Transpiration difference under high evaporative demand in chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) may be explained by differences in the water transport pathway in the root cylinder

Terminal drought substantially reduces chickpea yield. Reducing water use at vegetative stage by reducing transpiration under high vapor pressure deficit (VPD), i.e. under dry/ hot conditions, contributes to drought adaptation. We hypothesized that this trait could relate to differences in a genotype’s dependence on root water transport pathways and hydraulics. • Transpiration rate responses in conservative and profligate chickpea genotypes were evaluated under increasing VPD in the presence/absence of apoplastic and cell-to-cell transport inhibitors. • Conservative genotypes ICC 4958 and ICC 8058 restricted transpiration under high VPD compared to the profligate genotypes ICC 14799 and ICC 867. Profligate genotypes were more affected by aquaporin inhibition of the cell-to-cell pathway than conservative genotypes, as measured by the root hydraulic conductance and transpiration under high VPD. Aquaporin inhibitor treatment also led to a larger reduction in root hydraulic conductivity in profligate than in conservative genotypes. In contrast, blockage of the apoplastic pathway in roots decreased transpiration more in conservative than in profligate genotypes. Interestingly, conservative genotypes had high early vigour, whereas profligate genotypes had low early vigour. • In conclusion, profligate genotypes depend more on the cell-to-cell pathway, which might explain their higher root hydraulic conductivity, whereas water-saving by restricting transpiration led to higher dependence on the apoplastic pathway. This opens the possibility to screen for conservative or profligate chickpea phenotypes using inhibitors, itself opening to the search of the genetic basis of these differences

Stress and Burnout among Preretirement Employee in Hospital at 10th of Ramadan City

Employees are at high risk for stress and burnout. The aim of this study was to assess job stressors and burnout among employees in hospital at Tenth of Ramadan city. Design: cross-sectional descriptive design. Setting: the National Health Insurance Hospital at 10th of Ramadan city. Samples: convenience sample consisted of 100 employees. Tools: a self-administered questionnaire including scales for job stress and strain, burnout, and coping strategies, in addition to socio-demographic data was used in data collection. Results: the majority of the nurses were younger than 30 years (78%), with diploma degree (93%), and insufficient income (69%). More nurses had high exposure to stressors (49%), than strains (19%), and 20% had high burnout. Conclusion: the coping strategy most commonly used was effective behavioral confrontation. Nurses’ stress, strain, and burnout are strongly correlated and are influenced by personal factors such as age, qualification, experience, and residence, as well as job factors such as work hours, income, and the use of ineffective coping. Recommendations: the hospital administration should deal with and periodic assess the job factors underlying nurses’ stress and burnout. Further research is proposed to investigate the effectiveness of changing work environment factors and nursing care system on nurses’ burnout

Polaron physics and crossover transition in magnetite probed by pressure-dependent infrared spectroscopy

The optical properties of magnetite at room temperature were studied by infrared reflectivity measurements as a function of pressure up to 8 GPa. The optical conductivity spectrum consists of a Drude term, two sharp phonon modes, a far-infrared band at around 600 cm$^{-1}$, and a pronounced mid-infrared absorption band. With increasing pressure both absorption bands shift to lower frequencies and the phonon modes harden in a linear fashion. Based on the shape of the MIR band, the temperature dependence of the dc transport data, and the occurrence of the far-infrared band in the optical conductivity spectrum the polaronic coupling strength in magnetite at room temperature should be classified as intermediate. For the lower-energy phonon mode an abrupt increase of the linear pressure coefficient occurs at around 6 GPa, which could be attributed to minor alterations of the charge distribution among the different Fe sites.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Is Presepsin a Reliable Marker of Sepsis Diagnosis in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit?

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a major challenge in emergency departments and intensive care units (ICUs). Sepsis also mimics or interacts with many other disorders causing high mortality and morbidity. There is no accurate biomarker or test to diagnose or predict sepsis. The treatment of sepsis is often based on the clinician’s experience. AIM: We conducted this study to analyze the serum level of presepsin in pediatric critical patients with SIRS, sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock. METHODS: The study included 58 children, 32 septic pediatric patients admitted to the Pediatric ICU (PICU) of Cairo University Teaching Hospital and 26 healthy children who served as a control group. The aim was to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of presepsin in predicting sepsis in PICU. We classified the patients into systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock according to the international consensus conference criteria. RESULTS: In our study, we detected a positive correlation between C-reactive protein and presepsin levels at day 1 and day 3 of admission and a negative correlation between hemoglobin and presepsin levels at day 1. However, we found no difference in the serum presepsin between the children who had sepsis and the healthy ones (at day 1 [p = 0.430) and at day 3 [p = 0.845]). We also found that serum levels of presepsin were not significantly increased with the increasing severity of sepsis despite the higher median values with increasing sepsis severity. CONCLUSIONS: It was noted that presepsin levels increased in anemic critical patients, whereas presepsin had no role in differentiating the septic critical patients from healthy children. However, its level increased with increasing severity of sepsis grade

Estimation Pore and Fracture Pressure Based on Log Data; Case Study: Mishrif Formation/Buzurgan Oilfield at Iraq

Prediction of the formation of pore and fracture pressure before constructing a drilling wells program are a crucial since it helps to prevent several drilling operations issues including lost circulation, kick, pipe sticking, blowout, and other issues. IP (Interactive Petrophysics) software is used to calculate and measure pore and fracture pressure. Eaton method, Matthews and Kelly, Modified Eaton, and Barker and Wood equations are used to calculate fracture pressure, whereas only Eaton method is used to measure pore pressure. These approaches are based on log data obtained from six wells, three from the north dome; BUCN-52, BUCN-51, BUCN-43 and the other from the south dome; BUCS-49, BUCS-48, BUCS-47. Along with the overburden pressure gradient and clay volume, which were also established first, data such as gamma ray, density, resistivity, and sonic log data are also required. A key consideration in the design of certain wells is the forecasting of fracture pressure for wells drilled in the southern Iraqi oilfield of Buzurgan. The pressure abnormality is found in MA, MB21, MC1 and MC2 units by depending on pore pressures calculated from resistivity log. In these units, depths and its equivalent normal and abnormal pressure are detected for all sex selected wells; BUCS-47, BUCS-48, BUCS-49, BUCN-43, BUCN-51 and BBCN-52. For MA, MB21, MC1, and MC2 units, the highest difference in pore pressure values are 1698 psi @ 3750 m (BUCN-51), 3420 psi @ 3900 m (BUCN-51), 788 psi @ 3980 m (BUCS-49), and 5705 psi @ 4020 m (BUCN-52). On other hands, MB11 and MB12 units have normal pressure trend in all studied wells. Finally, the results show that the highest pore and fracture pressure values is existed in North dome, in comparison with that obtained in south dome of Mishrif reservoir at Buzurgan oilfield

Susceptibility of certain wheat varieties to the infestation by Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Tribolium confusum (du Val)

Eight Egyptian flour wheat varieties were assessed in order to determine their appropriate level of susceptibility to Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Tribolium confusum (du Val). Free choice test for attraction insect adults was used in the first experiment at time interval ranged from 0.125 to 5 days post infestation. At days, results showed that the lowest attracted numbers of R. dominica adults were 5.00 and the highest ones were 22.67 for SAKL8 and SIDS1 varieties, respectively. The varieties can be arranged descendently according to the attracted numbers of R. dominica as follow: SAKL8, SAKL1, BACANORA, DEBEIRA, , GIZA168, GIZA164, SIDS6 and SIDS1. The descending order results were obtained for T. confusum could be the similar. Statistical analysis demoed significant differences between the numbers of the eight varieties. In the second experiment, the numbers of F1 and the duration of offspring of each stage were determined. Based on the Dobie Index (D.I.) for R. dominica, SAKL8, DEBEIRA, BACANORA and SAKL1 were found to be resistant varieties. While the SIDS1 and SIDS6 varieties have a moderate resistant. In the case of T. confusum all varieties showed a degree of resistance, except SAKL8 and SIDS1showed a moderate resistant. The BACANORA cultivar showed the lowest D.I. value in the two tested insect species.  The obtained results can give a better understanding to the stored-grain managers regarding to the prospective differences in wheat susceptibility to R. dominica and T. confusum infestation

Towards a Comprehensive RVC VTL: A CAL Description of an Efficient AVC Baseline Encoder

The Video Tool Library (VTL) is one of the major normative components of the Reconfigurable Video Coding (RVC) standard. It specifies the set of functional units (FUs)that may be interchangeably combined and connected to form different video codecs, with various compression performances and implementation complexities. In this paper, an efficient AVC baseline encoder that is described in CAL is introduced. The encoder is composed of many modules that also exist in other codecs of the same or different standards. This makes them highly reusable within the RVC framework. The main modules of the designed encoder include: Inter Prediction, Intra Prediction, and Entropy Coding. Brief descriptions of the designed modules, accompanied with CAL design issues are provided

An MPEG RVC AVC Baseline Encoder Based on a Novel Iterative Methodology

With the emergence of new generations of multicore architectures, the need for efficient multimedia algorithm implementations has become critical. This paper describes a new methodology for efficient implementations of algorithms targeting reconfigurable architectures. The Reconfigurable Video Coding (RVC) standard aims to provide a framework allowing a dynamic development,implementation and adoption of standardized video coding solutions with features of higher flexibility and reusability. RVC-CAL actor language is a dataflow language that makes better use of the multicore and parallel architectures. The proposed design flow methodology follows an iteration-based implementation model rather than the traditional sequential model. Analysis, design, development, simulation, testing and adaptation are performed with every iteration ending up with a functional “version” of the algorithm. A case study is conducted to illustrate the productivity of the proposed methodology in which the implementation of an AVC baseline encoder on a Xilinx Virtex 5 XC5VLX50T FPGA demonstrated for intra prediction architecture search space co-exploration

LETTER TO THE EDITOR ASSOCIATION BETWEEN STATIN USE AND INCIDENCE OF BREAST CANCER

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Pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways which compromise sperm motility and survival may be altered by L-carnitine

The testis is an immunologically privileged organ. Sertoli cells can form a blood-testis barrier and protect sperm cells from self-immune system attacks. Spermatogenesis may be inhibited by severe illness, bacterial infections and chronic inflammatory diseases but the mechanism(s) is poorly understood. Our objective is to help in understanding such mechanism(s) to develop protective agents against temporary or permanent testicular dysfunction. Lipopolysaccaride (LPS) is used as a model of animal sepsis while L-carnitine (LCR) is used as a protective agent. A total of 60 male Swiss albino rats were divided into four groups (15/group). The control group received Saline; the 2nd group was given LCR (500 mg/kg i.p, once). The third group was treated with LPS (5 mg/kg i.p once) and the fourth group received LCR then LPS after three hours. From each group, five rats were used for histopathological examination. Biochemical parameters were assessed in the remaining ten rats. At the end of the experiment, animals were lightly anaesthetized with ether where blood samples were collected and testes were dissected on ice. Sperm count and motility were evaluated from cauda epididymis in each animal. Also, oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring testicular contents of reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-HDG, the DNA adduct for oxidative damage) in testicular DNA. The pro-inflammatory mediator nitric oxide (NO) in addition to lactate dehydrogenase (LDHx) isoenzyme-x activity as an indicator for normal spermatozoal metabolism were assessed in testicular homogenate. Serum interlukin (IL)-2 level was also assessed as a marker for T-helper cell function. The obtained data revealed that LPS induced marked reductions in sperm's count and motility, obstruction in seminiferous tubules, hypospermia and dilated congested blood vessels in testicular sections concomitant with decreased testicular GSH content and LDHx activity. Moreover, the testicular levels of MDA, 8-HDG (in testicular DNA) and NO as well as serum IL-2 level were increased. Administration of LCR before LPS returned both sperm count and motility to normal levels. Also, contents of testicular GSH, MDA, 8-HDG and NO returned back to the corresponding control values. In addition, serum IL-2 level as well as histological abnormalities were markedly improved in LCR + LPS-treated rats. In conclusion, LPS increased proinflammatory and oxidative stress markers in the testis leading to a marked testicular dysfunction. L-carnitine administration ameliorates these effects by antioxidant and/or anti-inflammatory mechanisms suggesting a protective role against male infertility in severely infected or septic patients