How corn plants defend against pathogen attack

Researchers from the North Carolina State University have identified crucial genes and cellular processes that appear to control the so-called hyper-sensitive defence response (HR) in corn.

The findings could help researchers build better defence responses in corn and other plants.

“It is similar to a human having an auto-immune response that never stops,” said Peter Balint-Kurti, a professor from the department of plant pathology and crop science at the North Carolina State University.

When corn plants come under attack from a pathogen, they sometimes respond by killing their own cells near the site of the attack, committing “cell suicide” to thwart further damage from the attacker.

It has so far been difficult to understand how the plant regulates this defence mechanism because the response is so quick and localised.

During the study, researchers examined over 3,300 maize plants that contained a similar mutation.

They found that 44 candidate genes appear to be involved in defence response and a few other responses linked to resisting attack.

“This mutation causes a corn plant to inappropriately trigger this hyper-sensitive defence response, causing spots on the corn plant as well as stunted growth,” added Balint-Kurti.

The researchers examined the entire corn gene blueprint to find the genes most closely associated with HR.

“Hopefully this work provides an opening to really characterise this important defence response and learn more about it in other plants,” Balint-Kurti concluded.

The study appeared in the journal PLoS Genetics.

Keywords: corn plants, PLoS Genetics, North Carolina State University, hyper-sensitive defence response, plant defence mechanism, cell suicide

Fastest decline in child mortality rates witnessed

New data released today (September 16) by the United Nations Organisation show that under-five mortality rates have dropped by 49 per cent between 1990 and 2013. There has been accelerated average annual reduction during this period but overall progress is still short of meeting the global target of two-thirds decrease in under-five mortality by 2015.

New estimates in Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2014 show that in 2013, globally, 6.3 million children under five years of age died from mostly preventable causes. Compared with 2012, the 2013 numbers show a reduction of 200,000 deaths. The reduction is only marginal as there are still 17,000 child deaths every day in the world.

The neonatal period (0-27 days) is the most vulnerable period for a newborn. It is therefore not surprising that in 2013, 2.8 million babies across the world died during this period. The 2.8 million neonatal deaths account for 44 per cent of all under-five deaths in children.

India has the highest number of neonatal deaths in the world. Of the three million neonatal deaths globally in 2012, 779,000 took place in India.

If the neonatal period is vulnerable, the first day of life (24 hours) is even more critical. Of the 2.8 million babies dying across the world during the first 27 days, death during the first day of birth alone accounts for one million. What is poignant is that over 300,000 newborn deaths in India are on the very first day of birth. Thus, India accounts for about one-third of all babies dying globally on the first day of birth.

What is shocking is that many of the neonatal deaths can be easily prevented with simple, cost-effective interventions before, during and immediately after birth. Of the three periods, the time close to delivery is most critical and any failures in the healthcare system during this short window period lead to more newborn deaths.

In June this year, WHO, UNICEF and partners issued the first-ever global plan to end preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2035. The Every Newborn Action Plan requires all countries to take the necessary steps to provide basic, cost-effective health services — in particular around the time of childbirth, as well as for small and sick babies — and to improve the quality of care.

“The global community is poised to end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths within a generation,” Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director General at WHO said in a release. “We know what to do and we know how to do it. The challenge now is to move from plan to action — we are pleased to see countries like India beginning to lead the way.”

India’s performance

“Fifty-six per cent of under-five child mortality in India is from neonatal mortality. Neonatal mortality had remained stable [in India] for a long time,” said Dr. Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner and Public Health Expert, Child Health Programme, Ministry of Health and Family Affairs, India. “Neonatal mortality rate was 37 per 1,000 live births in 2003 and by 2009 it dropped to 34. But from 2009 to 2012 the rate dropped from 34 to 29.”

“There was a decline of five points in three years [from 2009 to 2012], while it dropped only three points in six years [from 2003 to 2009],” he said.

There was a global stagnation in neonatal mortality for a long period and India’s stable condition was a reflection of the global trend. The reason: the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targeted only under-five mortality reduction and as a result the reduction in child mortality more than doubled in the last ten years compared with previous decades.

“By contrast, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction did not feature in the MDG and had slower progress compared with overall under-five mortality and maternal mortality during the same period,” notes a paper published on August 2 in The Lancet.

“India has shown significant reduction in neonatal mortality in the last two years. Every year [since 2009 when the rate was 34] we have reduced the rate,” Dr. Khera said. “In 2010 the [neonatal mortality] rate was 33, in 2011 it was 31 and in 2012 it dropped two points to 29.”

“The government has accorded highest priority to improving newborn health and it has come out with special interventions to improve newborn survival,” he said.

Four major interventions

The first of the four major interventions to reduce neonatal mortality has been the promotion of institutional deliveries by providing conditional cash transfer to pregnant women. In addition to cash transfer incentive, women delivering in government institutions are guaranteed free drugs, diagnostic tests, diet and free transport to the healthcare centre.

Getting pregnant women to healthcare facilities where trained healthcare workers are present greatly improves the chances of survival of the newborn babies.

“Institutional deliveries five years back were 40 per cent but are now 70 per cent,” Dr. Khera said.

While institutional deliveries have reduced neonatal mortality, the rate of reduction fails to reflect the increase in institutional deliveries. For instance, in the three States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, the mortality during the period 0-7 days is still high despite institutional deliveries being 63 per cent, 46 per cent and 53 per cent respectively.

“There are several reasons for this,” said Dr. Khera. “The first is to do with the quality of skill training of healthcare workers. Multi-deliveries by women at short intervals is one of other reasons for newborn deaths. So family planning has to be given importance and pregnant mothers need to be educated on spacing between births, having fewer children and the need for rest during pregnancy. These are happening simultaneously but changes will take time to show up.”

He also said that the proportion of women wanting to deliver at home despite the conditional cash transfer and other incentives is only 10-20 per cent. “The proportion of women wanting to deliver at home has reduced drastically,” he said.

Second intervention

The second major government intervention has been the establishment of newborn care corners. “The newborn care corners have been started all over the country. There are currently 14,000 such care corners, roughly three or four per district,” Dr. Khera said. The newborn care corners provide immediate care for newborns to further improve their chances of survival.

Third intervention

The third major initiative of the government is the establishment of special newborn care units. Currently, there are 548 such units across the country. “The special newborn units care for babies that have very serious conditions. Every year six lakh newborn babies get admitted. But for these units they would have died,” he said.

Fourth intervention

The last major initiative has been the home visits of newborns by nine lakh ASHA workers. “During home visits, the ASHA workers educate the mothers on breastfeeding, the importance of keeping the babies warm and also identify sick newborns and refer them to units where they can get admitted,” Dr. Khera said.

Greater attention should be focussed on improving breastfeeding within an hour of birth as it can save 44 per cent of newborns. “The first breast milk is colostrum which is thicker and nutritious. It is important on several counts -- it provides early nutrition, has vitamin A, decreases jaundice, has antibodies from the mother which decreases infections, improves newborn development. Early breastfeeding also provides the baby with warmth and provides bonding with the mother," Dr. Shyama Kuruvilla, Senior Technical Officer, Knowledge for Policy, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) hosted by WHO said in an email to this Correspondent.

Areas of concern

There are still some critical areas where more action has to be taken to further reduce newborn and neonatal mortality. For instance, of the 2.6 million stillbirths in the world, 600,000 are in India. Stillbirths take place quite close to the time of delivery and hence there are chances of preventing such deaths.

Another area that needs focus is the reduction in preterm births. According to a 2012 WHO report, there were 100,000 to 250,000 preterm births in India. Premature birth is one that takes place more than three weeks before the baby (after less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) is due for normal delivery. Preterm births cause about 50 per cent of neonatal mortality and the precise reasons are not known. But surely, increasing the spacing between two births, preventing adolescent pregnancy and providing medical care will go a long way in reducing the number of preterm births.

Keywords: child mortality, United Nations Organisation data, Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2014, preterm births, neonatal mortality, newborn mortality, stillbirths, child health, healthcare sector

Cambridge University to help India plan to improve primary education -

A comprehensive plan will be developed jointly by the University of Cambridge and Indian government to improve the standards of primary education in India. The University of Cambridge will help frame programmes that will help in enhance the quality of faculty, learning modes and assessments. The Cambridge-India partnership will help create a strong base for Indian education system, as recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Cambridge University is currently engaged in 270 projects with Indian science institutions, plans are on way for collaborations in Humanities and Arts too. - See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/09/cambridge-university-to-help-india-plan-to-improve-primary-education/#sthash.4LuPIYw6.dpuf

Sep 17 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

The sociology of stupid

GOURI DANGE





By keeping out those whose religious or behavioural practices differ from ours, we are ghettoising ourselves and breaking into smaller and smaller splintersWRITES ABOUT THE LOVE-HATE EQUATION THAT WE ALL HAVE WITH OUR CITY
Lovedhated this column! Write to Gouri Dange at punemirror.feedback@gmail.com

One builder (or several), without spelling it out openly, but through an in visible network, sells flats only to people with Brahmin surnames. An other one says he only sells to “96k“ people (Those who don't know what that stands for, go do some reading up on Maratha history). A bunch of buildings in Mumbai has steadfastly refused to sell or resell flats to anyone but Jains. The one family there that eats eggs, goes through an elaborate secret dance to “smuggle in“ the eggs, cook them with all windows closed and get rid of the eggshells in a convoluted fashion -wrapping them in newspaper and taking them out hidden in a laptop bag, if you please.Yet another building, though it cannot enforce the no-pets policy, systematically harasses the one pet owner and hopes that they will one fine day move away. This pet owner is now looking for a building that has a petfriendly policy, or better still, keeps out all pet haters and sells only to pet lovers! One retired air force man proudly tells me about his rather lovely apartment that I admire: “And the best part is that the builder simply declared `all sold out', even when he was not all sold out, to any `Gonsalves, Ali, Singh' type surname customers who enquired about the flats.“ And this is declared with a happy, proud smile. Err...excuse me Sirji, but surely after living and serving Jai Hind, you would not be so damned parochial? And so blatantly so? I think this, but do not say it out loud.
All hot and bothered about all of this, a couple of friends of mine and I said, let's do a sting -let's pose as JainsBrahmins96Ks Whatever-is-required to these different builders and flat sellers, and then record what they say, and then...well and then what? Perhaps this is breaking news only to the likes of us “secular types“ (said with that special sneer), and no one finds it remarkable or objectionable anymore, to build and sell and live along caste and community lines?
Oh wait, of course there is also the automatic class line divide anyway...certain areas and certain constructions will attract “certain“ type of people only. Avoid those, mass along financially similar lines.
Where will all this end? In ghettos that may at first appear like little havens for any particular community or group that has formed them, but will then splinter further on more intolerant and more sociologically stupid lines. Perhaps people with straight hair will find the sight of curly hair abhorrent and entire building societies will then consist of only curly haired people, shunned by and shunning the straight haired ones? Anything is possible. Let's teach our kids that plurality is passé and intolerant is in.
So now that everyone is trying to hang on to only the familiar and the “approved“, here's my very own list of prejudices, firmly in place -call it casteclasscommunitywhatever: I will not live with people who ban pets.And I will not live with people who abuse their pets. I will not live with people who think it is a waste of money to pay society dues. I will not live with people whose kids are free to pee in the lift for a lark and blame it on someone's dog. I will not live with people who use loudspeakers in the society in the name of devoutness starting with Ganpati, going through Navratri and Diwali, and ending only on an ugly crescendo on New Year's Day. I will not live with people who don't believe in separating their garbage. I will not live with people who don't greet each other when they pass on the stairs and who don't have the brains and decency to hold the lift open for someone. I will not live with people who scream beef pork, eee, nooo, etc. Basically I will not live with people who climb mentally into people's private affairs and decide to regulate their lives. Perhaps that relegates me into living in glorious lone splendour, or then other `my types' will band together and form our own ghetto? We will name it the Anti-Ghetto.
Forget about tolerance and civic living. Define your lifestyle, make it non-negotiable, find others who agree and keep out the rest.That's how India is choosing to live. In this way, we will break down into smaller and smaller and even smaller splinters -that will hurt us all, only like a splinter in your skin can.

Sep 17 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

Conservation blooms in W Ghats

Mayuri Phadnis TWEET @ThePuneMirror





Research institutes, including city’s ARI, have been reintroducing endangered species into Ghats for 5 years to prevent them from dying out

Even as controversy rages around the conservation of the infinitely rich biodiversity of the Western Ghats in the face of developmental diktats, a small step in that direction has already blossomed over a five-year effort.Observing that various species of Ceropegia (a genus of a flowering plant) were edging dangerously close to extinction, experts and activists of various research institutes have been reintroducing them into the wild, and the project is now close to fruition, with hundreds of plants surviving and thriving in the mountain ranges.
Twenty such Ceropegia species were propagated via tissue culture in laboratories and hardened in polyhouses before being planted in the wild -of these, four were propagated by the Pune-based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) and the remaining 16 by the Shivaji University in Kolhapur, in the project sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
Reintroduced species propagated by ARI include Ceropegia (C) Odorata, C Maccanni Maccani, C Mahabalei and C Rollae, while some of the species cultivated by Shivaji University include C Jainii, C Ananti, C Oculata, C Mohanramii, etc. These have been planted at various locations in the Ghats by organisations like Biospheres, Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research (NGCPR), Oikos Ecological Services, and others.
“We have successfully planted at least 1,000 saplings of each species in various areas,” said Dr Anuradha Upadhye, the ARI scientist who head ed the project assisted by Priyanka Waghmode, Pallavi Dhavare and Namrata Gaikwad. She added, “Mature individuals found in the field are very less and restricted to certain pockets.
Some are critically endangered, while others are threatened, falling in various categories of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list.” This reduction is a cause for concern for the ecosystem — the plants often flower only from May to September and in the remaining months, exist as underground bulbs which are regularly extracted by locals for food. This hampers the plant’s lifecycle, disrupting the seeding process.
Besides the consumption of bulbs by locals, several other developmental factors too have been responsible for the plants’ removal from nature.
Sachin Punekar, founder-president of Biospheres and senior scientist at NGCPR, which planted around 200 such saplings in various areas, explained, “These plants are extremely rare and endemic to the Western Ghats.
While re-introducing them into nature, it was necessary to scientifically identify where they should be planted, as each species needs a different type of of climate. Accordingly, specific locations were determined for planting — like C Mahabalei in Ralegan (Junnar) and Palashi-Mirje (Satara), or C Maccanni in Sinhagad, Varandha etc.” At the moment, say scientists, the saplings’ survival rate is pretty satisfactory. Head of the Botany department at Shivaji University, Dr S R Yadav, elaborated on the necessity for such a project, saying, “These are all critically endangered or endangered species. If not taken care of immediately, they will go extinct over the next two or three decades. Hence, we are micro-propagating these plants and introducing them into the wild. We have seen a good result — a majority of these plants are surviving.” Ketaki Ghate, an ecologist from Oikos Ecological Services, also part of a team that planted these, saplings said, “These plants are part of the natural ecosystem — they have an important role to play, and other organisms may depend on them. If these go extinct, the fauna and insects dependent on them could suffer.”

All is not lost

Don't take that extreme step. Develop a positive attitude; help is always around the corner.

A student posts on Facebook about being alone and feeling hopeless. He proceeds to send SMSs to his friends that carry a tone of farewell. Alarmed, his friends go to visit him in his hostel room and convince him that things are not so bad, and then they leave. Within the next few hours, the boy does as he had threatened — he ends it all.

This is a tragic story, but, unfortunately, more common than we would like to believe. A story, in fact, which busts myth and misunderstanding about the way suicides happen and do not happen. “People who say it, do not do it,” is the most often heard statement about suicide attempts. However, it is untrue, as demonstrated by the story just narrated.

This is also a story that points to a crying need for awareness and education on suicide prevention and setting up a whole ecosystem of enlightened peers, teachers, professional counselors, psychiatrists and other “gatekeepers” who will support the person who is on the brink.

When I narrated this story to Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, Director, Sneha — an organisation that works to help those with suicidal instincts — she reacted with a gentle nod of her head. It is wrong to think that the suicidal instinct will last only for that moment, she said, cracking one more myth that people believe in. “The above case is not unique, there have been several like that. In such a situation, where the suicidal person announces his or her intention, the right action would be for the friends, or confidante, to get professional help to deal with the person. He or she may need medical attention for two to three weeks until he or she recovers,” she says.

There is a well established link between suicide attempts and mental disorders; however, not all suicides are prompted by these issues. There is a need to study the context in which every suicide or an attempt to suicide happens. Risk factors vary. In many countries, those who are minorities or are marginalised experience a higher risk.

Suicide prevention

September 10 is world suicide prevention day. WHO has released a report entitled, “Preventing suicide: a global imperative” which contains not only shocking data on the numbers and percentages of suicides across the world but also definite plans for putting into place a national suicide prevention strategy.

The most shocking information contained in the report is that the rate of suicides, which is defined as the number of suicides per 100,000 population, was highest for the age group 15-29 years in 2012 (35.5 per 100,000). The number was 36.1 for females and 34.9 for males. The figures for the rates when you take all of the world, for all ages, are 11.4 per 100,000 (15.0 for males, 8.0 for females).

This is shocking not only because many of these could have been prevented but also because for every one of these deaths by suicide, there would have been about 20 people who attempted suicide.

The WHO report stresses the importance of a nationwide action to prevent this from happening. What does this include?

Strategies

Only 28 countries around the world have a national suicide prevention strategy. India, significantly, is NOT one of them. This is despite the fact that this is one of the highest causes of violent death in its population.

Surveillance, means restriction, media guidelines, stigma reduction and raising of public awareness and training of healthworkers, educators, police and others are the first things to develop in a national strategy for prevention of suicide.

The validity of the above suggested strategies has been tested in different countries. To give an example, when responsible media reporting, such as not giving details of suicidal acts, not sensationalising the news, educating the public, etc, was practised, the rates of suicide did go down in Austria and Australia.

Legal aspects

Attempting suicide is a crime in India. It was once the case in many countries around the world. However, in the last fifty years, a majority of countries have changed their laws to decriminalise suicide attempts. Of the 192 countries and states mentioned as having been investigated in the WHO report, only 25, including India, have specific laws and punishments for attempting suicide. Ten other countries follow Sharia law and in these countries also, people who attempt suicide may be punished.

This is also an important point. For “no data or case-reports indicate that decriminalization increases suicides. In fact, suicide rates tend to decline in countries after decriminalisation…” according to the report.

Supporting sufferers

“Young people, just like those of any age group, suffer doubly after a suicide attempt. They are burdened with the guilt of what they have tried and also the problem which prompted them to attempt suicide, which will not just disappear,” says Dr. Vasuki Mathivanan who is a counseling psychologist in Chennai. For two to three weeks after the attempt, the person has to be given good company and watched over with warmth, she says. Awareness of how to recognise symptoms, such as isolating oneself, depression, sharp loss of or increase in food intake, depressed statements, and how to handle and approach the affected person and also, most importantly, how to get help needs to be developed.

Parents and peers play a crucial role in helping someone who has attempted suicide and survived, to get back on his or her feet. It is important at this stage not to further humiliate them but to make them aware that there are people who care for them. Most often it is the feeling, or idea, that a problem has no solution that makes one take the step towards suicide. This needs to be dispelled and hope must be given to them.

The most important thing is to make positive attitude a way of life. September 10 is just one day in a year; working at preventing suicide calls for being active everyday.

Keywords: suicide, suicide prevention, professional counselors, psychiatrists

Old climate change formula no longer exists, say scientists

The traditional formula on climate change that says that regions that have a moist climate will experience additional rainfall is no longer valid, scientists say.

The old formula that dry gets drier and wet gets wetter (DDWW) is less universally valid than previously assumed, stressed a team of climate researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) in Zurich.

“Our results emphasise how we should not overly rely on simplifying principles to asses past developments in dryness and humidity. This can be misleading, as it cannot do justice to the complexity of the underlying systems,” said Peter Greve from ETHZ and the lead author of the study.

Traditional analyses using metrics could describe climate characteristics above the ocean, but not over land.

In their new study, ETHZ researchers led by co-author Sonia Seneviratne, a professor for land-climate dynamics, took into account the specific climatic properties of land surfaces where the amount of available water is limited compared with the ocean.

For the study, they compared data from between 1948 and 1968 and 1984 to 2004 which allowed them to extract trends in terms of a region’s humidity and dryness.

They found that there was no obvious trend towards a drier or wetter climate across three-quarters of the land and only half of this surface area follows the DDWW principle.

Some regions which should have become wetter according to the simple DDWW formula have actually become drier in the past — this includes parts of the Amazon, Central America, tropical Africa and Asia, found the team.

However, the DDWW principle does still apply to the oceans, concluded the study that appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Keywords: climate change, rainfall, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, land-climate dynamics, ETHZ researchers, global warming, DDWW principle