Main aspects of development processes of strategic planning systems in Ukraine

Kravchenko S., Yevmieshkina O., Hornyk V., Karlova V., Velykykh K. Main aspects of development processes of strategic planning systems in Ukraine. PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION. 2022. Vol. 21, №. 5. P. 581-592

Requirement of CHROMOMETHYLASE3 for somatic inheritance of the spontaneous tomato epimutation Colourless non-ripening

Naturally-occurring epimutants are rare and have mainly been described in plants. However how these mutants maintain their epigenetic marks and how they are inherited remain unknown. Here we report that CHROMOMETHYLASE3 (SlCMT3) and other methyltransferases are required for maintenance of a spontaneous epimutation and its cognate Colourless non-ripening (Cnr) phenotype in tomato. We screened a series of DNA methylation-related genes that could rescue the hypermethylated Cnr mutant. Silencing of the developmentally-regulated SlCMT3 gene results in increased expression of LeSPL-CNR, the gene encodes the SBP-box transcription factor residing at the Cnr locus and triggers Cnr fruits to ripen normally. Expression of other key ripening-genes was also up-regulated. Targeted and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing showed that the induced ripening of Cnr fruits is associated with reduction of methylation at CHG sites in a 286-bp region of the LeSPL-CNR promoter, and a decrease of DNA methylation in differentially-methylated regions associated with the LeMADS-RIN binding sites. Our results indicate that there is likely a concerted effect of different ethyltransferases at the Cnr locus and the plant-specific SlCMT3 is essential for sustaining Cnr epi-allele. Maintenance of DNA methylation dynamics is critical for the somatic stability of Cnr epimutation and for the inheritance of tomato non-ripening phenotype

КЛИНИКО-ЛАБОРАТОРНЫЕ СОПОСТАВЛЕНИЯ ПРИ ПОСТМЕНОПАУЗАЛЬНОМ ОСТЕОПОРОЗЕ С НОРМАЛЬНОЙ И ПОВЫШЕННОЙ ФУНКЦИЕЙ ОКОЛОЩИТОВИДНЫХ ЖЕЛЕЗ

The need for a comprehensive diagnostic approach to the patients suffering osteoporosis is determined by high medical and social significance and disabling nature of complications. The objective of this research is to estimate features of calcium and bone metabolism depending on functional status of parathyroid glands. The study involved 150 post-menopausal women with a low bone mineral density. All patients underwent clinical and laboratory examination including a functional test for evaluating the enteral absorption of calcium. More expressed disorders of calcium and bone metabolism have been identified in patients with the development of secondary hyperparathyroidism in conjunction with the violation of enteral calcium absorption.Необходимость комплексного диагностического подхода к больным с остеопорозом объясняется высокой медико- социальной значимостью и инвалидизирующим характером осложнений. Целью исследования явилось изучение метаболизма кальция и костной ткани в зависимости от функционального состояния околощитовидных желез. Обследованы 150 женщин с остеопорозом, находящихся в постменопаузе. Выполнено полное клинико-лабораторное обследование, в том числе проведен функциональный тест с энтеральной нагрузкой кальцием, позволяющий косвенно оценить абсорбцию кальция в кишечнике. Показано более глубокое нарушение фосфорно-кальциевого обмена и более выраженное снижение минеральной плотности костной ткани у женщин в условиях развития вторичног

Treatment of Open-Angle Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension with Preservative-Free Tafluprost/Timolol Fixed-Dose Combination Therapy : The VISIONARY Study

Funding Information: Funding was provided by Santen SA for the study, medical writing services and Rapid Service Fees. All authors had full access to all of the data in this study and take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis. The contribution of IRCCS Fondazione Bietti to this work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health and by Fondazione Roma. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Introduction: A non-interventional, multicenter, European, prospective evaluation of the effectiveness, tolerability, and safety of a topical preservative-free tafluprost (0.0015%) and timolol (0.5%) fixed-dose combination (PF tafluprost/timolol FC) in adults with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and ocular hypertension (OHT) demonstrating insufficient response to topical beta-receptor blockers or prostaglandin analogue (PGA) monotherapy. Methods: Mean intraocular pressure (IOP) change from baseline was measured at study visits following a switch to PF tafluprost/timolol FC. Primary endpoint was absolute mean IOP change at month 6. Change from baseline concerning ocular signs and symptoms was also explored. Results: Analyses included 577 patients (59.6% female). Mean age (SD) was 67.8 (11.67) years. Mean (SD) IOP reduction from baseline was significant at all study visits; 5.4 (3.76) mmHg (23.7%) at week 4, 5.9 (3.90) mmHg (25.6%) at week 12, and 5.7 (4.11) mmHg (24.9%) at month 6 (p < 0.0001 for all visits). At month 6, 69.2%, 53.6%, 40.0%, and 25.8% were responders based on ≥ 20%, ≥ 25%, ≥ 30%, and ≥ 35% cutoff values for mean IOP, respectively. Significant reductions were observed concerning corneal fluorescein staining (p < 0.0001), dry eye symptoms, irritation, itching, and foreign body sensation (p < 0.001 for each parameter). Conjunctival hyperemia was significantly reduced at all study visits (p < 0.0001 at each visit). Overall, 69 treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were reported, one of which was serious (status asthmaticus). Most AEs were mild to moderate in severity, and the majority had resolved or were resolving at the end of the study period. Conclusion: In clinical practice, PF tafluprost/timolol FC provided statistically and clinically significant IOP reductions in patients with OAG and OHT insufficiently controlled on or intolerant to PGA or beta-receptor blocker monotherapy. The full IOP reduction appeared at week 4 and was maintained over the 6-month study period. Key symptoms of ocular surface health improved. Trial Registration: European Union electronic Register of Post-Authorisation Studies (EU PAS) register number, EUPAS22204.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Functional Identification and Characterization of the Brassica Napus Transcription Factor Gene BnAP2, the Ortholog of Arabidopsis Thaliana APETALA2

BnAP2, an APETALA2 (AP2)-like gene, has been isolated from Brassica napus cultivar Zhongshuang 9. The cDNA of BnAP2, with 1, 299 bp in length, encoded a transcription factor comprising of 432 amino acid residues. Results from complementary experiment indicated that BnAP2 was completely capable of restoring the phenotype of Arabidopsis ap2-11 mutant. Together with the sequence and expression data, the complementation data suggested that BnAP2 encodes the ortholog of AtAP2. To address the transcriptional activation of BnAP2, we performed transactivation assays in yeast. Fusion protein of BnAP2 with GAL4 DNA binding domain strongly activated transcription in yeast, and the transactivating activity of BnAP2 was localized to the N-terminal 100 amino acids. To further study the function of BnAP2 involved in the phenotype of B. napus, we used a transgenic approach that involved targeted RNA interference (RNAi) repression induced by ihp-RNA. Floral various phenotype defectives and reduced female fertility were observed in B. napus BnAP2-RNAi lines. Loss of the function of BnAP2 gene also resulted in delayed sepal abscission and senescence with the ethylene-independent pathway. In the strong BnAP2-RNAi lines, seeds showed defects in shape, structure and development and larger size. Strong BnAP2-RNAi and wild-type seeds initially did not display a significant difference in morphology at 10 DAF, but the development of BnAP2-RNAi seeds was slower than that of wild type at 20 DAF, and further at 30 DAF, wild-type seeds were essentially at their final size, whereas BnAP2-RNAi seeds stopped growing and developing and gradually withered

Characterization of the cork oak transcriptome dynamics during acorn development

Background: Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) has a natural distribution across western Mediterranean regions and is a keystone forest tree species in these ecosystems. The fruiting phase is especially critical for its regeneration but the molecular mechanisms underlying the biochemical and physiological changes during cork oak acorn development are poorly understood. In this study, the transcriptome of the cork oak acorn, including the seed, was characterized in five stages of development, from early development to acorn maturation, to identify the dominant processes in each stage and reveal transcripts with important functions in gene expression regulation and response to water. Results: A total of 80,357 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were de novo assembled from RNA-Seq libraries representative of the several acorn developmental stages. Approximately 7.6 % of the total number of transcripts present in Q. suber transcriptome was identified as acorn specific. The analysis of expression profiles during development returned 2,285 differentially expressed (DE) transcripts, which were clustered into six groups. The stage of development corresponding to the mature acorn exhibited an expression profile markedly different from other stages. Approximately 22 % of the DE transcripts putatively code for transcription factors (TF) or transcriptional regulators, and were found almost equally distributed among the several expression profile clusters, highlighting their major roles in controlling the whole developmental process. On the other hand, carbohydrate metabolism, the biological pathway most represented during acorn development, was especially prevalent in mid to late stages as evidenced by enrichment analysis. We further show that genes related to response to water, water deprivation and transport were mostly represented during the early (S2) and the last stage (S8) of acorn development, when tolerance to water desiccation is possibly critical for acorn viability. Conclusions: To our knowledge this work represents the first report of acorn development transcriptomics in oaks. The obtained results provide novel insights into the developmental biology of cork oak acorns, highlighting transcripts putatively involved in the regulation of the gene expression program and in specific processes likely essential for adaptation. It is expected that this knowledge can be transferred to other oak species of great ecological value.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

Возможности искусственного интеллекта в измерении оттисков внутриглазного давления по Маклакову

OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy of Maklakov intraocular pressure imprints measurement by doctors and artificial intelligence.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two pairs of tonograms were prepared, obtained by a Maklakov tonometer with a load of 10.0 g. The tonograms were labeled anonymously, using a measuring ruler devised by prof. B.L. Polyak for 4 Maklakov tonometers. In total, 57 ophthalmologists took part in the work. A total of 40 prints were chosen based on there quality. The same prints were photographed by a Xiaomi mi smartphone camera 40 times with a different level of illumination and a different angle of rotation relative to the normal of the lens focal plane. Received photos in jpg format were analyzed by http://ai-tonometry.com algorithms and processed by the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) algorithm to extract sharper boundaries, and then translated into binary matrices (matrices consisting of “0” and “1”).RESULTS: An imprint with a maximum number of measurements of 40 and a collegially accepted reliable tonometric level of 17 mmHg was measured in the middle range of 16.48±2.7 16.0 (15.0; 17) mmHg by doctors, and 17.0±1.1 17.0 (16.0; 17.0) mmHg by the neural network. At the same time, the range of imprint diameter measurements by the neural network was almost three times smaller, than human measurements.CONCLUSION: The artificial intelligence-based mobile application allows for a high-quality monitoring of intraocular pressure and rejects prints of unsatisfactory quality, which may potentially reduce the number of patients with glaucoma progression.ЦЕЛЬ. Оценить точность измерения оттисков внутриглазного давления (ВГД) по Маклакову, выполненного врачами и искусственным интеллектом.МАТЕРИАЛЫ И МЕТОДЫ. Были подготовлены две пары тонограмм, полученные тонометром Маклакова грузом 10,0 г. Разметка тонограмм проводилась анонимно при помощи измерительной линейки проф. Б.Л. Поляка для 4-х тонометров Маклакова. Всего в работе приняло участие 57 офтальмологов. Были выбраны наиболее качественные отпечатки (n=40). Эти же отпечатки были сфотографированы на камеру смартфона Xiaomi mi 6 40 раз с различным уровнем освещенности и различным углом поворота относительно нормали к фокальной плоскости линзы. Полученные фотографии в формате jpg были проанализированы алгоритмами http://ai-tonometry.com. и обрабатывались алгоритмом Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) для выделения более четких границ, а после этого переводились в бинарные матрицы (матрицы, состоящие из «0» и «1»).РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ. Оттиск с максимальным количеством измерений 40 и коллегиально принятым достоверным тонометрическим уровнем 17 мм рт.ст. врачами был измерен в среднем диапазоне 16,48±2,7 16,0 (15,0; 17) мм рт.ст., а нейросетью 17,0±1,1 17,0 (16,0; 17,0) мм рт.ст. При этом диапазон измерений диаметра оттиска нейросетью практически в 3 раза меньше по сравнению с измерениями врачей.ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ. Мобильное приложение на основе искусственного интеллекта помогает качественно проводить мониторинг ВГД и отбраковывать оттиски неудовлетворительного качества, что позволит снизить количество пациентов с прогрессированием глаукомы