Schedule of Factors Influencing Adherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Persons with Schizophrenia: Validity and Pilot Testing

Qualitative research has highlighted the complexinterplay of multiple factors that preclude persons withschizophrenia in rural Indian settings for discontinuedpsychiatric treatment. In this context, this paper aims toestablish the face and content validities of an interviewschedule titled „Schedule of Factors InfluencingAdherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Personswith Schizophrenia‟ which comprehensively assessesfactors for discontinued  psychiatric treatment and   thefeasibility of its administration of the schedule. SOFIAcontains 16 factors. This schedule involves three phases of interviewing patients and family members.  This wasgiven to twelve experts who used likert scales to rate eachitems wells as the dimensions of the schedule. Later on,fifteen persons with schizophrenia were interviewed withSOFIA to test the feasibility of administration. The resultsshowed that Fourteen items were rated as eithersatisfactory (score=4) or very much satisfactory (score=5)by all twelve experts; remaining two were rated as 4 or 5by 11 experts. Regarding comprehensiveness of thefactors, scoring methods and general instructions given tothe interviewers, all provided scores > 4; regardingmethod of interviewing, 11 provided score of > 4; withregard to overall interview schedule, all experts providedscores > 4. Pilot testing revealed that it took 60 minutes to administer SOFIA

Identification of Hosts for Ilarvirus Associated with Sunflower Necrosis Disease

Sunflower necrosis virus (SFNV) has a wide host range, which includes many cultivated crops and weed hosts. Fifteen plant species belonging to Fabaceae, 3 plant species belonging to Malvaceae, 6 plant species belonging to Cucurbitaceae, 3 plant species belonging to Solanaceae and one plant species each belonging to Caricaceae and Moringaceae were found to be additional hosts for SFNV. Besides, weeds such as Trianthema portulacastrum, Priva leptostachya, Digeria arvensis, Clitoria ternatea, Solanum nigrum, Vernonia cineraria, Trichodesma indicum and many other species were found to act as hosts for SFNV

Mining the genome of bacillus velezensis VB7 (CP047587) for MAMP genes and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters conferring antiviral and antifungal activity

Chemical pesticides have an immense role in curbing the infection of plant viruses and soil-borne pathogens of high valued crops. However, the usage of chemical pesticides also contributes to the development of resistance among pathogens. Hence, attempts were made in this study to identify a suitable bacterial antagonist for managing viral and fungal pathogens infecting crop plants. Based on our earlier investigations, we identified Bacillus amyloliquefaciens VB7 as a potential antagonist for managing Sclerotinia sclerotiorum infecting carnation, tobacco streak virus infecting cotton and groundnut bud necrosis infecting tomato. Considering the multifaceted action of B. amyloliquefaciens VB7, attempts were made for whole-genome sequencing to assess the antiviral activity against tomato spotted wilt virus infecting chrysanthemum and antifungal action against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc). Genome annotation of the isolate B. amyloliquefaciens VB7 was confirmed as B. velezensis VB7 with accession number CP047587. Genome analysis revealed the presence of 9,231,928 reads with an average read length of 149 bp. Assembled genome had 1 contig, with a total length of 3,021,183 bp and an average G+C content of 46.79%. The protein-coding sequences (CDS) in the genome was 3090, transfer RNA (tRNA) genes were 85 with 29 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and 21 repeat regions. The genome of B. velezensis VB7 had 506 hypothetical proteins and 2584 proteins with functional assignments. VB7 genome had the presence of flagellin protein FlaA with 987 nucleotides and translation elongation factor TU (Ef-Tu) with 1191 nucleotides. The identified ORFs were 3911 with 47.22% GC content. Non ribosomal pepide synthetase cluster (NRPS) gene clusters in the genome of VB7, coded for the anti-microbial peptides surfactin, butirosin A/butirosin B, fengycin, difficidin, bacillibactin, bacilysin, and mersacidin the Ripp lanthipeptide. Antiviral action of VB7 was confirmed by suppression of local lesion formation of TSWV in the local lesion host cowpea (Co-7). Moreover, combined application of B. velezensis VB7 with phyto-antiviral principles M. Jalapa and H. cupanioides increased shoot length, shoot diameter, number of flower buds per plant, flower diameter, and fresh weight of chrysanthemum. Further, screening for antifungal action of VB7 expressed antifungal action against Foc in vitro by producing VOC/NVOC compounds, including hexadecanoic acid, linoelaidic acid, octadecanoic acid, clindamycin, formic acid, succinamide, furanone, 4H-pyran, nonanol and oleic acid, contributing to the total suppression of Foc apart from the presence of NRPS gene clusters. Thus, our study confirmed the scope for exploring B. velezensis VB7 on a commercial scale to manage tomato spotted wilt virus, groundnut bud necrosis virus, tobacco streak virus, S. sclerotiorum, and Foc causing panama wilt of banana

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Not AvailableOwing global climate change, surveillance is essential tool to detect changes in pattern of diseases in the crops. To fulfill this purpose surveys were conducted from 2013-18 in five maize growing zones of India viz., Northern hill Zone (NHZ), Northern West Plain Zone (NWPZ), Northern East Plain Zone (NEPZ), Peninsular Zone (PZ) and Central Western Zone (CWZ). The percent disease index (PDI) of maydis leaf blight (MLB) was moderate (45) to high (65) in 4 zones (NHZ, NWPZ, NEPZ and PZ) while low in CWZ (25). Though the lowest incidence of turcicum leaf blight (TLB) was reported from CWZ in 2013 but it has increased consistently. PDI of TLB was highest (46) in 2016 in NHZ whereas banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) appeared at higher intensity in NHZ and NWPZ. Moderate (42) infection of curvularia leaf spot (CLS) was observed in all the five zones whereas bacterial stalk rot (BSR) was restricted to NHZ and NWPZ with moderate infection (33-47). Post flowering stalk rots (Charcoal and Fusarium stalk rot) appeared at higher intensity in all the 4 zones except NEPZ. PDI of brown spot (BS) ranged from 15-47 in NHZ and CWZ. Sorghum downy mildew (SDM), polysora rust (PR) and wilt were observed with very low infection from PZ while bacterial leaf streak (BLS) and brown stripe downy mildew (BSDM) were observed in NWPZ. This study revealed that there is need to develop effective management toolsfor MLB, TLB, PFSR and BLSB as these are the most prevalent maize diseases in present scenarioNot Availabl