8 research outputs found
Sex trafficking of girls and women : Evidence from Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh
No full textA crucial gap in the trafficking literature from India is the dearth of primary data and micro studies that could be used for vulnerability mapping of the source areas and addressing the identified risk factors. The present paper is a small attempt to contribute to plugging the gap in the context of Andhra Pradesh, identified as a hot spot in the trafficking literature. This paper is based on case studies of 78 women who had been trafficked from their places of origin in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh to metropolitan cities across India and who have since returned to their homes. The paper attempted to identify the individual and family circumstances that contribute to the causes of trafficking, to highlight in particular the gendered vulnerabilities that set these women up for trafficking, and to capture the process of the trafficking experience. The findings of the study are located in the dynamic interplay of the social structural context and specificities of the district that contribute to causes of trafficking and the individual circumstances and agency of the women. The case studies reported in this paper are a pointer to the compelling urgency of interventions that will go beyond the forced / voluntary divide in trafficking and sex work.Andhra Pradesh, India, trafficking
Ntf3 acts downstream of Sip1 in cortical postmitotic neurons to control progenitor cell fate through feedback signaling
No full textCortical progenitors undergo progressive fate restriction, thereby sequentially producing the different layers of the neocortex. However, how these progenitors precisely change their fate remains highly debatable. We have previously shown the existence of cortical feedback mechanisms wherein postmitotic neurons signal back to the progenitors and promote a switch from neurogenesis to gliogenesis. We showed that Sip1 (Zeb2), a transcriptional repressor, controls this feedback signaling. A similar mechanism was also suggested to control neuronal cell type specification; however, the underlying mechanism was not identified. Here, we provide direct evidence that in the developing mouse neocortex, Ntf3, a Sip1 target neurotrophin, acts as a feedback signal between postmitotic neurons and progenitors, promoting both apical progenitor (AP) to basal progenitor (BP) and deep layer (DL) to upper layer (UL) cell fate switches. We show that specific overexpression of Ntf3 in neocortical neurons promotes an overproduction of BP at the expense of AP. This shift is followed by a decrease in DL and an increase in UL neuronal production. Loss of Ntf3, by contrast, causes an increase in layer VI neurons but does not rescue the Sip1 mutant phenotype, implying that other parallel pathways also control the timing of progenitor cell fate switch
Sex trafficking of girls and women: Evidence from Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh
No full textA crucial gap in the trafficking literature from India is the dearth of primary data and micro studies that could be used for vulnerability mapping of the source areas and addressing the identified risk factors. The present paper is a small attempt to contribute to plugging the gap in the context of Andhra Pradesh, identified as a ‘hot spot’ in the trafficking literature. This paper is based on case studies of 78 women who had been trafficked from their places of origin in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh to metropolitan cities across India and who have since returned to their homes. The paper attempted to identify the individual and family circumstances that contribute to the causes of trafficking, to highlight in particular the gendered vulnerabilities that set these women up for trafficking, and to capture the process of the trafficking experience. The findings of the study are located in the dynamic interplay of the social structural context and specificities of the district that contribute to causes of trafficking and the individual circumstances and agency of the women. The case studies reported in this paper are a pointer to the compelling urgency of interventions that will go beyond the forced / voluntary divide in trafficking and sex work.Andhra Pradesh, India, trafficking
Survivors of Sex Trafficking in Andhra Pradesh
No full text In the literature on trafficking in India there is a crucial dearth of primary data and micro studies that could be used for vulnerability mapping of the source areas and for addressing the risk factors identified. The article is a small attempt to contribute to plugging the gap in the context of Andhra Pradesh, identified as a ‘hot spot’ in the literature. It is based on case studies of 78 women who had been trafficked from their places of origin in Anantapur district to metropolitan cities across India and who have since returned to their homes. The article attempts to identify the individual and family circumstances that contribute to trafficking, to highlight in particular the gendered vulnerabilities that set these women up for trafficking, and to capture the process of the trafficking experience. The case studies reported here point to the compelling urgency of interventions that will go beyond the forced/voluntary divide in trafficking and sex work. </jats:p
Retaining Hückel Aromaticity in the Triplet Excited State of Azobenzene
No full textThe implication of the potential concept of aromaticity in the relaxed lowest triplet state of azobenzene, an efficient molecular switch, using elementary aromaticity indices based on magnetic, electronic, and geometric criteria has been discussed. Azobenzene exhibits a major Hückel aromatic character retained in the diradical lowest relaxed triplet state (T1) by virtue of a twisted geometry with partial delocalization of unpaired electrons in the perpendicular p-orbitals of two nitrogen atoms to the corresponding phenyl rings. The computational analysis has been expanded further to stilbene and N-diphenylmethanimine for an extensive understanding of the effect of closed-shell Hückel aromaticity in double-bond-linked phenyl rings. Our analysis concluded that stilbene has Hückel aromatic character in the relaxed T1 state and N-diphenylmethanimine has a considerable Hückel aromaticity in the phenyl ring near the carbon atom while a paramount Baird aromaticity in the phenyl ring near the nitrogen atom of the C=N double bond. The results reveal the application of excited-state aromaticity as a general tool for the design of molecular switches
First description of the Minnesota Earth System Model for Ocean biogeochemistry (MESMO 1.0)
No full textHere we describe the first version of the Minnesota Earth System Model for Ocean biogeochemistry (MESMO 1.0), an intermediate complexity model based on the Grid ENabled Integrated Earth system model (GENIE-1). As with GENIE-1, MESMO has a 3D dynamical ocean, energy-moisture balance atmosphere, dynamic and thermodynamic sea ice, and marine biogeochemistry. Main development goals of MESMO were to: (1) bring oceanic uptake of anthropogenic transient tracers within data constraints; (2) increase vertical resolution in the upper ocean to better represent near-surface biogeochemical processes; (3) calibrate the deep ocean ventilation with observed abundance of radiocarbon. We achieved all these goals through a combination of objective model optimization and subjective targeted tuning. An important new feature in MESMO that dramatically improved the uptake of CFC-11 and anthropogenic carbon is the depth dependent vertical diffusivity in the ocean, which is spatially uniform in GENIE-1. In MESMO, biological production occurs in the top two layers above the compensation depth of 100 m and is modified by additional parameters, for example, diagnosed mixed layer depth. In contrast, production in GENIE-1 occurs in a single layer with thickness of 175 m. These improvements make MESMO a well-calibrated model of intermediate complexity suitable for investigations of the global marine carbon cycle requiring long integration time
De novo genome assembly of Tectona grandis (Teak) with 2993 scaffolds
No full textTeak (Tectona grandis L. f.) is one of the precious bench mark tropical hardwood having qualities of durability, strength and visual pleasantries. Natural teak populations harbour a variety of characteristics that determine their economic, ecological and environmental importance. Sequencing of whole nuclear genome of teak provides a platform for functional analyses and development of genomic tools in applied tree improvement. A draft genome of 317 Mb was assembled at 151× coverage and annotated 36, 172 protein-coding genes. Approximately about 11.18% of the genome was repetitive. Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are undoubtedly the most informative markers in genotyping, genetics and applied breeding applications. We generated 182,712 SSRs at the whole genome level, of which, 170,574 perfect SSRs were found; 16,252 perfect SSRs showed in silico polymorphisms across six genotypes suggesting their promising use in genetic conservation and tree improvement programmes. Genomic SSR markers developed in this study have high potential in advancing conservation and management of teak genetic resources. Phylogenetic studies confirmed the taxonomic position of the genus Tectona within the family Lamiaceae. Interestingly, estimation of divergence time inferred that the Miocene origin of the Tectona genus to be around 21.4508 million years ago.Funding provided by: Department of Biotechnology, Government of IndiaCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001502Award Number: BT/PR7143/PBD/16/1011/2012WGS was performed using Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform and Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION device by the Genotypic Technology, Bengaluru, India in accordance to standard protocols. Accession 2 was selected for the generation of high quality reference genome assembly. Accessions 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were subjected to low coverage genome sequencing to identify polymorphic SSRs. In the case of accession 2, one paired end (PE) (150 bp × 2) library of size 300–700 bp, two mate pair (MP) libraries (2–4 and 4–6 kb fragments) and one nanopore library with genomic DNA (2 μg) were prepared for sequencing. In Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform, one lane of the flow cell was used for each sequencing library. Nanopore sequencing was performed using R9.4 flow cells on a MinION Mk 1B device (Oxford Nanopore) with the MinKNOW software (versions 1.0.5–1.5.12) and base calling was performed using Albacore 1.1.0 (Oxford Nanopore). Template reads were exported as FASTA using poretools version 0.6. In the case of other five accessions (1, 3, 4, 5 and 6) one PE library for each with the size of 300–700 bp was sequenced at ∼15× coverage through Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform. The raw data is uploaded in genome database of GenBank (Project id: PRJNA374940).
The Illumina PE raw reads were filtered using FastQC and the raw reads were processed by in-house (Genotypic Technology, Bangaluru, India) ABLT script for low-quality bases and adapters removal. The MP reads were processed using Platanus24 internal trimmer for adapters and low-quality regions towards 3'-end. The processed PE reads along with MP and nanopore reads were used for contig generation using MaSuRCA v 3.2.2 de novo assembler.25 To assemble the genome following command was used in MaSuRCA assembler: GRAPH_KMER_SIZE = auto, LIMIT_JUMP_COVERAGE = 300, JF_SIZE = 38000000000, DO_HOMOPOLYMER_TRIM = 1. Scaffolding of the assembled contigs was performed using SSPACE v 2.0.526 with processed PE and MP reads followed by gap filling using Gap Closer v 1.12.27 The genome size was estimated automatically during read computing stage which utilized both the Illuimna and Nanopore reads. Similarly, the low depth Illumina reads generated for five accessions of teak were assembled using accession 2 as reference. The sequenced data was uploaded to the Genome database of GenBank (Project id: PRJNA421422).
For a functional overview of draft genome, assembled scaffolds were converted to FASTA formatted sequences, hard masked by RepeatMasker tool (RepeatMasker Open-3.0; www.repeatmasker.org (10 November 2017, date last accessed)). Repeats of Arabidopsis thaliana were used as reference for genome masking. Gene prediction was carried out using Augustus 3.0.228 programme and predicted proteins were searched against the Uniprot non-redundant plant protein database (Taxonomy = Viridiplante) with BlastX algorithm with an e-value (e-10) for gene ontology and annotation. Pathway annotation was performed by mapping the sequences obtained from Blast2GO to the contents of the KEGG Automatic Annotation Server (http://www.genome.jp/kegg/kaas/ (10 November 2017, date last accessed)
Disease X: Combating the next pandemic needs the nifty wastewater-based epidemiology tool
No full texthe recent article [1] by Kate Bingham and Tim Hanes is a reminder and a warning that the next pandemic is inevitable, and it can potentially prove to be even more lethal than the last one. As noted by Kate Bingham and Tim Hanes, the flu pandemic in 1918–1919 caused an estimated 50 million deaths globally, and today one of the many viruses circulating have the potential to cause as much destruction internationally, this pathogen being Disease X
