Diversity and food quality properties of farmers' varieties of sorghum from Bénin

Farmers' varieties of sorghum from three communities in different regions of northern Bénin were analysed for their food quality and agro‐morphological properties, and also for their genetic diversity using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Farmers' varieties of sorghum differed greatly with respect to their morphology and agronomic and food traits. Most of the varieties had long (>200 cm) stems (87%), loose panicles (79%) and a red or pink colour (52%). Most were susceptible to drought (54%) and to attacks by striga (79%), insects (99%) and birds (77%). Farmers evaluated the quality of the seeds for preparing porridges as being high for 60% of the varieties and 26% of the varieties were regarded as suitable for making beverages. Late‐maturing, large‐seeded, red or pink varieties are preferred by farmers for porridges and beverages. Gene diversity among varieties within regions, as measured by neutral markers, was similar for the three regions (0.211–0.240). However, across regions the short (<150 cm) stem varieties showed relatively high genetic diversity compared with long or medium stem varieties (0.378 vs 0.184–0.216 for long–medium stem varieties). Genetic differentiation (F_st) among regions and among stem lengths of varieties was significant and ranged between 0.086 and 0.135. Grain colour, stem length and panicle shape varied significantly with the region/stem length and correlated with the genetic differentiation of regions. No relationship could be detected between the genetic differentiation of the varieties and their food quality as expressed by the farmers. Implications of the findings for crop conservation and breeding are discussed. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Recognition memory ROCs for item and associative information: the contribution of recollection and familiarity

Receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) were examined in three recognition memory experiments. ROCs for item information (i.e., was this word presented?) were found to be curvilinear. However, ROCs for associative information (i.e., were these two words presented together?) were found to be linear. The results are in agreement with the predictions of a dual-process model that assumes that recognition judgments are based on familiarity and recollection. Familiarity reflects the assessment of a continuous strength dimension and is well described as a signal detection process, whereas recollection reflects the retrieval of qualitative information about the study episode and behaves like a discrete threshold process. The results showed that memory judgments about items relied on a combination of recollection and familiarity, but that judgments about associations relied primarily on recollection. Further examination of the associative ROCs suggested that subjects were able to recollect that old pairs of items were in the study list, and, under some conditions, that new pairs were not in the study list.     

Procoagulant activity of purified protein derivative-stimulated pleural effusion mononuclear cells in tuberculous pleurisy

The authors tested free-ranging New World monkeys (nocturnal owl monkeys [Aotus nancymai] and diurnal capuchin monkeys [Cebus apella]) to determine the extent to which they use olfactory cues to locate food hidden in containers at 2 of 6 feeding sites within a 1 1/2-ha forested enclosure. These 2 sites were selected randomly for each trial and then were baited with banana and banana peel residue. The 4 other sites were unbaited and unscented. In trials in which the food was not visible to the monkeys, Aotus monkeys located the baited sites at a level greater than expected by chance, whereas Cebus monkeys did not. Use of olfactory information by Aotus monkeys in foraging may be an adaptation for nocturnal foraging because olfactory cues are more salient than visual cues at low light levels.     

Evaluation of acute dual-chamber pacing with a range of atrioventricular delays on cardiac performance in refractory heart failure

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated how variations in atrioventricular (AV) delay affect hemodynamic function in patients with refractory heart failure being supported with intravenous inotropic and intravenous or oral inodilating agents. BACKGROUND: Although preliminary data have suggested that dual-chamber pacing with short AV delays may improve cardiac function in patients with heart failure, detailed Doppler and invasive hemodynamic assessment of patients with refractory New York Heart Association class IV heart failure has not been performed. METHODS: Nine patients with functional class IV clinical heart failure had Doppler assessment of transvalvular flow and right heart catheterization performed during pacing at AV delays of 200, 150, 100 and 50 to 75 ms. RESULTS: Systemic arterial, pulmonary artery, right atrial and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures, cardiac index, systemic and pulmonary vascular resistances, stroke volume index, left ventricular stroke work index (SWI) and arteriovenous oxygen content difference demonstrated no significant changes during dual-chamber pacing with AV delays of 200 to 50 to 75 ms. There were also no changes in the Doppler echocardiographic indexes of systolic or diastolic ventricular function. The study was designed with SWI as the outcome variable. Assuming a clinically significant change in the SWI of 5 g/min per m2, a type I error of 0.05 and the observed standard deviation from our study, the observed power of our study is 85% (type II error of 15%). CONCLUSIONS: Changes in AV delay between 200 and 50 ms during dual-chamber pacing do not significantly affect acute central hemodynamic data, including cardiac output and systolic or diastolic ventricular function in patients with severe refractory heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy.     

Labor, method of delivery and maternofetal transmission of HIV

Within a prospective study of the course of HIV-infection in women, 80 HIV-infected women without AIDS were delivered of 80 children between 1985 and September 1992. The median of the age of gestation was 38 weeks. Until 1988 Caesarean section was chosen as mode of delivery (45 women). Later when the mode of delivery appeared to have no influence on the frequency of maternofetal HIV transmission, vaginal delivery was preferred (35 women). None of the infants was breastfed. Three infants --delivered vaginally--died within the first 6 months of life before their infection status could be determined. Seventy-seven children could be observed for 18 months or longer regularly every three months. 10 of the 77 children were found to be HIV- infected by serological, virological and clinical criteria. Taking into account the mode of delivery, of 32 children who were delivered vaginally or by emergency Caesarean section 8 were found to be HIV-infected. None of 26 children delivered by elective Caesarean section after an uneventful pregnancy is infected. In 19 women Caesarean section was performed within 2 hours after onset of labour or after episodes of preterm labour which required hospital admission for treatment. Two children of these women are infected. No differences of CD4+ cell counts and p24 antigenaemia could be determined between the mothers of the three groups. The risk of fetal HIV infection was increased by preterm labour (p < 0.01) and the mode of delivery (p < 0.01). A correlation between loss of CD4 cells in the mother and increased risk of infection for the child is seen in children born spontaneously or delivered by emergency Caesarean section (p < 0.001). No correlation was found between the length of labour at delivery, the time of the rupture of membranes before birth as well as of the parity and the risk of fetal infection in that group. These findings point to labour as an important factor which increases the risk of maternofetal transmission of HIV. The onset of labour is accompanied by dramatic immunological alterations as a sudden increase of chemotactics and inflammatory cytokines at the maternofetal interface. The accumulation and stimulation of maternal immune cells will--if these cells are carriers of HIV--result in production and release of infectious HIV. This virus may accumulate in the maternofetal interface or gain access to the amniotic cavity. Since amniotic fluid is swallowed by the fetus, the largest potential port of entry for HIV in the fetus are the fetal lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. For the prevention of maternofetal transmission of HIV delivery before onset of labour or alternatively the protection of the fetus during parturition by means of potent antiviral compounds can be considered.     

Endocrine diseases in POEMS syndrome. Apropos of 4 cases

POEMS syndrome is a rare systemic multi-organ disease usually reported in Japanese patients. The clinical course is slow with a 5-year survival of 60%. Death is caused by polyneuropathy and or anasarka. We observed four cases in our ward (all males, aged 39, 57, 54 and 54 years) who all presented at least four characteristic clinical signs. Gynecomasty together with impotency was seen in all patients. All had hypogonadism and borderline hyperprolactinaemia. Hyperoestrogenism was seen in two. In three patients, rare endocrinopathies were part of the POEMS syndrome. One patient had diabetes mellitus. The clinical course was variable and a function of the effectiveness of plasmocyte dyscrasia therapy. Little work has been done on endocrinopathies in POEMS syndrome. In most cases, gonadotrope function is impaired with gynecomasty and impotency in men, amenorrhoea in women. Generally the hypogonadism is hypogonadotropic. Hyperoestrogenism is frequent and prolactin levels are normal or high with an exaggerated response to thyroid releasing hormone stimulation. The aetiology of POEMS syndrome is unknown. Current research is based on an immunologic theory based on the discovery of high levels of interleukin 6 in POEMS patients with or without Castleman's disease. The cytokine would affect the different organs and lead to clinical expression. Corticosteroids are usually effective in most patients, particularly in reducing the oedema and controlling the polyneuropathy.     

Mobilization of hematopoietic progenitors in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

Although the mobilization and harvesting of Philadelphia chromosome-negative progenitors has been proven feasible by a number of groups, it is not clear which techniques should be used with regard to the monitoring of purging and evaluation of stem cell yield. Therefore, we isolated CD34-positive cells from leukapheresis samples of seven CML patients after induction therapy. These cells were analyzed using the colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) and long-term culture-initiating cell (LTCIC) assays. In addition, we analyzed frequency and clonogenicity of single stem cells using the LTCIC assay at limiting dilution. Individual colonies derived from these assays were subsequently analyzed for the presence of the bcr-abl gene with interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and for the presence of bcr-abl mRNA with RT-PCR. We compared these results with the cytogenetic analysis of the leukapheresis material. Molecular analysis of individual colonies correlated well with the results of cytogenetic analysis. However, in nine out of 18 samples, cytogenetic analysis exclusively demonstrated the presence of either Philadelphia chromosome-positive or -negative cells whereas with the molecular analysis of individual colonies tumor contamination or the presence of residual normal cells could be substantiated. We concluded that molecular analysis of individual colonies should be employed to further optimize induction protocols. With regard to stem cell mobilization we demonstrated that about 67 CFU-GM colonies and clusters were generated by one single LTCIC both for the CML samples and the samples obtained from patients with non-hematologic malignancy. This number is important since until now most centres use a number of four colonies and clusters generated by one LTCIC. Dividing the CFU-GM output in the LTCIC assay by four to determine LTCIC frequency could thus lead to an almost 20-fold overestimation of the LTCIC frequency. It is concluded that stem cell frequency analysis is an important tool with regard to the interpretation of mobilization protocols.