Changes in Leaf and Shoot Water Statutes of Grapevines in Response to Contrasting Water Availability and Glycine Betaine Pulverization

Drought is one of the most widespread stress factors adversely affecting plant growth, crop yield and quality. In Subtropical region, on the face of global warming, temperature extremes aggravate the negative effects of drought. Increased resistance to stress has been achieved in several plants by exogenous application of various organic osmoprotectants. In this study, the role of glycine betaine (GB) as exogenous application, is aimed to investigate for increasing grapevine stress tolerance to drought. The grapevines of Alphonse Lavalléeʼ cultivar, grafted on the rootstock 41 B, were subjected to four different applications; (1) full irrigation (FI) as control (irrigation at field capacity level), (2) deficit irrigation (DI, 50% of FI), (3) DI plus 5000 ppm GB pulverization, and (4) DI plus 10000 ppm GB pulverization in a pot experiment under glasshouse condition. Leaf fresh weight of vines subjected to DI was 31.8% lower than those of FI vines. GB appeared to exert an influence on leaf water statute, slightly alleviating the leaf water loss resulting from water shortage. GB treatments, regardless of the concentration, slightly increased the fresh weight of the leaves (22.2% lower than FI). Investigations on leaf turgid weight and dry weight were also similar to those of fresh weight in that the highest and the lowest values were determined in FI and DI applications, respectively. Reduction in shoot water content in response to water deficit was closely related to the decrease in leaf water content

The relationship between visceral adipose tissue and intima-media thickness in patients with kidney disease

Introduction: Increase in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with cardiovascular risk. However, the relationship between atherosclerosis and VAT has not yet been adequately studied in chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship among VAT, adipokines, and atherosclerosis in patients with CKD.Materials and methods: 45 healthy control, 53 predialysis patients, and 52 hemodialysis patients have been enrolled in the study. Intima media thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery, and VAT measurements were evaluated via ultrasonography.Results: IMT (p:0.002), VAT (p:0.021), adiponectin (plt;0.001) and pentraxin-3 (p:0.003) were higher in predialysis patients than healthy controls. The values of IMT (plt;0.001), VAT (p:0.0014), adiponectin (p:0.005), pentraxin-3 (p: lt;0.001), C reactive protein (CRP) (p:0.009), triglyceride (p: lt;0.001) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) (plt;0.001), were higher in hemodialysis patients than healthy controls. VAT was positively correlated with CRP(r: 0, 23 p: 0.005), IMT (r: 0.347 plt;0.001), body mass index (BMI) (r: 0.33 plt;0.001), and negatively correlated with creatinine clearance (R: -0.245 p: 0.003). VAT is independently related with adiponectin (ß:-0.213 p: 0.008), BMI (ß: 0.369, Plt;0.001), and CRP (ß:0.164, P:0.032) in multiple regression analysis. IMT was positively correlated with VAT (r: 0.347 plt;0.001), CRP (r: 0.186 p: 0.022), age (r: 0.333 plt;0.001), BMI (r: 0.444 plt;0.001) in all participants.Conclusion: These findings show that VAT is a strong risk factor for atherosclerosis in patients with CKD. However IMT was not correlated with adiponectin, pentraxin-3, and leptin in patients with CKD. Also sonographic measurement of VAT could be useful to stratify the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with CKD

Pneumosinus dilatans and multiplex: Report of three rare cases and review of the literature

Pneumosinus dilatans is a term used to describe a localized abnormal dilatation of one or more paranasal sinuses without radiological evidence of localized bone destruction, hyperostosis or mucous membrane thickening. The involvement of all paranasal sinuses and mastoid air cells has been named pneumosinus dilatans multiplex. Although the involvement of one or more paranasal sinuses has been reported widely, all paranasal sinuses and the concomitant involvement of mastoid air cells has been reported in only one case. Herein, we present three unusual cases of pneumosinus dilatans (one is a second case of pneumosinus dilatans multiplex in English literature, another is the first reported case of a frontal pneumosinus dilatans case associated with frontoethmoidal meningocele, mental retardation and facial asymmetry and the third one is pneumosinus dilatans with a huge arachnoid cyst) along with the review of relevant literature. © 2007 The British Institute of Radiology