Inheritance of Resistance to Rhizoctonia Solani Kuhn in Snap Beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.)

The inheritance of resistance to Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn in snap beans was studied using crosses between 4 resistant lines, Cornell 2114-12, PI 226895, PI 165426, and B 4096, and 3 susceptible ones, 'Harvester', 'Hawaiian Wonder', and 'Manoa Wonder'. Disease evaluations were made in a greenhouse in artificially infested beds with known inoculum. Disease was rated on a scale of 1 (resistant) to 5 (susceptible) based on the size and depth of lesions on 2 week old seedlings. Disease ratings for the resistant parents ranged from 1.08 to 1.69 and for the susceptible parents from 3.93 to 4.88. The average disease ratings for the F-j's were intermediate between the parents with low variance, while in the F2 progeny segregated into all 5 classes. There was, however, no segregation in progenies from crosses among the resistant lines, all the F-] and F2 progeny being resistant. The 3 most resistant lines, Cornell 2114-12, PI 226895, and PI 165426, all apparently carry the same genes for resistance and differ by 3 pairs from the 2 most susceptible lines, 'Harvester', and 'Hawaiian Wonder'. 'Manoa Wonder' already has 1 pair of genes for resistance and thus differs by only 2 pairs from the 3 most resistant lines. B 4096 appears to be still segregating for resistance. The genes act quantitatively, so that individual plants with at least 4 genes for resistance are considered resistant (class 1 or 2) while those with 3 or less genes are considered susceptible (classes 3, 4, and 5). The broad sense heritability was estimated at between 73.4 and 91.4% and the narrow sense heritability was estimated to be higher than 68.3%. Reciprocal crosses responded similarly, thus giving no evidence of cytoplasmic factors being involved

Force‐sensing catheters during pediatric radiofrequency ablation: The FEDERATION Study

Background Based on data from studies of atrial fibrillation ablations, optimal parameters for the TactiCath (TC; St. Jude Medical, Inc) force‐sensing ablation catheter are a contact force of 20 g and a force‐time integral of 400 g·s for the creation of transmural lesions. We aimed to evaluate TC in pediatric and congenital heart disease patients undergoing ablation. Methods and Results Comprehensive chart and case reviews were performed from June 2015 to March 2016. Of the 102 patients undergoing electrophysiology study plus ablation, 58 (57%) underwent ablation initially with a force‐sensing catheter. Patients had an average age of 14 (2.4–23) years and weight of 58 (18–195) kg with 15 patients having abnormal cardiac anatomy. Electrophysiology diagnoses for the + TC group included 30 accessory pathway–mediated tachycardia, 24 atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia, and 7 other. Baseline generator settings included a power of 20 W, temperature of 40°, and 6 cc/min flow during lesion creation with 11 patients (19%) having alterations to parameters. Seventeen patients (30%) converted to an alternate ablation source. A total of 516 lesions were performed using the TC with a median contact force of 6 g, force‐time integral of 149 g·s, and lesion size index of 3.3. Median‐term follow‐up demonstrated 5 (10%) recurrences with no acute or median‐term complications. Conclusions TactiCath can be effectively employed in the treatment of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease with lower forces than previously described in the atrial fibrillation literature. Patients with atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia or atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia may not require transmural lesions and the TC may provide surrogate markers for success during slow pathway ablation. </jats:sec

Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation alters electrophysiologic substrate

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI) is first‐line therapy for some congenital heart disease patients with right ventricular outflow tract dysfunction. The hemodynamics improvements after PPVI are well documented, but little is known about its effects on the electrophysiologic substrate. The objective of this study is to assess the short‐ and medium‐term electrophysiologic substrate changes and elucidate postprocedure arrhythmias. METHODS AND RESULTS: A retrospective chart review of patients undergoing PPVI from May 2010 to April 2015 was performed. A total of 106 patients underwent PPVI; most commonly these patients had tetralogy of Fallot (n=59, 55%) and pulmonary insufficiency (n=60, 57%). The median follow‐up time was 28 months (7‐63 months). Pre‐PPVI, 25 patients (24%) had documented arrhythmias: nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) (n=9, 8%), frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) (n=6, 6%), and atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF/AFL) (n=10, 9%). Post‐PPVI, arrhythmias resolved in 4 patients who had NSVT (44%) and 5 patients who had PVCs (83%). New arrhythmias were seen in 16 patients (15%): 7 NSVT, 8 PVCs, and 1 AF/AFL. There was resolution at medium‐term follow‐up in 6 (86%) patients with new‐onset NSVT and 7 (88%) patients with new‐onset PVCs. There was no difference in QRS duration pre‐PPVI, post‐PPVI, and at medium‐term follow‐up (P=0.6). The median corrected QT lengthened immediately post‐PPVI but shortened significantly at midterm follow‐up (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: PPVI reduced the prevalence of NSVT. The majority of postimplant arrhythmias resolve by 6 months of follow‐up

Reconciling intrinsic properties of activating TNF receptors by native ligands versus synthetic agonists

The extracellular domain of tumor necrosis factor receptors (TNFR) generally require assembly into a homotrimeric quaternary structure as a prerequisite for initiation of signaling via the cytoplasmic domains. TNF receptor homotrimers are natively activated by similarly homo-trimerized TNF ligands, but can also be activated by synthetic agonists including engineered antibodies and Fc-ligand fusion proteins. A large body of literature from pre-clinical models supports the hypothesis that synthetic agonists targeting a diverse range of TNF receptors (including 4-1BB, CD40, OX40, GITR, DR5, TNFRSF25, HVEM, LTβR, CD27, and CD30) could amplify immune responses to provide clinical benefit in patients with infectious diseases or cancer. Unfortunately, however, the pre-clinical attributes of synthetic TNF receptor agonists have not translated well in human clinical studies, and have instead raised fundamental questions regarding the intrinsic biology of TNF receptors. Clinical observations of bell-shaped dose response curves have led some to hypothesize that TNF receptor overstimulation is possible and can lead to anergy and/or activation induced cell death of target cells. Safety issues including liver toxicity and cytokine release syndrome have also been observed in humans, raising questions as to whether those toxicities are driven by overstimulation of the targeted TNF receptor, a non-TNF receptor related attribute of the synthetic agonist, or both. Together, these clinical findings have limited the development of many TNF receptor agonists, and may have prevented generation of clinical data which reflects the full potential of TNF receptor agonism. A number of recent studies have provided structural insights into how different TNF receptor agonists bind and cluster TNF receptors, and these insights aid in deconvoluting the intrinsic biology of TNF receptors with the mechanistic underpinnings of synthetic TNF receptor agonist therapeutics

SURFACE MODIFICATION OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE CELLULOSE AND ITS EFFECT ON MECHANICAL AND WATER ABSORPTION PROPERTIES OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE CELLULOSE/ HDPE COMPOSITES

Cellulose fibres from sugarcane bagasse were bleached and modified by zirconium oxychloride in order to improve the mechanical properties of composites with high density polyethylene (HDPE). The mechanical properties of the composites prepared from chemically modified cellulose fibres were found to increase compared to those of bleached fibres. Tensile strengths of the composites showed a decreasing trend with increasing filler content. However, the values for the chemically modified cellulose fibres/HDPE composites at all mixing ratios were found to be higher than that of neat HDPE. Results of water immersion tests showed that the water absorption affected the mechanical properties. The fracture surfaces of the composites were recorded using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM micrographs revealed that interfacial bonding between the modified filler and the matrix was significantly improved by the fibre modification

Guidelines for the implementation of BIM for post-occupancy management of social housing in brazil

This study presents an analysis of the potential uses of BIM for managing the maintenance and refurbishment of existing housing assets to propose thermal comfort and energy efficiency guidelines for future social housing projects in Brazil. To do so, a case study analysis of a residential development with social–environmental certification in the city of Garanhuns, Pernambuco, Brazil was performed, and a literature review on the use of BIM for residential unit maintenance was conducted. The standard house in the residential development was found to be noncompliant with the Brazilian standard for ventilation openings (NBR 15.220). Therefore, three alternative layouts were created and analyzed to meet the requirements of the standard as well as the needs of the residents. The authors recommend that socio-environmental certifiers use BIM models so that energy performance and other simulations can be carried out. The study also proposes guidelines for BIM implementation in future government housing projects. These guidelines were grouped into five categories: BIM encouragement, energy efficiency, maintenance management, user requirement management, and continuous improvement. The significance of this study is in providing a path for the gradual implementation of BIM for maintenance and post-occupancy management in the Brazilian housing program.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior grant number 001, by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico grant number 317511/2021-1, by Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco (FACEPE) grant number IBPG-1526-3.08/20, and by Escola Politécnica da Universidade de Pernambuco (POLI/UPE) grant number 0040608793.000171/2022-68 (CI n° 109/2022). And The APC was funded by Programa de Fortalecimento Acadêmico (PFA) of University of Pernambuco (UPE) through the Programa de Extensão PG18-DESS@POLI, Edital 01/2021

Forecasting Accuracy Evaluation of Tourist Arrivals.

This paper evaluates the use of several parametric and nonparametric forecasting techniques for predicting tourism demand in selected European countries. We find that no single model can provide the best forecasts for any of the countries in the short-, medium- and long-run. The results, which are tested for statistical significance, enable forecasters to choose the most suitable model (from those evaluated here) based on the country and horizon for forecasting tourism demand. Should a single model be of interest, then, across all selected countries and horizons the Recurrent Singular Spectrum Analysis model is found to be the most efficient based on lowest overall forecasting error. Neural Networks and ARFIMA are found to be the worst performing models

Resveratrol Reverses Endothelial Colony-Forming Cell Dysfunction in Adulthood in a Rat Model of Intrauterine Growth Restriction.

Individuals born after intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Endothelial dysfunction plays a role in the pathogenesis of CVDs; and endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) have been identified as key factors in endothelial repair. In a rat model of IUGR induced by a maternal low-protein diet, we observed an altered functionality of ECFCs in 6-month-old males, which was associated with arterial hypertension related to oxidative stress and stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS). Resveratrol (R), a polyphenol compound, was found to improve cardiovascular function. In this study, we investigated whether resveratrol could reverse ECFC dysfunctions in the IUGR group. ECFCs were isolated from IUGR and control (CTRL) males and were treated with R (1 μM) or dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for 48 h. In the IUGR-ECFCs, R increased proliferation (5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation, p &lt; 0.001) and improved capillary-like outgrowth sprout formation (in Matrigel), nitric oxide (NO) production (fluorescent dye, p &lt; 0.01), and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression (immunofluorescence, p &lt; 0.001). In addition, R decreased oxidative stress with reduced superoxide anion production (fluorescent dye, p &lt; 0.001); increased Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase expression (Western blot, p &lt; 0.05); and reversed SIPS with decreased beta-galactosidase activity (p &lt; 0.001), and decreased p16 &lt;sup&gt;ink4a&lt;/sup&gt; (p &lt; 0.05) and increased Sirtuin-1 (p &lt; 0.05) expressions (Western blot). No effects of R were observed in the CTRL-ECFCs. These results suggest that R reverses long-term ECFC dysfunctions related to IUGR