Density and dry weight of pigweed by various weed control methods and various resources of nitrogen fertilizer in corn forage farm

This study evaluates effects of various weeds control methods and nitrogen fertilizer resources on density and dry weight of pigweed and the performance of corn forage as factorial in full random block design with 3 repetitions in research farm of Ferdowsi Mashhad University in 2014. The test treatments include weed control methods such as chemical control, compound (mechanical+ chemical) control, and no control and types of nitrogen fertilizer including (urea, sulfate ammonium, nitrate calcium, nitrate ammonium, and nonusing fertilizer). Density and dry weight of pigweed was measured four times in growing season to determine changes procedure. In the Corn primary stage, the performance of wet forage was also measured. The obtained results from test showed that forage performance at the end of growing season, and density and dry weight of pigweed after 60 days of planting were significantly influenced by control methods, type of nitrogen fertilizer, and interaction of control methods and type of nitrogen fertilizer. (P>0.01) the highest forage performance was obtained in compound control method and nitrate calcium fertilizer treatment with approximate weight of 12072kg/hec.In no control and studied fertilizers treatment in test, the pigweed density has stayed constant with soft descending slope 20 days after planting so on, and its weight increased until 60 days of planting and then decreased until the growing season.Keywords: Compound Control, Nitrogen Fertilizer Resource, Pigweed, Corn Forag

Comparison of Knee and Hip Kinematics during Landing and Cutting between Elite Male Football and Futsal Players

To design an accurate sport injury prevention program, alterations in the knee and hip kinematic variables involved in injury mechanisms should be known. The main purpose of the current study was to compare knee and hip kinematic variables during landing and cutting among male football and futsal players, and to discuss them within an injury description frame. Twenty football (20.5 ± 2.1 years., 74.5 ± 6.9 kg and 1.79 ± 0.07 m) and twenty futsal players (20.3 ± 2.0 years., 73.5 ± 7.1 kg and 1.78 ± 0.07 m), with at least three years’ experience of playing in the Kerman Province League, participated in this study. Hip flexion, knee flexion and knee valgus angle during two main movements with risk of injury, such as landing and cutting, were measured using a motion capture system with passive markers at 120-Hz sampling frequency. Landing and cutting maneuvers were administered in as natural way as possible. Results showed significant differences in landing and cutting maneuvers between groups in hip flexion, knee flexion and knee valgus angle. Results indicated that footballers have less extension of hip and knee joints than futsal players in landing maneuvers, which may be due to the higher requirement of jumping−landing maneuvers when playing football. In cutting maneuvers, footballers showed less hip and knee flexion than futsal players, whereas the knee valgus angle in cutting maneuvers was lower in futsal players. More information on the injury mechanisms of landing and cutting in football and futsal are needed to improve the design of injury prevention programs

Early parity epigenetic footprint of FOXA1 gene body in normal breast tissue of Iranian women

Background: Young age at first full-term pregnancy (FFTP) is an important factor in breast cancer risk reduction. It is postulated that this protective effect is the result of stable molecular signatures imprinted by physiological process of pregnancy, but the molecular mechanism of this protective role is unclear. The aim of the current study was to identify the effect of early FFTP on methylation status of FOXA1 gene body. FOXA1 is an essential transcription factor for mammary gland development and estrogen responsiveness of breast tissue. Methods: Fresh frozen normal breast tissues (n = 51) were collected from Iranian women who underwent cosmetic mammoplasty (27 nulliparous women and 24 parous women who have experienced first pregnancy before the age of 25). DNA was extracted and then methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) real-time PCR was used to assess FOXA1 gene body methylation. Results: Our results revealed that FOXA1 methylation level is significantly higher in early parous compared with nulliparous group (p = 0.041). Conclusion: Our study provides new hint about the association between early FFTP and epigenetic modifications within gene body of FOXA1 in normal breast tissue. More investigation is required for clarifying molecular mechanisms underlying this association in order to develop breast cancer prevention strategies. © 2019, Pasteur Institute of Iran. All rights reserved

TWIST1 promotes invasion through mesenchymal change in human glioblastoma

Background: Tumor cell invasion into adjacent normal brain is a mesenchymal feature of GBM and a major factor contributing to their dismal outcomes. Therefore, better understandings of mechanisms that promote mesenchymal change in GBM are of great clinical importance to address invasion. We previously showed that the bHLH transcription factor TWIST1 which orchestrates carcinoma metastasis through an epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is upregulated in GBM and promotes invasion of the SF767 GBM cell line in vitro. Results: To further define TWIST1 functions in GBM we tested the impact of TWIST1 over-expression on invasion in vivo and its impact on gene expression. We found that TWIST1 significantly increased SNB19 and T98G cell line invasion in orthotopic xenotransplants and increased expression of genes in functional categories associated with adhesion, extracellular matrix proteins, cell motility and locomotion, cell migration and actin cytoskeleton organization. Consistent with this TWIST1 reduced cell aggregation, promoted actin cytoskeletal re-organization and enhanced migration and adhesion to fibronectin substrates. Individual genes upregulated by TWIST1 known to promote EMT and/or GBM invasion included SNAI2, MMP2, HGF, FAP and FN1. Distinct from carcinoma EMT, TWIST1 did not generate an E- to N-cadherin "switch" in GBM cell lines. The clinical relevance of putative TWIST target genes SNAI2 and fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP) identified in vitro was confirmed by their highly correlated expression with TWIST1 in 39 human tumors. The potential therapeutic importance of inhibiting TWIST1 was also shown through a decrease in cell invasion in vitro and growth of GBM stem cells. Conclusions: Together these studies demonstrated that TWIST1 enhances GBM invasion in concert with mesenchymal change not involving the canonical cadherin switch of carcinoma EMT. Given the recent recognition that mesenchymal change in GBMs is associated with increased malignancy, these findings support the potential therapeutic importance of strategies to subvert TWIST1-mediated mesenchymal change

Exciton-photon interaction in a quantum dot embedded in a photonic microcavity

We present a detailed analysis of exciton-photon interaction in a microcavity made out of a photonic crystal slab. Here we have analyzed a disk-like quantum dot where an exciton is formed. Excitonic eigen-functions in addition to their eigen-energies are found through direct matrix diagonalization, while wave functions corresponding to unbound electron and hole are chosen as the basis set for this procedure. In order to evaluate these wave functions precisely, we have used Luttinger Hamiltonian in the case of hole while ignoring bands adjacent to conduction band for electron states. After analyzing Excitonic states, a photonic crystal based microcavity with a relatively high quality factor mode has been proposed and its lattice constant has been adjusted to obtain the prescribed resonant frequency. We use finite-difference time-domain method in order to simulate our cavity with sufficient precision. Finally, we formulate the coupling constants for exciton-photon interaction both where intra-band and inter-band transitions occur. By evaluating a sample coupling constant, it has been shown that the system can be in strong coupling regime and Rabi oscillations can occur for Excitonic state population.Comment: Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics (to appear

Production of a Human Recombinant Polyclonal Fab Antivenom against Iranian Viper Echis carinatus

Venomous snakebite is a life-threatening injury in many tropical and subtropical areas including Iran. The gold standard treatment option for human envenomation is the use of antivenoms. Despite the unique effects of horse-derived antivenoms on the treatment of snakebite, they are not fully perfect and need improvements. In this study, human recombinant Fab fragment antivenom was produced in Rosetta-g bacterium using a gene library constructed in the previous study. The prepared Fab was purified in several steps, desalted, and lipopolysaccharide-depleted using ammonium sulfate solution and dialysis against phosphate buffer and Triton X-114 solution, respectively. Subsequently, the product was initially confirmed by the sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Finally, the neutralization potency of the product was investigated in laboratory Syrian Mice. The obtained results showed corresponding reduced bands to Fab fragment with the molecular weight of about 28 kDa at a concentration of 3.1 mg/ml. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of ELISA test (

Discerning Tumor Status from Unstructured MRI Reports—Completeness of Information in Existing Reports and Utility of Automated Natural Language Processing

Information in electronic medical records is often in an unstructured free-text format. This format presents challenges for expedient data retrieval and may fail to convey important findings. Natural language processing (NLP) is an emerging technique for rapid and efficient clinical data retrieval. While proven in disease detection, the utility of NLP in discerning disease progression from free-text reports is untested. We aimed to (1) assess whether unstructured radiology reports contained sufficient information for tumor status classification; (2) develop an NLP-based data extraction tool to determine tumor status from unstructured reports; and (3) compare NLP and human tumor status classification outcomes. Consecutive follow-up brain tumor magnetic resonance imaging reports (2000–­2007) from a tertiary center were manually annotated using consensus guidelines on tumor status. Reports were randomized to NLP training (70%) or testing (30%) groups. The NLP tool utilized a support vector machines model with statistical and rule-based outcomes. Most reports had sufficient information for tumor status classification, although 0.8% did not describe status despite reference to prior examinations. Tumor size was unreported in 68.7% of documents, while 50.3% lacked data on change magnitude when there was detectable progression or regression. Using retrospective human classification as the gold standard, NLP achieved 80.6% sensitivity and 91.6% specificity for tumor status determination (mean positive predictive value, 82.4%; negative predictive value, 92.0%). In conclusion, most reports contained sufficient information for tumor status determination, though variable features were used to describe status. NLP demonstrated good accuracy for tumor status classification and may have novel application for automated disease status classification from electronic databases

Parenteral provision of micronutrients to pediatric patients: an international expert consensus paper

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1002/jpen.1990INTRODUCTION:Micronutrients (vitamins and trace elements) are essential to all nutrition. For children and neonates who are dependent upon nutrition support therapies for growth and development, the prescribed regimen must supply all essential components. This paper aims to facilitate interpretation of existing clinical guidelines into practical approaches for the provision of micronutrients in pediatric parenteral nutrition. METHODS:An international, interdisciplinary expert panel was convened to review recent evidence-based guidelines and published literature to develop consensus- based recommendation on practical micronutrient provision in pediatric parenteral nutrition. RESULTS:The guidelines and evidence have been interpreted as answers to 10 commonly asked questions around the practical principles for provision and monitoring of micronutrients in pediatric patients CONCLUSION: Micronutrients are an essential part of all parenteral nutrition and should be included in the pediatric nutrition therapy care plan.Published versio

The role of dimensionality in neuronal network dynamics

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement FP7 ICT 2011 – 284553 (Acronym: Si-CODE), the NEUROSCAFFOLDS Project n. 604263, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 51361130033) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (973 Grant number: 2014CB965003)