Comparative evaluation of the germination capability of three morphologically different wild genotypes of Corchorus olitorius L. from Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Corchorus olitorius L. is a wild plant utilised as a vegetable in many parts of Africa. Wild indigenous vegetables have been recommended to alleviate nutritional deficiencies and household food insecurity. Efforts to domesticate and cultivate wild C. olitorius and other wild vegetables are being hampered by seed dormancy. The main cause of dormancy in C. olitorius has been suggested to be an impermeable seed coat. This study evaluates the response of wild genotypes of C. olitorius with different seed sizes to various dry heat and hot water treatments. Steeping seeds in boiling water (95°C) for 10 s and soaking seeds in a hot water bath at 80°C for 10 min resulted in a highest response to germination in the tested genotypes of this species. The study also recorded significant interactions between heat treatment and seed sizes. It was therefore concluded that genotypes of C. olitorius with different sizes require diverse durations of exposure to heat treatment methods to break dormancy caused by an impermeable seed coat.Key words: Corchorus olitorius, genotypes, germination, heat treatment, wild vegetables species

Measuring horizontal stresses during jacked pile installation

Jacking is an installation technique for displacement piles which is commonly used onshore in urban environments owing to its low noise and vibration. During pile jacking, stress changes occur in the soil which are substantial close to the pile, but also extend a significant radial distance. These stresses are difficult to measure accurately owing to arching around stress sensors. In the field, stress measurements are commonly made by means of an adjacent pile whose stiffness changes the stress field within the soil. Accurate measurements of stresses due to the installation of a single pile under laboratory conditions are needed in order to quantify this error. In this paper, null gauges that do not suffer from membrane deflection are used to measure horizontal stress changes during the jacked installation of a cylindrical pile in dry sand. Stresses are measured by means of both an adjacent pre-installed square pile and in-soil sensors. The paper also presents a comparison between the centrifuge results and the radial stress distribution estimated using conventional methods, such as Boussinesq's elastic analysis and elasto-plastic spherical cavity expansion. The research was funded by Giken Ltd. and the Coleman-Cohen Exchange Programme to whom a great acknowledgement is addressedThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ICE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/geng.14.0006

Radio weak lensing shear measurement in the visibility domain - I. Methodology

The high sensitivity of the new generation of radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will allow cosmological weak lensing measurements at radio wavelengths that are competitive with optical surveys. We present an adaptation to radio data of lensfit, a method for galaxy shape measurement originally developed and used for optical weak lensing surveys. This likelihood method uses an analytical galaxy model and makes a Bayesian marginalization of the likelihood over uninteresting parameters. It has the feature of working directly in the visibility domain, which is the natural approach to adopt with radio interferometer data, avoiding systematics introduced by the imaging process. As a proof of concept, we provide results for visibility simulations of individual galaxies with flux density S ≥ 10 μJy at the phase centre of the proposed SKA1-MID baseline configuration, adopting 12 frequency channels in the band 950–1190 MHz. Weak lensing shear measurements from a population of galaxies with realistic flux and scalelength distributions are obtained after natural gridding of the raw visibilities. Shear measurements are expected to be affected by ‘noise bias’: we estimate the bias in the method as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We obtain additive and multiplicative bias values that are comparable to SKA1 requirements for SNR > 18 and SNR > 30, respectively. The multiplicative bias for SNR >10 is comparable to that found in ground-based optical surveys such as CFHTLenS, and we anticipate that similar shear measurement calibration strategies to those used for optical surveys may be used to good effect in the analysis of SKA radio interferometer data

Assessment of GFR by four methods in adults in Ashanti, Ghana: the need for an eGFR equation for lean African populations

Background. Equations for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) have not been validated in Sub-Saharan African populations, and data on GFR are few. Methods. GFR by creatinine clearance (Ccr) using 24-hour urine collections and estimated GFR (eGFR) using the four-variable Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD-4)[creatinine calibrated to isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) standard], Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) and Cockcroft–Gault equations were obtained in Ghanaians aged 40–75. The population comprised 1013 inhabitants in 12 villages; 944 provided a serum creatinine and two 24-hour urines. The mean weight was 54.4 kg; mean body mass index was 21.1 kg/m2. Results. Mean GFR by Ccr was 84.1 ml/min/1.73m2; 86.8% of participants had a GFR of 60 ml/min/1.73m2. Mean MDRD-4 eGFR was 102.3 ml/min/1.73m2 (difference vs. Ccr, 18.2: 95% CI: 16.8–19.5); when the factor for black race was omitted, the value (mean 84.6 ml/min/1.73m2) was close to Ccr. Mean CKD-EPI eGFR was 103.1 ml/min/1.73m2, and 89.4 ml/min/1.73m2 when the factor for race was omitted. The Cockcroft–Gault equation underestimated GFR compared with Ccr by 9.4 ml/min/1.73m2 (CI: 8.3–10.6); particularly in older age groups. GFR by Ccr, and eGFR by MDRD-4, CKD-EPI and Cockcroft–Gault showed falls with age: MDRD-4 5.5, Ccr 7.7, CKD-EPI 8.8 and Cockcroft–Gault 11.0 ml/min/1.73m2/10 years. The percentage of individuals identified with CKD stages 3–5 depended on the method used: MDRD-4 1.6% (7.2 % without factor for black race; CKD-EPI 1.7% (4.7% without factor for black race), Ccr 13.2% and Cockcroft–Gault 21.0%. Conclusions. Mean eGFR by both MDRD-4 and CKD-EPI was considerably higher than GFR by Ccr and Cockcroft–Gault, a difference that may be attributable to leanness. MDRD-4 appeared to underestimate the fall in GFR with age compared with the three other measurements; the fall with CKD-EPI without the adjustment for race was the closest to that of Ccr. An equation tailored specifically to the needs of the lean populations of Africa is urgently needed. For the present, the CKD-EPI equation without the adjustment for black race appears to be the most useful

Controlling Nanowire Growth by Light.

Individual Au catalyst nanoparticles are used for selective laser-induced chemical vapor deposition of single germanium nanowires. Dark-field scattering reveals in real time the optical signatures of all key constituent growth processes. Growth is initially triggered by plasmonic absorption in the Au catalyst, while once nucleated the growing Ge nanowire supports magnetic and electric resonances that then dominate the laser interactions. This spectroscopic understanding allows real-time laser feedback that is crucial toward realizing the full potential of controlling nanomaterial growth by light.We acknowledge financial support from EPSRC Grant EP/G060649/1, EP/L027151/1, EP/G037221/1, EPSRC NanoDTC, and ERC Grant LINASS 320503. S.H. acknowledges funding from ERC Grant InsituNANO 279342.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b0295

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies: types II, III, and IV

The hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies (HSAN) encompass a number of inherited disorders that are associated with sensory dysfunction (depressed reflexes, altered pain and temperature perception) and varying degrees of autonomic dysfunction (gastroesophageal reflux, postural hypotention, excessive sweating). Subsequent to the numerical classification of four distinct forms of HSAN that was proposed by Dyck and Ohta, additional entities continue to be described, so that identification and classification are ongoing. As a group, the HSAN are rare diseases that affect both sexes. HSAN III is almost exclusive to individuals of Eastern European Jewish extraction, with incidence of 1 per 3600 live births. Several hundred cases with HSAN IV have been reported. The worldwide prevalence of HSAN type II is very low. This review focuses on the description of three of the disorders, HSAN II through IV, that are characterized by autosomal recessive inheritance and onset at birth. These three forms of HSAN have been the most intensively studied, especially familial dysautonomia (Riley-Day syndrome or HSAN III), which is often used as a prototype for comparison to the other HSAN. Each HSAN disorder is likely caused by different genetic errors that affect specific aspects of small fiber neurodevelopment, which result in variable phenotypic expression. As genetic tests are routinely used for diagnostic confirmation of HSAN III only, other means of differentiating between the disorders is necessary. Diagnosis is based on the clinical features, the degree of both sensory and autonomic dysfunction, and biochemical evaluations, with pathologic examinations serving to further confirm differences. Treatments for all these disorders are supportive