Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum bacterial infection induces organ-specific callose and hydrogen peroxide production in banana

Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm) bacteria cause banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), the most destructive disease of bananas in East and Central Africa. During early stages of infection in susceptible banana cultivars, incomplete systemic movement of Xcm limits bacterial colonization in the upper organs. Mechanistic basis of this delayed movement is unknown. We hypothesized that Xcm infection triggers basal pattern triggered immune (PTI) responses whose spatial and temporal variability along banana’s anatomical structure accounts for initially limiting Xcm in upper organs. Hence, we examined PTI responses such as callose deposition and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production in different organs in response to Xcm infection in BXW susceptible Kayinja and Mbwazirume banana cultivars and wild resistant progenitor Musa balbisiana. Xcm-induced callose increased and peaked at 14 days post inoculation (dpi) and 28dpi as assessed by fluorescence microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, respectively. The levels of Xcm-induced H2O2 and callose were highest in the pseudostems and corms, respectively, and were independent of host susceptibility or resistance to BXW. H2O2 production showed a biphasic transient pattern with an initial increase at 1-hour post Xcm-inoculation (hpi), followed by a decline 3-6hpi and then a second increase by 12hpi. Our findings point to organ-specific responses to Xcm infection in bananas. The corm which doubles as a subterranean parenating organ and interface between mother plants and lateral shoots, was the most responsive organ in callose production while the pseudostem was the most responsive organ in H2O2 production, suggesting the significance of these organs in banana response to BXW.

A Sensitive Capacitive Biosensor for Protein a Detection Using Human IgG Immobilized on an Electrode Using Layer-by-Layer Applied Gold Nanoparticles

A capacitive biosensor for the detection of protein A was developed. Gold electrodes were fabricated by thermal evaporation and patterned by photoresist photolithography. A layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of thiourea (TU) and HAuCl4 and chemical reduction was utilized to prepare a probe with a different number of layers of TU and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The LbL-modified electrodes were used for the immobilization of human IgG. The binding interaction between human IgG and protein A was detected as a decrease in capacitance signal, and that change was used to investigate the correlation between the height of the LbL probe and the sensitivity of the capacitive measurement. The results showed that the initial increase in length of the LbL probe can enhance the amount of immobilized human IgG, leading to a more sensitive assay. However, with thicker LbL layers, a reduction of the sensitivity of the measurement was registered. The performance of the developed system under optimum set-up showed a linearity in response from 1 × 10−16 to 1 × 10−13 M, with the limit detection of 9.1 × 10−17 M, which could be interesting for the detection of trace amounts of protein A from affinity isolation of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Family Planning Practices in Kerala: A Critical Appraisal Using National Family Health Survey Data

Background Adequate attention to family planning can not only reduce poverty and hunger in countries with high birth rates but also avert maternal and childhood deaths. Kerala, the southernmost state of India, has achieved its replacement level fertility rate far ahead of India. The study aims to analyze the contraceptive prevalence of the state over the years and also at the district level and the choices of different family planning methods in the state. Methodology This study is a secondary data analysis using the available information from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) available from “The demographic health survey program’s data distribution system.” Results The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of Kerala showed an initial increase followed by a sudden fall by more than 10% in 10 years period during the 2015 survey, thereafter stabilized in 2019. Among the modern contraceptive methods, the most commonly used method consistently over the years was female sterilization (46.6%) and the least common method was male sterilization (0.1%). The unmet needs in family planning in the state varied across the districts from as high as 19.3% to 5.6% though it was reduced by 1.2 percentage units as compared to NFHS-4 data. Conclusion The findings contradict the assumption that the use of modern spacing techniques will increase with female literacy and a higher standard of living. Female-oriented nature of family planning practices in the state should be revisited and strategies should be brought to bring equal participation of males and females. Districts with reduced CPR should be prioritized and region-specific policy recommendations are necessary to address specific needs.

Career Complexity No Longer on the Rise: Comparing Early- and Mid-Career Complexity Across the 1930s thru 1980s Birth Cohorts in Sweden

There is a wide-spread idea that contemporary careers continue to become ever more complex. Pioneering research of full-career complexity has shown that work lives have indeed become more complex, yet at modest increasing pace. This paper examines whether career complexity continues to increase using Swedish registry data across an exceptionally long time period, including younger cohorts than in previous research: up to those born in 1983. The full early- and midcareers of selected birth cohorts cover several macroeconomic booms and downturns, a long period of upskilling of the Swedish labor force, as well as the convergence of working hours of women and men. The following conclusions are drawn using state-of-the-art methods of measuring career complexity. For early-careers, an increasing complexity trend is evident between the 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts, yet complexity fluctuates around a stable trend for the 1970s birth cohorts and onward. For mid-careers, which are considerably more stable on average, complexity has decreased among women born between the 1930s and the early-1950s. However, the opposite trend holds true for men, resulting in gender convergence of complexity. We observe a standstill of the mid-career complexity trend across both genders, followed by a modest decline for the last observed cohorts. Subsequent analyses point to educational expansion as an important driver of the initial increase of early-career complexity. Taken together, our analysis affirms an initial shift to more career complexity in the 20th century, yet we find no unidirectional trend toward more career complexity over the last decades.

Explant Analysis of Utah Electrode Arrays Implanted in Human Cortex for Brain-Computer-Interfaces

Brain-computer interfaces are being developed to restore movement for people living with paralysis due to injury or disease. Although the therapeutic potential is great, long-term stability of the interface is critical for widespread clinical implementation. While many factors can affect recording and stimulation performance including electrode material stability and host tissue reaction, these factors have not been investigated in human implants. In this clinical study, we sought to characterize the material integrity and biological tissue encapsulation via explant analysis in an effort to identify factors that influence electrophysiological performance. We examined a total of six Utah arrays explanted from two human participants involved in intracortical BCI studies. Two platinum (Pt) arrays were implanted for 980 days in one participant (P1) and two Pt and two iridium oxide (IrOx) arrays were implanted for 182 days in the second participant (P2). We observed that the recording quality followed a similar trend in all six arrays with an initial increase in peak-to-peak voltage during the first 30–40 days and gradual decline thereafter in P1. Using optical and two-photon microscopy we observed a higher degree of tissue encapsulation on both arrays implanted for longer durations in participant P1. We then used scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to assess material degradation. All measures of material degradation for the Pt arrays were found to be more prominent in the participant with a longer implantation time. Two IrOx arrays were subjected to brief survey stimulations, and one of these arrays showed loss of iridium from most of the stimulated sites. Recording performance appeared to be unaffected by this loss of iridium, suggesting that the adhesion of IrOx coating may have been compromised by the stimulation, but the metal layer did not detach until or after array removal. In summary, both tissue encapsulation and material degradation were more pronounced in the arrays that were implanted for a longer duration. Additionally, these arrays also had lower signal amplitude and impedance. New biomaterial strategies that minimize fibrotic encapsulation and enhance material stability should be developed to achieve high quality recording and stimulation for longer implantation periods.

Palmarosa essential oil encapsulated in chitosan nanoparticles by ionotropic gelation: formulation and characterization

In this study, chitosan nanoparticles containing palmarosa essential oil (PEO-CNPs) were formed by ionotropic gelation, consisting of two parts: emulsion preparation followed by ionotropic gelation encapsulation with tripolyphosphate ions (TPP) as a crosslinker. The encapsulation method was optimized by varying three parameters, including chitosan concentration, initial oil loading in the emulsion and TPP concentration. The effects of these parameters on the encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC) were analyzed. EE had an initial increase followed by a decrease in the range of three parameters. However, LC rose with varying initial oil content while it reduced with changing polymer and TPP concentration. The optimum experiment with the highest EE (10.0 g/L of chitosan, 5.0 g/L of TPP and 30.0 g/L PEO) was chosen to analyze the particle size using Dynamic Light Scanning method (DLS). With DLS measurement, the z-average diameter was 235.3 nm, and the particle size distribution was in the range of 100 – 500 nm.

Habitat Assessment and Regeneration Pattern of Himalayan Birch (Betula utilis) in Royal Botanical Park, Lampelri

The Himalayan Birch (Betula utilis D. Don) an essential tree species due to its ecological and social importance in the himalayan region. The study assessed the effect of environmental factors on habitat, growth, and regeneration patterns of the Himalayan Birch at the Royal Botanical Park, Lampelri, Bhutan . Two vertical transects with a spacing of 75 m were laid across the altitudinal gradient. A total of 10 circular sample plots were laid on each transect with a plot size of 12.62 m for trees, 3.57 m for regeneration, and 0.57 m for ground cover vegetation. A total of 119 vascular plant species under 45 families were recorded in 20 survey plots. The Spearman rho’s correlation showed strong negative correlation between the species abundance and temperature (rs=- .83) and positive correlation with the species count and altitude (rs = .83). The species richness in the study area showed an initial increase up to certain with elevation and then decreased with further increase in elevation. The importance value index (IVI) of tree species showed Tsuga dumosa as the most dominant species. Betula utilis indicated an increasing density with an increase in elevation. The regeneration of Betula utilis was poor as it was mostly found in a sapling stage. From a total of 43 tree species regenerating, 13.95% showed good regeneration, 34.88% fair, 23.25% poor, and 4.65% without regeneration. The remaining 23.25% seems to be either reappearing or immigrating.

A case report describing the immune response of an infant with congenital heart disease and severe COVID-19

Background Children with SARS-CoV-2 infection generally present with milder symptoms or are asymptomatic in comparison with adults, however severe disease occurs in a subset of children. To date, the immune correlates of severe COVID-19 in young children have been poorly characterised. Methods We report the kinetics of immune responses in relation to clinical and virological features in an infant with acute severe COVID-19 using high-dimensional flow cytometry and multiplex cytokine analysis. Results Systemic cellular and cytokine profiling show an initial increase in neutrophils and monocytes with depletion of lymphoid cell populations (particularly CD8 + T and NK cells) and elevated inflammatory cytokines. Expansion of memory CD4 + T (but not CD8 + T) cells occurred over time, with a predominant Th2 bias. Marked activation of T cell populations observed during the acute infection gradually resolved as the child recovered. Substantial in vitro activation of T-cell populations and robust cytokine production, in response to inactivated SARS-CoV-2 stimulation, was observed 3 months after infection indicating durable, long-lived cellular immune memory. Conclusions These findings provide important insights into the immune response of a young infant with severe COVID-19 and will help to inform future research into therapeutic targets for high-risk groups.

Deciphering the molecular mechanism of the cancer formation by chromosome structural dynamics

Cancer reflects the dysregulation of the underlying gene network, which is strongly related to the 3D genome organization. Numerous efforts have been spent on experimental characterizations of the structural alterations in cancer genomes. However, there is still a lack of genomic structural-level understanding of the temporal dynamics for cancer initiation and progression. Here, we use a landscape-switching model to investigate the chromosome structural transition during the cancerization and reversion processes. We find that the chromosome undergoes a non-monotonic structural shape-changing pathway with initial expansion followed by compaction during both of these processes. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that the chromosome with a more expanding structure than those at both the normal and cancer cell during cancerization exhibits a sparse contact pattern, which shows significant structural similarity to the one at the embryonic stem cell in many aspects, including the trend of contact probability declining with the genomic distance, the global structural shape geometry and the spatial distribution of loci on the chromosome. In light of the intimate structure-function relationship at the chromosomal level, we further describe the cell state transition processes by the chromosome structural changes, suggesting an elevated cell stemness during the formation of the cancer cells. We show that cell cancerization and reversion are highly irreversible processes in terms of the chromosome structural transition pathways, spatial repositioning of chromosomal loci and hysteresis loop of contact evolution analysis. Our model draws a molecular-scale picture of cell cancerization from the chromosome structural perspective. The process contains initial reprogramming towards the stem cell followed by the differentiation towards the cancer cell, accompanied by an initial increase and subsequent decrease of the cell stemness.

Effect of selective plasmadsorption on systemic inflammatory response and cytokine levels in obstructed jaundice

Objective: to study the effect of selective plasmadsorption (SPS) on the level of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory plasma cytokines, markers of liver failure in patients with obstructive jaundice.Material and Methods. The study was conducted in 23 patients with prolonged obstructive jaundice. The baseline level of total bilirubin ranged from 285 μmol/L to 589 μmol/L. All patients were exposed to selective plasmadsorption before biliodigistic surgery and twice in the early postoperative period. Selective plasmosorption was carried using OctoNova by Asahi Kasei Medical (Japan) with the use of the sorbent based on the Plasorba BR-350 anion exchange resin. In one procedure, about two volumes of circulating plasma were treated.Results. Initial increase in the level of pro-inflammatory TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 cytokines as well as anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine was established.Following SPS, TNF-α level signifcantly decreased by 42.4% (p < 0.05). The decrease in IL-1β and IL-6 was 38.9% and 34.0%, respectively. The level of IL-10 signifcantly decreased by 30.7% (p < 0.05). A signifcant decrease in the levels of total bilirubin by 39.8 ± 3.8%, conjugated bilirubin (by 38.2%), unconjugated bilirubin (by 32.5%), ALT (by 23.5%), AST (by 37%), and bile acids (by 31.4%) was revealed by the end of the procedure. There were no hemorrhagic complications associated with SPS.Conclusions. Selective plasmosorption in complex treatment of patients with mechanical jaundice with hepatic insufciency in perioperative period reduces endotoxicosis level not only due to correction of biochemical markers of liver failure but also due to reduction of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines.