Flowering and pollination biology in coconut

Coconut is a seed propagated crop and knowledge on its flowering and pollination biology will be of significance for optimizing the pollination techniques and also to design efficient conservation strategies in gene banks. Coconut palm is monoecious, with inflorescence bearing both staminate and pistillate flowers. The male flowers are the first to open, beginning at the top of each spikelet and proceeding towards the base. The male phase is followed by female phase and in tall varieties there is a gap between these two phases within the same inflorescence. Although both wind and insects bring about pollination, insect pollination is more predominant. Strategies for employing honey bee colonies in coconut plantations and seed gardens for enhancing pollination and fruit set are discussed. Future lines of work with regard to pollination biology aiming increasing fruit set in coconut seed gardens are also pointed out

Using Videoconferencing to Establish and Maintain a Social Presence in Online Learning Environments

For 30 years, the educational administration program faculty at Fort Hays State University (FHSU) followed a traditional face-to-face (F2F) on campus approach to course delivery

A prospective study to evaluate the efficacy of 11-13+6 weeks anatomy scan in detecting fetal structural anomalies compared to traditional 18-22 weeks scan

Background: Congenital anomalies are one of the leading causes of infant mortality. Traditional TIFFA scan done at 18-22 weeks leads to delay in diagnosis, referral and management. With high resolution ultrasound and TVS probe, normal and abnormal fetal anatomy could be visualized in early gestation with good accuracy. Objective of present study was to evaluate the efficacy of 11-13+6 weeks anatomy scan in detecting fetal structural anomalies compared to traditional 18 -22weeks scan and in visualizing the complete normal fetal anatomyMethods: An Observational study of 300 antenatal patients at Jubilee Mission Medical College for 1 year (Jan-Dec2014) was done. The scan was performed at 11-13+6 weeks by TAS first, if a full fetal anatomy survey not achieved, TVS added. A mid-trimester fetal anatomy scan was then performed in patients who had not dropped out, miscarried or undergone pregnancy termination at 18-22weeks.Results: The incidence of anomalies in our study was 3.67% -11 cases; 9 detected at 11-13+6 weeks, 2 were newly detected at 18-22 weeks. At 11-13+6 weeks anatomy scan, the detection rate of anomalies was 81.8% and complete fetal anatomy survey was achieved in 92%. Heart and kidneys were not properly visualized in 4% and 12.7%, at 11‐13+6 weeks compared with 0.7% and 0% at 18‐22 weeks.Conclusions: The 11-13+6 weeks anatomy scan is an important diagnostic tool which is underutilized and should be offered to all women as a routine standard of antenatal care. However as fetal anomalies can present at varying gestational age, standard 18-22 weeks anatomy scan cannot be abandoned

Challenges and pitfalls of antipsychotic prescribing in people with learning disability

No abstract available

Analysis of Lift and Drag of Mono-foil Hysucat due to Longitudinal Foil-placement Variation

CFD simulations were conducted to study the effects of a hydrofoil and its relative placement in the longitudinal direction on the total resistance of a mono-foil hysucat (hydrofoil supported catamaran). Three foil positions were considered: (i) precisely below the vessel’s center of gravity, (ii) 3 chord-lengths aft from position 1 and (iii) 6 chord-lengths aft from position 1. At relatively low speed (volumetric Froude number FnV < 1.8), the hydrofoil results in an increase of the total resistance of the hysucat (up to 4.43%). At relatively high speed (FnV > 1.8), the hydrofoil results in a decrease of the total resistance (up to 34.86%). The resistance coefficient first increases, takes a maximum value and then decreases with increasing Froude number. The maximum value is observed at FnV ≈ 1.4 (or Fn ≈ 0.5), consistent with previous observations. The most optimum foil placement is that precisely below the center of gravity of the vessel

R-Gada: a fast and flexible pipeline for copy number analysis in association studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using Copy Number Variation (CNV) are becoming a central focus of genetic research. CNVs have successfully provided target genome regions for some disease conditions where simple genetic variation (i.e., SNPs) has previously failed to provide a clear association.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present a new R package, that integrates: (i) data import from most common formats of Affymetrix, Illumina and aCGH arrays; (ii) a fast and accurate segmentation algorithm to call CNVs based on Genome Alteration Detection Analysis (GADA); and (iii) functions for displaying and exporting the Copy Number calls, identification of recurrent CNVs, multivariate analysis of population structure, and tools for performing association studies. Using a large dataset containing 270 HapMap individuals (Affymetrix Human SNP Array 6.0 Sample Dataset) we demonstrate a flexible pipeline implemented with the package. It requires less than one minute per sample (3 million probe arrays) on a single core computer, and provides a flexible parallelization for very large datasets. Case-control data were generated from the HapMap dataset to demonstrate a GWAS analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The package provides the tools for creating a complete integrated pipeline from data normalization to statistical association. It can effciently handle a massive volume of data consisting of millions of genetic markers and hundreds or thousands of samples with very accurate results.</p

Genetic and Transcriptional Analysis of Human Host Response to Healthy Gut Microbiota

Many studies have demonstrated the importance of the gut microbiota in healthy and disease states. However, establishing the causality of host-microbiota interactions in humans is still challenging. Here, we describe a novel experimental system to define the transcriptional response induced by the microbiota for human cells and to shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying host-gut microbiota interactions. In primary human colonic epithelial cells, we identified over 6,000 genes whose expression changed at various time points following coculturing with the gut microbiota of a healthy individual. Among the differentially expressed genes we found a 1.8-fold enrichment of genes associated with diseases that have been previously linked to the microbiome, such as obesity and colorectal cancer. In addition, our experimental system allowed us to identify 87 host single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that show allele-specific expression in 69 genes. Furthermore, for 12 SNPs in 12 different genes, allele-specific expression is conditional on the exposure to the microbiota. Of these 12 genes, 8 have been associated with diseases linked to the gut microbiota, specifically colorectal cancer, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Our study demonstrates a scalable approach to study host-gut microbiota interactions and can be used to identify putative mechanisms for the interplay between host genetics and the microbiota in health and disease