Characterization of bacterial communities associated with Brassica napus L. growing on a Zn-contaminated soil and their effects on root growth

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=bijp20The attached document is the author's final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it

Wheat seed embryo excision enables the creation of axenic seedlings and Koch’s postulates testing of putative bacterial endophytes

Early establishment of endophytes can play a role in pathogen suppression and improve seedling development. One route for establishment of endophytes in seedlings is transmission of bacteria from the parent plant to the seedling via the seed. In wheat seeds, it is not clear whether this transmission route exists, and the identities and location of bacteria within wheat seeds are unknown. We identified bacteria in the wheat (Triticum aestivum) cv. Hereward seed environment using embryo excision to determine the location of the bacterial load. Axenic wheat seedlings obtained with this method were subsequently used to screen a putative endophyte bacterial isolate library for endophytic competency. This absence of bacteria recovered from seeds indicated low bacterial abundance and/or the presence of inhibitors. Diversity of readily culturable bacteria in seeds was low with 8 genera identified, dominated by Erwinia and Paenibacillus. We propose that anatomical restrictions in wheat limit embryo associated vertical transmission, and that bacterial load is carried in the seed coat, crease tissue and endosperm. This finding facilitates the creation of axenic wheat plants to test competency of putative endophytes and also provides a platform for endophyte competition, plant growth, and gene expression studies without an indigenous bacterial background

IL-17 Produced during Trypanosoma cruzi Infection Plays a Central Role in Regulating Parasite-Induced Myocarditis

Chagas disease is caused by the intracellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. This infection has been considered one of the most neglected diseases and affects several million people in the Central and South America. Around 30% of the infected patients develop digestive and cardiac forms of the disease. Most patients are diagnosed during the chronic phase, when the treatment is not effective. Here, we showed by the first time that IL-17 is produced during experimental T. cruzi infection and that it plays a significant role in host defense, modulating parasite-induced myocarditis. Applying this analysis to humans could be of great value in unraveling the elements involved in the pathogenesis of chagasic cardiopathy and could be used in the development of alternative therapies to reduce morbidity during the chronic phase of the disease, as well as clinical markers of disease progression. The understanding of these aspects of disease may be helpful in reducing the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and costs to the public health service in developing countries

Phylogenetic relationships, chromosome and breeding system evolution in Turnera (Turneraceae): inferences from ITS sequence data

urnera provides a useful system for exploring two significant evolutionary phenomena—shifts in breeding system (distyly vs. homostyly) and the evolution of polyploids. To explore these, the first molecular phylogeny of Turnera was constructed using sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA for 37 taxa. We attempted to resolve the origins of allopolyploid species using single-strand conformation polymorphism and sequencing of homeologous copies of ITS. Two allohexaploid species possessed putative ITS homeologues (T. velutina and T. orientalis). A phylogenetic analysis to identify progenitors contributing to the origins of these polyploids was unsuccessful, possibly as a result of concerted evolution of ITS. Breeding system evolution was mapped onto the phylogeny assuming distyly to be ancestral in Turnera. Self-compatible homostyly appears to have arisen independently at least three times in Turnera; however, we were not able to determine whether there have been independent origins of homostyly among hexaploid species in series Turnera. Our phylogenetic analyses suggest that series Turnera is monophyletic. Neither series Microphyllae nor Anomalae, however, appear to be monophyletic. Future taxonomic revisions may require new circumscriptions of these latter series.Fil: Truyens, Simons. York University, Ontario; CanadáFil: Arbo, Maria Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Shore, Joel S.. York University, Ontario; Canad

Developing a method for comparing the elite sport systems and policies of nations : a mixed research methods approach.

This article aims to make a contribution to comparative sport research and details a method for comparing nations’ elite sport systems less descriptively by measuring and comparing determinants of national competitiveness quantitatively. A mixed methods exploratory sequential design is used, consisting of two distinct phases. After qualitative exploration, a conceptual model was developed, revealing that there are nine sport policy dimensions or ’pillars’ that are important for international sporting success. This article focuses on a second quantitative phase, where the model was tested in a pilot study with six sample nations to develop a scoring system. Data from each nation were collected through an overall sport policy questionnaire completed in each country, and through a survey with the main stakeholders in elite sport, namely athletes (n = 1090), coaches (n = 253), and performance directors (n= 71). Reflecting recognized principles of economic competitiveness measurement, this article demonstrates how 103 critical success factors containing quantitative and qualitative data can be aggregated into a final percentage score for the sample nations on each pillar. The findings suggest that the method is a useful way for objective comparison of nations, but it should not be isolated from qualitative descriptions and from a broader understanding of elite sport systems

Detecting automatic patterns of stroke through text mining

Despite the volume increase of electronic data collection in the health area, there is still much medical information that is recorded without any systematic pattern. For instance, besides the structured admission notes format, there are free text fields for clinicians’ patient evaluation observation. Intelligent Decisions Support Systems can benefit from cross-referencing and interpretation of these documents. In the Intensive Care Units, several patients are admitted daily, and several discharge notes are written. To support real-time decision-making and to increase the quality of its process, is crucial to have all relevant patient clinical data available. Since there is no writing pattern followed by all medical doctors, its analysis becomes quite difficult to do. This project aims to make qualitatively and quantitatively analysis of clinical information focusing on the stroke or cerebrovascular accident diagnosis using text analysis tools, namely Natural Language Processing and Text Mining. Our results revealed a set of related words in the clinician’ patient diaries that can reveal patterns.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. This work is also supported by the Deus ex Machina (DEM): Symbiotic technology for societal efficiency gains - NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000026