Exploitation of Phenotypic Variations Among some Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Genotypes for grain yield Under Irrigated Conditions of Sudan

Barley in Sudan is grown in limited areas for grain and forage, although the barley is a well adapted crop to Sudan environment, it has a very small number of genotypes. Therefore, this study aims at the exploitation of  phenotypic variations among the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes in Sudan for possible utilization in breeding programmes and to identify the top yielding genotypes. A set of twenty barley genotypes were tested at three sites representing different environments of Sudan. The experiments were executed over two consecutive seasons (2010/2011 and 2011/2012) in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The results of the growth habit demonstrated that all the genotypes were resistant to lodging except the genotype 20 (local genotype) was susceptible to lodging. The results of the combined analysis showed very highly significant differences among the barley genotypes at three sites. Across the three sites, the common genotypes out-yielded the check were G3, G8 and G9. At Gezira, the genotypes G3, G8 and G9 out yielding the check by 31, 24 and 40%, respectively, at Hudeiba high terrace soil by 34, 9 and 31%, respectively, while at Hudeiba karu soil by 61, 21 and 20%, respectively. According to the ASV (AMMI Stability Value) concept, the most stable genotype was the check Beladi having an ASV of 4.5 with the lowest mean seed yield (1970 kg/ha). In contrast, the most unstable genotype was G3 with an ASV of 37.7, however, it had the highest grain yield (2810 kg/ha). Among the six environments, when the genotypes were arranged according to AMMI estimate, genotype G3 ranked first in four environments (Gezira in season 2011, karu in two seasons and high terrace soil in season 2011), genotype G9 ranked first in one environment (Gezira in season 2010) and ranked third in the other five environments, while genotype G8 ranked second in the high terrace soil in season 2010 and fourth in two environments (Gezira in two seasons). The check Beladi did not appear in the first four ranking genotypes. Therefore, the genotypes G3, G8 and G9 could provide a good option for barley seed yield under Sudan conditions.   يزرع الشعير في السودان في مناطق محدودة بغرض إنتاج الحبوب والأعلاف، على الرغم من أن الشعير محصول جيد التأقلم  في البيئات المناخية المختلفة  للسودان، إلا أن هنالك عددا قليلا جدًا من الطرز الوراثية التي تزرع فيه. لذلك، تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى إستغلال الاختلافات المظهرية بين بعض الطرز الوراثية للشعير (Hordeum vulgare L.) في السودان لإمكانية استخدامها في برامج التربية ولتحديد الطرز الوراثية الاعلي إنتاجية. تم اختبار عدد عشرين من الطرز الوراثية للشعير في ثلاثة مواقع تمثل بيئات مختلفة في السودان. تم تنفيذ التجارب على مدار موسمين متتاليين (2010/2011 و 2011/2012) باستخدام تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة (RCBD) بثلاثة مكررات. أظهرت نتائج التحليل المشترك تباين كبير للغاية بين الطرز الوراثية للشعير من حيث الإنتاجية في الثلاثة مواقع، حيث كانت الطرز الوراثية الشائعة التي فاقت إنتاجيتها الصنف المحلي هي G3 و G8 و G9 . في الجزيرة، الطرز الوراثية G3 و G8 و G9 فاقت إنتاجيتها الصنف المحلي بنسبة 31 و 24 و 40٪ على التوالي، أما في أراضي التروس العليا (الحديبة)  بنسبة 34 و 9 و 31٪ على التوالي، بينما في أراضي الكرو (الحديبة) بنسبة 61 و 21 و 20٪، على التوالي. وفقًا لمفهوم قيمة الثبات (ASV) كان الطراز الوراثي الأكثر ثباتًا هو الصنف المحلي بقيمة ثبات4.5  وبأقل متوسط ​​إنتاجية للبذور (1970 كجم / هكتار). في المقابل، كان الطراز الوراثي الأقل ثباتًا هو       G3 بقيمة ثبات  37.7، ومع ذلك، فقد حقق أعلى إنتاجية للحبوب (2810 كجم / هكتار). عند ترتيب الطرز الوراثية وفقًا لتقدير  AMMI في البيئات الست، احتل الطراز الوراثي G3 المرتبة الأولى في أربع بيئات (الجزيرة في موسم 2011 ، اراضي الكرو (الحديبة) في موسمين وفي اراضي التروس العليا (الحديبة) في موسم 2011) ، بينما احتل الطراز الوراثي G3  المرتبة الأولى في بيئة واحدة (الجزيرة) في موسم 2010) واحتل المرتبة الثالثة في البيئات الخمسة الأخرى، في حين احتل الطراز الوراثي G8 المركز الثاني في اراضي التروس العليا (الحديبة) في موسم 2010 والرابع في بيئتين (الجزيرة في موسمين). لم يظهر الصنف المحلي ضمن الطرز الوراثية الأربعة الأولى. أوضحت هذه النتائج أن الطرز الوراثية  G3 و G8 و G9 يمكن أن تكون خيارًا جيدًا لإنتاج بذور الشعير تحت ظروف السودا

Group B Streptococcal Disease Worldwide for Pregnant Women, Stillbirths, and Children: Why, What, and How to Undertake Estimates?

Improving maternal, newborn, and child health is central to Sustainable Development Goal targets for 2030, requiring acceleration especially to prevent 5.6 million deaths around the time of birth. Infections contribute to this burden, but etiological data are limited. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is an important perinatal pathogen, although previously focus has been primarily on liveborn children, especially early-onset disease. In this first of an 11-article supplement, we discuss the following: (1) Why estimate the worldwide burden of GBS disease? (2) What outcomes of GBS in pregnancy should be included? (3) What data and epidemiological parameters are required? (4) What methods and models can be used to transparently estimate this burden of GBS? (5) What are the challenges with available data? and (6) How can estimates address data gaps to better inform GBS interventions including maternal immunization? We review all available GBS data worldwide, including maternal GBS colonization, risk of neonatal disease (with/without intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis), maternal GBS disease, neonatal/infant GBS disease, and subsequent impairment, plus GBS-associated stillbirth, preterm birth, and neonatal encephalopathy. We summarize our methods for searches, meta-analyses, and modeling including a compartmental model. Our approach is consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER), published in The Lancet and the Public Library of Science (PLoS). We aim to address priority epidemiological gaps highlighted by WHO to inform potential maternal vaccination

Lipid analogs reveal features critical for hemolysis and diminish granadaene mediated Group B Streptococcus infection

Although certain microbial lipids are toxins, the structural features important for cytotoxicity remain unknown. Increased functional understanding is essential for developing therapeutics against toxic microbial lipids. Group B Streptococci (GBS) are bacteria associated with preterm births, stillbirths, and severe infections in neonates and adults. GBS produce a pigmented, cytotoxic lipid, known as granadaene. Despite its importance to all manifestations of GBS disease, studies towards understanding granadaene’s toxic activity are hindered by its instability and insolubility in purified form. Here, we report the synthesis and screening of lipid derivatives inspired by granadaene, which reveal features central to toxin function, namely the polyene chain length. Furthermore, we show that vaccination with a non-toxic synthetic analog confers the production of antibodies that inhibit granadaene-mediated hemolysis ex vivo and diminish GBS infection in vivo. This work provides unique structural and functional insight into granadaene and a strategy to mitigate GBS infection, which will be relevant to other toxic lipids encoded by human pathogens.This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health Grants R01AI112619, R01AI133976, R01AI100989, and R21AI125907 and seed funds from Seattle Childrens Research Institute to L.

Intestinal Epithelial Serum Amyloid A Modulates Bacterial Growth In Vitro and Pro-Inflammatory Responses in Mouse Experimental Colitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serum Amyloid A (SAA) is a major acute phase protein of unknown function. SAA is mostly expressed in the liver, but also in other tissues including the intestinal epithelium. SAA reportedly has anti-bacterial effects, and because inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) result from a breakdown in homeostatic interactions between intestinal epithelia and bacteria, we hypothesized that SAA is protective during experimental colitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Intestinal SAA expression was measured in mouse and human samples. Dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) colitis was induced in SAA 1/2 double knockout (DKO) mice and in wildtype controls. Anti-bacterial effects of SAA1/2 were tested in intestinal epithelial cell lines transduced with adenoviral vectors encoding the CE/J SAA isoform or control vectors prior to exposure to live <it>Escherichia coli</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant levels of SAA1/SAA2 RNA and SAA protein were detected by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in mouse colonic epithelium. SAA3 expression was weaker, but similarly distributed. SAA1/2 RNA was present in the ileum and colon of conventional mice and in the colon of germfree mice. Expression of SAA3 was strongly regulated by bacterial lipopolysaccharides in cultured epithelial cell lines, whereas SAA1/2 expression was constitutive and not LPS inducible. Overexpression of SAA1/2 in cultured epithelial cell lines reduced the viability of co-cultured <it>E. coli</it>. This might partially explain the observed increase in susceptibility of DKO mice to DSS colitis. SAA1/2 expression was increased in colon samples obtained from Crohn's Disease patients compared to controls.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Intestinal epithelial SAA displays bactericidal properties in vitro and could play a protective role in experimental mouse colitis. Altered expression of SAA in intestinal biopsies from Crohn's Disease patients suggests that SAA is involved in the disease process..</p

In vitro assessment of Function Graded (FG) artificial Hip joint stem in terms of bone/cement stresses: 3D Finite Element (FE) study

Abstract Background Stress shielding in the cemented hip prosthesis occurs due to the mismatching in the mechanical properties of metallic stem and bone. This mismatching in properties is considered as one of the main reasons for implant loosening. Therefore, a new stem material in orthopedic surgery is still required. In the present study, 3D finite element modeling is used for evaluating the artificial hip joint stem that is made of Function Graded (FG) material in terms of joint stress distributions and stem length. Method 3D finite element models of different stems made of two types of FG materials and traditional stems made of Cobalt Chromium alloy (CoCrMo) and Titanium alloy (Ti) were developed using the ANSYS Code. The effects on the total artificial hip joint stresses (Shear stress and Von Mises stresses at bone cement, Von Mises stresses at bone and stem) due to using the proposed FG materials stems were investigated. The effects on the total artificial hip joint system stresses due to using different stem lengths were investigated. Results Using FG stem (with low stiffness at stem distal end and high stiffness at its proximal end) resulted in a significant reduction in shear stress at the bone cement/stem interface. Also, the Von Mises stresses at the bone cement and stem decrease significantly when using FG material instead of CoCrMo and Ti alloy. The stresses’ distribution along the bone cement length when using FG material was found to be more uniform along the whole bone cement compared with other stem materials. These more uniform stresses will help in the reduction of the artificial hip joint loosening rate and improve its short and long term performance. Conclusion FE results showed that using FG stem increases the resultant stresses at the femur bone (reduces stress shielding) compared to metallic stem. The results showed that the stem length has significant effects on the resultant shear and Von Mises stresses at bone, stem and bone cement for all types of stem materials.</p

Articular cartilage changes associated with bony contusions in anterior cruciate ligament injury

AbstractObjectivesThe goal of the present study was to determine whether a correlation exists between bone contusions sustained with anterior cruciate ligament injury and the articular cartilage changes observed during reconstructive surgery.MethodsAcross-sectional study was conducted over 5years for consecutive knees undergoing ACL reconstruction. Clinical data, MRI evaluation, and Arthroscopic findings were reported. Analysis of the data was achieved by using the Fisher’s exact test.ResultsThirty six patients with 37 knees were included. Their mean age was 23.9years. There were 19 males and 17 females. The mean time from injury to MRI was 3months. The mean time from injury to surgery was 9.86months. Bone contusions were seen in 30% of medial femoral condyles and medial tibial plateaus.A strong correlation was observed between presence of bone contusions and articular surface damage on the medial femoral condyle (p=0.026) and the medial tibial plateau (p=0.011). There were no correlation between bone contusions and articular surface damage on the lateral femoral condyle (p=1.0) and the lateral tibial plateau (p=0.69).ConclusionAlthough lateral compartment bone contusions are more commonly seen following injury, we have not found this to be associated with the status of the overlying cartilage.Degenerative changes in the ACL-deficient knee are multifactorial, but medial compartment bone contusion may be an important contributor that warrants further investigation

Fabrication of highly porous biodegradable biomimetic nanocomposite as advanced bone tissue scaffold

Development of bioinspired or biomimetic materials is currently a challenge in the field of tissue regeneration. In-situ 3D biomimetic microporous nanocomposite scaffold has been developed using a simple lyophilization post hydrothermal reaction for bone healing applications. The fabricated 3D porous scaffold possesses advantages of good bonelike apatite particles distribution, thermal properties and high porous interconnected network structure. High dispersion bonelike apatite nanoparticles (NPs) rapidly nucleated and deposited from surrounding biological minerals within chitosan (CTS) matrices using hydrothermal technique. After that, freeze-drying method was applied on the composite solution to form the desired porous 3D architecture. Interestingly, the porosity and pore size of composite scaffold were not significantly affected by the particles size and particles content within the CTS matrix. Our results demonstrated that the compression modulus of porous composite scaffold is twice higher than that of plain CTS scaffold, indicating a maximization of the chemical interaction between polymer matrix and apatite NPs. Cytocompatibility test for MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts cell line using MTT-indirect assay test showed that the fabricated 3D microporous nanocomposite scaffold possesses higher cell proliferation and growth than that of pure CTS scaffold. Collectively, our results suggest that the newly developed highly porous apatite/CTS nanocomposite scaffold as an alternative of hydroxyapatite/CTS scaffold may serve as an excellent porous 3D platform for bone tissue regeneration

Biocompatibility properties of polyamide 6/PCL blends composite textile scaffold using EA.hy926 human endothelial cells

Enhancing the cytocompatibility profiles, including cell attachment, growth and viability, of designed synthetic scaffolds, has a pivotal role in tissue engineering applications. Polymer blending is one of the most effective methods for providing new desirable biomaterials for tissue scaffolds. This article reports a novel polyamide 6/poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (PA6/PCL) blends solution which was fabricated to create composite fibrous tissue scaffolds by varying the concentration ratios of PA6 and PCL. Highly porous blends of fibrous scaffold were fabricated and their suitability as cell-support for EA.hy926 human endothelial cells was studied. Our results demonstrated that the unique nanoscale morphological properties and tune porosity of the blends scaffold were controlled. We found that these properties are mainly dependent on the PA6/PCL blending viscosity value, and the viscosity of the blending solution has an intense effect on the properties of the blends scaffold. The influence of the scaffolds extraction fluids and the scaffold direct contact of both the metabolic viability and the DNA integrity of EA.hy926 endothelial cells, as well as the cell/scaffold interaction analysis by scanning electron microscope, after different co-culturing intervals, demonstrated that PA6/PCL blend scaffolds showed different behaviors. Blend scaffolds of PA6/PCL of 90:10 ratio proved to be excellent endothelial cell carriers, which provided a good cell morphology, DNA integrity and viability, induced DNA synthesis/replication, and enhanced cell proliferation, attachment, and invasion. These results indicate that blends of PA6/PCL composite fibers are a promising 3D substitute for the next generation of synthetic tissue scaffolds that could soon find clinical applications

Suppression and enhancement of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions by interference tones above f2. I. Basic findings in rabbits

The present study measured interference-response areas (IRAs) for distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) at 2 f 1− f 2, 3 f 1−2f 2, and 2 f 2− f 1. The IRAs were obtained in either awake or anesthetized rabbits, or in anesthetized guinea pigs and mice, by sweeping the frequencies and levels of an interference tone (IT) around a set of f 1 and f 2 primary tones, at several fixed frequencies and levels, while plotting the effects of the IT on DPOAE level. An unexpected outcome was the occurrence of regions of suppression and/or enhancement of DPOAE level when the IT was at a frequency slightly less than to more than an octave above f 2. The IRA of the 2 f 1− f 2 DPOAE typically displayed a high-frequency (HF) lobe of suppression, while the 2 f 2− f 1 emission often exhibited considerable amounts of enhancement. Moreover, for the 2 f 2− f 1 DPOAE, when enhancement was absent, its IRA usually tuned to a region above f 2. Whether or not suppression/enhancement was observed depended upon primary-tone level and frequency separation, as well as on the relative levels of the two primaries. Various physiological manipulations involving anesthesia, eighth-nerve section, diuretic administration, or pure-tone overstimulation showed that these phenomena were of cochlear origin, and were not dependent upon the acoustic reflex or cochlear-efferent activity. The aftereffects of applying diuretics or over-exposures revealed that suppression/enhancement required the presence of sensitive, low-level DPOAE-generator sources. Additionally, suppression/enhancement were general effects in that, in addition to rabbits, they were also observed in mice and guinea pigs. Further, corresponding plots of DPOAE phase often revealed areas of differing phase change in the vicinity of the primary tones as compared to regions above f 2. These findings, along with the effects of tonal exposures designed to fatigue regions above f 2, and instances in which DPOAE level was dependent upon the amount of suppression/enhancement, suggested that the interactions of two DPOAE-generator sources contributed, in some manner, to these phenomena