146 research outputs found
Abdominal Compartment Syndrome and Necrotizing Pancreatitis Following Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy
AbstractExtracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is a common procedure in the treatment of renal calculi. There have been major complications reported with ESWL such as acute pancreatitis, bower perforation, venous thrombosis, and biliary obstruction. There are few reports in the literature of necrotizing pancreatitis secondary to ESWL. We have a case report of a 29-year-old female that developed an abdominal compartment syndrome with an acute necrotizing pancreatitis hours after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy
Phenotypic and molecular characterization of Phaseolus vulgaris plants from non-cryopreserved and cryopreserved seeds
The objective of this work was to evaluate if cryostorage of Phaseolus vulgaris L. seeds induced variations in regenerated plants at the phenotypic and molecular levels. A series of agricultural traits was measured on plants grown from control, non-cryopreserved and cryopreserved seeds, and the genetic stability of plants of the second generation was analysed at selected microsatellite loci. The phenotype of the second generation plants was evaluated as well. No statistically significant phenotypic differences were observed for the parameters measured, neither in the first nor in the second generations. Averaging both treatments, about 76% of the seeds had germinated 10 days after sowing. At harvest we recorded plants with about 73 cm in height, 13 stem internodes, 25 fruits, 103 grains and 4 grains per fruit. One hundred seeds weighted about 26 g. The genetic analyses performed on the second generation plants using six nuclear Simple Sequences Repeats (SSR) markers revealed no changes in microsatellite length between control and cryopreserved samples, implying that there was no effect of seed liquid nitrogen exposure on genome integrity. The phenotypic and molecular results reported here confirm that cryostorage is an efficient and reliable technique to conserve P. vulgaris seeds and regenerate true-to-type plants
Impact of ploidy change on secondary metabolites and photochemical efficiency in Solanum bulbocastanum Dun.
Plants are well known for producing a wide diversity of natural compounds and several strategies have been proposed to enhance their production. Among them, somatic chromosome doubling may represent an effective and inexpensive method. The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of polyploidization on the leaf metabolic profile and content of tetraploids produced from a wild diploid (2n=2x=24) potato species, Solanum bulbocastanum Dun. Photochemical efficiency of tetraploids was also analyzed. Results from HPLC-DAD and LC/MS analyses provided evidence that tetraploid genotypes displayed either a similar or a lower phenylpropanoids, tryptophan, tyrosine and α-chaconine content compared with the diploid parent. Similarly, no significant differences were found among genotypes both for measures of gas and for chlorophyll fluorescence, except for non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Steroidal saponins content revealed superiority of some tetraploids with respect to the diploid parent, suggesting perturbations in the mechanism regulating the biosynthesis of such compounds following polyploidization. Lack of superiority may be attributed to the time required for adjustment, adaptation and evolution after the genomic shock induced by polyploidization, as well as the fact that an optimum ploidy level for each species may be crucial. Our results suggest that polyploidization as a strategy to enhance metabolite production cannot be generalized
Exploitation of epigenetic variation of crop wild relatives for crop improvement and agrobiodiversity preservation
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are recognized as the best potential source of traits for crop improvement. However, successful crop improvement using CWR relies on identifying variation in genes controlling desired traits in plant germplasms and subsequently incorporating them into cultivars. Epigenetic diversity may provide an additional layer of variation within CWR and can contribute novel epialleles for key traits for crop improvement. There is emerging evidence that epigenetic variants of functional and/or agronomic importance exist in CWR gene pools. This provides a rationale for the conservation of epigenotypes of interest, thus contributing to agrobiodiversity preservation through conservation and (epi)genetic monitoring. Concepts and techniques of classical and modern breeding should consider integrating recent progress in epigenetics, initially by identifying their association with phenotypic variations and then by assessing their heritability and stability in subsequent generations. New tools available for epigenomic analysis offer the opportunity to capture epigenetic variation and integrate it into advanced (epi)breeding programmes. Advances in -omics have provided new insights into the sources and inheritance of epigenetic variation and enabled the efficient introduction of epi-traits from CWR into crops using epigenetic molecular markers, such as epiQTLs
Nutritional Factors Modulating Alu Methylation inan Italian Sample from The Mark-Age StudyIncluding Offspring of Healthy Nonagenarians
Alu hypomethylation promotes genomic instability and is associated with aging and
age-related diseases. Dietary factors affect global DNA methylation, leading to
changes in genomic stability and gene expression with an impact on longevity and
the risk of disease. This preliminary study aims to investigate the relationship
between nutritional factors, such as circulating trace elements, lipids and
antioxidants, and Alu methylation in elderly subjects and offspring of healthy
nonagenarians. Alu DNA methylation was analyzed in sixty RASIG (randomly
recruited age-stratified individuals from the general population) and thirty-two
GO (GeHA offspring) enrolled in Italy in the framework of the MARK-AGE project.
Factor analysis revealed a different clustering between Alu CpG1 and the other
CpG sites. RASIG over 65 years showed lower Alu CpG1 methylation than those of GO
subjects in the same age class. Moreover, Alu CpG1 methylation was associated
with fruit and whole-grain bread consumption, LDL2-Cholesterol and plasma copper.
The preserved Alu methylation status in GO, suggests Alu epigenetic changes as a
potential marker of aging. Our preliminary investigation shows that Alu
methylation may be affected by food rich in fibers and antioxidants, or
circulating LDL subfractions and plasma copper
Search based software engineering: Trends, techniques and applications
© ACM, 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version is available from the link below.In the past five years there has been a dramatic increase in work on Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE), an approach to Software Engineering (SE) in which Search-Based Optimization (SBO) algorithms are used to address problems in SE. SBSE has been applied to problems throughout the SE lifecycle, from requirements and project planning to maintenance and reengineering. The approach is attractive because it offers a suite of adaptive automated and semiautomated solutions in situations typified by large complex problem spaces with multiple competing and conflicting objectives.
This article provides a review and classification of literature on SBSE. The work identifies research trends and relationships between the techniques applied and the applications to which they have been applied and highlights gaps in the literature and avenues for further research.EPSRC and E
Use of SSR and retrotransposon-based markers to interpret the population structure of native grapevines from Southern Italy
Native grapevines are the quintessential ele- ments of Southern Italy winemaking, and genomic char- acterization plays a role of primary importance for preservation and sustainable use of these unexploited genetic resources. Among the various molecular techniques available, SSR and retrotransposons-based markers result to be the most valuable for cultivars and biotypes distinc- tiveness. A total of 62 accessions including 38 local grape cultivars were analyzed with 30 SSR, four REMAP and one IRAP markers to assess their genetic diversity and obtain a complete genomic profiling. The use of VrZAG79, VrZAG112, VVS2, VVMD25 and VVMD5 combined with retrotransposon-based markers proved to be the most dis- criminating and polymorphic markers for the rapid and unambiguous identification of minority grapevines from Campania region, which is considered one of the most appreciated Italian districts for wine production. Results revealed 58 SSR marker-specific alleles, 22 genotype- specific SSR alleles, and four REMAP and IRAP private bands. Cases of synonymy and homonymy were discov- ered. In conclusion, we provided evidences that the inte- grating SSR and retrotransposon-based markers is an effective strategy to assess the genetic diversity of autochthonous grapes, allowing their easy identification
WHOLE-GENOME RE-SEQUENCING OF TWO TOMATO LANDRACES REVEALS SEQUENCE VARIATIONS UNDERPINNING KEY ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TRAITS
In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is the identification of alleles directly
responsible for phenotype variation among different genotypes within the same species. Tomato is a
model crop for understanding the development and ripening of climacteric fleshy fruits, and it is
also known to be an important source of health-promoting compounds. In addition, cultivated
tomato germplasm shows a high phenotypic variation despite its very low genetic diversity. Toward
the identification of sequence variations responsible for stress tolerance, high fruit quality and long
shelf life, we re-sequenced the genomes of two traditional landraces grown in the Campania region
(Southern Italy). Crovarese, belonging to the Corbarino type (COR), and Lucariello (LUC) are
typically grown under low water regimes and produce highly appreciated fruits, which can be stored
up to 4-8 months. We generated 65.8M and 56.4M of paired-end 30-150 bp reads with an average
insert size of 380 bp (± 52bp) and 364 bp (± 49bp) for COR and LUC, respectively. A referenceguided
assembly was performed using 'Heinz 1706' as a reference genome. We estimated a mean
coverage depth of ~15X for COR and 13X for LUC. Comparing the genomes of COR and LUC
with that of 'Heinz 1706' we found a similar distribution of SNPs (68.8% vs. 69.9%, respectively),
small deletions (8.9% vs. 8.6%) and small insertions (22.1% vs. 21.3%). Through a de novo
assembly of the unmapped reads we identified 29 and 36 new contigs in COR and LUC,
respectively. The new contigs could be assigned to the chromosomes thanks to the use of a splitread
approach. On average, the contigs inserted in COR were 654bp, whereas those inserted in LUC
were 616bp. Using custom RNA-seq data, a total of 43054 and 44576 gene loci were annotated in
COR and LUC, corresponding to 62369 and 65094 transcripts, respectively. Among the genes
showing a similar structure in COR and LUC compared to 'Heinz 1706', we identified ~2000 and
1700 SNPs causing potentially disruptive effects on the function of 1371 and 1201 genes in COR
and LUC, respectively. Interesting GO categories highly represented in genes affected by sequence
changes were identified. Major variations were present in stress-responsive genes as well as in fruit
quality and development-related genes. From a practical perspective, the identified SNPs and
InDels are candidate polymorphisms to track DNA variations associated to key traits of economic
interest
Precise measurement of the lifetime at Belle II
We measure the lifetime of the meson using a data sample of 207
fb collected by the Belle II experiment running at the SuperKEKB
asymmetric-energy collider. The lifetime is determined by fitting the
decay-time distribution of a sample of
decays. Our result is \tau^{}_{D^+_s} = (498.7\pm
1.7\,^{+1.1}_{-0.8}) fs, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the
second is systematic. This result is significantly more precise than previous
measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Physical Review Letter
Tests of light-lepton universality in angular asymmetries of decays
We present the first comprehensive tests of light-lepton universality in the
angular distributions of semileptonic \Bz-meson decays to charged spin-1
charmed mesons. We measure five angular-asymmetry observables as functions of
the decay recoil that are sensitive to lepton-universality-violating
contributions. We use events where one neutral \B is fully reconstructed in
\PUpsilonFourS{} \to\B\overline{B} decays in data corresponding to \lumion
integrated luminosity from electron-positron collisions collected with the
\belletwo detector. We find no significant deviation from the standard model
expectations
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