Morphological and physiological variation among different isolates of Alternaria spp. from Rapeseed-Mustard

To find out the Morphological variation on growth and sporulation of Alternaria species of Alternaria leaf blight of mustard from 10 representative geographical locations of Bangladesh, this experiment was conducted at Plant Pathology Laboratory, Oilseed Research center, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Inistitute (BARI), Joydevpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh. All the isolates showed high level of variability in in-vitro in respect of radial mycial growth, colony colour, sub surface colour, colony shape, colony texture, zonation (surface and sub surface), length and width of conidia, beak length and number of septa. The maximum and minimum radial mycial growth was recorded 90 mm in isolate NATAb and 83.67 mm in isolate GAZAb, respectively at 14 days after incubation. Significant variation in conidial length, width, beak and no. of conidia observed in all isolates. The length of conidia ranged from 41.56 to 117.54µm with 3 to 11 transverse and 0 to 3 vertical septa. The width and beak length varied from 10.34 to 23.12 µm and 16.78 to 72.65 µm ,respectively. Surface colour were olivacious green to black and circular shaped colonies were observed in all isolates on PDA medium. Colony texture were cottony to velvety. Subsurface colour varied from light brown to black and pinkish. Zonation found in some isolates and some did not produce on both surface and subsurface. All conidia were murifrom and light brown to deep brown in colour. Potato Carrot Dextrose Agar medium (PCDA) and 25 o C temperature were found optimum for different isolates for mycelial growth and sporulation

Genetic Diversity of Near Genome-Wide Hepatitis C Virus Sequences during Chronic Infection: Evidence for Protein Structural Conservation Over Time

Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the leading causes of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease worldwide. The genetics of HCV infection in humans and the disease course of chronic hepatitis C are both remarkably variable. Although the response to interferon treatment is largely dependent on HCV genotypes, whether or not a relationship exists between HCV genome variability and clinical course of hepatitis C disease still remains unknown. To more thoroughly understand HCV genome evolution over time in association with disease course, near genome-wide HCV genomes present in 9 chronically infected participants over 83 total study years were sequenced. Overall, within HCV genomes, the number of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (dS) significantly exceeded the number of non-synonymous substitutions per site (dN). Although both dS and dN significantly increased with duration of chronic infection, there was a highly significant decrease in dN/dS ratio in HCV genomes over time. These results indicate that purifying selection acted to conserve viral protein structure despite persistence of high level of nucleotide mutagenesis inherent to HCV replication. Based on liver biopsy fibrosis scores, HCV genomes from participants with advanced fibrosis had significantly greater dS values and lower dN/dS ratios compared to participants with mild liver disease. Over time, viral genomes from participants with mild disease had significantly greater annual changes in dN, along with higher dN/dS ratios, compared to participants with advanced fibrosis. Yearly amino acid variations in the HCV p7, NS2, NS3 and NS5B genes were all significantly lower in participants with severe versus mild disease, suggesting possible pathogenic importance of protein structural conservation for these viral gene products

Recent trends in non-invasive neural recording based brain-to-brain synchrony analysis on multidisciplinary human interactions for understanding brain dynamics: a systematic review

The study of brain-to-brain synchrony has a burgeoning application in the brain-computer interface (BCI) research, offering valuable insights into the neural underpinnings of interacting human brains using numerous neural recording technologies. The area allows exploring the commonality of brain dynamics by evaluating the neural synchronization among a group of people performing a specified task. The growing number of publications on brain-to-brain synchrony inspired the authors to conduct a systematic review using the PRISMA protocol so that future researchers can get a comprehensive understanding of the paradigms, methodologies, translational algorithms, and challenges in the area of brain-to-brain synchrony research. This review has gone through a systematic search with a specified search string and selected some articles based on pre-specified eligibility criteria. The findings from the review revealed that most of the articles have followed the social psychology paradigm, while 36% of the selected studies have an application in cognitive neuroscience. The most applied approach to determine neural connectivity is a coherence measure utilizing phase-locking value (PLV) in the EEG studies, followed by wavelet transform coherence (WTC) in all of the fNIRS studies. While most of the experiments have control experiments as a part of their setup, a small number implemented algorithmic control, and only one study had interventional or a stimulus-induced control experiment to limit spurious synchronization. Hence, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this systematic review solely contributes to critically evaluating the scopes and technological advances of brain-to-brain synchrony to allow this discipline to produce more effective research outcomes in the remote future

Insights from establishing a high throughput viral diagnostic laboratory for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing facility: challenges and experiences

Background: The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. Identifying the infected people and isolating them was the only measure that was available to control the viral spread, as there were no standardized treatment interventions available. Various public health measures, including vaccination, have been implemented to control the spread of the virus worldwide. India, being a densely populated country, required laboratories in different zones of the country with the capacity to test a large number of samples and report test results at the earliest. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) took the lead role in developing policies, generating advisories, formulating guidelines, and establishing and approving testing centers for COVID-19 testing. With advisories of ICMR, the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) established a high-throughput viral diagnostic laboratory (HTVDL) for RT-PCR-based diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in April 2020. HTVDL was established during the first lockdown to serve the nation in developing and adopting rapid testing procedures and to expand the testing capacity using “Real-Time PCR.” The HTVDL provided its testing support to the national capital territory of Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh, with a testing capacity of 6000 tests per day. The experience of establishing a high-throughput laboratory with all standard operating procedures against varied challenges in a developing country such as India is explained in the current manuscript which will be useful globally to enhance the knowledge on establishing an HTVDL in pandemic or non-pandemic times

The SDGs and the empowerment of Bangladeshi women

This chapter describes Bangladesh’s successes with advancing gender equality in the period of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), locating their origins in elite commitment to including women in the development process, and in the partnerships and aid that built the state and NGO capacity to reach them. The chapter reflects on the lessons of Bangladesh’s innovative and unexpected advances in the light of the new challenges posed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably those of early marriage and the achievement of decent work. The chapter asks whether contemporary conditions suggest that the elite commitment and state capacity that drove progress on the MDGs are up to meeting the more contentious and complex goals of the SDGs

Variants in CHEK2 other than 1100delC do not make a major contribution to breast cancer susceptibility

We recently reported that a sequence variant in the cell-cycle-checkpoint kinase CHEK2 (CHEK2 1100delC) is a low-penetrance breast cancer-susceptibility allele in noncarriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. To investigate whether other CHEK2 variants confer susceptibility to breast cancer, we screened the full CHEK2 coding sequence in BRCA1/2-negative breast cancer cases from 89 pedigrees with three or more cases of breast cancer. We identified one novel germline variant, R117G, in two separate families. To evaluate the possible association of R117G and two germline variants repo

Pharmacokinetic interaction potential assessment of cladrin, a potent bioactive constituent of Butea monosperma, and raloxifene, a prescription anti-osteoporotic by in vitro ADME approach

Raloxifene is a well-known modulator of estrogen receptors which is structurally similar to tamoxifen. As flavonoids can interact with the estrogen modulator raloxifene in vitro, we performed an in vitro stability study and in situ permeability assay of raloxifene and cladrin in female Sprague-Dawley rats when administered alone and when co-administered. The in vitro study samples were analyzed by HPLC; raloxifene administered individually and in combination with cladrin was compared. In this study, we investigated the absorption, metabolic stability, plasma stability, determination of permeability and plasma protein binding of both drugs in SD rats using an established in situ single pass intestinal perfusion model. Increase in the bioavailability of raloxifene and cladrin alone or in co-administration also could be because of the activation of P-glycoprotein in the rat intestine. Further the present report concludes on the basis of ATPase assay of both raloxifene and cladrin alone and in combination showed that both drugs are P-gp substrate. In in situ permeability assay showed that the both drugs competitively lower the permeability of each other but still the predicted human permeability value lied in the range of high permeability drug.

Women's empowerment: what works

With radical roots in the 1980s, women’s empowerment is now a mainstream development concern. Much of the narrative focuses on instrumental gains—what women can do for development rather than what development can do for women. Empowerment is treated as a destination reached through development’s equivalent of motorways: programmes rolled out over any terrain. But in the process, pathways women are travelling in their own individual or collective journeys of empowerment remain hidden. Revisiting foundational feminist work on empowerment, this article draws on findings from multi-country research programme, Pathways of Women’s Empowerment, to explore what works to support these journeys

EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF); Scientific Opinion on Flavouring Group Evaluation 96 (FGE.96): Consideration of 88 flavouring substances considered by EFSA for which EU production volumes / anticipated production volumes have been submitted on request by DG SANCO. Addendum to FGE. 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 76, 77, 79, 80, 83, 84, 85 and 87

Overgrowth disorders are a heterogeneous group of conditions characterized by increased growth parameters and other variable clinical features such as intellectual disability and facial dysmorphism1. To identify new causes of human overgrowth, we performed exome sequencing in ten proband-parent trios and detected two de novo DNMT3A mutations. We identified 11 additional de novo mutations by sequencing DNMT3A in a further 142 individuals with overgrowth. The mutations alter residues in functional DNMT3A domains, and protein modeling suggests that they interfere with domain-domain interactions and histone binding. Similar mutations were not present in 1,000 UK population controls (13/152 cases versus 0/1,000 controls; P < 0.0001). Mutation carriers had a distinctive facial appearance, intellectual disability and greater height. DNMT3A encodes a DNA methyltransferase essential for establishing methylation during embryogenesis and is commonly somatically mutated in acute myeloid leukemia2, 3, 4. Thus, DNMT3A joins an emerging group of epigenetic DNA- and histone-modifying genes associated with both developmental growth disorders and hematological malignancie