Gene action studies in early maturing maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines

The present investigation was aimed to investigate the gene action in early maturing maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines. The experimental material comprised of 30 crosses generated by crossing six maize inbred lines in a diallel mating design during Kharif 2013. These 30 crosses along with standard checks viz., SMH-2 and VMH-45 were evaluated in randomized block design in three replications during Kharif 2014 and Kharif 2015. Significant variation was observed for all studied traits during both the seasons. Both additive (D) and dominance (H1 and H2) components of genetic variance were found significant under the study. Preponderance of non-additive gene action was observed for all traits under study. Average degree of dominance was in over dominance range for all characters. The gene distribution was asymmetrical for all traits. The value of KD / KR indicated presence of excess of dominant genes for all traits except 100-grain weight and ear girth. Heritability of most of the traits was low to medium

Biological Control of Potato Bacterial Wilt Diseases

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is considered one of the four major and important food crops around the world. This study planned to control bacterial wilt disease of potato using some bio-agents which isolated and identified from potato plant soil. Twenty isolates were selected and identified as the following three isolates belonging to Streptomyces spp. (Streptomyces antibioticus (SA1), S. albus (SA2), and S. mutabilis (SM1); five isolates belong to pseudomonas species (Pseudomonas fluoresces (PsF1), P. aeruginosa (PsA1), P. putida (PsP1), P. alecaligones (PsA2) and P. pseudoalcaligones (PsP2)) and twelve isolates were belonging to Bacillus spp. (Bacillus subtilis (BS1-8), B. cereus(BC1), B. badius (BB1-2), B. pumilus (BP1). In vitro, these isolates were examined against the growth R. solanacearum bacterium, where some isolates (BS3, PsF1, BS8, BS6, SM1, BS5, and BS4) were the most effective compared with other isolates. Bacillus subtilis (BS8); Pseudomonas fluorescence (PsF1) and Streptomyces mutabilis (SM1) isolates were selected as bio-agents to control potato bacterial wilt disease under in vivo condition, where these isolates led to reduced disease severity and to increase potato yield compared with the control. The application of bio-agents as drench treatment was more effective than tuber treatment, and isolates of S. mutabilis (SM1) and B. subtilis (BS8) were more effective than Pseudomonas fluorescence (PsF1) isolate

Effectiveness of pre-procedural rinsing with essential oils-based mouthrinse to reduce aerosol contamination of periodontitis patients

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-procedural rinsing using essential oils-mouthwash (Listerine®) in reducing bioaerosol contamination in a dental clinic. Thirty (30) subjects who consisted of those receiving treatment for periodontitis problems were randomly assigned to rinse with either 20 mL of Listerine® or 20 mL of placebo as control rinse. Every subject was instructed to gargle using the rinse for 1 min. Microbial samples of environmental air and saliva were collected before and after the rinse. All samples were further analyzed for total plate counts to measure the microbial level. Rinsing using Listerine® showed significant reduction in the level of microbial load in saliva compared to the control mouthrinses. Analysis done at three defined distance intervals from the operating site showed the level of bioaerosol contamination was highest at distance nearest to the treatment point of 1 ft. Based on counts of cfu, there was higher presence of microbial contaminant in bioaerosols of the control-rinsed group compared to the test-rinsed group using Listerine®. Therefore, it can be concluded that rinsing using Listerine® was effective towards reducing the microorganisms in saliva and oral cavity in general

Fabrication of low emissivity paint for thermal/NIR radiation insulation for domestic applications

Recently, low-emissivity paint has gained more importance than commercial paints. Low emissivity (Low-E) Paint also termed as a coating for radiation control, in which the emissivity of radiations of longer waves are reduced dramatically (i.e., the emissivity of commercially available paint is 0.9) by imparting low emissivity particles in the base paint but not suitable to reduce near-infrared radiation. Commercially available paints as of today have minimum of 0.7 emissivity and it does not give any significant energy saving. The low emissivity property of paint makes it particularly suitable for reducing the radiative heat exchange in many domestic applications i.e., home electronics, building construction components, roof surfaces, heat storage tanks, and pipes, etc in result, low power required to heat or cool the building in respective whether conditions. In this work, different samples of white paint were prepared in the lab by using a low shear mixer (mechanical stirrer) under very controlled conditions and studied the results of dry paint films to reduce the thermal emissivity then commercially available paint. Then we investigate the drying time of the wet paint films and analyze thermal heat into visible light through thermal imaging camera, Crosshatch, and IR transmission. We also studied the emissivity through ET-100 and aging stability through a weather-o-meter instrument, which investigated that emissivity value achieved in the range of 0.4–0.6 than commercial paints. The results showed that paint exhibits an acceptable aesthetic emissivity value of ∼0.60. It was calculated theoretically that by the use of this novel Low-E paint, annually about 20%–25% less energy will be consumed in building for cooling or heating.The Open Access funding is provided by the Qatar National Library, Al Rayyan Doha Qatar . We are also thankful to everyone who supported and assisted us in completing this work. Our appreciations and thanks also go to our colleagues and laboratory engineers at National Textile University, Faisalabad, Pakistan and also Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

Electrochemical properties of single-crystalline Mn3O4 nanostructures and their capacitive performance in basic electrolyte

Single-crystalline Mn3O4 square-shaped nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method without using any surfactant. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and High Resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). To assess the potential properties of nanostructures, galvanostatic charging-discharging and cyclic voltammetry measurements were performed for their use in supercapacitors. The Mn3O4 nanoarchitectures used as supercapacitor electrode in 1mol L-1 KOH electrolyte have a specific capacitance value of 355.5 F g-1 at a low current density of 0.35 A.g-1. The device still retain 85.08% of its initial capacitance afterwards 2000 cycles at a current density of 5 A.g-1. The as-synthesized Mn3O4 nanostructures exhibited a good rate capability and stability for electrochemical properties. These results indicate their potential application as electrode material for high performance supercapacitor in basic medium. � 2016 The Authors

Birthing practices of traditional birth attendants in South Asia in the context of training programmes

Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) training has been an important component of public health policy interventions to improve maternal and child health in developing countries since the 1970s. More recently, since the 1990s, the TBA training strategy has been increasingly seen as irrelevant, ineffective or, on the whole, a failure due to evidence that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in developing countries had not reduced. Although, worldwide data show that, by choice or out of necessity, 47 percent of births in the developing world are assisted by TBAs and/or family members, funding for TBA training has been reduced and moved to providing skilled birth attendants for all births. Any shift in policy needs to be supported by appropriate evidence on TBA roles in providing maternal and infant health care service and effectiveness of the training programmes. This article reviews literature on the characteristics and role of TBAs in South Asia with an emphasis on India. The aim was to assess the contribution of TBAs in providing maternal and infant health care service at different stages of pregnancy and after-delivery and birthing practices adopted in home births. The review of role revealed that apart from TBAs, there are various other people in the community also involved in making decisions about the welfare and health of the birthing mother and new born baby. However, TBAs have changing, localised but nonetheless significant roles in delivery, postnatal and infant care in India. Certain traditional birthing practices such as bathing babies immediately after birth, not weighing babies after birth and not feeding with colostrum are adopted in home births as well as health institutions in India. There is therefore a thin precarious balance between the application of biomedical and traditional knowledge. Customary rituals and perceptions essentially affect practices in home and institutional births and hence training of TBAs need to be implemented in conjunction with community awareness programmes

Direct Measurements of Absolute Branching Fractions for D0 and D+ Inclusive Semimuonic Decays

By analyzing about 33 $\rm pb^{-1}$ data sample collected at and around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we directly measure the branching fractions for the neutral and charged $D$ inclusive semimuonic decays to be $BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X) =(6.8\pm 1.5\pm 0.7)$ and $BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X) =(17.6 \pm 2.7 \pm 1.8)$, and determine the ratio of the two branching fractions to be $\frac{BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X)}{BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X)}=2.59\pm 0.70 \pm 0.25$

The burden of unintentional drowning: Global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

__Background:__ Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study's objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017. __Methods:__ Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning. __Results:__ Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes. __Conclusions:__ There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low-and middle-income countries

Burden and risk factors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa community-acquired pneumonia:a Multinational Point Prevalence Study of Hospitalised Patients

Pseudornonas aeruginosa is a challenging bacterium to treat due to its intrinsic resistance to the antibiotics used most frequently in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Data about the global burden and risk factors associated with P. aeruginosa-CAP are limited. We assessed the multinational burden and specific risk factors associated with P. aeruginosa-CAP. We enrolled 3193 patients in 54 countries with confirmed diagnosis of CAP who underwent microbiological testing at admission. Prevalence was calculated according to the identification of P. aeruginosa. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa-CAP. The prevalence of P. aeruginosa and antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa-CAP was 4.2% and 2.0%, respectively. The rate of P. aeruginosa CAP in patients with prior infection/colonisation due to P. aeruginosa and at least one of the three independently associated chronic lung diseases (i.e. tracheostomy, bronchiectasis and/or very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) was 67%. In contrast, the rate of P. aeruginosa-CAP was 2% in patients without prior P. aeruginosa infection/colonisation and none of the selected chronic lung diseases. The multinational prevalence of P. aeruginosa-CAP is low. The risk factors identified in this study may guide healthcare professionals in deciding empirical antibiotic coverage for CAP patients