Callus production and regeneration of the medicinal plant Papaver orientale

Papaver orientale is an important medicinal plant and source of the valuable alkaloids. In this study, callus production and regeneration of P. orientale under in vitro conditions was investigated with different levels of kinetin (Kin), 6-benzylamine purine (BA) and α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) on Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Gamborg's B5 (B5) media. For callogenesis, explants as cotyledonshypocotyls were placed on the solidified MS andB5media with hormones under 16-h photoperiod and 20°C conditions. Results showed that the best media for callus induction of P. orientale consisted of the MS basic media supplemented with 0.5 mg/l BA and 0.5 or 1 mg/l NAA. Shoots were regenerated in cultures grown on MS medium containing 0.5 mg/l Kin and (0.5 or 1.0 mg/l) NAA and were induced to root on B5 medium containing 1 mg/l Kin and 1.0 mg/l NAA.Key word: Callus induction, in vitro regeneration, Papaveraceae, Papaver orientale

Nano-Fe3O4/O2: Green, Magnetic and Reusable Catalytic System for the Synthesis of Benzimidazoles

Magnetic nano-Fe3O4 was applied in the presence of atmospheric air as a green, efficient, heterogeneous and reusable catalytic system for the synthesis of benzimidazoles via the reactions of o-phenylenediamine (1 eq) with aryl aldehydes (1 eq) in excellentyields (85–97 %) and short reaction times (30–100 min) with a proposed mechanism.Keywords: Benzimidazole, benzene-1,2-diamine, aldehyde, nano-Fe3O4, heterogeneous catalyst, magnetite, O

Prevalence of Vitamin B12 and Folate Deficiencies and Homocysteinemia in Elderly Population of Shiraz, Southern Iran

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of cobalamin and folate deficiencies among the elderly in the general population of Shiraz in southern Iran.Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study including 340 individuals who are over 50 years old and were selected randomly from all the regions of Shiraz.Results: The study group was made up of 132 (38.8 %) males and 208 (61.2 %) females. In this group 174 (51.2 %) were aged 50 - 59 years and 166 (48.8 %) were aged ≥ 60 years. Cobalamin deficiency (< 200 pg/mL) was present in 124 (36.2 %) while 42 (12.4 %) had severe deficiency with levels < 100 pg/mL. Signs of metabolic deficiency at the cellular level were seen in 21 (5.25 %) of the samples. Serum folate deficiency (< 4 ng/mL) was present in 134 (39.4 %) while 19 (5.6 %) persons had severe folate deficiency (≤ 2 - 3 ng/mL). Correlation analysis showed that serum cobalamin and homocysteine in the study samples were not significant (p > 0.05).Conclusion: The prevalence of severe cobalamin deficiency with clinical significance is high in the elderly population of Shiraz, Iran.Keywords: Vitamin B12 deficiency, Folate deficiency, Homocysteinemia, Elderly populatio

Landslide susceptibility mapping at VAZ watershed (Iran) using an artificial neural network model: a comparison between multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basic function (RBF) algorithms

Landslide susceptibility and hazard assessments are the most important steps in landslide risk mapping. The main objective of this study was to investigate and compare the results of two artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms, i.e., multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basic function (RBF) for spatial prediction of landslide susceptibility in Vaz Watershed, Iran. At first, landslide locations were identified by aerial photographs and field surveys, and a total of 136 landside locations were constructed from various sources. Then the landslide inventory map was randomly split into a training dataset 70 % (95 landslide locations) for training the ANN model and the remaining 30 % (41 landslides locations) was used for validation purpose. Nine landslide conditioning factors such as slope, slope aspect, altitude, land use, lithology, distance from rivers, distance from roads, distance from faults, and rainfall were constructed in geographical information system. In this study, both MLP and RBF algorithms were used in artificial neural network model. The results showed that MLP with Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno learning algorithm is more efficient than RBF in landslide susceptibility mapping for the study area. Finally the landslide susceptibility maps were validated using the validation data (i.e., 30 % landslide location data that was not used during the model construction) using area under the curve (AUC) method. The success rate curve showed that the area under the curve for RBF and MLP was 0.9085 (90.85 %) and 0.9193 (91.93 %) accuracy, respectively. Similarly, the validation result showed that the area under the curve for MLP and RBF models were 0.881 (88.1 %) and 0.8724 (87.24 %), respectively. The results of this study showed that landslide susceptibility mapping in the Vaz Watershed of Iran using the ANN approach is viable and can be used for land use planning

How land use/land cover changes can affect water, flooding and sedimentation in a tropical watershed: a case study using distributed modeling in the Upper Citarum watershed, Indonesia

[EN] Human activity has produced severe LULC changes within the Upper Citarum watershed and these changes are predicted to continue in the future. With an increase in population parallel to a 141% increment in urban areas, a reduction of rice fields and the replacement of forests with cultivations have been found in the past. Accordingly, LCM model was used to forecast the LULC in 2029. A distributed model called TETIS was implemented in the Upper Citarum watershed to assess the impact of the different historical and future LULC scenarios on its water and sediment cycles. This model was calibrated and validated with different LULCs. For the implementation of the sediment sub-model, it was crucial to use the bathymetric information of the reservoir located at the catchment's outlet. Deforestation and urbanization have been shown to be the most influential factors affecting the alteration of the hydrological and sedimentological processes in the Upper Citarum watershed. The change of LULC decreases evapotranspiration and as a direct consequence, the water yield increased by 15% and 40% during the periods 1994-2014 and 2014-2029, respectively. These increments are caused by the rise of three components in the runoff: overland flow, interflow and base flow. Apart from that, these changes in LULC increased the area of non-tolerable erosion from 412 km(2) in 1994 to 499 km(2) in 2029. The mean sediment yield increased from 3.1 Mton -yr(-1) in the 1994 LULC scenario to 6.7 Mton-yr(-1) in the 2029 LULC scenario. An increment of this magnitude will be catastrophic for the operation of the Saguling Dam.This study was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the research projects TETISMED (CGL2014-58,127-C3-3-R) and TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B-I00). The authors are also thankful to the Directorate General of Higher Education of Indonesia (DIKTI) for the Ph.D. funding of the first author.Siswanto, SY.; Francés, F. (2019). How land use/land cover changes can affect water, flooding and sedimentation in a tropical watershed: a case study using distributed modeling in the Upper Citarum watershed, Indonesia. Environmental Earth Sciences. 78(17):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8561-0S115781

Data-analysis strategies for image-based cell profiling

Image-based cell profiling is a high-throughput strategy for the quantification of phenotypic differences among a variety of cell populations. It paves the way to studying biological systems on a large scale by using chemical and genetic perturbations. The general workflow for this technology involves image acquisition with high-throughput microscopy systems and subsequent image processing and analysis. Here, we introduce the steps required to create high-quality image-based (i.e., morphological) profiles from a collection of microscopy images. We recommend techniques that have proven useful in each stage of the data analysis process, on the basis of the experience of 20 laboratories worldwide that are refining their image-based cell-profiling methodologies in pursuit of biological discovery. The recommended techniques cover alternatives that may suit various biological goals, experimental designs, and laboratories' preferences.Peer reviewe

Genetic determinants of daytime napping and effects on cardiometabolic health

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record. Summary GWAS statistics are publicly available at The Sleep Disorder Knowledge Portal webpage: http://sleepdisordergenetics.org/.Daytime napping is a common, heritable behavior, but its genetic basis and causal relationship with cardiometabolic health remain unclear. Here, we perform a genome-wide association study of self-reported daytime napping in the UK Biobank (n = 452,633) and identify 123 loci of which 61 replicate in the 23andMe research cohort (n = 541,333). Findings include missense variants in established drug targets for sleep disorders (HCRTR1, HCRTR2), genes with roles in arousal (TRPC6, PNOC), and genes suggesting an obesity-hypersomnolence pathway (PNOC, PATJ). Association signals are concordant with accelerometer-measured daytime inactivity duration and 33 loci colocalize with loci for other sleep phenotypes. Cluster analysis identifies three distinct clusters of nap-promoting mechanisms with heterogeneous associations with cardiometabolic outcomes. Mendelian randomization shows potential causal links between more frequent daytime napping and higher blood pressure and waist circumference.National Institute of HealthNational Institute of HealthNational Institute of HealthNational Institute of HealthNational Institute of HealthMGH Research Scholar Fund, Academy of FinlandMedical Research CouncilSpanish Government of Investigation, Development and InnovationSeneca FoundationNIDDKInstrumentarium Science FoundationYrjö Jahnsson Foundatio