Understanding the complexity of disease-climate interactions for rice bacterial panicle blight under tropical conditions.

Bacterial panicle blight (BPB) caused by Burkholderia glumae is one of the main concerns for rice production in the Americas since bacterial infection can interfere with the grain-filling process and under severe conditions can result in high sterility. B. glumae has been detected in several rice-growing areas of Colombia and other countries of Central and Andean regions in Latin America, although evidence of its involvement in decreasing yield under these conditions is lacking. Analysis of different parameters in trials established in three rice-growing areas showed that, despite BPB presence, severity did not explain the sterility observed in fields. PCR tests for B. glumae confirmed low infection in all sites and genotypes, only 21.4% of the analyzed samples were positive for B. glumae. Climate parameters showed that Montería and Saldaña registered maximum temperature above 34°C, minimum temperature above 23°C, and Relative Humidity above 80%, conditions that favor the invasion model described for this pathogen in Asia. Our study found that in Colombia, minimum temperature above 23°C during 10 days after flowering is the condition that correlates with disease incidence. Therefore, this correlation, and the fact that Montería and Saldaña had a higher level of infected samples according to PCR tests, high minimum temperature, but not maximum temperature, seems to be determinant for B. glumae colonization under studied field conditions. This knowledge is a solid base line to design strategies for disease control, and is also a key element for breeders to develop strategies aimed to decrease the effect of B. glumae and high night-temperature on rice yield under tropical conditions.

EEG-Based BCI Emotion Recognition: A Survey.

Affecting computing is an artificial intelligence area of study that recognizes, interprets, processes, and simulates human affects. The user's emotional states can be sensed through electroencephalography (EEG)-based Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) devices. Research in emotion recognition using these tools is a rapidly growing field with multiple inter-disciplinary applications. This article performs a survey of the pertinent scientific literature from 2015 to 2020. It presents trends and a comparative analysis of algorithm applications in new implementations from a computer science perspective. Our survey gives an overview of datasets, emotion elicitation methods, feature extraction and selection, classification algorithms, and performance evaluation. Lastly, we provide insights for future developments.

Introgression of a functional epigenetic OsSPL14WFP allele into elite indica rice genomes greatly improved panicle traits and grain yield.

Rice yield potential has been stagnant since the Green Revolution in the late 1960s, especially in tropical rice cultivars. We evaluated the effect of two major genes that regulate grain number, Gn1a/OsCKX2 and IPA1/WFP/OsSPL14, in elite indica cultivar backgrounds. The yield-positive Gn1a-type 3 and OsSPL14WFP alleles were introgressed respectively through marker-assisted selection (MAS). The grain numbers per panicle (GNPP) were compared between the recipient allele and the donor allele groups using segregating plants in BC3F2 and BC3F3 generations. There was no significant difference in GNPP between the two Gn1a alleles, suggesting that the Gn1a-type 3 allele was not effective in indica cultivars. However, the OsSPL14WFP allele dramatically increased GNPP by 10.6-59.3% in all four different backgrounds across cropping seasons and generations, indicating that this allele provides strong genetic gain to elite indica cultivars. Eventually, five high-yielding breeding lines were bred using the OsSPL14WFP allele by MAS with a conventional breeding approach that showed increased grain yield by 28.4-83.5% (7.87-12.89 t/ha) vis-à-vis the recipient cultivars and exhibited higher yield (~64.7%) than the top-yielding check cultivar, IRRI 156 (7.82 t/ha). We demonstrated a strong possibility to increase the genetic yield potential of indica rice varieties through allele mining and its application.

Failing to Make Ends Meet: The Broad Clinical Spectrum of DNA Ligase IV Deficiency. Case Series and Review of the Literature.

DNA repair defects are inborn errors of immunity that result in increased apoptosis and oncogenesis. DNA Ligase 4-deficient patients suffer from a wide range of clinical manifestations since early in life, including: microcephaly, dysmorphic facial features, growth failure, developmental delay, mental retardation; hip dysplasia, and other skeletal malformations; as well as a severe combined immunodeficiency, radiosensitivity, and progressive bone marrow failure; or, they may present later in life with hematological neoplasias that respond catastrophically to chemo- and radiotherapy; or, they could be asymptomatic. We describe the clinical, laboratory, and genetic features of five Mexican patients with LIG4 deficiency, together with a review of 36 other patients available in PubMed Medline. Four out of five of our patients are dead from lymphoma or bone marrow failure, with severe infection and massive bleeding; the fifth patient is asymptomatic despite a persistent CD4+ lymphopenia. Most patients reported in the literature are microcephalic females with growth failure, sinopulmonary infections, hypogammaglobulinemia, very low B-cells, and radiosensitivity; while bone marrow failure and malignancy may develop at a later age. Dysmorphic facial features, congenital hip dysplasia, chronic liver disease, gradual pancytopenia, lymphoma or leukemia, thrombocytopenia, and gastrointestinal bleeding have been reported as well. Most mutations are compound heterozygous, and all of them are hypomorphic, with two common truncating mutations accounting for the majority of patients. Stem-cell transplantation after reduced intensity conditioning regimes may be curative.

[Angioedema as initial manifestation of hypogammaglobulinemia]. / Angioedema como única manifestación inicial de hipogammaglobulinemia.

Common variable immunodeficiency is characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia and the inability to respond to vaccines. Patients mostly manifest infections, however only less than 5 % have pathological conditions as autoimmunity, granulomatous inflammation, and splenomegaly or lymphoproliferative disease among others, without showing infections. We report the case of a woman who debuted with localized cutaneous affection, facial angioedema, without other early symptoms. After diagnosis splenomegaly and bronchiectasis were documented. Angioedema and bronchiectasis responded with IVIG replacement. We also review the dermatological manifestations associated with CVID.

La inmunodeficiencia común variable se caracteriza por hipogammaglobulinemia e incapacidad para responder a las vacunas. Los pacientes en su mayoría manifiestan infecciones, sin embargo, menos de 5 % solo presenta patologías como autoinmunidad, inflamación granulomatosa, esplenomegalia o enfermedad linfoproliferativa, entre otras, sin infecciones. Se describe el caso de una mujer que debutó con afección cutánea localizada, angioedema facial, sin otros síntomas iniciales. Después del diagnóstico se documentó esplenomegalia y bronquiectasias. El angioedema y las bronquiectasias respondieron con la sustitución de la gammaglobulina intravenosa. En este artículo, además de la descripción del caso, se revisan las manifestaciones dermatológicas asociadas con inmunodeficiencia común variable.

Impact of Nutritional Intervention on Length of Hospital Stay and Mortality among Hospitalized Patients with Malnutrition: A Clinical Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a nutritional intervention on hospital stay and mortality among hospitalized patients with malnutrition. METHODS: Hospitalized patients with a diagnosis of malnutrition were enrolled and randomly allocated to either an intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group received an individualized nutrition plan according to energy and protein (1.0-1.5 g/kg) intake requirements as well as dietary advice based on face-to-face interviews with patients and their caregivers or family members. Individuals in the control group received standard nutritional management according to the Hospital Nutrition Department. Nutritional status and disease severity were assessed using nutritional risk screening. Length of hospital stay was defined by the number of days of hospitalization from hospital admission to medical discharge. Reference to another service or death were criteria for study withdrawal. To evaluate mortality, individuals were followed up for 6 months after hospital discharge. Hospital stay and mortality were the intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: A total of 55 patients with an average age of 57.1 ± 20.7 years were included into intervention (n = 28) and control (n = 27) groups, respectively. At basal condition, nutritional status, measured by nutritional risk screening score, was similar between the study groups (4.1 ± 0.8 vs 4.2 ± 1.2, p = 0.6). The average hospital stay was lower in the intervention group compared to the control group (6.4 ± 3.0 vs 8.4 ± 4.0 days, p = 0.03). Finally, the mortality rate at 6 months of follow-up was similar in both groups (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17-4.21). CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggest that, in hospitalized patients with malnutrition, nutritional intervention and dietary advice decrease hospital stay but not mortality.

Development and validation of allele-specific SNP/indel markers for eight yield-enhancing genes using whole-genome sequencing strategy to increase yield potential of rice, Oryza sativa L.

BACKGROUND: Rice is one of the major staple foods in the world, especially in the developing countries of Asia. Its consumption as a dietary source is also increasing in Africa. To meet the demand for rice to feed the increasing human population, increasing rice yield is essential. Improving the genetic yield potential of rice is one ideal solution. It is imperative to introduce the identified yield-enhancing gene(s) into modern rice cultivars for the rapid improvement of yield potential through marker-assisted breeding. RESULTS: We report the development of PCR-gel-based markers for eight yield-related functional genes (Gn1a, OsSPL14, SCM2, Ghd7, DEP1, SPIKE, GS5, and TGW6) to introduce yield-positive alleles from the donor lines. Six rice cultivars, including three each of donor and recipient lines, respectively, were sequenced by next-generation whole-genome sequencing to detect DNA polymorphisms between the genotypes. Additionally, PCR products containing functional nucleotide polymorphism (FNP) or putative FNPs for yield-related genes were sequenced. DNA polymorphisms discriminating yield-positive alleles and non-target alleles for each gene were selected through sequence analysis and the allele-specific PCR-gel-based markers were developed. The markers were validated with our intermediate breeding lines produced from crosses between the donors and 12 elite indica rice cultivars as recipients. Automated capillary electrophoresis was tested and fluorescence-labeled SNP genotyping markers (Fluidigm SNP genotyping platform) for Gn1a, OsSPL14, Ghd7, GS5, and GS3 genes were developed for high-throughput genotyping. CONCLUSIONS: The SNP/indel markers linked to yield related genes functioned properly in our marker-assisted breeding program with identified high yield potential lines. These markers can be utilized in local favorite rice cultivars for yield enhancement. The marker designing strategy using both next generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing methods can be used for suitable marker development of other genes associated with useful agronomic traits.

Clinical Features, Non-Infectious Manifestations and Survival Analysis of 161 Children with Primary Immunodeficiency in Mexico: A Single Center Experience Over two Decades.

PURPOSE: The hallmark of Primary immunodeficiencies (PID) is unusual infection, although other immunological non-infectious manifestations such as autoimmunity, allergy and cancer are often present. Most published reports focus on one disease or defect groups, so that a global prevalence of non-infectious manifestations of PID is hard to find. We aimed to describe the clinical features of our pediatric patients with PID, as well as the frequency and evolution of allergy, cancer and autoimmunity. METHODS: We reviewed all the available charts of patients being followed for PID from 1991 to the spring of 2012 at the National Institute of Pediatrics, Mexico City, to describe their demographic, clinical and laboratory features. Their diagnoses were established by pediatric immunologists in accordance to ESID criteria, including routine immunological workup and specialized diagnostic assays. We divided patients by decade of diagnosis to analyze their survival curves. RESULTS: There were 168 charts available, from which we excluded one duplicate and six equivocal diagnoses. We studied the charts of 161 PID patients (68% male, 86% alive), mostly from the center of the country, with a positive family history in 27% and known consanguinity in 11%. Eighty percent of the patients were diagnosed during the last decade. Current median age was 124 months; median age at onset of infections, 12 months; median age at diagnosis, 52 months; median age at death, 67.5 months. Severe infection and bleeding were the cause of 22 deaths. Eighty-six percent of all patients had at least one infection, while non-infectious manifestations had a global prevalence of 36%, namely: autoimmunity 19%, allergies 17%, and cancer 2.4%. Survival curves were not significantly different when compared by decade of diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to other registry reports, we found a lower prevalence of antibody defects, and of associated allergy and cancer. We could only locate two isolated IgA deficiencies and four cases of cancer among our PID patients. Although antibody defects are the most prevalent group (30%), the distribution we found is similar to that reported in Iran, Kuwait, Egypt and Taiwan, with a close 27% share for phagocyte defects, and 26% for the formerly called "well-defined" syndromes. Of note, autoimmune and inflammatory complications are high among our patients with chronic granulomatous disease, as has been reported in both the United States and Japan, but not in Europe.