Role of GmNAC019 transcription factor in salinity and drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Increasingly severe drought and salinity stress due to global climate change have made these stresses bigger threats to ecosystem and agriculture. Previous studies reported that GmNAC019, a soybean NAC transcription factor - encoding gene, displayed induced expression upon drought treatment in wild-type cultivars. In this study, drought and salinity stresses were applied on GmNAC019-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants to verify the contribution of GmNAC019 in regulating plant response to the stress conditions. Results from the water loss rate and survival rate assays revealed that the transgenic line conferred improved tolerance to drought stress as evidenced by lower leaf water loss and significantly higher rate of survival than seen in the wild-type plants. Similarly, the survival rate assay for testing salinity effects on plants by growing the plants on MS medium supplemented with different NaCl concentrations also indicated that the transgenic plants had a better tolerance to salt stress as they displayed lower rate of root growth inhibition and higher survival rate. Taken these results altogether, it is suggested that GmNAC019 might play important role in aiding plant response to drought and salinity stresses. Specific functions of this gene should be elaborated in future studies to evaluate its potential application for crop improvement

Drought stress - related functional characterization of transcription factor GmNAC085 in soybean

Studies on soybean GmNAC085 transcription factor revealed that the gene expression in plants was induced by water shortage treatments and its overexpression in the model plant Arabidopsis displayed improved plant tolerance characteristics towards drought stress. In this study, we continued analyzing the biological functions of GmNAC085 using transgenic soybean system overexpressing GmNAC085 gene, by targeting at a number of plant physiological features and biochemical activities in response to limited water growing condition. Compared to the wild-type, the transgenic line demonstrated that it possessed stress tolerance characters, including enhanced elongation of taproot, minimized reduction of shoot growth, lower intracellular H2O2 content and stronger peroxidase enzyme activity under drought condition. The results of this study therefore suggest the transgenic plants had better drought tolerance and the GmNAC085 plays important role in aiding plants to cope with water deficit condition, probably via regulating the growth of roots and shoots, and activities of reactive-oxygen-species- scavenging enzymes

Growth and development of transgenic peanut (Arachis hypogaea) lines containing chitinase 42 kDa gene from Trichoderma asperellum SH16

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is vulnerable to many diseases. Vietnam and other regions where peanut is widely cultivated have a high threat of fungal and other plant diseases. Various fungicides are available to control the fungal disease but these have various harmful effects on the natural flora, fauna, and environment. Transgenic peanut lines which possess antifungal activity provide a possible solution in managing fungal diseases apart from the traditional resistance and fungicide usage. Therefore, this study evaluated the probable growth and development of chitinase transgenic peanut lines against Sclerotium rolfsii, a pathogen that causes “southern blight” in plants, under greenhouse conditions. This study provided evidence that through Agrobacterium itumefaciens mediated transformation, 42 kDa chitinase genes from Trichoderma asperellum, which is under the regulation of 35S promoter, were successfully incorporated into the peanut’s (A. hypogaea L.) genome and expressed in their plants. This evidence also demonstrated that transgenic peanut lines were suitable for growing and developing in the greenhouse. Further, it was reported that transgenic peanut lines took approximately 133 to 145 days from planting to maturity. These results also revealed that various growth characteristics of transgenic peanut lines having two synthetic genes (syncod Chi42-2 i.e. S2-2, S2-4, S2-6, and syncod Chi42-1 i.e. S1-1, S1-2, S1-3) were greater than that from the wild-type Chi42 (WT-1, WT-2, and WT-3). In addition, yield-related parameters including the number of mature pods, 100 pods weight and 100 seeds weight for all the transgenic peanut lines were higher than that of the non-transformed plant. Among the transgenic lines, line S2-4 exhibited significantly higher growth and yield than the other transgenic lines. These results demonstrated that 42 kDa chitinase genes overexpressing peanut lines could be a candidate for improvement against plants to phytopathogenic fungus S. rolfsii and high yield.

Fuzzy Equivalence on Standard and Rough Neutrosophic Sets and Applications to Clustering Analysis

In this paper, we propose the concept of fuzzy equivalence on standard neutrosophic sets and rough standard neutrosophic sets. We also provide some formulas for fuzzy equivalence on standard neutrosophic sets and rough standard neutrosophic sets. We also apply these formulas for cluster analysis. Numerical examples are illustrated

A modern purification by accelerated solvent extraction and centrifugal partition chromatography and biological evaluation of capsaicin from Capsicum chinense

A special alkaloid compound known as capsaicin, which can only be found in the fruit of the Capsicum plant, was isolated and tested for its anti-inflammatory activity. The purpose of this work is to establish a simple and quick approach for capsaicin purification utilizing centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) as well as an effective method - accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), for extracting capsaicin from Capsicum chinense. After purification, capsaicin was validated by HPLC-DAD at 281 nm to be > 90% purity. The in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of the isolated capsaicin was also investigated, and the IC50 value of the capsaicin was determined to be 57.61 µg/mL. The current work emphasizes how an ASE and CPC system may combine to extract high-purity capsaicin from Capsicum chinense, which have the anti-inflammatory activity, as we evaluated in the experiment

Functional-Antioxidant Food

Nowadays, people face many different dangers, such as stress, unsafety food, and environmental pollution, but not everyone suffers. Meanwhile, free radicals are the biggest threat for humans because they lead to over 80 different diseases composed of aging. Free radicals can only be eliminated or minimized with antioxidant foods or antioxidants. The chapter on the functional-antioxidant food presents the antioxidant functional food concept, the classification, the structure, and the extraction process of antioxidant ingredients. Various antioxidant substances such as protein (collagen), polysaccharides (fucoidans, alginates, glucosamines, inulins, laminarins, ulvans, and pectins), and secondary metabolites (polyphenols (phlorotannins, lignins, polyphenols), alkaloids, and flavonoids) also present. The production technology, the mechanism, the opportunity, and the challenge of antioxidants functional food also present in the current chapter. The current chapter also gives the production process of functional-antioxidant food composed of the capsule, the tablet, tube, the pills, the powder, and the effervescent tablet

Risk factors for cannula-associated arterial thrombosis following extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support: a retrospective study

Background Hemostatic dysfunction during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) due to blood-circuit interaction and the consequences of shear stress imposed by flow rates lead to rapid coagulation cascade and thrombus formation in the ECMO system and blood vessels. We aimed to identify the incidence and risk factors for cannula-associated arterial thrombosis (CaAT) post-decannulation. Methods A retrospective study of patients undergoing arterial cannula removal following ECMO was performed. We evaluated the incidence of CaAT and compared the characteristics, ECMO machine parameters, cannula sizes, number of blood products transfused during ECMO, and daily hemostasis parameters in patients with and without CaAT. Multivariate analysis identified the risk factors for CaAT. Results Forty-seven patients requiring venoarterial ECMO (VA-ECMO) or hybrid methods were recruited for thrombosis screening. The median Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score was 11 (interquartile range, 8–13). CaAT occurred in 29 patients (61.7%), with thrombosis in the superficial femoral artery accounting for 51.7% of cases. The rate of limb ischemia complications in the CaAT group was 17.2%. Multivariate analysis determined that the ECMO flow rate–body surface area (BSA) ratio (100 ml/min/m2) was an independent factor for CaAT, with an odds ratio of 0.79 (95% confidence interval, 0.66–0.95; P=0.014). Conclusions We found that the incidence of CaAT was 61.7% following successful decannulation from VA-ECMO or hybrid modes, and the ECMO flow rate–BSA ratio was an independent risk factor for CaAT. We suggest screening for arterial thrombosis following VA-ECMO, and further research is needed to determine the risks and benefits of such screening

Medication Adherence in Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular disease is a significant cause of death globally. While effective long-term medications that reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality related to cardiovascular disease are readily available, nonadherence to prescribed medications remains a significant reason for suboptimal management. Consequently, this might lead to increased morbidity and mortality and healthcare costs. Medication nonadherence causes are myriad and complicated, with factors at the patient, healthcare provider, and health system levels. Many clinical trials have investigated interventions to target these factors for improving medication adherence, including improving patient education, testing behavioral interventions, implementing medication reminder tools, reducing medication costs, utilizing social support, utilizing healthcare team members, and simplifying medication dosing regimens. This book chapter describes factors influencing medication adherence and highlights the impact of varying levels of adherence on patients’ clinical and economic outcomes. We also summarize interventions for improving medication adherence in cardiovascular disease

Assessment of feed resources availability and use for cattle and pigs in Mai Son District, Son La Province, Vietnam

Son La province has recently put in place policies and programs to support expansion of livestock production, however the province still faces low livestock productivity due to low quality and availability of forages and feedstuff. One of the provincial government’s priorities is to increase productivity of cattle and pigs through improved animal nutrition practices such as increased cultivation of improved forages and better feed management and utilization. Using the Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (G-FEAST), this study assessed the availability and use of local feed resources, and identified feed gaps, challenges and constraints affecting livestock production to inform the design of context-specific and inclusive feed intervention strategies. The study was carried out in four villages in Hat Lot and Co Noi communes, Mai Son district, Son La province, Vietnam. Gender-disaggregated data was collected from 16 focus group discussions (FGDs) (eight FGDs with women and eight FGDs with men) and 49 individual interviews (23 women and 26 men). Winter feed shortage was reported as the most pressing challenge. Further constraints included low yield and/or nutritive value of local forages varieties (mainly Napier). The poor quality of diets arising from use of high proportion of crop residues such as rice bran, banana trunk and sugarcane tops was also flagged as a challenge. Men tend to be engaged in activities such as preparing land, planting forage, harvesting, and purchasing, while women are more engaged in cleaning of feeding points, watering, and weeding. The results present key opportunities and entry points for gender-responsive locally suited feed intervention strategies that can address these context-specific challenges, mainly winter feed shortage, can greatly improve livestock productivity and efficiency. Such interventions include capacity building of women and men farmers, extension & vet staff on utilization of locally available feed resources and purchased feeds, feed conservation, diet formulation, and feeding regimes, and promoting improved forage varieties (establishment, management, and utilization), for cattle and pigs