Using pedigree tracking of the ex situ metacollection of Amorphophallus titanum (Araceae) to identify challenges to maintaining genetic diversity in the botanical community

Background and Aims Rapid global biodiversity loss emphasizes the need to employ strategies that conserve the long-term viability of ex situ plant collections. A pedigree-based management approach is an effective strategy to track genetic diversity of living collections; however, its implementation requires accession-level data for all individuals across all botanic garden collections. Here, we use historic accession records to construct a pedigree and test how effective current protocols have been in managing ex situ diversity. Methods We selected the titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum (Araceae), for this study, as it is exceptional, endangered, and has been globally held in collections for nearly 150 years. A pedigree-based data management approach would benefit the ex situ conservation of many similar species. Using accession data from nearly 1200 individual plants from 111 institutions worldwide, we constructed a pedigree to track the history of this species in collections and evaluate how well genetic diversity has been maintained in the metacollection. Key Results We found that data and records for the ex situ metacollection of Amorphophallus titanum are severely lacking and are not standardized within the botanical community. Using the available data, we found that the metacollection is derived from few founders, material is rarely exchanged between institutions on different continents, and nearly a quarter of known crosses are between related individuals. Conclusions Our work highlights the need for consistent, detailed record-keeping for effective implementation of an informed pedigree-based management approach and long-term maintenance of collections of endangered plant species in botanic gardens

A prospective, randomised, controlled, double-blind phase I-II clinical trial on the safety of A-Part® Gel as adhesion prophylaxis after major abdominal surgery versus non-treated group

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Postoperative adhesions occur when fibrous strands of internal scar tissue bind anatomical structures to one another. The most common cause of intra-abdominal adhesions is previous intra-abdominal surgical intervention. Up to 74% of intestinal obstructions are caused by post surgical adhesions. Although a variety of methods and agents have been investigated to prevent post surgical adhesions, the problem of peritoneal adhesions remains largely unsolved. Materials serving as an adhesion barrier are much needed.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>This is a prospective, randomised, controlled, patient blinded and observer blinded, single centre phase I-II trial, which evaluates the safety of A-Part^®Gel as an adhesion prophylaxis after major abdominal wall surgery, in comparison to an untreated control group. 60 patients undergoing an elective median laparotomy without prior abdominal surgery are randomly allocated into two groups of a 1:1- ratio. Safety parameter and primary endpoint of the study is the occurrence of wound healing impairment or peritonitis within 28 (+10) days after surgery. The frequency of anastomotic leakage within 28 days after operation, occurrence of adverse and serious adverse events during hospital stay up to 3 months and the rate of adhesions along the scar within 3 months are defined as secondary endpoints. After hospital discharge the investigator will examine the enrolled patients at 28 (+10) days and 3 months (±14 days) after surgery.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This trial aims to assess, whether the intra-peritoneal application of A-Part^®Gel is safe and efficacious in the prevention of post-surgical adhesions after median laparotomy, in comparison to untreated controls.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>NCT00646412</p

Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer: neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin as a marker of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a dismal 5-year survival of less than 5%. The scarcity of early biomarkers has considerably hindered our ability to launch preventive measures for this malignancy in a timely manner. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a 24-kDa glycoprotein, was reported to be upregulated nearly 27-fold in pancreatic cancer cells compared to normal ductal cells in a microarray analysis. Given the need for biomarkers in the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, we investigated the expression of NGAL in tissues with the objective of examining if NGAL immunostaining could be used to identify foci of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, premalignant lesions preceding invasive cancer. To examine a possible correlation between NGAL expression and the degree of differentiation, we also analysed NGAL levels in pancreatic cancer cell lines with varying grades of differentiation. Although NGAL expression was strongly upregulated in pancreatic cancer, and moderately in pancreatitis, only a weak expression could be detected in the healthy pancreas. The average composite score for adenocarcinoma (4.26±2.44) was significantly higher than that for the normal pancreas (1.0) or pancreatitis (1.0) (P<0.0001). Further, although both well- and moderately differentiated pancreatic cancer were positive for NGAL, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma was uniformly negative. Importantly, NGAL expression was detected as early as the PanIN-1 stage, suggesting that it could be a marker of the earliest premalignant changes in the pancreas. Further, we examined NGAL levels in serum samples. Serum NGAL levels were above the cutoff for healthy individuals in 94% of pancreatic cancer and 62.5% each of acute and chronic pancreatitis samples. However, the difference between NGAL levels in pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer was not significant. A ROC curve analysis revealed that ELISA for NGAL is fairly accurate in distinguishing pancreatic cancer from non-cancer cases (area under curve=0.75). In conclusion, NGAL is highly expressed in early dysplastic lesions in the pancreas, suggesting a possible role as an early diagnostic marker for pancreatic cancer. Further, serum NGAL measurement could be investigated as a possible biomarker in pancreatitis and pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Butterfly effect on the control methods of chaos and multistability

In this work we study the Butterfly Effect and its influence on the efficiency of the Control Methods. A comparative analysis shows that when we applied Control into a bistable system, monostability can be reach for a calculation performed with precision of 6 decimal numbers, although for the same system parameters, this does not happen when the calculation is performed using a precision with 9 decimal numbers

Noise enhanced control of multistability

We focus into the development of an efficient method to control multistable systems in the presence of noise. The method is based on the addition of an external control force in the form of a slow harmonic modulation with properly chosen frequency and amplitude. Although noise is usually a non desirable condition, it has been recently demostrated that in coupled systems cooperative effects of the periodic force and noise are produced. This enhancement phenomena in the response of the deterministic equations is interpreted as stochastic resonance. Our main purpose is to study deterministic resonances between the different solutions of the multistable system and the external modulation. Then, all efforts will concentrate in the enhancement of the control method produced by noise