Author: Jayaraman Valadi
PandoraGAN: Generating Antiviral Peptides Using Generative Adversarial Network
Publisher: SN Computer Science, 2023
Abstract
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Links
The continuous increase in pathogenic viruses and the intensive laboratory research emphasizes the need for cost- and time-efficient drug development. This accelerates research for alternate drug candidates like antiviral peptides (AVP) that have therapeutic and prophylactic potential and gaining attention in recent times. However, diversity in their sequences, limited and non-uniform characterization often limit their applications. Isolating newer peptide backbones with required characteristics is a cumbersome process with many design–test–build cycles. Advanced deep learning approaches such as generative adversarial networks (GAN) can be helpful to expedite the initial stage of developing novel peptide drugs. In this study, we developed PandoraGAN that uses a manually curated training dataset of 130 highly active peptides that include peptides from known databases (such as AVPdb) and literature to generate novel antiviral peptides. The underlying architecture in PandoraGAN is able to learn a good representation of the implicit properties of antiviral peptides. The generated sequences from PandoraGAN are validated based on physico-chemical properties. They are also compared with the training dataset statistically using Pearson’s correlation and Mann–Whitney U-test. We, therefore, confirm that PandoraGAN is capable of generating a novel antiviral peptide backbone showing similar properties to that of the known highly active antiviral peptides. This approach exhibits a potential to discover novel patterns of AVP which may have not been seen earlier with traditional methods. To our knowledge, this is the first ever use of GAN models for antiviral peptides across the viral spectrum.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-023-02203-3
The continuous increase in pathogenic viruses and the intensive laboratory research emphasizes the need for cost- and time-efficient drug development. This accelerates research for alternate drug candidates like antiviral peptides (AVP) that have therapeutic and prophylactic potential and gaining attention in recent times. However, diversity in their sequences, limited and non-uniform characterization often limit their applications. Isolating newer peptide backbones with required characteristics is a cumbersome process with many design–test–build cycles. Advanced deep learning approaches such as generative adversarial networks (GAN) can be helpful to expedite the initial stage of developing novel peptide drugs. In this study, we developed PandoraGAN that uses a manually curated training dataset of 130 highly active peptides that include peptides from known databases (such as AVPdb) and literature to generate novel antiviral peptides. The underlying architecture in PandoraGAN is able to learn a good representation of the implicit properties of antiviral peptides. The generated sequences from PandoraGAN are validated based on physico-chemical properties. They are also compared with the training dataset statistically using Pearson’s correlation and Mann–Whitney U-test. We, therefore, confirm that PandoraGAN is capable of generating a novel antiviral peptide backbone showing similar properties to that of the known highly active antiviral peptides. This approach exhibits a potential to discover novel patterns of AVP which may have not been seen earlier with traditional methods. To our knowledge, this is the first ever use of GAN models for antiviral peptides across the viral spectrum.
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Author: Gayatri Kotbagi
Preventing and regulating psychoactive substance use among occasional and regular adolescents
Publisher: La Revue De L’Infirmiere, 2023
Abstract
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Links
The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revinf.2023.08.013
The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
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Author: Gayatri Kotbagi
Preventing and regulating psychoactive substance use among occasional and regular adolescents
Publisher: La Revue De L’Infirmiere, 2023
Abstract
|
Links
The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revinf.2023.08.013
The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
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Author: Mochish K. S.
Pandemic, politics, and the safety of journalists: downward spiral of press freedom in India
Publisher: Review of Communication, 2023
Abstract
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Links
"According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index rankings by the RSF, India ranks 161 out of 180 countries. One of the important indicators that the index bases the ranking on is the level of violence against the journalists and their overall safety. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government cracked down on the press by reprimanding any form of dissent regarding their policies. This has resulted in journalists from various parts of the country being arrested, detained, and harassed. The much-debated Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 were implemented to invoke curbs to contain the spread of coronavirus in India. The paper examines the consequences of the infodemic on the safety of journalists in the context of declining press freedom in the country in the context of the aforementioned acts. The analysis of cases focuses on highlighting how the laws introduced to “contain” the spread of the virus has been used as a tool to gatekeep the truth regarding the implementation of coronavirus policies by way of stifling the voice of journalists. The analysis reveals how various legal, political, and economic factors contribute to the lack of safety of journalists in the country.
KEYWORDS: pandemicpress freedompoliticssafety of journalists"
https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2023.2216264
"According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index rankings by the RSF, India ranks 161 out of 180 countries. One of the important indicators that the index bases the ranking on is the level of violence against the journalists and their overall safety. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government cracked down on the press by reprimanding any form of dissent regarding their policies. This has resulted in journalists from various parts of the country being arrested, detained, and harassed. The much-debated Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 were implemented to invoke curbs to contain the spread of coronavirus in India. The paper examines the consequences of the infodemic on the safety of journalists in the context of declining press freedom in the country in the context of the aforementioned acts. The analysis of cases focuses on highlighting how the laws introduced to “contain” the spread of the virus has been used as a tool to gatekeep the truth regarding the implementation of coronavirus policies by way of stifling the voice of journalists. The analysis reveals how various legal, political, and economic factors contribute to the lack of safety of journalists in the country.
KEYWORDS: pandemicpress freedompoliticssafety of journalists"
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Author: Mahdi Soleimani Farrokh and Vahideh Razmi
The effect of one session of progressive exhaustive run on the rapid response of serum cortisol and immunoglobulin a in elite athletes of fars province
Publisher: European Chemical Bulletin, 2023
Abstract
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Links
"The present study was designed and conducted to study the rapid response of serum cortisol and
immunoglobulin A to one session of the progressive exhaustive run. The participants in the study
were 45 athletes, including those in the super league handball team (21 men) and first-division
basketball league and second-division football league (23 women) in Fars province who took part in
the study voluntarily. To perform the exercise, each participant used a treadmill in one session of
the progressive exhaustive run, starting from the speed of four miles per hour. Then, the speed of
the machine was increased by one mile per hour every two minutes until the participant was not
able to continue the activity. For measuring the density of cortisol and IgA, serum samples were
collected at the time of rest and immediately after the activity. The statistic t-test for correlated
groups was used for comparing the density of cortisol and IgA before and after the activity, and the
statistic t-test for independent groups was used for comparing women and men. The findings
showed that the density of serum cortisol increased significantly in both women and men after one
session of maximum progressive activity. On the other hand, the density of serum IgA (P > 0.05)
did not change significantly in either group of women and men with the maximum progressive
activity. The findings of this research showed that one session of maximum progressive exercise
results in remarkable changes in the density of serum cortisol in elite athletes and causes a
significant increase in its density. It can be concluded that the response of cortisol to physical
activity is quicker than that of IgA."
https://www.eurchembull.com/uploads/paper/54dbf5ecacecd2d50403c8bcf2e0a684.pdf
"The present study was designed and conducted to study the rapid response of serum cortisol and
immunoglobulin A to one session of the progressive exhaustive run. The participants in the study
were 45 athletes, including those in the super league handball team (21 men) and first-division
basketball league and second-division football league (23 women) in Fars province who took part in
the study voluntarily. To perform the exercise, each participant used a treadmill in one session of
the progressive exhaustive run, starting from the speed of four miles per hour. Then, the speed of
the machine was increased by one mile per hour every two minutes until the participant was not
able to continue the activity. For measuring the density of cortisol and IgA, serum samples were
collected at the time of rest and immediately after the activity. The statistic t-test for correlated
groups was used for comparing the density of cortisol and IgA before and after the activity, and the
statistic t-test for independent groups was used for comparing women and men. The findings
showed that the density of serum cortisol increased significantly in both women and men after one
session of maximum progressive activity. On the other hand, the density of serum IgA (P > 0.05)
did not change significantly in either group of women and men with the maximum progressive
activity. The findings of this research showed that one session of maximum progressive exercise
results in remarkable changes in the density of serum cortisol in elite athletes and causes a
significant increase in its density. It can be concluded that the response of cortisol to physical
activity is quicker than that of IgA."
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Author: Debraj Bhattacharjee
Exploring the practicality of circular economy through its associates: A case analysis-based approach
Publisher: Journal of Cleaner Production, 2023
Abstract
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Links
Until now, much of the research on the circular economy (CE) has focused on the theoretical aspects of the diffusion and adoption (D&A) of CE. In the vast CE literature, comprehension of the practicality of implementation of CE through the D&A of CE Principles, R-Strategies, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner with CE associates was missing. Therefore, this study attempts to analyse the integrated approach of D&A in CE practises using the lenses of CE associates. This study addresses the gap by examining CE enterprises featured in yearbooks from Young Global Leaders Circular Economy (YGL CE) published in 2018 and 2019. The study drew inspiration from previous research on the associates of CE and their interactions. The study explored the prominent CE Principles, R-strategies, and SDGs traced from YGL CE documented cases. Besides, we explored the significance and interactions of associates identified and documented in the CE theoretical review study of 2010–2019 literature, focusing on their practical applications. The study analysed qualitative case data from 102 CE enterprises using the lenses of CE associates. Additionally, the study ranked CE associates in the order of their adoption to help practitioners identify the most or least adopted, besides diffused associates, that could be incorporated into their business models to gain a competitive advantage by offering consumers a new value proposition with tweaking. Multiple qualitative and quantitative statistical tools were applied, including Content Analysis and Weighted Average Priority Ranking. Finally, the study revealed that SDG 12, sustainable consumption and production, is the most prominent SDG, while Reduction and Recycling are the most prominent R-Strategy and Circulating products besides materials (at their highest value) is the most prominently adopted CE principle among enterprises. The study, at last, illustrated a comprehensive operational framework based on emerging trends and significant CE associates that practitioners can imbibe to create an equitable ecosystem for the transition to CE with insufficiently considered slow-moving five R-strategies, four CE business actions, and Raw material, Risk, and Barrier management.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138457
Until now, much of the research on the circular economy (CE) has focused on the theoretical aspects of the diffusion and adoption (D&A) of CE. In the vast CE literature, comprehension of the practicality of implementation of CE through the D&A of CE Principles, R-Strategies, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner with CE associates was missing. Therefore, this study attempts to analyse the integrated approach of D&A in CE practises using the lenses of CE associates. This study addresses the gap by examining CE enterprises featured in yearbooks from Young Global Leaders Circular Economy (YGL CE) published in 2018 and 2019. The study drew inspiration from previous research on the associates of CE and their interactions. The study explored the prominent CE Principles, R-strategies, and SDGs traced from YGL CE documented cases. Besides, we explored the significance and interactions of associates identified and documented in the CE theoretical review study of 2010–2019 literature, focusing on their practical applications. The study analysed qualitative case data from 102 CE enterprises using the lenses of CE associates. Additionally, the study ranked CE associates in the order of their adoption to help practitioners identify the most or least adopted, besides diffused associates, that could be incorporated into their business models to gain a competitive advantage by offering consumers a new value proposition with tweaking. Multiple qualitative and quantitative statistical tools were applied, including Content Analysis and Weighted Average Priority Ranking. Finally, the study revealed that SDG 12, sustainable consumption and production, is the most prominent SDG, while Reduction and Recycling are the most prominent R-Strategy and Circulating products besides materials (at their highest value) is the most prominently adopted CE principle among enterprises. The study, at last, illustrated a comprehensive operational framework based on emerging trends and significant CE associates that practitioners can imbibe to create an equitable ecosystem for the transition to CE with insufficiently considered slow-moving five R-strategies, four CE business actions, and Raw material, Risk, and Barrier management.
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Author: Debasis Rooj and Reshmi Sengupta
Macroprudential Policy and mortgage leverage decisions—Evidence from micro data
Publisher: Economic Analysis and Policy, 2023
Abstract
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Links
This paper examines the behavioral responses of mortgage loan borrowers to Macroprudential Policy (MPP) its transmission channel, and the lag effect. We also explore the effectiveness of lender-based instruments Using borrower-level loan data from an Indian bank with a national presence from 2010 to 2021, we find that MPP tightening leads to a decline in borrower leverage. The impact is primarily channeled through downpayment changes rather than the cost of housing. The heterogeneous analysis reveals that the relaxation in MPP norms to promote affordable housing has helped middle-income groups in their mortgage decisions. A disaggregated analysis shows that risk weights have a stronger impact than LTV limits and provisioning requirements, suggesting that banks are capital-conscious in their lending decisions. Overall, the findings stress that MPPs, especially the timely intervention concerning risk weights have been effective in managing the borrowing risk thereby ensuring stability in the mortgage market.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2023.10.011
This paper examines the behavioral responses of mortgage loan borrowers to Macroprudential Policy (MPP) its transmission channel, and the lag effect. We also explore the effectiveness of lender-based instruments Using borrower-level loan data from an Indian bank with a national presence from 2010 to 2021, we find that MPP tightening leads to a decline in borrower leverage. The impact is primarily channeled through downpayment changes rather than the cost of housing. The heterogeneous analysis reveals that the relaxation in MPP norms to promote affordable housing has helped middle-income groups in their mortgage decisions. A disaggregated analysis shows that risk weights have a stronger impact than LTV limits and provisioning requirements, suggesting that banks are capital-conscious in their lending decisions. Overall, the findings stress that MPPs, especially the timely intervention concerning risk weights have been effective in managing the borrowing risk thereby ensuring stability in the mortgage market.
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Author: Joyita Roy Chowdhury and Yashobanta Parida
Flood shocks and post-disaster recovery of households: An empirical analysis from rural Odisha, India
Publisher: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2023
Abstract
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Links
This paper uses primary household survey data collected after the severe flooding that occurred in the Bhadrak region of Odisha in 2014. We contribute to the literature by examining the factors that enhance rural households’ disaster recovery capacities. We distinguish two main recovery outcomes: an income (economic) recovery and a housing structure (structural) recovery outcome. A Generalized Ordered Logit Model (GOLM) is employed where the recovery is determined by socioeconomic characteristics and coping mechanisms available to the households. The findings reveal that rural agricultural households adopted several measures in response to the flood. Migratory labor-based strategies significantly increased the likelihood of economic recovery one year after the disaster. Selling productive assets reduced the likelihood of recovery. Community-level coping strategies were not effective, as floods caused devastating effects on a large part of the village community. Poorer households were more constrained in their capacities to recover from disaster shock. However, there was evidence of community-level support in terms of labor exchange between households in close neighborhoods. Finally, the study finds that post-disaster public assistance was mainly provided to land-owning farmers rather than poor, landless agricultural households.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.104070
This paper uses primary household survey data collected after the severe flooding that occurred in the Bhadrak region of Odisha in 2014. We contribute to the literature by examining the factors that enhance rural households’ disaster recovery capacities. We distinguish two main recovery outcomes: an income (economic) recovery and a housing structure (structural) recovery outcome. A Generalized Ordered Logit Model (GOLM) is employed where the recovery is determined by socioeconomic characteristics and coping mechanisms available to the households. The findings reveal that rural agricultural households adopted several measures in response to the flood. Migratory labor-based strategies significantly increased the likelihood of economic recovery one year after the disaster. Selling productive assets reduced the likelihood of recovery. Community-level coping strategies were not effective, as floods caused devastating effects on a large part of the village community. Poorer households were more constrained in their capacities to recover from disaster shock. However, there was evidence of community-level support in terms of labor exchange between households in close neighborhoods. Finally, the study finds that post-disaster public assistance was mainly provided to land-owning farmers rather than poor, landless agricultural households.
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Author: Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar
ET-WB: water-balance-based estimations of terrestrial evaporation over global land and major global basins
Publisher: Earth System Science Data, 2023
Abstract
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Links
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4571-2023
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
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Author: Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar
ET-WB: water-balance-based estimations of terrestrial evaporation over global land and major global basins
Publisher: Earth System Science Data, 2023
Abstract
|
Links
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4571-2023
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
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Author: Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar
ET-WB: water-balance-based estimations of terrestrial evaporation over global land and major global basins
Publisher: Earth System Science Data, 2023
Abstract
|
Links
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4571-2023
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
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Author: Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar
ET-WB: water-balance-based estimations of terrestrial evaporation over global land and major global basins
Publisher: Earth System Science Data, 2023
Abstract
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Links
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4571-2023
Evaporation (ET) is one of the crucial components of the water cycle, which serves as the nexus between global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Accurate quantification of ET is, therefore, pivotal in understanding various earth system processes and subsequent societal applications. The prevailing approaches for ET retrievals are either limited in spatiotemporal coverage or largely influenced by the choice of input data or simplified model physics, or a combination thereof. Here, using an independent mass conservation approach, we develop water-balance-based ET datasets (ET-WB) for the global land and the selected 168 major river basins. We generate 4669 probabilistic unique combinations of the ET-WB leveraging multi-source datasets (23 precipitation, 29 runoff, and 7 storage change datasets) from satellite products, in situ measurements, reanalysis, and hydrological simulations. We compare our results with the four auxiliary global ET datasets and previous regional studies, followed by a rigorous discussion of the uncertainties, their possible sources, and potential ways to constrain them. The seasonal cycle of global ET-WB possesses a unimodal distribution with the highest (median value: 65.61 mm per month) and lowest (median value: 36.11 mm per month) values in July and January, respectively, with the spread range of roughly ±10 mm per month from different subsets of the ensemble. Auxiliary ET products illustrate similar intra-annual characteristics with some over- or underestimation, which are completely within the range of the ET-WB ensemble. We found a gradual increase in global ET-WB from 2003 to 2010 and a subsequent decrease during 2010–2015, followed by a sharper reduction in the remaining years primarily attributed to the varying precipitation. Multiple statistical metrics show reasonably good accuracy of monthly ET-WB (e.g., a relative bias of ±20 %) in most river basins, which ameliorates at annual scales. The long-term mean annual ET-WB varies within 500–600 mm yr−1 and is consistent with the four auxiliary ET products (543–569 mm yr−1). Observed trend estimates, though regionally divergent, are evidence of the increasing ET in a warming climate. The current dataset will likely be useful for several scientific assessments centering around water resources management to benefit society at large. The dataset is publicly available in various formats (NetCDF, Mat, and Shapefile) at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339655 (Xiong et al., 2023).
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Author: Aparna Shankar and Chaitanya Ravi
Loneliness Among Older Indian Workers: Findings From the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India
Publisher: Journal of Applied Gerontology, 2023
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The number of adults aged 60 years and over who work is growing. However, there has been relatively limited research assessing the determinants of wellbeing in this cohort. Given the known relationship between loneliness and socioeconomic disadvantage, the present analysis assessed the role of working conditions and food security on loneliness among employed Indians aged 60 years and over (N = 9035), using data from wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. Just over 11% of participants reported being lonely most or all of the time. Food insecurity and work that involved exposure to unpleasant conditions was associated with increased loneliness, while work requiring more mental effort was associated with lower loneliness. Policies that ensure skills training to support job transitions for older adults working in unpleasant conditions, and greater food security in later life are important to ensure wellbeing in this group.
https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648231206890
The number of adults aged 60 years and over who work is growing. However, there has been relatively limited research assessing the determinants of wellbeing in this cohort. Given the known relationship between loneliness and socioeconomic disadvantage, the present analysis assessed the role of working conditions and food security on loneliness among employed Indians aged 60 years and over (N = 9035), using data from wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. Just over 11% of participants reported being lonely most or all of the time. Food insecurity and work that involved exposure to unpleasant conditions was associated with increased loneliness, while work requiring more mental effort was associated with lower loneliness. Policies that ensure skills training to support job transitions for older adults working in unpleasant conditions, and greater food security in later life are important to ensure wellbeing in this group.
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Author: Smita Chaudhry
Enhancing psychological well-being of school teachers in India: role of energy management, thriving, and stress
Publisher: Frontiers in Psychology, 2023
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"The psychological well-being of school teachers is a growing concern in the post-pandemic era. Many initiatives are undertaken by individual school authorities and government agencies to address this issue. In this study, we examine the impact of energy management, thriving, and stress on the psychological well-being of school teachers in India.
Method: Data was collected from 356 school teachers in Rajasthan, India, through a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. These teachers were working both in rural and urban areas. The relationship among energy management, thriving, stress, and psychological well-being was analyzed using hierarchical regression.
Results: The findings suggest that energy management positively impacts psychological well-being. A mediating effect of thriving and stress on the relationship between energy management and psychological well-being was also found. The results support that psychological well-being can be enhanced by investing in managing school teachers’ energy levels.
Discussion: These results contribute to our theoretical and practical understanding of factors that can enhance the psychological well-being of school teachers and improve the quality of education. Institutes may design and implement interventions on energy management to enhance the psychological well-being of school teachers."
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1239587
"The psychological well-being of school teachers is a growing concern in the post-pandemic era. Many initiatives are undertaken by individual school authorities and government agencies to address this issue. In this study, we examine the impact of energy management, thriving, and stress on the psychological well-being of school teachers in India.
Method: Data was collected from 356 school teachers in Rajasthan, India, through a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. These teachers were working both in rural and urban areas. The relationship among energy management, thriving, stress, and psychological well-being was analyzed using hierarchical regression.
Results: The findings suggest that energy management positively impacts psychological well-being. A mediating effect of thriving and stress on the relationship between energy management and psychological well-being was also found. The results support that psychological well-being can be enhanced by investing in managing school teachers’ energy levels.
Discussion: These results contribute to our theoretical and practical understanding of factors that can enhance the psychological well-being of school teachers and improve the quality of education. Institutes may design and implement interventions on energy management to enhance the psychological well-being of school teachers."
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Author: Rakesh Chaturvedi
Double auction for trading perfect complements
Publisher: Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2023
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For a trading problem where a buyer is interested in an aggregate resource with fragmented ownership, the individually owned resources are perfect complements in trade. A double auction, chosen in accordance with a value alignment principle which we formulate, is shown to be strategy proof for owners. Since it also values the aggregate resource correctly, it mitigates the holdout problem by changing the source of inefficiency from complementarity on owners' side to lack of competition on buyer side. The value alignment principle implies that this double auction has a majority trading rule. With multiple buyers, a suitable modification makes the double auction strategy proof even for the buyers, thus mitigating the holdout problem by achieving approximate ex post efficiency when the number of owners is large.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jpet.12672
For a trading problem where a buyer is interested in an aggregate resource with fragmented ownership, the individually owned resources are perfect complements in trade. A double auction, chosen in accordance with a value alignment principle which we formulate, is shown to be strategy proof for owners. Since it also values the aggregate resource correctly, it mitigates the holdout problem by changing the source of inefficiency from complementarity on owners' side to lack of competition on buyer side. The value alignment principle implies that this double auction has a majority trading rule. With multiple buyers, a suitable modification makes the double auction strategy proof even for the buyers, thus mitigating the holdout problem by achieving approximate ex post efficiency when the number of owners is large.
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Author: Prasad Pathak
Geographic identity and perceptions of walkable space
Publisher: Travel Behaviour and Society, 2023
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Walkability can be broadly conceived of as an evaluation of the suitability of a built environment for pedestrian locomotion and has recently become a popular concept across a multitude of disciplines. This seemingly simple concept has expanded over the years, and now operates on a multitude of scales and utilizes a variety of measurement techniques. This sprawling field now faces a challenge, with several studies concluding that walkability is becoming conceptually incoherent as it is applied in more situations—a challenge exacerbated by a lack of standardization in methodologies or definitions. Further confounding concerns of conceptual incoherence is the variability of human experience across the globe, acknowledging that different groups of people may have different values for what makes space walkable. This study explores these challenges through a comparison of two groups’ perceptions of walkable space, namely one in Montreal, Canada and one in Pune, India. By having participants from both locations rate large numbers of streetscape images based on their perceived walkability, and by comparing such ratings with machine-learning image segmentation results, aspects of the built environment that constituted walkable space for each group were evaluated. We found that while there is a difference in how walkability is conceived of in terms of elements of the built environment, a common conception of general walkability exists between the two groups. This scalar difference has important implications for future walkability work, implying that further research is needed to delineate universal walkability from contextualized walkability.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2023.100703
Walkability can be broadly conceived of as an evaluation of the suitability of a built environment for pedestrian locomotion and has recently become a popular concept across a multitude of disciplines. This seemingly simple concept has expanded over the years, and now operates on a multitude of scales and utilizes a variety of measurement techniques. This sprawling field now faces a challenge, with several studies concluding that walkability is becoming conceptually incoherent as it is applied in more situations—a challenge exacerbated by a lack of standardization in methodologies or definitions. Further confounding concerns of conceptual incoherence is the variability of human experience across the globe, acknowledging that different groups of people may have different values for what makes space walkable. This study explores these challenges through a comparison of two groups’ perceptions of walkable space, namely one in Montreal, Canada and one in Pune, India. By having participants from both locations rate large numbers of streetscape images based on their perceived walkability, and by comparing such ratings with machine-learning image segmentation results, aspects of the built environment that constituted walkable space for each group were evaluated. We found that while there is a difference in how walkability is conceived of in terms of elements of the built environment, a common conception of general walkability exists between the two groups. This scalar difference has important implications for future walkability work, implying that further research is needed to delineate universal walkability from contextualized walkability.
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Author: Anuradha Batabyal
Better together: Isolation impedes memory formation for configural learning in Lymnaea
Publisher: Journal of Experimental Biology, 2023
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Social interactions play an important role in learning and memory. There is great variability in the literature regarding the effects of social isolation on cognition. Here, we investigated how memory formation was affected when Lymnaea stagnalis, our model system, were socially isolated at three different time periods: before, during or after the configural learning training procedure. Each group of snails underwent configural learning where we recorded and compared their feeding behaviour before and after the pairing of an appetitive food stimulus with predator kairomones (i.e. the training procedure). We found that isolating snails before the training procedure had no effect on their learning and memory. However, when snails were isolated either during the training procedure or immediately after the training procedure, they no longer formed memory. These data provide further insight into how isolation impacts cognitive functioning in the context of higher-order learning.
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246478
Social interactions play an important role in learning and memory. There is great variability in the literature regarding the effects of social isolation on cognition. Here, we investigated how memory formation was affected when Lymnaea stagnalis, our model system, were socially isolated at three different time periods: before, during or after the configural learning training procedure. Each group of snails underwent configural learning where we recorded and compared their feeding behaviour before and after the pairing of an appetitive food stimulus with predator kairomones (i.e. the training procedure). We found that isolating snails before the training procedure had no effect on their learning and memory. However, when snails were isolated either during the training procedure or immediately after the training procedure, they no longer formed memory. These data provide further insight into how isolation impacts cognitive functioning in the context of higher-order learning.
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Author: Aileen Blaney
Going Wild on Instagram: Tiger Safaris and India’s Protected Areas in the Age of Social Media
Publisher: South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2023
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Through the lens of tiger photography on Instagram, this paper investigates a desire for wilderness without the human footprint; based on a false separation between nature and society, this aspiration finds expression through visual aesthetics on the platform. Protected areas in India are increasing, but this has not halted nature’s financialisation. On the contrary, it has enhanced the availability of preserved nature for conversion to capital, mirroring earlier opportunities tied to resource extraction. Using insights from political ecology, I discuss how wildlife as hyper-spectacle on Instagram presents a natural world with the appearance of being untransformed by human intervention and available to tourism. Instagram offers a route into understanding the paradoxical stance of nature in contemporary tourism and conservation discourses.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2023.2266934
Through the lens of tiger photography on Instagram, this paper investigates a desire for wilderness without the human footprint; based on a false separation between nature and society, this aspiration finds expression through visual aesthetics on the platform. Protected areas in India are increasing, but this has not halted nature’s financialisation. On the contrary, it has enhanced the availability of preserved nature for conversion to capital, mirroring earlier opportunities tied to resource extraction. Using insights from political ecology, I discuss how wildlife as hyper-spectacle on Instagram presents a natural world with the appearance of being untransformed by human intervention and available to tourism. Instagram offers a route into understanding the paradoxical stance of nature in contemporary tourism and conservation discourses.
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Author: Noorie Baig & Nidhi Kalra
Trans*(gressive) Failures: Cis-heteronormative Gaze in OTT Media
Publisher: Journal of Creative Communications, 2023
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This study offers a critical textual analysis of trans* representation in two popular Hindi web series Sacred Games (Luegenbiehl & Motwane (Executive Producers), 2018–2019, Sacred Games [TV series]) and Paatal Lok (Sharma et al. (Executive Producers), 2020–Present, Paatal Lok [TV series]). We probe how trans* representations function to maintain normative agendas in a heteropatriarchal nation-state. Further, we examine their potential to reify dominant stereotypes in popular media. Our analysis reveals discourses surrounding hegemonic heterosexuality (Yep, 2003, Journal of Homosexuality, 45(2–4), 11–59), transnormativisation (Puar, 2015, Social Text, 33(3 (124)), 45–73) and homohindunationalism (Upadhyay, 2020, Interventions, 22(4), 464–480) based on two trans* characters—Kukkoo and Cheeni. We argue that the characters are conceptualised through a cis-heteropatriarchal imagination in a right-wing nation-state achieved through gendered and racialised othering. We uncover several mediated failures. First, how persistent male gaze functions to centre cis-heteronormative tropes that marginalise trans*ness and the trans* characters. Second, the dual pressures of Puar’s theorisation of ‘passing’ and ‘piecing’ create normativised trans* bodies that are unable to break out of the gender binary. Lastly, we argue that the Hindu-nationalist state works to co-opt and nullify progressive portrayals of trans* characters through its legal and biopolitical machinery.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586231193571
This study offers a critical textual analysis of trans* representation in two popular Hindi web series Sacred Games (Luegenbiehl & Motwane (Executive Producers), 2018–2019, Sacred Games [TV series]) and Paatal Lok (Sharma et al. (Executive Producers), 2020–Present, Paatal Lok [TV series]). We probe how trans* representations function to maintain normative agendas in a heteropatriarchal nation-state. Further, we examine their potential to reify dominant stereotypes in popular media. Our analysis reveals discourses surrounding hegemonic heterosexuality (Yep, 2003, Journal of Homosexuality, 45(2–4), 11–59), transnormativisation (Puar, 2015, Social Text, 33(3 (124)), 45–73) and homohindunationalism (Upadhyay, 2020, Interventions, 22(4), 464–480) based on two trans* characters—Kukkoo and Cheeni. We argue that the characters are conceptualised through a cis-heteropatriarchal imagination in a right-wing nation-state achieved through gendered and racialised othering. We uncover several mediated failures. First, how persistent male gaze functions to centre cis-heteronormative tropes that marginalise trans*ness and the trans* characters. Second, the dual pressures of Puar’s theorisation of ‘passing’ and ‘piecing’ create normativised trans* bodies that are unable to break out of the gender binary. Lastly, we argue that the Hindu-nationalist state works to co-opt and nullify progressive portrayals of trans* characters through its legal and biopolitical machinery.
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Author: Anuradha Batabyal
Snails go on a fast when acetylsalicylic acid comes along with heat stress: A possible effect of HSPs and serotonergic system on the feeding response
Publisher: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology & Pharmacology, 2023
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A novel food followed by sickness, causes a taste-specific conditioned aversion, known as the ‘Garcia effect’. We recently found that both a heat shock stressor (30 °C for 1 h - HS) and the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can be used as ‘sickness-inducing’ stimuli to induce a Garcia effect in the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Additionally, if snails are exposed to acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) present in aspirin tablets before the LPS injection, the formation of the Garcia effect is prevented. Here, we hypothesized that exposing snails to crushed aspirin before the HS (ASA-HS) would prevent the HS-induced ‘sickness state’ and – therefore –the Garcia effect. Unexpectantly, the ASA-HS procedure induced a generalized and long-lasting feeding suppression. We thus investigate the molecular effects underlying this phenomenon. While the exposure to the HS alone resulted in a significant upregulation of the mRNA levels of the Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP 70) in snails' central ring ganglia, the ASA-HS procedure induced an even greater upregulation of HSP70, suggesting that the ASA-HS combination causes a severe stress response that inhibits feeding. Additionally, we found that the ASA-HS procedure induced a significant downregulation of the mRNA levels of genes involved with the serotoninergic system which regulates feeding in snails. Finally, the ASA-HS procedure prevented HS-induced upregulation of the mRNA levels of key neuroplasticity genes. Our study indicates that two sickness-inducing stimuli can have different physiological responses even if behavioral outcomes are similar under some learning contexts.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpc.2023.109805
A novel food followed by sickness, causes a taste-specific conditioned aversion, known as the ‘Garcia effect’. We recently found that both a heat shock stressor (30 °C for 1 h - HS) and the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can be used as ‘sickness-inducing’ stimuli to induce a Garcia effect in the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Additionally, if snails are exposed to acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) present in aspirin tablets before the LPS injection, the formation of the Garcia effect is prevented. Here, we hypothesized that exposing snails to crushed aspirin before the HS (ASA-HS) would prevent the HS-induced ‘sickness state’ and – therefore –the Garcia effect. Unexpectantly, the ASA-HS procedure induced a generalized and long-lasting feeding suppression. We thus investigate the molecular effects underlying this phenomenon. While the exposure to the HS alone resulted in a significant upregulation of the mRNA levels of the Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP 70) in snails' central ring ganglia, the ASA-HS procedure induced an even greater upregulation of HSP70, suggesting that the ASA-HS combination causes a severe stress response that inhibits feeding. Additionally, we found that the ASA-HS procedure induced a significant downregulation of the mRNA levels of genes involved with the serotoninergic system which regulates feeding in snails. Finally, the ASA-HS procedure prevented HS-induced upregulation of the mRNA levels of key neuroplasticity genes. Our study indicates that two sickness-inducing stimuli can have different physiological responses even if behavioral outcomes are similar under some learning contexts.
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