We review studies of the social systems of the living elephants—the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), and African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Social systems include social organisation, the way relationships are structured, and the mating system; we describe each of these in turn, drawing from long-term observational studies and studies based

Chytridiomycosis is an emerging infectious disease affecting amphibians globally and it is caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Chytridiomycosis has caused dramatic declines and even extinctions in wild amphibian populations in Europe, Australia, Central and North America. Spanning over two and a half decades, extensive research has led to discovery of epizootic and enzootic

Mitigation of global climate impacts from landfilling of municipal solid waste (MSW) requires a broad understanding of the multitude of factors influencing gas generation and subsequent emissions. Despite recent advances in both measurement and prediction of emissions of gas from MSW landfills, there have been few efforts to collectively gather, analyze, and interpret global gas emissions data. Therefore

Gaps or wide valleys in mountain systems are of much interest to biogeographers and evolutionary biologists since they shape species distributions as well as inter- and intraspecific genetic diversity. The Western Ghats, a hill range that runs parallel to the west coast of India, is one of the biodiversity hotspots with the highest level of endemism in the Indian Subcontinent. This hill range is interrupted

Malaria is the deadliest of all mosquito-borne diseases. Thousands of malaria parasite species exploit squamate reptiles, birds, and mammals as vertebrate hosts as well as dipteran vectors. Among these, avian malaria and related parasites have revealed an extensive genetic diversity as well as phenotypic diversity with varying virulence, host range, distribution−offering an amenable experimental system

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill cover systems have evolved from being merely a soil cap to a multicomponent, nearly impermeable systems providing better control over infiltration and landfill gas (LFG) emissions. Recently, there has been a widespread development of alternative cover systems which addresses the shortcomings of conventional cover systems such as high construction and maintenance

We humans have single-handedly (as a species) changed the ecology of the planet; we are also learning why this, in the long term, is a terrible idea. As we grapple with the fallouts of increasing urbanization, deforestation, loss of wildlife, and human–wildlife conflict, we are beginning to realize that conservation must use every tool available to protect what is left of our natural world. Since molecular

Conservation geneticists apply genetic theory and techniques to preserve endangered species as dynamic entities, capable of coping with environmental change and thus minimizing their risk of extinction. Snow leopards are an umbrella species of High Asia, and a keystone for maintaining biodiversity within this fragile ecosystem. A clear understanding of patterns of snow leopard genetic diversity is

Predicting the response of biota to climate change is an active field of research. Advancements in the field of genomics has revolutionized climate change research. Genomic approaches used together with other ecological tools have the potential to identify the population and/or species at higher risk of extinction due to climate change. Himalayan biodiversity has faced drastic impacts of climate change

This paper presents selected issues of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering in waste landfills in Japan. Due to the limited available land space, there have been efforts in constructing and operating the coastal and offshore landfills, which are expected to provide the opportunities of proper waste management as well as the new land space for urban facilities such as port and harbour. Regulatory

Over the last few decades, landfill design and operational practices have evolved. Current landfill waste cells include innovative features that eliminate most of the negative environmental impacts associated with waste disposal on land. This review focuses on some of the historical and recent advances in waste cell design and operational practices that minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the methodological frameworks and criteria used for municipal solid waste landfill selection. The review is based on 89 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals from 1983 onwards. The descriptive statistical analyses of the reviewed papers consider temporal, location-based quantitative, and qualitative factors. The papers considered are classified

Skin, being the protective barrier against the environment, can be subject to frequent trauma and stress, hence has the ability to heal itself rapidly. This capacity is attributed to a large number of resident stem cells and progenitors in the skin, which are activated to proliferate, migrate and differentiate to recreate the cellular diversity and regain tissue integrity. The barrier function of the

Translational motors that depend on cytoskeletal elements, either actin or tubulin, for their activity are critical for cellular function in eukaryotes. Microtubule (MT)-dependent motors are broadly classified as dyneins and kinesins, based on sequence similarity. Typically, dyneins walk towards the minus-ends of MTs, while kinesins walk towards the plus-ends, with some plant and animal kinesins also

Introduction The plasma membrane of a cell undergoes continuous deformations and turning-over of its constituents required for a diverse set of functions. And yet, the membrane retains its steady-state surface tension—without which these functions are adversely affected. Objectives In this review, we discuss how the establishment and maintenance of the homeostatic state of the membrane has a major

Bacterial pore forming toxins (PFTs) are transmembrane proteins produced by pathogenic bacteria that increase infection severity in several instances. PFTs assemble into nano-sized pores on the host plasma membrane, making it permeable to ions and small molecules. As a response to PFTs, the host cell engages in cytoskeleton-mediated repair mechanisms to overcome the damage inflicted to its plasma membrane

The red blood cell (RBC) is unique in terms of its structure and function when compared to other cells in the blood and body. Its anucleated characteristic and biconcave shape (indicative of high surface area to volume ratio) render it deformable. This deformability is useful during circulation when the red blood cell has to traverse capillaries smaller than its size. The cytoskeleton of the red blood

Binary fission of prokaryotic cells depends on a protein called FtsZ that self-assembles into a membrane-associated ring structure (FtsZ-ring) in the early stages of the cell division process. FtsZ is a tubulin homologue, which interacts with many additional proteins contributing to its function forming a ring at the mid-cell, essential for bacterial cell division. Whether the Z-ring is a force-generating

The actomyosin cortex is a thin film, containing actin filaments and myosin molecular motors, located beneath the plasma-membrane of eukaryotic cells. Active processes, driven by ATP hydrolysis, can generate mechanical forces in the cortex. Coordinated force-generation drives large-scale mechanical flows and orientation patterns. These flows can pattern proteins coupled to the cortex leading to the

The cellular cytoskeleton consisting of microtubules, intermediate filaments and the actin filaments is a dynamic structure providing shape and structural stability to cells. Particularly, the actin cytoskeleton formed by a combination of polymerized actin molecules and several other actin binding proteins including myosin is key to sensing and development of mechanical forces in cells. Given this

Centrosome serves as the primary site of microtubule organization in a majority of animal cells. These microtubules carry out several significant functions in the cell such as cell division, chromosome segregation, mechanical support and cellular transport. Proteins localized at the centrosome play extensive role in orchestrating the process of microtubule organization, growth and stabilization in

T lymphocytes (T cells) are the major mediators of adaptive immune response. They detect pathogens primarily via the interaction of their T cell receptor (TCR) with the cognate pathogen-derived peptide displayed in the context of MHC on the infected cell. A critical step in T cell activation is the formation of immunological synapse, a specialized cell–cell conjugate interface between the T cell and

Some of the key questions of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic (and all outbreaks) include: where did the disease start, how is it spreading, who are at risk, and how to control the spread. There are a large number of complex factors driving the spread of pandemics, and, as a result, multiple modeling techniques play an increasingly important role in shaping public policy and decision-making. As

We highlight the usefulness of city-scale agent-based simulators in studying various non-pharmaceutical interventions to manage an evolving pandemic. We ground our studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrate the power of the simulator via several exploratory case studies in two metropolises, Bengaluru and Mumbai. Such tools may in time become a common-place item in the tool kit

The COVID-19 pandemic is imposing enormous global challenges in managing the spread of the virus. A key pillar to mitigation is contact tracing, which complements testing and isolation. Digital apps for contact tracing using Bluetooth technology available in smartphones have gained prevalence globally. In this article, we discuss various capabilities of such digital contact tracing, and its implication

The COVID -19 pandemic has seen a rise in the deployment of digital health technologies. This includes those aimed at identifying the infected and making sure they did not spread the infection any further as well as other technologies providing data driven insights aimed at improving the effectiveness of decisions such as locking down certain areas and allowing others to re-open. This paper attempts

Many countries have introduced Lockdowns to contain the COVID19 epidemic. Lockdowns, though an effective policy for containment, imposes a heavy cost on the economy as it enforces extreme social distancing measures on the whole population. The objective of this note is to study alternatives to Lockdown which are either more targeted or allows partial opening of the economy. Cities are often spatially

Abstract The digitization of data including health data (referred to as Internet of Things-IoT in Healthcare) and its usage in delivery of healthcare has been growing rapidly across the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a pivot for exponential growth of IoT in healthcare. Several rapidly evolving technologies are converging to influence the trajectory of IoT in healthcare. There are several challenges

COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global health crisis in the last 100 years. Its economic, social and health impact continues to grow and is likely to end up as one of the worst global disasters since the 1918 pandemic and the World Wars. Mathematical models have played an important role in the ongoing crisis; they have been used to inform public policies and have been instrumental in

The Internet, which has spanned several networks in a broad range of domains, is having a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. The next generation of networks will utilize a wide variety of resources with significant sensing capabilities. Such networks will extend beyond physically linked computers to include multimodal-information from biological, cognitive, semantic, and social networks

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is often used as a proxy for the actual number of ground truth COVID-19-infected cases in both public discourse and policy making. However, the number of confirmed cases depends on the testing policy, and it is important to understand how the number of positive cases obtained using different testing policies reveals the unknown ground truth. We develop an agent-based

Pondering on pandemics and the promise of purification from the plethora of problems that it has spawned, the paper builds on a game-theoretic model of host–pathogen interaction, and... moves beyond. It highlights how quickly this ‘wicked’ problem has led to deceptive Nash equilibria of certain information-asymmetric games as well as their sequels of more complex intertwined games at human scale but

Health Heatmap of India is an open data platform built for bringing together data from diverse sources and facilitating visualization, analysis, and insight building from such data. In this paper, we describe the context and need for such an open data platform and describe the technical aspects of building it. The beta site of the portal is available at https://healthheatmapindia.org.

As SARS-CoV-2 continues to propagate around the world, it is becoming increasingly important to scale up testing. This is necessary both at the individual level, to inform diagnosis, treatment and contract tracing, as well as at the population level to inform policies to control spread of the infection. The gold-standard RT-qPCR test for the virus is relatively expensive and takes time, so combining

Disease surveillance is essential not only for the prior detection of outbreaks, but also for monitoring trends of the disease in the long run. In this paper, we aim to build a tactical model for the surveillance of dengue, in particular. Most existing models for dengue prediction exploit its known relationships between climate and socio-demographic factors with the incidence counts; however, they

India reported its first case of COVID-19 on January 30, 2020. Six months since then, COVID-19 continues to be a growing crisis in India with over 1.6 million reported cases. In this communication, we assess the quality of COVID-19 data reporting done by the state and union territory governments in India between July 12 and July 25, 2020. We compare our findings with those from an earlier assessment

There are more than 8000 documented rare diseases in the world. While each disease is rare in itself, it is estimated that 1 in every 15 or 20 persons is affected by some rare disease. Most rare diseases are caused by just one or two small changes in the genome. Identifying the causative variant from the millions of variants that differentiate one person’s genome from another is a challenging task

India is undergoing an epidemiological transition to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with NCDs contributing to nearly 60 percent of all deaths in India. NCDs are challenging to manage given their silent onset, low health awareness, significant informational asymmetry, and low health-seeking behavior among the rural population and the poor in India. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)

Scientists all over the world are moving toward building database systems based on the One Health concept to prevent and manage outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. An appreciation of the process of discovery with incomplete information and a recognition of the role of observations gathered painstakingly by scientists in the field shows that simple databases will not be sufficient to build causal models

The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2—CoVID-19—is a global pandemic that has brought severe changes worldwide. Approximately 80% of the infected patients are largely asymptomatic or have mild symptoms such as fever or cough, while rest of the patients display varying degrees of severity of symptoms, with an average mortality rate of 3–4%. Severe symptoms such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress

Digital twins are defined as digital replicas of processes, systems or devices developed to foster deeper understanding and prediction. While the concept of digital twins has largely been applied in the manufacturing industry, one could conceive of a digital twin that integrates information from diverse scientific and clinical sources to represent the complex and dynamic relationships within biological

This short paper describes a web resource—the NIST CORD-19 Web Resource—for community explorations of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19). The tools for exploration in the web resource make use of the NIST-developed Root- and Rule-based method, which exploits underlying linguistic structures to create terms that represent phrases in a corpus. The method allows for auto-suggesting-related terms

The coronavirus crisis has seen an unprecedented response from India and the world. If the viral outbreak has exposed gross inadequacies in the healthcare systems of nations both rich and poor, it has stirred a digital healthcare revolution that has been building since the past decade. We have seen how this new era of digital health evolved over the years since healthcare started getting increasingly

The Covid-19 pandemic has raised awareness of future biological threats, how we can prepare and develop mitigation strategies. Technology has allowed us to quickly identify the pathogen, map its evolution in real time and develop scores of vaccines within months. This review looks at disease threats from a perspective of human development, and the futuristic technologies that may help in the fight

Bladder carcinoma is the most common malignancy of the urinary system with a high recurrence rate. As of today, bladder carcinoma does not sufficiently benefit from new therapeutic strategies. The molecularly heterogeneous landscape contributes an enormous challenge in the management of this cancer. Consensus clustering based on gene expression data from muscle-invasive and non-muscle-invasive tumors

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that reside in various parts of the body like adipose tissue, bone marrow and umbilical cord with an ability to differentiate into chondrocytes, adipocytes and osteocytes. Rigorous research has helped us understand that MSCs home to wound sites and this homing mechanism has been used in the treatment of many inflammatory diseases. It is now emerging

The ability of cells to assume different phenotypes without changing their genotype is referred to as cellular plasticity. It is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental and essential property of cancer cells, which enables their adaptation to the changing environmental conditions, imposed by both disease progression and therapeutic intervention. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a classical

The concept of genetic determinism as illustrated by the metaphors such as ‘genetic blueprint’, or ‘genetic program’ had its beginning immediately after the rediscovery of growth lag observed when bacteria were exposed to a mixture of glucose and galactose or lactose. This concept got reinforced with the discovery of the mechanisms of how lactose activates the transcription of lac operon of E. coli

Cellular plasticity, by large, is the ability through which cells morph into new phenotypic identity by trading-off with the previous one. This phenomenon has been observed in the normal and tumor cells in a very similar fashion. Occurrence of cellular plasticity, in malignancies like epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) are well known but highly debated in terms of origin of the tumor for the inherent

Tumors exhibit genetic and phenotypic diversity leading to intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH). Further complex ecosystem (stromal and immune cells) of tumors contributes into the ITH. This ITH allows tumors to overcome various selection pressures such as anti-cancer therapies and metastasis at distant organs. Single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) has provided unprecedented insights into ITH and its implications

A cell’s phenotype is determined by its genome sequence and epigenetic state which translate into the biochemical reactions occurring inside the cells. As these biochemical processes are driven by small biological molecules, stochastic fluctuations may arise in the number of these biological molecules inside the cell and in the interactions between these molecules. These fluctuations can cause temporal

One of the most fascinating sights in nature is to witness certain insects, birds, and fish move together in a very coordinated and precise fashion for food search, to avoid predation and for migration. The collective movement is called swarming. In 1885, Gustav Hauser, a German pathologist discovered collective movement in a bacterium he later named Proteus mirabilis (Armbruster and Mobley in, Nat

Quorum sensing, or the ability of a population, to respond to an environmental cue in a coordinated manner has made fundamental changes about how we understand bacterial physiology. In this framework, a population, once it exceeds a certain threshold in size, and in the appropriate environmental conditions, coordinates expression of genes across individual members of the population in a fashion so

Change in the phenotype of a cell is considered as a transition of a cell from one cellular state to another. Cellular state transition can be driven by an external cue or by the noise in molecular processes. Over the years, generalized physical principles, and associated mathematical models have been developed to understand phenotypic state transition. Starting with Waddington’s epigenetic landscape