High-speed imaging reveals neurophysiological links to behavior in an animal model of depression

The hippocampus is one of several brain areas thought to play a central role in affective behaviors, but the underlying local network dynamics are not understood. We used quantitative voltage-sensitive dye imaging to probe hippocampal dynamics with millisecond resolution in brain slices after bidirectional modulation of affective state in rat models of depression. We found that a simple measure of real-time activity-stimulus-evoked percolation of activity through the dentate gyrus relative to the hippocampal output subfield-accounted for induced changes in animal behavior independent of the underlying mechanism of action of the treatments. Our results define a circuit-level neurophysiological endophenotype for affective behavior and suggest an approach to understanding circuit-level substrates underlying psychiatric disease symptoms.     

Influence of increasing doses of nitrogen and organic matter on nitrogen loss from sodium nitrate

There is a general belief that most of the nitrogen contained in artificial nitrogenous fertilizers is utilized by the growing crops when applied to them. But unfortunately the Position is not so and the recovery of nitrogen from artificial fertilizers remains only in the neighbourhood of 50%. Indeed, the loss of nitrogen from artificial fertilizers is often even more than 50% as indicated by the following observations of RUSSELL (1) : “Crops that respond to nitrogen manuring commonly take up and fix in their tissues between one-third and one-half of the nitrogen added as sulphate of ammonia and a rather high proportion of nitrogen added as nitrate, the remainder is lost .... though its fate has not been too well determined.”     

Restriction Enzyme Analysis of Indian Isolates of Egg Drop Syndrome 1976 Virus Recovered from Chicken,Duck and Quail

Egg drop syndrome 1976 (EDS-76) is caused by a haemagglutinating adenovirus belonging to group III of the genus Aviadenovirus in the family Adenoviridae. All isolates are serologically identical, but have been divided into three groups based on restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis. In this study the viral DNA of various Indian EDS-76 viral isolates (CEDS-A, CEDS-B, EDS-M, EDS-ML, EDS-1/AD/86, EDS-KC and QEDS) obtained from different avian species and different geographical regions were digested with restriction endonucleases viz., EcoRI, BamHI, HindIII and PstI. The results showed that one Indian isolate obtained from duck (DEDS-KC) was different from all other chicken and quail counterparts. All other isolates were identical to the reference viral strain BC-14, which belong to group I of EDS-76 viruses. The duck isolate EDS-KC could not be placed in any of the three groups reported earlier.     

Biodegradation of Congo Red Azo Dye by Aspergillus spp,Isolated from Dye Contaminated Soils

In the present study, it has been aimed to determine the non target effects of Congo red on soil enzyme activities namely amylase, protease, catalase, glucose oxidase and laccases, following the standard procedures. Further, it is also aimed to decolourize the dye effluents by using immobilized fimgal cultures namely Aspergillus spp. isolated from textile effluents and estimate the percentage of decolourization by dye decolourization assay method. The selected fungi were found efficient and dominant type in dye decolourization with the production of laccase and other enzymes. Except laccase, all the enzymes showed maximum activity at 14 days followed by declining trend at 21 days. Maximum enzyme activity was noticed with Aspergillus niger. 95% of decolourization was found within 4-24 h in sodium alginate immobilized fungal cultures compared to controls. The above results clearly indicate the efficiency of these fungi in selective bioremediation of dye contaminated sites.     

Isolation and pathogenicity of Colletotrichum spp. causing anthracnose of Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) in tropical islands of Andaman and Nicobar, India

This study identifies the Colletotrichum spp. which cause Morinda anthracnose in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. A survey of Indian mulberry plantations was carried out to ascertain the identity of isolates associated with Morinda anthracnose. These were identified as C. gloeosporioides based on morphology and sequencing analysis of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, demonstrating that this species is currently the causal agent of Morinda anthracnose in a tropical ecosystem. The pathogenicity test of C. gloeosporioides isolates on Morinda seedlings for 1?month revealed that the five isolates MC1, MC8, MC2 (1), MC4 and MC12 were pathogenic to the respective host with different levels of anthracnose lesion.     

Pathogenesis of two strains of avian paramyxovirus serotype 2, Yucaipa and Bangor, in chickens and turkeys

Nine serologic types of avian paramyxovirus (APMV) have been recognized. Newcastle disease virus (APMV-1) is the most extensively characterized virus, while relatively little information is available for the other APMV serotypes. In the present study, we examined the pathogenicity of two strains of APMV-2, Yucaipa and Bangor, in 9-day-old embryonated chicken eggs, 1-day-old specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chicks, and 4-wk-old SPF chickens and turkeys. The mean death time in 9-day-old embryonated chicken eggs was more than 168 hr for both strains, and their intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) was zero, indicating that these viruses are nonpathogenic in chickens. When inoculated intracerebrally in 1-day-old chicks, neither strain caused disease or replicated detectably in the brain. This suggests that the zero ICPI value of APMV-2 reflects the inability of the virus to grow in neural cells. Groups of twelve 4-wk-old SPF chickens and turkeys were inoculated oculonasally with either strain, and three birds per group were euthanatized on days 2, 4, 6, and 14 postinoculation for analysis. There were no overt clinical signs of illnesses, although all birds seroconverted by day 6. The viruses were isolated predominantly from the respiratory and alimentary tracts. Immunohistochemistry studies also showed the presence of a large amount of viral antigens in epithelial linings of respiratory and alimentary tracts. There also was evidence of systemic spread even though the cleavage site of the viral fusion glycoprotein does not contain the canonical furin protease cleavage site.     

Race,Place, and the Persisting Income Divide in the U.S. Southeast, 2000–2014

Despite economic growth since the recession, the gap between the richest and the poorest segments of the population remains one of the most pressing concerns of contemporary America. This paper uses IR‐95/20, IR‐80/20, and IR‐65/35 ratios to measure the income divides between the richest and the poorest segments in the mid‐to‐large‐sized metropolises of the U.S. Southeast, their variation across ethnicities, and their association with metropolitan level attributes such as diversity, segregation, socio‐economic, and other built‐environment, and labor characteristics. The income divide ratios serve as the dependent variables whereas principal components along with state‐dummy variables serve as the explanatory variables in regressions analyses. The metropolises that are large, diverse, and better educated are the most income‐divided whereas those with lower educated people are less divided. Metropolises with larger shares of their labor engaged in primary sectors of economy have higher income divides; this observation also holds true for African Americans and Hispanics. Metropolises that gained in intermixing during 2000–2014 are associated with a lower income divide and vice versa.     

Experimental infection of hamsters with avian paramyxovirus serotypes 1 to 9

ABSTRACT: Avian paramyxoviruses (APMVs) are frequently isolated from domestic and wild birds throughout the world and are separated into nine serotypes (APMV-1 to -9). Only in the case of APMV-1, the infection of non-avian species has been investigated. The APMVs presently are being considered as human vaccine vectors. In this study, we evaluated the replication and pathogenicity of all nine APMV serotypes in hamsters. The hamsters were inoculated intranasally with each virus and monitored for clinical disease, pathology, histopathology, virus replication, and seroconversion. On the basis of one or more of these criteria, each of the APMV serotypes was found to replicate in hamsters. The APMVs produced mild or inapparent clinical signs in hamsters except for APMV-9, which produced moderate disease. Gross lesions were observed over the pulmonary surface of hamsters infected with APMV-2 & -3, which showed petechial and ecchymotic hemorrhages, respectively. Replication of all of the APMVs except APMV-5 was confirmed in the nasal turbinates and lungs, indicating a tropism for the respiratory tract. Histologically, the infection resulted in lung lesions consistent with bronchointerstitial pneumonia of varying severity and nasal turbinates with blunting or loss of cilia of the epithelium lining the nasal septa. The majority of APMV-infected hamsters exhibited transient histological lesions that self resolved by 14 days post infection (dpi). All of the hamsters infected with the APMVs produced serotype-specific HI or neutralizing antibodies, confirming virus replication. Taken together, these results demonstrate that all nine known APMV serotypes are capable of replicating in hamsters with minimal disease and pathology.