Investigations into a putative role for the novel BRASSIKIN pseudokinases in compatible pollen-stigma interactions in Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND: In the Brassicaceae, the early stages of compatible pollen-stigma interactions are tightly controlled with early checkpoints regulating pollen adhesion, hydration and germination, and pollen tube entry into the stigmatic surface. However, the early signalling events in the stigma which trigger these compatible interactions remain unknown. RESULTS: A set of stigma-expressed pseudokinase genes, termed BRASSIKINs (BKNs), were identified and found to be present in only core Brassicaceae genomes. In Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0, BKN1 displayed stigma-specific expression while the BKN2 gene was expressed in other tissues as well. CRISPR deletion mutations were generated for the two tandemly linked BKNs, and very mild hydration defects were observed for wild-type Col-0 pollen when placed on the bkn1/2 mutant stigmas. In further analyses, the predominant transcript for the stigma-specific BKN1 was found to have a premature stop codon in the Col-0 ecotype, but a survey of the 1001 Arabidopsis genomes uncovered three ecotypes that encoded a full-length BKN1 protein. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyses identified intact BKN1 orthologues in the closely related outcrossing Arabidopsis species, A. lyrata and A. halleri. Finally, the BKN pseudokinases were found to be plasma-membrane localized through the dual lipid modification of myristoylation and palmitoylation, and this localization would be consistent with a role in signaling complexes. CONCLUSION: In this study, we have characterized the novel Brassicaceae-specific family of BKN pseudokinase genes, and examined the function of BKN1 and BKN2 in the context of pollen-stigma interactions in A. thaliana Col-0. Additionally, premature stop codons were identified in the predicted stigma specific BKN1 gene in a number of the 1001 A. thaliana ecotype genomes, and this was in contrast to the out-crossing Arabidopsis species which carried intact copies of BKN1. Thus, understanding the function of BKN1 in other Brassicaceae species will be a key direction for future studies

Diverse Applications of Nanomedicine

The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic. \ua9 2017 American Chemical Society

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Diverse Applications of Nanomedicine

© 2017 American Chemical Society.The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic

ntegration of forestry sector contribution to the system of national accounts in Sri Lanka: Evidence from household utilization of non-timber forest products in the dry zone

Natural forests provide a sizeable amount of benefits, both tangible and intangible, becoming a prime source of livelihood to the forest-dwelling communities in Sri Lanka. The recorded contributions of many such benefits, particularly those intangible, are, however, largely overlooked. Thus, the real contributions of forests are concealed resulting in under-valuation due to imperfections in estimating such benefits through the conventional system of Forest Accounting. However, the global trend in this respect has been changed towards employing a more comprehensive framework  –  the Environmental Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) System, which accounts for the total economic value of natural resources. This paper focuses on the use of UN-SEEA to adequately value the contribution of Sri Lankan forestry sector, which is a main assessment carried out under a multidisciplinary research study to incorporate this approach to the process of National Income Account calculation. The information pertaining to household collection, subsistence use, and transaction of non -timber forest products (NTFPs) were retrieved by means of a structured questionnaire-based survey through Rapid Rural Appraisal. Two different sets of households: (1) those adjacent  to a Dry Zone forest type (&lt;0.5km) [n=250], and (2) away from a forest, but possess a home garden (&gt;2 km) [n=250]) were selected from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee districts. The outcome of analysis revealed that in spite of the location, almost all are dependent on NTFP for subsistence use and nearly 10% of households generate income through transaction. About 43% of NTFP were collected as “food” followed by “wood” (25%) for subsistence use. Further, fuel wood was responsible for generating the  highest income through transaction. It was evident that, on an average, 55% of household food and energy expenditure was saved due to subsistence use of NTFP. The study justifies the use of this accounting approach suggesting strong policy recommendations for budgetary allocations and conservation of the forestry sector.Keywords: Economic valuation, forest sector, national accounting, non-timber forest products (NTFPs

LEADERSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF PLANTATION SECTOR OF SRI LANKA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE STYLE, BEHAVIOR AND PERSPECTIVES OF ESTATE MANAGERS

The style, behavior, perspectives of management practices and the types of management in practice in the plantation sector of Sri Lanka are considered unique from other businesses, in general, and agribusinesses, in particular. The reasons include, amongst the others, its years of exposure to various historical, geographical and cultural influences as well as the socio-economic and political dimensions to which this particular sector is linked with, but there is a paucity of literature that provides evidence to prove this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to fill that gap in the management literature to be certain extent. The entire study was designed to complete in two phases running over eight months (April to October 2010). A qualitative review involving Focus Group Discussions and In-depth Interviews was carried out in Phase I with the senior administrators and expert stakeholders attached to the plantation sector, which led to the development of a validated structured questionnaire. This was used to gather data from the Senior Estate Managers (n = 65) with more than 10 years of experience and are attached to 8 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) by means of a personal interview.The outcome of analysis substantiates that most managers believed the leadership style that prevails in their organizations showing “empowering” characteristics. The results further explored that these managers, yet,preferred a more “consensual” nature of leadership and a “proactive” organizational climate, as opposed to a “reactive” leadership style. These findings raise important managerial implications for the present success and future survival of the plantation industry. The primary elucidation is that the nature of leadership is beyond those firms within the “Colombo business circles” and secondly whether the style of management/leadership will need to change in line with changes within the organizational environment so as to create and sustain a competitive advantage.Key Words: Leadership Style, Managerial Perceptions, Organizational Behavior, Plantation Sector For full paper: [email protected]

Assessing the preferences of plant breeders for utilization, benefit sharing and priorization of conservation of wild rice relatives in Sri Lanka

The purpose of this study was to assess empirically the preferences of plant breeders for utilization, benefit sharing and conservation of the genetic resources of Wild Rice Relatives (WRR) in Sri Lanka. The “Choice Experiment Models” (CEM), i.e. stated preference method uses to obtain Option Values for non-market goods by exploring the individuals’ stated behavior in a hypothetical setting, were employed with the primary data collected from a panel of reputed plant breeders (n = 30) work at the administrative capacity in various reputed academic and research institutions in Sri Lanka. The data collection process was characterized by a face-to-face interview with each breeder during March to May 2009, which was supported by a structured questionnaire designed specifically for the CEM. The outcome of analysis shows that, from the breeders’ point of view, the benefit for an individual, in general, for conserving WRR for the future is nearly Rs. 10. Given the facts that there are not much significant direct uses of WRR revealed to date; there exists yet unrevealed benefits to the society (e.g. use of favorable genes in WRR to improve the quality of cultivated rice varieties), and the outcome of previous studies divulge that the gene sequence of different WRR populations belong to different geographical area varies significantly, the option value derived through this analysis implies that conservation of WRR can be done in-situ effectively, if people reside close to the areas where they are growing predominately would like to contribute more than the value that the scientists expected. The results highlight the importance of carrying out extensive economic research program focusing of the people adjacent to the areas where WRR growing to estimate such values as so would facilitate setting up alternative institutional arrangements (i.e. public / private) work for effective conservation of CWR, in general, and WRR, in particular

Economic valuation of conservation of genetic resources of wild rice relatives : Assessing the preferences of adjacent community for conserving Oryza granulata in the Wavulpane area

This study was aimed to achieve the specific objective of assessing the preferences of adjacent communities for utilization, benefit sharing and conservation of the genetic resources of Wild Rice Relatives (WRR) in Sri Lanka and to explore the capability of setting the priorities for conservation and management of WRR based on these preferences. The “Wavulpane” village located in the Rathnapura district was selected as the case as: (a) it was reported to be one of the growing areas for the WRR of Oriza granulata, and (b) there were no weedy rice problems prevailing in this village. The “Choice Experiment Models” (CEM) [i.e. stated preference method used to obtain Option Values for non-market goods by exploring the individuals’ stated behavior in a hypothetical setting] were applied. The data were collected from 50 individuals who were well aware of the presence and potential importance of this particular WRR through a Participatory Community Appraisal (PCA) carried out with the support of a structured questionnaire designed specifically for the CEM. Outcome of the Choice Experiment, which used a Fractional Factorial Design to array four attributes and three levels in the choice sets orthogonally, shows that an individual in an adjacent community was Willing-To-Pay nearly Rs. 82 per year for in-situ conservation of WRR. The need of the hour is, therefore, to develop appropriate policy and institutional framework that works for this task to which both short and long term policies as well as stakeholder participation should be guaranteed (i.e. research stations, universities, NGOs

Economic valuation of conservation of genetic resources of wild rice relatives : Assessing the preferences of adjacent community for conserving Oryza granulata in the Wavulpane area

This study was aimed to achieve the specific objective of assessing the preferences of adjacent communities for utilization, benefit sharing and conservation of the genetic resources of Wild Rice Relatives (WRR) in Sri Lanka and to explore the capability of setting the priorities for conservation and management of WRR based on these preferences. The “Wavulpane” village located in the Rathnapura district was selected as the case as: (a) it was reported to be one of the growing areas for the WRR of Oriza granulata, and (b) there were no weedy rice problems prevailing in this village. The “Choice Experiment Models” (CEM) [i.e. stated preference method used to obtain Option Values for non-market goods by exploring the individuals’ stated behavior in a hypothetical setting] were applied. The data were collected from 50 individuals who were well aware of the presence and potential importance of this particular WRR through a Participatory Community Appraisal (PCA) carried out with the support of a structured questionnaire designed specifically for the CEM. Outcome of the Choice Experiment, which used a Fractional Factorial Design to array four attributes and three levels in the choice sets orthogonally, shows that an individual in an adjacent community was Willing-To-Pay nearly Rs. 82 per year for in-situ conservation of WRR. The need of the hour is, therefore, to develop appropriate policy and institutional framework that works for this task to which both short and long term policies as well as stakeholder participation should be guaranteed (i.e. research stations, universities, NGOs