UMP) an initiative by the state govt. launched in 2014 by the Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMs). The present study attempts to assess the benefits and perception of farmers in online marketing of dry chilli in Hubballi and Byadgi regulated markets, about 60 online dry chilli farmers and 60 traditional farmers were selected. The descriptive statistics used to analyze the data. Total returns obtained by traditional farmers with Rs.30,585/acre and comparatively less than online farmers was Rs.34,525/acre. Percentage price of commodities across marketsin online marketing was more than traditional marketing price. In online marketing the infrastructures like lot entry, adequacy and time price information, wider market area, better price and SMS alert were adequate, gate entry, storage, computers, e-payment were partially adequate. Grading and cold storage were inadequate. Maximum number of traditional farmers preferred progressive farmers for market information followed by friends as source of information. Online farmers were used mobile phone as major source of information followed by newspaper. Majority of online farmers were involved in grading and got SMS registration, got remunerative price. Very few of traditional farmers had knowledge about banking, SMS registration and grading. Infrastructure for post-harvest management needs to be strengthening primary level on public-private partnership mode. There is need to create awareness about online marketing through training, campaigns and other extension activities to farmers

Basti - A critical review on the basis of historical aspect

Basti is one of the most vital measure described in different texts for the internal purification of the body. Panchakarma plays a major role in eradicating the disease and its wide applicability bound Acharyas to describe it as 'Chikitsardha'. Because of its said peculiarities, we decided to search and elaborate its descriptions in various texts starting from the oldest one i.e. Vedas. Basti has been described in nearly all texts starting from Veda, Purana upto Yogic and all Ayurvedic Samhitas. Although various Acharyas described its various types and applications but most of the Ayurvedic Samhitas mentioned Basti especially for pacification of Vata Dosha

An approach to Kaarya Karana Vaada in context to Prakruti Sama Samveta and Vikruti Vishama Samvetha

Ayurveda is an ancient science based on different schools of philosophies. As it is an applied science so it has the scientific background. The fundamental principles of Ayurveda are laid down after undergoing experimentation from time to time. This is the reason that these principles are still applicable and holds good even in present era. One such basic principle is Kaarya Karana Vaada (cause and effect theory). Kaarya Karana Vaada consists of two basic philosophy, Satkaaryavaada (theory of existence) and Asatkaaryavaada (theory of non existence). The principles of diagnosis and management of disease according to Ayurveda is based on this Kaarya Karana sidhantha. It helps in understanding the concepts of prakruti Sama Samavetha and vikruti Vishama Samavetha , the two principles explained in Ayurveda to understand the concept of diagnosis , treatment and health management

Towards a Networks-of-Networks Framework for Cyber Security

Networks-of-networks (NoN) is a graph-theoretic model of interdependent networks that have distinct dynamics at each network (layer). By adding special edges to represent relationships between nodes in different layers, NoN provides a unified mechanism to study interdependent systems intertwined in a complex relationship. While NoN based models have been proposed for cyber-physical systems, in this position paper we build towards a three-layered NoN model for an enterprise cyber system. Each layer captures a different facet of a cyber system. We present in-depth discussion for four major graph- theoretic applications to demonstrate how the three-layered NoN model can be leveraged for continuous system monitoring and mission assurance.Comment: A shorter (3-page) version of this paper will appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics 2013, Seattle Washington, USA, June 4-7, 201

EFFECT OF SURFACE TREATMENT WITH REMINERALIZING ON THE COLOR STABILITY AND ROUGHNESS OF ESTHETIC RESTORATIVE MATERIALS

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the in vitro effect of fluoride varnish, APF gel and MI paste on the color stability and surface roughness of esthetic restorative materials. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 60 disks of each conventional glass ionomer and resin composite were made using molds of 1.2 cm x 2 mm. All the specimens were suspended in artificial saliva for 48 hours at 37ºC. Subsequently, fluoride varnish, APF gel, and MI paste were applied to all the subgroups except the controls. All the specimens were again suspended in artificial saliva and incubated at 37ºC for 24 hours. After incubation, they were cleaned using a toothbrush and toothpaste, and stored in the artificial saliva for 1 week. During this period, the specimens were subjected to color and surface roughness measurement. RESULTS: Measurements were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and compared between two groups by Student’s t test. One way ANOVA was used for multiple group comparison and Tukey’s test for pair wise comparison. CONCLUSION: The deterioration of GIC material was more rapid compared to composites when fluoride varnish, APF gels and GC Tooth Mousse were applied. The use of remineralizing agents on esthetic restorative materials causes changes in color and surface texture

Applying multimodal AI to physiological waveforms improves genetic prediction of cardiovascular traits

Electronic health records, biobanks, and wearable biosensors enable the collection of multiple health modalities from many individuals. Access to multimodal health data provides a unique opportunity for genetic studies of complex traits because different modalities relevant to a single physiological system (e.g., circulatory system) encode complementary and overlapping information. We propose a multimodal deep learning method, multimodal representation learning for genetic discovery on low-dimensional embeddings (M-REGLE), for discovering genetic associations from a joint representation of complementary electrophysiological waveform modalities. M-REGLE jointly learns a lower representation (i.e., latent factors) of multimodal physiological waveforms using a convolutional variational autoencoder, performs genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on each latent factor, then combines the results to study the genetics of the underlying system. To validate the advantages of M-REGLE and multimodal learning, we apply it to common cardiovascular modalities (photoplethysmogram [PPG] and electrocardiogram [ECG]) and compare its results to unimodal learning methods in which representations are learned from each data modality separately but are statistically combined for downstream genetic comparison. M-REGLE identifies 19.3% more loci on the 12-lead ECG dataset, 13.0% more loci on the ECG lead I + PPG dataset, and its genetic risk score significantly outperforms the unimodal risk score at predicting cardiac phenotypes, such as atrial fibrillation (Afib), in multiple biobanks

The association of alcohol consumption with glaucoma and related traits: findings from the UK Biobank

PURPOSE: To examine the associations of alcohol consumption with glaucoma and related traits; to assess whether a genetic predisposition to glaucoma modified these associations; and to perform Mendelian randomization (MR) experiments to probe causal effects. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational and gene-environment interaction analyses in the UK Biobank. Two-sample MR experiments using summary statistics from large genetic consortia. PARTICIPANTS: UK Biobank participants with data on intraocular pressure (IOP) (n=109 097), OCT derived macular inner retinal layer thickness measures (n=46 236) and glaucoma status (n=173 407). METHODS: Participants were categorized according to self-reported drinking behaviors. Quantitative estimates of alcohol intake were derived from touchscreen questionnaires and food composition tables. We performed a two-step analysis, first comparing categories of alcohol consumption (never, infrequent, regular, and former drinkers), before assessing for a dose-response effect in regular drinkers only. Multivariable linear, logistic and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression, adjusted for key sociodemographic, medical, anthropometric and lifestyle factors, were used to examine associations. We assessed whether any association was modified by a multi-trait glaucoma polygenic risk score. The inverse-variance weighted method was used for the main MR analyses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: IOP, macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL) thickness, macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL) thickness, and prevalent glaucoma. RESULTS: Compared to infrequent drinkers, regular drinkers had higher IOP (+0.17mmHg; P<0.001) and thinner mGCIPL (-0.17μm; P=0.049); while former drinkers had a higher prevalence of glaucoma (OR 1.53; P=0.002). In regular drinkers, alcohol intake was adversely associated with all outcomes in a dose-dependent manner (all P<0.001). RCS regression analyses suggested non-linear associations, with apparent threshold effects at approximately 50g (∼6 UK or 4 US alcoholic units)/week, for mRNFL and mGCIPL thickness. Significantly stronger alcohol-IOP associations were observed in participants at higher genetic susceptibility to glaucoma (Pinteraction<0.001). MR analyses provided evidence for a causal association with mGCIPL thickness. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol intake was consistently and adversely associated with glaucoma and related traits, and at levels below current UK (<112g/week) and US (women: <98g/week; men: <196g/week) guidelines. While we cannot infer causality definitively, these results will be of interest to people with, or at risk of, glaucoma and their advising physicians

Multi-Ancestry Genome-Wide Association Study of Cannabis Use Disorder Yields Insight Into Disease Biology and Public Health Implications

As recreational use of cannabis is being decriminalized in many places and medical use widely sanctioned, there are growing concerns about increases in cannabis use disorder (CanUD), which is associated with numerous medical comorbidities. Here we performed a genome-wide association study of CanUD in the Million Veteran Program (MVP), followed by meta-analysis in 1,054,365 individuals (ncases = 64,314) from four broad ancestries designated by the reference panel used for assignment (European n = 886,025, African n = 123,208, admixed American n = 38,289 and East Asian n = 6,843). Population-specific methods were applied to calculate single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability within each ancestry. Statistically significant single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability for CanUD was observed in all but the smallest population (East Asian). We discovered genome-wide significant loci unique to each ancestry: 22 in European, 2 each in African and East Asian, and 1 in admixed American ancestries. A genetically informed causal relationship analysis indicated a possible effect of genetic liability for CanUD on lung cancer risk, suggesting potential unanticipated future medical and psychiatric public health consequences that require further study to disentangle from other known risk factors such as cigarette smoking

Identification of Clinical Immunological Determinants in Asymptomatic VL and Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis Patients

Background: Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) caused by protozoa belonging to the genus Leishmania, usually have anthroponotic mode of transmission and is issue of great public health importance in Indian subcontinent. Asymptomatic cases of VL and PKDL are subject of keen interest to find their role in the transmission of VL in epidemic areas. We evaluated the immunological cytokine determinants expressed in most clinical suspects of asymptomatic VL and PKDL (IL-10, IFN-γ, and TNF-α). Methods: Eighty-four participants were included at RMRIMS, Patna, India in 2016-17 out of which 64 asymptomatic individual positive for rK-39, without sign and symptoms of VL; 15 PKDL patient’s with past history of VL and 5 endemic healthy subjects were recruited from VL endemic areas. DAT and quantitative assessment of plasma cytokines was determined from the blood samples collected in a plain and sodium-EDTA vacutainer respectively from the subjects. Results: The mean level of IL-10 in DATposLOW of asymptomatic VL and PKDL was significantly higher than endemic healthy (P<0.05). The cytokine polarization index (IFN-γ versus IL-10) was significantly low in PKDL cases compared with asymptomatic VL cases in DATposLOW titre (P<0.05). This index was low again but statistically not significant in PKDL than in asymptomatic VL when TNF-α was considered against IL-10. The ratio of IFN-γ: IL-10 and TNF-α: IL-10 was observed decreased both in asymptomatic VL and PKDL cases than in healthy from endemic areas. Conclusion: Collectively we surmise from our data that asymptomatic VL can also play an important role like PKDL in transmission of VL

The Association of Alcohol Consumption with Glaucoma and Related Traits: Findings from the UK Biobank.

PurposeTo examine the associations of alcohol consumption with glaucoma and related traits, to assess whether a genetic predisposition to glaucoma modified these associations, and to perform Mendelian randomization (MR) experiments to probe causal effects.DesignCross-sectional observational and gene-environment interaction analyses in the UK Biobank. Two-sample MR experiments using summary statistics from large genetic consortia.ParticipantsUK Biobank participants with data on intraocular pressure (IOP) (n = 109 097), OCT-derived macular inner retinal layer thickness measures (n = 46 236) and glaucoma status (n = 173 407).MethodsParticipants were categorized according to self-reported drinking behaviors. Quantitative estimates of alcohol intake were derived from touchscreen questionnaires and food composition tables. We performed a 2-step analysis, first comparing categories of alcohol consumption (never, infrequent, regular, and former drinkers) before assessing for a dose-response effect in regular drinkers only. Multivariable linear, logistic, and restricted cubic spline regression, adjusted for key sociodemographic, medical, anthropometric, and lifestyle factors, were used to examine associations. We assessed whether any association was modified by a multitrait glaucoma polygenic risk score. The inverse-variance weighted method was used for the main MR analyses.Main outcome measuresIntraocular pressure, macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL) thickness, macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL) thickness, and prevalent glaucoma.ResultsCompared with infrequent drinkers, regular drinkers had higher IOP (+0.17 mmHg; P interaction ConclusionsAlcohol intake was consistently and adversely associated with glaucoma and related traits, and at levels below current United Kingdom (Financial disclosure(s)Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references