A nation's standards of private cleanliness reveal much about its ideals of civilization, fears of disease, and expectations for public life, says Kathleen Brown in this unusual cultural history. ...Starting with the shake-up of European practices that coincided with Atlantic expansion, she traces attitudes toward "dirt" through the mid-nineteenth century, demonstrating that cleanliness-and the lack of it-had moral, religious, and often sexual implications. Brown contends that care of the body is not simply a private matter but an expression of cultural ideals that reflect the fundamental values of a society.
The book explores early America's evolving perceptions of cleanliness, along the way analyzing the connections between changing public expectations for appearance and manners, and the backstage work of grooming, laundering, and housecleaning performed by women. Brown provides an intimate view of cleanliness practices and how such forces as urbanization, immigration, market conditions, and concerns about social mobility influenced them. Broad in historical scope and imaginative in its insights, this book expands the topic of cleanliness to encompass much larger issues, including religion, health, gender, class, and race relations.
Summary Background Mucormycosis is an uncommon invasive fungal disease with high mortality and few treatment options. Isavuconazole is a triazole active in vitro and in animal models against moulds ...of the order Mucorales. We assessed the efficacy and safety of isavuconazole for treatment of mucormycosis and compared its efficacy with amphotericin B in a matched case-control analysis. Methods In a single-arm open-label trial (VITAL study), adult patients (≥18 years) with invasive fungal disease caused by rare fungi, including mucormycosis, were recruited from 34 centres worldwide. Patients were given isavuconazole 200 mg (as its intravenous or oral water-soluble prodrug, isavuconazonium sulfate) three times daily for six doses, followed by 200 mg/day until invasive fungal disease resolution, failure, or for 180 days or more. The primary endpoint was independent data review committee-determined overall response—ie, complete or partial response (treatment success) or stable or progressive disease (treatment failure)—according to prespecified criteria. Mucormycosis cases treated with isavuconazole as primary treatment were matched with controls from the FungiScope Registry, recruited from 17 centres worldwide, who received primary amphotericin B-based treatment, and were analysed for day-42 all-cause mortality. VITAL is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT00634049 . FungiScope is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT01731353. Findings Within the VITAL study, from April 22, 2008, to June 21, 2013, 37 patients with mucormycosis received isavuconazole for a median of 84 days (IQR 19–179, range 2–882). By day 42, four patients (11%) had a partial response, 16 (43%) had stable invasive fungal disease, one (3%) had invasive fungal disease progression, three (8%) had missing assessments, and 13 (35%) had died. 35 patients (95%) had adverse events (28 76% serious). Day-42 crude all-cause mortality in seven (33%) of 21 primary-treatment isavuconazole cases was similar to 13 (39%) of 33 amphotericin B-treated matched controls (weighted all-cause mortality: 33% vs 41%; p=0·595). Interpretation Isavuconazole showed activity against mucormycosis with efficacy similar to amphotericin B. Isavuconazole can be used for treatment of mucormycosis and is well tolerated. Funding Astellas Pharma Global Development, Basilea Pharmaceutica International.
Soil compaction represents a major challenge for modern agriculture. Compaction is intuitively thought to reduce root growth by limiting the ability of roots to penetrate harder soils. We report that ...root growth in compacted soil is instead actively suppressed by the volatile hormone ethylene. We found that mutant
and rice roots that were insensitive to ethylene penetrated compacted soil more effectively than did wild-type roots. Our results indicate that soil compaction lowers gas diffusion through a reduction in air-filled pores, thereby causing ethylene to accumulate in root tissues and trigger hormone responses that restrict growth. We propose that ethylene acts as an early warning signal for roots to avoid compacted soils, which would be relevant to research into the breeding of crops resilient to soil compaction.
The intestinal microbiota influence neurodevelopment, modulate behavior, and contribute to neurological disorders. However, a functional link between gut bacteria and neurodegenerative diseases ...remains unexplored. Synucleinopathies are characterized by aggregation of the protein α-synuclein (αSyn), often resulting in motor dysfunction as exemplified by Parkinson’s disease (PD). Using mice that overexpress αSyn, we report herein that gut microbiota are required for motor deficits, microglia activation, and αSyn pathology. Antibiotic treatment ameliorates, while microbial re-colonization promotes, pathophysiology in adult animals, suggesting that postnatal signaling between the gut and the brain modulates disease. Indeed, oral administration of specific microbial metabolites to germ-free mice promotes neuroinflammation and motor symptoms. Remarkably, colonization of αSyn-overexpressing mice with microbiota from PD-affected patients enhances physical impairments compared to microbiota transplants from healthy human donors. These findings reveal that gut bacteria regulate movement disorders in mice and suggest that alterations in the human microbiome represent a risk factor for PD.
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•Gut microbes promote α-synuclein-mediated motor deficits and brain pathology•Depletion of gut bacteria reduces microglia activation•SCFAs modulate microglia and enhance PD pathophysiology•Human gut microbiota from PD patients induce enhanced motor dysfunction in mice
Signals from gut microbes are required for the neuroinflammatory responses as well as hallmark gastrointestinal and α-synuclein-dependent motor deficits in a model of Parkinson’s disease.
The prevalence of emphysema is higher among HIV-infected (HIV+) individuals compared to HIV-uninfected persons. While greater tobacco use contributes, HIV-related effects on immunity likely confer ...additional risk. Low peripheral blood CD4+ to CD8+ T-lymphocyte (CD4/CD8) ratio may reflect chronic inflammation in HIV and may be a marker of chronic lung disease in this population. Therefore, we sought to determine whether the CD4/CD8 ratio was associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), particularly the emphysema subtype, in a cohort of HIV+ subjects.
We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 190 HIV+ subjects enrolled in the Examinations of HIV Associated Lung Emphysema (EXHALE) study. Subjects underwent baseline laboratory assessments, pulmonary function testing and chest computed tomography (CT) analyzed for emphysema severity and distribution. We determined the association between CD4/CD8 ratio and emphysema, and the association between CD4/CD8 ratio and pulmonary function markers of COPD.
Mild or greater emphysema (>10% lung involvement) was present in 31% of subjects. Low CD4/CD8 ratio was associated with >10% emphysema in multivariable models, adjusting for risk factors including smoking, current and nadir CD4 count and HIV RNA level. Those with CD4/CD8 ratio <0.4 had 6.3 (1.1-39) times the odds of >10% emphysema compared to those with a ratio >1.0 in fully adjusted models. A low CD4/CD8 ratio was also associated with reduced diffusion capacity (DLCO).
A low CD4/CD8 ratio was associated with emphysema and low DLCO in HIV+ subjects, independent of other risk factors and clinical markers of HIV. The CD4/CD8 ratio may be a useful, clinically available, marker for risk of emphysema in HIV+ subjects in the antiretroviral therapy (ART) era.
Background
Root architectural and anatomical phenotypes are important for adaptation to drought. Many rice-growing regions face increasing water scarcity. This study describes drought responses of 11 ...Egyptian rice cultivars with emphasis on plastic root responses that may enhance drought adaptation.
Results
Eleven Egyptian rice cultivars were phenotyped for root architectural and anatomical traits after 6 weeks growth in soil mesocosms under well-watered conditions. Four of these cultivars were more intensively phenotyped under progressive drought stress in mesocosms, using a system where more moisture was available at depth than near the surface. In response to drought stress, all cultivars significantly reduced nodal root number while increasing large lateral root branching density and total lateral root length in the deepest portions of the mesocosm, where moisture was available. Nodal root cross-sectional area, but not stele area, was reduced by drought stress, especially in the basal segments of the root, and the number of late metaxylem vessels was reduced in only one cultivar. Alterations in deposition of lignin were detected by UV illumination from laser ablation tomography, enhanced by digital staining, and confirmed with standard histochemical methods. In well-watered plants, the sclerenchyma and endodermis were heavily lignified, and lignin was also visible throughout the epidermis and cortex. Under drought stress, very little lignin was detected in the outer cell layers and none in the cortex of nodal roots, but lignin deposition was enhanced in the stele. Root anatomical phenes, including cross-section area and metaxylem vessel number and lignin deposition varied dramatically along large lateral root axes under drought stress, with increasing diameter and less lignification of the stele in successive samples taken from the base to the root apex.
Conclusions
Root architectural and anatomical traits varied significantly among a set of Egyptian cultivars. Most traits were plastic, i.e. changed significantly with drought treatment, and, in many cases, plasticity was cultivar-dependent. These phenotypic alterations may function to enhance water uptake efficiency. Increased large lateral root branching in the deep soil should maintain water acquisition, while water transport during drought should be secured with a more extensively lignified stele.
We tested the hypothesis that reduced root cortical cell file number (CCFN) would improve drought tolerance in maize (Zea mays) by reducing the metabolic costs of soil exploration. Maize genotypes ...with contrasting CCFN were grown under wellwatered and water-stressed conditions in greenhouse mesocosms and in the field in the United States and Malawi. CCFN ranged from six to 19 among maize genotypes. In mesocosms, reduced CCFN was correlated with 57% reduction of root respiration per unit of root length. Under water stress in the mesocosms, genotypes with reduced CCFN had between 15% and 60% deeper rooting, 78% greater stomatal conductance, 36% greater leaf CO₂ assimilation, and between 52% to 139% greater shoot biomass than genotypes with many cell files. Under water stress in the field, genotypes with reduced CCFN had between 33% and 40% deeper rooting, 28% lighter stem water oxygen isotope enrichment (δ¹⁸O) signature signifying deeper water capture, between 10% and 35% greater leaf relative water content, between 35% and 70% greater shoot biomass at flowering, and between 33% and 114% greater yield than genotypes with many cell files. These results support the hypothesis that reduced CCFN improves drought tolerance by reducing the metabolic costs of soil exploration, enabling deeper soil exploration, greater water acquisition, and improved growth and yield under water stress. The large genetic variation for CCFN in maize germplasm suggests that CCFN merits attention as a breeding target to improve the drought tolerance of maize and possibly other cereal crops.
We present a method to visually score 10 root architectural traits of the root crown of an adult maize plant in the field in a few minutes. Phenotypic profiling of three recombinant inbred line (RIL) ...populations of maize (Zea mays L.; B73xMo17, Oh43xW64a, Ny821xH99) was conducted in 2008 in a silt loam soil in Pennsylvania and in a sandy soil in Wisconsin, and again in 2009 in Pennsylvania. Numbers, angles and branching pattern of crown and brace roots were assessed visually at flowering. Depending on the soil type in which plants were grown, sample processing took from three (sand) to 8 min (silt-loam). Visual measurement of the root crown required 2 min per sample irrespective of the environment. Visual scoring of root crowns gave a reliable estimation of values for root architectural traits as indicated by high correlations between measured and visually scored trait values for numbers (r ² = 0.46-0.97), angles (r ² = 0.66-0.76), and branching (r ² = 0.54-0.88) of brace and crown roots. Based on the visual evaluation of root crown traits it was possible to discriminate between populations. RILs derived from the cross NY821 x H99 generally had the greatest number of roots, the highest branching density and the most shallow root angles, while inbred lines from the cross between OH43 x W64a generally had the steepest root angles. The ranking of genotypes remained the same across environments, emphasizing the suitability of the method to evaluate genotypes across environments. Scoring of brace roots was better correlated with the actual measurements compared to crown roots. The visual evaluation of root architecture will be a valuable tool in tailoring crop root systems to specific environments.
Several root anatomical phenes affect water acquisition from drying soil, and may therefore have utility in breeding more drought-tolerant crops. Anatomical phenes that reduce the metabolic cost of ...the root cortex (‘cortical burden’) improve soil exploration and therefore water acquisition from drying soil. The best evidence for this is for root cortical aerenchyma; cortical cell file number and cortical senescence may also be useful in this context. Variation in the number and diameter of xylem vessels strongly affects axial water conductance. Reduced axial conductance may be useful in conserving soil water so that a crop may complete its life cycle under terminal drought. Variation in the suberization and lignification of the endodermis and exodermis affects radial water conductance, and may therefore be important in reducing water loss from mature roots into dry soil. Rhizosheaths may protect the water status of young root tissue. Root hairs and larger diameter root tips improve root penetration of hard, drying soil. Many of these phenes show substantial genotypic variation. The utility of these phenes for water acquisition has only rarely been validated, and may have strong interactions with the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil water availability, and with root architecture and other aspects of the root phenotype. This complexity calls for structural–functional plant modelling and 3D imaging methods. Root anatomical phenes represent a promising yet underexplored and untapped source of crop breeding targets.
Root anatomical phenes affecting the metabolic cost of soil exploration and root hydraulic conductance represent a promising yet underexplored source of breeding targets for crops with greater drought tolerance.
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