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Not AvailableGenetically pure cytoplasmic male sterile line (A-line) is essential to generate pure hybrid seeds in order to harness the yield heterosis in rice. Conventionally, seed purity testing is carried by grow-out test, which has many limitations. Seed purity assessments based on molecular markers reduce the time required for analysis significantly. However, it is very tedious as at least 200–400 seeds/seedlings are needed to be analyzed individually. An assay based on bulked-seed and molecular markers will be an ideal system. Keeping these points in view, in the present study, a co-dominant mitochondrial marker was used to test the purity of bulked parental line (A-line) seed utilizing CE system in a genetic analyzer. The results indicate that this method is very simple, accurate, and can be used to test purity of large number of samples rapidly in a cost-effective way compared to grow-out test and conventional molecular marker analysis.Not Availabl

The Pandemic Allocation of Ventilators Model Penalizes Infants with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions developed ventilator allocation models. In one proposed model, neonates compete with adults for ventilators using a scoring system. Points are given for conditions that increase one- and five-year (y) mortality. For example, comparable points were added for adult conditions with mortality of 71.3% and for neonates with moderate or severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (mod/sBPD). We hypothesized that this model overestimates mortality in neonates with BPD and would penalize these infants unfairly. There was little information available on 1 y and 5 y mortality risk for mod/sBPD. To evaluate this allocation protocol, a retrospective chart review was performed on infants born ≥22 weeks and weighing <1500 g admitted to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in 2015 to identify babies with BPD. The main outcomes were 1 and 5 y mortality. In 2015, 28 infants were diagnosed with mod/s BPD based on NIH 2001 definition; 4 infants had modBPD and 24 had sBPD. All infants (100%) with modBPD survived to 5 y; 2 infants with sBPD died by 1 y (8%) and 22 survived (92%) to 1 y; 3 died (12.5%) by 5 y; and at least 13 survived (54%) to 5 y. Infants with mod/s BPD had lower-than-predicted 1 and 5 y mortality, suggesting the points assigned in the model are too high for these conditions. We believe this model would unfairly penalize these babies