The plant hormone ethylene restricts Arabidopsis growth via the epidermis

The gaseous hormone ethylene plays a key role in plant growth and development, and it is a major regulator of stress responses. It inhibits vegetative growth by restricting cell elongation, mainly through cross-talk with auxins. However, it remains unknown whether ethylene controls growth throughout all plant tissues or whether its signaling is confined to specific cell types. We employed a targeted expression approach to map the tissue site(s) of ethylene growth regulation. The ubiquitin E3 ligase complex containing Skp1, Cullin1, and the F-box protein EBF1 or EBF2 (SCFEBF1/2) target the degradation of EIN3, the master transcription factor in ethylene signaling. We coupled EBF1 and EBF2 to a number of cell type-specific promoters. Using phenotypic assays for ethylene response and mutant complementation, we revealed that the epidermis is the main site of ethylene action controlling plant growth in both roots and shoots. Suppression of ethylene signaling in the epidermis of the constitutive ethylene signaling mutant ctr1-1 was sufficient to rescue the mutant phenotype, pointing to the epidermis as a key cell type required for ethylene-mediated growth inhibition

Methods for the determination of caffeine content in commercial tea samples

Universitatea de Stat de Medicină şi Farmacie „Nicolae Testemiţanu”, Chişinău, Republica MoldovaIntroducere. Cafeina (1,3,7-trimetil-xantin-2,6-dihidroxi purină) este un alcaloid prezent în diferite cantități în frunzele și fructele unor plante: Coffea arabica, Theobroma cacao. Cu toate acestea, mai multe studii indică faptul că, cafeina se conține și în frunzele și mugurii de ceai. Scopul lucrării. Determinarea conținutului de cafeină în probe comerciale de ceai. Material și metode. Bazele de date electronice: While, Scopus și Springer au fost accesate. De asemenea, căutarea a fost efectuată folosind reviste farmaceutice și chimice tipărite. În total 124 surse bibliografice au fost eligibile. Rezultate. Doza maximă zilnică a cafeinei este cca. 3mg per kg de greutate corporală sau până la 400 mg pe zi pentru un adult sănătos . Privind posibilitățile de dozare a cafeinei în probele de ceai, metoda spectrofotometrică UVVis a fost cea mai frecvent utilizată, fiind prezentată în majoritatea referințelor bibliografice consultate (64%), urmată de metoda titrimetrică iodometrică, aplicată și descrisă în 30% din sursele bibliografice examinate. De asemenea, cafeina poate fi determinată cantitativ și prin metode HPLC, fi ind mai puțin aplicată în sursele bibliografice consultate din ultimii 10 ani (6%). Concluzii. Metoda fizico-chimică spectrofotometrică UV-Vis ocupă întâietatea la dozarea cafeinei în probele de ceai în comparație cu metodele titrimetrice și HPLC.Introduction. Caffeine (1,3,7-trimethyl-xanthine-2,6-dihydroxy purine) is an alkaloid present in varying amounts in the leaves and fruits of some plants: Coffea arabica, Theobroma cacao. However, several studies indicate that caffeine is also contained in tea leaves and buds. Objective of the study. Determination of caffeine content in commercial tea samples. Material and methods. Electronic databases: While, Scopus and Springer were accessed. The search was also conducted using pharmaceutical and chemical print journals. A total of 124 bibliographic sources were eligible. Results. The maximum daily dose of caffeine is approx. 3mg per kg of body weight or up to 400mg per day for a healthy adult. Looking at the possibilities of caffeine dosage in tea samples, the UV-Vis spectrophotometric method was the most frequently used, being presented in the majority of consulted bibliographic references (64%), followed by the iodometric titrimetric method, applied and described in 30% of the bibliographic sources examined. Caffeine can also be quantitatively determined by HPLC methods, being less applied in the bibliographic sources consulted in the last 10 years (6%). Conclusion. UV-Vis spectrophotometric physicochemical method takes precedence in caffeine dosage in tea samples compared to titrimetric and HPLC methods

Gc-Ms and Hplc Chromatographic Profile of Majority Volatile and Phenolic Compounds of Some Medicinal Plants From Romania

This study reports the identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the phenolic composition for these medicinal plants: lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), and elderflower (Sambucus nigra). The HS-SPME-GC-MS hyphenated technique was used to investigate the volatiles from the three plants in fresh and dried forms. The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation technique, followed by GC-MS analysis. Additionally, HPLC-UV/VIS detection was used to identify the phenolic compounds of these plants. The majority compounds identified in the fresh, dried and oil of lemon balm were Z-beta-ocimene, citronellal, citronellol, b-caryophyllene, (E)-citral, (Z)-citral and geraniol respectively. The aerial part of lavender contains mainly linalool, linalyl acetate, beta-myrcene, trans-beta-ocimene, lavandulyl acetate and caryophyllene. The most compounds identified in the fresh flowers of elderflower were linalool, cis-beta-ocimene, linalool oxide (II) pyran, cis-3-hexenyl isovalerate, while in the dry flowers the majority compounds were linalool oxide (II) pyran, cis-3-hexenyl isovalerate and hexenyl tiglate. The essential oil was rich in n-hexadecanoic acid, linoleic acid, and heneicosane. Majority phenolic compounds identified in the analysed species were vanillic, sinapic, ferulic, and p-coumaric acids, while the predominant flavonoids were rutin, quercetin and epicatechin. The profile of VOCs represents an indicator in the valorisation of medicinal plants

Retrospective evaluation of anaemia and transfusion rate in lower abdominal oncological surgery

Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, România, Iași, Regional Institute of Oncology, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department, România, Iași, The 5th International Congress of the Society of Anesthesiology and Reanimatology of the Republic of Moldova, 16th Edition of the International Course of Guidelines and Protocols in Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 28th Meeting of the European Society for Computing and Technology in Anesthesia and Intensive Care, September 27-29, 2018, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaBackground: Anemia is currently considered a contraindication to elective surgery, requiring diagnostic investigations and preoperative iron administration. In the oncological patient, severe anemia can increase tumor aggression and blood transfusion can induce immunosuppression, favouring cancer recurrence and metastatic rate. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of anemia and the perioperative transfusion rate in major abdominal-pelvic oncology surgery. Material and methods: Data of all consecutive surgical patients admitted to the ICU during 01-07.2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with major lower digestive, gynecological and urological surgery were selected. Investigated parameters were - demographic data, hemoglobin (preoperative Hb1, postoperative Hb2, at dischargeHb3), anemia prevalence and perioperative transfusion rate. Statistical analysis used t-student, chi-square and ANOVA from SPSS 17. Results: Of a total 1284 patients, n = 546 patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery were enrolled in the study, mean age 60.9 (+/- 12.6) years. The mean hemoglobin Hb1/Hb2/Hb3 values were 12.4/10.6/10.5g/dL. The prevalence of anemia was 38.5% (n = 210) preoperatively, 85.9% (n = 469) postoperatively and 86.9% (n = 474) at discharge. The transfusion rate was 16.6% (n = 91), transfusion index = 2. Comparative analysis showed a higher prevalence of preoperative anemia (50.5vs21.8%, p <0.001) and transfusion rate (21.8vs 1.6%, p <0.01) in lower abdominal versus uro- gynecologic surgery. Conclusions: The analysis of surgical oncology patients with lower abdominal interventions identified an increased prevalence of anemia in all perioperative stages. Acknowledgments – The database used in this study was created by the Patient Blood Management Romanian Group for the internal audit on the prevalence of anemia and transfusion

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton–proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=8 TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about 30μm is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than 20μm and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing

2016 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with EACTS.

Peer reviewe

Cortical brain abnormalities in 4474 individuals with schizophrenia and 5098 control subjects via the enhancing neuro Imaging genetics through meta analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium

BACKGROUND: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group. METHODS: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.3 years; range, 11-78 years; 66% male) and 5098 healthy volunteers (mean age, 32.8 years; range, 10-87 years; 53% male) assessed with standardized methods at 39 centers worldwide. RESULTS: Compared with healthy volunteers, individuals with schizophrenia have widespread thinner cortex (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.530/-0.516) and smaller surface area (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.251/-0.254), with the largest effect sizes for both in frontal and temporal lobe regions. Regional group differences in cortical thickness remained significant when statistically controlling for global cortical thickness, suggesting regional specificity. In contrast, effects for cortical surface area appear global. Case-control, negative, cortical thickness effect sizes were two to three times larger in individuals receiving antipsychotic medication relative to unmedicated individuals. Negative correlations between age and bilateral temporal pole thickness were stronger in individuals with schizophrenia than in healthy volunteers. Regional cortical thickness showed significant negative correlations with normalized medication dose, symptom severity, and duration of illness and positive correlations with age at onset. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the ENIGMA meta-analysis approach can achieve robust findings in clinical neuroscience studies; also, medication effects should be taken into account in future genetic association studies of cortical thickness in schizophrenia

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk outcome associations. Methods: We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings: In 2017,34.1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33.3-35.0) deaths and 121 billion (144-1.28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61.0% (59.6-62.4) of deaths and 48.3% (46.3-50.2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10.4 million (9.39-11.5) deaths and 218 million (198-237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7.10 million [6.83-7.37] deaths and 182 million [173-193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6.53 million [5.23-8.23] deaths and 171 million [144-201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4.72 million [2.99-6.70] deaths and 148 million [98.6-202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1.43 million [1.36-1.51] deaths and 139 million [131-147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4.9% (3.3-6.5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23.5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18.6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning