The usefulness of ultrasound in the classification of chronic liver disease

Chronic Liver Disease is a progressive, most of the time asymptomatic, and potentially fatal disease. In this paper, a semi-automatic procedure to stage this disease is proposed based on ultrasound liver images, clinical and laboratorial data. In the core of the algorithm two classifiers are used: a k nearest neighbor and a Support Vector Machine, with different kernels. The classifiers were trained with the proposed multi-modal feature set and the results obtained were compared with the laboratorial and clinical feature set. The results showed that using ultrasound based features, in association with laboratorial and clinical features, improve the classification accuracy. The support vector machine, polynomial kernel, outperformed the others classifiers in every class studied. For the Normal class we achieved 100% accuracy, for the chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis 73.08%, for compensated cirrhosis 59.26% and for decompensated cirrhosis 91.67%

A Transcriptomic Approach to Understanding the Combined Impacts of Supra-Optimal Temperatures and CO2 Revealed Different Responses in the Polyploid Coffea arabica and Its Diploid Progenitor C. canephora

Understanding the effect of extreme temperatures and elevated air (CO2) is crucial for mitigating the impacts of the coffee industry. In this work, leaf transcriptomic changes were evaluated in the diploid C. canephora and its polyploid C. arabica, grown at 25 C and at two supra-optimal temperatures (37 C, 42 C), under ambient (aCO2) or elevated air CO2 (eCO2). Both species expressed fewer genes as temperature rose, although a high number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed, especially at 42 C. An enrichment analysis revealed that the two species reacted differently to the high temperatures but with an overall up-regulation of the photosynthetic machinery until 37 C. Although eCO2 helped to release stress, 42 C had a severe impact on both species. A total of 667 photosynthetic and biochemical related-DEGs were altered with high temperatures and eCO2, which may be used as key probe genes in future studies. This was mostly felt in C. arabica, where genes related to ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) activity, chlorophyll a-b binding, and the reaction centres of photosystems I and II were down-regulated, especially under 42 C, regardless of CO2. Transcriptomic changes showed that both species were strongly affected by the highest temperature, although they can endure higher temperatures (37 C) than previously assumed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Efeitos residuais de inseticidas sobre Trichogramma pretiosum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

The research was carried out in order to examine the effects of insecticide residues: 1) Abamectin (MK-936 1.8 CE), 10 g a.i/ha; 2) Abamectin (MlC-936 1.8 CE), 159 a.i/ha; 3) Abamectin (MK-936 1.8 EC), 209 a.i/ha; 4) Parathion-methyl (Folidol 60 CE), 600 g a.i/ha; 5) Endosulfan (Thiodan 35 CE), 1,200 g a.i/ha; 6) Carbaryl (Carvin 85 WP), 2,0409 a.i/ha; 7)Phosmet (Imidan 50 WP), 7509 a.i/ha, and 8) Control (nothing was applied), applied to cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L CNPA-2H cultivar) plant surfaces on the emergente and parasitism ability of Trichogramma pretiosum. Tests were conducted on one, seven and fourteen days field-weathered sprays residues from cotton plants at dosage rases of eight insecticides. The results indicated that: 1) Parathion- -methyl (Folidol 60 CE), 600 g a.i/ha was extremely toxic to the egg parasitoid, T. pretiosum; 2) Abamectin (MK-936 1.8 CE), ten, fifteen and 209 a.i/ha, Endosulfan (Thiodan 35 CE). 1,2009 a.i/ha, and Phosmet (Imidan 50 WP). 750 g a.i/ha did not show significant impacts on parasitoid emergente and egg parasitism, and 3) All the insecticide tested did not show significative effects on T. pretiosum emergence and egg parasitism in the seven and fourteen days post spray tests.A presente pesquisa foi conduzida a fim de verificar os efeitos residuais dos inseticidas: 1) Abamectin (MK-936 1,8 CE), a 10 g do i.a/ha; 2) Abamectin (MK-936 1,8 CE), 15 g do i.a/ha; 3) Abamectin (MK-936 1,8 CE), a 20 g do i.a/ha; 4) Parathion-metil (Folidol 60 CE), a 600 g do i.a/ha; 5) Endosulfan (Thiodan 35 CE), a 1.200 g do i.a/ha; 6) Carbaril (Carvin 85 PM), a 2.040 g do i.a/ha; 7) Phosmet (Imidan 50 PM), 750 g do i.a/ha, e 8) Testemunha (sem inseticida) sobre a emergêcia e capacidade do parasitismo de Trichogramma pretiosum. Testes foram conduzidos a um, sete e quatorze dias após a aplicação dos inseticidas em plantas de algodão (Gossypium hirsutum L.), 'CNPA-2H'. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que: 1) Resíduos de Parathion-metil (Folidol 60 CE), a 600 g do i.a/ha foram altamente tóxicos a T. pretiosum; 2) Resíduos de Abamectin (MK-936 1,8 CE), a dez, quinze e 20 g do i.a/ha, Endosulfan (thiodan 35 CE), a 1.200 g do i.a/ha e Phosmet (Imidan 50 PM), a 750 g do i.a/ha não apresentaram efeitos signifitativos na emergência dos adultos de T. pretiosum e seu parasitismo, e 3) Resíduos dos inseticidas nas dosagens testadas, não apresentaram efeitos significativos na emergência de adultos de T. pretiosum, e seu parasitismo, a sete e quatorze dias após sua aplicação

Overexpression of water-responsive genes promoted by elevated CO2 reduces ROS and enhances drought tolerance in Coffea species

Drought is a major constraint to plant growth and productivity worldwide and will aggravate as water availability becomes scarcer. Although elevated air [CO2] might mitigate some of these effects in plants, the mechanisms underlying the involved responses are poorly understood in woody economically important crops such as Coffea. This study analyzed transcriptome changes in Coffea canephora cv. CL153 and C. arabica cv. Icatu exposed to moderate (MWD) or severe water deficits (SWD) and grown under ambient (aCO2) or elevated (eCO2) air [CO2]. We found that changes in expression levels and regulatory pathways were barely affected by MWD, while the SWD condition led to a down-regulation of most differentially expressed genes (DEGs). eCO2 attenuated the impacts of drought in the transcripts of both genotypes but mostly in Icatu, in agreement with physiological and metabolic studies. A predominance of protective and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging-related genes, directly or indirectly associated with ABA signaling pathways, was found in Coffea responses, including genes involved in water deprivation and desiccation, such as protein phosphatases in Icatu, and aspartic proteases and dehydrins in CL153, whose expression was validated by qRT-PCR. The existence of a complex post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism appears to occur in Coffea explaining some apparent discrepancies between transcriptomic, proteomic, and physiological data in these genotypes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio