Improving Moringa Growth by Using Autochthonous and Allochthonous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Lake Victoria Basin

Biological methods such as mycorrhiza biotechnology used for raising and sustaining soil fertility in agricultural ecosystems close to freshwater biomes are gaining attention. However, ubiquitous ecological conditions may subject mycorrhizal management to choices that depend on inoculum sources (autochthonous or cultured). Effects of AMF on growth of M. stenopetala and M. oleifera were evaluated using three native soil types, representative of Lake Victoria basin and a standard substrate. Autochthonous AMF was harnessed from the native soils while allochthonous AMF cocktail was acquired from culture banks of Glomus hoi, G. mosseae and G. intraradices, using Plantago major as plant indicator and trap-culture. The soils were blocked according to tillage intensities. P. major supplied Moringa with AMF inoculum. To facilitate mycorrhization, nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) in chickpea rhizobia inoculum was integrated. The hyphopodium assays revealed > 90% arbuscle occupancy in root cortex of plants established in paddy LT soils. AMF inoculation improved growth and biomass of both Moringa species. Autochthonous AMF inoculum had relatively higher biomass turnover compared to cultured AMF. The presence of dark septate endophytes (DSE) in plant biodiversity gave a new insight into target plant performance at plant competition for nutrients. Results reveal that inoculum AMF and NFB are potential candidates in optimizing plant production technology applicable in eco-sensitive-oriented low in-put agriculture

Goal-directed Intraoperative therapy reduces morbidity and length of hospital stay in high-risk surgical patients

Abstract: Background: Postoperative organ failures commonly occur after major abdominal surgery, increasing the utilization of resources and costs of care. Tissue hypoxia is a key trigger of organ dysfunction. A therapeutic strategy designed to detect and reverse tissue hypoxia, as diagnosed by an increase of oxygen extraction (0,ER) over a predefined threshold, could decrease the incidence of organ failures. The primary aim of this study was to compare the number of patients with postoperative organ failure and length of hospital stay between those randomized to conventional vs a protocolized strategy designed to maintain O2ER < 27%. Methods: A prospective, randomized, controlled trial was performed in nine hospitals in Italy. One hundred thirty-five high-risk patients scheduled for major abdominal surgery were randomized in two groups. All patients were managed to achieve standard goals: mean arterial pressure > 80 mm Hg and urinary output > 0.5 mL/kg/h. The patients of the "pr..

Internet Image Viewer (iiV)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Visualizing 3-dimensional (3-D) datasets is an important part of modern neuroimaging research. Many tools address this problem; however, they often fail to address specific needs and flexibility, such as the ability to work with different data formats, to control how and what data are displayed, to interact with values, and to undo mistakes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>iiV, an interactive software program for displaying 3-D brain images, is described. This tool was programmed to solve basic problems in 3-D data visualization. It is written in Java so it is extensible, is platform independent, and can display images within web pages.</p> <p>iiV displays 3-D images as 2-dimensional (2-D) slices with each slice being an independent object with independent features such as location, zoom, colors, labels, etc. Feature manipulation becomes easier by having a full set of editing capabilities including the following: undo or redo changes; drag, copy, delete and paste objects; and save objects with their features to a file for future editing. It can read multiple standard positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) file formats like ECAT, ECAT7, ANALYZE, NIfTI-1 and DICOM. We present sample applications to illustrate some of the features and capabilities.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>iiV is an image display tool with many useful features. It is highly extensible, platform independent, and web-compatible. This report summarizes its features and applications, while illustrating iiV's usefulness to the biomedical imaging community.</p

Cancer-related fatigue: clinical practice versus practice guidelines

Purpose This study investigated adherence to treatment guidelines on cancer-related anaemia and fatigue (CRA/CRF) and factors influencing the choice of intervention. Methods In this prospective, observational study, 136 cancer patients being treated with chemotherapy in a large community hospital completed a questionnaire at consecutive outpatient visits assessing fatigue (the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Fatigue) and fatigue-related counselling and advice received. Data on administration of chemotherapy and use of epoetin or blood transfusions were abstracted from the medical records. Results Fifty-three percent of patients with severe anaemia (Hb<10 g/dl) and 6% of patients with less severe anaemia (Hb levels 10-12 g/dl) received treatment (epoetin and/or blood transfusions). Half of the patients with less severe anaemia reported clinically relevant levels of fatigue. More than 50% of all patients received fatigue-related counselling, primarily at the start of chemotherapy. Most counselling was directed at energy conservation. Fatigue was not associated significantly with the use of epoetin or blood transfusion. Patients receiving palliative treatment (17%), male patients (16%) and patients with a low Hb level (<6.2 g/dl, 38%) were treated significantly more often with epoetin. Conclusions In daily clinical practice, guidelines concerning the use of epoetin or blood transfusion in severe CRA are adhered to in about half of the cases. In patients with less severe anaemia, the level of fatigue did not play a significant role in the use of epoetin. According to current guidelines, counselling on CRF should be directed primarily at activity enhancement. However, only a minority of patients receive such counselling

Capsaicin- resistant arterial baroreceptors

BACKGROUND: Aortic baroreceptors (BRs) comprise a class of cranial afferents arising from major arteries closest to the heart whose axons form the aortic depressor nerve. BRs are mechanoreceptors that are largely devoted to cardiovascular autonomic reflexes. Such cranial afferents have either lightly myelinated (A-type) or non-myelinated (C-type) axons and share remarkable cellular similarities to spinal primary afferent neurons. Our goal was to test whether vanilloid receptor (TRPV1) agonists, capsaicin (CAP) and resiniferatoxin (RTX), altered the pressure-discharge properties of peripheral aortic BRs. RESULTS: Periaxonal application of 1 μM CAP decreased the amplitude of the C-wave in the compound action potential conducting at <1 m/sec along the aortic depressor nerve. 10 μM CAP eliminated the C-wave while leaving intact the A-wave conducting in the A-δ range (<12 m/sec). These whole nerve results suggest that TRPV1 receptors are expressed along the axons of C- but not A-conducting BR axons. In an aortic arch – aortic nerve preparation, intralumenal perfusion with 1 μM CAP had no effect on the pressure-discharge relations of regularly discharging, single fiber BRs (A-type) – including the pressure threshold, sensitivity, frequency at threshold, or maximum discharge frequency (n = 8, p > 0.50) but completely inhibited discharge of an irregularly discharging BR (C-type). CAP at high concentrations (10–100 μM) depressed BR sensitivity in regularly discharging BRs, an effect attributed to non-specific actions. RTX (≤ 10 μM) did not affect the discharge properties of regularly discharging BRs (n = 7, p > 0.18). A CAP-sensitive BR had significantly lower discharge regularity expressed as the coefficient of variation than the CAP-resistant fibers (p < 0.002). CONCLUSION: We conclude that functional TRPV1 channels are present in C-type but not A-type (A-δ) myelinated aortic arch BRs. CAP has nonspecific inhibitory actions that are unlikely to be related to TRV1 binding since such effects were absent with the highly specific TRPV1 agonist RTX. Thus, CAP must be used with caution at very high concentrations

Disease-Related Changes in the Cerebrospinal Fluid Metabolome in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Detected by GC/TOFMS

The changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) metabolome associated with the fatal neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are poorly understood and earlier smaller studies have shown conflicting results. The metabolomic methodology is suitable for screening large cohorts of samples. Global metabolomics can be used for detecting changes of metabolite concentrations in samples of fluids such as CSF.Using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/TOFMS) and multivariate statistical modeling, we simultaneously studied the metabolome signature of ∼120 small metabolites in the CSF of patients with ALS, stratified according to hereditary disposition and clinical subtypes of ALS in relation to controls.The study is the first to report data validated over two sub-sets of ALS vs. control patients for a large set of metabolites analyzed by GC/TOFMS. We find that patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS) have a heterogeneous metabolite signature in the cerebrospinal fluid, in some patients being almost identical to controls. However, familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS) without superoxide dismutase-1 gene (SOD1) mutation is less heterogeneous than SALS. The metabolome of the cerebrospinal fluid of 17 ALS patients with a SOD1 gene mutation was found to form a separate homogeneous group. Analysis of metabolites revealed that glutamate and glutamine were reduced, in particular in patients with a familial predisposition. There are significant differences in the metabolite profile and composition among patients with FALS, SALS and patients carrying a mutation in the SOD1 gene suggesting that the neurodegenerative process in different subtypes of ALS may be partially dissimilar.Patients with a genetic predisposition to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have a more distinct and homogeneous signature than patients with a sporadic disease

Counter-Gradient Variation in Respiratory Performance of Coral Reef Fishes at Elevated Temperatures

The response of species to global warming depends on how different populations are affected by increasing temperature throughout the species' geographic range. Local adaptation to thermal gradients could cause populations in different parts of the range to respond differently. In aquatic systems, keeping pace with increased oxygen demand is the key parameter affecting species' response to higher temperatures. Therefore, respiratory performance is expected to vary between populations at different latitudes because they experience different thermal environments. We tested for geographical variation in respiratory performance of tropical marine fishes by comparing thermal effects on resting and maximum rates of oxygen uptake for six species of coral reef fish at two locations on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. The two locations, Heron Island and Lizard Island, are separated by approximately 1200 km along a latitudinal gradient. We found strong counter-gradient variation in aerobic scope between locations in four species from two families (Pomacentridae and Apogonidae). High-latitude populations (Heron Island, southern GBR) performed significantly better than low-latitude populations (Lizard Island, northern GBR) at temperatures up to 5°C above average summer surface-water temperature. The other two species showed no difference in aerobic scope between locations. Latitudinal variation in aerobic scope was primarily driven by up to 80% higher maximum rates of oxygen uptake in the higher latitude populations. Our findings suggest that compensatory mechanisms in high-latitude populations enhance their performance at extreme temperatures, and consequently, that high-latitude populations of reef fishes will be less impacted by ocean warming than will low-latitude populations

HIV-1 Enhancing Effect of Prostatic Acid Phosphatase Peptides Is Reduced in Human Seminal Plasma

We recently reported that HIV-1 infection can be inhibited by innate antimicrobial components of human seminal plasma (SP). Conversely, naturally occurring peptidic fragments from the SP-derived prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) have been reported to form amyloid fibrils called “SEVI” and enhance HIV-1 infection in vitro. In order to understand the biological consequence of this proviral effect, we extended these studies in the presence of human SP. PAP-derived peptides were agitated to form SEVI and incubated in the presence or absence of SP. While PAP-derived peptides and SEVI alone were proviral, the presence of 1% SP ablated their proviral activity in several different anti-HIV-1 assays. The anti-HIV-1 activity of SP was concentration dependent and was reduced following filtration. Supraphysiological concentrations of PAP peptides and SEVI incubated with diluted SP were degraded within hours, with SP exhibiting proteolytic activity at dilutions as high as 1∶200. Sub-physiological concentrations of two prominent proteases of SP, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and matriptase, could degrade physiological and supraphysiological concentrations of PAP peptides and SEVI. While human SP is a complex biological fluid, containing both antiviral and proviral factors, our results suggest that PAP peptides and SEVI may be subject to naturally occurring proteolytic components capable of reducing their proviral activity

In the Laboratory and during Free-Flight: Old Honey Bees Reveal Learning and Extinction Deficits that Mirror Mammalian Functional Decline

Loss of brain function is one of the most negative and feared aspects of aging. Studies of invertebrates have taught us much about the physiology of aging and how this progression may be slowed. Yet, how aging affects complex brain functions, e.g., the ability to acquire new memory when previous experience is no longer valid, is an almost exclusive question of studies in humans and mammalian models. In these systems, age related cognitive disorders are assessed through composite paradigms that test different performance tasks in the same individual. Such studies could demonstrate that afflicted individuals show the loss of several and often-diverse memory faculties, and that performance usually varies more between aged individuals, as compared to conspecifics from younger groups. No comparable composite surveying approaches are established yet for invertebrate models in aging research. Here we test whether an insect can share patterns of decline similar to those that are commonly observed during mammalian brain aging. Using honey bees, we combine restrained learning with free-flight assays. We demonstrate that reduced olfactory learning performance correlates with a reduced ability to extinguish the spatial memory of an abandoned nest location (spatial memory extinction). Adding to this, we show that learning performance is more variable in old honey bees. Taken together, our findings point to generic features of brain aging and provide the prerequisites to model individual aspects of learning dysfunction with insect models