4-Methyl-2H-1,3-oxazine-2,6(3H)-dione

In the title compound, C5H5NO3, the planar (maximum deviation = 0.075 Å for the ring O atom) mol­ecules form N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds in a zigzag chain (C—O⋯N bond angle ≃ 140°) between glide-related mol­ecules

Potential Use of Benomyl for Control of Ergot (Claviceps africana) in Sorghum A-lines in Zimbabwe

In the absence of a successful practice for the control of ergot (caused by C. africana) on sorghum A-lines (male-steriles) in Zimbabwe, 2 fungicides, benomyl as Benlate and thiram, were tested in greenhouse and field experiments conducted at the Matopos and Henderson Research Stations, Zimbabwe in 1993. Fungicides were either applied to sorghum panicles singly, at concentrations of 0.1 or 0.2% a.i., or combined in mixtures at 0.1% a.i. each. Fungicides were applied before inoculation at heading or stigma exsertion or after disease became visible. Treatment with either benomyl or thiram was ineffective if applied when disease first became visible. A significant reduction in initial disease severity, rate of disease increase and final disease severity was achieved with 1 application of benomyl at 0.2% a.i. at heading or stigma exsertion. At the concentrations tested benomyl and thiram did not reduce seed-set in R- (restorer) lines

Kandungan, Resorpsi N dan P Serta Specifi C Leaf Area Daun Kakao (Theobroma Cacao L.) pada Cekaman Kekeringan

Plant nutrient absorptions depend on their environment and plants' stage of development. Beside from soil, nutrient absorption also proceed through resorption in leaves. The resorption efficiency varies based on types of habitat. Drought stress also influences the efficiency of nutrient resorption, growth rate, and plant development. The purpose of this research was to study the change of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content and leaf resorption value of N and P, and specific leaf area of 6-years old cacao grown under drought stress. Research was carried out in a cacao plantation with 7-years old Gliricidia sepium Jacq. as shading trees. The results showed that drought stress with Troughfall Displacement Experiment (TDE) system did not affect the content and resorption level of N and P of cacao leaves. However, N resorption of cacao leaves tended to increase while P resorption decreased. Cacao plants experienced drought stress have the ability to resorp leaf N for 46.64-50.63%, leaf P for 47.98-58.40%, whereas, the control plants had the leaf N resorption of 45.05-52.97%, and leaf P resorption of 36.64-44.10%. Drought stress for 13 months on 6-years old cacao did not affect specifi c leaf area

Avaliação da satisfação e importância atribuída aos serviços prestados na área da saúde mental

Com o objectivo de avaliar o grau de satisfação e importância atribuída aos serviços prestados na consulta na área da saúde mental e identificar as relações entre as variáveis demográficas e o grau de satisfação do utente foi realizado um estudo descritivo transversal, numa amostra de 305 utentes. Com a aplicação do questionário verificamos que a satisfação conjugada com a importância fornece-nos informação valiosa permitindo identificar pontos fortes, oportunidades ou necessidades de melhoria dos serviços. Neste estudo verificamos que os utentes encontram-se satisfeitos com os serviços prestados e consideram-nos importantes. Na análise bivariada, encontramos relação entre a satisfação e escolaridade.In order to evaluate the degree of satisfaction and importance attached to services provided in the consultation on mental health and identify relationships between demographic variables and the degree of user satisfaction was conducted a cross-sectional survey in a sample of 305 users. With the application of the questionnaire we found that satisfaction coupled with the importance provides us with valuable information allowing identifying strengths, opportunities or needs for improved services. In this study we found that users are satisfied with the services provided and consider them important. In bivariate analysis, we found the relationship between satisfaction and education level

Observation of a large parity nonconserving analyzing power in Xe

A large parity nonconserving longitudinal analyzing power was discovered in polarized-neutron transmission through Xe. An analyzing power of 4.3±0.2% was observed in a p-wave resonance at En=3.2 eV. The measurement was performed with a liquid Xe target of natural isotopic abundance that was placed in the polarized epithermal neutron beam, flight path 2, at the Manuel Lujan Neutron Science Center. This apparatus was constructed by the TRIPLE Collaboration, and has been used for studies of parity symmetry in compound nuclear resonances. Part of the motivation of the experiment was to discover a nucleus appropriate for a sensitive test of time-reversal invariance in polarized-neutron transmission. The large analyzing power of the observed resonance may make it possible to design a test of time reversal invariance using a polarized-Xe target

Quaiselastic scattering from relativistic bound nucleons: Transverse-Longitudinal response

Predictions for electron induced proton knockout from the $p_{1/2}$ and $p_{3/2}$ shells in $^{16}$O are presented using various approximations for the relativistic nucleonic current. Results for the differential cross section, transverse-longitudinal response ($R_{TL}$) and left-right asymmetry $A_{TL}$ are compared at $|Q^2|=0.8$ (GeV/c)$^2$ corresponding to TJNAF experiment 89-003. We show that there are important dynamical and kinematical relativistic effects which can be tested by experiment.Comment: 10 pages, including 2 figures. Removed preliminary experimental data from the figure

Wavelet Based Fractal Analysis of Airborne Pollen

The most abundant biological particles in the atmosphere are pollen grains and spores. Self protection of pollen allergy is possible through the information of future pollen contents in the air. In spite of the importance of airborne pol len concentration forecasting, it has not been possible to predict the pollen concentrations with great accuracy, and about 25% of the daily pollen forecasts have resulted in failures. Previous analysis of the dynamic characteristics of atmospheric pollen time series indicate that the system can be described by a low dimensional chaotic map. We apply the wavelet transform to study the multifractal characteristics of an a irborne pollen time series. We find the persistence behaviour associated to low pollen concentration values and to the most rare events of highest pollen co ncentration values. The information and the correlation dimensions correspond to a chaotic system showing loss of information with time evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Effects of Short-Range Correlations in (e,e'p) reactions and nuclear overlap functions

A study of the effects of short-range correlations over the (e,e'p) reaction for low missing energy in closed shell nuclei is presented. We use correlated, quasi-hole overlap functions extracted from the asymptotic behavior of the one-body density matrix, containing central correlations of Jastrow type, up to first-order in a cluster expansion, and computed in the very high asymptotic region, up to 100 fm. The method to extract the overlap functions is checked in a simple shell model, where the exact results are known. We find that the single-particle wave functions of the valence shells are shifted to the right due to the short-range repulsion by the nuclear core. The corresponding spectroscopic factors are reduced only a few percent with respect to the shell model. However, the (e,e'p) response functions and cross sections are enhanced in the region of the maximum of the missing momentum distribution due to short-range correlations.Comment: 45 pages, 15 figure

Congenital Lipoid Adrenal Hyperplasia: Functional Characterization of Three Novel Mutations in the STAR Gene

AbstractContext: The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) has been shown to be essential for steroidogenesis by mediating cholesterol transfer into mitochondria. Inactivating StAR mutations cause the typical clinical picture of congenital lipoid adrenal hyperplasia.Objective: The objective of the investigation was to study the functional and structural consequences of three novel StAR mutations (p.N148K in an Italian patient; p.P129fs and p.Q128R in a Turkish patient).Methods and Results: Transient in vitro expression of the mutant proteins together with P450 side-chain cleavage enzyme, adrenodoxin, and adrenodoxin reductase yielded severely diminished cholesterol conversion of the p.N148K mutant, the combined p.P129fs and p.Q128R mutant, and the p.P129fs mutant by itself. The p.Q128R mutant led to a higher cholesterol conversion than the wild-type StAR protein. As derived from three-dimensional protein modeling, the residue N148 is lining the ligand cavity of StAR. A positively charged lysine residue at position 148 disturbs the hydrophobic cluster formed by the α4-helix and the sterol binding pocket. The frame shift mutation p.P129fs truncates the StAR protein. Residue p.Q128 is situated at the surface of the molecule and is not part of any functionally characterized region of the protein.Conclusion: The mutations p.N148K and p.P129fs cause adrenal insufficiency in both cases and lead to a disorder of sex development with complete sex reversal in the 46, XY case. The mutation p.Q128R, which is not relevant for the patient's phenotype, is the first reported variant showing a gain of function. We speculate that the substitution of hydrophilic glutamine with basic arginine at the surface of the molecule may accelerate cholesterol transfer

Proteomics as a quality control tool of pharmaceutical probiotic bacterial lysate products

Probiotic bacteria have a wide range of applications in veterinary and human therapeutics. Inactivated probiotics are complex samples and quality control (QC) should measure as many molecular features as possible. Capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE/MS) has been used as a multidimensional and high throughput method for the identification and validation of biomarkers of disease in complex biological samples such as biofluids. In this study we evaluate the suitability of CE/MS to measure the consistency of different lots of the probiotic formulation Pro-Symbioflor which is a bacterial lysate of heat-inactivated Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. Over 5000 peptides were detected by CE/MS in 5 different lots of the bacterial lysate and in a sample of culture medium. 71 to 75% of the total peptide content was identical in all lots. This percentage increased to 87–89% when allowing the absence of a peptide in one of the 5 samples. These results, based on over 2000 peptides, suggest high similarity of the 5 different lots. Sequence analysis identified peptides of both E. coli and E. faecalis and peptides originating from the culture medium, thus confirming the presence of the strains in the formulation. Ontology analysis suggested that the majority of the peptides identified for E. coli originated from the cell membrane or the fimbrium, while peptides identified for E. faecalis were enriched for peptides originating from the cytoplasm. The bacterial lysate peptides as a whole are recognised as highly conserved molecular patterns by the innate immune system as microbe associated molecular pattern (MAMP). Sequence analysis also identified the presence of soybean, yeast and casein protein fragments that are part of the formulation of the culture medium. In conclusion CE/MS seems an appropriate QC tool to analyze complex biological products such as inactivated probiotic formulations and allows determining the similarity between lots