Optimisation of Off-Soil Tomato Fertilization and Substrate Recipes

Substrate and fertilizers recipes and their balances are two factors affecting the growth of hydroponic crops. However, the responses of crop cultivars to different substrate and fertilizer are less clear. This study was aimed at assessing the different responses of tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum L.) cultivars to the different substrate and fertilizer supply. The study was carried out at the Centre de Recherche et de Formation Agricole (CRFA) of the Lebanese University to test three types of substrates; S1 (100% coconut fiber), S2 (50% coconut fiber and 50% grape marc) and S3 (25% coconut fiber and 75% grape marc). As well as three fertilization recipes; F1 (ARTC), F2 (University of Arizona) and F3 (Farmer) were applied in order to be able to recommend the best substrates and fertilizers adapted to the conditions of cultivation off-soil. The production cycle was divided into three phases; phase1 (0-6 weeks), phase2 (6-12 weeks) and phase3 (> 12 weeks). Various parameters were measured throughout the cycle; stem length, number and distance between nodes, number and distance between flower buds, and fruit yield. Results for stem length and number of nodes showed good interaction in favor of F2-S1 throughout the cycle. As far as the distance between nodes is concerned, F1 is the best despite the fact that F2 is more economical and S1 showed a superiority. The number of flower buds is positively affected by F1 and F2 and S1 and S3. As far as the distance between floral buds is concerned, F1 and F2 are the best, F2 is the most profitable and S2 played a favorable role in the distance between floral buds. The number of fruits is in favor of F1 and F2, S1 is the best. In terms of plant yield, F2 is the most favorable and S2 is the best. After that, F2 is the best recipe and F1 is the most economical. S1 and S2 did well in the development of the tomato plant by their proper physico-chemical properties. S1 is slightly better

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

Prosodic focus acquisition in French early cochlear implanted children

Speech and hearing are important elements in the action of communication and are interrelated closely. If any of these elements is altered, communication can be affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hearing impairment and deafness are defined as follows: “Hearing impairment is the inability to hear as well as someone with normal hearing. Hearing impaired people can be hard of hearing or deaf. If a person cannot hear at all, then they have deafness” (WHO, 2017). Their February 2017 updated report, shows that around 32 million children around the world suffer from invalidating hearing impairment (WHO, 2017). The impact of hearing deficiency varies on different levels. On the social and emotional levels, the person affected by hearing impairment risks isolation and exclusion from social life cycle. On the economical level, hearing impairment is estimated by the WHO of having an annual cost of 750 billion international dollars worldwide. It includes health sector costs, educational support costs, loss of productivity, and costs for the society (WHO, 2017).Cochlear implantation (CI) has been considered as the sole surgery that can replace efficiently a sensorial organ by an electronic device that has been able to progressively restore an almost normal hearing function. This has provided hearing impaired children with a new beginning and almost full communication capabilities (Bruijnzeel, Ziylan, Stegeman, Topsakal, & Grolman, 2016).Age at implantation is crucial for auditory and speech development in pre-lingually hearing impaired children. Normal function of the central pathways is a requirement for normal development of speech and language skills. Children with hearing loss risk losing these skills. The absence of auditory input hinders normal growth needed to form a functional sensory system. CIs bypass peripheral cochlear damage, stimulating auditory nerve to prevent the detrimental effects of stimulus deprivation (Sharma, Gilley, Dorman, & Baldwin, 2007).Prosody, the melody of speech, is an important element in communication; in both speech perception and production (D’Imperio, Dittinger, & Besson, 2016; Nygaard, Herold, & Namy, 2009; Speer & Ito, 2009). It is a determinant aspect of speech in order to correctly send a linguistic and paralinguistic message. It is defined as a grammatical component of language including accentuation, phrasing and intonation (Beckman, 1996; D’Imperio et al., 2016). Among the functions of prosody and accentuation, information structure is responsible for the focus/background separation within an utterance. Rooth in 1985 introduced the idea that each expression comes with two semantic meanings; its regular denotation and a set of alternatives. Prosodic focus or prominence is used to create these alternatives (Rooth, 1985). Where the accent is placed can change according to context and to the message that should be sent to the audience, as well as the real speaker’s intentions (Nygaard et al., 2009). Focus can be broad, when focusing on a whole utterance, or narrow when focusing on a word or a segment in an utterance. Narrow focus can be contrastive, when contrasting between different elements, or corrective, when correcting a wrong information. Prosodic focus is acquired progressively with the fine-tuning of communication skills and matures with age. This is the first study of prosodic focus in early CI French children. Our results show that early CI French speaking children start to produce prosodic focus at the age of 6 years while starting to become adult-like at the age of 7 years. They are better in using prosodic cues to focus in corrective than contrastive narrow focus than broad focus contexts

Prosodic Focus Acquisition in French Early Cochlear Implanted Children

International audienc

Cricoarytenoid joint arthritis: a possible complication of dermatomyositis

Cricoarytenoid joint arthritis is most frequently reported in Rheumatoid Arthritis and in other systemic diseases such as Sjogren’s syndrome, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Ankylosing Arthritis, Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, and autoimmune hepatitis but it has not been reported in dermatomyositis. In this paper, we report the case of a 43 years-old woman treated for dermatomyositis who presented with hoarseness and severe odynophagia. The laryngoscopy revealed the presence of an extensive white swelling of the left cricoarytenoid joint with reduced mobility of the left vocal cord, consistent with left cricoarytenoid joint arthritis, which has not previously been described in dermatomyositis to our knowledge. Treatment with highdoses of prednisone produced a complete resolution of the laryngeal symptoms

The Effect of Fertigation and Foliar Application of Seaweed’s Bio Stimulant on Banana Yield

In order to shed light on the effect of the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) bio stimulant on the banana fruit, foliar application (Fo), fertigation(F1) and a mix of both interventions (M) were done during 2018-2019 season on banana plants grown in South Lebanon compared with control (Ctrl). The period between flowering and harvest, the bunch weight, the weight and dimensions of fruit, were measured during the study. The results showed that the shortest period between flowering and harvest was observed on samples treated through foliar application (Fo), less with fertigation and then the mix of both (M). Those treatments were very effective in stimulating the weight of bunch and length of fruit, while a significant increase in the weight of fruit was noticed when both applications were done together (M). All treated modalities showed better performance compared with control. There was no difference in the diameter of fruit between all treatments. Therefore, the application of eco-friendly seaweed-based bio stimulant would be beneficial for the time of harvesting, and the size of banana fruits

Early diagnosis of oral cavity carcinomas: The best prognostic factor

Oral mucosa neoplasms are most often pre-malignant lesions that evolved in squamous cell carcinoma (90% of cancers of the oral cavity). Tobacco and alcohol are the two most incriminated etiological factors. Other etiologies have also been mentioned, in particular the oncogenicity of certain viruses like the human papillomavirus(HPV). However, other types of cancer may occur mainly in young adults whose starting point is generally a salivary gland (10% of cancers of the oral cavity). From two clinical cases, squamous cell carcinoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, we describe the etiopathogenesis and the clinical characteristics as well as the histopathological particularities, diagnosis and prognosis of each of these entities. We also developped the interest of an early detection of the lesions that will provide the patient a better prognosis even though the therapeutic strategy is established in the best condition

Early diagnosis of oral cavity carcinomas: The best prognostic factor

Oral mucosa neoplasms are most often pre-malignant lesions that evolved in squamous cell carcinoma (90% of cancers of the oral cavity). Tobacco and alcohol are the two most incriminated etiological factors. Other etiologies have also been mentioned, in particular the oncogenicity of certain viruses like the human papillomavirus(HPV). However, other types of cancer may occur mainly in young adults whose starting point is generally a salivary gland (10% of cancers of the oral cavity). From two clinical cases, squamous cell carcinoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, we describe the etiopathogenesis and the clinical characteristics as well as the histopathological particularities, diagnosis and prognosis of each of these entities. We also developped the interest of an early detection of the lesions that will provide the patient a better prognosis even though the therapeutic strategy is established in the best condition

Outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement in cancer survivors with prior chest radiation therapy: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Clinical outcomes for TAVR in cancer survivors with prior chest radiation therapy (C-XRT) who develop symptomatic aortic-valve stenosis are not adequately assessed in major clinical trials leading to conflicting results. Hence, we conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the, safety, efficacy, and mortality outcomes of cancer survivors with prior C-XRT undergoing TAVR. MEDLINE and Scopus were searched up to March 2024. Observational studies and randomized controlled trials comparing severe aortic stenosis patients with and without prior C-XRT undergoing TAVR with at least one outcome of interest were shortlisted. Data were analyzed using random-effects model to derive weighted mean differences, and risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Six studies with 6,191 patients (278 C-XRT and 5,913 no-C-XRT) were included. All-cause mortality at 30-day (RR 1.63, p = 0.12) and 1-year interval (RR 1.59, p = 0.08) showed no significant differences with prior C-XRT versus no-C-XRT. Worsening CHF was the only post-procedural safety outcome significantly higher in patients with prior C-XRT (RR 1.98, p = 0.0004) versus no- C-XRT. The efficacy end-points i.e., improvement in LVEF (MD 1.24; -0.50, 2.98), and aortic valve gradient (MD -0.63; -1.32, 0.05) were not significantly different. TAVR has similar all-cause mortality, efficacy and safety (except CHF worsening) among cancer survivors with and without a prior history of C-XRT

FGF signaling controls Shh-dependent oligodendroglial fate specification in the ventral spinal cord

Abstract Background Most oligodendrocytes of the spinal cord originate from ventral progenitor cells of the pMN domain, characterized by expression of the transcription factor Olig2. A minority of oligodendrocytes is also recognized to emerge from dorsal progenitors during fetal development. The prevailing view is that generation of ventral oligodendrocytes depends on Sonic hedgehog (Shh) while dorsal oligodendrocytes develop under the influence of Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs). Results Using the well-established model of the chicken embryo, we show that ventral spinal progenitor cells activate FGF signaling at the onset of oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) generation. Inhibition of FGF receptors at that time appears sufficient to prevent generation of ventral OPCs, highlighting that, in addition to Shh, FGF signaling is required also for generation of ventral OPCs. We further reveal an unsuspected interplay between Shh and FGF signaling by showing that FGFs serve dual essential functions in ventral OPC specification. FGFs are responsible for timely induction of a secondary Shh signaling center, the lateral floor plate, a crucial step to create the burst of Shh required for OPC specification. At the same time, FGFs prevent down-regulation of Olig2 in pMN progenitor cells as these cells receive higher threshold of the Shh signal. Finally, we bring arguments favoring a key role of newly differentiated neurons acting as providers of the FGF signal required to trigger OPC generation in the ventral spinal cord. Conclusion Altogether our data reveal that the FGF signaling pathway is activated and required for OPC commitment in the ventral spinal cord. More generally, our data may prove important in defining strategies to produce large populations of determined oligodendrocyte precursor cells from undetermined neural progenitors, including stem cells. In the long run, these new data could be useful in attempts to stimulate the oligodendrocyte fate in residing neural stem cells