Comparison of Microbial Gene Diversity in Grassland Topsoil Depending on Soil Quality

Soil has multiple functions, including the provision of habitat to organisms, and most biological activities occur in the surface soil. Due to the negative effects of soil erosion, efforts for soil conservation are being made, including the development of a reliable index that can help assess soil quality. In this study, the physical and chemical properties and biological genes from grassland topsoil were analyzed, in order to identify surface soil organism markers that could be used as a soil quality index. Six spots of grassland topsoil were analyzed, one high-quality and five low-quality, based on a web-based soil quality assessment module. Consequently, eukaryotes and prokaryotes with different soil quality ratios were compared and examined. The following bacteria and archaea have the potential to be used in soil quality assessment: circulation of materials including nitrogen, Nitrospira spp., Candidatus Nitrososphaera, and Candidatus Nitrosotalea; biological purification, Geobacter spp.; pathogens, Burkholderia spp., Paraburkholderia spp., Pseudomonas brassicacearum, and Rhizobacter spp.; antibiotic secretion, Candidatus Udaeobacter; and material degradation Steroidobacter spp. and Rhodanobacter spp. This study provides primary data for identifying biological markers for soil quality evaluation. In the future, a wider variety of data need to be accumulated to develop a highly reliable index related to soil quality.

Is heart rate variability actually a reliable index of training? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 crisis also affected elite sport severely, as elite athletes either stopped or drastically reduced their training regimen due to the lack of competitions and the mandatory lockdown. The aim of this study was to test whether heart rate variability was a reliable index of training load, which was dramatically altered due to the mandatory lockdown that occurred as a consequence of the COVID-19. METHODS: Training (volume and intensity) and heart rate variability of sixteen professional male (n = 8; body mass index = 22.2 ± 2.0) and female cyclists (n = 8; body mass index = 20.3 ± 1.1) before (4 weeks), during (7 weeks), and after (4 weeks) the mandatory lockdown were monitored. RESULTS: Individual analyses showed that the mandatory lockdown caused reliable reductions in training volume in 13 subjects (-96 to -7 % reductions in minutes), that were followed by an increase after the lockdown in all subjects (5 to 270%). In contrast, changes in training intensity were not homogenous across individuals. Crucially, changes in heart rate variability neither follow training load nor intensity at the individual level. CONCLUSIONS: Heart rate variability did not seem to be a reliable proxy of training load and/or intensity as many previous reports have suggested, even if training conditions changed dramatically overnight.

Genetic Variation, Heritability and Genetic Advance in Some Promising Rice Hybrids

Eleven rice hybrids including two check varieties were evaluated to approximate their genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for ten quantitative traits. The analysis of variance illustrated that all the quantitative traits differed significantly indicating that enough variation is presenting the studied materials. Among the desirable quantitative traits number of filled spikelet’s per panicle was found to have highest both phenotypic and genotypic variance followed by total number of spikelet’s per panicle. Almost all the characters showed a little variation between PCV and GCV revealing little influence of the environment on the expression of traits. High phenotypic and genotypic variance coupled with high heritability and high genetic advance was observed for number of filled spikelet’s per panicle, total number of spikelet’s per panicle, plant height and number of unfilled spikelet’s per panicle. Such findings stipulated that these traits were governed by additive gene actions which are fixable and these traits may be accounted for reliable index of selection. The genotypes G3 (IR79156A × EL108R) and G6 (IR79156A × EL253R) were selected as high response superior promising rice hybrids for achievable yield advantage 49% and 23%, respectively over best check varieties. Therefore, the G3 and G6 are proposed to be extensively evaluated for further trial of variety release. SAARC J. Agri., 18(2): 39-49 (2020)

Safety and efficacy of a hyperaemic agent, intracoronary nicorandil 4mg, for invasive physiological assessments during fractional flow reserve measurement

Background Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is one of most reliable index for the determining the functional severity coronary artery stenosis. Adenosine is the most commonly used agent for maximal hyperaemia. However, adenosine can cause chest discomfort, bronchial hyper-reactivity, and atrioventricular block. The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intracoronary nicorandil as an alternative hyperaemic agent for FFR. Methods and results We enrolled consecutive 82 patients (87 lesions) who underwent FFR measurement in our center from Nov. 2018. We compared three groups; intravenous infusion of adenosine (150 μg/kg/min); and adenosine added intracoronary nicorandil 2mg; and intracoronary nicorandil 4mg. Mean FFR value was 0.83±0.09, 0.82±0.09, 0.82±0.08, There was a strong correlation among three groups (R2>0.9). Mean cyclic change in FFR was 0.026±0.023, 0.019±0.010, 0.016±0.014, respectively, cyclic change was smallest in intracoronary nicorandil 4mg group (vs ATP; p<0.001, vs ATP + nicorandil 2mg; p<0.001). By Wilcoxon test, mean FFR value of nicorandil 4mg was significant lower than ATP (p=0.0021), and equal to ATP + nicorandil 2mg (p=0.98). Conclusions Intracoronary nicorandil 4mg is a simple, safe, and effective way to induce steady-state hyperaemia for FFR. Figure 1 Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

Prevalence of congenital amusia

Congenital amusia (commonly known as tone deafness) is a lifelong musical disorder that affects 4% of the population according to a single estimate based on a single test from 1980. Here we present the first large-based measure of prevalence with a sample of 20 000 participants, which does not rely on self-referral. On the basis of three objective tests and a questionnaire, we show that (a) the prevalence of congenital amusia is only 1.5%, with slightly more females than males, unlike other developmental disorders where males often predominate; (b) self-disclosure is a reliable index of congenital amusia, which suggests that congenital amusia is hereditary, with 46% first-degree relatives similarly affected; (c) the deficit is not attenuated by musical training and (d) it emerges in relative isolation from other cognitive disorder, except for spatial orientation problems. Hence, we suggest that congenital amusia is likely to result from genetic variations that affect musical abilities specifically.