Genetic Studies in Early Generations of Some Agronomic and Quality Characters of Vegetable Soybean (Glycine Max (L.) Merrill)

Selection for large pods based on 100-seed weight were carried out in F2 populations for four crosses, namely, Cross I (Kahori x AGS 186), Cross II (Kahori x AGS 187), Cross III (AGS 292 x AGS 186), and Cross IV (AGS 292 x AGS 187). The selected F 2 plants were then backcrossed to large seeded parents and the progenies, due to subsequent selfing, were achieved for further studies. Two experiments were conducted at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia and one experiment at Kasetsart University (KU), Thailand. The results of these studies showed that Kahori, AGS 292 and AGS 187 appeared to be potential parents for large pods. Furthermore, Kahori and AGS 187 were good sources for protein and oil while AGS 292 was a good source for sugar. AGS 186 was a good parent for high yield. The F1 hybrids showed average mean values of pod size between the two parents. The progenies due to subsequent selfings from crosses between large pod and small pod varieties decreased pod size whereas crosses made among large pod varieties remained unchanged. These findings revealed that small seed varieties could be improved by the backcross method using the large seed variety as the recurrent parent. Based on the principal component analysis, there was evidence that Kahori, AGS 292 and AGS 187 were similar in terms of vegetative characters, yield. The F1 hybrids from all crosses among them were close to the means between the respect ive parents involved and the F2 populations were well segregated Vegetable soybean grown at UPM, Malaysia gave higher yield than that grown at KU, Thailand due to the different growth conditions. There was an excessive rainfall during growing period of the trial conducted in Thailand. Nevertheless, good management of the crop at UPM probably was also the main reason for better pod yield. The heritability values for yield components derived from the experiment conducted at UPM, Malaysia were lower than those derived from the experiment conducted at KU, Thailand. The high heritable characters were found in pod size both two-and three-seeded pod width, length and weight. Even though high heritability estimates were obtained for pod size, it would be ineffective to improve this trait due to the narrow genetic variability of the parents. Heritability estimates for quality characters were found relatively high for all crosses. In these studies, no significant a mount of heteros is was found among the four crosses

Impact of activated and resting mesenchymal stem cells on immune responses and gut microbiome and immune responses to gut bacteria in dogs with inflammatory bowel disease

2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the common diseases that causes gastrointestinal tract (GI) disorder and encompasses a group of unknown causes of chronic gastroenteropathies found to have persistent or recurrent GI signs along with intestinal and/or gastric inflammation. Similar to IBD in humans, the pathogenesis of IBD in dogs remains undiscovered, but it is believed to involve an interaction between the abnormal host immune response against intestinal microbiota and predisposing genetic and environmental factors. IBD is mostly incurable with long-term complications despite receiving standard treatments that are typical combinations of food trial, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs. However, the therapeutic outcome of medical treatment appears to be multifactorial and inconsistent therapeutic responses ranging from transient recovery to no response have been found. One of the alternative treatments that potentially accelerates therapeutic effects is the use of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) administration. Therefore, the goal of the research presented in this dissertation was to comprehensively investigate the impact of activated and resting MSCs on immune responses, cells regeneration and gut microbiome for treatment of IBD with a specific emphasis on gaining an improved understanding of the immune responses to the gut bacteria in dogs with IBD. In the first part of the study, we needed to have better understanding of immunopathogenesis in IBD. Although it is not clear what triggers the intestinal inflammations in IBD affected dogs, we hypothesized that the disease may be mediated, in part, by an abnormal immune response directed against intestinal bacteria. We found the substantially greater percentages and overall binding of IgG and IgA with their intestinal bacteria in IBD dogs than healthy dogs, and the primary production of anti-bacterial antibodies occurs locally in the gut rather than systemically. The IgG-binding bacteria triggered an increase of phagocytosis and pro-inflammatory cytokine production by macrophages. Moreover, Actinobacteria (Collinsella genus) was the preferential target for the mucosal IgG immune response to dysbiotic bacteria. We concluded that the mucosal antibody binding to commensal gut bacteria was substantially greater in dog with IBD compared to a healthy, and that the immune response targeted particular bacteria and triggered the pro-inflammatory response in IBD. We noted that the more extensive studies in dogs with IBD and compared to animals with other causes for GI dysfunction may be required. Then, we focused on the use of MSCs as an alternative treatment for IBD in animals and humans. To address this question, we used a mouse model of IBD to investigate the effectiveness of using 2 types of mesenchymal stem cells (induced pluripotent MSC [iMSC] and conventional adipose-derived MSC [adMSC]) for the treatment of IBD. The impact of MSCs on immune responses, cells regeneration and the gut microbiome were evaluated. We found that iMSC and adMSC treatment effects were equivalent on the basis of significantly improving clinical abnormalities and decreasing inflammation inside the gut. Both types of MSC also stimulated a significant increase in intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and amplified intestinal angiogenesis. Furthermore, the abnormal microbiome found in mice with IBD was returned to nearly normal values in terms of complexity and composition in mice with IBD treated with adMSC or iMSC. We concluded therefore that the administration of iMSC enhanced the overall intestinal healing, suppressed inflammation, and microbiome restoration with equal effectiveness as treatment using adMSC in a mouse model of IBD. The future studies in animal model including spontaneous IBD in dog or large scale of clinical trial for long-term follow-up to determine iMSC safety and efficacy is required before clinical translation. Finally, we investigated possible ways to improve the efficacy of mouse and dog MSC treatment by preactivating the MSC with inflammatory cytokines (IFN-g or TNF-a) or TLR agonists (TLR3 or TLR9 agonists). We investigated the response of canine MSCs to the 4 activating stimuli, including measurement of cell surface phenotype and cytokine release. Contrary to previous studies in other species including mouse and man, we found that the pre-activation of dog MSC generally had little effect on either phenotype or function. Therefore, we concluded that the ex-vivo preactivation of canine MSCs by inflammatory cytokines or TLR agonists is not warranted in terms of augmenting the functionality of the cells. We further concluded that dog MSC may be hyporesponsive to preactivating stimuli compared to those of MSC from other species such as mouse and man. Further studies are required for better understanding of the biology of canine MSCs and their responses to immune activation. Overall, the work described in this dissertation has increased our understanding regarding the immunopathogenesis of the IBD in dogs. The studies have also demonstrated the equivalent activity of iMSC and conventional adMSC for treatment of IBD, and also documented a previously undescribed restorative effect of MSC on the intestinal microbiome. These studies also illustrated species specific differences in the responsiveness of MSC to common immune stimuli. These studies provide a robust foundation for further research and hopefully this work can help stimulate new investigations into alternative treatments for IBD in dogs and humans

An Improved Knockout-Ablation-Coalescence Model for Prediction of Secondary Neutron and Light-ion Production in Cosmic Ray Interactions

An analytical knockout-ablation-coalescence model capable of making quantitative predictions of the neutron and light-ion spectra from high-energy nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is being developed for use in space radiation protection studies. The FORTRAN computer code that implements this model is called UBERNSPEC. The knockout or abrasion stage of the model is based on Glauber multiple scattering theory. The ablation part of the model uses the classical evaporation model of Weisskopf-Ewing. In earlier work, the knockout-ablation model was extended to incorporate important coalescence effects into the formalism. Recently, the coalescence model was reformulated in UBERNSPEC and alpha coalescence incorporated. In addition, the ability to predict light ion spectra with the coalescence model was added. Earlier versions of UBERNSPEC were limited to nuclei with mass numbers less than 68. In this work, the UBERNSPEC code has been extended to include heavy charged particles with mass numbers as large as 238. Representative predictions from the code are compared with published measurements of neutron energy and angular production spectra and light ion energy spectra for a variety of collision pairs

Aquaculture development in Thailand

Aquaculture practised in Thailand is in the form of pond culture and cage culture in freshwater, brackishwater and coastal areas. The main species cultured include freshwater prawns, brackishwater shrimp, cockles, mussels, and various freshwater and marine finfishes. There is good potential for increased production from freshwater, brackishwater and marine aquaculture. However, the 1983 production of 145 000 mt represents only about 6% of Thailand's total fish production and production in this subsector has fluctuated widely. It will be several years before aquaculture production will contribute substantially to total production. Nonetheless, the culture of high value species of shrimp and fish could contribute significantly to export earnings during the next 5 to 10 years. Conducted primarily by government agencies, research and development are along the lines of increasing seed supply, establishing new culture techniques or improving older ones. The Department of Fisheries (DOF) together with some private companies have ventured into the development and testing of artificial diets for the various cultured species using a variety of indigenous feed stuffs. It is estimated that with adequate investments and appropriate support, aquaculture production will increase from 145 000 mt in 1983 to 378 000 mt in 1991, showing an annual increase of about 13% over this period. Major increases would come from bivalve mariculture (131 000 mt), brackishwater ponds (36 000 mt) freshwater ponds (46 000 mt) and brackishwater cage culture (20 000 mt)

The coastal environmental profile of Ban Don Bay and Phangnga Bay, Thailand

Environmental profile, Coastal zone management, Coastal zone, Ban Don Bay, Phangnga Bay, Thailand, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Effect of Exchange Rates on Agricultural Goods for Export: A Case of Thailand

This paper examined the relationships between exchange rates and the volumes of Thailand’s top two majors agricultural goods export which were rice and rubber exports. The results indicated that exchange rates had negative significant effects on Thailand’s agricultural goods export volumes. Results also showed that the exchange rates influenced total agricultural, rubber, and rice goods export volumes respectively. For the qualitative research, interviewing 17 business men who came from rice exports companies 6 persons and from rubber exports companies 11 persons used the in-depth interview. The results showed the effect of exchange rate had strong fluctuation then exporters could not handle it on time, and make the problems all parts of working in companies. Moreover, the best way to do hedging exchange rate risk for exporters, Companies had to book the forward contact in order to reduce the risk

The immunosuppressive capacity of human mesenchymal stromal cells derived from amnion and bone marrow

AbstractMesenchymal stromal cells derived from amnion (AM-MSCs) can be easily obtained in large quantity by less invasive method in comparison to bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs). However, the biological and immunosuppressive properties of AM-MSCs are still poorly characterized. Previous studies demonstrated that BM-MSCs expressed indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) to suppress T-cell responses. This study was designed to address whether IDO contributes to the immunosuppressive function of AM-MSCs. MSCs isolated from amnion were cultured in complete medium similar to BM-MSCs. After culture, AM-MSCs exhibited spindle shape morphology and expressed MSC markers similar to that of BM-MSCs. In addition, AM-MSCs were able to differentiate into adipocytes and osteoblasts. Fascinatingly, AM-MSCs and BM-MSCs exhibited comparable degree of immunosuppressive effect when they were co-cultured with activated T-cells. In addition, IDO secreted by AM-MSCs was responsible for induction of immunosuppressive activities in the same manner as BM-MSCs. Taken together; the results of the present study demonstrate that while AM-MSCs and BM-MSCs show similar immunosuppressive effect, AM-MSCs may have additional advantage over the BM-MSCs in terms of availability. Therefore, AM-MSCs might be considered a potential source for therapeutic applications especially for treatment of immune related diseases

Predictors of diabetes self-management among type 2 diabetics in Indonesia: Application theory of the health promotion model

Objective This study aimed to identify factors predicting diabetes self-management among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Malang City, East Java, Indonesia. Methods A cross-sectional design was used in this study. Participants were selected from five primary health centers in Malang City, East Java, Indonesia using the multistage sampling method. A total of 127 adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus were recruited. Data were collected by questionnaires which were the general diabetes knowledge, the Beliefs of Treatment Effectiveness, the Diabetes Distress Scale, the Self-efficacy for Diabetes Scale, the brief Chronic Illness Resources Survey, the Situational Questionnaire and the Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Multiple linear regression with stepwise method was used toanalyze the data. Results The scores of seven questionnaires (i.e, diabetes knowledge, perceived benefit of diabetes self-management, diabetes distress, perceived self-efficacy, social support, situational influence, and diabetes self-management) were 13.75 ± 3.59, 34.9 ± 4.89, 3.03 ± 0.86, 3.60 ± 0.53, 27.79 ± 5.56, 3.27 ± 0.58,3.81 ± 1.08, respectively. The significant predictors of diabetes self-management were treatment, perceived self-efficacy, and situational influences. These variables explained 20.8% (adjusted R2 = 0.208) of the variance in diabetes self-management among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Malang City. Conclusion Diabetes self-management among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus could be improved by enhancing their perceived self-efficacy to achieve their self-management behavior, such as having a healthy diet, exercising regularly, actively monitoring blood glucose level, taking medication and foot care, and providing support to promote good situational influence

The expression of COX-2 in VEGF-treated endothelial cells is mediated through protein tyrosine kinase.

Cyclooxygenase (COX), existing as the COX-1 and COX-2 isoforms, converts arachidonic acid to prostaglandin H2, which is then further metabolized to various prostaglandins. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been shown to play important roles in inflammation and is upregulated by the prostaglandin E series through COX-2 in several cell types. Here, we have investigated the effects of VEGF on the COX isoform expressed in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The signalling mechanism of the COX isoform expressed in endothelial cells activated with VEGF will be also investigated using the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, and protein kinase C inhibitor, staurosporine. The activity of COX-2 was assessed by measuring the production of 6-keto-prostaglandin F1alpha in the presence of exogenous arachidonic acids (10 microM, 10 min) by enzyme immunoassay. The expression of COX isoform protein was detected by immunoblot using specific antibodies. Untreated HUVEC contained no COX-2 protein. In HUVEC treated with VEGF (0.01-50 ng/ml), COX-2 protein, but not COX-1, and COX activity were increased in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, the increased COX-2 protein and activity in response to VEGF (10 ng/ml) was inhibited by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein (0.05-5 microg/ml), but not by the protein kinase C inhibitor, staurosporine (0.1-10 ng/ml). Thus, the induction of COX-2 by VEGF in endothelial cells was mediated through protein tyrosine kinase, and the uses of specific COX-2 inhibitors in these conditions, in which VEGF was involved, might have a role