Search

Ensuring a reliable water supply is critical for the success of Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Development Plan, a pivotal initiative aimed at boosting the country’s GDP. To address water limitations and high activity density in the pilot area, the EEC has implemented a policy to reduce water usage across all sectors, with a specific emphasis on the domestic sector. However, the complex nature of consumption patterns and diverse perspectives among domestic user present challenges to implementing effective top-down strategies for water management. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate residents' and service sectors' perspectives on water management in the EEC. A questionnaire administered to 621 respondents, coupled with Principal Components Analysis, identified key factors influencing domestic water management: 1) the efficiency of water management and services, 2) community awareness and participation in addressing water issues, and 3) access to clean water services. The findings revealed that respondents perceived an unstable accessibility to clean water and services, coupled with low participation in water management. A notable inconsistency arose between respondents' perception of their water consumption and actual water use calculated from billing records, indicating an underestimation of their own water usage. With an average water consumption exceeding 200 L per capita per day, this poses a significant challenge compared to regional norms. In discussions with communities, participating in efficient water usage strategies was found to be more challenging than reduction-focused approaches. Moreover, there was a recognition and acceptance of wastewater recycling, contingent on water quality and appropriate usage objectives.

While inositol has key roles in phytic acid and raffinosaccharide synthesis, its concentration in developing seed of low phytic acid soybean [Glycine max(L.) Merr.] lines derived from CX1834 (Wilcox et al., 2000) has not been compared to that of normal lines. Concentrations of metabolites in the phytic acid and raffinosaccharide biosynthesis have been measured in mature seed of CX1834‐derived lines but not throughout seed development. Our objective was to compare concentrations of inositol and metabolites associated with phytic acid and raffinosaccharide synthesis in developing seed of CX1834‐derived and normal lines. Plants were cultured with complete nutrient solutions in growth chambers with 650 to 700 μmol m−2s−1of photosynthetically active radiation and a 26/22°C day/night temperature. Seed inositol concentrations were high (60 to 90 mmol kg−1seed dry wt.) at 20 d after flowering (DAF) and decreased 95% by maturity in both normal and low phytic acid lines. In two of three experiments, low phytic acid lines had significantly (p≤ 0.05) greater seed inositol concentrations than normal lines at the first two sampling dates, but differences at maturity were not significant. Seeds of low phytic acid and normal lines had statistically similar concentrations (p> 0.05) of partially phosphorylated inositol intermediate (inositol triphosphate [IP3]), stachyose, raffinose, and phytase activity throughout development. These results corroborate previous studies that ruled out defects in genes coding myo‐inositol‐1‐P synthase, inositol kinases, and phytase as the basis for the low seed phytic acid trait in CX1834‐derived lines.

Using 31‐phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P‐NMR) to characterize phosphorus (P) in animal manures and litter has become a popular technique in the area of nutrient management. To date, there has been no published work evaluating P quantification in manure/litter samples with 31P‐NMR compared to other accepted methods such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). To evaluate the use of 31P‐NMR to quantify myo‐inositol hexakisphosphate (phytate) in ileal digesta, manure, and litter from broilers, we compared results obtained from both 31P‐NMR and a more traditional HPLC method. The quantification of phytate in all samples was very consistent between the two methods, with linear regressions having slopes ranging from 0.94 to 1.07 and r2values of 0.84 to 0.98. We compared the concentration of total monoester P determined with 31P‐NMR with the total inositol P content determined with HPLC and found a strong linear relationship between the two measurements having slopes ranging from 0.91 to 1.08 and r2values of 0.73 to 0.95. This suggests that 31P‐NMR is a very reliable method for quantifying P compounds in manure/litter samples.

This laboratory previously described a single‐laser flow cytometric method, which effectively resolves micronucleated erythrocyte populations in rodent peripheral blood samples. Even so, the rarity and variable size of micronuclei make it difficult to configure instrument settings consistently and define analysis regions rationally to enumerate the cell populations of interest. Murine erythrocytes from animals infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium bergheicontain a high prevalence of erythrocytes with a uniform DNA content. This biological model for micronucleated erythrocytes offers a means by which the micronucleus analysis regions can be rationally defined, and a means for controlling interexperimental variation. The experiments described herein were performed to extend these studies by testing whether malaria‐infected erythrocytes could also be used to enhance the transferability of the method, as well as control intra‐ and interlaboratory variation. For these studies, blood samples from mice infected with malaria, or treated with vehicle or the clastogen methyl methanesulfonate, were fixed and shipped to collaborating laboratories for analysis. After configuring instrumentation parameters and guiding the position of analysis regions with the malaria‐infected blood samples, micronucleated reticulocyte frequencies were measured (20,000 reticulocytes per sample). To evaluate both intra‐ and interlaboratory variation, five replicates were analyzed per day, and these analyses were repeated on up to five separate days. The data of 14 laboratories presented herein indicate that transferability of this flow cytometric technique is high when instrumentation is guided by the biological standard Plasmodium berghei.Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 38:59–68, 2001 © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

The physiological and biochemical basis for increased seed protein concentrations (SPC) observed in restriction‐index, recurrent‐selection breeding programs with soybean [Glycine max(L.) Merr.] are poorly understood. The hypothesis that soybean SPC is regulated by the supply of nitrogenous substrates available to the seed was evaluated. Effects of supra‐optimal external N on seed storage protein accumulation, amino acid concentration and composition in leaves and seeds at R5, and levels of specific storage protein subunits were measured. Genotypes with different SPC (NC 107, normal; N87‐984‐16, intermediate; and NC 111, high) were grown in controlled‐environment chambers and supplied with 30 mMN as NH4NO3from V5 to maturity or from R5 to maturity. Control plants received 10 mMN throughout the growth cycle. Relative to control, supra‐optimal N increased SPC of NC 107 and N87‐984‐16 by an average of 28%. Greater enhancement of protein accumulation than of dry matter accumulation in the seed resulted in SPCs of 460 to 470 g kg−1, which are appreciably greater than concentrations observed for these cultivars grown in the field. Supra‐optimal N also increased SPC of the high protein line (NC 111) by 15%, but this increase resulted entirely from a decrease in yield. Supra‐optimal N supplied to NC 107 and N87‐984‐16 from V5 until R5 increased total free amino acid concentrations in seeds and leaves at R5 by an average of 21 and 46%, respectively. Enhanced accumulation of the β subunit of β conglycinin which does not contain methionine and cysteine accounted for the increase in SPC. While enhanced N availability increased the SPC of a normal protein line into the high range, availability of sulfur amino acids in the developing seed determined which storage protein subunits were synthesized from the extra N.

In this paper, we present a new purification procedure that yields a new crystalline form of rubisco and has enabled us to completely remove this most abundant protein from tobacco leaf extract. The crystals formed within 48 h after refrigeration at 4 °C at pH 5.6. However, these crystals were not well-ordered crystals and lacked well-defined facets or edges. The remaining leaf extract (fraction 2 protein) was void of rubisco. Conversion of this new crystalline form of rubisco to its common dodecahedral form was achieved by dialysing the protein solution in Tris buffer at pH 8.0 or purified water. Since the molecular size of its large subunit of rubisco (55 kD) is similar to that of the papillomavirus capsid protein, L1 (57 kD), its complete removal from fraction 2-protein may facilitate the detection, purification, and recovery of the L1 protein. Keywords: rubisco • purification • crystallization • recrystallization • dodecahedron • fraction 2-protein

The oxidative activities of hydroponically produced Chinese kale (Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra L.) seedlings grown under different concentrations of selenium (Se) biofortification with sodium selenite (Na2SeO3) at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 30 mg·Se/L and different ages (5, 10, and 15 days after germination) were determined by the electron transfer method (DPPH and FTC). Highest antioxidant activities of Se-enriched Chinese kale seedlings (Se-KS) were found in seedlings grown on 30 mg·Se/L, 15 days after germination. The physicochemical contents (moisture, crude fibre, ash, crude protein, and carbohydrate), total Se contents, and Se bioaccessibility and antioxidant activities (after treatment with an in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion process) between Se-KS and a control of regular Chinese kale seedlings (R-KS) were compared. The crude protein and total Se contents of the air-dried matter in Se-KS were higher (37 ± 1% and 433 ± 22 mg·Se/kg) than those of the R-KS (33 ± 2% and 17 ± 3 mg·Se/kg). Total Se content and antioxidant activities were strongly correlated in the range from 0.93 to 0.99. Testing acute toxicity, a single dose of the Se-KS was orally administrated to rats at 1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/kg·b.w., which consisted of 0.54, 1.08, and 2.16 mg Se/kg·b.w., respectively. These results demonstrated that Se-KS did not create any toxicological signs and mortality. No abnormal pathological changes in the liver, kidney, and heart were found. The results suggested that the Se-KS could be a good source of organo Se for development as a new Se supplementary product.

RABIES virus has occasionally been isolated from feral rats1and yet rodents are not considered to be a significant reservoir of sylvatic rabies2. These conclusions are based on negative results of surveys of small mammal species in areas in which rabies is endemic2,3. The isolation of rabies virus from a field rat, Bandicoota indicus, in the course of routine diagnostic procedures prompted a survey of several small mammals in Thailand, a country where rabies is endemic. When it was certain that the virus was present in a number of Bandicoota indicus, it then became important to determine whether overt disease occurred and if virus was being transmitted as an inapparent infection in the species. The results of the survey and preliminary data on the epidemiology of rabies in Bandicoota indicus are the subject of this report.

THE transmission of rabies by bats was first reported in 1921 (ref. 1). Vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus murinus) have been found to be an important carrier of sylvatic rabies in South America2, and they have been known to shed the virus in their saliva for long periods of time without apparent illness3. Since 1953, when the first rabies isolate from bats in the United States was made from a yellow bat (Dasypterus floridanus) in Florida, there have been more than five hundred isolates from bats in at least thirty-six States4. A survey of the literature has failed to reveal reports of rabies in bats in south-east Asia, and publications of the World Health Organization5,6state that surveys of bat rabies in Asia have been consistently negative. The same statement about bat rabies in Europe, however, was refuted by Pitzschke7, who isolated rabies virus from a wide-winged bat (Epitescus serotinus) in Thuringia, Germany. The high prevalence of rabies in Thailand and the dense bat population prompted us to investigate the disease in bats in this area.