Low IP Research Articles

Understanding the fundamentals of the on-off retention mechanism of oligonucleotides and their application to high throughput analysis

Ion-pair reversed-phase liquid chromatography (IP-RPLC) is clearly recognized as the gold standard for analyzing therapeutic oligonucleotides (ONs). Recent studies have shown that ONs exhibit an on-off retention behavior in IP-RPLC, meaning that minor changes in acetonitrile (ACN) proportion can significantly impact retention. However, this behavior was initially demonstrated with only a single mobile phase condition. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of ON elution behavior by measuring the S values (slope of the retention model, log k vs.%ACN) across a broad range of mobile phase conditions. We systematically calculated the S values for both a 20-mer and 100-mer model ON under various conditions, including different IP reagents, IP concentrations, mobile phase pH, column temperatures, and two different buffering acids. We demonstrated that these mobile phase conditions impact the S values in the following order: IP hydrophobicity > IP concentration > column temperature > buffering acid > mobile phase pH. The main explanation for this trend is that mobile phase conditions that reduce the ion-pair retention mechanism (such as low IP hydrophobicity or concentration) will enhance the impact of% ACN on retention, leading to higher S values.In the second part of the study, this knowledge was used to develop ultra-fast separations for two therapeutic oligonucleotides: a 20-mer antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) without phosphorothioate (PS) modifications and a large single guide RNA (sgRNA) that includes certain PS modifications. The mobile phase conditions were optimized to maximize S values, while preventing the separation of diastereomers. It is important to notice that an S-value of at least 30 is required to benefit from the use of ultra-short columns. This approach allows the successful separation of the main species (ASO and sgRNA) and related impurities in less than one minute using a 5 mm length column.

Impact of humic acid on iron (oxyhydr)oxide transport in the presence of phosphate in saturated porous media

The subsurface flow of particular phosphate (P) has been recently regarded as a vital P transport path. Humic acid (HA) and P usually coexist in the natural environment and show a strong affinity to iron (Fe) (oxyhydr)oxide. The impact of P and HA on Fe (oxyhydr)oxide stability and transport is critical for evaluating the vertical transport of particular P and biogeochemical processes of Fe and P. This study investigated the effect of inorganic (IP) and organic (OP) phosphate on the stability and transport of ferrihydrite and goethite with HA through stability tests and column experiments. The adsorption of IP or OP on Fe (oxyhydr)oxide enhanced the stability and transport of Fe (oxyhydr)oxide, and OP showed a stronger enhancement than IP due to its stronger binding capacity and more negative surface. Compared with ferrihydrite, goethite had fewer adsorption sites for IP or OP and showed strong stability and transport at low IP (50 μM) or OP (10 μM) concentration. HA decreased IP or OP adsorption on Fe (oxyhydr)oxide through competition adsorption and electrostatic repulsion. The formed ternary phosphate-Fe (oxyhydr)oxide-HA complex showed a more negative surface and strong stability and transport. Our findings provide direct insights into the distinct role of IP and OP on Fe (oxyhydr)oxide stability and transport in the presence of HA, which provides essential information for evaluating the transport of particular Fe (oxyhydr)oxide-facilitated P in soils and subsurface environments rich in iron, phosphate, and dissolved carbon.

Parametric study on surface modification of Al-7075 alloy using electric discharge coating

This work investigates the surface modification of Al-7075 alloy using a copper-multi-walled carbon nanotube powder metallurgical green compact tool in the electric discharge coating process. The effect of input parameters such as compact load, peak current ( Ip), and pulse on-time ( Ton) on material deposition rate and surface roughness ( Ra) has been investigated. The process parameters are optimised using the teaching learning-based optimisation algorithm. Maximum material deposition rate of 0.62 mg/min with minimum Ra of 3.00 µm has been achieved at compact load of 6 tons, Ip of 2.5 A, and Ton of 1000 µs. The field emission scanning electron microscopy images show smooth surface generation at low Ip and compact load settings. Characterisation using different techniques confirms the presence of tool materials on the modified surface. The microhardness test of the modified surface exhibits a higher hardness value of 2.70 times than that of the substrate material.

Mirative focalization: A case study of Mandarin lian-DP dou construction

The paper investigates Mandarin lian-DP dou construction (aka. ‘even’-construction) in terms of the following controversial aspects – i.e., the contributions of the syntactically indispensable elements lian ‘even’ and dou ‘all’, and the syntactic distribution of the construction in connection with associated information structure. It is extensively accepted in the literature that a lian-DP – i.e., the chunk formed by lian and the following nominal phrase, can represent two functional positions – in the clause-external Left Periphery (henceforth LP), and in the low IP area, because it occurs either preceding or following the alleged subject. In the present paper, however, I argue that a lian-DP, regardless of its linear position, undergoes successive-cyclic movement and, specifically, it first makes a stopover in SpecdouP for quantificational reasons before it takes a further step of mirative focus fronting targeting the LP. Support is threefold – pragmatically, lian-DP dou construction denotes contextually similar implicatures as Sicilian mirative expressions do; semantically, the quantifier dou, serving as a maximality operator, imposes exhaustivity over the alternatives available on a scale and therefore forces the lian-DP to move to SpecdouP; and syntactically, the observable weak crossover effects (WCO) manifest that lian-DP movement is inherently focus fronting.

Technology transfer as a catalyst for effective university-industry collaboration in Botswana

The university-industry contractual research collaborations to solve complex problems jointly and create social and economic impact have long existed. Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) constitute formal technology intermediaries established to strengthen university-industry collaborations. However, the differences in needs and capabilities, individual and organizational backgrounds, and innovative learning modes inhibit effective partnerships. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how TTOs can catalyze these collaborations in Botswana. We use the grounded theory approach to examine the TTOs’ challenges and opportunities in strengthening university-industry linkages. Notably, we employ inductive analysis to synthesize interview data and analyze it using domain analysis and componential analysis. Data were extracted from the university and industry policies and documents and interviews with 102 participants from two universities (42.2%) and three industry firms (57.8%) involved in technology transfer. We found 71.6% had excellent knowledge and experience and 28.4% had varying degrees of experience. While individual or independent consultancies (44.1%) lead, TTOs facilitate collaboration through contractual research agreements (32.4%), technology licensing (22.5%), and joint ventures (10.8%). This demonstrates entities' significant access to each other's financial and technological resources. This allows entities to generate new knowledge, equip each other with tools and competencies required to produce commercial products and new revenue streams. Most significantly, while Botswana has displayed remarkable progress toward strengthening its institutional support systems for technology transfer and commercialization, there is a shortage of IP expertise at universities and industries, possibly leading to low levels of IP awareness. Also, most institutions have incomplete IP strategies, and there is inadequate administration and enforcement of intellectual property rights systems at the national level, possibly contributing to low national IP filings. Therefore, we recommend entities fully engage in vigorous IP activities, review and finalize their IP policies and make them flexible yet equitably based on the needs of the collaborating industry firms.

Indian Biosimilars and Vaccines at Crossroads-Replicating the Success of Pharmagenerics.

The global pharma sector is fast shifting from generics to biologics and biosimilars with the first approval in Europe in 2006 followed by US approval in 2015. In the form of Hepatitis B vaccine, India saw its first recombinant biologics approval in 2000. Around 20% of generic medications and 62% of vaccines are now supplied by the Indian pharmaceutical industry. It is this good position in biologics and biosimilars production that could potentially improve healthcare via decreased treatment cost. India has witnessed large investments in biosimilars over the years. Numerous India-bred new players, e.g., Enzene Biosciences Ltd., are keen on biosimilars and have joined the race alongside the emerging giants, e.g., Biocon and Dr. Reddy's. A very positive sign was the remarkable disposition during the COVID-19 pandemic by Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India. India's biopharmaceutical industry has been instrumental in producing and supplying preventives and therapeutics to fight COVID-19. Despite a weak supply chain and workforce pressure, the production was augmented to provide reasonably priced high-quality medications to more than 133 nations. Biosimilars could cost-effectively treat chronic diseases involving expensive conventional therapies, including diabetes, respiratory ailments, cancer, and connective tissue diseases. Biologics and biosimilars have been and are being tested to treat and manage COVID-19 symptoms characterized by inflammation and respiratory distress. Although India boasts many universities, research centers, and a relatively skilled workforce, its global University-Industry collaboration ranking is 24, IPR ranking remains 47 and innovation ranking 39. This reveals a wide industry-academia gap to bridge. There are gaps in effective translational research in India that must be promptly and appropriately addressed. Innovation demands strong and effective collaborations among universities, techno-incubators, and industries. Many successful research findings in academia do not get translation opportunities supposedly due to low industrial collaboration, low IP knowledge, and publication pressure with stringent timelines. In light of this, a detailed review of literature, including policy papers, government initiatives, and corporate reviews, was carried out, and the compilation and synthesis of the secondary data were meticulously summarized for the easy comprehension of the facts and roadmap ahead. For easy comprehension, charts, figures, and compiled tables are presented. This review assesses India's situation in the biosimilar space, the gaps and areas to improve for Indian investment strategies, development, and innovation, addressing need for a more skilled workforce, industrial collaboration, and business models. This review also proposes forward an approach to empowering technopreneurs to develop MSMEs for large-scale operations to support India in taking innovative thoughts to the global level to ultimately realize a self-reliant India. The limitations of the compilation are also highlighted towards the end.

A Cartographic Analysis of Subject Status in Root SV(O) and VS(O) Orders in Algerian Arabic

This paper investigates word order derivation in root clauses in Algerian Arabic (AA) with a focus on preverbal and postverbal constituents. The data is collected from audio typed recordings of natural ongoing speeches of 40 Algerian informants. Four cartographic frameworks are applied: Rizzi’s (1997) Split-CP system, Frascarelli and Hinterhölzl’s (2007) topic typology, Kiss’s (1998) contrastive-information focus dichotomy and Belletti’s (2004, 2005) model of the low periphery. Empirical evidence shows that preverbal elements can have three readings: genuine subject reading, topic reading, or focus reading. Unlike Rizzi (1997) who assumes that topic is a unique category, and in line with Frascarelli and Hinterhölzl’s (2007), three kinds of topics are licensed in the AA left periphery: non-recursive aboutness topic, recursive familiar topics and non-recursive contrastive topic. AA left periphery hosts only contrastive focus, and informational focus occurs in lower positions. Empirical evidence also shows that AA manifest a low IP area containing low topic and low focus. Different arguments are used to support this view: the behavior of the copula ‘ka:na’, floating quantifier and the behavior of the exclusive particle ‘bark’.

The fine structure of low topics in Najdi Arabic

AbstractThis article explores the low IP area of Najdi Arabic, with special reference to a construction involving a post-verbal object that is resumed on the verb (as in ‘The man saw-her the woman’). We provide evidence that the object is a topic in the low IP area in such cases. However, the position of the object in the low IP area is masked by the movement of the verb to T0 or, in some cases (if T0 is lexically filled) to the head of the low Focus Phrase. We also provide evidence that Najdi Arabic low topics exclusively express given, accessible information (i.e., familiar topics), which is found to be a prominent characteristic that distinguishes them from high topics (in the CP domain). High topics are shown to be ambiguous with respect to their specific discourse-informational value (aboutness/shifting vs. contrastiveness vs. familiarity). Additionally, we offer evidence that low topics in Najdi Arabic are recursive, dominated by a low Focus Phrase (FocP > TopP*). At a general level, the study demonstrates that topics in the low IP area are more restrictive in their informational content than previously believed.

Acute pain-related depression of operant responding maintained by social interaction or food in male and female rats.

Clinically relevant pain is oftenassociated with functional impairment and behavioral depression, including depression of social behavior. Moreover, recovery of function is a major goal in pain treatment. We used a recently developed model of operant responding for social interaction in rats to evaluate the vulnerability of social behavior to an experimental pain manipulation and the sensitivity of pain-depressed social behavior to treatment with clinically effective analgesics. Sprague-Dawley male and female rats were trained to lever press for social access to another rat, and responding was evaluated after treatment with (a) intraperitoneal injection of dilute lactic acid (IP acid; 0.18-5.6%) administered alone as a visceral noxious stimulus, (b) the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonist morphine (0.32-10mg/kg) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ketoprofen (10mg/kg) administered alone, or (c) morphine or ketoprofen administered before IP acid. For comparison, the same treatments were evaluated in separate rats trained to lever press for food delivery. Both IP acid alone and morphine alone more potently decreased responding maintained by social interaction than by food, whereas ketoprofen did not affect responding for either reinforcer. In general, analgesics were most effective to rescue operant responding when relatively low IP acid concentrations produced significant but submaximal behavioral depression; however, morphine was not effective to rescue responding for social interaction. Operant responding maintained by social interaction was more sensitive to pain-related disruption and less responsive to opioid analgesic rescue than food-maintained operant responding. Social behavior may be especially vulnerable to depression by pain states.

Starter and carryover effects of feeding varied feed form (FF) and feed quality (FQ) from 0–18 d on performance and processing for two broiler strains

Previous research in our laboratory demonstrated that feeding broiler chicks crumbles of 2,200 to 3,736 µm improved starter performance, suggesting chicks may be able to consume larger particles, even pellets, earlier than perceived. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effects of 0 to 18 d variations in feed form (FF; crumble or intact pellets [IP]) and feed quality (FQ; low, medium, high) on starter performance utilizing 2 different genetic strains (GS; high yielding [HY] or fast growing [FG]). Starter FF and FQ carryover effects were also examined by feeding common pelleted diets for the remainder of the grow-out phases and measuring d 62 performance and d 63 processing. Day 0 to 18 FF and FQ interacted, whereas birds fed crumbles had the highest BW and BWG, regardless of crumble FQ; birds fed IP achieved increased weights when FQ was highest, similar to birds fed crumbles. Examining the carryover effects, 0 to 32 d FCR was improved by providing high FQ crumbles (3,388 µm). Overall data (d 0–62) demonstrated no significant differences for measured performance variables. Interactive differences were found for d 63 breast yield (BY), dependent on the FF and FQ presented from d 0 to 18 for each GS. In particular, HY strains demonstrated improved BY if fed low FQ crumbles or high FQ IP, whereas FG broilers demonstrated similar yields, regardless of FF and FQ. These data suggest that the length of the grow out is important when determining which FQ and FF to present in the starter growth phase.

Investigation of interleukin-2-mediated changes in blood pressure, fetal growth restriction, and innate immune activation in normal pregnant rats and in a preclinical rat model of preeclampsia

Two important clinical features of preeclampsia (PE) are hypertension and fetal growth restriction. The reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) preclinical rat model of PE exhibits both of these features. Moreover, RUPP and PE women have elevated vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin-1 (ET-1) and inflammation. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a cytokine that regulates NK cell activity and is elevated in miscarriage, PE, and RUPP rats. The objective of this study was to examine a role for IL-2 in NK cell activation, fetal growth restriction, and hypertension during pregnancy by either infusion of IL-2 or blockade of IL-2 (basiliximab) in normal pregnant (NP) and RUPP rats. On gestational day 14, NP and RUPP rats received low (LD), middle (MD), or high dose (HD) IL-2 (0.05, 0.10, or 0.20 ng/ml) IP or basiliximab (0.07 mg per rat) by IV infusion. On day 19, blood pressure (MAP), pup weights, and blood were collected. Basiliximab had no effect on blood pressure, however, significantly lowered NK cells and may have worsened overall fetal survival in RUPP rats. However, IL-2 LD (102 ± 4 mmHg) and IL-2 HD (105 ± 6 mmHg) significantly lowered blood pressure, ET-1, and activated NK cells compared to control RUPPs (124 ± 3 mmHg, p < 0.05). Importantly, IL-2 in RUPP rats significantly reduced fetal weight and survival. These data indicate that although maternal benefits may have occurred with low dose IL-2 infusion, negative effects were seen in the fetus. Moreover, inhibition of IL-2 signaling did not have favorable outcome for the mother or fetus.

Electrochemical Corrosion Behavior of Powder Metallurgy Ti6Al4V Alloy

The corrosion behavior of powder metallurgy (PM) Ti6Al4V alloys with different relative densities ranged from 95.2 to 99.5% is investigated in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution at room temperature by electrochemical methods, including potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. For comparison, traditional wrought Ti6Al4V alloy with full densification is also investigated. The results show that the corrosion resistance of PM Ti6Al4V alloys increases with the increasing density. All the studied samples exhibit low Ip values (in the order of 10−6 A cm−2), indicating good corrosion resistance under current experimental conditions. Therefore, density effect on the corrosion resistance of PM Ti6Al4V alloys is less significant. It is worth noting that the corrosion resistance and mechanical performance of PM Ti6Al4V alloys with nearly full densification are comparable to those of wrought alloys. Therefore, PM Ti alloys are promising candidates in the marine application.

In favour of the low IP area in the Arabic clause structure

Empirical evidence is provided for the existence of a discourse-related area between TP and vP in Jordanian Arabic (JA), a finding which is in line with Belletti’s (2004, 2005) model of the low IP area in natural languages. A two million-word corpus of naturally occurring data from JA, supported by grammaticality judgements from 50 JA speakers, reveals that the subject in VSO clauses of JA is mostly either a definite DP or a modified, indefinite DP, implying that a certain informational value (i.e., a topic or a focus) is assigned to the post-verbal subject in such clauses. Another piece of evidence, among many others, that substantiates this line of analysis comes from the distributional properties of the subject in VSO clauses with respect to the past tense copula ka:n ‘was’ and high vP adverbials. The subject appears to the right of the former but to the left of the latter. We take this as a good indication that the subject in VSO clauses moves to a structural position higher than vP adverbials, yet lower than T0. In order to account for the reason why the subject does not raise to Spec,TP in VSO clauses in JA, we adopt the Criterial Freezing approach to movement and chain formation (Rizzi 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014; Rizzi and Shlonsky 2007). Criterial positions, whose heads are endowed with a specific informational feature such as [TOP] or [FOC], are traps. The subject landing in Spec, Topic Phrase or Spec, Focus Phrase (of the low IP area) gets frozen in place, obtaining, as a result, the VSO word order on the surface.

First wall energy deposition during vertical displacement events on ITER

The beryllium (Be) first wall energy deposition and melt damage profiles resulting from the current quench phase of an unmitigated, 5 MA/1.8 T upward vertical displacement event for ITER are investigated. Time dependent 2D magnetic flux profiles are calculated with the DINA code and used as input for the SMITER 3D field line tracing software. 3D maps of the wetted area and perpendicular heat flux show that the majority of the energy deposition occurs on the upper first wall panels #8 and #9. SMITER simulations predict on the surfaces of upper FWPs #8 and #9 at the end of the ∼450 ms current quench. The surface heat flux maps generated by SMITER are used as input in the MEMOS-U code, which models Be melt formation and dynamics. Simulations reveal peak surface temperatures of ∼2200 K, inward surface damage of ∼0.5 mm in depth, and average melt velocities of ∼2 m s−1. Although VDEs are in principle the easiest disruptive instability to avoid, the analysis demonstrates that any non-mitigated events or intentional VDEs taking place during low Ip, early operational phases of ITER for the purposes of estimating disruption forces, must be kept to a low number.

Comparison of Vehicle Detection Techniques applied to IP Camera Video Feeds for use in Intelligent Transport Systems

Vehicle detection is an important area in Transport and Artificial Intelligence. Through vehicle detection techniques, vehicles can be located across different images. Some of these models are robust enough to identify parts of vehicles in images where the vehicle might be partially occluded. Recent advances in detection methods gave rise to a range of different techniques that can be used for recognition and detection of vehicles. Although each technique has its merits, it is not always the case that the adopted model works well for scenarios involving IP Cameras. The motivation for this study is to compare several state-of-the-art techniques, including deep learning models and computer vision approaches. A set of experiments are developed in order to test these models on a number of low quality IP camera footages set in the transport domain in order to measure detection and recognition accuracy. The final evaluation compares detection accuracy using mean average precision, the semantics of the recognised vehicle as well as recognition robustness when applied to a dataset that contains images with different light conditions. The study also looks at persistence in recognition across frames in video data and a detailed description of the dataset used to train the evaluated models. Finally, the paper also goes through some scenarios that applies the results obtained in this study to ITS systems that use IP camera feeds.

Theoretical design of new triphenylamine based dyes for the fabrication of DSSCs: A DFT/TD-DFT study

A series of rigid triphenylamine (TPA) dyes have been designed with the donor(D)-π-acceptor(A) architecture. The rigid TPA unit is designed by locking the two phenyl rings with alkyl and ethylene chain to attain better planarity and to minimize its rotation. Four different acceptor units viz. BTz, BBTz, PzT and PyT are used to design four parent dye systems. The study reveals that all four dyes show low ΔH−L values whereas only BTz, PyT and PzT dyes show small dihedral angles. Moreover, excited state calculation of these three dyes show excellent electronic transition properties with a sharp absorption (λmax) in the range of 507–540 nm at the UV–vis spectra. The λmax values of BTz, PyT and PzT dyes show a red shift to that of the reference dye which signifies better electronic transition from HOMO to LUMO orbitals. It is further supported by the MO diagrams of the dyes where the MOs of BBTz dye shows less overlap between the occupied and unoccupied orbitals. It is also evident from the low EA and IP values that the three dye systems (excluding BBTz) should show excellent transfer of injected electron to the semiconducting surface. Low λ+ and high kCT+ values imply the hole transporting nature of the designed dyes. Hence, these dyes will act as potential candidates for fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Rock Physics Models and Seismic Inversion in Reservoir Characterization, “MUN” Onshore Niger Delta Field

Rock Physics Modelling and Seismic Inversion were carried out in an Onshore Niger Delta Field for the purpose of characterizing a hydrocarbon reservoir. The aim of the study was to integrate rock physics models and seismic inversion to improve the characterization of a selected reservoir using well-log and 3D seismic data sets. Seven reservoir sands were delineated using suite of logs from three wells. In this study, the sand 4 reservoir was selected for analysis. The result of petrophysical evaluation shows that the sand 4 reservoir is relatively thick (62 ft) with low water saturation (0.33), shale volume (0.11) and high porosity (0.32). These results indicate reservoir of good quality and producibility. Cross-plot of property pairs (acoustic impedance (Ip) vs. lambda-rho (λρ) and mu-rho (μρ) vs. lambda-rho (λρ) color-coded with reservoir properties reveals three distinct probable zones: hydrocarbon sand, brine sand and shale. Results show that low Ip, λρ and μρ associated with hydrocarbon charged sands correspond to low Sw and Vsh and high &#216. The integration of rock physics models and inverted rock attributes effectively delineated and improved understanding of already producing reservoirs, as well as other hydrocarbon charged sands of low Sw, Vsh, and high &#216 to the east of existing well locations, which indicate possible by-passed hydrocarbon pays. The results of this work can assist in forecasting hydrocarbon prospectivity and lessen chances of drilling dry holes in MUN onshore Niger delta field.

Integrated modeling of plasma ramp-up in DIII-D ITER-like and high bootstrap current scenario discharges

Time-dependent integrated modeling of DIII-D ITER-like and high bootstrap current plasma ramp-up discharges has been performed with the equilibrium code EFIT, and the transport codes TGYRO and ONETWO. Electron and ion temperature profiles are simulated by TGYRO with the TGLF (SAT0 or VX model) turbulent and NEO neoclassical transport models. The VX model is a new empirical extension of the TGLF turbulent model [Jian et al., Nucl. Fusion 58, 016011 (2018)], which captures the physics of multi-scale interaction between low-k and high-k turbulence from nonlinear gyro-kinetic simulation. This model is demonstrated to accurately model low Ip discharges from the EAST tokamak. Time evolution of the plasma current density profile is simulated by ONETWO with the experimental current ramp-up rate. The general trend of the predicted evolution of the current density profile is consistent with that obtained from the equilibrium reconstruction with Motional Stark effect constraints. The predicted evolution of βN, li, and βP also agrees well with the experiments. For the ITER-like cases, the predicted electron and ion temperature profiles using TGLF_Sat0 agree closely with the experimental measured profiles, and are demonstrably better than other proposed transport models. For the high bootstrap current case, the predicted electron and ion temperature profiles perform better in the VX model. It is found that the SAT0 model works well at high IP (&amp;gt;0.76 MA) while the VX model covers a wider range of plasma current (IP &amp;gt; 0.6 MA). The results reported in this paper suggest that the developed integrated modeling could be a candidate for ITER and CFETR ramp-up engineering design modeling.

Anti-degenerative effect of Apigenin, Luteolin and Quercetin on human keratinocyte and chondrocyte cultures: SAR evaluation.

Inflammation is a dynamic process that occur on vascularized tissue in response to different stimuli causing cell injury and tissue degeneration. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have a key mediatory role in the development and progression of degenerative tissue process. The bioflavonoids possess a broad-spectrum of pharmacological activities. Their capability is related to their chemical structure. In this study we evaluated and compare antioxidant, anti-glycative and anti-degenerative actions of two flavones apigenin and luteolin and a flavonol quercetin, in function of their hydroxyl groups arrangement. Moreover we assay, on NCTC 2544 and chondrocytes cultures, the flavonoids capacity to modulate NO and glycosamminoglycans levels, index of antidegenerative capacity. All tested flavonoids act as free radicals scavengers (ROO• and NO•) and advanced glycation end products inhibitors, in agreement with their BDE, IP and molecular planarity. Quercetin showed a high ORAC value (2.70±0.12 ORAC Units), according to a low BDE (74.54 Kcal/mol) and IP (174.44 Kcal/mol) values. Luteolin is the most active compound in the NO (48.19±0.18%) and AGEs (60.06±0.52%) inhibition, in function of a low torsion angle (16.3°) between the 3-OH moiety and C'6 carbon atom. All tested flavonoids posses a protective role on degenerative tissue events. They acts in different manner depending on the functional groups, the biological substrate and the concentration used. In any case, it can be considered a suitable product preventing a degenerative processes.

Seed treatments associated with resistance inducers for management of Pratylenchus brachyurus in soybean

Pratylenchus brachyurus is one of the main limiting factors of soybean yield in Brazil, particularly because of inefficiency of the control methods when used individually. The present study aimed to assess the effect of associated methods, using seed treatment with nematicides (ST) and resistance inducers (RI), on nematode control in soybean plant in both field and greenhouse conditions. A field assay was conducted in an infested field and nematode population was assessed at sowing, 45, 75, and 100 days after sowing and the yield measured at end of crop cycle. The experiment was repeated in greenhouse. In another experiment, that was conducted in two different periods in a greenhouse, seed treatments and resistance inducers, alone or combined, were assessed under two initial populations of P. brachyurus (low IP = 500 specimens and high IP = 2000 specimens). The treatments did not reduce the number of nematodes g−1 of root in field assay, but all seed treatments effectively controlled nematode population in the greenhouse assay. Most treatments reduced the number of nematodes g−1 of root when nematode initial population was low (IP = 500) but when initial nematode population was high (IP = 2000) combinations of treatments which includes abamectin inhibited P. brachyurus reproduction. Chemical products did not affect yield but acibenzolar-S-methyl, alone or associated with other products, generally inhibit plant growth.