Transferability Testing Research Articles

Pharmacists' practice in providing pharmaceutical services of treating paediatric diarrhoea in pharmacies: A qualitative study

Background: Diarrhoea is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Pharmacists in pharmacies are essential in managing the treatment of diarrhoea in children and its prevention, particularly in preventing dehydration in children with diarrhoea. Objective: This study aims to explore the practice of pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical services related to treating diarrhoea in children in pharmacies. Method: The research was conducted using a qualitative, non-experimental method through in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted face-to-face. Informants were recruited until data saturation, and ten pharmacist informants were obtained. Data validity was assessed through credibility testing with member checking, transferability testing with a detailed description, dependability testing, and confirmability testing through peer debriefing. Interview results were analysed descriptively using an inductive reasoning process. Result: In practice, not all pharmacists obtain complete drug information, make recommendations for appropriate treatment of paediatric diarrhoea, and provide complete drug information. The inhibiting factors for the implementation of pharmaceutical services related to paediatric diarrhoea therapy in the pharmacy is the lack of up-to-date knowledge among pharmacists and the limited human resources in the pharmacy. Conclusion: Pharmacists have a role in preventing and treating diarrhoea in children because they are health professionals who can be found in pharmacies and whom the public can consult about treating diarrhoea in their children.

Peran Sekolah Perempuan dalam Memperkuat Fungsi Keluarga bagi Ibu Rumah Tangga di Desa Tanjung Rejo

This research aims to determine the Role of Women's Schools in Strengthening the Family Function in the Educational Field for Housewives in Tanjung Rejo Village. This research was conducted at PKBM Laskar Pelangi as the venue for women's school activities in Tanjung Rejo Village, Percut Sei Tuan sub-district. The type of research used is qualitative descriptive research. The subjects in this study are 2 managers of women's schools and 2 learning participants. Data collection techniques used are observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis techniques include data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The technique for checking the validity of data includes credibility testing, dependability testing, transferability testing, and confirmability testing. The results of the study show several findings: 1) Women's schools contribute positively to instilling religious education, introducing values such as patience, honesty, and sex education, creating an environment that supports the spiritual and moral development of learning participants. 2) The role of women's schools in moral education contributes positively by integrating moral values into the curriculum. 3) Women's schools help families create a safe emotional environment, supporting children in dealing with feelings and emotions. 4) The role of women's schools in developing household skills provides practical knowledge and training related to managing daily household tasks. 5) Women's schools successfully develop vocational skills, such as utilizing social media, making accessories, and entrepreneurial skills, contributing to the ability of housewives to apply these skills in daily life and even encouraging the opening of small businesses at home. Keywords: Role of sekolah perempuan, Family function, Housewives

Development, genetic diversity analysis, and transferability of microsatellite markers for Brycon amazonicus.

Brycon amazonicus is a species native to Brazil, with significant socioeconomic importance and immense potential for fish production. It is the second most cultivated species in the Amazon. The lack of specific molecular markers limits genetic research. This study aimed to identify species-specific microsatellite markers for B. amazonicus and analyze the genetic diversity of four fish farms: Nova Mutum, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia, Jatuarana, and Nova Airão. In addition, the transferability of these markers to species of the same genus (B. orbignyanus, B. falcatus, and B. gouldingi) was evaluated. Seventeen primer pairs were developed using the enriched library method. Eight of these were used for the genetic analysis of B. amazonicus stocks. In total, 47 alleles were identified. The mean endogamy coefficient (FIS) was negative and significant for Nova Mutum stocks. However, the populations of B. amazonicus in Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia (0.179), Jatuarana (0.099), and Nova Airão were positive and nonsignificant. Analysis of molecular variance showed that most of the variation was observed within the populations evaluated (57%), and genetic differentiation (FST = 0.423) among the stocks was high. Bayesian analysis indicated that the best number of genetic clusters was K = 3. Transferability testing showed successful amplification (90%) of the primers by estimating the allele size between 144 and 294 base pairs (bp) and a total of 24 alleles for the related Brycon species. This indicates the high potential of microsatellites for the analysis of diversity and population genetic structure in both the genus Brycon and family Characidae.

Deep Learning-Based Natural Language Processing to Automate Esophagitis Severity Grading from the Electronic Health Records

Radiotherapy (RT) toxicities can impair survival and quality-of-life, yet their risk factors and optimal management are under-studied. Real-world evidence holds enormous potential to improve our understanding of RT adverse events, but this information is often only documented in clinic notes and cannot, at present, be automatically extracted. To address this unmet need, we developed natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to automatically identify the presence and severity of esophagitis from notes of patients treated with thoracic RT. Our corpus consisted of (1) a gold-labeled dataset of 1524 clinic notes from 124 lung cancer patients treated with RT (in-domain), manually annotated for CTCAE v5.0 esophagitis grade, and (2) a silver-labeled dataset of 2420 notes from 1832 patients on whom toxicity grades had been collected as structured data during clinical care. We developed a fine-tuning pipeline for pre-trained BERT-based neural models for 3 tasks: 1) classifying the presence of esophagitis, 2) classifying grade 0-1 vs. > = 2 esophagitis and 3) classifying grade 0 vs. 1 vs. 2-3. A note sectionizer was used to let the model focus on the most informative sections. Independent validation in a separate clinical cohort of esophageal cancer patients was selected for out-of-domain transferability testing. Such cohorts consist of a manually annotated dataset of 345 notes from 75 esophageal cancer patients treated with RT. We also report patient-level results by evaluating the maximum predicted grade per patient. Fine-tuning PubmedBERT yielded the best-performing models. Performance is shown in the table. Selecting the most informative note sections (primarily Interval History, Assessment & Plan) during fine-tuning improved macro-F1 by > = 2% for all tasks. Including silver-labeled data improved the macro-F1 by > = 3% across all tasks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to automatically extract toxicity severity according to CTCAE guidelines from clinic notes, providing proof-of-concept for NLP to support detailed toxicity reporting. Fine-tuning on note sections and leveraging silver-labeled data enabled promising performance despite small datasets, informing future research into NLP for automated toxicity monitoring. Future work will extend these methods to other cancer diagnoses and toxicities, and to toxicity risk prediction.

Financial Accountability Dimensions Of Islamic Values At Al Washliyah Higher SCHO

The problem behind this research is that ideally the financial accountability of Islamic organizations including educational institutions must uphold Islamic values. But in reality, there are still many Islamic educational institutions that have not made Islamic values ​​the basis for managing the financial system. Al Jam'iyatul Washliyah as a community organization based on Islamic teachings manages several universities, where financial management and accountability are required to be based on Islamic values. The formulation of this research is how financial accountability has the dimensions of Islamic values ​​at Al Washliyah College in North Sumatra. This research is a qualitative research with a phenomenological approach, while the paradigm used is an interpretive paradigm. Data collection methods are interviews, observation and documentation. The data sources of this research are primary and secondary data sources. Primary data were obtained directly from the results of interviews with all informants, namely the vice chancellor II/vice chair II for finance at each Al Washliyah university in North Sumatra. Data analysis techniques are data collection, data reduction and drawing conclusions. Techniques to guarantee data validity are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability testing. The results of this study concluded that Islamic values ​​on financial accountability at Al Washliyah College are the value of siddiq, the value of tabligh, the value of trust, the value of fatah, the value of sincerity and the value of deliberation which are used as the basis for carrying out financial management at the Al Washliyah College of North Sumatra.

Financial Accountability Dimensions Of Islamic Values At Al Washliyah Higher SCHO

The problem behind this research is that ideally the financial accountability of Islamic organizations including educational institutions must uphold Islamic values. But in reality, there are still many Islamic educational institutions that have not made Islamic values ​​the basis for managing the financial system. Al Jam'iyatul Washliyah as a community organization based on Islamic teachings manages several universities, where financial management and accountability are required to be based on Islamic values. The formulation of this research is how financial accountability has the dimensions of Islamic values ​​at Al Washliyah College in North Sumatra. This research is a qualitative research with a phenomenological approach, while the paradigm used is an interpretive paradigm. Data collection methods are interviews, observation and documentation. The data sources of this research are primary and secondary data sources. Primary data were obtained directly from the results of interviews with all informants, namely the vice chancellor II/vice chair II for finance at each Al Washliyah university in North Sumatra. Data analysis techniques are data collection, data reduction and drawing conclusions. Techniques to guarantee data validity are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability testing. The results of this study concluded that Islamic values ​​on financial accountability at Al Washliyah College are the value of siddiq, the value of tabligh, the value of trust, the value of fatah, the value of sincerity and the value of deliberation which are used as the basis for carrying out financial management at the Al Washliyah College of North Sumatra.

STRATEGI RETORIKA PEMBAWA ACARA DALAM MATA NAJWA DI TRANS7

This study aims to interpret the function of verbal and nonverbal rhetorical forms of presenters in Mata Najwa on Trans7 as a rhetorical strategy. The design and type of this research used descriptive qualitative. The research was conducted comprehensively which refers to the analysis of verbal and nonverbal rhetorical forms. Data collection techniques used recording techniques, listening techniques, and note-taking techniques. Meanwhile, the data analysis in this study was to classify the data and classify the data. To test the validity of the data, the researchers used several stages, namely credibility testing, transferability testing, depenability testing, and confirmability testing. The results of this study found that the use of verbal (diction and style) and nonverbal (body language) rhetoric from Najwa Shihab's speech contained many persuasive elements. From the persuasive element, it was used as a strategy for the presenter in Mata Najwa on Trans7.Based on the results and discussion of verbal and nonverbal rhetoric in the Mata Najwa program on Trans7, various verb elements were selected which functioned to expedite the process of the presenter's strategy in influencing listeners. Therefore, an art in communicating is absolutely necessary for a presenter in conveying messages through the rhetoric of verbal forms of speech and rhetoric of speech in nonverbal forms.

Amygdala electrical-finger-print (AmygEFP) NeuroFeedback guided by individually-tailored Trauma script for post-traumatic stress disorder: Proof-of-concept

BackgroundAmygdala activity dysregulation plays a central role in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Hence learning to self-regulate one's amygdala activity may facilitate recovery. PTSD is further characterized by abnormal contextual processing related to the traumatic memory. Therefore, provoking the personal traumatic narrative while training amygdala down-regulation could enhance clinical efficacy. We report the results of a randomized controlled trial (NCT02544971) of a novel self-neuromodulation procedure (i.e. NeuroFeedback) for PTSD, aimed at down-regulating limbic activity while receiving feedback from an auditory script of a personal traumatic narrative. To scale-up applicability, neural activity was probed by an fMRI-informed EEG model of amygdala activity, termed Amygdala Electrical Finger-Print (AmygEFP). MethodsFifty-nine adults meeting DSM-5 criteria for PTSD were randomized between three groups: Trauma-script feedback interface (Trauma-NF) or Neutral feedback interface (Neutral-NF), and a control group of No-NF (to control for spontaneous recovery). Before and immediately after 15 NF training sessions patients were blindly assessed for PTSD symptoms and underwent one session of amygdala fMRI-NF for transferability testing. Follow-up clinical assessment was performed at 3- and 6-months following NF treatment. ResultsPatients in both NF groups learned to volitionally down-regulate AmygEFP signal and demonstrated a greater reduction in PTSD symptoms and improved down-regulation of the amygdala during fMRI-NF, compared to the No-NF group. The Trauma-NF group presented the largest immediate clinical improvement. ConclusionsThis proof-of-concept study indicates the feasibility of the AmygEFP-NF process-driven as a scalable intervention for PTSD and illustrates its clinical potential. Further investigation is warranted to elucidate the contribution of AmygEFP-NF beyond exposure and placebo effects.

Transferability of trait‐based species distribution models

The need for reliable prediction of species distributions dependent upon traits has been hindered by a lack of model transferability testing. We tested the predictive capacity of trait‐SDMs by fitting hierarchical generalised linear models with three trait and four environmental predictors for 20 eucalypt taxa in a reference region. We used these models to predict occurrence for a much larger set of taxa and target areas (82 taxa across 18 target regions) in south‐eastern Australia. Median predictive performance for new species in target regions was 0.65 (area under receiver operating curve) and 1.24 times random (area under precision recall curve). Prediction in target regions did not worsen with increasing geographic, environmental or community compositional distance from the reference region, and was improved with reliable trait–environment relationships. Transfer testing also identified trait–environment relationships that did not transfer. These results give confidence that traits and transfer testing can assist in the hard problem of predicting environmental responses for new species, environmental conditions and regions.

Machine learning to extract communication and history-taking skills in OSCE transcripts.

Observed Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs) allow assessment of, and provide feedback to, medical students. Clinical examiners and standardised patients (SP) typically complete itemised checklists and global scoring scales, which have known shortcomings. In this study, we applied machine learning (ML) to label some communication skills and interview content information in OSCE transcripts and to compare several ML methodologies by performance and transferability. One-hundred and twenty-one transcripts of two OSCE scenarios were manually annotated per utterance across 19 communication skills and content areas. Utterances were converted to two types of numeric sentence vector representations and were paired with three types of ML algorithms. First, ML models (MLMs) were evaluated using a five K-fold cross-validation technique on all transcripts in one scenario to generate precision and recall, and their harmonic mean, F1 scores. Second, ML models were trained on all 101 transcripts from scenario 1 and tested for transferability on 20 scenario 2 transcripts. Performance testing in the K-fold cross-validation demonstrated relatively high mean F1 scores: median 0.87 and range 0.53-0.98 across all 19 labels. Transferability testing demonstrated success: F1 median 0.76 and range 0.46-0.97. The combination of a bi-directional long short-term memory neural network (biLSTM) algorithm with GenSen numeric sentence vector representations was associated with greater F1 scores across both performance and transferability (P<.005). We report the first application of ML in the context of student-SP OSCEs. We demonstrated that several MLMs automatically labelled OSCE transcripts for a range of interview content and some clinical communications skills. Some MLMs achieved greater performance and transferability. Optimised MLMs could provide automated and accurate assessment of OSCEs with potential to track student progress and identify areas for further practice.

Spatial Transferability Testing of Dummy Variable Winter Weather Model Using Traffic Data Collected from Five Geographically Dispersed Weigh-in-Motion Sites in Alberta Highway Systems

AbstractIt has been an engineering practice that highway agencies collect traffic data using highway traffic monitoring techniques such as permanent traffic counts (PTCs) and weigh in motion (WIM)....

KREATIFITAS MAHASISWA DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MEMBATIK MENGGUNAKAN MEDIA LILIN DINGIN

This study aims to: Describe the creativity of students in learning batik using cold wax media. This study uses a qualitative method. To collect data, researchers used interview techniques, direct field observation, documentation. The data analysis technique uses the Miles and Huberman methods, namely data editor, data presentation, verification. While the validity test of the data includes the test of internal validity (credibility), transferability testing, dependability testing and confirmation testing. The results of the study show that (1). Students' creativity in learning batik using cold wax media, the material is slightly different from the one given at the beginning of the discussion of the material needed, students make cold wax using starch because starch binds the cloth faster when applying to Mori cloth. (2). The making of motive patterns is very diverse, with a compact theme about the motives of the area of origin of each student, so as to make students aware of cultural heritage and can challenge local wisdom. (3) Using used bottles from cooking vinegar. (5) making a tutorial book where the book is material in the form of theory and practice into a book in which there are steps in making art that they have studied for one semester. From this assignment, the students showed their creativity again through the compilation of tutorials on how to use cold wax with great interest so that they could later use the book again when they went directly to the job to become elementary school teachers.

Identification and characterization of microsatellite markers in fenugreek: An inter-family amplification

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is one of the most important and primitive medicinal plants belonging to family fabaceae and is recognized as one of the most prominent seed spices. Development, identification and classification of entirely new set of SSRs are a very expensive and time consuming process for a crop like fenugreek. Instead, a novel set of SSRs can be achieved with ease in less expense by transferring the microsatellite loci of the related species in fenugreek. SSR’s of two major crops, carrot and celery belonging to apiaceae family are available in public domain for cross-species and inter-family investigation. In the present study, we examined transferability of 100 carrot SSR loci in fenugreek of which 19% of SSR’s amplified, where 5 primers were monomorphic. 14 SSRs were polymorphic in nature and the bands ranged between 2 to 5. GSSR-87, GSSR-92, GSSR-136 and BSSR-8 showed monomorphic bands and were specific for fenugreek genotypes and can be regarded as a dominant tool for fenugreek breeding and genetic studies. However, GSSR-81 and GSSR-96 were most polymorphic in nature and can be utilized further to distinguish fenugreek from other seed spices. The analysis, revealed optimum level of cross-species transferability (>35.2%) in fenugreek, where no SSR resource is available till date, initiating cross transferability testing from the enriched SSR database of carrot.

EKSPLORASI MINAT BELAJAR SISWA DALAM MATA PELAJARAN SENI TARI DI SD TAMAN MUDA IBU PAWIYATAN YOGYAKARTA

This study uses a qualitative method. To collect data the researcher used interview techniques, direct field observation, documentation and questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman methods, namely data reduction, display data, and verifying. While testing the validity of the data include credibility test, transferability testing, dependentbility testing and konfirmability testing. The results showed that at Taman Muda Ibu Pawiyatan Yogyakarta Primary School (1). Student interest in learning dance is supported on a variety of things: the situation of students who are already generally follow arts activities outside school, dance lessons is an intrakulikuler lesson, the learning process is being held at the open room gives a very good effect. (2). How teachers implement instructional dance is the main thing in student interest in learning dance, in addition to teachers provide interesting material for study by students, teachers also use the “Among” systems wich engage students to learn, with the fun atmosphere. (3) Constraints faced by teachers in dance learning in this case the medium of teaching such as audio media are not yet using the digital system. Location in teaching and learning of the dance lessons impact on the level of the students concentration. Selection of appropriate materials become an obstacle in the classroom because this is an inclusive school.Keywords : interest in learning, lessons, dance, Primary School

Confamiliar transferability of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) to twenty two Malvaceous species.

Cross-species transferability is a quick and economic method to enrich SSR database, particularly for minor crops where little genomic information is available. However, transferability of SSR markers varies greatly between species, genera and families of plant species. We assessed confamiliar transferability of SSR markers from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) and jute (Corchorus olitorius) to 22 species distributed in different taxonomic groups of Malvaceae. All the species selected were potential industrial crop species having little or no genomic resources or SSR database. Of the 14 cotton SSR loci tested, 13 (92.86 %) amplified in G. arboreum and 71.43 % exhibited cross-genera transferability. Nine out of 11 jute SSRs (81.81 %) showed cross-transferability across genera. SSRs from both the species exhibited high polymorphism and resolving power in other species. The correlation between transferability of cotton and jute SSRs were highly significant (r = 0.813). The difference in transferability among species was also significant for both the marker groups. High transferability was observed at genus, tribe and subfamily level. At tribe level, transferability of jute SSRs (41.04 %) was higher than that of cotton SSRs (33.74 %). The tribe Byttnerieae exhibited highest SSR transferability (48.7 %). The high level of cross-genera transferability (>50 %) in ten species of Malvaceae, where no SSR resource is available, calls for large scale transferability testing from the enriched SSR databases of cotton and jute.

A dynamic Bayesian network model for real-time crash prediction using traffic speed conditions data

Traffic crashes occurring on freeways/expressways are considered to relate closely to previous traffic conditions, which are time-varying. Meanwhile, most studies use volume/occupancy/speed parameters to predict the likelihood of crashes, which are invalid for roads where the traffic conditions are estimated using speed data extracted from sampled floating cars or smart phones. Therefore, a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) model of time sequence traffic data has been proposed to investigate the relationship between crash occurrence and dynamic speed condition data. Moreover, the traffic conditions near the crash site were identified as several state combinations according to the level of congestion and included in the DBN model. Based on 551 crashes and corresponding speed information collected on expressways in Shanghai, China, DBN models were built with time series speed condition data and different state combinations. A comparative analysis of the DBN model using flow detector data and a static Bayesian network model was also conducted. The results show that, with only speed condition data and nine traffic state combinations, the DBN model can achieve a crash prediction accuracy of 76.4% with a false alarm rate of 23.7%. In addition, the results of transferability testing imply that the DBN models are applicable to other similar expressways with 67.0% crash prediction accuracy.

Improved Coarse-Grained Modeling of Cholesterol-Containing Lipid Bilayers.

Cholesterol trafficking, which is an essential function in mammalian cells, is intimately connected to molecular-scale interactions through cholesterol modulation of membrane structure and dynamics and interaction with membrane receptors. Since these effects of cholesterol occur on micro- to millisecond time scales, it is essential to develop accurate coarse-grained simulation models that can reach these time scales. Cholesterol has been shown experimentally to thicken the membrane and increase phospholipid tail order between 0 and 40% cholesterol, above which these effects plateau or slightly decrease. Here, we showed that the published MARTINI coarse-grained force-field for phospholipid (POPC) and cholesterol fails to capture these effects. Using reference atomistic simulations, we systematically modified POPC and cholesterol bonded parameters in MARTINI to improve its performance. We showed that the corrections to pseudobond angles between glycerol and the lipid tails and around the oleoyl double bond particle (the “angle-corrected model”) slightly improves the agreement of MARTINI with experimentally measured thermal, elastic, and dynamic properties of POPC membranes. The angle-corrected model improves prediction of the thickening and ordering effects up to 40% cholesterol but overestimates these effects at higher cholesterol concentration. In accordance with prior work that showed the cholesterol rough face methyl groups are important for limiting cholesterol self-association, we revised the coarse-grained representation of these methyl groups to better match cholesterol-cholesterol radial distribution functions from atomistic simulations. In addition, by using a finer-grained representation of the branched cholesterol tail than MARTINI, we improved predictions of lipid tail order and bilayer thickness across a wide range of concentrations. Finally, transferability testing shows that a model incorporating our revised parameters into DOPC outperforms other CG models in a DOPC/cholesterol simulation series, which further argues for its efficacy and generalizability. These results argue for the importance of systematic optimization for coarse-graining biologically important molecules like cholesterol with complicated molecular structure.

Genome-Wide Identification, Classification, Expression Profiling, and SSR Marker Development of the MADS-Box Gene Family in Citrus

MADS-box genes encode transcription factors that are involved in developmental control and signal transduction in plants, animals and fungi. To date, few citrus MADS-box genes and limited tissue expression profiling have been reported. In this study, 84 clementine mandarin and 52 sweet orange MADS-box genes have been identified using bioinformatics analysis. Subsequently, comparative analysis of these genes, including gene structures, phylogenetic relationships, conserved protein motifs, expression patterns, and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were identified in these citrus species. According to these analyses, these 136 MADS-box genes can be categorized into five (MIKCC, MIKC*, Mα, Mβ, and Mγ) groups, and the MIKCC group was further divided into 13 subfamilies in two citrus species. In addition, gene duplication of MADS-box genes was also investigated in the clementine mandarin, sweet orange, rice and Arabidopsis genomes. A lower percentage of MADS-box gene duplication was found in the clementine mandarin and sweet orange genomes as compared with Arabidopsis. A survey of the two citrus species based on organ-specific expression profiling indicated that MADS-box genes exhibit various expression patterns, suggesting diverse and novel functions of MADS-box gene families in citrus. In addition, 128 new putative microsatellites with flanking sequences sufficient for primer design were also identified from 136 MADS genes. Sixteen SSRs were selected randomly for validation and transferability testing in 11 citrus species. Among 16 SSRs, 15 were identified as true-to-type SSR loci and were highly transferable among citrus species. These results provide a useful reference for the selection of candidate MADS-box genes for cloning and further functional analysis in citrus.

Development of polymorphic microsatellite loci in Momordica charantia (Cucurbitaceae) and their transferability to other cucurbit species

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia Linn.) is an important vegetable crop. We developed 11 polymorphic M. charantia microsatellite loci and examined the genetic diversity of 55 Chinese M. charantia germplasm cultivars at these loci. The average number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 8, the expected heterozygosity of each locus varied from 0.132 to 0.786 with an average of 0.621, and the maximum polymorphism information content value was 0.744 with an average of 0.572. These values suggested that the tested M. charantia germplasm has a relatively high genetic diversity at the 11 microsatellite loci. Based on transferability testing, some of these M. charantia microsatellite markers were transferable to eight other cucurbit species. Thus the development of these markers has enriched the microsatellite marker bank of cucurbit species; they can be used as a powerful tool for studying the genetic diversity of the germplasm of M. charantia and other cucurbit species.

Generation of ESTs for Flowering Gene Discovery and SSR Marker Development in Upland Cotton

BackgroundUpland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., is one of the world's most important economic crops. In the absence of the entire genomic sequence, a large number of expressed sequence tag (EST) resources of upland cotton have been generated and used in several studies. However, information about the flower development of this species is rare.Methodology/Principal FindingsTo clarify the molecular mechanism of flower development in upland cotton, 22,915 high-quality ESTs were generated and assembled into 14,373 unique sequences consisting of 4,563 contigs and 9,810 singletons from a normalized and full-length cDNA library constructed from pooled RNA isolated from shoot apexes, squares, and flowers. Comparative analysis indicated that 5,352 unique sequences had no high-degree matches to the cotton public database. Functional annotation showed that several upland cotton homologs with flowering-related genes were identified in our library. The majority of these genes were specifically expressed in flowering-related tissues. Three GhSEP (G. hirsutum L. SEPALLATA) genes determining floral organ development were cloned, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that these genes were expressed preferentially in squares or flowers. Furthermore, 670 new putative microsatellites with flanking sequences sufficient for primer design were identified from the 645 unigenes. Twenty-five EST–simple sequence repeats were randomly selected for validation and transferability testing in 17 Gossypium species. Of these, 23 were identified as true-to-type simple sequence repeat loci and were highly transferable among Gossypium species.Conclusions/SignificanceA high-quality, normalized, full-length cDNA library with a total of 14,373 unique ESTs was generated to provide sequence information for gene discovery and marker development related to upland cotton flower development. These EST resources form a valuable foundation for gene expression profiling analysis, functional analysis of newly discovered genes, genetic linkage, and quantitative trait loci analysis.