A Solution for the problems caused by Eichornia crassipes in the Ampara District

Eichornia crassipes (Japan Jabara/Japan Japarli/Aathu Valai/Water hyacinth) is a nonnative invasive freshwater plant to Sri Lanka, which blocks the drainage and irrigation cannels. During heavy rainy season Eichornia crassipes plants block the flow of rivers and by spreading over the paddy fields cause floods frequently, destroy the aesthetic value of the water bodies and obstructs the fishing activities. Due to very rapid growth and spread rate, farmers and local authorities need to spent significant amount of money to remove these plants and need large dumping areas for disposing of these plants. A study was conducted to prepare compost using Eichornia crassipes as the main resource material along with paddy straw and cow dung. Multiple layers of these materials were mixed at 3rd and 6th weeks and the moisture content was maintained at 50 - 60%. In the 10th week, compost was ready and it was sieved. The return percentage of compost from the input was 65. The moisture percentage of the produced compost was 50.3 and the volatile solid percentage was 22.8. The compost contained 39.5 % carbon, the pH was 8.1 and 73.5 % of the produced compost was sieved through 4 mm sieve. The total production cost was Rs 4.40 kg-I and it had very good demand and the selling price was Rs. 13.00 kg-

Feasibility and outcomes of ERAS protocol in elective cT4 colorectal cancer patients: results from a single-center retrospective cohort study

Background Programs of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery reduces morbidity and shorten recovery in patients undergoing colorectal resections for cancer. Patients presenting with more advanced disease such as T4 cancers are frequently excluded from undergoing ERAS programs due to the difficulty in applying established protocols. The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate the possibility of applying a validated ERAS protocol in patients undergoing colorectal resection for T4 colon and rectal cancer and to evaluate the short-term outcome. Methods Single-center, retrospective cohort study. All patients with a clinical diagnosis of stage T4 colorectal cancer undergoing surgery between November 2016 and January 2020 were treated following the institutional fast track protocol without exclusion. Short-term postoperative outcomes were compared to those of a control group treated with conventional care and that underwent surgical resection for T4 colorectal cancer at the same institution from January 2010 to October 2016. Data from both groups were collected retrospectively from a prospectively maintained database. Results Eighty-two patients were diagnosed with T4 cancer, 49 patients were included in the ERAS cohort and 33 in the historical conventional care cohort. Both, the mean time of tolerance to solid food diet and postoperative length of stay were significantly shorter in the ERAS group than in the control group (3.14 +/- 1.76 vs 4.8 +/- 1.52; p < 0.0001 and 6.93 +/- 3.76 vs 9.50 +/- 4.83; p = 0.0084 respectively). No differences in perioperative complications were observed. Conclusions Results from this cohort study from a single-center registry support the thesis that the adoption of the ERAS protocol is effective and applicable in patients with colorectal cancer clinically staged T4, reducing significantly their length of stay and time of tolerance to solid food diet, without affecting surgical postoperative outcomes

Fertility Desire and Intention of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania: A call for Restructuring Care and Treatment Services.

Scaling up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is currently underway in sub-Saharan Africa including, Tanzania, increasing survival of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Programmes pay little attention to PLWHA's reproductive health needs. Information on fertility desire and intention would assist in the integration of sexual and reproductive health in routine care and treatment clinics. A cross-sectional study of all PLWHA aged 15--49 residing in Kahe ward in rural Kilimanjaro Tanzania was conducted. Participants were recruited from the community and a local counselling centre located in the ward. Data on socio-demographic, medical and reproductive characteristics were collected through face-to-face interviews. Data were entered and analysed using STATA statistical software. A total of 410 PLWHA with a mean age of 34.2 and constituting 264 (64.4%) females participated. Fifty-one per cent reported to be married/cohabiting, 73.9% lived with their partners and 60.5% were sexually active. The rate of unprotected sex was 69.0% with 12.5% of women reporting to be pregnant at the time of the survey. Further biological children were desired by 37.1% of the participants and lifetime fertility intention was 2.4 children. Increased fertility desire was associated with living and having sex with a partner, HIV disclosure, good perceived health status and CD4 count >=200 cells for both sexes. Reduced desire was associated with havingmore than 2 children among females, divorce or separation, and having a child with the current partner among both males and females. Fertility desire and intention of PLWHA was substantially high though lower than that of the general population in Tanzania. Practice of unprotected sexual intercourse with higher pregnancy rate was observed. Fertility desire was determined by individual perceived health and socio-family related factors. With increasing ART coverage and subsequent improved quality of life of PLWHA, these findings underscore the importance of integrating reproductive health services in the routine care and treatment of HIV/AIDS worldwide. The results also highlight a group of PLWHA with potentially high desire for children who need to be targeted during care

Effects of TGF-β1 and IGF-1 on proliferation of human nucleus pulposus cells in medium with different serum concentrations

BACKGROUND: The low proliferative viability of human nucleus pulposus(NP) cells is considered as a cause of intervertebral discs degeneration. Growth factors, such as TGF-β1 and IGF-1, have been implicated in cell proliferation and matrix synthesis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the dose-response and time-course effect of transforming growth factorβ1(TGF-β1) and insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1) on proliferation of NP cells. STUDY DESIGN: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) is reduced by dehydrogenase in mitochondria of live cells. The proliferative viability of cells corresponds to the amount of MTT reduced, which is measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay plate reader. In this study, we assessed dose- and time-dependent effects of NP cells to TGF-β1 and IGF-1 in medium with different serum concentrations by MTT assay. METHODS: After release of informed consent, tissue samples of NP were obtained from anterior surgical procedures performed on five donors with idiopathic scoliosis. Isolated cells were cultured in F12 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum(FBS). Cells were seeded in 96-well plates at 1 × 10(3 )cells/well. After synchronization, medium was replaced by F12 containing 1% or 10% FBS with either single or combination of TGF-β1 and IGF-1. Dose-response and time-course effect were examined by MTT assay. RESULTS: In the presence of 1% FBS, the response to IGF-1 was less striking, whereas TGF-β1 had a remarkably stimulating effect on cell proliferation. In 10% FBS, both of the two growth factors had statistical significant mitogenic effects, especially TGF-β1. The dose-dependent effect of TGF and IGF on cell proliferation was found within different concentrations of each growth factor(TGF-β1 1–10 μg/L, IGF-1 10–100 μg/L). The time-course effect showed a significant elevation three days later. CONCLUSION: TGF-β1 and IGF-1 were efficient to stimulate cell proliferation of human NP cells in vitro with a dose- and time-dependent manner. These results support the therapeutic potentials of the two growth factors in the treatment of disc degeneration

Type Ia Supernova Explosion Models

Because calibrated light curves of Type Ia supernovae have become a major tool to determine the local expansion rate of the Universe and also its geometrical structure, considerable attention has been given to models of these events over the past couple of years. There are good reasons to believe that perhaps most Type Ia supernovae are the explosions of white dwarfs that have approached the Chandrasekhar mass, M_ch ~ 1.39 M_sun, and are disrupted by thermonuclear fusion of carbon and oxygen. However, the mechanism whereby such accreting carbon-oxygen white dwarfs explode continues to be uncertain. Recent progress in modeling Type Ia supernovae as well as several of the still open questions are addressed in this review. Although the main emphasis will be on studies of the explosion mechanism itself and on the related physical processes, including the physics of turbulent nuclear combustion in degenerate stars, we also discuss observational constraints.Comment: 38 pages, 4 figures, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres

Structure of hadron resonances with a nearby zero of the amplitude

We discuss the relation between the analytic structure of the scattering amplitude and the origin of an eigenstate represented by a pole of the amplitude.If the eigenstate is not dynamically generated by the interaction in the channel of interest, the residue of the pole vanishes in the zero coupling limit. Based on the topological nature of the phase of the scattering amplitude, we show that the pole must encounter with the Castillejo-Dalitz-Dyson (CDD) zero in this limit. It is concluded that the dynamical component of the eigenstate is small if a CDD zero exists near the eigenstate pole. We show that the line shape of the resonance is distorted from the Breit-Wigner form as an observable consequence of the nearby CDD zero. Finally, studying the positions of poles and CDD zeros of the KbarN-piSigma amplitude, we discuss the origin of the eigenstates in the Lambda(1405) region.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, v2: published versio

Improved Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Mixing from Disappearance Searches in the MINOS, MINOS+, Daya Bay, and Bugey-3 Experiments.

Searches for electron antineutrino, muon neutrino, and muon antineutrino disappearance driven by sterile neutrino mixing have been carried out by the Daya Bay and MINOS+ collaborations. This Letter presents the combined results of these searches, along with exclusion results from the Bugey-3 reactor experiment, framed in a minimally extended four-neutrino scenario. Significantly improved constraints on the θ_{μe} mixing angle are derived that constitute the most constraining limits to date over five orders of magnitude in the mass-squared splitting Δm_{41}^{2}, excluding the 90% C.L. sterile-neutrino parameter space allowed by the LSND and MiniBooNE observations at 90% CL_{s} for Δm_{41}^{2}<13  eV^{2}. Furthermore, the LSND and MiniBooNE 99% C.L. allowed regions are excluded at 99% CL_{s} for Δm_{41}^{2}<1.6 eV^{2}

PAPP-A2 Deficiency Does Not Exacerbate the Phenotype of a Mouse Model of Intrauterine Growth Restriction

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A2 (PAPP-A2) is consistently upregulated in the placentae of pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. The causes and significance of this upregulation remain unknown, but it has been hypothesized that it is a compensatory response to improve placental growth and development. We predicted that, if the upregulation of PAPP-A2 in pregnancy complications reflects a compensatory response, then deletion of Pappa2 in mice would exacerbate the effects of a gene deletion previously reported to impair placental development: deficiency of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9). METHODS: We crossed mice carrying deletions in Pappa2 and Mmp9 to produce pregnancies deficient in one, both, or neither of these genes. We measured pregnancy rates, number of conceptuses, fetal and placental growth, and the histological structure of the placenta. RESULTS: We found no evidence of reduced fertility, increased pregnancy loss, or increased fetal demise in Mmp9 -/- females. In pregnancies segregating for Mmp9, Mmp9 -/- fetuses were lighter than their siblings with a functional Mmp9 allele. However, deletion of Pappa2 did not exacerbate or reveal any effects of Mmp9 deficiency. We observed some effects of Pappa2 deletion on placental structure that were independent of Mmp9 deficiency, but no effects on fetal growth. At G16, male fetuses were heavier than female fetuses and had heavier placentae with larger junctional zones and smaller labyrinths. CONCLUSIONS: Effects of Mmp9 deficiency were not exacerbated by the deletion of Pappa2. Our results do not provide evidence that upregulation of placental PAPP-A2 represents a mechanism to compensate for impaired fetal growth. &nbsp

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics