Chemical Management Strategies of Pimelea trichostachya Lindl. Using Pre- and Post-Emergence Herbicides.

Pimelea trichostachya Lindl. is a native Australian forb responsible for livestock poisoning and reducing the productivity and sustainability of grazing enterprises. This study was conducted as a pot trial under controlled conditions to investigate an effective chemical management strategy for P. trichostachya, a method that did not leave standing dead plant material, as such material can also be toxic to grazing cattle. Three herbicides, including one pre-emergence (tebuthiuron) and two post-emergence herbicides (2,4-D and metsulfuron-methyl), were tested in pot trials for their efficacy on P. trichostachya. Results showed that tebuthiuron applied as either a granular (10% active ingredient, a.i.) or pelleted (20% a.i.) form efficiently reduced the emergence of P. trichostachya seedlings. Although some seedlings emerged, they perished within 7 days post treatment, leaving no residual plant matter. Testing now needs to be undertaken under field conditions to validate the findings within vegetation communities where potential non-target impacts need to be accounted for as well. The post-emergence application of 2,4-D and metsulfuron-methyl demonstrated that the highest efficacy and reduced application rates were achieved by treating earlier growth stages (i.e., seedlings) of P. trichostachya plants. In addition, the amount of toxic dead plant material was minimized due to the faster degradation of these small plants. These findings offer practical, cost-effective solutions for sustaining grazing lands from P. trichostachya challenges.

Poisonous Plants of the Genus Pimelea: A Menace for the Australian Livestock Industry.

Pimelea is a genus of about 140 plant species, some of which are well-known for causing animal poisoning resulting in significant economic losses to the Australian livestock industry. The main poisonous species/subspecies include Pimelea simplex (subsp. simplex and subsp. continua), P. trichostachya and P. elongata (generally referred to as Pimelea). These plants contain a diterpenoid orthoester toxin, called simplexin. Pimelea poisoning is known to cause the death of cattle (Bos taurus and B. indicus) or weaken surviving animals. Pimelea species are well-adapted native plants, and their diaspores (single seeded fruits) possess variable degrees of dormancy. Hence, the diaspores do not generally germinate in the same recruitment event, which makes management difficult, necessitating the development of integrated management strategies based on infestation circumstances (e.g., size and density). For example, the integration of herbicides with physical control techniques, competitive pasture establishment and tactical grazing could be effective in some situations. However, such options have not been widely adopted at the field level to mitigate ongoing management challenges. This systematic review provides a valuable synthesis of the current knowledge on the biology, ecology, and management of poisonous Pimelea species with a focus on the Australian livestock industry while identifying potential avenues for future research.

Factors Affecting the Germination Ecology of Pimelea trichostachya and Its Relationship to Field Emergence.

Pimelea trichostachya Lindl is a little-understood Australian native plant, with irregular field emergence, causing significant poisoning to grazing livestock. The study aims to examine the form of dormancy exhibited by P. trichostachya and determine how key environmental conditions, such as alternating temperature and light conditions, moisture availability, substrate pH and burial depth, affect its germination and emergence. The study concludes that P. trichostachya has a complex dormancy mechanism. This comprises a physical component that can be partly removed by fruit scarification, a metabolic dormancy that can be overcome by gibberellic acid (GA3), and a suspected third mechanism based on a water-soluble germination inhibitor. The results showed that scarified single seeded fruit (hereafter seed) with GA3 treatment gave the highest germination percentage (86 ± 3%) at 25/15 °C, with good germination rates at other temperature regimes. Light exposure stimulated germination, but a significant proportion of seeds still germinated in the dark. The study also found that seeds could germinate under water-limited conditions and a wide range of pH levels (4 to 8). Seedling emergence was inhibited when seeds were buried below 3 cm in soil. Pimelea trichostachya emergence in the field commonly occurs from Autumn to Spring. Understanding its dormancy mechanism and recognizing its triggers for germination will enable better prediction of outbreaks. This can help landholders prepare for emergence and help manage seedbank build-up in pastures and crops.

Ultrasonication Induced Alterations in Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Myosin.

BACKGROUND: Several reports have indicated that ultrasonication can change the solubility of muscle proteins and improves the functional properties of meat and isolated muscle proteins. Moreover, available literature suggests that ultrasonication can significantly improve the gelling properties of muscle proteins. OBJECTIVES: The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of low-frequency ultrasonication on the secondary structure of myosin and the impact of these structural changes on solubility and gelling ability. METHODS: Myosin from breast muscles (Pectoralis major) of broiler chicken was extracted and exposed to low-frequency ultrasonication for 30 min. Four aliquots collected at the interval of 5, 10, 20, and 30 min were analysed for change in ATPase activity, sulfhydryl content, surface hydrophobicity, alpha-helicity. The possible impact of these changes on heat-induced gelation was observed through electron micrographs. RESULTS: Ultrasonication reduced the enzymatic activity of myosin and increased the reactive sulfhydryl content. Decreased α-helicity and increased intrinsic fluorescence displayed significant structural changes at the secondary and tertiary levels. Myosin aggregation, as indicated by electron micrographs, showed a marked decrease. The microstructure of myosin gels displayed a distinct correlation with ultrasonication-induced structural changes. Furthermore, improved microstructure led to a significant increase in the water retention capacity of myosin gels. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, ultrasonication of myosin caused a marked change in structure at the tertiary and secondary levels. Structural changes apparently confined within the globular head region and rod portion of myosin were displayed by reduced enzymatic activity and improved gelation/solubility. Results of our study convincingly showed that ultrasonication improved the microstructure of myosin gels resulting in increased WHC.

Micro star tracker with a curved vane for a short baffle length and sharp stray light attenuation.

We present a micro star tracker with curved vanes that offers a short length of the baffle and a sharp cutoff of stray light. The curved vanes are derived mathematically by ray-tracing in such a way that all the stray light from outside of the desired field of view (FOV) is reflected out. The proposed curved vane design allows a smaller number of vanes to completely cut off stray light, leading to a shorter length in baffle design. Furthermore, the capability of a sharp cutoff of stray light eases the sensitivity requirement of image sensors. For the experiment, we fabricated three micro star tracker baffles with curved vanes for 22° FOV, which are required to handle a maximum star magnitude of 5.35 for 100% sky coverage. The sizes of the baffles fabricated are 16mmΦ×16.5mm L with double curved vanes, 24mmΦ×12.1mm L with a single curved vane, and 27mmΦ×14.4mm L with double curved vanes. In comparison, the straight vane baffle designed for 22° FOV requires seven vanes with 18 mm length but results only in mild stray light attenuation with the cutoff at 32°. The proposed star tracker utilizes a 5-megapixel image sensor, 16mm×16mm×39mm in size and weighing 9.2 g with an accuracy of 1.288 arcsecond, a 20.6% improvement over when no baffle is used.

Development of thermoplastic polyurethane/polyaniline-doped membranes for the separation of glycine through electrodialysis.

Recently, membrane-based separation processes, particularly electrodialysis, have attracted attention for the separation and purification of organic and amino acids from animal feedstock waste. In this study, cation exchange membranes were synthesized by making a composite of thermoplastic polyurethane and polyaniline (PANI) via the doping of various aromatic sulfonic acids, such as ß -naphthol sulfonic acid and phenol sulfonic acid. The PANI was prepared using a standard method, which was further used in the composite blending at varying concentrations of 10%-20%. The impact of the concentration of PANI and the nature of the dopant on the membrane characteristics were comparatively studied. The membranes were analyzed by electric conductivity, water swelling, morphological studies (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis. The membranes were used for the separation of glycine hydrochloride via electrodialysis.

Accurate and Cost-Effective Micro Sun Sensor based on CMOS Black Sun Effect.

An accurate and cost-effective micro sun sensor based on the extraction of the sun vector using a phenomenon called the "black sun" is presented. Unlike conventional image-based sun sensors where there is difficulty in accurately detecting the sun center, the black sun effect allows the sun center to be accurately extracted even with the sun image appearing irregular and noisy due to glare. This allows the proposed micro sun sensor to achieve high accuracy even when a 1 mm × 1 mm CMOS image sensor with a resolution of 250 × 250 pixels is used. The proposed micro sun sensor is implemented in two application modes: (1) a stationary mode targeted at tracking the sun for heliostats or solar panels with a fixed pose of single image sensor of 1 mm × 1 mm × 1.74 mm in size and (2) a non-stationary mode targeted at determining the orientation of moving platforms with six sensors on the platform, which is configured in an icosahedron geometry of 23 mm × 23 mm × 12 mm in size. For the stationary mode, we obtained an accuracy of 0.013° by applying Kalman filter to the sun sensor measurement for a particular sensor orientation. For the non-stationary mode, we obtained an improved accuracy of 0.05° by fusing the measurements from three sun sensors available at any instant of time. Furthermore, experiments indicate that the black sun effect makes the precision of sun vector extraction independent of the sun location captured on the image plane.

Effect of ultrasonication on secondary structure and heat induced gelation of chicken myofibrils.

Ultrasonication has been suggested as a new promising technique to improve the quality of meat and other meat products. In this study ultrasonication at low frequency (20 kHz) was carried out to investigate the effect on structural and biochemical properties of myofibril proteins. The possible implications between ultrasonication-induced structural changes and gelation properties were also investigated. Structural changes were investigated by ATPase activity, SDS-PAGE, circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy. Microstructural changes in heat induced gels were observed by SEM and water holding capacity was determined by centrifugation. Ultrasonic treatment for 30 min significantly reduced the Ca2+-ATPase activity. Moreover significant change in structure of proteins at secondary level, as indicated by marked decrease in α-helicity, was observed. Marginal change in fluorescence at 10 min was followed by significant increase at 20 and 30 min reflecting exposure of hydrophobic residues on surface during unfolding. Microstructural analyses of gels showed marked improvement in regular three dimensional network at 20 and 30 min of sonication. WHC at 20 min and 30 min were significantly higher than control. Our results suggest that ultrasonication at low frequency (20 kHz) can prove beneficial for improving functional properties of meat and meat products.

Effect of low frequency ultrasonication on biochemical and structural properties of chicken actomyosin.

Ultrasonication has been introduced as a promising technique to modify the properties of meat and meat products. This study was carried out to investigate the structural and biochemical properties of actomyosin under the influence of ultrasonication at low frequency (20 kHz). CD spectroscopy and second-derivative UV spectra indicated that ultrasonic exposure of 30 min causes significant loss of α-helical fraction and marked change in tertiary structure of actomyosin. R-SH content showed maximum amount after 30 min of ultrasonic treatment. Additionally, Ca(2+)-, Mg(2+)- and K(+)(EDTA)-ATPase activities were markedly decreased. No fragmentation was observed in SDS-PAGE while transmission electron micrographs showed complete dispersion of aggregates and arrowhead structure of actomyosin. Given that structural properties are closely associated with functional properties, ultrasonication significantly improves the gelling properties of actomyosin. Scanning electron micrographs showed marked improvement in regular three-dimensional networks of actomyosin gels. Concurrently, significant increase in water-holding capacity was also observed.

Atypical juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis: A report of three cases.

The diagnosis of juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) is usually based on age of onset, initial clinical symptoms, clinical progression, and pathologic findings. Our cases manifested atypical clinical symptomatology and/or pathologic findings and therefore, represent variant forms of JNCL. Case 1 and 2 presented with slow developmental regression from the age of 4 years and became blind and wheelchair bound at around 8 years. Pathologic finding of lymphocytes showed fingerprint inclusion which was consistent with JNCL. Mutational analysis was positive for CLN5 which usually presents as variant late infantile NCL (LINCL) and more common in Finnish population. Case 3 presented with progressive visual loss from the age of 8 years. Clinical symptomatology and age of onset were similar to that of JNCL but was found to have low palmitoyl protein thioesterase, granular inclusion body, and CLN1 mutation, thus representing milder form of INCL. These three cases demonstrated phenotypic-genotypic variations. Pertinent issues relating diagnostic difficulties, ophthalmologic, neuroradiological, and laboratory aspects are discussed.

Phenotypic heterogeneity in skeletal muscle sodium channelopathies: A case report and literature review.

Skeletal muscle sodium channelopathies (SMSCs) including hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HyperPP), paramyotonia congenita (PC), and sodium channel myotonia are caused by sodium channel gene (SCN4A) mutations, with altered sarcolemal excitability, and can present as episodes of skeletal muscle weakness, paralysis, and myotonia. We report a teenage boy, who presented with features of HyperPP, PC, myotonia congenita, and sodium channel myotonia. His electromyography (EMG) revealed myopathic changes, myotonia, and Fournier EMG pattern I, and posed a diagnostic challenge. Genetic analysis showed Thr704Met mutation in SCN4A gene. While with typical clinical phenotypes, the electromyographic patterns can be used to direct genetic testing, atypical phenotypes may pose diagnostic dilemmas. Clinicians dealing with neuromuscular disorders in children need to be aware of the unusual clinical presentations of SMSC, so that focused genetic testing can be carried out.

MICrocephaly, disproportionate pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia syndrome: A clinico-radiologic phenotype linked to calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase gene mutation.

MICrocephaly, disproportionate pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia (MICPCH) syndrome, a rare X-linked disorder, generally seen in girls, is characterized by neurodevelopmental delay, microcephaly, and disproportionate pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia. It is caused by inactivating calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase (CASK) gene mutations. We report a 2-year-old girl with severe neurodevelopmental delay, microcephaly, minimal pontine hypoplasia, cerebellar hypoplasia, and normal looking corpus callosum, with whom the conventional cytogenetic studies turned out to be normal, and an array-comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH) analysis showed CASK gene duplication at Xp11.4. Our case highlights the importance of using clinico-radiologic phenotype to guide genetic investigation and it also confirms the role of a-CGH analysis in establishing the genetic diagnosis of MICPCH syndrome, when conventional cytogenetic studies are inconclusive.

Multiple cerebral cavernous haemangiomas in an infant.

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are vascular malformations causing seizures and cerebral hemorrhages. We report a 20-month old male with multiple CCMs associated with Krev interaction trapped 1 (KRIT1) c.845 + 1 G > C heterozygous transversion mutation. This case demonstrates the importance of molecular genetic analysis in cases of multiple CCM.

Lupus nephritis in children.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinicopathological pattern of lupus nephritis in paediatric nephrology patients. DESIGN: Case series study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: The department of paediatric nephrology at the Children's Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan, over a period of five years from January 2001 to December 2005. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty six patients upto the age 16 years of either gender, with a mean age of 12.4 +/- 1.90 years having primary SLE with renal involvement in the form of oedema, hypertension, haematuria and proteinuria were included. Twenty one were females. Percutaneous renal biopsy was performed. Histological lesion was classified according to WHO classification. Patients were treated with immunosuppressive therapy and their clinical course was followed for at least one year. The mean duration of follow up was 1.77 years. RESULTS: Renal involvement was seen in 92.30% within 2 years of the onset of primary disease. Diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis was the commonest histological lesion (n=14) followed by membranous nephropathy (n=6). The commonest clinical manifestation was oedema (80.76%) followed by hypertension (46.15%). Proteinuria was present in 100% of cases, haematuria in 38.46% and azotemia in 19.33% of patients. Nephrotic range proteinuria was more common in class III and IV, while azotemia was observed only in class IV. The disease was well controlled in 73.07% , relapse was seen in 3.8% of patients, 15.38% died of infections and uremic encephalopathy while 7.69% were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSION: Diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis is the commonest histological lesion in our set-up. Renal involvement is mostly seen within first two years of the primary disease which can be controlled satisfactorily with immunosuppressive therapy.

Methyl 2-[2-(2,6-dichloro-anilino)-phenyl]-acetate.

In the title compound, C(15)H(13)Cl(2)NO(2), the dihedral angle between the aromatic rings is 63.80 (12)°. The conformation may be stabilized by a weak N-H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal structure, a short C-Cl⋯π interaction occurs, with a Cl⋯π separation of 3.5706 (13) Å.