Molecular and biological characterization of a new Brazilian begomovirus, euphorbia yellow mosaic virus (EuYMV), infecting Euphorbia heterophylla plants.

To date, no begomovirus has been fully characterized from Euphorbia heterophylla, a widely distributed weed, in Brazil. Here, we show the occurrence of a new begomovirus on E. heterophylla plants showing bright yellow mosaic. The bipartite viral genome was cloned from 10 samples, and all clones are almost identical to each other (95.6-98.8% nucleotide sequence identity). The DNA-A sequences shared a maximum nucleotide sequence identity of 87.3% with euphorbia mosaic Peru virus (EuMPV) and thus were classified as belonging to a novel begomovirus species, tentatively named Euphorbia yellow mosaic virus (EuYMV). The EuYMV DNA-B sequences share a maximum nucleotide sequence identity of 56.2% with a euphorbia mosaic virus (EuMV) isolate from Mexico. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that this new virus belongs to a different lineage than EuMV isolates from Central America.

Canine normal corneal epithelium bears a large population of CD45-positive cells.

This investigation sought to identify the presence of immune cells in normal canine corneal epithelium. A whole-mount immunofluorescence study of normal canine epithelium using monoclonal antibodies against CD45, CD11c, CD1c and MHC class II was performed. CD45-positive cells were located in all epithelial layers throughout the cornea, occurring in greater numbers (51.98+/-4.1/mm(2)) at the periphery and decreasing towards the central region (11.8+/-3.1/mm(2)). CD11c-positive cells were also observed, but were fewer in number. The findings show that the normal canine cornea carries a significant number of cells of immune origin; these cells seem to be of an inactive phenotype as they do not express MHC class II. Further studies are needed to determine whether these cells can express co-stimulatory molecules and act as antigen presenting cells if stimulated.

Characterization of the sources of variation affecting near-infrared spectroscopy using chemometric methods.

A rapid assessment of product quality can often be made using a combination of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and multivariate calibration. The robustness of such a method is determined by the sensitivity of the multivariate calibration model to variations in the spectral data. An approach is described that uses a combination of experimental design methodology and principal component analysis to identify the main sources of variation in the spectra and to estimate their influence on the quantitative predictions. This is accomplished by comparing variations in a set of measured, replicate spectra to spectra with simulated variations. The approach was applied to the hydroxyl number determination of polyols by NIR spectroscopy and partial least-squares calibration. The results indicated that the most significant sources of variation were due to a variable cell path length and a variable curved background. Correction for these errors resulted in a 58% reduction in the standard deviation of the hydroxyl number predictions, indicating that a substantial improvement in the method precision is possible.