Effectiveness of repeated mutagenesis of sesame crosses for enhancing polygenic variability in F2M2 generation.

The value of combining hybridization and mutagenesis in sesame was examined to determine if treating hybrid sesame plant material with mutagens generated greater genetic variability in four key productivity traits than either the separate hybridization or mutation of plant material. In a randomized block design with three replications, six F2M2 varieties, three F2varieties, and three parental varieties were assessed at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The plant characteristics height, number of seed capsules per plant, and seed yield per plant had greater variability in the F2M2 generation than their respective controls (F2), however, the number of primary branches per plant varied less than in the control population. The chances for trait selection to be operative were high for all the characteristics examined except the number of primary branches per plant, as indicated by heritability estimates. Increases in the mean and variability of the characteristics examined indicted a greater incidence of beneficial mutations and the breakdown of undesirable linkages with increased recombination. At both phenotypic and genotypic levels strong positive correlations between both primary branch number and capsule number with seed yield suggest that these traits are important for indirect improvement in sesame seed yield. As a result of the association analysis, sesame seed yield and its component traits improved significantly, which may be attributed to the independent polygenic mutations and enlarged recombination of the polygenes controlling the examined characteristics. Compared to the corresponding control treatment or to one cycle of mutagenic treatment, two cycles of mutagenic treatment resulted in increased variability, higher transgressive segregates, PTS mean and average transgression for sesame seed yield. These findings highlight the value of implementing two EMS treatment cycles to generate improved sesame lines. Furthermore, the extra variability created through hybridization may have potential in subsequent breeding research and improved seed yield segregants may be further advanced to develop ever-superior sesame varieties.

Validation of a natural language processing algorithm to identify adenomas and measure adenoma detection rates across a health system: a population-level study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Measuring adenoma detection rates (ADRs) at the population level is challenging because pathology reports are often reported in an unstructured format; further, there is significant variation in reporting methods across institutions. Natural language processing (NLP) can be used to extract relevant information from text-based records. We aimed to develop and validate an NLP algorithm to identify colorectal adenomas that could be used to report ADR at the population level in Ontario, Canada. METHODS: The sampling frame included pathology reports from all colonoscopies performed in Ontario in 2015 and 2016. Two random samples of 450 and 1000 reports were selected as the training and validation sets, respectively. Expert clinicians reviewed and classified reports as adenoma or other. The training set was used to develop an NLP algorithm (to identify adenomas) that was evaluated using the validation set. The NLP algorithm test characteristics were calculated using expert review as the reference. We used the algorithm to measure ADR for all endoscopists in Ontario in 2019. RESULTS: The 1450 pathology reports were derived from 62 laboratories, 266 pathologists, and 532 endoscopists. In the training set, the NLP algorithm for any adenoma had a sensitivity of 99.60% (95% confidence interval (CI), 97.77-99.99), specificity of 99.01% (95% CI, 96.49-99.88), positive predictive value of 99.19% (95% CI, 97.12-99.90), and F1 score of .99. Similar results were obtained for the validation set. The median ADR was 33% (interquartile range, 26%-40%). CONCLUSIONS: When we used a population-based sample from Ontario, our NLP algorithm was highly accurate and was used at the system level to measure ADR.

Weed Management and Crop Establishment Methods in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Influence the Soil Microbial and Enzymatic Activity in Sub-Tropical Environment.

Weed management has become the most important and inevitable aspect of crop management for achieving a higher rice yield. Nowadays, chemical herbicide application has become a popular practice for managing weeds in different rice cultures. However, herbicide application can have qualitative and quantitative impacts on soil microorganisms and soil enzymes, particularly in the case of new herbicide molecules and their indiscriminate use for a longer period. Further, different rice establishment methods also play a significant role in soil microbial population dynamics as well as soil biological properties. Keeping these in view, a field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Main Research Farm, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), India, during the kharif season of 2016 and 2017, on the impact of crop establishment methods and weed management practices on soil microbial and enzymatic status. The field experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications with four crop establishment methods in the main plot, viz., M1, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR); M2, Wet Seeded Rice (WSR); M3,Unpuddled Transplanted Rice (NPTR); M4, Puddled Transplanted Rice (PTR), and six weed management practices in the sub-plot, viz., W1, Weedy check; W2, Bensulfuron methyl 0.6% + Pretilachlor 6% (pre-emergence (PE)) 0.660 kg ha-1 + Hand weeding (HW) at 30 days after sowing/transplanting (days after sowing/transplanting (DAS/T)); W3, Bensulfuron methyl 0.6% + Pretilachlor 6% (PE) 0.495 kg ha-1 + HW at 30 DAS/T; W4, Bensulfuron methyl 0.6% + Pretilachlor 6% (PE) 0.495 kg ha-1 + Bispyribac-Sodium (post-emergence(POE)) 0.025 kg ha-1 at 15 DAS/T; W5, Cono weeding (CW) at 15 DAS/T + hand weeding 30 DAS/T, and W6, Brown manuring/Green manuring. The initial decline in the microbial population was observed due to herbicide application in NPTR and PTR up to 7 DAS/T and then it increased up to 28 DAS/T. There was a reduction in soil microbial and enzymatic status after the application of herbicides Bensulfuron methyl 0.6% + Pretilachlor 6% (PE) and Bispyribac-Sodium (POE) that again followed an upward graph with crop age. Significant variation in enzymatic activity and the microbial count was also observed among treatments involving crop establishment methods. The study revealed that improved microbial population and enzyme activity were noted in unpuddled transplanted rice under organic weed management due to favorable conditions, and chemical weed control initially affected microbial population and activities.

Supramolecular Glycolipid-Based Hydro-/Organogels with Enzymatic Bioactive Release Ability by Tuning the Chain Length and Headgroup Size.

Designing of supramolecular hydro-/organogels having desired properties, biocompatibility, and stimuli responsiveness is a challenging task. Herein, the gelation ability of amphiphilic glycolipid-based gelators in a wide range of solvents is explored. The structure-function relationship was established by varying the chain length and polar headgroup size of amphiphilic gelators. The prepared hydro-/organogels were characterized by employing several techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheology, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. The thermal stability of hydro-/organogels increased with an increase in chain length. Rheological analysis depicted that variation in chain length and headgroup size of amphiphilic gelators significantly affected the gel strength and stability. The self-assembled morphology of hydro-/organogel samples revealed the compact entangled fibrillar network structures. After comparing the energy-minimized molecular length with the d-spacing value obtained by XRD, interdigitated bilayer packing in the gel network was established. The bioactive encapsulation and enzymatic release study of hydro-/organogels portrayed their potential application in the biomedical field. To our delight, glycolipid 16M (C16 chain length) formed a molecular hydrogel with injectable and thixotropic behaviors. High critical strain value, thixotropy, injectability, thermoreversibility, and faster bioactive release for the 16M-W hydrogel proved crucial to predict its future applications. Overall, glycolipid amphiphiles designed by upholding proper hydrophilic-lipophilic balance can form multifunctional supramolecular hydrogels with excellent implementation in the drug delivery system.

Single Mn Atom Doping in Chiral Sensitive Assembled Gold Clusters to Molecular Magnet.

Chiral stirred optical and magnetic properties, through the doping of assembled ultrasmall metal clusters (AMCs), are promising discernment to rivet the molecule-like quantum devices. Here, the single manganese (Mn) atom doping and assembly of the gold cluster (Au8), leading to the chirality driven magnetism, has been achieved through a ligand-mediated growth. The X-ray absorption near edge structure and electron paramagnetic resonance studies corroborate the tetrahedral coordinated local structure of Mn dopant in the Au host. The optical and vibrational circular dichroic analysis affirms the modulation of chirality (negative to positive) in the presence of the Mn. A distinct ferromagnetic hysteresis loop at 300 K shows Mn ridden chiral sensitive ferromagnetism in contrary to the ligand influenced superparamagnetic undoped AMCs. The spin-polarized density functional theory level of calculations reveal the partial overlapping of spin-up and -down density of states in the doped AMCs, attributing to the ferromagnetic nature as like a molecular magnet suitable for the opto-spintronics application.

Unsaturation and Polar Head Effect on Gelation, Bioactive Release, and Cr/Cu Removal Ability of Glycolipids.

Designing of multifunctional soft and smart materials from natural sources is a useful strategy for producing safer chemicals having potential applications in biomedical research and pharmaceutical industries. Herein, eight glycolipids with variation in unsaturation of hydrophobic tail and polar headgroup size were designed. The effect of unsaturation in the tail group and headgroup size on gelation ability, and mechanical and thermal stability of glycolipid hydro/organogels was studied to understand structure and property relationship. Glycolipids are functional amphiphilic molecules having potential applications in the field of drug delivery and metal removal. The encapsulation capacity and kinetic release behavior of hydrophobic/hydrophilic bioactives like curcumin/riboflavin from the hydrophobic/hydrophilic pockets of glycolipids hydro/organogels was examined. A significant observation was that the glucamine moiety of the glycolipid headgroup plays a vital role in removal of Cr and Cu from oil/water biphasic systems. Typical functions of the glycolipid hydrogels are metal chelation and enzyme-triggered release behavior, enabled them as promising material for Cr, Cu removal from edible oils and controlled release of water soluble/insoluble bioactives.