RNA interference approaches for treatment of HIV-1 infection.

HIV/AIDS is a chronic and debilitating disease that cannot be cured with current antiretroviral drugs. While combinatorial antiretroviral therapy (cART) can potently suppress HIV-1 replication and delay the onset of AIDS, viral mutagenesis often leads to viral escape from multiple drugs. In addition to the pharmacological agents that comprise cART drug cocktails, new biological therapeutics are reaching the clinic. These include gene-based therapies that utilize RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the expression of viral or host mRNA targets that are required for HIV-1 infection and/or replication. RNAi allows sequence-specific design to compensate for viral mutants and natural variants, thereby drastically expanding the number of therapeutic targets beyond the capabilities of cART. Recent advances in clinical and preclinical studies have demonstrated the promise of RNAi therapeutics, reinforcing the concept that RNAi-based agents might offer a safe, effective, and more durable approach for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, there are challenges that must be overcome in order for RNAi therapeutics to reach their clinical potential. These include the refinement of strategies for delivery and to reduce the risk of mutational escape. In this review, we provide an overview of RNAi-based therapies for HIV-1, examine a variety of combinatorial RNAi strategies, and discuss approaches for ex vivo delivery and in vivo delivery

Study of small turbofan engines applicable to general-aviation aircraft

The applicability of small turbofan engines to general aviation aircraft is discussed. The engine and engine/airplane performance, weight, size, and cost interrelationships are examined. The effects of specific engine noise constraints are evaluated. The factors inhibiting the use of turbofan engines in general aviation aircraft are identified

When Shall We Harvest?

A few years back, harvesting small grain was done just one way—when we thought the grain was ready to cut, or should be harvested to save it, we cut it with a binder, dried it in the shock and then threshed it

Sow Oats Early

If you are unable to get your oats sown on time this year, a few days delay in sowing may not affect yields so much

Growing winter wheat in Iowa

During the last half decade winter wheat has been Iowa’s most profitable grain crop. Taking the average yield per acre and the average price per bushel for the crops of the state, winter wheat has given an average acre return of $16.19, while the next best paying crop, corn, has an average of only$15.46, and the other crops still less. The profit in growing winter wheat in Iowa is well illustrated in table 1 and figure 2, compiled from the reports of the crop and weather service of the Iowa State Department of Agriculture. The table shows the average yield per acre of Iowa’s important cereals and their average farm value December 1, for the five years 1906 to 1910, inclusive. From these figures the average value per acre of these crops has been calculated as shown in the right hand column

Iogold oats

Iogold, a new variety of oats offered for distribution by the Farm Crops Section of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station in 1927, has three distinct qualities which recommend it to Iowa farmers. Its advantages are stiffness of straw, high yield of grain and resistance to stem rust. Iogold stands as well or better than Iowa No. 105 and its yields are equal to Iowar. It went thru the 1926 stem rust epidemic with less than 2 percent of infected plants, while most other varieties showed from 8·0 to 100 percent infection. For growing on land where lodging and rust are to be expected, Iogold is recommended as superior to any of the tested varieties in ability to stand up and yield

Some data for oat growers

Following the publication of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment station’s last bulletin on Oats, in March, 1908, a number of additional experiments with this cereal were inaugurated which are now drawing toward completion. The variety test was increased to cover all of the kinds generally grown in the state; others, some new and some well known, were imported from the irrigated and “dry-farming” districts of the west, from Canada, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois, and from Scotland and England. Other experiments were undertaken upon the size and weight of seed and upon the rate and method of seeding. These, while as yet incomplete, are showing some tendencies which are valuable and should now be made public. From the variety tests we find certain types adapted to certain soils and conditions. Buying heavy seed in the open market does not show satisfactory returns for the money invested. The value of repeated fanning of seed oats has been overestimated. Longtime tests with drilling vs. broadcasting give more favorable results for the drill. Heavy seeding we find more profitable than is usually considered to be the case

Grow Spring Wheat in Iowa

The average production of wheat In Iowa for the five-year period 1911 to 1915, inclusive, was 14,834,950 bushels per year. In 1916 and 1917 the yield was 6,732,000 and 5,597,000 bushels. The state is therefore more than an entire crop behind at the present time, a serious shortage for one state to be responsible for when wheat may win or lose the war. The dry weather In the late summer and fall of 1917 made the sowing of winter wheat so difficult that little over 200,000 acres was sown, less than halt of a normal acreage. In many sections of the state severe winter conditions have made the production from this acreage decidedly doubtful. It the best of weather conditions prevail from now until· harvest we may not expect more than an average yield of 20.9 bu. per acre. This will give 4,226,068 bu. of winter wheat whereas Iowa normally produces over 10,000,000 bu

Barley: An Early Maturing Crop for Years of Feed Shortage

The farmer who Is short of corn may well sow a field of barley in April for hog feed in July and August. Barley, the first of all spring crops to mature, is ready to harvest early in July and will offer relief from feed shortage at least sixty days before the next corn crop is ready. This early maturity makes it available for hog feed just when the pastures are beginning to fail and the shortage of feed is most stringent

The effect of delayed harvest upon yield of grain

In 1927 yield and moisture data were secured at semi-weekly harvest intervals for four varieties of oats, two of winter wheat and two of barley. In 1928 this experiment was repeated using six varieties of oats, two of winter wheat and four of barley. The data secured in these studies show increases in yields which indicate that photosynthesis and translocation of food material to the kernel may continue much longer than has been previously reported. The yields continued to rise until the moisture content of the grain had fallen to percentages varying, in 1927, between 33.6 and 10.0, and in 1928 between 45.0 and 19.4, as shown in table I, page 335. The results of these experiments indicate that a considerable part of the grain crop is usually harvested before maximum production has been attained. In 1927 several of the varieties increased in yield as much as 10 percent after the date on which they normally would have been harvested. In some cases these increases extended over a period of 10 days. In 1928, probably due to intermittent storms, the increases were much smaller than in the previous year, but continued over approximately the same length of time. The results confirm the accepted idea that the corresponding losses from delayed harvesting are lower for wheat than for other grains. The experiments with oats show a distinct relation between varieties and the length of profitable harvest period