Nitrogen and sulphur management: challenges for organic sources in temperate agricultural systems

A current global trend towards intensification or specialization of agricultural enterprises has been accompanied by increasing public awareness of associated environmental consequences. Air and water pollution from losses of nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S), are a major concern. Governments have initiated extensive regulatory frameworks, including various land use policies, in an attempt to control or reduce the losses. This paper presents an overview of critical input and loss processes affecting N and S for temperate climates, and provides some background to the discussion in subsequent papers evaluating specific farming systems. Management effects on potential gaseous and leaching losses, the lack of synchrony between supply of nutrients and plant demand, and options for optimizing the efficiency of N and S use are reviewed. Integration of inorganic and organic fertilizer inputs and the equitable re-distribution of nutrients from manure are discussed. The paper concludes by highlighting a need for innovative research that is also targeted to practical approaches for reducing N and S losses, and improving the overall synchrony between supply and demand

Long-term survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and synchronous brain metastasis treated with whole-brain radiotherapy and thoracic chemoradiation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Brain metastases occur in 30-50% of Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and confer a worse prognosis and quality of life. These patients are usually treated with Whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) followed by systemic therapy. Few studies have evaluated the role of chemoradiotherapy to the primary tumor after WBRT as definitive treatment in the management of these patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We reviewed the outcome of 30 patients with primary NSCLC and brain metastasis at diagnosis without evidence of other metastatic sites. Patients were treated with WBRT and after induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel and cisplatin for two cycles. In the absence of progression, concurrent chemoradiotherapy for the primary tumor with weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin was indicated, with a total effective dose of 60 Gy. If disease progression was ruled out, four chemotherapy cycles followed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Median Progression-free survival (PFS) and Overall survival (OS) were 8.43 ± 1.5 and 31.8 ± 15.8 months, respectively. PFS was 39.5% at 1 year and 24.7% at 2 years. The 1- and 2-year OS rates were 71.1 and 60.2%, respectively. Three-year OS was significantly superior for patients with N0-N1 stage disease vs. N2-N3 (60 vs. 24%, respectively; Response rate [RR], 0.03; <it>p</it>= 0.038).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patients with NSCLC and brain metastasis might benefit from treatment with WBRT and concurrent thoracic chemoradiotherapy. The subgroup of N0-N1 patients appears to achieve the greatest benefit. The result of this study warrants a prospective trial to confirm the benefit of this treatment.</p

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Recurrent brain metastases from lung cancer: the impact of reoperation

The majority of patients in our study group showed significant functional benefit from surgical resection of recurrent brain metastases. This contributes to a better quality of life in this patient group showing a short overall survival time

PCAF is an HIF-1α cofactor that regulates p53 transcriptional activity in hypoxia

The p53 tumour suppressor is involved in several crucial cellular functions including cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. p53 stabilization occurs under hypoxic and DNA damage conditions. However, only in the latter scenario is stabilized p53 capable of inducing the expression of its pro-apoptotic targets. Here we present evidence that under hypoxia-mimicking conditions p53 acetylation is reduced to a greater extent at K320 site targeted by P300/CBP-associated factor (PCAF) than at K382 site targeted by p300/CBP. The limited amounts of acetylated p53 at K320 are preferentially recruited to the promoter of the p21WAF-1/CIP-1 gene, which appears to be unaffected by hypoxia, but are not recruited to the BID promoter and hence p53 is incapable of upregulating pro-apoptotic BID in hypoxic conditions. As the K320 p53 acetylation is the site predominantly affected in hypoxia, the PCAF histone acetyltransferase activity is the key regulator of the cellular fate modulated by p53 under these conditions. In addition, we provide evidence that PCAF acetylates hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) in hypoxic conditions and that the acetylated HIF-1α is recruited to a particular subset of its targets. In conclusion, PCAF regulates the balance between cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in hypoxia by modulating the activity and protein stability of both p53 and HIF-1α. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved