Gene action for resistance in sorghum to midge, Contarinia sorghicola

Gene action for resistance to sorghum midge (C. sorghicola [Stenodiplosis sorghicola]) was studied in a diverse array of midge-resistant and midge-susceptible females and males under natural infestation and under uniform infestation with a no-choice headcage technique. Gene action for glume and grain characteristics associated with resistance to sorghum midge was also studied to understand their role in expression of resistance to this insect. Gene action for resistance to midge is largely governed by additive gene action. Genotype × environment interaction was significant for midge damage rating under natural infestation, but non-significant under no-choice headcage screening. The GCA effects of midge-resistant CMS females (PM7061A and PM7068A) were significant and negative, and such effects for the midge-susceptible CMS females ICSA42 and 296A were positive. Similar results were observed for the males (except for CS3541 and MR750 for midge damage in one out of two seasons). Dominance (mid-parent heterosis) was also important for midge resistance in some cross combinations. For genotypic non-preference by the midge females, the SCA effects were greater than the GCA effects. The SCA effects for genotypic non-preference were negative for PM7061A. The GCA effects were significant and negative for glume length in PM7061B, glume hardness for 296B, and glume hairiness for PM7061B. The GCA effects were significant and positive for glume length, glume hairiness and glume hardness of ICSB42. Resistance is needed in both the parents to produce midge-resistant hybrid

GIST a rare abdominal tumor and our surgical experience

Background: GISTs are rare abdominal tumors, encountered as the most common mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract leading to GI bleeding. We report a changing trend of diagnosis and management in Indian patients.Methods: The retrospective data was collected from medical records and 62 cases of GIST from 2003 to 2020 in General surgical unit of BHU. They were divided in three groups. In group A (36) patients only surgery, group B (14) patients surgery than adjuvant chemotherapy and in group C (12) who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy then surgery. Preoperatively, USG and CT scans of the abdomen were the main investigations, others being upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and chest x-ray confirm by histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluation.Results: The mean age at presentation was 42.8 years (range 17-74 years) and mean duration of symptoms was of 5 months (range 10 days-2 years). It was from the stomach, (06) duodenum (14) jejunum, (06) ileum, (1) caecum and (4) from the mesentery and (4) from retroperitoneum. 44 cases had low grade benign tumors and 18 malignancies. In group A, 22 (61%) patients showed recurrence in group B, 06, (42%) patients showed recurrence and group C, 02 (33%) patient showed recurrence.Conclusions: Most of the tumours were benign and surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment. However, the patients in which only surgery was done showed maximum recurrence and patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy then surgery followed adjuvant chemotherapy showed minimum recurrence.

Randomized comparison of the effects of the vitamin D(3 )adequate intake versus 100 mcg (4000 IU) per day on biochemical responses and the wellbeing of patients

BACKGROUND: For adults, vitamin D intake of 100 mcg (4000 IU)/day is physiologic and safe. The adequate intake (AI) for older adults is 15 mcg (600 IU)/day, but there has been no report focusing on use of this dose. METHODS: We compared effects of these doses on biochemical responses and sense of wellbeing in a blinded, randomized trial. In Study 1, 64 outpatients (recruited if summer 2001 25(OH)D <61 nmol/L) were given 15 or 100 mcg/day vitamin D in December 2001. Biochemical responses were followed at subsequent visits that were part of clinical care; 37 patients completed a wellbeing questionnaire in December 2001 and February 2002. Subjects for Study 2 were recruited if their 25(OH)D was <51 nmol/L in summer 2001. 66 outpatients were given vitamin D; 51 completed a wellbeing questionnaire in both December 2002 and February 2003. RESULTS: In Study 1, basal summer 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] averaged 48 ± 9 (SD) nmol/L. Supplementation for more than 6 months produced mean 25(OH)D levels of 79 ± 30 nmol/L for the 15 mcg/day group, and 112 ± 41 nmol/L for the 100 mcg/day group. Both doses lowered plasma parathyroid hormone with no effect on plasma calcium. Between December and February, wellbeing score improved more for the 100-mcg/day group than for the lower-dosed group (1-tail Mann-Whitney p = 0.036). In Study 2, 25(OH)D averaged 39 ± 9 nmol/L, and winter wellbeing scores improved with both doses of vitamin D (two-tail p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The highest AI for vitamin D brought summertime 25(OH)D to >40 nmol/L, lowered PTH, and its use was associated with improved wellbeing. The 100 mcg/day dose produced greater responses. Since it was ethically necessary to provide a meaningful dose of vitamin D to these insufficient patients, we cannot rule out a placebo wellbeing response, particularly for those on the lower dose. This work confirms the safety and efficacy of both 15 and 100 mcg/day vitamin D(3 )in patients who needed additional vitamin D

A Feasibility Study of Quantifying Longitudinal Brain Changes in Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Encephalitis Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Stereology.

OBJECTIVES: To assess whether it is feasible to quantify acute change in temporal lobe volume and total oedema volumes in herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis as a preliminary to a trial of corticosteroid therapy. METHODS: The study analysed serially acquired magnetic resonance images (MRI), of patients with acute HSV encephalitis who had neuroimaging repeated within four weeks of the first scan. We performed volumetric measurements of the left and right temporal lobes and of cerebral oedema visible on T2 weighted Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) images using stereology in conjunction with point counting. RESULTS: Temporal lobe volumes increased on average by 1.6% (standard deviation (SD 11%) in five patients who had not received corticosteroid therapy and decreased in two patients who had received corticosteroids by 8.5%. FLAIR hyperintensity volumes increased by 9% in patients not receiving treatment with corticosteroids and decreased by 29% in the two patients that had received corticosteroids. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown it is feasible to quantify acute change in temporal lobe and total oedema volumes in HSV encephalitis and suggests a potential resolution of swelling in response to corticosteroid therapy. These techniques could be used as part of a randomized control trial to investigate the efficacy of corticosteroids for treating HSV encephalitis in conjunction with assessing clinical outcomes and could be of potential value in helping to predict the clinical outcomes of patients with HSV encephalitis

Registration of Nine Sorghum Lines with Resistance to Sorghum Midge: ICSV 692, ICSV 730, ICSV 731, ICSV 736, ICSV 739, ICSV 744, ICSV 745, and ICSV 748

Information on origin, pedigree, agronomic characters, yield potential and percentage damage due to sorghum midge (Contarinia sorghicola) is tabulated for these 9 lines (PI576123 to PI576131) selected for resistance in the F2 to F5 under the infester row technique at Patancheru and at Dharwad (Karnataka). Selected lines were tested using the headcage (no-choice) technique over several seasons. The lines are diverse in plant height (74-282 cm), days to 50% anthesis (59-81 days) and 1000-grain weight (18-31 g).Over 5-10 seasons of testing at Patancheru, the lines gave midge damage ratings (DRs) of 2.9-3.8 under natural infection and 2.2-4.3 under no-choice headcage testing, compared with respective values of 8.4 and 9.0 for the commercial hybrid CSH1 (where 1 = 80% spikelets damaged). Across 4 test locations in India, the lines had DRs of 2.3-3.9, compared with 8.4 for CSH1. They have also shown stability for resistance to midge in Australia, Africa (except Kenya) and Central America

Global entrainment of transcriptional systems to periodic inputs

This paper addresses the problem of giving conditions for transcriptional systems to be globally entrained to external periodic inputs. By using contraction theory, a powerful tool from dynamical systems theory, it is shown that certain systems driven by external periodic signals have the property that all solutions converge to a fixed limit cycle. General results are proved, and the properties are verified in the specific case of some models of transcriptional systems. The basic mathematical results needed from contraction theory are proved in the paper, making it self-contained

Sound can improve visual search in developmental dyslexia

We examined whether developmental dyslexic adults suffer from sluggish attentional shifting (SAS; Hari and Renvall in Trends Cogn Sci 5:525–532, 2001) by measuring their shifting of attention in a visual search task with dynamic cluttered displays (Van der Burg et al. in J Exp Psychol Human 34:1053–1065, 2008). Dyslexics were generally slower than normal readers in searching a horizontal or vertical target among oblique distracters. However, the addition of a click sound presented in synchrony with a color change of the target drastically improved their performance up to the level of the normal readers. These results are in line with the idea that developmental dyslexics have specific problems in disengaging attention from the current fixation, and that the phasic alerting by a sound can compensate for this deficit

Encoding order and developmental dyslexia:a family of skills predicting different orthographic components

We investigated order encoding in developmental dyslexia using a task that presented nonalphanumeric visual characters either simultaneously or sequentially—to tap spatial and temporal order encoding, respectively—and asked participants to reproduce their order. Dyslexic participants performed poorly in the sequential condition, but normally in the simultaneous condition, except for positions most susceptible to interference. These results are novel in demonstrating a selective difficulty with temporal order encoding in a dyslexic group. We also tested the associations between our order reconstruction tasks and: (a) lexical learning and phonological tasks; and (b) different reading and spelling tasks. Correlations were extensive when the whole group of participants was considered together. When dyslexics and controls were considered separately, different patterns of association emerged between orthographic tasks on the one side and tasks tapping order encoding, phonological processing, and written learning on the other. These results indicate that different skills support different aspects of orthographic processing and are impaired to different degrees in individuals with dyslexia. Therefore, developmental dyslexia is not caused by a single impairment, but by a family of deficits loosely related to difficulties with order. Understanding the contribution of these different deficits will be crucial to deepen our understanding of this disorder