3 research outputs found

    Blood Meal-Based Compound. Good Choice as Iron Fertilizer for Organic Farming

    No full text
    Prevention of iron chlorosis with Fe synthetic chelates is a widespread agronomical practice but implies high costs and environmental risks. Blood meal is one of the main fertilizers allowed to be used in organic farming. Through this work a novel blood meal fertilizer was audited. Measurements such as FTIR, Raman, electron paramagnetic resonance, and M\uf6ssbauer spectroscopy, UV\u2013visible properties, stability against pH, and batch experiments were performed to characterize and assess the reactivity on soil constituents and agronomic soils. The spectroscopy findings give clear indications that Fe is in the ferric oxidation state, is hexacoordinated, and has a low-spin form suggesting a similar structure to hemin and hematin. A spectrophotometric method at 400 nm was validated to quantify blood meal concentration at low electrolyte concentrations. Batch experiments demonstrated high reactivity of blood meal fertilizer with soil constituents, mainly in the presence of calcium, where aggregation processes are predominant, and its ability to take Fe from synthetic Fe (hydr)oxides. The beneficial profile of blood meal by a providing nitrogen source together with the capability to keep the Fe bound to porphyrin organic compounds makes it a good candidate to be used as Fe fertilizer in organic farming

    Neurocognitive correlates of probable posttraumatic stress disorder following traumatic brain injury

    No full text

    Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy

    No full text
    In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field
    corecore