346 research outputs found
Structure of mushroom casing soil and its influence on yield and microflora.
Mushroom yields were higher on more compact casing soil provided (1) a large amount of water was applied (in this case 7 litres/m2) and (2) the upper layer of the casing was ruffled or raked up before the start of the generative phase. Suppressing the diffusion of gaseous metabolites from compost to air during vegetative growth improved the yield provided a good diffusion of air is restored just prior to fructification. Many of the relevant phenomena can be attributed to CO2, but the effect of other metabolites such as acetone and ethylene on fruit body-inducing micro-organisms cannot be neglected. Microbial action appears to be involved in the stimulating effect of soya bean meal added to the mushroom compost. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission
Возможность прогнозирования клеточного типа увеальных меланом без использования инвазивных методов диагностики
Резюме. С помощью дискриминантного анализа установлена возможность определения клеточного типа меланомы увеального тракта в процессе проведения комбинированного (фотокоагуляция + брахитерапия) лечения. Разработана высокозначимая (l = 0,08; р = 0,002) дискриминантная модель, включающая ряд клинических (степень пигментации, пол, скорость роста меланомы) и иммунологических (количество Т- и В-лимфоцитов, процент Т-хелперов и др.) показателей. Особое место в модели занимают признаки, в наибольшей степени отражающие биологические особенности увеальных меланом различного клеточного состава, а именно — скорость изменения размера опухоли в процессе лечения и изменение показателей клеточного иммунитета.
Ключевые слова: увеальная меланома, клеточный тип, клинико-морфологические, иммунологические показатели, дискриминантный анализ.Summary. Application of the discriminant analysis shows that it is possible to define the cell type of melanoma of uveal tract of the eye in the process of combined (photocoagulation + brachytherapy) treatment. A highly reliable (l= 0,08; р = 0,002) discriminant model was elaborated, involving a number of both clinical (pigmentation level, gender, melanoma growth rate) and immunological (number of T and B lymphocytes, T helper rate, etc.) indicators. In this model, especially important are those traits that most pronouncedly reflect the biological peculiarities of uveal melanomas of various cellular compositions, namely — the pace of tumor size growth in the process of treatment and changes in cell immunity indicators.
Key Words: uveal melanoma, cell type, clinical and morphological, immunological indicators, discriminant analysis
Genetic influences on the difference in variability of height, weight and body mass index between Caucasian and East Asian adolescent twins.
Objective: Twin studies are useful for investigating the causes of trait variation between as well as within a population. The goals of the present study were two-fold: First, we aimed to compare the total phenotypic, genetic and environmental variances of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians using twins. Secondly, we intended to estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to differences in variability of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians. Design: Height and weight data from 3735 Caucasian and 1584 East Asian twin pairs (age: 13-15 years) from Australia, China, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States were used for analyses. Maximum likelihood twin correlations and variance components model-fitting analyses were conducted to fulfill the goals of the present study. Results: The absolute genetic variances for height, weight and BMI were consistently greater in Caucasians than in East Asians with corresponding differences in total variances for all three body measures. In all 80 to 100% of the differences in total variances of height, weight and BMI between the two population groups were associated with genetic differences. Conclusion: Height, weight and BMI were more variable in Caucasian than in East Asian adolescents. Genetic variances for these three body measures were also larger in Caucasians than in East Asians. Variance components model-fitting analyses indicated that genetic factors contributed to the difference in variability of height, weight and BMI between the two population groups. Association studies for these body measures should take account of our findings of differences in genetic variances between the two population groups. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
Honeybees balance essential fatty acids and suffer cognitively from deficiency
Abstract Background and aims. Epidemiological data on autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) are scarce. In this study, we determined the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of AIH patients in the Netherlands (16.7 million inhabitants). Methods. Clinical characteristics were collected from 1313 AIH patients (78% females) from 31 centers, including all eight academic centers in the Netherlands. Additional data on ethnicity, family history and symptoms were obtained by the use of a questionnaire. Results. The prevalence of AIH was 18.3 (95% confidential interval [CI]: 17.3-19.4) per 100,000 with an annual incidence of 1.1 (95% CI: 0.5-2) in adults. An incidence peak was found in middle-aged women. At diagnosis, 56% of patients had fibrosis and 12% cirrhosis in liver biopsy. Overall, 1% of patients developed HCC and 3% of patients underwent liver transplantation. Overlap with primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis was found in 9% and 6%, respectively. The clinical course did not differ between Caucasian and non-Caucasian patients. Other autoimmune diseases were found in 26% of patients. Half of the patients reported persistent AIH-related symptoms despite treatment with a median treatment period of 8 years (range 1-44 years). Familial occurrence was reported in three cases. Conclusion. This is the largest epidemiological study of AIH in a geographically defined region and demonstrates that the prevalence of AIH in the Netherlands is uncommon. Although familial occurrence of AIH is extremely rare, our twin data may point towards a genetic predisposition. The high percentage of patients with cirrhosis or fibrosis at diagnosis urges the need of more awareness for AIH
Parkinson's disease age at onset genome-wide association study : Defining heritability, genetic loci, and α-synuclein mechanisms
Background Increasing evidence supports an extensive and complex genetic contribution to PD. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shed light on the genetic basis of risk for this disease. However, the genetic determinants of PD age at onset are largely unknown. Objectives To identify the genetic determinants of PD age at onset. Methods Using genetic data of 28,568 PD cases, we performed a genome-wide association study based on PD age at onset. Results We estimated that the heritability of PD age at onset attributed to common genetic variation was similar to 0.11, lower than the overall heritability of risk for PD (similar to 0.27), likely, in part, because of the subjective nature of this measure. We found two genome-wide significant association signals, one at SNCA and the other a protein-coding variant in TMEM175, both of which are known PD risk loci and a Bonferroni-corrected significant effect at other known PD risk loci, GBA, INPP5F/BAG3, FAM47E/SCARB2, and MCCC1. Notably, SNCA, TMEM175, SCARB2, BAG3, and GBA have all been shown to be implicated in alpha-synuclein aggregation pathways. Remarkably, other well-established PD risk loci, such as GCH1 and MAPT, did not show a significant effect on age at onset of PD. Conclusions Overall, we have performed the largest age at onset of PD genome-wide association studies to date, and our results show that not all PD risk loci influence age at onset with significant differences between risk alleles for age at onset. This provides a compelling picture, both within the context of functional characterization of disease-linked genetic variability and in defining differences between risk alleles for age at onset, or frank risk for disease. (c) 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder SocietyPeer reviewe
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section
ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum
pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7
TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are
based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi
Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and
Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times
the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls
faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the
branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06
+/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for
anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are
statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final
states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and
missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a
center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to
an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two
complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a
specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic
edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of
dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states
including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and
missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the
standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to
the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a
region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric
extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector
efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM
physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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