Design topology of a remote-controlled bi-directional rotation of an A.C. fan with speed control

The use of remote control for alternating current fans in homes/offices is one of the applications of electronics that enhances human comfort. It should therefore not be seen as luxury, rather, it should be taken as a basic requirement of life. In this study, the bi-directional rotation and speed control of ac fan were achieved using ardiuno microcontroller and tuned capacitors circuit. The use of the new state-of- the art technique in this work is significant because it helped in over-coming the drawbacks associated with the use of inductive, resistive and phase angle controlled regulators. The significance of this study will be of great benefit to physically challenged and aged persons who need to have their comforts in their various places of sitting. The designed topology of the work was executed and achieved. Reliability test carried out on the finished work showed better efficiency

Lead-induced Oxidative Stress and Chemoprotective Role of Dietary Supplements on Wistar Albino Rats

The heavy metal lead (Pb) is a common environmental pollutant with widespread distribution, and oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of its toxicity. The ameliorative effect of nutritional contents of palm oil and cod liver oil (dietary supplements) following exposure to sublethal concentration of Pb on adult Wistar albino rats was studied. Toxicity was induced by administering intraperitoneally, 30 mg/kg body weight of lead acetate at alternate days for 21 days. Groups treated with supplements received daily oral dose of 2.5 ml palm oil or cod liver oil or 1.25 ml palm oil and 1.25 ml cod liver oil (synergy). Increased activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, decreased activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and increased concentrations of total bilirubin and lipid peroxidation product were observed in Pb exposed rats without nutritional supplement treatment. However, these negative oxidative states were ameliorated in rats by the concomitant administration of nutritional supplements, singly and in combination. Furthermore, non-significant changes were observed in the haematological parameters determined. These observations indicate potential therapeutic benefits in the use of palm oil and cod liver oil in the management of lead-induced toxicity

Benefit Cost Analysis of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Varieties under Varying Planting Density

An investigation was conducted at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike and at the Research Farm of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State (Nigeria), to determine the benefit cost analysis of orange fleshed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) varieties under varying planting density (25,000; 33,333 and 50,000 plants/ha). The output of the production was computed by the use of benefit cost ratio (BCR) of the orange-fleshed sweet potato production. The benefit cost ratio analysis indicated that enterprise was successful and growing of the ‘Melinda’ variety at 50,000 plants/ha was a more profitable enterprise. The benefit cost-cost ratio of ‘Melinda’ variety at 50,000 plants/ha in 2015 and 2016 was 1.45 and 1.56 respectively while that of ‘Tio-joe’ at 50,000 plants/ha in both cropping seasons gave a benefit cost ratio of 1.14 and 1.42 respectively. The returns from selling of the vine cuttings brought about an incredible hike in the net return of the enterprise. ‘Melinda’ at 50,000 plants/ha is recommended to farmers as the most profitable venture in this experiment

Selfing revealed potential for higher yield performance than backcrossing among tomato segregating populations of Solanum lycopersicum × S. pimpinellifolium crosses under tropical humid climate

The objectives of this study were to assess and identify new source of phenotypic variability among F3 and BC1F2 tomato populations, and apply genotype by yield*trait (GYT) biplots for population and line selection based on multiple traits. Four diverse cultivated parents (‘CLN2498D’ [D] and ‘CLN2417H’ [H] from Ethiopia; ‘UC Dan INDIA’ [U] and ‘Tima’ [T] from Nigeria), and wild parent ‘LA2093’ [W] were used to generate 276 potential breeding lines. The lines were categorized into eight populations (‘pop_1_W/H1’, ‘pop_2_W/H2’, ‘pop_3_W/D1’, ‘pop_4_W/D2’, ‘pop_5_W/T1’, ‘pop_6_W/T2’, ‘pop_7_W/U1’, and ‘pop_8_W/U2’), and evaluated twice in the field using 19 × 15 alpha-lattice design with two replicates. Significant differences were observed among lines and populations for all yield enhancing traits. ‘Pop_1_W/H1’, ‘pop_4_W/D2’ and ‘pop_6_W/T2’ expressed the highest genetic divergence for plant height, number of leaves, total flower and fruit number, and fruit weight. GYT biplots revealed that all yield*trait interactions had a positive correlation with each other. F3 populations, ‘pop_5_W/T1’ and ‘pop_1_W/H1’ exhibited the best performance for majority of the yield*trait combinations. Hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) revealed overlapping lines (70.58% of Cluster D lines) and (54.05% of Cluster U lines) from the two F3 populations. In BC1F2 population, 32.35% of the 34 original lines of Cluster D and 48.48% of Cluster T lines overlapped between Clusters D and T, while 18.18% of Cluster T lines and 8.82% of Cluster H lines were transgressive between Clusters T and H. Transgressive segregants ‘0210U1’, ‘0211U1’, and ‘0171T1’ of selfed population using multivariate analysis were believed to represent potential sources of novel genetic variation for future tomato breeding

Hybrid Vigor and Heritability Estimates in Tomato Crosses Involving Solanum lycopersicum × S. pimpinellifolium under Cool Tropical Monsoon Climate

High humidity is a major constraint to increased tomato fruit production in a cool tropical monsoon climate. However, the genetic variation observed in Solanum pimpinellifolium makes it a good gene donor for breeding tomato cultivars capable of thriving under high humidity. The objective of this study was to estimate heterosis, heritability for higher yield, and to assess the adaptability of the genotypes to humid conditions. Genotypes were raised from five morphologically divergent parents, viz., wild parent (W)–“LA2093,” “CLN2498D” (D), “CLN2417H” (H), “Tima” (T), and “UC Dan INDIA” (U). The F1s were generated by biparental mating design using “LA2093” as a common pollen donor that was selfed to produce F2s and backcrossed to both parents to obtain BC1s and BC2s. The trial was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Data were collected on selected yield-influencing traits and analyzed. “D × W” and “U × W” hybrids showed significant positive better parent heterosis for fruit weight per plant (30.4% and 35.5%) and total fruit yield (48.6% and 26.9%), respectively. The additive variance was higher than dominance variance for all the traits, including total fruit yield in all hybrids viz., “H × W,” “D × W,” “T × W,” and “U × W.” High narrow sense heritability estimate of ≥60% was observed in “D × W” and “U × W” hybrids for the majority of the floral and fruit traits including total fruit yield. This makes the improvement of “D × W” and “U × W” hybrids by direct selection advantageous. Hence, the adoption of selection for the affected traits in subsequent tomato breeding programs would enhance fruit yield and adaptability to humid environments

The Rewiring of Ubiquitination Targets in a Pathogenic Yeast Promotes Metabolic Flexibility, Host Colonization and Virulence

Funding: This work was funded by the European Research Council [http://erc.europa.eu/], AJPB (STRIFE Advanced Grant; C-2009-AdG-249793). The work was also supported by: the Wellcome Trust [www.wellcome.ac.uk], AJPB (080088, 097377); the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council [www.bbsrc.ac.uk], AJPB (BB/F00513X/1, BB/K017365/1); the CNPq-Brazil [http://cnpq.br], GMA (Science without Borders fellowship 202976/2014-9); and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research [www.nc3rs.org.uk], DMM (NC/K000306/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Acknowledgments We thank Dr. Elizabeth Johnson (Mycology Reference Laboratory, Bristol) for providing strains, and the Aberdeen Proteomics facility for the biotyping of S. cerevisiae clinical isolates, and to Euroscarf for providing S. cerevisiae strains and plasmids. We are grateful to our Microscopy Facility in the Institute of Medical Sciences for their expert help with the electron microscopy, and to our friends in the Aberdeen Fungal Group for insightful discussions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Lactate Regulates Metabolic and Proinflammatory Circuits in Control of T Cell Migration and Effector Functions

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Measuring and Estimating GFR and Treatment Effect in ADPKD Patients: Results and Implications of a Longitudinal Cohort Study

Trials failed to demonstrate protective effects of investigational treatments on glomerular filtration rate (GFR) reduction in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD). To assess whether above findings were explained by unreliable GFR estimates, in this academic study we compared GFR values centrally measured by iohexol plasma clearance with corresponding values estimated by Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-Epi) and abbreviated Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (aMDRD) formulas in ADPKD patients retrieved from four clinical trials run by a Clinical Research Center and five Nephrology Units in Italy. Measured baseline GFRs and one-year GFR changes averaged 78.6±26.7 and 8.4±10.3 mL/min/1.73 m2 in 111 and 71 ADPKD patients, respectively. CKD-Epi significantly overestimated and aMDRD underestimated baseline GFRs. Less than half estimates deviated by <10% from measured values. One-year estimated GFR changes did not detect measured changes. Both formulas underestimated GFR changes by 50%. Less than 9% of estimates deviated <10% from measured changes. Extent of deviations even exceeded that of measured one-year GFR changes. In ADPKD, prediction formulas unreliably estimate actual GFR values and fail to detect their changes over time. Direct kidney function measurements by appropriate techniques are needed to adequately evaluate treatment effects in clinics and research

Uniparental Genetic Heritage of Belarusians: Encounter of Rare Middle Eastern Matrilineages with a Central European Mitochondrial DNA Pool

Ethnic Belarusians make up more than 80% of the nine and half million people inhabiting the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians together with Ukrainians and Russians represent the East Slavic linguistic group, largest both in numbers and territory, inhabiting East Europe alongside Baltic-, Finno-Permic- and Turkic-speaking people. Till date, only a limited number of low resolution genetic studies have been performed on this population. Therefore, with the phylogeographic analysis of 565 Y-chromosomes and 267 mitochondrial DNAs from six well covered geographic sub-regions of Belarus we strove to complement the existing genetic profile of eastern Europeans. Our results reveal that around 80% of the paternal Belarusian gene pool is composed of R1a, I2a and N1c Y-chromosome haplogroups – a profile which is very similar to the two other eastern European populations – Ukrainians and Russians. The maternal Belarusian gene pool encompasses a full range of West Eurasian haplogroups and agrees well with the genetic structure of central-east European populations. Our data attest that latitudinal gradients characterize the variation of the uniparentally transmitted gene pools of modern Belarusians. In particular, the Y-chromosome reflects movements of people in central-east Europe, starting probably as early as the beginning of the Holocene. Furthermore, the matrilineal legacy of Belarusians retains two rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, N1a3 and N3, whose phylogeographies were explored in detail after de novo sequencing of 20 and 13 complete mitogenomes, respectively, from all over Eurasia. Our phylogeographic analyses reveal that two mitochondrial DNA lineages, N3 and N1a3, both of Middle Eastern origin, might mark distinct events of matrilineal gene flow to Europe: during the mid-Holocene period and around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, respectively