215 research outputs found
Rapid generation advance (RGA) in chickpea to produce up to seven generations per year and enable speed breeding
This study was aimed at developing a protocol for increasing the number of generation cycles per year in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Six accessions, two each from early (JG 11 and JG 14), medium (ICCV 10 and JG 16), and late (CDC-Frontier and C 235) maturity groups, were
used. The experiment was conducted for two years under glasshouse conditions. The photoperiod was extended to induce early flowering and immature seeds were germinated
to further reduce generation cycle time. Compared to control, artificial light caused a reduction in flowering time by respectively 8–19, 7–16, and 11–27 days in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. The earliest stage of immature seed able to germinate was 20–23 days after anthesis in accessions of different maturity groups. The time period between germination and the earliest stage of immature seed suitable for germination was considered one generation cycle and spanned respectively 43–60, 44–64, and 52–79 days in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. However, the late-maturing accession CDCFrontier
could not be advanced further after three generation cycles owing to the strong influence of photoperiod and temperature. The mean total number of generations produced
per year were respectively 7, 6.2, and 6 in early-, medium-, and late-maturing accessions. These results have encouraging implications for breeding programs: rapid progression toward homozygosity, development of mapping populations, and reduction in time, space
and resources in cultivar development (speed breeding)
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in multiple sclerosis.
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) provides tissue metabolic information in vivo. This article reviews the role of MRS-determined metabolic alterations in lesions, normal-appearing white matter, gray matter, and spinal cord in advancing our knowledge of pathologic changes in multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition, the role of MRS in objectively evaluating therapeutic efficacy is reviewed. This potential metabolic information makes MRS a unique tool to follow MS disease evolution, understand its pathogenesis, evaluate the disease severity, establish a prognosis, and objectively evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic interventions
Strict Positive Realness of Descriptor Systems in State Space
In this paper we give necessary and sufficient
spectral conditions for various notions of strict positive realness
for single input single output, impulse free Descriptor Systems.
These conditions only require calculation of eigenvalues of a
single matrix. A characterization of a KYP-like lemma for
descriptor systems is also derived, and its implications for the
stability of a class of switched descriptor systems are briefly
discussed
Cross-aisle Stiffness Tests on Rack Upright Frames
The US Rack Manufacturers Institution (RMI) code uses a theoretical formula derived by Timoshenko and the new Eurocode EN15512 requires testing. There is a considerable difference in the stiffn ess values determined by two approaches. This paper describes the experiments conducted on 80 full sized upright frames at Oxford Brookes University varying upright size, number of panels in the frame, aspect ratio of the panel (panel length/depth), restraints at the intermediate nodes of the frame, loading pattern, lacing pattern (channels back to back or front to front) and bolt tightness. The experimental data reported can be used in proposing revised design procedures
Knowledge Acquisition by Networks of Interacting Agents in the Presence of Observation Errors
In this work we investigate knowledge acquisition as performed by multiple
agents interacting as they infer, under the presence of observation errors,
respective models of a complex system. We focus the specific case in which, at
each time step, each agent takes into account its current observation as well
as the average of the models of its neighbors. The agents are connected by a
network of interaction of Erd\H{o}s-Renyi or Barabasi-Albert type. First we
investigate situations in which one of the agents has a different probability
of observation error (higher or lower). It is shown that the influence of this
special agent over the quality of the models inferred by the rest of the
network can be substantial, varying linearly with the respective degree of the
agent with different estimation error. In case the degree of this agent is
taken as a respective fitness parameter, the effect of the different estimation
error is even more pronounced, becoming superlinear. To complement our
analysis, we provide the analytical solution of the overall behavior of the
system. We also investigate the knowledge acquisition dynamic when the agents
are grouped into communities. We verify that the inclusion of edges between
agents (within a community) having higher probability of observation error
promotes the loss of quality in the estimation of the agents in the other
communities.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. A working manuscrip
Botany of Chickpea
Chickpea is one of the important food legumes cultivated in several countries. It originated in the Middle East (area between south-eastern Turkey and adjoining Syria) and spread to European countries in the west to Myanmar in the east. It has several vernacular names in respective countries where it is cultivated or consumed. Taxonomically, chickpea belongs to the monogeneric tribe Cicereae of the family Fabaceae. There are nine annuals and 34 perennial species in the genus Cicer. The cultivated chickpea, Cicer arietinum, is a short annual herb with several growth habits ranging from prostrate to erect. Except the petals of the flower, all the plant parts are covered with glandular and non-glandular hairs. These hairs secrete a characteristic acid mixture which defends the plant against sucking pests. The stem bears primary, secondary and tertiary branches. The latter two branch types have leaves and flowers on them. Though single leaf also exists, compound leaf with 5–7 pairs of leaflets is a regular feature. The typical papilionaceous flower, with one big standard, two wings and two keel petals (boat shaped), has 9 + 1 diadelphous stamens and a stigma with 1–4 ovules. Anthers dehisce a day before the flower opens leading to self-pollination. In four weeks after pollination, pod matures with one to three seeds per pod. There is no dormancy in chickpea seed. Based on the colour of chickpea seed, it is desi type (dark-coloured seed) or kabuli type (beige-coloured seed). Upon sowing, germination takes a week time depending on the soil and moisture conditions
Modified blalock-taussig shunt in palliative cardiac surgery
Background: Cyanotic congenital heart diseases present early in life with poor general condition of the patient. Majority of deaths occurs within one year of life before surgical intervention due to severe cyanosis and metabolic acidosis. Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt (MBTS) is one of the palliative cardiac surgeries done for cyanotic congenital heart diseases. It improves the general condition of the patient before definitive surgery is done. The aim of this study was to determine the commonest indications, post-operative anticoagulation and early complications following MBTS at CARE Hospital, India.Methods: This was a retrospective study from January 2004 to December 2006 including all patients who underwent Posterolateral Thoracotomy for MBTS. All patients had deep cyanosis, oxygen saturation of 65% or less and small pulmonary vasculature due to congenital heart defects. Acyanotic patients and those with oxygen saturation more than 65% were excluded from the study. All patients received a single dose of heparin intra-operatively and oral aspirin as anticoagulant regimen post-operatively. No heparin given postoperatively.Results: A total of 20 children with a mean age of 27.4 months were studied. Two patients had pre-operative ICU admission due to severe cyanosis (both had oxygen saturation of 35%), hypotension and severe body weakness. The commonest indications for MBTS included Tetralogy of Fallot (70%), pulmonary atresia (10%) with or without Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), tricuspid atresia (10%) with pulmonary atresia or stenosis and Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DOVR) with pulmonary atresia or stenosis (10%). Mean duration of ICU stay was 2 days, mean duration of mechanical ventilation was four and half hours, mean duration of hospital stay was 7 days and mean systemic oxygen saturation improved significantly from 46% to 84% ( x2 = 7.03, p = 0.0080). No post-operative bleeding, seroma, shunt thrombosis or death occurred in this study.Conclusion: The commonest indication for MBTS is TOF. Intra-operative single dose of heparin followed by post-operative oral aspirin as anticoagulant regimen was not associated with a major complication in terms of bleeding, seroma, shunt thrombosis, or death
Achievements and challenges in improving nutritional quality of chickpea
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) grains are an excellent source of protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre, folate, β-carotene and health
promoting fatty acids. Their consumption
provides consumers with a variety of
nutritional and health benefits. Limited
breeding efforts have been made on nutritional quality traits of chickpea.
Potential exists for further enhancing
contents of protein, minerals (iron and zinc),
folate and β-carotene and reducing the
contents of flatulence causing raffinose
family of oligosaccharides (RFOs).
The desi types account for about 80% to
85% of the global chickpea area and largely
grown in South Asia, Eastern Africa, and
Australia and mainly consumed in South
Asia. Though the total chickpea area under
kabuli type is less (15 to 20%), the
production and consumption of kabuli type
is globally more wide spread than the desi
types. Chickpeas are mainly used for human
consumption and a very small proportion as
animal feed. The dry chickpea grains are used
whole (after soaking and/or cooking,
roasting or parching) or dehulled to make
splits (dal) or ground to produce flour (besan).
The soaked/cooked chickpea grains are used
in salads, making vegetable curries (Chhole)
and several other preparations, such as falafel
(deep fried balls or patties) and hummus
(chickpea dip or spread). The chickpea flour
is used in making a wide variety of snack
foods, soups, sweets, and condiments
besides being mixed with wheat flour to
make Indian bread (roti or chapati). Invariably,
splits (dal) and flour are made from desi type,
while hummus is made from kabuli type.
Chickpea leaves are used as leafy vegetable
and immature green grains are eaten raw or
after roasting and also used as vegetable
Clinical Characteristics of Patients Classified as Very High Risk and Not Very High Risk Based on the 2018 AHA/ACC Multi-Society Cholesterol Guideline
Background The 2018 AHA/ACC Cholesterol Guideline recommendation to classify ASCVD patients as very high-risk (VHR) vs not-VHR (NVHR) has important implications for ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitor eligibility. We aimed to define the clinical characteristics of these two groups within a large multi-state healthcare system in the Western U.S. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of patients defined as having ASCVD in 2018 using EHR ICD-10 codes. VHR was defined by ≥2 major ASCVD events (ACS ≤12 months, history of MI \u3e12 months, ischemic stroke, or symptomatic PAD) or 1 major ASCVD event and ≥2 high-risk conditions (age ≥65, DM, HTN, smoking, HeFH, CKD, CHF, persistently elevated LDL-C, or prior CABG/PCI). Patients not meeting these criteria were classified as NVHR. Results A total of 180,669 ASCVD patients were identified: 104,123 (58%) were VHR and 76,546 (42%) were NVHR. Mean age and gender was 70.1±13.4 years, 54% male and 73.1±11.9 years, 55% male for the NVHR and VHR groups, respectively. Among patients with a history of MI or recent ACS, 99% and 96% were classified as VHR, respectively (Table). Age ≥65, HTN and DM were the most prevalent high-risk conditions. Conclusion Criteria used to predict future CV risk largely divide ASCVD patients into groups of similar prevalence. Nearly all ACS/MI patients were VHR. With growing emphasis on individualized risk assessment and intense LDL-C reduction, opportunity exists to further refine risk prediction within these two at-risk groups
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