Voltage-activated currents and their modulation in somatic muscle cells of the nematode Ascaris suum

Voltage-activated currents have been isolated in nematodes and are associated with depolarization (calcium channels) or recovery of the cell after the depolarization (potassium channels). Different subtypes of voltage-activated calcium channel have been identified in vertebrates. In nematodes, advances in C. elegans genomics led to the identification of voltage-activated calcium channel subtypes. These subtypes show homologies to vertebrate calcium channels but are pharmacologically and physiologically different. The understanding of the physiology of these different voltage-activated channels is becoming increasingly important as we try to lower the development of resistance to present anthelmintics. Major classes of anthelmintics produce their effect by modulating neuromuscular system either indirectly or directly. Therefore, it is important for us to understand the physiology of these channels in the worms to either identify novel drug target sites or understand the mechanism of development of resistance. Recently a new class of anthelmintic compounds, cyclo-octadepsipeptides, has been released for animal use. There modes of action include, latrophillin receptors activation, PF1 like neuropeptide release and more recently demonstrated activation of voltage-activated calcium dependent potassium channels. It is known from previous work done in A. suum and C. elegans that there are voltage-activated channels on the muscle membrane. Electrophysiological recordings in A. suum and other nematodes have shown that these currents may be modulated by different anthelmintics. We used voltage-clamp and current-clamp techniques to study voltage-activated currents in the pig parasitic nematode A. suum somatic muscle cells. We were able to isolate two types of voltage-activated calcium currents and one type of outward potassium current. We have characterized these channels pharmacologically and kinetically. We also realized that these channels, if modulated, could potentiate the response of cholinergic anthelmintics. Further, we used different endogenous nematode neuropeptides to modulate these currents.;Neuropeptides and their receptors offer novel drug target sites, not only for the development of new anthelmintics, but also to increase the potency of existing drugs. We anticipate that our observations will increase the understanding of worm physiology and validate the potential for exploring neuropeptide receptors for anthelmintic chemotherapy

Marketing Strategies of Ice Cream Companies in India

Although India is the world's largest milk and dairy products producer, it is surprising to see that ice cream consumption remains low at 400 ml. The Indian ice cream market is expected to grow to over 50% from 2019 to 2022, owing to several factors, including ice cream varieties available for the consumers, such as soft ice cream and hard ice cream. The Indian ice cream market consists of both Indian and international brands. These brands are present across metropolitan cities, small towns, and even rural areas. While big brands account for a significant share of the market in cities, it is mostly the unorganised players contributing significantly to its growth in rural areas

Fractal dimension for Inhomogeneous graph-directed attractors

In this paper, we define inhomogeneous Graph-Directed (GD) separation conditions for a given inhomogeneous GD Iterated Function Systems (IFS), and estimate the upper box dimension of attractors by the dimension of the condensation set and associated Mauldin-Williams graph dimension. Following some work of Fraser, we also estimate the lower box dimension of attractors generated by inhomogeneous GDIFS. In the end, we shed few lights on the continuity of dimensions for the attractors of inhomogeneous GDIFS.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Single-object Imaging and Spectroscopy to Enhance Dark Energy Science from LSST

Single-object imaging and spectroscopy on telescopes with apertures ranging from ~4 m to 40 m have the potential to greatly enhance the cosmological constraints that can be obtained from LSST. Two major cosmological probes will benefit greatly from LSST follow-up: accurate spectrophotometry for nearby and distant Type Ia supernovae will expand the cosmological distance lever arm by unlocking the constraining power of high-z supernovae; and cosmology with time delays of strongly-lensed supernovae and quasars will require additional high-cadence imaging to supplement LSST, adaptive optics imaging or spectroscopy for accurate lens and source positions, and IFU or slit spectroscopy to measure detailed properties of lens systems. We highlight the scientific impact of these two science drivers, and discuss how additional resources will benefit them. For both science cases, LSST will deliver a large sample of objects over both the wide and deep fields in the LSST survey, but additional data to characterize both individual systems and overall systematics will be key to ensuring robust cosmological inference to high redshifts. Community access to large amounts of natural-seeing imaging on ~2-4 m telescopes, adaptive optics imaging and spectroscopy on 8-40 m telescopes, and high-throughput single-target spectroscopy on 4-40 m telescopes will be necessary for LSST time domain cosmology to reach its full potential. In two companion white papers we present the additional gains for LSST cosmology that will come from deep and from wide-field multi-object spectroscopy.Comment: Submitted to the call for Astro2020 science white paper