Inhibition of Orobanche crenata Seed Germination and Radicle Growth by Allelochemicals Identified in Cereals

Orobanche crenata is a parasitic weed that causes severe yield losses in important grain and forage legume crops. Cereals have been reported to inhibit O. crenata parasitism when grown intercropped with susceptible legumes, but the responsible metabolites have not been identified. A number of metabolites have been reported in cereals that have allelopathic properties against weeds, pests, and pathogens. We tested the effect of several allelochemicals identified in cereals on O. crenata seed germination and radicle development. We found that 2-benzoxazolinone, its derivative 6-chloroacetyl-2-benzoxazolinone, and scopoletin significantly inhibited O. crenata seed germination. Benzoxazolinones, l-tryptophan, and coumalic acid caused the stronger inhibition of radicle growth. Also, other metabolites reduced radicle length, this inhibition being dose-dependent. Only scopoletin caused cell necrotic-like darkening in the young radicles. Prospects for their application to parasitic weed management are discussed. © 2013 American Chemical Society.This research is supported by projects FP7-ARIMNet-MEDILEG and AGL2011-22524 (cofinanced by FEDER funds).Peer Reviewe

Application of Spirulina algae as a food supplementation in the zinc fortification of bread

Background: Zinc is the second only to iron among trace elements in the human body. Approximately 48 of the people worldwide suffer from the zinc deficiency disorders, such as hypogonadism, hypospermia, growth retardation, immune deficiencies. Routinely, the use of food supplementation in daily regiments is common. Use of sea foods as one of the richest source of supplementaries, persuade us to exploit it. Materials and Methods: Academic scientific databases (e.g. Scopus and Elsevier) were researched. Results: A green single-cell algae "Spirulina" is one of these sources. Nowadays this algae has its top position among other microalgae for the production and consumption by man. In addition, Spirulina has 8 essential amino acids and various vitamins (e.g. A,E,C,B1,B2,B6,B12,biotin) and minerals such as Fe, Ca, Mg, Zn. Furthermore this sea source has essential fatty acids such as Omega 6 and Omega 9. Presence of these compounds in Spirulina algae is its unique characteristic comparing to other supplements. Furthermore, this algae has various therapeutic benefits such as amplifying an immunity system, excretion of heavy metals, aiding the food digestion, ulcer repair, improving vision. Conclusion: According to the food pyramid among the cereal products, we choose bread for this fortifying purpose. This bread was prepared in two colors. We inspected and examined this product under laboratorial assessment which proved our hypotheses

Evaluation of parametric models with estimating the prediction error by apparent loss method in analyzing survival of colorectal patients

Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer is the most common gastrointestinal cancer. Investigating the factors that predict survival time for these patients is important.The purpose of this study was comparison of parametric models by estimating the prediction error and also identifying the effective factors on predicted survival time of patients with colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: This cohort study was conducted with 600 patients who were suffered from colorectal cancer in Taleghani Hospital of Tehran between 2001 to 2005 and they were followed up for at least 5 years. For identifying the effective factors on survival time, of the patients we analyzed the data by some parametric models such as Weibull, Exponential and Log logistic and compared these models with the estimation of prediction error by apparent loss method. Results: Among 600 patients there was 344 men (57.3%) and 256 wemon (47.7%). Of total, 151 patients were died that 62.3% of them were men. Univariate analysis showed that the effect of BMI, sex, staging of tumor, tumor site were significant but in multivariate model staging of tumor and BMI were significant. By the estimation of prediction error, the best model was Log logistic . Conclusion: With respect to the importance of survival time prediction, we found that we can use the prediction error to compare the parametric models. In addition, because of effectiveness of tumor stages and BMI in the patients’ survival time, survival time could be increased by an on-time diagnosis and an appropriate controled diet

The role of age on distant recurrence after breast conservative therapy vs. modified radical mastectomy among Iranian patients with early stage of breast cancer

OBJECTIVE: Breast conserving therapy is highly recommended for the surgical management of patients with early-stage of breast cancer. This study aimed to explore the effect of age on developing distant metastasis following breast conserving therapy or modified radical mastectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: To this aim, medical records of 468 women diagnosed with T1-2, N0-1, and M0 primary invasive breast cancer during 2005-2012 were selected. Patients were treated with either breast conserving therapy or modified radical mastectomy with post-surgical radiation. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the breast cancer-free survival and distant metastatic-free survival rates. Distant metastasis and prognostic factors were modeled by Cox proportional hazards. The Bayesian approach was used to determine the potential threshold of patients’ age at operation and the cure probabilities were estimated through two treatment types according to age change-point. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in Locoregional recurrence between two treatments type (p=0.83), although a significantly greater recurrence of distant metastasis was observed in the breast conserving therapy group (p<0.001). Considering metastatic-free survival, the age of 40 was estimated as the change-point of age at operation leading to a higher noticeable cure rate in the modified radical mastectomy group. CONCLUSIONS: Older patients with early-stage of breast cancer treated with modified radical mastectomy had a significant decrease of distant metastasis compared with younger patients with a threshold of 40 for age at operation