The autofluorescence-spectral imaging (ASI) technique is based on the light-emitting ability of natural fluorophores. Soybean genotypes showing contrasting tolerance to pre-germination anaerobic stress can be characterized using the photon absorption and fluorescence emission of natural fluorophores occurring in seed coats. In this study, tolerant seeds were efficiently distinguished from susceptible genotypes at 405 nm and 638 nm excitation wavelengths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAscariasis and intestinal parasitic nematodes are the leading cause of mass mortality infecting many people across the globe. In light of the various deleterious side effects of modern chemical-based allopathic drugs, our preferences have currently shifted towards the use of traditional plant-based drugs or botanicals for treating diseases. The defensive propensities in the botanicals against parasites have probably evolved during their co-habitation with parasites, humans and plants in nature and hence their combative interference in one another's defensive mechanisms has occurred naturally ultimately being very effective in treating diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong seed attributes, weight is one of the main factors determining the soybean harvest index. Recently, the focus of soybean breeding has shifted to improving seed size and weight for crop optimization in terms of seed and oil yield. With recent technological advancements, there is an increasing application of imaging sensors that provide simple, real-time, non-destructive, and inexpensive image data for rapid image-based prediction of seed traits in plant breeding programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the major reasons for deaths globally. The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) regulates body hypertension and fluid balance which causes CVD. Angiotensin-converting enzyme I (ACE I) is the central Zn-metallopeptidase component of the RAAS playing a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis of the cardiovascular system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMosquitoes are infectious vectors for a wide range of pathogens and parasites thereby transmitting several diseases including malaria, dengue, Zika, Japanese encephalitis and chikungunya which pose a major public health concern. Mostly synthetic insecticides are usually applied as a primary control strategy to manage vector-borne diseases. However excessive and non-judicious usage of such chemically derived insecticides has led to serious environmental and health issues owing to their biomagnification ability and increased toxicity towards non-target organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMushrooms are a well known source of many bioactive and nutritional compounds with immense applicability in both the pharmaceutical and food industries. They are widely used to cure various kinds of ailments in traditional medicines. They have a low amount of fats and cholesterol and possess a high number of proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngiotensin-converting enzyme I (ACE I) is a zinc-containing metallopeptidase involved in the renin-angiotensin system (RAAS) that helps in the regulation of hypertension and maintains fluid balance otherwise, which results in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). One of the leading reasons of global deaths is due to CVDs. RAAS also plays a central role in maintaining homeostasis of the CV system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoybean is a predominantly self-pollinated crop. It is also one of the important oilseed legumes. Soybean is an excellent crop having industrial, traditional, culinary, feeding, and cultural roles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) have the potential to stimulate actual use of eHealth apps. An ECA's design influences the user's perception during short interactions, but daily life evaluations of ECAs in health care are scarce.
Objective: This is an exploratory, long-term study on the design of ECAs for eHealth.
Biopesticides are natural, biologically occurring compounds that are used to control various agricultural pests infesting plants in forests, gardens, farmlands, etc. There are different types of biopesticides that have been developed from various sources. This paper underscores the utility of biocontrol agents composed of microorganisms including bacteria, cyanobacteria, and microalgae, plant-based compounds, and recently applied RNAi-based technology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are induced by SPO11 during meiosis to initiate recombination-mediated pairing and synapsis of homologous chromosomes. Germline genome integrity requires spatiotemporal control of DSB formation, which involves the proteinaceous chromosome axis along the core of each meiotic chromosome. In particular, a component of unsynapsed axes, HORMAD1, promotes DSB formation in unsynapsed regions where DSB formation must occur to ensure completion of synapsis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn clinical practice it can be difficult to distinguish between catatonia and the neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS). A female patient with an intellectual disability was treated in hospital with the help of risperidon because of conduct disorders. A few months later readmission followed with an NMS, which was initially interpreted as catatonia because of its mitigated nature, and its appearance several days after the cessation of the antipsychotic medication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn investigation of the seeds of Swietenia macrophylla and S. aubrevilleana (Meliaceae) is reported. Three new compounds, augustineolide (1) and 3beta,6-dihydroxydihydrocarapin (2) from S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo study mother-to-child transmission of HTLV-I in Jamaica, we screened antenatal patients in Kingston, Jamaica, from 1983 to 1985. Of 2,329 women, 81 (3.5%) were HTLV-I seropositive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeasles antibody titres were determined by haemagglutination inhibition and by neutralization in 221 sets of serum collected from delivering mothers, umbilical cords, and infants when about six months of age. Radio-immunoassay was also used to measure antibody in 120 sera. Total IgG concentration was determined in the infant sera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAggregation of blood pressure among sibling pairs of the same age and sex was studied. The children were of a restricted age group, 6-7 year olds, who entered school between 1976 and 1980 in a Western Neighborhood of Jerusalem. The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 98.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr Med J (Clin Res Ed)
May 1984
The efficacy of prophylactic penicillin and of 14 valent pneumococcal vaccine in preventing pneumococcal infection in homozygous sickle cell (SS) disease was investigated in 242 children aged 6 months to 3 years at entry. In the first five years of the trial there were 11 pneumococcal infections in the pneumococcal vaccine treated group, 10 by serotypes present in the vaccine. Type 23 accounted for five of these, and there was evidence of higher infection rates in those given the vaccine before age 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF64 healthy infants 2-3 months old, were randomly assigned to one of three vaccination groups which received either diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular polysaccharide polyribosyl-ribitol phosphate (PRP) vaccine, or PRP + P (with pertussis adjuvant) vaccine in three doses at intervals of 2 months. Local and systemic reactions occurred most frequently after DPT vaccination and least frequently for PRP alone. Data for 60 infants from whom complete sera sets were available indicated that 70% of the infants who received three doses of PRP + P showed 2-fold or greater increases in titres of antibody to PRP with final values above the level assumed to give protection against invasive H.
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