Analysis of the Problems and Prospects in the Use of Local Building Materials: Review of Literature

One of the strong considerations for the use of Local Building Material (LBMs) in housing delivery is that it could reduce cost and enhance foreign exchange earnings.  This paper examines the type of LBMs, problems envisaged in the use of LBMs, its prospects among other issues. This paper is essentially a review of literature from which inferences are drawn. Recommendations towards the use and acceptability of the LBMs include; (i) that various government agencies should engage in the use of LBMs rather than mere campaigning to developers (ii) that every state should establish cottage building industries to improve the supply, and that more researches should be engaged on for more discovery of LBMs

Preliminary Study on the Kinetics and Mechanism of the Oxidation of Naphthol Green B by Dichromate Ion in Aqueous Hydrochloric Acid Medium

- The kinetics of the oxidation of naphthol green B (NGB3-) by Cr2O7 2- has been studied in aqueous hydrochloric acid medium at an ionic strength, I = 0.50 mol dm-3 (NaCl), H+ =1.0 10-4 mol dm-3 (HCl) and T = 25 1C. The redox reaction displayed a stoichiometry of 1:1 and obeys the rate law: -dNGB3-/dt = k2NGB3-]Cr2O7 2- . The second order rate constant increases with increase in acid concentration and in the ionic strength of reaction medium. The rates of reaction displayed a positive salt effect. Addition of acrylonitrile to a partially reacted mixture in the presence of excess methanol did not lead to gel formation. Added cations and anions inhibited the naphthol green B - Cr2O7 2- reaction. Results of the Michaelis – Menten plot gave no evidence of intermediate complex formation during the course of the reaction. Based on the results obtained, the reaction is believed to proceed through the outersphere mechanistic pathway

Tackling 3D ToF Artifacts Through Learning and the FLAT Dataset

Scene motion, multiple reflections, and sensor noise introduce artifacts in the depth reconstruction performed by time-of-flight cameras. We propose a two-stage, deep-learning approach to address all of these sources of artifacts simultaneously. We also introduce FLAT, a synthetic dataset of 2000 ToF measurements that capture all of these nonidealities, and allows to simulate different camera hardware. Using the Kinect 2 camera as a baseline, we show improved reconstruction errors over state-of-the-art methods, on both simulated and real data.Comment: ECCV 201

Aplikasi Fungi Mikoriza Arbuskula Indigeneous dan Pupuk Fosfor Anorganik dalam Upaya Peningkatan Serapan Fosfor dan Hasil Tanaman Jagung di Lahan Berkapur Pulau Timor

Kesuburan tanah yang rendah menjadi salah satu faktor pembatas rendahnya produksi jagung di Pulau Timor. Hal ini terutama terkait dengan ketersediaan unsur hara fosfor (P) yang rendah yang umumnya diatasi oleh petani melalui penggunaan pupuk P-anorganik. Namun demikian, kondisi tanah yang berkapur dapat menurunkan ketersediaan hara P bagi tanaman sehingga pupuk P-anorganik memiliki efisiensi yang rendah. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mendapatkan dosis pupuk fosfor (P) anorganik dan inokulasi kelompok FMA yang memberikan pengaruh terbaik terhadap serapan hara P, pertumbuhan dan hasil tanaman jagung. Penelitian dilaksanakan di lahan pertanian di Desa Penfui Timur, Kabupaten Kupang dan Laboratorium Fisika dan Kimia Tanah Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Nusa Cendana Kupang. Penelitian ini dirancang dalam percobaan faktorial 2 faktor menggunakan rancangan lingkungan berupa rancangan petak terpisah (spit plot design) dengan 3 ulangan. Petak utama adalah inokulasi FMA (M) yang terdiri dari 3 taraf: tanpa inokulasi FMA (M0), inokulasi satu jenis spora FMA (M1), dan inokulasi spora FMA campuran (M2). Anak petak adalah dosis pupuk P (SP-36) (P) yang terdiri dari 4 taraf: 25% (P1), 50% (P2), 75% (P3), dan 100% (P4) dosis anjuran. Variabel yang diamati adalah kandungan hara P-jaringan tanaman, tinggi tanaman dan bobot 100 butir jagung pipilan kering. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan: (1) interaksi perlakuan inokulasi FMA dengan perlakuan dosis pupuk P-anorganik tidak berpengaruh nyata terhadap semua variabel pengamatan; perlakuan tunggal inokulasi FMA berpengaruh nyata terhadap tinggi tanaman dan bobot 100 butir jagung pipilan kering namun tidak berpengaruh nyata terhadap kandungan hara P jaringan tanaman; perlakuan tunggal dosis pupuk P-anorganik hanya berpengaruh nyata terhadap kandungan hara P-jaringan tanaman namun tidak berpengaruh nyata terhadap tinggi tanaman dan bobot 100 butir jagung pipilan kering, (2) inokulasi FMA baik tipe spora tunggal maupun tipe spora campuran belum mampu meningkatkan kandungan hara P jaringan tanaman namun mampu meningkatkan tinggi tanaman dan bobot 100 butir jagung pipilan kering; tidak terdapat perbedaan nyata antara perlakuan inokulasi FMA tipe spora tunggal dengan perlakuan tipe spora campuran dalam meningkatkan tinggi tanaman dan bobot 100 butir jagung pipilan kering sehingga tidak didapatkan perlakuan inokulasi FMA terbaik dalam penelitian ini, dan (3) tidak didapatkan perlakuan dosis pupuk P-anorganik yang memberikan pengaruh terbaik dalam meningkatkan serapan hara P, pertumbuhan, dan hasil tanaman jagung pada penelitian ini berkaitan dengan efisiensi pemupukan P-anorganik yang rendah pada lahan berkapur

The Association between Peptic Ulcer Disease and Gastric Cancer: Results from the Stomach Cancer Pooling (StoP) Project Consortium

Background. Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common type of cancer and the fourth most common cause of cancer-related mortality. Although the risk of GC and peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is known to be increased by H. pylori infection, evidence regarding the direct relationship between PUD and GC across ethnicities is inconclusive. Therefore, we investigated the association between PUD and GC in the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) consortium. Methods. History of peptic ulcer disease was collected using a structured questionnaire in 11 studies in the StoP consortium, including 4106 GC cases and 6922 controls. The two-stage individual-participant data meta-analysis approach was adopted to generate a priori. Unconditional logistic regression and Firth’s penalized maximum likelihood estimator were used to calculate study-specific odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between gastric ulcer (GU)/duodenal ulcer (DU) and risk of GC. Results. History of GU and DU was thoroughly reported and used in association analysis, respectively, by 487 cases (12.5%) and 276 controls (4.1%), and 253 cases (7.8%) and 318 controls (6.0%). We found that GU was associated with an increased risk of GC (OR = 3.04, 95% CI: 2.07–4.49). No association between DU and GC risk was observed (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.77–1.39). Conclusions. In the pooled analysis of 11 case–control studies in a large consortium (i.e., the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) consortium), we found a positive association between GU and risk of GC and no association between DU and GC risk. © 2022 by the authors.This work is supported by Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC), Project no. 21378 (Investigator Grant); Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (FIRC); Italian League for the Fight Against Cancer (LILT); European Cancer Prevention (ECP) Organization; and UPMC Start-up Grant (to HNL). P Paragomi was supported by a cancer research training grant from NIH (grant # T32CA186873)

The Association between Peptic Ulcer Disease and Gastric Cancer: Results from the Stomach Cancer Pooling (StoP) Project Consortium

Background. Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common type of cancer and the fourth most common cause of cancer-related mortality. Although the risk of GC and peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is known to be increased by H. pylori infection, evidence regarding the direct relationship between PUD and GC across ethnicities is inconclusive. Therefore, we investigated the association between PUD and GC in the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) consortium. Methods. History of peptic ulcer disease was collected using a structured questionnaire in 11 studies in the StoP consortium, including 4106 GC cases and 6922 controls. The two-stage individual-participant data meta-analysis approach was adopted to generate a priori. Unconditional logistic regression and Firth’s penalized maximum likelihood estimator were used to calculate study-specific odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between gastric ulcer (GU)/duodenal ulcer (DU) and risk of GC. Results. History of GU and DU was thoroughly reported and used in association analysis, respectively, by 487 cases (12.5%) and 276 controls (4.1%), and 253 cases (7.8%) and 318 controls (6.0%). We found that GU was associated with an increased risk of GC (OR = 3.04, 95% CI: 2.07–4.49). No association between DU and GC risk was observed (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.77–1.39). Conclusions. In the pooled analysis of 11 case–control studies in a large consortium (i.e., the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) consortium), we found a positive association between GU and risk of GC and no association between DU and GC risk

Immunodetection of retinoblastoma-related protein and its phosphorylated form in interphase and mitotic alfalfa cells

Plant retinoblastoma-related (RBR) proteins are primarily considered as key regulators of G1/S phase transition, with functional roles in a variety of cellular events during plant growth and organ development. Polyclonal antibody against the C-terminal region of the Arabidopsis RBR1 protein also specifically recognizes the alfalfa 115 kDa MsRBR protein, as shown by the antigen competition assay. The MsRBR protein was detected in all cell cycle phases, with a moderate increase in samples representing G2/M cells. Antibody against the human phospho-pRb peptide (Ser807/811) cross-reacted with the same 115 kDa MsRBR protein and with the in vitro phosphorylated MsRBR protein C-terminal fragment. Phospho-MsRBR protein was low in G1 cells. Its amount increased upon entry into the S phase and remained high during the G2/M phases. Roscovitine treatment abolished the activity of alfalfa MsCDKA1;1 and MsCDKB2;1, and the phospho-MsRBR protein level was significantly decreased in the treated cells. Colchicine block increased the detected levels of both forms of MsRBR protein. Reduced levels of the MsRBR protein in cells at stationary phase or grown in hormone-free medium can be a sign of the division-dependent presence of plant RBR proteins. Immunolocalization of the phospho-MsRBR protein indicated spots of variable number and size in the labelled interphase nuclei and high signal intensity of nuclear granules in prophase. Structures similar to phospho-MsRBR proteins cannot be recognized in later mitotic phases. Based on the presented western blot and immunolocalization data, the possible involvement of RBR proteins in G2/M phase regulation in plant cells is discussed

Citizen science in schools: Engaging students in research on urban habitat for pollinators

Citizen science can play an important role in school science education. Citizen science is particularly relevant to addressing current societal environmental sustainability challenges, as it engages the students directly with environmental science and gives students an understanding of the scientific process. In addition, it allows students to observe local representations of global challenges. Here, we report a citizen science programme designed to engage school-age children in real-world scientific research. The programme used standardized methods deployed across multiple schools through scientist–school partnerships to engage students with an important conservation problem: habitat for pollinator insects in urban environments. Citizen science programmes such as the programme presented here can be used to enhance scientific literacy and skills. Provided key challenges to maintain data quality are met, this approach is a powerful way to contribute valuable citizen science data for understudied, but ecologically important study systems, particularly in urban environments across broad geographical areas

Short Day–Mediated Cessation of Growth Requires the Downregulation of AINTEGUMENTALIKE1 Transcription Factor in Hybrid Aspen

Day length is a key environmental cue regulating the timing of major developmental transitions in plants. For example, in perennial plants such as the long-lived trees of the boreal forest, exposure to short days (SD) leads to the termination of meristem activity and bud set (referred to as growth cessation). The mechanism underlying SD–mediated induction of growth cessation is poorly understood. Here we show that the AIL1-AIL4 (AINTEGUMENTALIKE) transcription factors of the AP2 family are the downstream targets of the SD signal in the regulation of growth cessation response in hybrid aspen trees. AIL1 is expressed in the shoot apical meristem and leaf primordia, and exposure to SD signal downregulates AIL1 expression. Downregulation of AIL gene expression by SDs is altered in transgenic hybrid aspen plants that are defective in SD perception and/or response, e.g. PHYA or FT overexpressors. Importantly, SD–mediated regulation of growth cessation response is also affected by overexpression or downregulation of AIL gene expression. AIL1 protein can interact with the promoter of the key cell cycle genes, e.g. CYCD3.2, and downregulation of the expression of D-type cyclins after SD treatment is prevented by AIL1 overexpression. These data reveal that execution of SD–mediated growth cessation response requires the downregulation of AIL gene expression. Thus, while early acting components like PHYA and the CO/FT regulon are conserved in day-length regulation of flowering time and growth cessation between annual and perennial plants, signaling pathways downstream of SD perception diverge, with AIL transcription factors being novel targets of the CO/FT regulon connecting the perception of SD signal to the regulation of meristem activity