Effect of apical dominance on bud take in Citrus vegetative propagation

The objective of the study was to identify the grafting method, which will have a higher success rate of scion development. The study was conducted at Mount Makulu Central Research station in Chilanga, Zambia (15o33S / 28o11E) from April 2010 to November 2011. The study had 4 vegetative propagation methods that varied in the treatment of the rootstock and scion. The four methods were Standard T- budding (STB); Modified TBudding with decapitation (TBD); T- budding with scion bending (TBB); Crown grafting (CG). Bud take, shoot growth, leaf emergence and Leaf area index were measured up to 11 weeks after treatment (WAT). With CG there was 100 % bud take. STB had a bud take of 58.3 %. TBD had a bud take of 50 %. The lowest bud take percentage was recorded in TBB, which had a bud take of 41.7 %. At 5 weeks the STB and TBB treatment had shoot length of 0.7 and 1.0 cm respectively which were the shortest; this was followed by the CG treatment at 15.3 cm and the modified TBD with apical shoot decapitation (21.7 cm). STB shoots did not start growing until about 5 weeks, which was 2 weeks after the rootstock was cut off. At 5 weeks, the TBB and STB were yet to form leaves. The CG had close to 20 leaves and the TBD had almost 15.2 leaves. At the end of 11 weeks, the TBB had the highest number of leaves. Across the grafting methods; the Leaf area exhibited a pattern similar to leaf number; it kept on doubling every 2 weeks to until the 9th week after which the increase was negligible. At 11 weeks, the highest leaf area was in the TBD followed by the STB and lowest in the CG treatment.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (1): 64-70, June, 201

Primary visual cortex excitability is not atypical in acquired synaesthesia

A wealth of data suggests that psychedelic drugs elicit spontaneous perceptual states that resemble synaesthesia although it is unclear whether these different forms of synaesthesia share overlapping neural mechanisms. Multiple studies have shown that developmental and trained synaesthesia is characterized by selective hyperexcitability in primary visual cortex and it has been proposed that cortical hyperexcitability may contribute to induced and acquired synaesthesia. This study tested the prediction that a case of acquired synaesthesia (LW) would display selectively elevated primary visual cortex excitability, as reflected in lower transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) phosphene thresholds, but no difference in motor thresholds, relative to controls. In contrast to this prediction, LW’s phosphene threshold was well within the threshold range of controls. These results suggest that acquired synaesthesia is not characterized by atypical visual cortex excitability

A comparison of vitamin D and cathelicidin (LL-37) levels between patients with active TB and their healthy contacts in a high HIV prevalence setting: a prospective descriptive study

BACKGROUND: Studies from Asia and Europe indicate an association between vitamin D deficiency and susceptibility to TB. We performed an observational case-control study to determine vitamin D and cathelicidin (LL-37) levels and their association with active TB in newly diagnosed and microbiologically confirmed adult TB patients in Zambia, a high HIV prevalence setting. METHODS: Both total vitamin D and LL-37 were measured using ELISA from serum and supernatant isolated from cultured whole blood that was stimulated with heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA statistical software version 12. RESULTS: The median vitamin D in TB patients and healthy contacts was 28.7 (19.88-38.64) and 40.8 (31.2-49.44) ng/ml, respectively (p<0.001). The median LL-37 in TB patients compared with healthy contacts was 1.87 (2.74-8.93) and 6.73 (5.6-9.58) ng/ml, respectively (p=0.0149). Vitamin D correlation with LL-37 in healthy contacts was R2=0.7 (95% CI 0.566 to 0.944), p<0.0001. Normal vitamin D significantly predicted a healthy status (OR 4.06, p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Significantly lower levels of vitamin D and LL-37 are seen in adults with newly diagnosed active TB. Longitudinal studies across various geographical regions are required to accurately define the roles of vitamin D and LL-37 in preventive and TB treatment outcomes

Taylor dispersion with absorbing boundaries: A Stochastic Approach

We describe how to solve the problem of Taylor dispersion in the presence of absorbing boundaries using an exact stochastic formulation. In addition to providing a clear stochastic picture of Taylor dispersion, our method leads to closed-form expressions for all the moments of the convective displacement of the dispersing particles in terms of the transverse diffusion eigenmodes. We also find that the cumulants grow asymptotically linearly with time, ensuring a Gaussian distribution in the long-time limit. As a demonstration of the technique, the first two longitudinal cumulants (yielding respectively the effective velocity and the Taylor diffusion constant) as well as the skewness (a measure of the deviation from normality) are calculated for fluid flow in the parallel plate geometry. We find that the effective velocity and the skewness (which is negative in this case) are enhanced while Taylor dispersion is suppressed due to absorption at the boundary.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Fuel inventory and deposition in castellated structures in JET-ILW

Since 2011 the JET tokamak has been operated with a metal ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) including castellated beryllium limiters and lamellae-type bulk tungsten tiles in the divertor. This has allowed for a large scale test of castellated plasma-facing components (PFC). Procedures for sectioning the limiters into single blocks of castellation have been developed. This facilitated morphology studies of morphology of surfaces inside the grooves for limiters after experimental campaigns 2011–2012 and 2013–2014. The deposition in the 0.4–0.5mm wide grooves of the castellation is ‘shallow’. It reaches 1–2mm into the 12mm deep gap. Deuterium concentrations are small (mostly below 1 × 1018 cm−2 ). The estimated total amount of deuterium in all the castellated limiters does not exceed the inventory of the plasma-facing surfaces (PFS) of the limiters. There are only traces of Ni, Cr and Fe deposited in the castellation gaps. The same applies to the carbon content. Also low deposition of D, Be and C has been measured on the sides of the bulk tungsten lamellae pieces. Modelling clearly reflects: (a) a sharp decrease in the measured deposition profiles and (b) an increase in deposition with the gap width. Both experimental and modelling data give a strong indication and information to ITER that narrow gaps in the castellated PFC are essential. X-ray diffraction on PFS has clearly shown two distinct composition patterns: Be with an admixture of Be–W intermetallic compounds (e.g. Be22W) in the deposition zone, whilst only pure Be has been detected in the erosion zone. The lack of compound formation in the erosion zone indicates that no distinct changes in the thermo-mechanical properties of the Be PFC might be expected.EURATOM 633053Swedish Research Council (VR) 2015–0484

Adhesive force distributions for tungsten dust deposited on bulk tungsten and beryllium-coated tungsten surfaces

Comprehensive measurements of the adhesive force for tungsten dust adhered to tungsten surfaces have been performed with the electrostatic detachment method. Monodisperse spherical dust has been deposited with gas dynamics techniques or with gravity mimicking adhesion as it naturally occurs in tokamaks. The adhesive force is confirmed to follow the log-normal distribution and empirical correlations are proposed for the size-dependence of its mean and standard deviation. Systematic differences are observed between the two deposition methods and attributed to plastic deformation during sticking impacts. The presence of thin beryllium coatings on tungsten surfaces is demonstrated to barely affect adhesion

Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria Health Services in sub-Saharan Africa – A Situation Analysis of the Disruptions and Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The unprecedented and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in African countries’ health systems. The impact of shifted focus on COVID-19 for the past 2 years on routine health services, especially those for the epidemics of Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria, have been dramatic in both quantity and quality. Methods: In this article, we reflect on the COVID-19 related disruptions on the Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria routine health services across Africa. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruptions of routine health services and diversion of already limited available resources in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, disease programs like TB, malaria and HIV have recorded gaps in prevention and treatment with the prospects of reversing gains made towards meeting global targets. The extent of the disruption is yet to be fully quantified at country level as most data available is from modelling estimates before and during the pandemic. Conclusions: Accurate country-level data is required to convince donors and governments to invest more into revamping these health services and help prepare for managing future pandemics without disruption of routine services. Increasing government expenditure on health is a critical part of Africa's economic policy. Strengthening health systems at various levels to overcome the negative impacts of COVID-19, and preparing for future epidemics will require strong visionary political leadership. Innovations in service delivery and technological adaptations are required as countries aim to limit disruptions to routine services