Starting material is an important consideration when developing and manufacturing immunotherapies such as dendritic cell (DC) vaccines. Historically, DC vaccines have been generated via monocyte ...intermediates to circumvent the difficulty in obtaining a sufficient yield of such a rare cell type. However, monocyte-derived DCs (MoDCs) are not representative of the heterogenous dendritic population observed in the human body. This is a concern further compounded by donor variability, creating challenges in isolating ample patient cells while retaining modification capacity. Establishing a standardized platform that adequately meets quality parameters for clinical applications while addressing the concerns surrounding donor variability is one current focus in immunotherapies.
In this study, leukapheresis material from a single qualified donor was obtained for reprogramming into iPSCs to generate iPSC-derived DCs (iP-DCs). These iP-DCs were evaluated for identity, function, and potential for differentiation towards DC lineage and compared to their ex vivo counterparts, MoDCs; which were generated from monocytes isolated from leukapheresis product. Flow cytometry and image-based analyses were utilized throughout multiple stages of the study to examine whether an iPSC-derived immunotherapy mediates the challenges associated with donor variability, source yield, and differentiation capacity. Preliminary data for the generation of CD14-/CD1c+ MoDCs from leukapheresis material reveal a relatively short induction time MoDCs of under seven days. A majority of the cells lost expression of the monocyte marker CD14 by day seven, with 94% of cells CD14- . Additionally, 96.8% of cells were CD1c+ by day-seven, as opposed to only 8.58% at the start of the experiment. Results at various stages of the cell process highlight the unique difficulties associated with generating MoDCs. Phenotyping of isolated PBMCs (Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell) from five distinct donors revealed variability in the percentage of starting CD14+ cells ranging from 1.9 - 13.5%. Different monocyte isolation methods demonstrated further variability; for example, isolation by plastic adhesion resulted in 38.2-84.3% CD14+ cell retention from the starting PBMC population, while bead-based negative selection methods yielded 63-83.4% CD14+ cell retention. Successful generation of DCs from iPSCs will be significant for use in standardization and quality control of immunotherapy production.
Summary
Sprouting populace mass within the urban areas furnishes critical challenges of providing uninterruptible community services to fulfill the primitive needs of inhabitants in smart cities. ...Smart cities facilitate and uplift the living standards of inhabitants through various smart systems or infrastructures, and smart grid is one of them. Secure transmission is a key requirement in the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) of most smart grids, and key establishment cryptographic protocols can be used to achieve such a requirement. Designing efficient and secure key establishment protocols for AMI remains challenging. For example, in this paper, we reveal several weaknesses in the identity‐based key establishment protocol of Mohammadali et al (published in IEEE Trans Smart Grid, 2017), which is based on elliptic curves. We then improve their protocol and prove its security in the random oracle model. We also demonstrate that the improved protocol achieves both anonymity and untraceability, before presenting a comparative summary of the security and computational overheads of the proposed protocol and several other existing protocols.
Enhanced identify‐based key agreement protocol is introduced to bring security and privacy for authenticating entities in the smart grid infrastructure. Formal and information validation is presented to prove the correctness and strength of the introduced protocol.
Tecoma stans (L.) Juss ex Kunth var. stans (Bignoniaceae) is an invasive shrub or small tree from Central America that continues to extend its range in all nine provinces of South Africa and in ...neighbouring countries. The weed has been a target for biological control (biocontrol) in South Africa since 2003. The gall-forming rust fungus Prospodium transformans (Ellis & Everh.) Cummins (Pucciniales: Uropyxidaceae) was released in 2010, but failed to establish. Two leaf-feeding agents, Mada polluta (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Pseudonapomyza sp. Hendel (Diptera: Agromyzidae), were subsequently released in South Africa in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Mada polluta has become established at seven sites in the low elevation coastal regions of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, but not in high elevation inland areas. The leaf-mining Pseudonapomyza sp. has established at seven sites in four provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, but at low population densities. The deliberate destruction of release sites by landowners and inadvertent veld fires have confounded the establishment and proliferation of both agents, as well as progress on their post-release evaluation. A root-feeding flea beetle Heikertingerella sp. Csiki (Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae), initially collected in Mexico in 2007, was determined to be host specific and potentially effective as a new biocontrol agent of T. stans. An application for the release of Heikertingerella sp. in South Africa will shortly be submitted to the regulatory authorities. Additional mass-rearing and releases of the two established agents will be undertaken to improve their establishment and impact.
In mammals, the microbiota can be transmitted from the placenta, uterus, and vagina of the mother to the infant. Unlike mammals, development of the avian embryo is a process isolated from the mother ...and thus in the avian embryo the gut microbial developmental process remains elusive. To explore the establishment and inheritance of the gut microbiome in the avian embryo, we used the chicken as the model organism to investigate the gut microbial composition in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens. We observed: (1) 28 phyla and 162 genera of microbes in embryos where the dominated genus was
(79%). (2) 65 genera were core microbiota in all stages with 42% and 62% gut microbial genera of embryo were found in maternal hen and chick, respectively. There was a moderate correlation (0.40) between the embryo and maternal, and 0.52 between the embryo and chick at the family level. (3) Gut microbes that are involved in substance metabolism, infectious disease, and environmental adaptation are enriched in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens, respectively. (4) 94% genera of gut microbial composition were similar among three different chicken breeds which were maintained under similar conditions. Our findings provide evidence to support the hypothesis that part of the microbial colonizers harbored in early embryos were inherited from maternal hens, and the gut microbial abundance and diversity were influenced by environmental factors and host genetic variation during development.
Australia has tropical, summer dominant rainfall in the north transitioning to temperate, winter dominant rainfall in the south. Temperate pasture species with a cool season growth pattern are ...commonly grown in the south, but tropical pasture species that are highly productive and responsive to summer rainfall, may also have a role in southern pasture systems with climate change.
Determine the value of replacing temperate pastures with tropical pastures; and assess the emergence success of tropical grasses in response to historic climate change in eastern Australia.
The AusFarm model was used to test replacing lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) (L); annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum L.)/subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) (RC); or lucerne/annual ryegrass/subterranean clover (LRC) with tropical pasture at varying rates of inclusion at five locations across the subtropical-temperate transition zone. The emergence success of tropical grasses with a bare fallow, short fallow and increased ground cover management was also tested. The modelling covered two periods, the Far Climate (1960–1990) and the Near Climate (1990–2020).
Tropical pastures had higher plant growth in late summer-early autumn when temperate pastures are less active. Pasture growth decreased from the Far to the Near Climate period across all sites. The pastures with L lost the most production over this period, with minimal change in other pasture types. Supplementary feeding was reduced at all sites with the inclusion of tropical pastures. The cost of supplementary feeding from the Far to the Near Climate increased by $20/ha with increased variability between years, which in-turn decreased gross margin by an average of $26/ha. Tropical pastures improved profitability on average by $24/ha (11%), but with different responses between environments. At the low rainfall sites (Condobolin and Leeton) there was a substantial benefit when tropical grass-clover (TC) pasture replaced L, but at the higher rainfall sites (Cowra and Wagga Wagga) the benefit was replacing RC with TC. There was a gradient of successful emergence from very high (>90%) in the north, to reduced opportunities in the south (<45%), and marginal influence of sowing management.
Adding tropical pastures to grazing systems with temperate pastures increased summer-autumn growth, the animal requirements met by pasture, and gross margins. Profitability of livestock systems decreased with climate change, but this can be overcome by optimising pasture composition. Fewer years are favourable for establishment of tropical pastures in more temperate environments, therefore establishment strategies need to be adjusted and field tested.
•Tropical pastures have potential in temperate grazing systems due to climate change.•Tropical pastures increased plant growth over summer when temperate pastures are less active.•Tropical pastures decreased supplementary feeding and increased gross margin.•Poor establishment conditions limit the use of tropical grasses in temperate environments.•Profit of livestock systems decreased with climate change but less so with tropical pastures.
Dengue fever virus is a mosquito-borne virus that poses a significant public health threat worldwide. Dengue virus is primarily transmitted by the Aedes mosquitoes, which develop in small man-made ...containers in urban environments. Climate change and urbanization have contributed to the spread of the Aedes mosquitoes, increasing the risk of dengue virus transmission in densely populated areas. Increasing the transmission of virus by Aedes mosquitoes increases the dengue infection. Additionally, factors such as poor sanitation, low community immunity levels, inadequate waste management and a lack of access to healthcare can also impact the establishment and spread of dengue fever. Globalization, international travel and tourism can introduce the virus to new regions and contribute to its establishment. These factors create ideal conditions for the Aedes mosquitoes to develop and for the dengue virus to establish and spread, posing a significant public health challenge.
Stigmaria is the rooting organ of late Paleozoic arborescent lycopsids. Previous scientific considerations of the stigmarian habit have placed the entire rooting organ shallow beneath the substrate ...surface, despite the proximal main stigmarian axes radiating outwards orthogonally from the trunk in all known stump casts with attached Stigmaria. Here, we show definitively that stigmarian axes were subaerial proximally given both their preservation within and direct interaction with two independent volcanic ash layers. However, it remains uncertain whether these axes dove under the substrate surface distally and, if so, where along the axes this occurred. We test the aboveground or belowground nature of distal stigmarian axes with comparisons of sampling frequencies of vasculature from different regions of the arborescent lycopsid body plan as preserved in ‘coal ball’ permineralization fossils from the Pennsylvanian of Euramerica. The overabundance of root versus shoot material has previously been recognized as evidence of the enhanced preservation potential of organs growing within, rather than above, the substrate. We find that specifically the terminal stigmarian axis vasculature is overrepresented in the fossil record compared to trunk and proximal stigmarian axis vasculature, suggesting that the primary stigmarian axes and their secondary branches grew on the substrate before eventually going underground distally. Implications for arborescent lycopsid establishment are considered.
In degraded landscapes, recolonization by pioneer vegetation is often halted by the presence of persistent environmental stress. When natural expansion does occur, it is commonly due to the momentary ...alleviation of a key environmental variable previously limiting new growth. Thus, studying the circumstances in which expansion occurs can inspire new restoration techniques, wherein vegetation establishment is provoked by emulating natural events through artificial means. Using the salt-marsh pioneer zone on tidal flats as a biogeomorphic model system, we explore how locally raised sediment bed forms, which are the result of natural (bio)geomorphic processes, enhance seedling establishment in an observational study. We then conduct a manipulative experiment designed to emulate these facilitative conditions in order to enable establishment on an uncolonized tidal flat. Here, we attempt to generate raised growth-promoting sediment bed forms using porous artificial structures. Flume experiments demonstrate how these structures produce a sheltered hydrodynamic environment in which suspended sediment and seeds preferentially settle. The application of these structures in the field led to the formation of stable, raised sediment platforms and the spontaneous recruitment of salt-marsh pioneers in the following growing season. These recruits were composed primarily of the annual pioneering Salicornia genus, with densities of up to 140 individuals/m² within the structures, a 60-fold increase over ambient densities. Lower abundances of five other perennial species were found within structures that did not appear elsewhere in the pioneer zone. Furthermore, recruits grew to be on average three times greater in mass inside of the structures than in the neighboring ambient environment. The success of this restoration design may be attributed to the combination of three factors: (1) enhanced seed retention, (2) suppressed mortality, and (3) accelerated growth rates on the elevated surfaces generated by the artificial structures. We argue that restoration approaches similar to the one shown here, wherein the conditions for natural establishment are actively mimicked to promote vegetation development, may serve as promising tools in many biogeomorphic ecosystems, ranging from coastal to arid ecosystems.
Seed vigour and crop establishment Finch-Savage, W.E.; Bassel, G.W.
Journal of experimental botany,
02/2016, Volume:
67, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Seeds are central to crop production, human nutrition, and food security. A key component of the performance of crop seeds is the complex trait of seed vigour. Crop yield and resource use efficiency ...depend on successful plant establishment in the field, and it is the vigour of seeds that defines their ability to germinate and establish seedlings rapidly, uniformly, and robustly across diverse environmental conditions. Improving vigour to enhance the critical and yield-defining stage of crop establishment remains a primary objective of the agricultural industry and the seed/breeding companies that support it. Our knowledge of the regulation of seed germination has developed greatly in recent times, yet understanding of the basis of variation in vigour and therefore seed performance during the establishment of crops remains limited. Here we consider seed vigour at an ecophysiological, molecular, and biomechanical level. We discuss how some seed characteristics that serve as adaptive responses to the natural environment are not suitable for agriculture. Past domestication has provided incremental improvements, but further actively directed change is required to produce seeds with the characteristics required both now and in the future. We discuss ways in which basic plant science could be applied to enhance seed performance in crop production.
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