PERSISTENCE OF ACTIVE COMPOUNDS OF ESSENTIAL OILS OF CLAUSENA ANISATA (RUTACEAE) AND PLECTRANTHUS GLANDULOSUS (LABIATEAE) USED AS INSECTICIDES ON MAIZE GRAINS AND FLOUR

ABSTRACT Maize occupies an important place in the resolution of food insecurity problems in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. However due to poor post-harvest technologies, more than 35% of annual crop yield is often lost during storage as a consequence of insect attack. While chemical pesticides constitute an efficient tool for reducing these losses, current excessive usage runs the risk of modifying the quality and safety of foods produced from these grains. The use of essential oils of plant origin for grain storage has been advocated as a non invasive method with limited or no effect on the quality and safety of the grains or their products. This study was carried out as an evidence of bioactivity of two essential oils of Clausena anisata (Willd.) Hook and Plectranthus glandulosus Hook F. against adults of Tribolium castaneum Herbst and Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky, which are two important stored product insect pests in Northern Cameroon. Because of the low persistence of the insecticidal activities of these plants, their essential oils to achieve a complete protection of the stored products must be applied at frequent delays. The present investigation focuses on the occurrence of residues of these oils on treated maize grain and flour. The doses of crude essential oils used to treat adults of S. zeamais and T. castaneum in a contact and inhalation process were their LD 99 s. After the evaluation of their insecticidal activity the persistence of each essential oil was observed every 2 days till 14 days. After the disappearance of their insecticidal activities, essential oil was re-extracted and their residual compounds were identified from treated grain and flour. The major compounds of C. anisata are, estragole, α-humulene, germacrene D and (E)-nerolidol. In P. glandulosus they are: fenchone, α-terpinolene and piperitenone oxide. After 14 days, only 64.24% of compounds of C. anisata were recovered on treated flour and 55.16% on grains. Concerning P. glandulosus, 48.94% was recovered on grains and 61.23% on flour

A Database of Domain Definitions for Proteins with Complex Interdomain Geometry

Protein structural domains are necessary for understanding evolution and protein folding, and may vary widely from functional and sequence based domains. Although, various structural domain databases exist, defining domains for some proteins is non-trivial, and definitions of their domain boundaries are not available. Here, we present a novel database of manually defined structural domains for a representative set of proteins from the SCOP “multi-domain proteins” class. (http://prodata.swmed.edu/multidom/). We consider our domains as mobile evolutionary units, which may rearrange during protein evolution. Additionally, they may be visualized as structurally compact and possibly independently folding units. We also found that representing domains as evolutionary and folding units do not always lead to a unique domain definition. However, unlike existing databases, we retain and refine these “alternate” domain definitions after careful inspection of structural similarity, functional sites and automated domain definition methods. We provide domain definitions, including actual residue boundaries, for proteins that well known databases like SCOP and CATH do not attempt to split. Our alternate domain definitions are suitable for sequence and structure searches by automated methods. Additionally, the database can be used for training and testing domain delineation algorithms. Since our domains represent structurally compact evolutionary units, the database may be useful for studying domain properties and evolution

Major reduction of malaria morbidity with combined vitamin A and zinc supplementation in young children in Burkina Faso: a randomized double blind trial

BACKGROUND: Vitamin A and zinc are crucial for normal immune function, and may play a synergistic role for reducing the risk of infection including malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a single dose of 200 000 IU of vitamin A with daily zinc supplementation was done in children of Sourkoudougou village, Burkina Faso. Children aged from 6 to 72 months were randomized to receive a single dose of 200 000 IU of vitamin A plus 10 mg elemental zinc, six days a week (n = 74) or placebo (n = 74) for a period of six months. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted at the beginning and the end of the study, and children were evaluated daily for fever. Microscopic examination of blood smear was done in the case of fever (temperature > or =37.5 degrees C) for malaria parasite detection. RESULTS: At the end of the study we observed a significant decrease in the prevalence malaria in the supplemented group (34%) compared to the placebo group (3.5%) (p < 0.001). Malaria episodes were lower in the supplemented group (p = 0.029), with a 30.2% reduction of malaria cases (p = 0.025). Time to first malaria episode was longer in the supplemented group (p = 0.015). The supplemented group also had 22% fewer fever episodes than the placebo group (p = 0.030). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that combined vitamin A plus zinc supplementation reduces the risk of fever and clinical malaria episodes among children, and thus may play a key role in malaria control strategies for children in Africa

Extent of Height Variability Explained by Known Height-Associated Genetic Variants in an Isolated Population of the Adriatic Coast of Croatia

BACKGROUND: Human height is a classical example of a polygenic quantitative trait. Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 height-associated loci, though these variants explain only 2∼10% of overall variability of normal height. The objective of this study was to investigate the variance explained by these loci in a relatively isolated population of European descent with limited admixture and homogeneous genetic background from the Adriatic coast of Croatia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a sample of 1304 individuals from the island population of Hvar, Croatia, we performed genome-wide SNP typing and assessed the variance explained by genetic scores constructed from different panels of height-associated SNPs extracted from five published studies. The combined information of the 180 SNPs reported by Lango Allen el al. explained 7.94% of phenotypic variation in our sample. Genetic scores based on 20~50 SNPs reported by the remaining individual GWA studies explained 3~5% of height variance. These percentages of variance explained were within ranges comparable to the original studies and heterogeneity tests did not detect significant differences in effect size estimates between our study and the original reports, if the estimates were obtained from populations of European descent. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have evaluated the portability of height-associated loci and the overall fitting of estimated effect sizes reported in large cohorts to an isolated population. We found proportions of explained height variability were comparable to multiple reference GWAS in cohorts of European descent. These results indicate similar genetic architecture and comparable effect sizes of height loci among populations of European descent

The Genome of Ganderma lucidum Provide Insights into Triterpense Biosynthesis and Wood Degradation

BACKGROUND: Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi or Ling Zhi) is one of the most famous Traditional Chinese Medicines and has been widely used in the treatment of various human diseases in Asia countries. It is also a fungus with strong wood degradation ability with potential in bioenergy production. However, genes, pathways and mechanisms of these functions are still unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The genome of G. lucidum was sequenced and assembled into a 39.9 megabases (Mb) draft genome, which encoded 12,080 protein-coding genes and ∼83% of them were similar to public sequences. We performed comprehensive annotation for G. lucidum genes and made comparisons with genes in other fungi genomes. Genes in the biosynthesis of the main G. lucidum active ingredients, ganoderic acids (GAs), were characterized. Among the GAs synthases, we identified a fusion gene, the N and C terminal of which are homologous to two different enzymes. Moreover, the fusion gene was only found in basidiomycetes. As a white rot fungus with wood degradation ability, abundant carbohydrate-active enzymes and ligninolytic enzymes were identified in the G. lucidum genome and were compared with other fungi. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The genome sequence and well annotation of G. lucidum will provide new insights in function analyses including its medicinal mechanism. The characterization of genes in the triterpene biosynthesis and wood degradation will facilitate bio-engineering research in the production of its active ingredients and bioenergy

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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Thermal osteonecrosis and bone drilling parameters revisited

INTRODUCTION: During the drilling of the bone, the temperature could increase above 47 degrees C and cause irreversible osteonecrosis. The result is weakened contact of implants with bone and possible loss of rigid fixation. The aim of this study was to find an optimal condition where the increase in bone temperature during bone drilling process would be minimal. ----- MATERIALS AND METHODS: Influence of different drill parameters was evaluated on the increase of bone temperature. Drill diameters were 2.5, 3.2 and 4.5 mm; drill speed 188, 462, 1,140 and 1,820 rpm; feed-rate 24, 56, 84 and 196 mm/min; drill point angle 80 degrees , 100 degrees and 120 degrees and external irrigation with water of 26 degrees C. ----- RESULTS: Combinations of drill speed and drill diameter with the use of external irrigation produced temperatures far below critical. Without external irrigation, temperature values for the same combination of parameters ranged 31.4-55.5 degrees C. Temperatures above critical were recorded using 4.5 mm drill with higher drill speeds (1,140 and 1,820 rpm). There was no statistical significance of different drill point angles on the increase or decrease of bone temperature. The higher the feed-rate the lower the increase of bone temperature. ----- CONCLUSIONS: The external irrigation is the most important cooling factor. With all combinations of parameters used, external irrigation maintained the bone temperature below 47 degrees C. The increase in drill diameter and drill speed caused increase in bone temperature. The changes in drill point angle did not show significant influence in the increase of the bone temperature. With the increase in feed-rate, increase in bone temperature is lower