Introgression of resistance genes from wild or related species is a common strategy to improve disease resistance of wheat cultivars. Pm17 is a gene that confers powdery mildew resistance in wheat. ...It encodes an NLR type of immune receptor and was introgressed from rye to wheat as part of the 1RS chromosome arm translocation several decades ago. So far it has not been possible to separate Pm17 from its co-introgressed rye genes due to suppressed recombination. Here we tested in the field transgenic Bobwhite wheat overexpressing Pm17 without any other rye genes. Four transgenic events showed high levels of PM17 protein accumulation, strong powdery mildew resistance, and no pleiotropic effects during three field seasons. We used a combined approach of transgene insertion and cross-breeding to generate lines co-expressing Pm17 and Pm3, or Pm17 and Pm8. Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici infection tests confirmed additive, race-specific resistance of the two pyramided transgenes in lines Pm17+Pm3b and Pm17+Pm8. Furthermore, pyramided lines showed strong powdery mildew resistance during three field seasons. We conclude that the combination of overexpressed NLR genes from the extended gene pool broadens and diversifies wheat disease resistance.
The Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems (KIAPS) began a national project to develop a new global atmospheric model system in 2011. The ultimate goal of this 9-year project is to replace ...the current operational model at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), which was adopted from the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office’s unified model (UM) in 2010. The 12-km Korean Integrated Model (KIM) system, consisting of a spectral-element non-hydrostatic dynamical core on a cubed sphere grid and a state-of-the-art physics parameterization package, has been launched in a real-time forecast framework, with initial conditions obtained via the advanced hybrid four-dimensional ensemble variational data assimilation (4DEnVar) over its native grid. A development strategy for KIM and the evolution of its performance in medium-range forecasts toward a world-class global forecast system are described. Outstanding issues in KIM 3.1 as of February 2018 are discussed, along with a future plan for operational deployment in 2020.
Abstract Findings from several studies suggest that oncology patients undergoing active treatment experience multiple symptoms, and that these symptoms can have a negative effect on patient outcomes. ...However, no systematic review has summarized the findings from studies that assessed multiple symptoms in these patients. Therefore, the purposes of this review were to: 1) compare and contrast the characteristics of the three most commonly used instruments to measure multiple symptoms; 2) summarize the prevalence rates for multiple symptoms in studies of oncology patients receiving active treatment; 3) describe the relationships among selected demographic, disease, and treatment characteristics and multiple symptoms; and 4) describe the relationships between the occurrence of multiple symptoms and patient outcomes (i.e., functional status, quality of life). Only 18 studies were found that met the inclusion criteria for this review. The majority of the studies were cross-sectional with sample sizes that ranged from 26 to 527. Approximately 40% of patients experienced more than one symptom. However, little is known about the relationships between demographic and clinical characteristics and the occurrence of multiple symptoms. Findings from this review suggest that the occurrence of multiple symptoms is associated with decreased functional status and quality of life. However, given the large number of oncology patients who undergo active treatment each year, additional research is warranted on the prevalence and impact of multiple symptoms. Only when this descriptive research is completed with homogenous samples of patients in terms of cancer diagnoses and treatments can intervention studies for multiple symptoms be developed and tested.
Mildew and rust are the most devastating cereal pathogens, and in wheat they can cause up to 50% yield loss every year. Wheat lines containing resistance genes are used to effectively control fungal ...diseases, but the molecular mechanisms underlying the interaction between wheat and its fungal pathogens are poorly understood. Here, we used RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to compare the transcriptomic landscape of susceptible and resistant wheat lines to identify genes and pathways that are targeted by obligate biotrophic fungal pathogens. The five lines differed in the expression of thousands of genes under infection as well as control conditions. Generally, mixed infection with powdery mildew and leaf rust resulted in downregulation of numerous genes in susceptible lines. Interestingly, transcriptomic comparison between the nearly isogenic lines Thatcher and Thatcher-
Lr34
identified 753 genes that are uniquely downregulated in the susceptible line upon infection. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, revealed the suppression of six major biochemical pathways, namely nuclear transport, alternative splicing, DNA damage response, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, phosphoinositol signaling, and photosynthesis. We conclude that powdery mildew and leaf rust evade the wheat defense system by suppression of programmed cell death (PCD) and responses to cellular damage. Considering the broad range of the induced changes, we propose that the pathogen targets “master regulators” at critical steps in the respective pathways. Identification of these wheat genes targeted by the pathogen could inspire new directions for future wheat breeding.
Cross-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process allowing plants to transfer small regulatory RNAs to invading pathogens to trigger the silencing of target virulence genes. Transient ...assays in cereal powdery mildews suggest that silencing of one or two effectors could lead to near loss of virulence, but evidence from stable RNAi lines is lacking. We established transient host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) in wheat, and demonstrate that targeting an essential housekeeping gene in the wheat powdery mildew pathogen (
f. sp.
) results in significant reduction of virulence at an early stage of infection. We generated stable transgenic RNAi wheat lines encoding a HIGS construct simultaneously silencing three
effectors including
, a virulence factor involved in the suppression of the
powdery mildew resistance gene. We show that all targeted effectors are effectively downregulated by HIGS, resulting in reduced fungal virulence on adult wheat plants. Our findings demonstrate that stable HIGS of effector genes can lead to quantitative gain of resistance without major pleiotropic effects in wheat.
This study assessed the potential for river discharge simulation by implementing an online river‐routing scheme into the regional climate model (RCM) framework as a unified subroutine module and ...investigated the sensitivity of simulated river flows in response to changes in spatial resolutions in RCM and river‐routing scheme. The river‐routing scheme gathers runoff from the RCM and advects them horizontally along the river drainage network. The dynamical downscaling simulations were driven by reanalysis at the boundaries for the period of 2000–2010, using different grid sizes for RCM (50 and 12.5 km) and for river‐routing scheme (0.5°, 0.25°, and 0.125°). Simulated river discharge was evaluated throughout the three largest river basins in Korea. The simulation results showed potential for river discharge modeling in the RCM framework. The model generally captured the seasonal and monthly variabilities, and the daily scale peaks. From the resolution sensitivity experiments, it was confirmed that high‐resolution RCM enhances the reproducibility of river discharge; however, the lack of sophistication of the current river‐routing scheme, which was originally developed for continental and macroscale application, mitigates taking advantage of enhanced resolution in river model. On the basis of our findings and experiences in this study, we revealed several considerable issues for future developments of river simulation in the RCM framework.
Key Points
River‐routing process is online implemented into the RCM frameworks
Streamflow is simulated varying resolutions of RCM and river‐routing process
The high‐resolution RCM enhances the reproducibility of river discharge
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a division of computer science that allows machines to emulate human cognitive processes. In dentistry, AI is applied in clinical decision-making and can aid in ...detecting disease and predicting patterns based on existing data sets. AI can assist clinicians by quickly analyzing massive amounts of data to improve workflow, identify patterns of disease, provide risk assessment, and create individualized patient-centered treatment plans. AI has been shown to increase efficiency in the office by aiding in scheduling, tracking, and updating patient records to better organize patient data. The objective of this article is to outline the various applications of AI in different dental specialties. Applications range from business functions such as marketing, cyber security, and report writing to clinical uses such as lesion detection and surgical guidance. This review will also discuss some of the ethical considerations and drawbacks associated with implementing AI in the dental practice.
Record-breaking rainfall occurred over East Asia during the summer of 2020. However, in which aspect the summer of 2020 can be differentiated from the other years remains to be quantified. To this ...end, this study employs Markov chain analysis to quantify summer rainfall variability over East Asia using three Markov descriptors for heavy precipitation events of over 10 mm day
−1
: frequency, persistence, and entropy (i.e., irregularity). It is found that the heavy rainfall during the summer of 2020 can be attributed to an anomalously high frequency of rainfall in the central China and Japan and greater rainfall persistence over eastern China and Korea. Empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) are used to analyze interannual variation in the descriptors using a few primary modes. For the summer 2020 period, the first and second modes for frequency account for the enhanced frequency over central China, and this is linked to sea surface temperature anomalies over the North Pacific, the equatorial eastern Pacific, and tropical Indian Ocean. For persistence, the first mode dominates the anomalous rainfall persistence observed during the summer of 2020. Similar but weak behavior can be also seen by the modes for entropy.
Abstract Aims We investigate reasons for persistent medication refusal in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and test whether factors that speak for a rational decision, such as negative experiences ...with medication or low symptom distress predict medication refusal, even after taking differences in insight into account. Method We included 45 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, of which 20 had refused antipsychotic medication for at least three months and assessed reasons for taking or not taking medication, insight, experiences with the previous treatments, symptoms and symptom distress, positive and negative consequences and experiences of psychosis, causal beliefs, therapeutic relationships with previous clinicians and attitudes towards medication. Results Groups did not differ in symptom severity but medication refusers reported significantly less insight, less satisfaction with their most-recent psychiatrist and with previous medication, and more negative beliefs about harmful effects of medication. They also felt less informed about medication. After controlling for insight, perceived helpfulness of previous treating psychiatrists ( OR = 0.30, z = 5.58, p = 0.018) and of previous medication ( OR = 0.27, z = 6.87, p = 0.009) and feeling insufficiently informed about medication ( OR = 0.53, z = 3. 85, p = 0.050) significantly predicted medication discontinuation. Conclusions Building rapport with patients with low insight and encouraging informed decisions on medication are likely to improve medication adherence. However, the findings also suggest that refusing medication after a phase of initial adherence is also the consequence of negative experiences with medication and could result from weighing the pros against the cons.
Abstract
This study presents the dependency of the simulation results from a global atmospheric numerical model on machines with different hardware and software systems. The global model program ...(GMP) of the Global/Regional Integrated Model system (GRIMs) is tested on 10 different computer systems having different central processing unit (CPU) architectures or compilers. There exist differences in the results for different compilers, parallel libraries, and optimization levels, primarily a result of the treatment of rounding errors by the different software systems. The system dependency, which is the standard deviation of the 500-hPa geopotential height averaged over the globe, increases with time. However, its fractional tendency, which is the change of the standard deviation relative to the value itself, remains nearly zero with time. In a seasonal prediction framework, the ensemble spread due to the differences in software system is comparable to the ensemble spread due to the differences in initial conditions that is used for the traditional ensemble forecasting.