Divergent evolution of NLR genes in the genus Glycine: impacts of annuals and perennials' life history strategies.

Within the family Fabaceae, the genus Glycine is composed of two subgenera annuals (2n=40) and perennials. This life strategy transition may have differentially affected the evolution of various gene families. Its cultivated species G. max has high level of susceptibility to major pathogens including viruses, bacteria and fungi. Understanding nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes evolution in soybean is of paramount importance due to their central role in plant immunity and their potential in improving disease resistance in soybean cultivars. In this study, we investigated the significance of this annual-perennial transition on the macroevolution of NLR genes in the genus Glycine. Our results reveal a remarkable distinction between annual species such as Glycine max and Glycine soja, which exhibit an expanded NLRome compared to perennial species (G. cyrtoloba, G. stenophita, G. dolichocarpa, G. falcata, G. syndetika, G. latifolia and G. tomentella). Our evolutionary timescale analysis pinpoints recent accelerated gene duplication events for this expansion, which occurred between 0.1 and 0.5 million years ago, driven predominantly by lineage-specific and terminal duplications. In contrast, perennials initially experienced significant contraction during the diploidisation phase following the Glycine-specific whole-genome duplication event (~10 million years ago). Despite the reduction in the NLRome, perennial lineages exhibit a unique and highly diversified repertoire of NLR genes with limited interspecies synteny. The investigation of gene gain and loss ratios revealed that this diversification resulted from the birth of novel genes following individual speciation events. Among perennials, G. latifolia, a well-known resistance resource, has the highest ratio of these novel genes in the tertiary gene pool. Our study suggests evolutionary mechanisms, including recombination and transposition, as potential drivers for the emergence of these novel genes. This study also provides evidence for the unbalanced expansion of the NLRome in the Dt subgenome compared with the At subgenome in the young allopolyploid G. dolichocarpa. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of annuality and perenniality life transition on the evolution of NLR genes in the genus Glycine to identify its genomics resources for improving the resistance of soybean crop with global importance on the economy and food security.

Investigation of Resistance Genes in Genus Vigna Reveals Highly Variable NLRome in Parallel Domesticated Member Species.

Vigna is a unique genus that consist of multiple crop species that are domesticated in parallel fashion between 7-10 thousand years ago. Here we studied the evolution of nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) genes across five crop species of genus Vigna. In total identified 286, 350, 234, 250, 108 and 161 NLR genes were from Phaseolous vulgaris, Vigna. unguiculata, Vigna mungo, Vigna radiata, Vigna angularis and Vigna umbellata respectively. Comprehensive phylogenetic and clusterization analysis reveals the presence of seven subgroups of Coiled coil like NLRs (CC-NLR) genes and four distinct lineages of Toll interleukin receptor like NLRs (TIR-NLR). Subgroup CCG10-NLR shows large scale diversification among Vigna species suggesting genus specific distinct duplication pattern in Vigna species. Mainly birth of new NLR gene families and higher rate of terminal duplication is the major determinants for expansion of NLRome in genus Vigna. Recent expansion of NLRome in V. anguiculata and V. radiata was also observed which might suggest that domestication have supported their duplication of lineage specific NLR genes. In short, large scale difference in the architecture of NLRome were observed in diploid plant species. Our findings allowed us to hypothesized that independent parallel domestication is the major drivers of highly divergent evolution of NLRome in genus Vigna.

Regulating CEO pay and green innovation: moderating role of social capital and government subsidy.

The Chinese government has implemented the policies to regulate executive (CEO) pay in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with the aim of promoting wage equality. This study examines whether these policies affect the motivation of CEOs to engage in green innovation (GI). By analyzing data from Chinese listed SOEs between 2008 and 2017, the study reveals an unintended environmental consequence of regulating CEO pay. We found a negative causal relationship between regulating CEO pay and GI. Moreover, we provide evidence that social capital act as a mitigating factor promotes cooperation and a shared sense of responsibility towards sustainable practices. Additionally, government subsidies provide financial incentives and support for businesses to invest in sustainable practices and technologies, which can offset the negative impact of CEO pay regulation on GI. The results of this study offer policy recommendations to encourage sustainable environmental initiatives; the government should increase its support for GI and introduce new incentives for managers. Overall the study findings are robust and remain valid even after conducting rigorous testing with instrumental variables and other robustness checks.

ESG performance, capital financing decisions, and audit quality: empirical evidence from Chinese state-owned enterprises.

We study the nexus between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and corporate capital financing decisions. Further, we also analyze the effect of audit quality and type of ownership (state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vs non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), local vs central SOEs in this relationship. By applying panel regression (fixed effects) on 6295 firm-year observations of Chinese A-listed enterprises data for 2010-2019, we conclude that firms' ESG information is crucial to their financing decisions. In particular, firms with superior ESG performance have lower debt financing. The findings suggest that enterprises with strong ESG performance have easy access to equity funding via stock markets. Further, this relationship is more pronounced in SOE compared to non-SOEs and in central SOEs compared to local SOEs. These results demonstrate that the market may promote desired social outcomes by rewarding ESG performance; however, we find no significant effect of audit quality in this relationship. Findings are robust to different sensitivity tests, including an alternative estimation, sysGMM regression to address endogeneity issues, and lagged regressions to address reverse causality.

Effect of Pilates based exercises on symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of Pilates exercises on pain, knee range of motion and functional disability in women with knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: The double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, from April to September 2018, and comprised female patients with knee osteoarthritis. The subjects were selected and randomised into control group A receiving isometrics and intervention group B receiving Pilates exercises. Both groups received one-hour sessions 3 times per week for 8 weeks. The groups were assessed at baseline and at the end of the 8th week using numeric pain rating scale and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index for pain and functionality level respectively. Data was analysed using SPSS 23. RESULTS: Of 44 patients, there were 22(50%) in each of the two groups. Mean age of group B was 57.60±6.34 years, and it was 55.65±7.28 in group B. Mean body mass index of group B was 25.812±4.16, and it was 26.93±4.4 in group A. The study was completed by 40(91%) patients; 20(50%) in each of the two groups. Both groups showed significant improvement for pain, range of motion and physical function post-intervention (p<0.05). Group B showed significantly more improvement in terms of pain and physical function compared to group A (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Pilates exercises were found to be more effective in the treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Chi CTR 2000030486.

Frequency of cervical radiculopathy among patients with chronic cervical pain in Lahore, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of cervical radiculopathy in cases of non-traumatic chronic neck pain. METHODS: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2015 to February 2016 at the Department of Physiotherapy, Azra Naheed Medical College, Superior University, Lahore and comprised patients of either gender aged 20-50 years with chronic neck pain lasting more than 6 months. Data was collected using a 14-point self-administered questionnaire. Spurling test was applied to find out the occurrence of radiculopathy in chronic neck pain and the intensity of pain was rated using visual analogue scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. RESULTS: Of the 196 patients, 135(68.9%) were females and 61(31.1%) were males. The largest age group was 20-30 years with 75(38.3%) patients. Also, 46(23.5%) patients had no neck pain, 144(73.5%) had moderate pain and 6(3.1%) had unbearable pain. Radiculopathy was negative in 84(42.9%) patients and positive in 112(57.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Cervical radiculopathy was found to be associated with chronic neck pain.

Use of Smart Phones and Social Media in Medical Education: Trends, Advantages, Challenges and Barriers.

INTRODUCTION: The technological advancements have transformed the society into a global forum influencing the educational processes and learning environments. Medical education is no exemption with an increasing trend to use the social media and smart phones for teaching and learning. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube and Edmodo are the platforms promoting collaborative learning, improved communication and knowledge sharing. AIM: This study aims to review the use of smart phones and social media in the context of medical education. It reviews the usage of smart phone and social medical applications including Facebook, WhatsApp and Edmodo for teaching and learning in medical education. RESULTS: The use of personal smartphones for teaching and learning among medical community is highly prevalent and increasing day by day. Medical students use the mobile application for online textbooks (70%), medical podcasts (60%), medical calculator (75%), online lecture (50%) and notes taking (45%). Relevant studies conclude that the majority of students use smart phones for education (62.7%), communication (81.7%) and recreation (82.5%). Social media has a great potential in educational setting and provide students a chance to involve, share and express knowledge and information with each other. Facebook, WhatsApp and Edmodo are the commonly used applications having multiple benefits like collaboration, feedback and engagement but negative aspects including addiction, distraction and maintenance of privacy have also been found. CONCLUSION: The review article concludes that social media is a powerful instrument for social interactions and is also used as a tool for teaching and learning. The integration of social media with traditional class teaching in medical education has clear advantages but there is a debate about the probable disadvantages as well.

Genetic dissection of developmental responses of agro-morphological traits under different doses of nutrient fertilizers using high-density SNP markers.

The production and productivity of rice (Oryza sativa L.) are primarily influenced by the application of the critical nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). However, excessive application of these fertilizers is detrimental to the environment and increases the cost of production. Hence, there is a need to develop varieties that simultaneously increase yields under both optimal and suboptimal rates of fertilizer application by maximizing nutrient use efficiency (NuUE). To unravel the hidden genetic variation and understand the molecular and physiological mechanisms of NuUE, three different mapping populations (MPs; BC1F5) derived from three donors (Haoannong, Cheng-Hui 448, and Zhong 413) and recipient Weed Tolerant Rice 1 were developed. A total of three favorable agronomic traits (FATs) were considered as the measure of NuUE. Analysis of variance and descriptive statistics indicated the existence of genetic variation for NuUE and quantitative inheritance of FATs. The genotypic data from single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from Tunable Genotyping-By-Sequencing (tGBS) and phenotypic values were used for locating the genomic regions conferring NuUE. A total of 19 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected, out of which 11 QTLs were putative on eight chromosomes, which individually explained 17.02% to 34.85% of the phenotypic variation. Notably, qLC-II_1 and qLC-II_11 detected at zero fertilizer application showed higher performance for LC under zero percentage of NPK fertilizer. The remarkable findings of the present study are that the detected QTLs were associated in building tolerance to low/no nutrient application and six candidate genes on chromosomes 2 and 5 within these putative QTLs were found associated with low nutrient tolerance and related to several physiological and metabolic pathways involved in abiotic stress tolerance. The identified superior introgressed lines (ILs) and trait-associated genetic regions can be effectively used in marker-assisted selection (MAS) for NuUE breeding programs.

Self-Medication Phenomenon; A Population Based Study from Lahore.

OBJECTIVE: To study the reasons of self-medication in rural and urban population.. METHODS: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, from March to August 2017, and comprised inhabitants of rural and urban areas of the city regardless of gender and aged 18-50 years. The subjects were enrolled using non probability convenience sampling technique. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, which was validated through content validity index. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. RESULTS: Of the 786 participants, 551(70%) were from the urban areas and 235(30%) were from the rural areas. The mean age of the sample was 30.54±8.50. Overall, 746(95%) were taking medicines without a prescription. Among them, 528(96%) were urban and 218(93%) were rural inhabitants (p<0.07). Besides, 352(47.2%) were males and 394(52.8%) were females (p>0.05). The most frequent reason cited for self-medication was quick relief by 478(64.1%) subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Self-medication prevalence was very high in both urban and rural populations.

Molecular basis of arsenite (As⁺³)-induced acute cytotoxicity in human cervical epithelial carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Rapid industrialization is discharging toxic heavy metals into the environment, disturbing human health in many ways and causing various neurologic, cardiovascular, and dermatologic abnormalities and certain types of cancer. The presence of arsenic in drinking water from different urban and rural areas of the major cities of Pakistan, for example, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Kasur, was found to be beyond the permissible limit of 10 parts per billion set by the World Health Organization. Therefore the present study was initiated to examine the effects of arsenite (As(+3)) on DNA biosynthesis and cell death. METHODS: After performing cytotoxic assays on a human epithelial carcinoma cell line, expression analysis was done by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and flow cytometry. RESULTS: We show that As(+3) ions have a dose- and time-dependent cytotoxic effect through the activation of the caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway. In contrast to previous research, the present study was designed to explore the early cytotoxic effects produced in human cells during exposure to heavy dosage of As(+3) (7.5 µg/ml). Even treatment for 1 h significantly increased the mRNA levels of p21 and p27 and caspases 3, 7, and 9. It was interesting that there was no change in the expression levels of p53, which plays an important role in G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that sudden exposure of cells to arsenite (As(+3)) resulted in cytotoxicity and mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis resulting from up-regulation of caspases.