Resistance screening of white yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) accessions against Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid & White, 1919) Chitwood, 1949 using yam vines

Open Access Article; Published online: 05 Apr 2022Root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) is an economically important phytoparasitic nematode species. In yam production, therefore, breeding for nematode resistance is an important environmentally friendly tool to manage root-knot nematodes damage. The aim of this study was to determine the reaction of 18 yam accessions to M. incognita inoculation under screen house conditions using single node vine cuttings. Vines of each accession were planted in sterilized soil and inoculated with 1000 infective juveniles of M. incognita. Resistance level of yam accessions were based on both galling index score and reproductive factor. There were a significant differences in final infective stage nematodes population, galling index, reproduction factor and yield of mini tuber among the accessions tested. Sixteen (89 %) of the accessions showed moderate resistance (GI ≥ 2, Rf ≤ 1) to the test pathogen with two accessions classified as susceptible. Accession TDr1515OP16/0030 recorded the highest mini tuber yield mass of 19.4 g, which was 74 % higher than accession ‘TDr1515OP16/0108’ which recorded the lowest yield of 10.4 g. The moderately resistant accessions identified in the study can be utilized to reduce nematodes reproduction and help manage root-knot nematode in yam production

Yam improvement for income and food security in West Africa: Effectiveness of a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team-work

The overall goal of the five year project “Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa” (YIIFSWA) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria was to: (a) increase yam productivity by 40% for 2,00,000 smallholder yam farmers in Ghana and Nigeria and (b) deliver key global good research products that will contribute to the 10-year overall vision to sustainably double incomes from yams for 3 million smallholder yam farming families and contribute to ensuring food security for producers and consumers. Implemented by scientists of twenty partner specialized organizations, comprising research institutes, Universities, governmental and non-governmental organizations, YIIFSWA has impacted yam value chain stakeholders through research and development interventions. The significant contributions made in the project during the past 18 months’ period are discussed in this paper. These include: a baseline survey conducted in key yam growing areas in Ghana and Nigeria, training of yam producers on adapted yam minisett technique and production of seed yam, undertaking in depth value chain assessments, developing the capacity of Farmers Organizations (FOs) by linking them to service providers (SPs), participatory evaluation of new yam genotypes, successful development of yam virus diseases diagnostics and development of novel techniques for high ratio yam propagation such as aeroponics and bioreactors

What's normal? Oligosaccharide concentrations and profiles in milk produced by healthy women vary geographically.

Background: Human milk is a complex fluid comprised of myriad substances, with one of the most abundant substances being a group of complex carbohydrates referred to as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). There has been some evidence that HMO profiles differ in populations, but few studies have rigorously explored this variability.Objectives: We tested the hypothesis that HMO profiles differ in diverse populations of healthy women. Next, we examined relations between HMO and maternal anthropometric and reproductive indexes and indirectly examined whether differences were likely related to genetic or environmental variations.Design: In this cross-sectional, observational study, milk was collected from a total of 410 healthy, breastfeeding women in 11 international cohorts and analyzed for HMOs by using high-performance liquid chromatography.Results: There was an effect of the cohort (P 4 times higher in milk collected in Sweden than in milk collected in rural Gambia (mean ± SEM: 473 ± 55 compared with 103 ± 16 nmol/mL, respectively; P < 0.05), and disialyllacto-N-tetraose (DSLNT) concentrations ranged from 216 ± 14 nmol/mL (in Sweden) to 870 ± 68 nmol/mL (in rural Gambia) (P < 0.05). Maternal age, time postpartum, weight, and body mass index were all correlated with several HMOs, and multiple differences in HMOs [e.g., lacto-N-neotetrose and DSLNT] were shown between ethnically similar (and likely genetically similar) populations who were living in different locations, which suggests that the environment may play a role in regulating the synthesis of HMOs.Conclusions: The results of this study support our hypothesis that normal HMO concentrations and profiles vary geographically, even in healthy women. Targeted genomic analyses are required to determine whether these differences are due at least in part to genetic variation. A careful examination of sociocultural, behavioral, and environmental factors is needed to determine their roles in this regard. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02670278

Application of predictive breeding in yam improvement for west Africa

Open Access Journa

Finding regions of interest on toroidal meshes

Fusion promises to provide clean and safe energy, and a considerable amount of research effort is underway to turn this aspiration intoreality. This work focuses on a building block for analyzing data produced from the simulation of microturbulence in magnetic confinementfusion devices: the task of efficiently extracting regions of interest. Like many other simulations where a large amount of data are produced,the careful study of ``interesting'' parts of the data is critical to gain understanding. In this paper, we present an efficient approach forfinding these regions of interest. Our approach takes full advantage of the underlying mesh structure in magnetic coordinates to produce acompact representation of the mesh points inside the regions and an efficient connected component labeling algorithm for constructingregions from points. This approach scales linearly with the surface area of the regions of interest instead of the volume as shown with bothcomputational complexity analysis and experimental measurements. Furthermore, this new approach is 100s of times faster than a recentlypublished method based on Cartesian coordinates

Perception and practice of Kangaroo Mother Care after discharge from hospital in Kumasi, Ghana: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: The practice of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is life saving in babies weighing less than 2000 g. Little is known about mothers' continued unsupervised practice after discharge from hospitals. This study aimed to evaluate its in-hospital and continued practice in the community among mothers of low birth weight (LBW) infants discharged from two hospitals in Kumasi, Ghana. METHODS: A longitudinal study of 202 mothers and their inpatient LBW neonates was conducted from November 2009 to May 2010. Mothers were interviewed at recruitment to ascertain their knowledge of KMC, and then oriented on its practice. After discharge, the mothers reported at weekly intervals for four follow up visits where data about their perceptions, attitudes and practices of KMC were recorded. A repeated measure logistic regression analysis was done to assess variability in the binary responses at the various reviews visits. RESULTS: At recruitment 23 (11.4%, 95%CI: 7.4 to 16.6%) mothers knew about KMC. At discharge 95.5% were willing to continue KMC at home with 93.1% willing to practice at night. 95.5% thought KMC was beneficial to them and 96.0% beneficial to their babies. 98.0% would recommend KMC to other mothers with 71.8% willing to practice KMC outdoors.At first follow up visit 99.5% (181) were still practicing either intermittent or continuous KMC. This proportion did not change significantly over the four weeks (OR: 1.4, 95%CI: 0.6 to 3.3, p-value: 0.333). Over the four weeks, increasingly more mothers practiced KMC at night (OR: 1.7, 95%CI: 1.2 to 2.6, p = 0.005), outside their homes (OR: 2.4, 95%CI: 1.7 to 3.3, p < 0.001) and received spousal help (OR: 1.6, 95%CI: 1.1 to 2.4, p = 0.007). Household chores and potentially negative community perceptions of KMC did not affect its practice with odds of 0.8 (95%CI: 0.5 to 1.2, p = 0.282) and 1.0 (95%CI: 0.6 to 1.7, p = 0.934) respectively. During the follow-up period the neonates gained 23.7 sg (95%CI: 22.6 g to 24.7 g) per day. CONCLUSION: Maternal knowledge of KMC was low at outset. Once initiated mothers continued practicing KMC in hospital and at home with their infants gaining optimal weight. Continued KMC practice was not affected by perceived community attitudes

Updated consensus guidelines on the management of Phelan–McDermid syndrome

Phelan–McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a genetic condition caused by SHANK3 haploinsufficiency and characterized by a wide range of neurodevelopmental and systemic manifestations. The first practice parameters for assessment and monitoring in individuals with PMS were published in 2014; recently, knowledge about PMS has grown significantly based on data from longitudinal phenotyping studies and large-scale genotype–phenotype investigations. The objective of these updated clinical management guidelines was to: (1) reflect the latest in knowledge in PMS and (2) provide guidance for clinicians, researchers, and the general community. A taskforce was established with clinical experts in PMS and representatives from the parent community. Experts joined subgroups based on their areas of specialty, including genetics, neurology, neurodevelopment, gastroenterology, primary care, physiatry, nephrology, endocrinology, cardiology, gynecology, and dentistry. Taskforce members convened regularly between 2021 and 2022 and produced specialty-specific guidelines based on iterative feedback and discussion. Taskforce leaders then established consensus within their respective specialty group and harmonized the guidelines. The knowledge gained over the past decade allows for improved guidelines to assess and monitor individuals with PMS. Since there is limited evidence specific to PMS, intervention mostly follows general guidelines for treating individuals with developmental disorders. Significant evidence has been amassed to guide the management of comorbid neuropsychiatric conditions in PMS, albeit mainly from caregiver report and the experience of clinical experts. These updated consensus guidelines on the management of PMS represent an advance for the field and will improve care in the community. Several areas for future research are also highlighted and will contribute to subsequent updates with more refined and specific recommendations as new knowledge accumulates

Variation in Human Milk Composition Is Related to Differences in Milk and Infant Fecal Microbial Communities.

Previously published data from our group and others demonstrate that human milk oligosaccharide (HMOs), as well as milk and infant fecal microbial profiles, vary by geography. However, little is known about the geographical variation of other milk-borne factors, such as lactose and protein, as well as the associations among these factors and microbial community structures in milk and infant feces. Here, we characterized and contrasted concentrations of milk-borne lactose, protein, and HMOs, and examined their associations with milk and infant fecal microbiomes in samples collected in 11 geographically diverse sites. Although geographical site was strongly associated with milk and infant fecal microbiomes, both sample types assorted into a smaller number of community state types based on shared microbial profiles. Similar to HMOs, concentrations of lactose and protein also varied by geography. Concentrations of HMOs, lactose, and protein were associated with differences in the microbial community structures of milk and infant feces and in the abundance of specific taxa. Taken together, these data suggest that the composition of human milk, even when produced by relatively healthy women, differs based on geographical boundaries and that concentrations of HMOs, lactose, and protein in milk are related to variation in milk and infant fecal microbial communities

Corrigendum: What's Normal? Microbiomes in Human Milk and Infant Feces Are Related to Each Other but Vary Geographically: The INSPIRE Study

A correction has been made to the Materials and Methods section, subsection Extraction of DNA fromMilk, paragraph 2, The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated

What's Normal? Microbiomes in Human Milk and Infant Feces Are Related to Each Other but Vary Geographically: The INSPIRE Study

Background: Microbial communities in human milk and those in feces from breastfed infants vary within and across populations. However, few researchers have conducted cross-cultural comparisons between populations, and little is known about whether certain “core” taxa occur normally within or between populations and whether variation in milk microbiome is related to variation in infant fecal microbiome. The purpose of this study was to describe microbiomes of milk produced by relatively healthy women living at diverse international sites and compare these to the fecal microbiomes of their relatively healthy infants. Methods: We analyzed milk (n = 394) and infant feces (n = 377) collected from mother/infant dyads living in 11 international sites (2 each in Ethiopia, The Gambia, and the US; 1 each in Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Spain, and Sweden). The V1-V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to characterize and compare microbial communities within and among cohorts. Results: Core genera in feces were Streptococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, and Veillonella, and in milk were Streptococcus and Staphylococcus, although substantial variability existed within and across cohorts. For instance, relative abundance of Lactobacillus was highest in feces from rural Ethiopia and The Gambia, and lowest in feces from Peru, Spain, Sweden, and the US; Rhizobium was relatively more abundant in milk produced by women in rural Ethiopia than all other cohorts. Bacterial diversity also varied among cohorts. For example, Shannon diversity was higher in feces from Kenya than Ghana and US-California, and higher in rural Ethiopian than Ghana, Peru, Spain, Sweden, and US-California. There were limited associations between individual genera in milk and feces, but community-level analyses suggest strong, positive associations between the complex communities in these sample types. Conclusions: Our data provide additional evidence of within- and among-population differences in milk and infant fecal bacterial community membership and diversity and support for a relationship between the bacterial communities in milk and those of the recipient infant's feces. Additional research is needed to understand environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors driving this variation and association, as well as its significance for acute and chronic maternal and infant health