On the relationships among diversity,productivity and climate from an Indian tropical ecosystem: a preliminary investigation

The relationships among diversity, productivity and climate are complex, especially in tropical ecosystems; and are less studied. We studied here the bi- and tri-partite relationships between and among the plant diversity, productivity and climate variables (i.e., temperature, precipitation and moisture) in a tropical ecosystem in India by analyzing three forest types for the year 2010. Comparison of productivity (Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach model derived-net primary productivity, NPP) and climate condition with respect to 2001 showed significant increase in NPP and temperature and overall decrease in precipitation and moisture condition in last decade. The NPP for sal forest ranged from 579.4 to 1,142 for the year 2001 and 557.2 to 1231.6 g Cm⁻² year⁻¹ for the year 2010. The mean monthly temperature varied from 18 to 21.8°C and 26 to 27°C; and the annual precipitation varied from 15 to 45 and 32 to 76 cm/year for the year 2001 and 2010 respectively. Strong correlation was observed between monthly mean temperature and productivity during 2001, while a decrease was observed during the year 2010. The ecosystem has shown a trend of rapid drying in last decade, triggering more detail studies for understanding of the eco-climatology. In general, sal forest, a natural forest sowed higher diversity and productivity followed by mixed deciduous (MD) forest and teak plantation. Though, areas with higher NPP are well correlated with higher temperature, precipitation and moisture; they seem to be related to species density rather than diversity. However, there is a need to have year-on-year assessments in order to ascertain if this difference represents a real phenomenon rather than an artefact of sampling. The pilot study helps in understanding the complex relationships and is very useful in the fast changing climate.     

Enhanced Expression of Rabies Virus Surface G-Protein in Escherichia coli using SUMO Fusion

Fusion systems are known to increase the expression of difficult to express recombinant proteins in soluble form to facilitate their purification. Rabies glycoprotein was also tough to express at sufficient level in soluble form in both E. coli and plant. The present work was aimed to over-express and purify this membrane protein from soluble extract of E. coli. Fusion of Small Ubiqutin like Modifier (SUMO) with rabies glycoprotein increased ~1.5 fold higher expression and ~3.0 fold solubility in comparison to non-fused in E. coli. The SUMO fusion also simplified the purification process. Previously engineered rabies glycoprotein gene in tobacco plants provides complete protection to mice, but the expression was very low for purification. Our finding demonstrated that the SUMO-fusion was useful for enhancing expression and solubility of the membrane protein and again proves to be a good alternative technology for applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical research.     

Developing Item Banks for Measuring Pediatric Generic Health-Related Quality of Life: An Application of the International Classification of Functioning,Disability and Health for Children and Youth and Item Response Theory

The purpose of this study was to develop item banks by linking items from three pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments using a mixed methodology. Secondary data were collected from 469 parents of children aged 8-16 years. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth (ICF-CY) served as a framework to compare the concepts of items from three HRQoL instruments. The structural validity of the individual domains was examined using confirmatory factor analyses. Samejima''s Graded Response Model was used to calibrate items from different instruments. The known-groups validity of each domain was examined using the status of children with special health care needs (CSHCN). Concepts represented by the items in the three instruments were linked to 24 different second-level categories of the ICF-CY. Eight item banks representing eight unidimensional domains were created based on the linkage of the concepts measured by the items of the three instruments to the ICF-CY. The HRQoL results of CSHCN in seven out of eight domains (except personality) were significantly lower compared with children without special health care needs (p<0.05). This study demonstrates a useful approach to compare the item concepts from the three instruments and to generate item banks for a pediatric population.