Effective soil water potential for a steady, radial-axial flow system

Apr-90Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-37)

Chronic hepatitis caused by persistent parvovirus B19 infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human infection with parvovirus B19 may lead to a diverse spectrum of clinical manifestations, including benign erythema infectiosum in children, transient aplastic crisis in patients with haemolytic anaemia, and congenital hydrops foetalis. These different diseases represent direct consequences of the ability of parvovirus B19 to target the erythroid cell lineage. However, accumulating evidence suggests that this virus can also infect other cell types resulting in diverse clinical manifestations, of which the pathogenesis remains to be fully elucidated. This has prompted important questions regarding the tropism of the virus and its possible involvement in a broad range of infectious and autoimmune medical conditions.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>Here, we present an unusual case of persistent parvovirus B19 infection as a cause of chronic hepatitis. This patient had persistent parvovirus B19 viraemia over a period of more than four years and displayed signs of chronic hepatitis evidenced by fluctuating elevated levels of ALAT and a liver biopsy demonstrating chronic hepatitis. Other known causes of hepatitis and liver damage were excluded. In addition, the patient was evaluated for immunodeficiency, since she had lymphopenia both prior to and following clearance of parvovirus B19 infection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this case report, we describe the current knowledge on the natural history and pathogenesis of parvovirus B19 infection, and discuss the existing evidence of parvovirus B19 as a cause of acute and chronic hepatitis. We suggest that parvovirus B19 was the direct cause of this patient's chronic hepatitis, and that she had an idiopathic lymphopenia, which may have predisposed her to persistent infection, rather than bone marrow depression secondary to infection. In addition, we propose that her liver involvement may have represented a viral reservoir. Finally, we suggest that clinicians should be aware of parvovirus B19 as an unusual aetiology of chronic hepatitis, when other causes have been ruled out.</p

Brevicoryne brassicae aphids interfere with transcriptome responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to feeding by Plutella xylostella caterpillars in a density‑dependent manner

Plants are commonly attacked by multiple herbivorous species. Yet, little is known about transcriptional patterns underlying plant responses to multiple insect attackers feeding simultaneously. Here, we assessed= transcriptomic responses of Arabidopsis thaliana plants to simultaneous feeding by Plutella xylostella caterpillars and Brevicoryne brassicae aphids in comparison to plants infested by P. xylostella caterpillars alone, using microarray analysis. We particularly investigated how aphid feeding interferes with the transcriptomic response to P. xylostella caterpillars and whether this interference is dependent on aphid density and time since aphid attack. Various JA-responsive genes were up-regulated in response to feeding by P. xylostella caterpillars. The additional presence of aphids, both at low and high densities, clearly affected the transcriptional plant response to caterpillars. Interestingly, some important modulators of plant defense signalling, including WRKY transcription factor genes and ABA-dependent genes, were differentially induced in response to simultaneous aphid feeding at low or high density compared with responses to P. xylostella caterpillars feeding alone. Furthermore, aphids affected the P. xylostella-induced transcriptomic response in a density dependent manner, which caused an acceleration in plant response against dual insect attack at high aphid density compared to dual insect attack at low aphid density. In conclusion, our study provides evidence that aphids influence the caterpillar-induced transcriptional response of A. thaliana in a density-dependent manner. It highlights the importance of addressing insect density to understand how plant responses to single attackers interfere with responses to other attackers and thus underlines the importance of the dynamics of transcriptional plant responses to multiple herbivory

From Isotropic to Anisotropic Side Chain Representations: Comparison of Three Models for Residue Contact Estimation

The criterion to determine residue contact is a fundamental problem in deriving knowledge-based mean-force potential energy calculations for protein structures. A frequently used criterion is to require the side chain center-to-center distance or the -to- atom distance to be within a pre-determined cutoff distance. However, the spatially anisotropic nature of the side chain determines that it is challenging to identify the contact pairs. This study compares three side chain contact models: the Atom Distance criteria (ADC) model, the Isotropic Sphere Side chain (ISS) model and the Anisotropic Ellipsoid Side chain (AES) model using 424 high resolution protein structures in the Protein Data Bank. The results indicate that the ADC model is the most accurate and ISS is the worst. The AES model eliminates about 95% of the incorrectly counted contact-pairs in the ISS model. Algorithm analysis shows that AES model is the most computational intensive while ADC model has moderate computational cost. We derived a dataset of the mis-estimated contact pairs by AES model. The most misjudged pairs are Arg-Glu, Arg-Asp and Arg-Tyr. Such a dataset can be useful for developing the improved AES model by incorporating the pair-specific information for the cutoff distance

Towards eco-friendly crop protection: natural deep eutectic solvents and defensive secondary metabolites

Plant science

Traditional practices and terminologies in <i style="">Muga</i> and <i style="">E</i><i style="">ri</i> culture

448-452 Northeast region of India occupies a unique position in the global sericultural map for production of golden muga silk. Muga culture for the people of Assam is part of their culture, tradition and customs, rather than a profitable profession. Factors like natural golden colour of the silk, availability of abundant host plants and skill ness on rearing, reeling and weaving make muga culture a unique profession for the people of Assam. The Ahom kings of Assam (1228-1826 AD) patronized the culture of muga silkworm Antheraea assamensis (Helfer) for production of rare golden silk. Presently, about 30,000 families in Assam are directly associated with muga culture. Apart from Assam, muga culture is also practiced in certain pockets of Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and West Bengal. </smarttagtype

EVALUATION OF IMPROVED MULBERRY VARIETIES AT DIFFERENT ALTITUDES IN NAGALAND

Evaluation of seven mulberry varieties was carried out both at higher altitude as well as at foot hill of Nagaland. Results demonstrated that the mulberry variety S 1635 produced maximum leaf yield (19.50 t/ha/ yr) followed by TR 4 (17.74 t/ha/ yr) at foot hill whereas maximum leaf yield (16.71t/ha/yr) was produced by TRIO followed by BC259&nbsp;(16.09 t/ha/ yr) at higher altitude. Minimum leaf yields both at foot hill (12.32 t/ha/ yr) and higher altitude (11.60 t/ha/ yr) were for S 1 709. Bioassay revealed maximum cocoon yield both by weight (16.52 kg) and number (8739.67) in S1635 at foot hill and BC259&nbsp;by weight (15.13 kg) and number (8674.00) at higher altitude. Varieties, SlN5, Tr4 and BC259, Tr10 revealed better performance in terms of leaf yield and cocoon yield both at foot hill and higher altitude, respectively in Nagaland

Life history of Attacus atlas L. (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) on Litsea monopetala Juss. in North-East India

Volume: 107Start Page: 42End Page: 4