FRUIT GROWING IN ROMANIA IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In Romania, fruit growing has an old and rich tradition. During the 20th century, the Romanian fruit growing witnessed dramatic changes. The acreage grown with fruit trees was 340,100 ha in 1927, 184,200 ha in 1950, 428,400 ha in 1970 and 239,900 ha in 1999. Total fruit yield varied during this period of time between 401,100 tons in 1950 and 2,183,000 tons in 1993. In spite of the fact that in 1993 was produced the highest total fruit yield, the average fruit consumption/capita was only of 35.7 kg which is significantly lower than that considered optimal for adult people in temperate zones (62 kg/capita). The main reason of this situation is the poor varietal structure of fruits in which plum trees represented more than 40% of all the fruit trees grown. Another reason would be the low yields/ha registered in all species and cultivars of fruit trees grown in Romania in the last 30-40 years. With a very serious shrink of acreages grown with fruit trees in 1999, the average consumption/capita is expected to become totally unfavorable. There are not many solutions to this problems and one of them certainly means the significant increase of average yields in all fruit species grown in Romania, at least to the level of those achieved in industrial orchards of Western Europe

FRUIT GROWING IN ROMANIA IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In Romania, fruit growing has an old and rich tradition. During the 20th century, the Romanian fruit growing witnessed dramatic changes. The acreage grown with fruit trees was 340,100 ha in 1927, 184,200 ha in 1950, 428,400 ha in 1970 and 239,900 ha in 1999. Total fruit yield varied during this period of time between 401,100 tons in 1950 and 2,183,000 tons in 1993. In spite of the fact that in 1993 was produced the highest total fruit yield, the average fruit consumption/capita was only of 35.7 kg which is significantly lower than that considered optimal for adult people in temperate zones (62 kg/capita). The main reason of this situation is the poor varietal structure of fruits in which plum trees represented more than 40% of all the fruit trees grown. Another reason would be the low yields/ha registered in all species and cultivars of fruit trees grown in Romania in the last 30-40 years. With a very serious shrink of acreages grown with fruit trees in 1999, the average consumption/capita is expected to become totally unfavorable. There are not many solutions to this problems and one of them certainly means the significant increase of average yields in all fruit species grown in Romania, at least to the level of those achieved in industrial orchards of Western Europe

Descifrando la blockchain

Actualmente se escuchan con frecuencia términos como blockchain, bitcoin, fintech, criptomonedas y muchos más, pero la mayoría de los ciudadanos siguen sin entender qué son y qué importancia tienen. Este artículo trata de ayudar a entenderlos mejor

The secreted triose phosphate isomerase of Brugia malayi is required to sustain microfilaria production in vivo

Human lymphatic filariasis is a major tropical disease transmitted through mosquito vectors which take up microfilarial larvae from the blood of infected subjects. Microfilariae are produced by long-lived adult parasites, which also release a suite of excretory-secretory products that have recently been subject to in-depth proteomic analysis. Surprisingly, the most abundant secreted protein of adult Brugia malayi is triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), a glycolytic enzyme usually associated with the cytosol. We now show that while TPI is a prominent target of the antibody response to infection, there is little antibody-mediated inhibition of catalytic activity by polyclonal sera. We generated a panel of twenty-three anti-TPI monoclonal antibodies and found only two were able to block TPI enzymatic activity. Immunisation of jirds with B. malayi TPI, or mice with the homologous protein from the rodent filaria Litomosoides sigmodontis, failed to induce neutralising antibodies or protective immunity. In contrast, passive transfer of neutralising monoclonal antibody to mice prior to implantation with adult B. malayi resulted in 60–70% reductions in microfilarial levels in vivo and both oocyte and microfilarial production by individual adult females. The loss of fecundity was accompanied by reduced IFNγ expression by CD4+ T cells and a higher proportion of macrophages at the site of infection. Thus, enzymatically active TPI plays an important role in the transmission cycle of B. malayi filarial parasites and is identified as a potential target for immunological and pharmacological intervention against filarial infections

Oxytocin Enhances Social Recognition by Modulating Cortical Control of Early Olfactory Processing

Oxytocin promotes social interactions and recognition of conspecifics that rely on olfaction in most species. The circuit mechanisms through which oxytocin modifies olfactory processing are incompletely understood. Here, we observed that optogenetically induced oxytocin release enhanced olfactory exploration and same-sex recognition of adult rats. Consistent with oxytocin’s function in the anterior olfactory cortex, particularly in social cue processing, region-selective receptor deletion impaired social recognition but left odor discrimination and recognition intact outside a social context. Oxytocin transiently increased the drive of the anterior olfactory cortex projecting to olfactory bulb interneurons. Cortical top-down recruitment of interneurons dynamically enhanced the inhibitory input to olfactory bulb projection neurons and increased the signal-to-noise of their output. In summary, oxytocin generates states for optimized information extraction in an early cortical top-down network that is required for social interactions with potential implications for sensory processing deficits in autism spectrum disorders