GENETIC DIVERSITY ASSESSMENT OF IN VITRO IRRADIATED TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL.) USING SCOT MARKERS

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is considered the major and important globally vegetable crops especially in Egypt. Tissue culture techniques have facilitated the induction of mutant which helps in crop improvement. The mutation induction in vegetative crops through tissue culture may be the optimal method to improve these crops. Tomato explants of Idkawy Egyptian cultivar were cultured in vitro on MS medium supplemented with 0.2 mg/L BAP. The resulted plantlets were irradiated with different gamma radiation doses (50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 Gy) and the survival and mean of shoot length decreased as gamma radiation doses increased. The survival percentages of irradiated plantlets were ranged from 78.75% with 50 Gy dose to 18.75% with 250 Gy dose, while the shoot length values were decreased by a rate of 2.71 cm for dose 50 Gy and 1.2 cm for 250 Gy dose. The ten SCoT primers amplified a total of 114 amplicons with a range from 4 with SCoT-4 primer to 18 amplicons with SCoT-5  primer with an average of 11.4 amplicons per primer, The radiation specific markers were ranged from one fragment with SCoT-1 and SCoT-2 primers, SCoT- 5 two fragments with primer to five fragments with SCoT-3 and SCoT-33 primers

Resectability of pancreatic tumors: Correlation of multidetector CT with surgical and pathologic results

AbstractPurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of multidetector CT (MDCT) in predicting resectability of pancreatic tumors.Patients and methodsThirty-nine patients were included in this study, there were 29 males and 10 females, and their age range was 44–73years with a mean age of 58.3years. All the patients were subjected to contrast enhanced biphasic examinations on 64-slice CT machine.ResultsTwenty-one patients (53.8%) were considered inoperable with unresected tumor, the remaining 18 patients (46.2%) were considered suitable for tumor resection according to MDCT criteria. 15 out of the 18 patients (83.3) had a successful tumor resection while the remaining 3 (16.7%) showed unresectable tumor during operation. On the basis of pathology results 12 patients out of the 18 (66.7%) had successful surgery with negative tumor margin, and a positive predictive value of 66.7% and accuracy of 66.7%.ConclusionsThere is better prediction of resectability of pancreatic tumors with the development of MDCT technology. As compared to Helical computed tomography (HCT) studies, there is a rise in the rate of successful surgical resection. The positive predictive value of multidetector computed tomography for resectable pancreatic tumors is decreased when pathologic results are used as a reference standard

UNTRADITIONAL METHODS OF P-APPLICATION FOR RAISING ITS EFFICIENCY ON SANDY SOIL

Soils of Egypt characterize with raising pH values, CaCO3 content, clay and Fe & Al oxides. These factors contribute, to a large extent, in P-fixation in soil and its transformation into unavailable forms. This reflect, in turn, on plant growth and the resultant crop. So, the main target of this investigation is raising the use efficiency of P-fertilization, decreasing P-fixation, increasing its availability in soil and promoting its uptake by plant through testing new methods for P-application compared with the traditional one (P-application before sowing). Therefore, two field experiments were designed in sandy soils during the two winter seasons 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 at South Tahrir Res. Station, Ali Moubark village, El-Bustan region, Behira gover-norate under drip irrigation system. For the two experiments, P was applied as soil or seed coating. Soil application treatments were added at a rate of 30 kg P2O5/fed., once before sowing, twice: before sowing and during the vegetative growth stages or in three portions, before sowing and during the vegetative and flowering growth stages. In seed coating method, seed were coated before sowing with P at rates of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 kg P2O5/kg seed. Data obtained revealed that the treatments of P-soil application generally surpassed the P-seed coating ones. In this respect, P-soil appli-cation in three portions (at sowing and during the vegetative and flowering growth stages) gave the highest increments in seed, straw and seed protein yields as well as macro- and micronutrients contents in both seed and straw compared with the tradi-tional method of soil P-application. Moreover, seed coated with 0.2 kg P2O5/kg seeds attained the highest increases in all abovementioned yield components and nu-tritive contents among the treatments of seed coating method, whereas, coating of seeds with 0.3 kg P2O5/kg seeds caused the least ones. Therefore, it can be conclud-ed that the addition of P to sandy soil at a rate of 30 kg P2O5/fed., in three portions, i.e. at sowing and during the vegetative and flowering growth stages reduce P-fixation by soil factors, increase its availability, promote its uptake by plant, achieve the highest productivity of faba bean seed, straw and seed protein yields and im-prove the nutritive contents of both seeds and straw

The Attenuation Capability ofSelected Steel Alloys for Nuclear Reactor Applications

Neutronsand gamma ray attenuation of different steel grades (SS304, SS304L, SS316L, SS430, a modified high manganese-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel, and developed cobalt-free Maraging steel) was measured to study their capability to be used as nuclear reactor materials. The hardness and microstructure of the studied steel alloys were carried out using Vickers hardness and optical microscope respectively.Neutron and gamma rays measurements were carried out using a narrow beam transmissions geometry method. Measurements and calculations of gamma ray attenuation coefficients were carried out at energies 238.63, 338.28, 583.19, 911.2, 968.97, 1173.23, 1332.49, and 2614.51 keV. The transmitted gamma rays were detected by the Hyper Pure Germanium detector (HPGe), while, the neutron flux emitted from 241Am-Be neutron source was used to measure the neutron removal cross section for both slow and total neutrons. The transmitted beam of neutrons was measured under a good geometric conditions using 3He counter.A good agreement between experimental data of mass attenuation coefficients and theoretical results calculated by the WinXcom computer program (version 3.1) was obtained

Stimulated perturbation on the neutron flux distribution in the mutually-dependent source-to-absorber geometry

The complexity of the neutron transport phenomenon throws its shadows on every physical system wherever neutron is produced or absorbed. The Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) was used to investigate the flux perturbations in the neutron field caused by an absorber. The geometry of the present experiment was designed to reach a simulation of an isotopic neutron field. The neutron source was a ${}^{241}$AmBe with the production physics of neutrons is dependent only on alpha-beryllium interaction and is independent of what happened to the neutron after it was generated. The geometries have been designed to get a volume of uniform neutron densities within a spherical volume of radius 15 cm in every neutron energy group up to 10 MeV. Absorbers of different dimensions were placed within the volume to investigate the field perturbation. Different neutron absorbers were used to correlate the phenomenon to the integral cross-section of the absorber. Flux density inside and outside the absorber samples was determined, while the spatial neutron flux distribution produced by the AmBe source without an absorber was taken as a reference. This study displayed that absorbers of various dimensions perturb the neutron field in a way that is dependent on the absorption and scattering cross-sections, particularly in the neutron resonance region. Unlike the simple picture of reducing the number density of neutrons, the perturbation was found to influence the moderation of neutrons in the medium, significantly above 1 MeV.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 26 reference

Assessment of breast mass: Utility of diffusion-weighted MR and MR spectroscopy imaging

Background: Using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) combined to MRI is helpful to distinguish malignant versus benign breast lesions. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy provides biochemical information about the tissue under investigation. Patient and methods: The study included 30 patients with suspicious breast lesions detected by clinical examination, mammography and/or breast ultrasound. All patients included in this study were subjected to Mammographic examination, ultrasound examination, and MRI examination including diffusion-weighted imaging and proton MR spectroscopy. Results: In this study the sensitivity of MRS was 90%, its specificity was 78.6%, accuracy was 85%, PPV was 85.7% and NPV was 84.6%. Regarding the sensitivity of diffusion and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), it was 90%, while its specificity was 92.8% and 91.1%, 94.7%, 86.6% for the accuracy, PPV and NPV respectively. Conclusion: The combination of MRS and DWI with magnetic resonance imaging should provide complementary information not available by either modality alone

Diffusion weighted MRI and transient elastography assessment of liver fibrosis in hepatitis C patients: Validity of non invasive imaging techniques

Objective: Treatment for hepatitis C infection and monitoring of progression were based on degree of fibrosis, which were traditionally diagnosed by liver biopsy but it has many limitations. We aim to evaluate noninvasive imaging methods, so-called diffusion-weighted MRI (DW MRI) and transient elastography [(TE), fibroscan] in diagnosing liver fibrosis in hepatitis C (HCV) patients. Patients: The Study included 102 hepatitis C patients (62 male) with mean age of 38 ± 5. For all patients liver biopsy was done followed by DW MRI and TE. METAVIR classification system was used for staging liver fibrosis. Data obtained were collected and results of DW MRI and TE were compared with those of histopathology. The diagnostic performance of ADC and TE was determined using areas under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves for significant fibrosis ⩾F3. Results: Measuring ADC at different b-values had a significant negative correlation with stage of fibrosis P = 0.001, the best negative correlation at b-value of 700 mm2/s. TE had a significant positive correlation with stage of fibrosis P = 0.005. Both examination showed a significant difference between fibrosis stage <F3 and stages ⩾F3 with P < 0.00 for ADC measure at each b-value and TE respectively. Conclusion: This study suggests that DW MRI and TE had favorable comparable results with liver biopsy for the diagnosis of significant liver fibrosis