Jatropha curcas L. is a potential bioenergy crop but has a lack of improved cultivars with high yields and oil content. Therefore, increasing our understanding of J. curcas germplasm is important for designing breeding strategies. This study was performed to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of Indonesian J. curcas populations from six different islands. To construct a reference, we de novo assembled the scaffolds (N50 = 355.5 kb) using 182 Gb Illumina HiSeq sequencing data from Thai J. curcas variety Chai Nat. Genetic diversity analysis among 52 Indonesian J. curcas accessions was conducted based on yield traits and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers detected by mapping genotyping-by-sequencing reads from Indonesian population to Chai Nat scaffolds. Strong variation in yield traits was detected among accessions. Using J. integerrima as an outgroup, 13,916 SNPs were detected. Among J. curcas accessions, including accessions from other countries (Thailand, the Philippines and China), 856 SNPs were detected, but only 297 SNPs were detected among Indonesian J. curcas populations, representing low genetic diversity. Through phylogenetic and structural analysis, the populations were clustered into two major groups. Group one consists of populations from Bangka and Sulawesi in the northern part of Indonesia, which are located at a distance of 1572.59 km. Group two contains populations from islands in the southern part: Java, Lombok-Sumbawa, Flores and Timor. These results indicate that introduction of diverse J. curcas germplasms is necessary for the improvement of the genetic variation in the Indonesian collections.

To evaluate the appropriateness of the screening strategy for healthcare personnel (HCP) during a hospital-associated Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, we performed a serologic investigation in 189 rRT-PCR–negative HCP exposed and assigned to MERS patients. Although 20%–25% of HCP experienced MERS-like symptoms, none of them showed seroconversion by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT).

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:234–238

Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis [Willd.] Ohwi & H. Ohashi) is one of the most important legume crops cultivated in East Asia and northern South Asia. Despite its agronomic importance, the lack of available sequence information has made it difficult to improve important agronomic traits. In the present study, we performed de novo assembly of transcript sequences produced by short-read sequencing to construct 59,860 full-length protein-coding sequences in adzuki bean. These genes were subjected to a BLASTP search to identify putative homologues of the 84 Arabidopsis genes involved in the circadian clock and photoperiodic flowering pathway. A large proportion of these Arabidopsis genes were found to be conserved in adzuki bean. However, there were no homologues of six genes including FLOWER LOCUS D (FD) and LEAFY (LFY). Furthermore, the phylogenetic relationships of 25 highly homologous matches to CONSTANS (CO) or CONSTANS-LIKE (COL) of Arabidopsis indicated the lack of a CO orthologue in adzuki bean. FLOWER LOCUS T (FT) and its homologues were found to have two homologous counterparts in adzuki bean. This study provides primary genetic resources that may be useful for producing adzuki bean with improved flowering and fruiting performance in response to environmental changes.

The sap of Acer mono has been called ‘bone-benefit-water’ in Korea because of its mineral and sugar content. In particular, the calcium concentration of the sap of A. mono is 37·5 times higher than commercial spring water. In the current study, we examined whether A. mono sap could improve or prevent osteoporosis-like symptoms in a mouse model. Male mice (3 weeks old) were fed a low-calcium diet supplemented with 25, 50 or 100 % A. mono sap, commercial spring water or a high calcium-containing solution as a beverage for 7 weeks. There were no differences in weekly weight gain and food intake among all the groups. Mice that were given a low-calcium diet supplemented with commercial spring water developed osteoporosis-like symptoms. To assess the effect of sap on osteoporosis-like symptoms, we examined serum calcium concentration, and femur density and length, and carried out a histological examination. Serum calcium levels were significantly lower in mice that received a low-calcium diet supplemented with commercial spring water (the negative control group), and in the 25 % sap group compared to mice fed a normal diet, but were normal in the 50 and 100 % sap and high-calcium solution groups. Femur density and length were significantly reduced in the negative control and 25 % sap groups. These results indicate that a 50 % sap solution can mitigate osteoporosis-like symptoms induced by a low-calcium diet. We also examined the regulation of expression of calcium-processing genes in the duodenum and kidney. Duodenal TRPV6 and renal calbindin-D9k were up-regulated dose-dependently by sap, and the levels of these factors were higher than those attained in the spring water-treated control. The results demonstrate that the sap of A. mono ameliorates the low bone density induced by a low-calcium diet, most likely by increasing calcium ion absorption.

We optimized synthesis conditions of blue-emitting CaMgSi2O6:Eu2+ (CMS:Eu2+) with conventional solid-state reaction and successfully determined structure parameters by Rietveld refinement method with neutron powder diffraction data. The final weighted R-factor Rwp was 6.42% and the goodness-of-fit indicator S (= Rwp/Re) was 1.34. The refined lattice parameters of CMS:Eu2+ were a = 9.7472(3) Å, b = 8.9394(2) Å, and c = 5.2484(1) Å. The β angle was 105.87(1)°. The concentration quenching process was observed, and the critical quenching concentration of Eu2+ in CMS:Eu2+ was about 0.01 mol and critical transfer distance was calculated as 12 Å. With the help of the Rietveld refinement and Dexter theory, the critical transfer distance was also calculated as 27 Å. In addition, the dominant multipolar interaction of CMS:Eu2+ was investigated from the relationship between the emission intensity per activator concentration and activator concentration. The dipole–dipole interaction was a dominant energy transfer mechanism of electric multipolar character of CMS:Eu2+.

A rivulet is a narrow stream of liquid flowing down a solid surface. When its flow rate exceeds a certain limit, it tends to meander, exhibiting instability of the interface. Here we report a perturbation analysis of this meandering rivulet. We find that the combined effects of the tangential velocity difference across the interface and the dynamic wetting are responsible for the instability. The Weber number represents the ratio of the destabilizing force, inertia, to the stabilizing force, surface tension. As the Weber number increases, both the wavenumber of maximum instability and the cutoff wavenumber increase. The effects of the capillarity are such that the wavenumber of maximum instability asymptotically increases as the sensitivity of the dynamic contact angles to the contact line speed increases. However, the cutoff wavenumber remains constant despite wetting parameter changes when the Weber number is constant.