Breaking of dormancy in the narrow endemic Jasione supina Sieber subsp. supina (Campanulaceae) with small seeds that do not need light to germinate

The germination properties of Jasione supina Sieber subsp. supina (Campanulaceae), which is endemic to Mount Uludağ, Bursa, Turkey, were determined. In this study, we investigated the effects of GA3, the combination of hormone series and short-term moist chilling (1-month), and long-term moist chilling (4-month) on the germination percentage and mean germination time in relation to seed dormancy breaking. All treatment series were incubated under continuous dark (20 °C, 24 h) and light/dark (20/10 °C, 12/12 h) conditions. Seeds were collected from specimens widespread on the alpine and subalpine grasslands and dwarf shrubs of Mount Uludağ (1800-1900 m a.s.l.). Depending on the concentration, GA3 and the combination of hormone and moist chilling treatments promoted seed germination in both dark and light/dark conditions. After 4-month-moist chilling treatment, seeds germinated 27% in a light/dark and 80% in a dark regime. Hormone and moist chilling treatments reduced the mean germination time. Our results showed that J. supina seeds have physiological dormancy, require prolonged times of moist chilling and preferentially complete germination in darkness

Nutrient status in soil of Ski runs in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag mountain, Bursa, Turkey

Abstract: Large areas of land are disturbed in sensitive bio-diverse mountain environments by Ski runs. Restoration of vegetation on such disturbed mountain sites may be hampered by soil degradation but the severity and nature of the constraints is not well understood. This study was designed to compare the water holding and nutritional status of soil in three Ski runs which had different construction dates and disturbance levels, and the adjacent undisturbed site in the Abies bornmuelleriana forest community in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag Mountain (Bithynian Olympus). The values of soil parameters were depressed in proportion to the disturbance level. Water holding capacity (WHC), total nitrogen (N), organic carbon (C) and calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ) and potassium (K + ) contents (mg kg -1 dry weight) of soils in the Ski run which had the highest disturbance level were lower than that of the undisturbed adjacent sites. However, the results indicated that the soil parameters were less degraded when secondary vegetation was growing on the disturbed areas

Impression Cytology in Different Types of Contact Lens Users

This study compared tear function tests and cytologic changes on the conjunctival surface in asymptomatic patients wearing contact lens of different materials. Included in this study were 40 eyes wearing daily wear 4 week replacement hydrogel (H) lenses, 32 eyes wearing silicone hydrogel (SiH) lenses, 18 eyes wearing rigid gas-permeable (RGP) lenses, and 21 healthy eyes (no lenses) as the control group. Epithelial morphology of the conjunctival surface was evaluated, based on Nelson classification with conjunctival impression cytology (CIC), after the tear break-up time (TBUT) and Schirmer test were performed. The mean values of the Schirmer and TBUT tests were significantly higher in the control group than in the other lens groups (p < 0.001). Grade 0 was the most frequent CIC in the control group (66.7%) and least frequent in the SiH lens group (40.6%); grade I was least frequent in the control and RGP groups (33.3%) and most frequent in the SiH lens group (40.6%). Moreover, grade 2 was most frequent in the SiH lens group (18.8%). There was no statistically significant difference in goblet cell densities between the groups (p = 0.462). In addition to the different Schirmer and TBUT test results between contact lens wearers and healthy non-wearers, some cytologic changes may occur on the ocular surface with direct mechanical effects of contact lenses. This simple and noninvasive technique may be used to evaluate the ocular surface with regard to intolerance to contact lenses

The Limbic Degradation of Aging Brain: A Quantitative Analysis with Diffusion Tensor Imaging

WOS: 000335020000001PubMed ID: 24977184Introduction. The limbic system primarily responsible for our emotional life and memories is known to undergo degradation with aging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is capable of revealing thewhite matter integrity. Theaimof this study is to investigate agerelated changes of quantitative diffusivity parameters and fiber characteristics on limbic system in healthy volunteers. Methods. 31 healthy subjects aged 25-70 years were examined at 1,5 TMR. Quantitative fiber tracking was performed of fornix, cingulum, and the parahippocampal gyrus. The fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements of bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, fornix, cingulum, and parahippocampal gyrus were obtained as related components. Results. The FA values of left hippocampus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, and fornix showed negative correlations with aging. The ADC values of right amygdala and left cingulum interestingly showed negative relation and the left hippocampus represented positive relation with age. The cingulum showed no correlation. The significant relative changes per decade of age were found in the cingulum and parahippocampal gyrus FA measurements. Conclusion. Our approach shows that aging affects hippocampus, parahippocampus, and fornix significantly but not cingulum. These findings reveal age-related changes of limbic system in normal population that may contribute to future DTI studies

The Importance of Analytical Chemistry in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Personalized Medicine

Personalized therapy (PM) has the potential to adapt treatment with the best response and highest safety to provide better patient care. Key data is drug concentration of biological materials such as plasma and serum.Individual drug therapy means, choice of a drug and its dose regime should fit every individual specifically. Thus efficacy of a drug treatment would improve significantly. When developing an analytical method for (Therapeutic drug monitoring) TDM, it is important to choose a clinically relevant calibration range. This quantitation range should be built around the proposed target concentration, covering majority of samples as seen in the clinic (Ciocan-Cartita et al. 2019).Inter-individual variability in Pharmacokinetic variables may affect the blood concentration of drug so TDM approaches could solve the dosing problem.To achieve individual drug therapy with a reasonably predictive outcome, one must further account for different patterns of drug response among geographically and ethnically distinct populations. Keywords: LC-MS/MS, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Lenalidomide, Anastrozole DOI: 10.7176/CMR/12-7-05 Publication date:September 30th 202

Clinical biochemistry laboratory rejection rates due to various types of preanalytical errors

Introduction: Preanalytical errors, along the process from the beginning of test requests to the admissions of the specimens to the laboratory, cause the rejection of samples. The aim of this study was to better explain the reasons of rejected samples, regarding to their rates in certain test groups in our laboratory. Materials and methods: This preliminary study was designed on the rejected samples in one-year period, based on the rates and types of inappropriateness. Test requests and blood samples of clinical chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, glycated hemoglobin, coagulation and erythrocyte sedimentation rate test units were evaluated. Types of inappropriateness were evaluated as follows: improperly labelled samples, hemolysed, clotted specimen, insufficient volume of specimen and total request errors. Results: A total of 5,183,582 test requests from 1,035,743 blood collection tubes were considered. The total rejection rate was 0.65 %. The rejection rate of coagulation group was significantly higher (2.28%) than the other test groups (P < 0.001) including insufficient volume of specimen error rate as 1.38%. Rejection rates of hemolysis, clotted specimen and insufficient volume of sample error were found to be 8%, 24% and 34%, respectively. Total request errors, particularly, for unintelligible requests were 32% of the total for inpatients. Conclusions: The errors were especially attributable to unintelligible requests of inappropriate test requests, improperly labelled samples for inpatients and blood drawing errors especially due to insufficient volume of specimens in a coagulation test group. Further studies should be performed after corrective and preventive actions to detect a possible decrease in rejecting sample

Innovation across cultures: Connecting leadership, identification, and creative behavior in organizations

Innovation is considered essential for today's organizations to survive and thrive. Researchers have also stressed the importance of leadership as a driver of followers' innovative work behavior (FIB). Yet, despite a large amount of research, three areas remain understudied: (a) The relative importance of different forms of leadership for FIB; (b) the mechanisms through which leadership impacts FIB; and (c) the degree to which relationships between leadership and FIB are generalizable across cultures. To address these lacunae, we propose an integrated model connecting four types of positive leadership behaviors, two types of identification (as mediating variables), and FIB. We tested our model in a global data set comprising responses of N = 7,225 participants from 23 countries, grouped into nine cultural clusters. Our results indicate that perceived LMX quality was the strongest relative predictor of FIB. Furthermore, the relationships between both perceived LMX quality and identity leadership with FIB were mediated by social identification. The indirect effect of LMX on FIB via social identification was stable across clusters, whereas the indirect effects of the other forms of leadership on FIB via social identification were stronger in countries high versus low on collectivism. Power distance did not influence the relations

The effect of high-fructose feeding on hemodynamic behavior and infarct size of isolated rat hearts subjected to low-flow ischemia.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the potentially deleterious effect of in vivo high-fructose feeding of rats on ex vivo hemodynamic recovery and infarct size of isolated rat hearts subjected to low-flow ischemia and reperfusion. Methods: After feeding Sprague-Dawley male rats with a high-fructose (n=9), high-glucose (n=9) or a standard diet (n=9) for four weeks, the hearts were extirpated and perfused ex vivo with a Krebs-Henseleit solution for 15 min; thereafter the hearts were subjected to low flow (0.3 ml/min) ischemia during 30 min followed by 60 min reperfusion. Left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), first derivative of pressure development during the contraction and relaxation phase and heart rate were recorded prior to ischemia and after reperfusion. Infarct area was measured at the end of the reperfusion period. Results: In isolated hearts, subjected to ex vivo low-flow ischemia followed by 60 min reperfusion, the relative myocardial infarct size did not differ between the three groups. Post-ischemic cardiac contractile recovery appeared to be complete in both the high-fructose and high-glucose group at 60 min reperfusion. In contrast, in the control group LVDP and left ventricular relaxation rate were still depressed at the end of 60 minutes of reperfusion. Conclusion: Feeding with a high-fructose diet of rats appears to have a positive effect on the recovery of left ventricular contractile function after low-flow ischemia, in comparison to a standard diet, without a difference in relative myocardial infarct size. Similar results were obtained in the high-glucose fed rats

Evaluation of patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease: Preliminary results from the Turk-UIP study

OBJECTIVE: Differential diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is important among fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILD). This study aimed to evaluate the rate of IPF in patients with fibrotic ILD and to determine the clinical-laboratory features of patients with and without IPF that would provide the differential diagnosis of IPF. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included the patients with the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern or possible UIP pattern on thorax high-resolution computed tomography, and/or UIP pattern, probable UIP or possible UIP pattern at lung biopsy according to the 2011 ATS/ERSARS/ALAT guidelines. Demographics and clinical and radiological data of the patients were recorded. All data recorded by researchers was evaluated by radiology and the clinical decision board. RESULTS: A total of 336 patients (253 men, 83 women, age 65.8 +/- 9.0 years) were evaluated. Of the patients with sufficient data for diag-nosis (n=300), the diagnosis was IPF in 121 (40.3%), unclassified idiopathic interstitial pneumonia in 50 (16.7%), combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) in 40 (13.3%), and lung involvement of connective tissue disease (CTD) in 16 (5.3%). When 29 patients with definite IPF features were added to the patients with CPFE, the total number of IPF patients reached 150 (50%). Rate of male sex (p<0.001), smoking history (p<0.001), and the presence of clubbing (p=0.001) were significantly high in patients with IPE None of the women <50 years and none of the men <50 years of age without a smoking history were diagnosed with IPE Presence of at least 1 of the symptoms suggestive of CTD, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and antinuclear antibody (FANA) positivity rates were significantly higher in the non-IPF group (p<0.001, p=0.029, p=0.009, respectively). CONCLUSION: The rate of IPF among patients with fibrotic ILD was 50%. In the differential diagnosis of IPF, sex, smoking habits, and the presence of clubbing are important. The presence of symptoms related to CTD, ESR elevation, and EANA positivity reduce the likelihood of IPF

The evaluation of tas, tos, pon and arylesterase levels with blood lipid parameters (hdl, ldl, total cholesterol, triglycerides) in hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism

Yüksek Lisans TeziÇalışmamızda overt hipotirodizm ve subklinik hipotiroidizmli hastalarda kan lipid parametreleri olan HDL, LDL, Total kolestrol ve trigliserit ile TAS, TOS, paraoksonaz ve aril esteraz düzeylerinin değerlendirilmesi amaçlandı. D.P.Ü Kütahya Evliya Çelebi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi' ne başvuran hastalar içerisinden 45 overt hipotiroidi, 45 ötroit, 45 subklinik hipotiroidi şeklinde 3 grup oluşturularak incelendi. Bu hastalardaki kan lipid parametreleri, TAS, TOS, paronoksonaz ve aril esteraz seviyelerindeki farklılıklar ölçüldü. Subklinik Hipotiroid ve overt hipotiroid hasta grubunda kontrollerle karşılaştırıldığında LDL kolesterol, trigliserit, total kolesterol, TOS, OSI düzeyi kontrollerden anlamlı olarak yüksek bulundu. HDL kolesterol, TAS, PON-1, ARYL düzeyi ise kontrol grubuna kıyasla her iki grupta da anlamlı olarak düşük bulundu. Yaptığımız çalışmada tiroid hormonlarının eksikliğinde vücuttaki yağ metabolizmasının etkilendiği ve buna bağlı olarak işlev yapan paraoksanaz ve aril esteraz enzimlerinin etkilendiği görülmektedir. Bu değişen hormon düzeyine göre vücutta oluşan oksidanların arttığı ve vücutta diğer sistemlerin de etkileneceği söylenebilir. Hipotiroidi hastalarında total oksidan seviyesi artarken total antioksidan seviyesi azaldığı tespit edilmiş olup hastalarda bu durumun olumsuz etki gösterdiği, çeşitli hastalıklarada neden olduğu ve sonuçta vücuttaki metabolik değişikler nedeniyle hastaların atereskloz gibi hastalıklar için risk faktörü taşıdığı açıktır.İn our study, we aimed to evaluate the levels HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, triglyceride and TAS, TOS, paraoxonase and arylesterase in patients with overt hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism. 45 patients with overt hypothyroidism, 45 patients with euthyroidism and 45 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism were studied in the patients who applied to D.P.U. Kütahya Evliya Çelebi Training and Research Hospital. Differences in blood lipid parameters, TAS, TOS, paronoxonase and arylesterase levels in these patients were measured. Subclinical hypothyroidism and overt hypothyroid patients were significantly higher than controls in LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, total cholesterol, TOS, OSI levels. HDL cholesterol, TAS, PON-1 and ARYL levels were significantly lower in both groups compare to the control group. In our study, it was observed that the deficiency of thyroid hormones affected the fat metabolism of the body and affected enzymes such as paraoxanase and aryl esterase. According to this changing hormone level, it can be said that the oxidants that are formed in the body increase and that it will be affected in other systems in the body. It has been found that total oxidant level decreases in hypothyroid patients while total antioxidant level decreases in these patients and this results in various diseases which have negative effects on them and as a result metabolic changes in the body cause the risk factors for diseases such as atheresclerosis