Evaluation of rice genotypes resistance to bacterial leaf blight in Togo

The present study aimed to evaluate rice genotypes for resistance to bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Twenty-one genotypes including six genotypes grown in Togo, two improved genotypes from Africa Rice and thirteen isogenic lines from IRRI were tested. The results revealed differential reactions of genotypes in the expression of the disease. Additive main effect and multiplicative interaction analysis allowed identifying three groups of genotypes according to the level of the disease expression: resistant group made up of the genotype IR24 and all the twelve near isogenic lines tested except the line IRBB5, medium resistant group made up of three genotypes grown in Togo (NERICA4, NERICA8 and NERICA14), the genotype Giganté from AfricaRice, and susceptible group including five genotypes fromITRA (TGR203 and IR841), from AfricaRice (NERICA19 and TOG5681) and the near isogenic line IRBB5 from IRRI. The results provided useful information indicating that none of the grown varieties tested was resistant to BLB, thus revealing a potential risk of epidemics since these genotypes were only medium resistant to susceptible. However, experiments under field conditions in different environments of Togo are needed.© 2012 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved

Specifying the Caltech asynchronous microprocessor

The action systems framework for modelling parallel programs is used to formally specify a microprocessor. First the microprocessor is specified as a sequential program. The sequential specification is then decomposed and refined into a concurrent program using correctness-preserving program transformations. Previously this microprocessor has been specified at Caltech, where an asynchronous circuit for the microprocessor was derived from the specification. We propose a specification strategy that is based on the idea of spatial decomposition of the program variable space

Regulation status of quarantine pests of rice seeds in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Open Access JournalThe ever growing international trade has limited efforts towards the prevention of introduction, spread and establishment of invasive organisms. Non-native pests can cause severe loss of production and lead to restriction in exchange of genetic materials and seed marketing across regions. Regulating pests’ movement through quarantine measures and establishment of regional boards has been identified as a way to deal with introduction and expansion of invasive organisms. This review analyzes the different pest regulations in the West African sub-region with a specific focus on the implementation of quarantine measures in rice as a case study. The various regulations related to seed production, certification and marketing, and quarantine regulations in West Africa were analyzed and their enforcement and performance were assessed through comparison to international standards, especially the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Although a regional regulation on seeds and phytosanitary measures has been elaborated, ECOWAS countries are still enforcing their national phytosanitary legislations, which are nearly the same in all West African countries - they all aim at ensuring plant health by applying preventive and curative measures to prevent the introduction and spread of pests in their territory by controlling the import and export of plant materials and disseminating appropriate pest management techniques to boost agricultural production. Most ECOWAS countries are yet to submit their phytosanitary legislation to IPPC to comply with Article VII.2i of the endorsed convention. In addition, the entry points are not well defined and provided to the IPPC according to the Article VII.2d of the convention. When the quarantine list is available, the organisms regulated for each crop species are not stated, posing a real problem not only for rice genetic resource exchanges for research purposes but also for rice seed trade. Efforts and resources should be devoted by each country to research on pests and regulatory mechanisms in order to define, among others, pest status in the region, and to update regularly the quarantine pests list in the West African region

Effet de trois sources de phosphore sur les performances de poulets de chair élevés en milieu sahélien

Cent trente cinq poussins de souche "Jupiter blanc", âgés d'un jour ont été utilisés pour étudier l'influence de 3 sources de phosphore: le phosphate bicalcique, le phosphate tricalcique et le phosphore ferro-alumino~alcique ou polyfos® sur les performances de croissance du poulet de chair. Répartis en 3 lots de 45, les oiseaux ont été élevés pendant 8 semaines au cours desquelles ils ont reçu des aliments expérimentaux différents par la source de phosphore incorporée dans la ration. Les résultats enregistrés ont montré que les meilleures performances de croissance sont obtenues chez les poulets dont la source de phosphore est le polyfos® suivi respectivement des poulets recevant le phosphate tri calcique et le phosphate bicalcique.Effect ofthree dietary sources ofphosphorus on the performance ofbroiler chicken under sahelian conditionsOne hundred and thirty five one day old Jupiter broiler strain were used ta measure the effect of dietary phosphorus (P) source on growth rate and food consumption. Birds were randomly allocated in the 3 dietary treatments consistinlL of3 dietary P sources: dicalcium phosphate, tri calcium phosphate and ferro-alumino-calcic phosphorus ( polyfosl.!9). Feed and water were available for ad libitum consumption with feed intake recorded daily and body weight weekly, until8 weeks corresponding ta slaughtering ar. The results obtained showed that dietary P source had no effect on feed consumption. The addition ofpolyfos , increased significantly ( p < 0,05) growth rate ofbr.oiler chicken compared to dicalcium phosphate or tricalcium phosphate

Analisis Zerumbone Dalam Zingiber Zerumbet Dan Aktivitas Penghambatannya Terhadap Bakteri Mycobacterium Tuberculosis: Analysis of Zerumbone in Zingiber Zerumbet and Inhibitory Activity Against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Zerumbone has been reported for their several biological activities. In our interest to this compound, we have identified and analyzed its content in Zingiber zerumbet, a medicinal plant from Indonesian traditional medicine and investigated its inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a known infection bacteria of tuberculosis. Analysis of zerumbone was performed with densitometry to leave, rhizome, flower, and stem of Z. zerumbet which was extracted with various solvent system and extraction methods to determine the best method to isolate zerumbone from Z. zerumbet. Result showed that the highest zerumbone was in rhizome while was not observed in other part. Analysis with various solvent and extraction methods showed the highest yield of zerumbone can be extracted by n-hexane (maceration) and reflux extraction method (methanol). Furthermore, inhibitory activity of zerumbone against M. tuberculosis was tested using Lowenstein Jensen medium by counting the number of M. tuberculosis colony growth in medium. Resulted inhibitory activity of zerumbone at all test concentration (0.5, 0.1, 0.05, 0.01, 0.005%) with the growth of 10, 12, 14, 15, and 50 colonies of M. tuberculosis was observed, respectively. This is indicate that zerumbone can be used as an alternative choice for treatment tuberculosis in the future

Supramolecular multilayered templates for fabricating nanometer-precise spacings: implications for the next-generation of devices integrating nanogap/nanochannel components

Supramolecular & Biomaterials Chemistr

Serum Deprivation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improves Exosome Activity and Alters Lipid and Protein Composition

Exosomes can serve as delivery vehicles for advanced therapeutics. The components necessary and sufficient to support exosomal delivery have not been established. Here we connect biochemical composition and activity of exosomes to optimize exosome-mediated delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). This information is used to create effective artificial exosomes. We show that serum-deprived mesenchymal stem cells produce exosomes up to 22-fold more effective at delivering siRNAs to neurons than exosomes derived from control cells. Proteinase treatment of exosomes stops siRNA transfer, indicating that surface proteins on exosomes are involved in trafficking. Proteomic and lipidomic analyses show that exosomes derived in serum-deprived conditions are enriched in six protein pathways and one lipid class, dilysocardiolipin. Inspired by these findings, we engineer an artificial exosome, in which the incorporation of one lipid (dilysocardiolipin) and three proteins (Rab7, Desmoplakin, and AHSG) into conventional neutral liposomes produces vesicles that mimic cargo delivering activity of natural exosomes

Emotional Facial Expression Detection in the Peripheral Visual Field

BACKGROUND: In everyday life, signals of danger, such as aversive facial expressions, usually appear in the peripheral visual field. Although facial expression processing in central vision has been extensively studied, this processing in peripheral vision has been poorly studied. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using behavioral measures, we explored the human ability to detect fear and disgust vs. neutral expressions and compared it to the ability to discriminate between genders at eccentricities up to 40°. Responses were faster for the detection of emotion compared to gender. Emotion was detected from fearful faces up to 40° of eccentricity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the human ability to detect facial expressions presented in the far periphery up to 40° of eccentricity. The increasing advantage of emotion compared to gender processing with increasing eccentricity might reflect a major implication of the magnocellular visual pathway in facial expression processing. This advantage may suggest that emotion detection, relative to gender identification, is less impacted by visual acuity and within-face crowding in the periphery. These results are consistent with specific and automatic processing of danger-related information, which may drive attention to those messages and allow for a fast behavioral reaction

Control of mechanical pain hypersensitivity in mice through ligand-targeted photoablation of TrkB-positive sensory neurons

Mechanical allodynia is a major symptom of neuropathic pain whereby innocuous touch evokes severe pain. Here we identify a population of peripheral sensory neurons expressing TrkB that are both necessary and sufficient for producing pain from light touch after nerve injury in mice. Mice in which TrkB-Cre-expressing neurons are ablated are less sensitive to the lightest touch under basal conditions, and fail to develop mechanical allodynia in a model of neuropathic pain. Moreover, selective optogenetic activation of these neurons after nerve injury evokes marked nociceptive behavior. Using a phototherapeutic approach based upon BDNF, the ligand for TrkB, we perform molecule-guided laser ablation of these neurons and achieve long-term retraction of TrkB-positive neurons from the skin and pronounced reversal of mechanical allodynia across multiple types of neuropathic pain. Thus we identify the peripheral neurons which transmit pain from light touch and uncover a novel pharmacological strategy for its treatment

Influence of Low-Level Stimulus Features, Task Dependent Factors, and Spatial Biases on Overt Visual Attention

Visual attention is thought to be driven by the interplay between low-level visual features and task dependent information content of local image regions, as well as by spatial viewing biases. Though dependent on experimental paradigms and model assumptions, this idea has given rise to varying claims that either bottom-up or top-down mechanisms dominate visual attention. To contribute toward a resolution of this discussion, here we quantify the influence of these factors and their relative importance in a set of classification tasks. Our stimuli consist of individual image patches (bubbles). For each bubble we derive three measures: a measure of salience based on low-level stimulus features, a measure of salience based on the task dependent information content derived from our subjects' classification responses and a measure of salience based on spatial viewing biases. Furthermore, we measure the empirical salience of each bubble based on our subjects' measured eye gazes thus characterizing the overt visual attention each bubble receives. A multivariate linear model relates the three salience measures to overt visual attention. It reveals that all three salience measures contribute significantly. The effect of spatial viewing biases is highest and rather constant in different tasks. The contribution of task dependent information is a close runner-up. Specifically, in a standardized task of judging facial expressions it scores highly. The contribution of low-level features is, on average, somewhat lower. However, in a prototypical search task, without an available template, it makes a strong contribution on par with the two other measures. Finally, the contributions of the three factors are only slightly redundant, and the semi-partial correlation coefficients are only slightly lower than the coefficients for full correlations. These data provide evidence that all three measures make significant and independent contributions and that none can be neglected in a model of human overt visual attention