Fungal pseudoflowers can influence the fecundity of insect-pollinated flowers on Euphorbia cyparissias

Abstract.: Pfunder M. and Roy B.A. 2006. Fungal pseudoflowers can influence the fecundity of insect-pollinated flowers on Euphorbia cyparissias. Bot. Helv. 116: 149 - 158. Euphorbia cyparissias is often infected by a rust fungus from the species complex Uromyces pisi. Infected plants do not form flowers but pseudoflowers, rosettes of yellow leaves upon which the fungus presents gametes in a sweet-smelling sugary nectar. Insects feed on the nectar and transfer fungal gametes between mating types. Here we show that pseudoflowers and the flowers of non-infected hosts overlap in "flowering” for more than one month, even though pseudoflowers start "flowering” one month earlier than true flowers. As the fungus and its host also share insect visitors, we hypothesized that they might interact either by facilitating each others' insect visits or by competing for "pollinators”. We addressed this question by weekly grid-mapping an Euphorbia population near Zermatt in the Swiss Alps and relating the average density and frequency around hosts and pseudoflowers during their "flowering” period to their fitness (success in seed set and spore production). The seed set of uninfected Euphorbia plants was significantly higher when they were surrounded by fewer pseudoflowers. The fungus, on the other hand, was not obviously influenced by the presence of host flowers. Instead, the reproductive success of single pseudoflowers decreased with a higher density of pseudoflower-neighbors. Our results suggest that the fungus might be a pollinator-competitor for Euphorbia flower

Eignung unterschiedlicher Applikationsköpfe für die Ampferbekämpfung mit Heißwasser

As already shown in former investigations, thermal treatment with a hot water/steam mixture can be an appropriate method to control dock plants (Rumex obtusifolius). Thereb,y the application method can be a key technique to acquire both good treatment effects and low working time and energy requirements. Five application techniques were compared in this investigation. A nozzle with rotating pencil jet was identified as the one with the best performance. This variant requires 1.6 l of 90 °C hot water per plant, applied at mean 15 seconds. The average fuel consumption to heat the water came up to 0.016 l Diesel per plant

Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among college students

Background: Self-medication is widely practiced both in developed and developing countries. Self-medication has certain advantages as it is convenient, economical, and medical resources are not wasted for minor illnesses. However, there are disadvantages as the disease recognized may not be correct, there is delay in meeting a health care worker, the side-effects of the medication are not known, inappropriate usage of antibiotics leading to drug resistance, taking the same drug with different trade names, it can lead to drug interactions and can also lead to drug addiction. College students prefer self-medication for minor illness or to save time and money. There is no data on the prevalence and pattern of self-medication in college students in Delhi. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among medical and non-medical students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 200 students of Delhi University using a pretested, structured questionnaire about demographics, knowledge, attitude, and practices of self-medication. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 16.0.Results: Self-medication is commonly practiced among both medical and non‑medical college students. From a total of 200 students, 93% of the students had used self-medication of which 7% used it always. Allopathy is the most preferred system of medication.Conclusions: The reasons for self-medication were similar among medical and non-medical students, but positive attitude and knowledge toward self-medication was more among the medical students

Curcumin: a review

The main objective of this review article is to overcome or to improve the problems related with curcumin with the help of new technologies or modifications to make a promising therapeutic agent which gives a good therapeutic response. Curcumin, a known natural polyphenolic compound obtained from dietary spice turmeric, possesses pharmacologic effects including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and many other activities. Clinical trials   on curcumin have shown its safety and efficacy even at high doses in humans. But inspite of that it shows poor bioavailability (oral bioavailability) which is one of the major problems regarding curcumin. There are other reasons contributing to the low plasma and tissue levels of curcumin appear to be due to poor absorption, rapid metabolism, and rapid systemic elimination. To improve the bioavailability of curcumin, numbers of approaches have been undertaken. These approaches involve, first, the use of adjuvant like piperine that interferes with glucuronidation; second, the use of liposomal curcumin; third, curcumin nanoparticles; fourth, the use of curcumin phospholipids complex; and fifth, the use of structural analogues of curcumin

Erd-Wurzel-Separation nach dem maschinellen Ausstechen von Ampfer (Rumex obtusifolius)

Labour-intensive manual digging with various sorts of spades or forks is the most common technique to control broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius). Machines for removing roots exist, but are not in use. The process leaves undesired holes in the ground and large quantities of soil have to be removed. An invention for separating the fertile soil from the roots directly in the field and refilling the holes thus created would represent a significant advance. Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART has developed a separation unit to improve the mechanical weeding process. The separator unit consists of three paired rotary brushes (d = 200 mm,l = 250 mm) and an oscillating sieve (surface: 200 x 500 mm, gaps: 15 x 500 mm). In the summer 2011 a self-propelled unit dug out 174 Rumex obtusifolius plants on grassland on the experimental farm in Tänikon. The cleaned soil was used in situ to refill the holes created. The weight of both the excavated and cleaned soil was recorded. A RTK-GPS device enabled the exact position of plants to be located. Three months after treatment, the treaded places had been evaluated. In 160 cases (92 %) where Rumex plants had been removed at the same positions no plants regrew. The used standard adjustment could separate 55 to 80 % of the total excavation, depend on field condition. Disadvantages are the transport of 1.2 kg of soil and root material per plant in average and high efforts on machine construction

Standardization of herbal medicines – an overview

In the few decades, there has been exponentional growth in the field of herbal medicines. Most of the traditional systems of medicine are effective due to lack of standardization. So there is a need to develop a standardization technique. Standardization of herbal formulation is essential in order to assess the quality, purity, safety and efficacy of the drug. There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use herbal drugs in today’s medical practice. The world population depends on herbal medicines and product for healthy living. This rise in the use of herbal product has also given rise to various forms of adulteration of the products, which leading to consumers’ and manufacturers’ disappointment and in some instances fatal consequences. The challenge is innumerable and enormous, to fulfill the need of global herbal market. The standardization of this formulations like the organoleptic characters, physical properties, the various physic-chemical properties such as moisture content, ash values, extractive values need to be carried out along with Thin layer chromatography and heavy metal content study should also carried out to ascertain the quality, purity and safety of this herbal formulation

Formulation, optimization and evaluation of quick dispersible tablets of sumatriptan

The main objective of this study was to prepare quick dispersible tablets of drug sumatriptan succinate, which can rapidly disintegrate in the saliva using three different superdisintegrants that is, sodium starch glycolate, crospovidone, and croscarmallose sodium with taste masking polymer beta-cyclodextrin and aspartame as a sweetener. The taste masking of the drug was done by mixing it with the polymer beta-cyclodextrin using solvent evaporation method and then mixing optimized quantity of aspartame to it. The quick dispersible tablets were prepared by direct compression technique using taste masked drug and other formulation excipients. The effect of various super disintegrants in three different concentrations has been studied. The prepared tablets were evaluated for wetting time, in-vitro disintegration time, strength, and in-vitro dissolution time. As per the results obtained, it was found that the formulation batch no. 4 was found to be the best formulation, as the data’s obtained by it was found to be in the required range of mouth dissolving tablets

How to identify and characterize strongly correlated topological semimetals

How strong correlations and topology interplay is a topic of great current interest. In this perspective paper, we focus on correlation-driven gapless phases. We take the time-reversal symmetric Weyl semimetal as an example because it is expected to have clear (albeit nonquantized) topological signatures in the Hall response and because the first strongly correlated representative, the noncentrosymmetric Weyl-Kondo semimetal Ce$_3$Bi$_4$Pd$_3$, has recently been discovered. We summarize its key characteristics and use them to construct a prototype Weyl-Kondo semimetal temperature-magnetic field phase diagram. This allows for a substantiated assessment of other Weyl-Kondo semimetal candidate materials. We also put forward scaling plots of the intrinsic Berry-curvature-induced Hall response vs the inverse Weyl velocity -- a measure of correlation strength, and vs the inverse charge carrier concentration -- a measure of the proximity of Weyl nodes to the Fermi level. They suggest that the topological Hall response is maximized by strong correlations and small carrier concentrations. We hope that our work will guide the search for new Weyl-Kondo semimetals and correlated topological semimetals in general, and also trigger new theoretical work.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Skyrmions and magnetic bubbles in spin-orbit coupled metallic magnets

Motivated by the observation of Skyrmion-like magnetic textures in 2D itinerant ferromagnets Fe$_n$GeTe$_2$ ($n \geq3$), we develop a microscopic model combining itinerant magnetism and spin-orbit coupling on a triangular lattice. The ground state of the model in the absence of magnetic field consists of filamentary magnetic domain walls revealing a striking similarity with our magnetic force microscopy experiments on Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$. In the presence of magnetic field, these filaments were found to break into large size magnetic bubbles in our experiments. We identify uniaxial magnetic anisotropy as an important parameter in the model that interpolates between magnetic Skyrmions and ferromagnetic bubbles. Consequently, our work uncovers new topological magnetic textures that merge properties of Skyrmions and ferromagnetic bubbles

Cryptococcal meningitis: improving access to essential antifungal medicines in resource-poor countries

Cryptococcal meningitis is the leading cause of adult meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa, and contributes up to 20% of AIDS-related mortality in low-income and middle-income countries every year. Antifungal treatment for cryptococcal meningitis relies on three old, off-patent antifungal drugs: amphotericin B deoxycholate, flucytosine, and fluconazole. Widely accepted treatment guidelines recommend amphotericin B and flucytosine as first-line induction treatment for cryptococcal meningitis. However, flucytosine is unavailable in Africa and most of Asia, and safe amphotericin B administration requires patient hospitalisation and careful laboratory monitoring to identify and treat common side-effects. Therefore, fluconazole monotherapy is widely used in low-income and middle-income countries for induction therapy, but treatment is associated with significantly increased rates of mortality. We review the antifungal drugs used to treat cryptococcal meningitis with respect to clinical effectiveness and access issues specific to low-income and middle-income countries. Each drug poses unique access challenges: amphotericin B through cost, toxic effects, and insufficiently coordinated distribution; flucytosine through cost and scarcity of registration; and fluconazole through challenges in maintenance of local stocks-eg, sustainability of donations or insufficient generic supplies. We advocate ten steps that need to be taken to improve access to safe and effective antifungal therapy for cryptococcal meningitis