Evidence that the T cell antigen receptor may not be involved in cytotoxicity mediated by gamma/delta and alpha/beta thymic cell lines.

After culture in IL-2, thymocytes expressing either TCR-alpha/beta or -gamma/delta acquired the ability to lyse hematopoietic and solid tumor cell targets without deliberate immunization or apparent restriction by the MHC. Moreover, TCR-alpha/beta- and TCR-gamma/delta-bearing thymic cell lines demonstrated an essentially identical spectrum of cytolysis against several tumor cell targets. Cytotoxicity was not inhibited by antibodies against CD3 or CD2 and modulation of the CD3/TCR complex also failed to affect cytotoxicity. Thus, non-MHC-restricted cytotoxicity can be mediated by thymocytes with either TCR-alpha/beta or TCR-gamma/delta, but the TCR may not be responsible for target recognition

Effects of dietary lead exposure and graded levels of ascorbic acid supplementation on performance and haematology of broiler chickens

The effects of dietary lead acetate (LA) exposure on growth performance and haematological characteristics of broiler chickens and possible  ameliorative effect of ascorb ic acid (AA) were investigated. One hundred and twenty day-old broiler chicks were randomly divided into six treatment groups of 20 birds with two replicates. Six isonitrogenous and isocalories experimental diets were compounded and fed to birds for seven weeks: T1 (control) received diet I (0mg of LA and AA/kg feed), T2 received diet II (200mg LA/kg feed), T3 received diet III (200mg LA and 50mg AA/kg  feed), T4 received diet IV (200mg LA and 100mg AA/kg feed), T5 received diet V (200mg LA and 150mg AA/kg feed) and T6 received diet VI (200mg LA and 200mg AA/kg feed). Finally, two birds per replicate were randomly selected, weighed and slaughtered. For haematology, blood samples were collected into labelled EDTA - bottles. PCV, RBC, WBC and Hb concentration were determined using Auto Haem analyzer. T2 showed significantly (P<0.05) decreased body weight and dressed weight than the control. Although depressive effects of LA on body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significant. Birds in other treatments compared favourably with the control. Dietary lead significantly (P<0.05) reduced  WBC in T2, while it significantly (P<0.05) and nonsignificant (P>0.05) lowered haemoglobin and RBC in T2 and T6 respectively. The PCV was numerically lowered in T2 and T6. However, haematology of AA treated groups, especially those of T3and T4 compares favourably with thecontrol. In conclusion, dietary lead exposure negatively affects growth performance and haematology of broilers, which was ameliorated by as low as 50mg AA/kg diet supplementation

Caractérisation agromorphologique des variétés de niébé cultivées au Bénin

Le niébé (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) est une légumineuse très cultivée et consommée au Bénin. Sa diversité reste encore peu connue et l’utilisation des variétés traditionnelles disponibles à des fins de sélection exige une bonne connaissance de leurs caractéristiques agronomiques, technologiques et culinaires. Pour cette raison, 124 variétés traditionnelles collectées dans différentes localités ont été évaluées sur la base de 11 variables quantitatives et 12 variables qualitatives dans un dispositif de blocs complètement aléatoire (BCA) à trois répétitions. Parmi les caractères qualitatifs, la collection analysée fait montre d’une importante  variabilité (42 morphotypes) pour le port de la tige, la pigmentation de la plante, la couleur des fleurs, la forme des folioles, la couleur des gousses, la taille, la  couleur et la formes des graines. L’analyse en composante principale (ACP) des variables  quantitatives a révélé 4 groupes au sein de la collection dont le groupe  (G1) rassemble la plupart des variétés très performantes (cycle court, nombre de gousses élevé par plante, grains gros et lourds, rendements supérieurs à 2  tonnes à l’hectare) comme Catché godonou, Ewaoloy, Gbolékpomin, Kaki et Yanbodo qu’on peut utiliser dans les programmes de sélection. Une corrélation positive significative est observée entre le rendement par plante de niébé et le nombre de gousses par plant (Ngs), la longueur des gousses (LGs) et le poids de 100 graines (P100G). Ces données exploitables pour la sélection de variétés améliorées et la gestion des ressources génétiques du niébé doivent être encore complétées par lacaractérisation moléculaire.Mots clés : Bénin, diversité, niébé, rendement, variabilité morphologique

Connaissances endogènes et perceptions paysannes de l’impact des changements climatiques sur la production et la diversité du niébé (Vigna unguiculata (L.)Walp.) et du voandzou (Vigna subterranea (L) Verdc.) au Bénin

L’existence d’impacts néfastes du changement climatique sur la production agricole en Afrique subsaharienne est maintenant solidement établie. Pour documenter les connaissances endogènes relatives au changement climatique, identifier les contraintes qui y sont associées et qui affectent la production et la diversité du niébé et du voandzou au Bénin et examiner les stratégies adaptatives localement utilisées, 40 villages sélectionnés dans différentes zones agroécologiques du Bénin ont été prospectés. Des méthodes d’analyses qualitatives et quantitatives ont permis de comprendre que les attaques des insectes aux champs et au cours de stockage restent les contraintes prioritaires. L’analyse du choix des méthodes d’adaptation face aux changements climatiques a montré que l’âge du producteur de niébé affecte de façon positive l’adoption des pratiques culturales (p<0,05) et des stratégies multiples (p<0,1) ; le sexe influence de façon significative (p<0,001) mais négative le choix des producteurs de voandzou à utiliser des variétés résistantes et de multiples stratégies. Le nombre de manoeuvres utilisé par ces producteurs influence de façon significative le choix de multiples stratégies (p<0,001). Des programmes nationaux de lutte contre les effets liés aux changements climatiques sont à mettre en place afin de préserver les ressources génétiques de niébé et du voandzou au Bénin.© 2015 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Mots clés: Bénin, contraintes, changement climatique, pratique culturale, niébé, voandzouEnglish Title:  Endogenous knowledge and farmers’ perceptions of the impact of the climatic changes on the production and the diversity of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) and Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) in BeninEnglish AbstractThe existence of harmful impacts of climate change on the agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa is now firmly established. To document endogenous knowledge relating to the climate change, to identify the constraints which are associated to it and which jeopardize the production and the diversity of cowpea and Bambara groundnut in Benin and to examine the adaptive strategies locally used, 40 villages selected in various agro ecologic areas from Benin were surveyed. Methods of qualitative and quantitative analyses made it possible to understand that the attacks of insects to the fields and during storage remain the priority constraints. The analysis of the choice of the methods of adaptation as regards to the climate changes showed that the age of the producer of cowpea affects in a positive way the adoption of the cultivation methods (p<0.05) and multiple strategies (p<0.1); the sex influences to a significant degree (p<0,001) but negative the choice of the producers of Bambara groundnut to use resistant varieties and multiple strategies. The number of operations used by these producers influences to a significant degree the choice of multiple strategies (p<0,001). National programs to struggle against the effects related to the climatic changes are to be set up in order to preserve the genetic resources of cowpea and Bambara groundnut in Benin.© 2015 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Benin, Bambara groundnut, constraints, climate change, cowpea, practical farmin

Neuroevolutionary learning in nonstationary environments

This work presents a new neuro-evolutionary model, called NEVE (Neuroevolutionary Ensemble), based on an ensemble of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks for learning in nonstationary environments. NEVE makes use of quantum-inspired evolutionary models to automatically configure the ensemble members and combine their output. The quantum-inspired evolutionary models identify the most appropriate topology for each MLP network, select the most relevant input variables, determine the neural network weights and calculate the voting weight of each ensemble member. Four different approaches of NEVE are developed, varying the mechanism for detecting and treating concepts drifts, including proactive drift detection approaches. The proposed models were evaluated in real and artificial datasets, comparing the results obtained with other consolidated models in the literature. The results show that the accuracy of NEVE is higher in most cases and the best configurations are obtained using some mechanism for drift detection. These results reinforce that the neuroevolutionary ensemble approach is a robust choice for situations in which the datasets are subject to sudden changes in behaviour

On modeling two immune effectors two strain antigen interaction

In this paper we consider the fractional order model with two immune effectors interacting with two strain antigen. The systems may explain the recurrence of some diseases e.g. tuberculosis (TB). The stability of equilibrium points are studied. Numerical solutions of this model are given. Using integer order system the system oscillates. Using fractional order system the system converges to a stable internal equilibrium. Ulam-Hyers stability of the system has been studied

DetectA: abrupt concept drift detection in non-stationary environments

Almost all drift detection mechanisms designed for classification problems work reactively: after receiving the complete data set (input patterns and class labels) they apply a sequence of procedures to identify some change in the class-conditional distribution – a concept drift. However, detecting changes after its occurrence can be in some situations harmful to the process under analysis. This paper proposes a proactive approach for abrupt drift detection, called DetectA (Detect Abrupt Drift). Briefly, this method is composed of three steps: (i) label the patterns from the test set (an unlabelled data block), using an unsupervised method; (ii) compute some statistics from the train and test sets, conditioned to the given class labels for train set; and (iii) compare the training and testing statistics using a multivariate hypothesis test. Based on the results of the hypothesis tests, we attempt to detect the drift on the test set, before the real labels are obtained. A procedure for creating datasets with abrupt drift has been proposed to perform a sensitivity analysis of the DetectA model. The result of the sensitivity analysis suggests that the detector is efficient and suitable for datasets of high-dimensionality, blocks with any proportion of drifts, and datasets with class imbalance. The performance of the DetectA method, with different configurations, was also evaluated on real and artificial datasets, using an MLP as a classifier. The best results were obtained using one of the detection methods, being the proactive manner a top contender regarding improving the underlying base classifier accuracy

Non-variant specific antibody responses to the C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1 of Plasmodium falciparum (PfMSP-119) in Iranians exposed to unstable malaria transmission

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The C-terminal region of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>merozoite surface protein-1 (PfMSP-1₁₉) is a leading malaria vaccine candidate antigen. However, the existence of different variants of this antigen can limit efficacy of the vaccine development based on this protein. Therefore, in this study, the main objective was to define the frequency of PfMSP-1₁₉haplotypes in malaria hypoendemic region of Iran and also to analyse cross-reactive and/or variant-specific antibody responses to four PfMSP-1₁₉variant forms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The PfMSP-1₁₉was genotyped in 50 infected subjects with <it>P. falciparum </it>collected during 2006-2008. Four GST-PfMSP-1₁₉variants (E/TSR/L, E/TSG/L, E/KNG/F and Q/KNG/L) were produced in <it>Escherichia coli </it>and naturally occurring IgG antibody to these proteins was evaluated in malaria patients' sera (n = 50) using ELISA. To determine the cross-reactivity of antibodies against each PfMSP-1₁₉variant in <it>P. falciparum-</it>infected human sera, an antibody depletion assay was performed in eleven corresponding patients' sera.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence data of the PfMSP-1₁₉revealed five variant forms in which the haplotypes Q/KNG/L and Q/KNG/F were predominant types and the second most frequent haplotype was E/KNG/F. In addition, the prevalence of IgG antibodies to all four PfMSP-1₁₉variant forms was equal and high (84%) among the studied patients' sera. Immunodepletion results showed that in Iranian malaria patients, Q/KNG/L variant could induce not only cross-reactive antibody responses to other PfMSP-1₁₉variants, but also could induce some specific antibodies that are not able to recognize the E/TSG/L or E/TSR/L variant forms.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present findings demonstrated the presence of non-variant specific antibodies to PfMSP-1₁₉in Iranian falciparum malaria patients. This data suggests that polymorphism in PfMSP-1₁₉is less important and one variant of this antigen, particularly Q/KNG/L, may be sufficient to be included in PfMSP-1₁₉-based vaccine.</p