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Carbon disulphide promotes sprouting of potato minitubers

We investigated the effects of postharvest application of carbon disulphide (CS2) in various concentrations (0, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55 ml m-3) and with different exposure duration (24, 48, 72 and 96 h) on breaking of dormancy and sprouting of potato (Solanum tuberosum L., cv. Marfona) minitubers of two ages (freshly harvested and one week after harvest) and two weight classes (1.5 and 12 g). In comparison with the control minitubers, CS2 treated minitubers showed significantly shorter dormancy and better sprouting. More rotting and weaker responses were observed in freshly harvested treated minitubers compared with minitubers treated one week after harvest. The number of sprouts per minituber and their length were significantly enhanced by treating minitubers with CS2 compared with the untreated control minitubers, but there were strong interactions with minituber weight. Results showed that duration of CS2 treatment was more important than concentration and longer duration of CS2 treatment exhibited a stronger action on breaking dormancy and sprouting of potato minitubers than shorter treatments. But, when longer duration was accompanied with higher concentration, treatment with CS2 led to formation of needle sprouts, which are undesirable as they do not produce vigorous stem

Consideration for Drug Smuggling/Trafficking

Not only Iran has one of the highest opium consumption rates, but also its long common border with Afghanistan, the world’s largest illicit opium producer, has made this country a major part of many illicit drug transition routes. According to UNODC 43% of worldwide opium use is related to Iran

X-Raying the Dark Side of Venus - Scatter from Venus Magnetotail?

This work analyzes the X-ray, EUV and UV emission apparently coming from the Earth-facing (dark) side of Venus as observed with Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA during a transit across the solar disk occurred in 2012. We have measured significant X-Ray, EUV and UV flux from Venus dark side. As a check we have also analyzed a Mercury transit across the solar disk, observed with Hinode/XRT in 2006. We have used the latest version of the Hinode/XRT Point Spread Function (PSF) to deconvolve Venus and Mercury X-ray images, in order to remove possible instrumental scattering. Even after deconvolution, the flux from Venus shadow remains significant while in the case of Mercury it becomes negligible. Since stray-light contamination affects the XRT Ti-poly filter data from the Venus transit in 2012, we performed the same analysis with XRT Al-mesh filter data, which is not affected by the light leak. Even the Al-mesh filter data show residual flux. We have also found significant EUV (304 A, 193 A, 335 A) and UV (1700 A) flux in Venus shadow, as measured with SDO/AIA. The EUV emission from Venus dark side is reduced when appropriate deconvolution methods are applied; the emission remains significant, however. The light curves of the average flux of the shadow in the X-ray, EUV, and UV bands appear different as Venus crosses the solar disk, but in any of them the flux is, at any time, approximately proportional to the average flux in a ring surrounding Venus, and therefore proportional to the average flux of the solar regions around Venus obscuring disk line of sight. The proportionality factor depends on the band. This phenomenon has no clear origin; we suggest it may be due to scatter occurring in the very long magnetotail of Venus.Comment: This paper has been accepted in The Astrophysical Journa

Epidemiology of Poisoning in Northeast of Iran (2004-2013)

Background: Poisoning is a major concern, especially in developing countries. We aimed to focus on poisoning trends based on registry data for the recent 10 years.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on registry database of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. All cases of toxic exposure or poisoning during 2004 to 2013 were included (49189 patients). Data from two national censuses were used for calculating rates. SPSS 11.5 was used for data analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: There were 49189 admissions during the 10-year period with a mean age of 26.21±14.97 years out of which 50.3% were female. The prevalence rate had increased three times in women and four times in men. Pharmaceutical toxins (63.5%) had the highest proportional mortality ratio, which mostly occurred in winters. The mean age of admission began to decline again in recent years.Conclusion: Analyzing data on secular trends can always enlighten the healthcare decision makers for real health problems. Designing the proper population-based interventions can be one of the many uses of these findings

The Effect of the Open and Closed System Suctions on Cardiopulmonary Parameters: Time and Costs in Patients Under Mechanical Ventilation

Background: One of the measures to keep the airway open is suctioning of endotracheal tube in patients under ventilation. This procedure can be accompanied with some complications. Selection of appropriate method of suctioning can prevent incidence of acute complications. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the effects of the open and closed system suctioning methods on blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, percentage of arterial oxygen saturation, time, and costs in patients under mechanical ventilation. Patients and Methods: This clinical trial study was conducted on 40 patients in ICU. Patients’ blood pressure, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation, related costs, and length of suctioning procedure were measured and recorded immediately before and one, five, ten, and fifteen minutes after suctioning. Data were analyzed using paired t test and repeated measure analysis of variance. Results: No significant differences were observed between the two suctioning methods in terms of mean systolic blood pressure (P = 0.075), diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.405), and mean arterial pressure (P = 0.257) in the five consecutive measurements. However, significant changes were observed in heart rate (P = 0.025) and percentage of arterial oxygen saturation (P < 0.001). The mean lengths of time in open and closed suctioning methods were 5.59 ± 0.211 and 4.34 ± 0.039 seconds, respectively (P < 0.001). The cost of the closed system was lower than the open method for the patients who were admitted to ICU for longer than two days. Conclusions: Closed suction caused fewer disturbances in patients’ hemodynamic condition, took shorter time, and is more economical. Therefore, this method can replace open suction method in caring of severely critically ill patients

Carbon Nanotubes-Chitosan-Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nano-Carriers Synthesis for Nanomedicine Application

Carbon nanotube-natural biopolymer nanovectors have important potential applications in delivery system for drugs and biomolecules. In this work, the use of multi-wall CNTs as nanoreserviors for drug loading and controlled release is demonstrated .We synthesized CNT-based Drug delivery systems; MWCNT-CS nanoparticles based on an ionotropic gelation method as a sustained-release systems for the delivery of Tenofovir (hydrophilic anti-retroviral drug). Molecularly imprinted polymer used as shell for encapsulating the synthesized polymer to reduce the toxicity of CNT and improved theit application in Drug Delivery System. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. TGA was applied to study the thermal stabilities, and SEM to investi-gate the morphology. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3521

Nonvolatile memory with molecule-engineered tunneling barriers

We report a novel field-sensitive tunneling barrier by embedding C60 in SiO2 for nonvolatile memory applications. C60 is a better choice than ultra-small nanocrystals due to its monodispersion. Moreover, C60 provides accessible energy levels to prompt resonant tunneling through SiO2 at high fields. However, this process is quenched at low fields due to HOMO-LUMO gap and large charging energy of C60. Furthermore, we demonstrate an improvement of more than an order of magnitude in retention to program/erase time ratio for a metal nanocrystal memory. This shows promise of engineering tunnel dielectrics by integrating molecules in the future hybrid molecular-silicon electronics.Comment: to appear in Applied Physics Letter

Adaptive backstepping control for optimal descent with embedded autonomy

Using Lyapunov stability theory, an adaptive backstepping controller is presented in this paper for optimal descent tracking. Unlike the traditional approach, the proposed control law can cope with input saturation and failure which enables the embedded autonomy of lander system. In addition, this control law can also restrain the unknown bounded terms (i.e., disturbance). To show the controller’s performance in the presence of input saturation, input failure and bounded external disturbance, simulation was carried out under a lunar landing scenario

Comments on 'Fast and scalable search of whole-slide images via self-supervised deep learning'

Chen et al. [Chen2022] recently published the article 'Fast and scalable search of whole-slide images via self-supervised deep learning' in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The authors call their method 'self-supervised image search for histology', short SISH. We express our concerns that SISH is an incremental modification of Yottixel, has used MinMax binarization but does not cite the original works, and is based on a misnomer 'self-supervised image search'. As well, we point to several other concerns regarding experiments and comparisons performed by Chen et al