Role of root exudates in plant-microbe interactions

The interactions in the rhizosphere are leading to a highly structured microbial community which, to a great deal, is influenced by the root exudates of plant origin. In this review, we have included the different types of interaction with special regard to the root exudates’ function in such positive or negative interactions beween plants and both bacterial and fungal partners of the plant in the rhizosphere, including mycorrhiza, nitrogen-fixing symbionts, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria endophytes and biological control organisms as well as allelopathy, antimicrobial effects and effects on nematodes. The differences in root exudates induced by microbial associations, role of quorum sensing in structuring communitites and effect on biogeochemical cycles are reviewed. The focus is put on agricultural systems and implications for ecosystems on arable land are drawn

The Role of Family-led Disability Organizations in Supporting Families with Hearing-Related Concerns

A survey was conducted with state level chapters from Family Voices, Parent Training and Information Centers, and Parent–to-Parent USA to understand their current activities support families of children with hearing-related concerns and to identify gaps in their ability to support families of children who are D/HH. these organizations reported that they are contacted with parent requests for information in regard to family support opportunities, early intervention, referral sources pertaining to hearing concerns, financial help, and providing information about legal rights. Results showed that the greatest challenges for these organizations were related to needing to connect families to financial resources pertaining to hearing-related needs, engaging families of children who are deaf/hard of hearing in their organization\u27s activities, having resources available in other languages, and 4) identifying pediatric providers that serve D/HH children. Potential ways to strengthen the capacity of these organizations to meet the needs of families with hearing-related concerns as well as increasing their awareness of partnerships with the EHDI system are discussed

Wheat x Azotobacter x VA Mycorrhiza interactions towards plant nutrition and growth – a review

Nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-mobilizing bateria, as well as mycorrhizal fungi, can influence plant nutrition beneficially and thus be used as biofertilizers in agriculture. This paper briefly reviews the role of wheat genotypes in the interaction of wheat with soil microorganisms like phosphate solubilizing and nitrogen fixing bacteria, specifically Azotobacter sp., and with mycorrhizal fungi for the development of sustainable wheat crop production. The role of rhizosphere microorganisms and the mechanisms, factors affecting response of bioinoculants and the possibilities of breeding wheat genotypes responsive to these bioinoculants for sustainable wheat production in semi-arid tropics are discussed.

Measuring Costs and Outcomes of Tele-Intervention When Serving Families of Children who are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing

Background: Optimal outcomes for children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHH) depend on access to high quality, specialized early intervention services. Tele-intervention – the delivery of early intervention services via telehealth technology - has the potential to meet this need in a cost-effective manner.Method: Twenty-seven families of infants and toddlers with varying degrees of hearing loss participated in a randomized study, receiving their services primarily through TI or via traditional in-person home visits. Pre- and post-test measures of child outcomes, family and provider statisfaction, and costs were collected.Results: The TI group scored statistically significantly higher on the expressive language measure than the in-person group (p =.03). A measure of home visit quality revealed that the TI group scored statistically significantly better on the Parent Engagement subscale of the Home Visit Rating Scales-Adapted & Extended (HOVRS-A+; Roggman, et al., 2012). Cost savings associate with providing services via TI increased as the intensity of service delivery increased. Although most providers and families were positive about TI, there was great variability in their perceptions.Conclusions: Tele-intervention is a promising cost-effective method for delivering high quality early intervention services to families of children who are DHH

Optimal iterative methods for finding multiple roots of nonlinear equations using free parameters

[EN] In this paper, we propose a family of optimal eighth order convergent iterative methods for multiple roots with known multiplicity with the introduction of two free parameters and three univariate weight functions. Also numerical experiments have applied to a number of academical test functions and chemical problems for different special schemes from this family that satisfies the conditions given in convergence result.This research was partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MTM2014-52016-C02-2-P and Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2016/089.Zafar, F.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Quratulain, R.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR. (2018). Optimal iterative methods for finding multiple roots of nonlinear equations using free parameters. Journal of Mathematical Chemistry. 56(7):1884-1901. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10910-017-0813-1S18841901567R. Behl, A. Cordero, S.S. Motsa, J.R. Torregrosa, On developing fourth-order optimal families of methods for multiple roots and their dynamics. Appl. Math. Comput. 265(15), 520–532 (2015)R. Behl, A. Cordero, S.S. Motsa, J.R. Torregrosa, V. Kanwar, An optimal fourth-order family of methods for multiple roots and its dynamics. Numer. Algor. 71(4), 775–796 (2016)R. Behl, A. Cordero, S.S. Motsa, J.R. Torregrosa, An eighth-order family of optimal multiple root finders and its dynamics. Numer. Algor. (2017). doi: 10.1007/s11075-017-0361-6F.I. Chicharro, A. Cordero, J. R. Torregrosa, Drawing dynamical and parameters planes of iterative families and methods. Sci. World J. ID 780153 (2013)A. Constantinides, N. Mostoufi, Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineers with MATLAB Applications (Prentice Hall PTR, New Jersey, 1999)J.M. Douglas, Process Dynamics and Control, vol. 2 (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1972)Y.H. Geum, Y.I. Kim, B. Neta, A class of two-point sixth-order multiple-zero finders of modified double-Newton type and their dynamics. Appl. Math. Comput. 270, 387–400 (2015)Y.H. Geum, Y.I. Kim, B. Neta, A sixth-order family of three-point modified Newton-like multiple-root finders and the dynamics behind their extraneous fixed points. Appl. Math. Comput. 283, 120–140 (2016)J.L. Hueso, E. Martınez, C. Teruel, Determination of multiple roots of nonlinear equations and applications. J. Math. Chem. 53, 880–892 (2015)L.O. Jay, A note on Q-order of convergence. BIT Numer. Math. 41, 422–429 (2001)S. Li, X. Liao, L. Cheng, A new fourth-order iterative method for finding multiple roots of nonlinear equations. Appl. Math. Comput. 215, 1288–1292 (2009)S.G. Li, L.Z. Cheng, B. Neta, Some fourth-order nonlinear solvers with closed formulae for multiple roots. Comput. Math. Appl. 59, 126–135 (2010)B. Liu, X. Zhou, A new family of fourth-order methods for multiple roots of nonlinear equations. Nonlinear Anal. Model. Control 18(2), 143–152 (2013)M. Shacham, Numerical solution of constrained nonlinear algebraic equations. Int. J. Numer. Method Eng. 23, 1455–1481 (1986)M. Sharifi, D.K.R. Babajee, F. Soleymani, Finding the solution of nonlinear equations by a class of optimal methods. Comput. Math. Appl. 63, 764–774 (2012)J.R. Sharma, R. Sharma, Modified Jarratt method for computing multiple roots. Appl. Math. Comput. 217, 878–881 (2010)F. Soleymani, D.K.R. Babajee, T. Lofti, On a numerical technique forfinding multiple zeros and its dynamic. J. Egypt. Math. Soc. 21, 346–353 (2013)F. Soleymani, D.K.R. Babajee, Computing multiple zeros using a class of quartically convergent methods. Alex. Eng. J. 52, 531–541 (2013)R. Thukral, A new family of fourth-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations with multiple roots. J. Numer. Math. Stoch. 6(1), 37–44 (2014)R. Thukral, Introduction to higher-order iterative methods for finding multiple roots of nonlinear equations. J. Math. Article ID 404635 (2013)X. Zhou, X. Chen, Y. Song, Constructing higher-order methods for obtaining the muliplte roots of nonlinear equations. J. Comput. Math. Appl. 235, 4199–4206 (2011)X. Zhou, X. Chen, Y. Song, Families of third and fourth order methods for multiple roots of nonlinear equations. Appl. Math. Comput. 219, 6030–6038 (2013

Differential and temperature dependent regulation of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase by specific chromosome in wheat grains

A stock of disomic chromosome substitution (DCS) lines having specific chromosome of wheat variety C591 substituted in the background of rest of Chinese spring chromosomes, were used to analyze grain yield components as a function of enzyme activity of ADP–glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), a starch biosynthesis enzyme in wheat grains. Associations between yield characteristics, grain growth rate (GGR) and AGPase enzyme activity of DCS lines suggested a major involvement of chromosome 3A, 4B, 7D and 2D in a temperature dependent manner. Assessment of AGPase assay at different developmental stages such as 14, 21, 28 days post anthesis (DPA) embodied that gene(s) for this enzyme are present on specific chromosomes and operate at different stages of grain development. The DCS line with 7D chromosome has a major contribution in determining the grain starch content. In this line, AGPase enzyme activity was highest at 21 DPA and was the most crucial determinant in its high GGR. Line 4B performed well at only early stage (14 DPA) suggesting that line 4B AGPase requires a lower temperature range for activation as compared to 7D line. Line 3A had substantially reduced (40%) test weights revealing the presence of few down-regulatory elements on chromosome 3A to reduce the activity of AGPase. The DCS line 2D showed higher test weights and grain number than all other lines ascribed to a consistent AGPase activity along with an efficient mechanism for translocation of photosynthates from source to sink. The chromosome 2D shows positive relation with yield attributes therefore, it can be employed to improve wheat productivity via analytical breeding programme

Being Focused: When the Purpose of Inference Matters for Model Selection

In contrast to conventional model selection criteria, the Focused Information Criterion (FIC) allows for purpose-specific choice of models. This accommodates the idea that one kind of model might be highly appropriate for inferences on a particular parameter, but not for another. Ever since its development, the FIC has been increasingly applied in the realm of statistics, but this concept appears to be virtually unknown in the economic literature. Using a classical example and data for 35 U.S. industry sectors (1960-2005), this paper provides for an illustration of the FIC and a demonstration of its usefulness in empirical applications

Stable high-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear models

[EN] There are several problems of pure and applied science which can be studied in the unified framework of the scalar and vectorial nonlinear equations. In this paper, we propose a sixth-order family of Jarratt type methods for solving nonlinear equations. Further, we extend this family to the multidimensional case preserving the order of convergence. Their theoretical and computational properties are fully investigated along with two main theorems describing the order of convergence. We use complex dynamics techniques in order to select, among the elements of this class of iterative methods, those more stable. This process is made by analyzing the conjugacy class, calculating the fixed and critical points and getting conclusions from parameter and dynamical planes. For the implementation of the proposed schemes for system of nonlinear equations, we consider some applied science problems namely, Van der Pol problem, kinematic syntheses, etc. Further, we compare them with existing sixth-order methods to check the validity of the theoretical results. From the numerical experiments, we find that our proposed schemes perform better than the existing ones. Further, we also consider a variety of nonlinear equations to check the performance of the proposed methods for scalar equations.This research was partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MTM2014-52016-C2-2-P and by Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2016/089.Behl, R.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Motsa, SS.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR. (2017). Stable high-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear models. Applied Mathematics and Computation. 303:70-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2017.01.029S708830

Inheritance of A1 System of Cytoplasmic-Nuclear Male Sterility in Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L). R. Br.]

Inheritance of male sterility and fertility restoration of the A1 system of cytoplasmic- nuclear male sterility in pearl millet was investigated using 12 crosses among three diverse male sterile lines (A-lines) and four diverse restorers (R-lines). Individual plants from R- lines were used to make crosses on A-lines. The segregation pattern of male sterile (S) and male fertile (F) plants observed in F2 and BC1 in two seasons at ICRISAT, Patancheru was suggestive more likely of a single-gene control of male sterility and fertility restoration. However, a 3-gene model of male sterility/fertility restoration where dominant alleles at any two of the three duplicate complimentary loci will lead to male fertility could not be ruled out, nor could be ruled out a 2-gene control with duplicate interaction. There was indication of variability even within a highly inbred R-line for fertility restoration gene(s). Depending on the genetic constitution of the R-lines at these loci, even the 3-gene model can lead to single-gene segregation ratios as observed in most of the F2s and backcrosses, and 2-gene ratios as observed in a few F2s and backcrosses. The deviations from these expected ratios in some of the crosses influenced by modifiers and environmental conditions generally resulted from the excess of fertile plants in the rainy season or excess of sterile plants in the dry season, the more so in crosses involving an A-line which has been reported to be relatively more unstable for male sterility

Estrogen Prevents Oxidative Damage to the Mitochondria in Friedreich's Ataxia Skin Fibroblasts

Estrogen and estrogen-related compounds have been shown to have very potent cytoprotective properties in a wide range of disease models, including an in vitro model of Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA). This study describes a potential estrogen receptor (ER)-independent mechanism by which estrogens act to protect human FRDA skin fibroblasts from a BSO-induced oxidative insult resulting from inhibition of de novo glutathione (GSH) synthesis. We demonstrate that phenolic estrogens, independent of any known ER, are able to prevent lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) collapse, maintain ATP at near control levels, increase oxidative phosphorylation and maintain activity of aconitase. Estrogens did not, however, prevent BSO from depleting GSH or induce an increased expression level of GSH. The cytoprotective effects of estrogen appear to be due to a direct overall reduction in oxidative damage to the mitochondria, enabling the FRDA fibroblast mitochondria to generate sufficient ATP for energy requirements and better survive oxidative stress. These data support the hypothesis that phenol ring containing estrogens are possible candidate drugs for the delay and/or prevention of FRDA symptoms