Biological control of rice sheath blight disease with formulation of indigenous Trichoderma strains under paddy field conditions

The effectiveness of indigenous Trichoderma strains in preventing sheath blight disease was evaluated during two growing seasons under paddy field conditions. Broom sorghum seeds were used for mass production of Trichoderma strains. Colonized seeds were ground to powder and mixed with talc and carboxymethyl cellulose. Suspensions were made from the bioformulations and sprayed onto rice plants. Effects of Trichoderma strains on disease incidence and severity as well as yield and other growth parameters were determined and compared with a chemical fungicide and a commercial biofungicide. A combined analysis of variance across two years was performed and a statistically significant effect of year, treatment and their interaction was reported. Results indicate that environmental factors and different biological fungicides had a strong effect on disease development under natural conditions. According to the results, propiconazole and T. harzianum AS12-2 resulted in the least disease severity and incidence. Overall, the efficacy of T. harzianum AS12-2 in reducing sheath blight development was significantly better than other Trichoderma treatments and was comparable to the conventional fungicide

Biological control of rice sheath blight disease with formulation of indigenous Trichoderma strains under paddy field conditions

The effectiveness of indigenous Trichoderma strains in preventing sheath blight disease was evaluated during two growing seasons under paddy field conditions. Broom sorghum seeds were used for mass production of Trichoderma strains. Colonized seeds were ground to powder and mixed with talc and carboxymethyl cellulose. Suspensions were made from the bioformulations and sprayed onto rice plants. Effects of Trichoderma strains on disease incidence and severity as well as yield and other growth parameters were determined and compared with a chemical fungicide and a commercial biofungicide. A combined analysis of variance across two years was performed and a statistically significant effect of year, treatment and their interaction was reported. Results indicate that environmental factors and different biological fungicides had a strong effect on disease development under natural conditions. According to the results, propiconazole and T. harzianum AS12-2 resulted in the least disease severity and incidence. Overall, the efficacy of T. harzianum AS12-2 in reducing sheath blight development was significantly better than other Trichoderma treatments and was comparable to the conventional fungicide

Bone Cement Emboli after Arthroplasty: Is It Possible? A Case Report and Literature Review

Background: Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) has been extensively used as bone cement in orthopedic procedures. Pulmonary cement embolisms (PCEs) are supposed to originate from cement extravasation into the basivertebral veins before draining into the inferior vena cava and eventually becoming lodged in the pulmonary capillaries. Few cases of bone cement embolism have been reported. This study reported a case of pulmonary embolism (PE) after thoracolumbar fixation and kyphoplasty and reviewed the current literature.   Case Report: We presented an 81-year-old woman who had undergone thoracolumbar vertebroplasty three months before admission and became symptomatic due to PE after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).   Conclusion: This case illustrates that clinicians must be aware of the probable occurrence of respiratory distress syndrome in patients with a history of vertebroplasty

Effects of Innovations in Health Care Provision and Financing

This dissertation consists of four chapters that study the impacts of innovations in health care provision and financing. The relentless rise in US health care costs has led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch various pilot programs to create financial incentives for health care providers, suppliers, and local communities to improve the efficiency of the health care system. The fist chapter of this manuscript reviews the main pilot programs implemented and/or funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since the 111th United States Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the Affordable Care Act, into law in 2010. The second chapter focuses on the effects of a bundled payment method implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since 2013. This chapter studies how the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative changed hospital behavior, the spillover effects of the BPCI initiative on non-Medicare patients, and non-participating hospitals that are located in the same health care markets as participating hospitals. I find no significant evidence that the BPCI hospitals change their admission patterns as a result of the BPCI initiative. The average length of stay decreased significantly by 0.3 day. There were no changes in the index hospital total charges nor number of procedures. The BPCI initiative significantly decreased the likelihood of discharge to inpatient post-acute care facilities. These results suggest that the BPCI initiative curtails Medicare expenditures by reducing the post-acute care utilization. There is significant evidence that hospitals treat Medicare and non-Medicare patients similarly so that the savings to society are greater than savings to Medicare. However, I find no supporting evidence to suggest that there are spillover effects on non-participating hospitals that are located in the same county as the BPCI-participating entities. This suggests that a bundled payment implemented at hospital level mainly impacts hospitals\u27 protocols than physicians\u27 practice styles. The third chapter investigates how episode-based payment methods like the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative may impact the quality of care. I use all-cause 30-day and 90-day re-hospitalization as measures of quality of care. The findings of Chapters 2 and 3 suggest despite a significant reduction in hospital length of stay, and decrease in probability of discharging total joint replacement patients to skilled nursing or other inpatient rehabilitation facilities, the quality of care is not inversely affected. The final chapter of this dissertation is a joint work with Professor Partha Deb, and Anjelica Gangaram. In this chapter, we study whether providing grants to states to design and test alternative health care delivery and payment systems impacts the health status of their residents. We use a generalized interrupted time series design using a Latent Class Model for multiple measures of health status to study the effect of the State Innovation Models (SIM) initiative. We find robust and substantial improvements in health status among the populations in states that implemented their SIM initiatives. Our findings suggest the investments in health care delivery innovations appear to be working substantially through Medicare and Medicaid related channels

Blastobotrys persicus sp. nov., an ascomycetous yeast species isolated from cave soil

Two strains (AHD129-1T and AHD129-2)of a new anamorphic yeast species were isolated fromMejare cave soil samples of Abdanan, Ilam, Iran.Nucleotide divergence in the D1/D2 domain of thelarge subunit (LSU) rRNA, and internal transcribedspacer (ITS) genes suggest that the two strains can beassigned to the Trichomonascus/Blastobotrys clade. Amaximum likelihood tree based on sequences of theD1/D2 domain revealed that the new species is closelyrelated to the species Trichomonascus ciferrii, Candidaallociferrii, and Candida mucifera. The newspecies could be distinguished from the closely relatedspecies by its ability to grow at 42 C and the inabilityto assimilate D-arabinose and D-mannitol. The name B.persicus sp. nov. is proposed for the new anamorphicspecies. The type strain of B. persicus is AHD129-1T = IBRC-M30238T = CBS 14259T, and the Mycobanknumber is MB 819148

Increasing the production of the bioactive compounds in medicinal mushrooms: an omics perspective

Abstract Macroscopic fungi, mainly higher basidiomycetes and some ascomycetes, are considered medicinal mushrooms and have long been used in different areas due to their pharmaceutically/nutritionally valuable bioactive compounds. However, the low production of these bioactive metabolites considerably limits the utilization of medicinal mushrooms both in commerce and clinical trials. As a result, many attempts, ranging from conventional methods to novel approaches, have been made to improve their production. The novel strategies include conducting omics investigations, constructing genome-scale metabolic models, and metabolic engineering. So far, genomics and the combined use of different omics studies are the most utilized omics analyses in medicinal mushroom research (both with 31% contribution), while metabolomics (with 4% contribution) is the least. This article is the first attempt for reviewing omics investigations in medicinal mushrooms with the ultimate aim of bioactive compound overproduction. In this regard, the role of these studies and systems biology in elucidating biosynthetic pathways of bioactive compounds and their contribution to metabolic engineering will be highlighted. Also, limitations of omics investigations and strategies for overcoming them will be provided in order to facilitate the overproduction of valuable bioactive metabolites in these valuable organisms

Impact of hfq and sigE on the tolerance of Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 to furfural and acetic acid stresses.

Zymomonas mobilis, as an ethanologenic microorganism with many desirable industrial features, faces crucial obstacles in the lignocellulosic ethanol production process. A significant hindrance occurs during the pretreatment procedure that not only produces fermentable sugars but also releases severe toxic compounds. As diverse parts of regulation networks are involved in different aspects of complicated tolerance to inhibitors, we developed ZM4-hfq and ZM4-sigE strains, in which hfq and sigE genes were overexpressed, respectively. ZM4-hfq is a transcription regulator and ZM4-sigE is a transcription factor that are involved in multiple stress responses. In the present work, by overexpressing these two genes, we evaluated their impact on the Z. mobilis tolerance to furfural, acetic acid, and sugarcane bagasse hydrolysates. Both recombinant strains showed increased growth rates and ethanol production levels compared to the parental strain. Under a high concentration of furfural, the growth rate of ZM4-hfq was more inhibited compared to ZM4-sigE. More precisely, fermentation performance of ZM4-hfq revealed that the yield of ethanol production was less than that of ZM4-sigE, because more unused sugar had remained in the medium. In the case of acetic acid, ZM4-sigE was the superior strain and produced four and two-fold more ethanol compared to the parental strain and ZM4-hfq, respectively. Comparison of inhibitor tolerance between single and multiple toxic inhibitors in the fermentation of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate by ZM4-sigE strain showed similar results. In addition, ethanol production performance was considerably higher in ZM4-sigE as well. Finally, the results of the qPCR analysis suggested that under both furfural and acetic acid treatment experiments, overproduction of both hfq and sigE improves the Z. mobilis tolerance and its ethanol production capability. Overall, our study showed the vital role of the regulatory elements to overcome the obstacles in lignocellulosic biomass-derived ethanol and provide a platform for further improvement by directed evolution or systems metabolic engineering tools

Formant frequency of Persian Vowels in 18-24 years old university students

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate first three formants of Persian language among 18-24 years old university students. Material and Methods: In a descriptive and cross-sectional study, 60 students (30 males and 30 females) aged 18-24 years were selected from school of Persian language and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The data were gathered directly by the interviewer; and the Persian vowel producing test was performed on the samples. Then first, second, and third formants of every six vowels were obtained by the Real analysis program of Dr. Speech software and Speech Studio, and their scores were recorded in the table, and investigated finally based on the goals and questions of the study. Results: The greatest mean amount of F1, F2, and F3 were for vowel /æ/ 767 Hz, vowel /i/ 2244 Hz, and vowel /i/ 3129 Hz, respectively; and the least amount was for vowel /i/ 255 Hz, /u/ 734 Hz, and /u/ 2317 Hz, respectively, among the male students. The greatest mean amount of F1, F2, and F3 was for vowel /æ/ 876 Hz, vowel /i/ 2688 Hz, and vowel /i/ 3339 Hz, respectively; the least amount was for vowel /u/ 376 Hz, /u/ 731 Hz, and /u/ 2412 Hz, respectively, among the female students. Conclusion: The vowels /i/ and /u/ are close and the vowels /æ/ and /a/ are open and two vowels /o/ and /e/ are located between these two groups. The vowels /i/, /e/, and /æ/ are anterior and vowels /a/, /o/, and /u/ are posterior. The vowels /i/, /æ/ are expanded and the vowel /e/ is semi-expanded. The vowels /a/ and /u/ are circular and the vowel /o/ is semi-circular. Key words: Formant, Dr. Speech, speech studio, Persian vowel