Fuel use in small-scale fishing vessels along the southeast coast of India: a comparative study to ascertain possible reasons and potential recommendations for effective management.

Regulating the fuel consumption of small-scale fishing vessels could help to keep global warming well below 1.5 °C and lead to effective management in small-scale fisheries (SSF) of developing countries like India. In this regard, a bottom-up approach was carried out to collect the requisite data to explore the fuel consumption of small-scale fishing vessels along India's southeast coast. Consequently, twenty-four fishing vessels (type A to type X) were grouped into seven categories based on fishing methods. The estimated numerical value of fuel use intensity (FUI) ranging from 0.08 to 0.80 was used to examine the fuel-efficient fishing vessel and engine type. In addition, the estimated revenue on fuel ranging from ₹5625.06/l to ₹218.07/l and annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the Tier 1 method were used to understand the economic efficiency and GHG emission trend, respectively. The total annual GHG emissions from all the fishing vessels at the selected sites were about 1.25E + 08 t CO2-eq year-1. The result shows that longline-cum-gillnetters, seine-netters, longliners and drift-gillnetters largely contributed to 65% of the annual GHG emissions. By recognizing the factors influencing the fuel consumption of fishing vessels in SSF, this sector could be understood, effectively managed, and performed well. Therefore, the possible reasons were extensively discussed through a comparative approach, and potential recommendations for effective management were made.

A LytM-Domain Factor, ActS, Functions in Two Distinctive Peptidoglycan Hydrolytic Pathways in E. coli.

Bacterial cell wall contains peptidoglycan (PG) to protect the cells from turgor and environmental stress. PG consists of polymeric glycans cross-linked with each other by short peptide chains and forms an elastic mesh-like sacculus around the cytoplasmic membrane. Bacteria encode a plethora of PG hydrolytic enzymes of diverse specificity playing crucial roles in growth, division, or turnover of PG. In Escherichia coli, the cross-link-specific endopeptidases, MepS, -M, and -H, facilitate the enlargement of PG sacculus during cell elongation, whereas LytM-domain factors, EnvC and NlpD activate the division-specific amidases, AmiA, -B, and -C to facilitate the cell separation. In a screen to isolate additional factors involved in PG enlargement, we identified actS (encoding a LytM paralog, formerly ygeR) as its overexpression compensated the loss of elongation-specific endopeptidase, MepS. The overexpression of ActS resulted in the generation of partly denuded glycan strands in PG sacculi, indicating that ActS is either an amidase or an activator of amidase(s). The detailed genetic and biochemical analyses established that ActS is not a PG hydrolase, but an activator of the division-specific amidase, AmiC. However, interestingly, the suppression of the mepS growth defects by actS is not mediated through AmiC. The domain-deletion experiments confirmed the requirement of the N-terminal LysM domain of ActS for the activation of AmiC, but not for the alleviation of growth defects in mepS mutants, indicating that ActS performs two distinctive PG metabolic functions. Altogether our results suggest that in addition to activating the division-specific amidase, AmiC, ActS modulates yet another pathway that remains to be identified.

A synergistic role for two predicted inner membrane proteins of Escherichia coli in cell envelope integrity.

The bacterial cytoplasmic membrane is a principal site of protein translocation, lipid and peptidoglycan biogenesis, signal transduction, transporters and energy generating components of the respiratory chain. Although 25-30% of bacterial proteomes consist of membrane proteins, a comprehensive understanding of their influence on fundamental cellular processes is incomplete. Here, we show that YciB and DcrB, two small cytoplasmic membrane proteins of previously unknown functions, play an essential synergistic role in maintaining cell envelope integrity of Escherichia coli. Lack of both YciB and DcrB results in pleiotropic cell defects including increased levels of lipopolysaccharide, membrane vesiculation, dynamic shrinking and extension of the cytoplasmic membrane accompanied by lysis and cell death. The stalling of an abundant outer membrane lipoprotein, Lpp, at the periplasmic face of the inner membrane leads to lethal inner membrane-peptidoglycan linkages. Additionally, the periplasmic chaperone Skp contributes to yciB dcrB mutant cell death by possibly mistargeting stalled porins into the inner membrane. Consistent with the idea of a compromised envelope in the yciB dcrB mutant, multiple envelope stress response systems are induced, with Cpx signal transduction being required for growth. Taken together, our results suggest a fundamental role for YciB and DcrB in cell envelope biogenesis.

Psychiatric morbidity in the community: A population based-study from Kerala.

BACKGROUND: Estimates of psychiatric morbidity in the community will help service development. Participation of trained nonspecialist health-care providers will facilitate scaling up of services in resource-limited settings. AIMS: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of priority mental health problems in populations served by the District Mental Health Program (DMHP). SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This is a population-based cross-sectional survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We did stratified cluster sampling of households in five districts of Kerala. Trained Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) identified people who had symptoms suggestive of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Clinicians evaluated the information collected by the ASHAs and designated individuals as probable cases of psychosis or noncases. Screening instruments such as General Health Questionnaire-12, CAGE questionnaire, and Everyday Abilities Scale for India were used for identifying common mental disorders (CMDs), clinically significant alcohol-related problems, and functional impairment. RESULTS: We found 12.43% of the adult population affected by mental health conditions. We found CMD as most common with a prevalence of 9%. The prevalence of psychosis was 0.71%, clinically significant alcohol-related problems was 1.46%, and dementia and other cognitive impairments was 1.26%. We found informant-based case finding to be useful in the identification of psychosis. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health problems are common. Nonspecialist health-care providers can be trained to identify psychiatric morbidity in the community. Their participation will help in narrowing the treatment gap. Embedding operational research to DMHP will make scaling up more efficient.

Biochemical characterization, homology modeling and docking studies of ornithine delta-aminotransferase--an important enzyme in proline biosynthesis of plants.

Ornithine delta-aminotransferase (OAT) is an important enzyme in proline biosynthetic pathway and is implicated in salt tolerance in higher plants. OAT transaminates ornithine to pyrroline 5-carboxylate, which is further catalyzed to proline by pyrroline 5-carboxylate reductase. The Vigna aconitifolia OAT cDNA, encoding a polypeptide of 48.1 kDa, was expressed in Escherichia coli and the enzyme was partially characterized following its purification using (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation and gel filtration techniques. Optimal activity of the enzyme was observed at a temperature of 25 degrees C and pH 8.0. The enzyme appeared to be a monomer and exhibited high activity at 4mM ornithine. Proline did not show any apparent effect but isoleucine, valine and serine inhibited the activity when added into the assay mixture along with ornithine. Omission of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate from the reaction mixture reduced the activity of this enzyme by 60%. To further evaluate these biochemical observations, homology modeling of the OAT was performed based on the crystal structure of the ornithine delta-aminotransferase from humans (PDB code 1OAT) by using the software MODELLER6v2. With the aid of the molecular mechanics and dynamics methods, the final model was obtained and assessed subsequently by PROCHECK and VERIFY-3D graph. With this model, a flexible docking study with the substrate and inhibitors was performed and the results indicated that Gly106 and Lys256 in OAT are the important determinant residues in binding as they have strong hydrogen bonding contacts with the substrate and inhibitors. These observations are in conformity with the results obtained from experimental investigations.

Rubidium chloride tolerant callus cultures of rice (Oryza sativa L.) accumulate more potassium and cross tolerate to other salts.

Callus cultures from salt tolerant (CSR-10) and susceptible (Swarnadhan) varieties of Oryza sativa L. were established in Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium containing lethal concentrations (50 mM) of rubidium chloride (RbCl) as a selective agent. While 95-100% cells were viable in callus cultures grown without RbCl, viability was 75% in 50 mM RbCl selected cultures. Growth of RbCl selected calli in presence of salt was comparable to that of callus grown without it. Cells tolerant to RbCl showed more vacuoles and accumulated more K(+) in comparison with their corresponding controls. Suspension cultures were established and uptake of (86)Rb(+) was measured at 10 and 20 min intervals, which revealed a linear relationship between the absorption of K(+) and time. Callus cultures (560-day-old) tolerant to 50 mM RbCl regenerated shoots with 35-40% frequencies in both the varieties, but the same age-old callus grown in the medium devoid of RbCl did not show any organogenesis. Callus cultures that are tolerant to 50 mM RbCl when exposed to 25 mM LiCl, 50 mM NaCl, 50 mM KCl and 25 mM CsCl also exhibited cross tolerance in both the varieties. This is the first time that a callus line of rice resistant to RbCl was raised and shown to accumulate a major cation K(+ )and also an increased influx of it.