Metabolomic variation of brassica rapa var. rapa (var. raapstelen) and raphanus sativus l. at different developmental stages

Brassica rapa (var. raapstelen) and Raphanus sativus (red radish) are being used as food and fodder while also known as model in recent plant research due to the diversity of metabolites as well as genetic resemblance to Arabidopsis. This study explains the change in metabolites (amino acids, organic acids, chlorophyll, carotenoids, tocopherols, ascorbic acid, sucrose, phenylpropanoids and glucosinolates) during plant development. In present study the metabolomic variation in relation to plant growth has been evaluated, for Brassica rapa (var. raapstelen) and red radish (Raphanus sativus) at three different developmental stages. A non-targeted and targeted metabolomic approach by NMR and HPLC in combination with Principal component analysis (PCA) of the data was used to identify phytochemicals being influenced by plant growth. The results lead to the better understanding of metabolic changes during plant development and show the importance of plant age with respect to the metabolomic profile of vegetables

Evaluation of PET and laparoscopy in STagIng advanced gastric cancer: A multicenter prospective study (PLASTIC-study)

Background: Initial staging of gastric cancer consists of computed tomography (CT) and gastroscopy. In locally advanced (cT3-4) gastric cancer, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with CT (FDG-PET/CT or PET) and staging laparoscopy (SL) may have a role in staging, but evidence is scarce. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of PET and SL in addition to initial staging in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study will include all patients with a surgically resectable, advanced gastric adenocarcinoma (cT3-4b, N0-3, M0), that are scheduled for treatment with curative intent after initial staging with gastroscopy and CT. The modalities to be investigated in this study is the addition of PET and SL. The primary outcome of this study is the proportion of patients in whom the PET or SL lead to a change in treatment strategy. Secondary outcome parameters are: diagnostic performance, morbidity and mortality, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness of these additional diagnostic modalities. The study recently started in August 2017 with a duration of 36 months. At least 239 patients need to be included in this study to demonstrate that the diagnostic modalities are break-even. Based on the annual number of gastrectomies in the participating centers, it is estimated that approximately 543 patients are included in this study. Discussion: In this study, it is hypothesized that performing PET and SL for locally advanced gastric adenocarcinomas results in a change of treatment strategy in 27% of patients and an annual cost-reduction in the Netherlands of €916.438 in this patient group by reducing futile treatment. The results of this study may be applicable to all countries with comparable treatment algorithms and health care systems

Automated configuration and usage of strategy portfolios for mixed-motive bargaining

Bargaining can be used to resolve mixed-motive games in multi-agent systems. Although there is an abundance of negotiation strategies implemented in automated negotiating agents, most agents are based on single fixed strategies, while it is acknowledged that there is no single best-performing strategy for all negotiation settings.In this paper, we focus on bargaining settings where opponents are repeatedly encountered, but the bargaining problems change. We introduce a novel method that automatically creates and deploys a portfolio of complementary negotiation strategies using a training set and optimise pay-off in never-before-seen bargaining settings through per-setting strategy selection. Our method relies on the following contributions. We introduce a feature representation that captures characteristics for both the opponent and the bargaining problem. We model the behaviour of an opponent during a negotiation based on its actions, which is indicative of its negotiation strategy, in order to be more effective in future encounters.Our combination of feature-based methods generalises to new negotiation settings, as in practice, over time, it selects effective counter strategies in future encounters. Our approach is tested in an ANAC-like tournament, and we show that we are capable of winning such a tournament with a 5.6% increase in pay-off compared to the runner-up agent.NWO024.004.022Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog

Solid Phase Micro-Extraction GC–MS Analysis of Natural Volatile Components in Melon and Rice

The natural fragrance compounds produced by plants play key roles in the long-term fitness and survival of these plants as well as being of direct/indirect benefit to man. Almost all plant fragrances, either pleasant or unpleasant, comprise many different compounds, from different chemical classes and can indeed be highly complex in composition involving several hundred types of volatile molecule. Analyzing these mixtures and identifying their main (bio)active components is of importance in both fundamental and applied science. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) plays a central role here. GC-MS has regularly been used for fragrance analysis and different extraction/adsorption and detection protocols have been designed specifically for plant materials. In this chapter, two methods are presented for two highly contrasting plant organs-a melon fruit and rice grains. Metabolomics analyses of these important food crops are already helping us understand better which components are most important in determining the flavour of these important food crops and how we might go about producing new "designer" crops which are even tastier than the existing ones

Production of resveratrol in recombinant microorganisms

Resveratrol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was compared to that in Escherichia coli. In both systems, 4-coumarate:coenzyme A ligase from tobacco and stilbene synthase from grapes were expressed. When p-coumaric acid was used as the precursor, resveratrol accumulations in the culture medium were observed to be comparable in E. coli (16 mg/liter) and yeast (6 mg/liter